The GOP War on Women's Reproductive Rights [Archive]

Nbadan

06-10-2015, 12:41 AM

http://d35brb9zkkbdsd.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/texas.jpg

On Tuesday, a panel of three George W. Bush-appointed judges handed down a sweeping endorsement of the tactics anti-abortion lawmakers adopted in recent years in an effort to prevent abortion clinics from operating. With one narrow exception, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole is a total defeat for abortion providers who hoped to overcome a Texas law that will shut down most of the state’s abortion clinics. Worse for women seeking an abortion, the Fifth Circuit’s opinion would give many other states broad discretion to restrict access to abortion if its reasoning is ultimately adopted by the Supreme Court.

In 2013, Texas enacted HB2, which is one of a number of sham health laws passed by anti-abortion lawmakers who believe that they found a loophole in the Supreme Court’s abortion cases. Though current Supreme Court precedent forbids laws that impose an “undue burden” on the right to choose, states may enact legitimate health regulations that govern abortion providers — and for good reason. Abortion facilities, just like any other medical facility, should be sanitary, safe and operated by competent medical personnel.

HB2 is crafted to appear like a health regulation, even though it does little to actually advance the public health. The two provisions challenged in Whole Woman’s Health include a requirement that abortion doctors have admitting privileges in a nearby hospital, and a list of expensive architectural and other requirements that abortion clinics must comply with in order to operate. There is little evidence, however, that either provision actually advances the goal of making abortion safer for women. To the contrary, a federal district judge determined that “there is no rational relationship between improved patient outcomes and hospital admitting privileges,” and he reached similar conclusions with respect to the portions of the law regulating clinic facilities.

Before HB2, Texas had 40 licensed abortion clinics. If the law takes full effect, “only seven facilities and a potential eighth will exist in Texas that will not be prevented . . . from performing abortions.” This reduced access to abortion, according to the same district judge, “almost certainly cancel out any potential health benefit associated with” HB2 because of “higher health risks associated with increased delays in seeking early abortion care, risks associated with longer distance automotive travel on traffic-laden highways, and the act’s possible connection to observed increases in self-induced abortions.”

MORE! http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/06/09/3667882/federal-court-decision-correct-roe-v-wade-almost-entirely-dead/

Texas legislators invoked safety standards in 2013 when they passed the law. Abortion providers, however, and mainstream medical organizations, maintain that it is not necessary to do first-trimester abortion in a hospital-like setting in order to perform them safely. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists notes that less than one half of one percent of all abortions involve major complications.

"The justice system and our elected politicians have put a road full of unnecessary hurdles in front of every woman in Texas who has decided to end her pregnancy," said Amy Hagstrom Miller, the founder of Whole Woman's Health, on Tuesday. "For scores of Texas women, the repercussions of this ruling will be devastating."

boutons_deux

06-10-2015, 05:19 AM

TX Repugs have let one abortion clinic in RGV escape these "safety" regulations, probably hoping a bunch of the ladies will die from "unsafe" clinic.

Priscilla Owen of the 5th circuit is pure Repug judicial garbage

FromWayDowntown

06-10-2015, 07:19 AM

Priscilla Owen of the 5th circuit is pure Repug judicial garbage

Maybe so, but she wasn't on the 3 judge panel who issued this decision.

boutons_deux

06-10-2015, 08:40 AM

Maybe so, but she wasn't on the 3 judge panel who issued this decision.

There's no doubt which way she would have "judged". :lol

Repugs have stacked the 5th circuit with garbage and extremists to prejudice the South in its Confederate/retrograde bullshit.

boutons_deux

06-10-2015, 09:32 AM

It's a war only on POOR women's health access, contraception, abortions, those who can't afford travel, hotel, etc, dominated by blacks and browns.

boutons_deux

06-15-2015, 10:57 AM

Bible humpers, theocrats kicked in the gonads

Supreme Court Rejects North Carolina’s Appeal onPre-Abortion Ultrasounds

The Supreme Court (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org) on Monday refused to hear an appeal from North Carolina officials seeking to revive a state law that had required doctors to perform ultrasounds, display the resulting sonograms and describe the fetuses to women seeking abortions.

The Supreme Court’s one-sentence order, as is the custom, gave no reasons. Justice Antonin Scalia noted a dissent, :lol also without saying why.
The order left in place an appeals court ruling (http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/141150.P.pdf) that had held the law unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment.

“The state cannot commandeer the doctor-patient relationship to compel a physician to express its preference to the patient,” Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote in December for a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va. “This compelled speech, even though it is a regulation of the medical profession, is ideological in intent and in kind.”

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/us/politics/supreme-court-rejects-north-carolinas-appeal-on-pre-abortion-ultrasounds.html?_r=0

Nbadan

08-05-2015, 01:18 PM

GOP senator: I can lecture women on pregnancy because abortion is a ‘men’s issue’

Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma argued on Monday that he had the right to lecture women about whether or not they should get abortions because he had impregnated his wife and “had something to do with the birth.”

During a debate on the Senate floor about whether or not to defund Planned Parenthood, Lankford argued that the “culture has been wrong” to allow abortion.

Lankford said that it was “entirely reasonable” to take Planned Parenthood’s funding and “commit it to organizations who do full women’s health.”

Sen. Barbara Boxer, however, said that she was bothered by men like Lankford lecturing women about reproductive health.

“I just don’t like lectures by men about what it’s like,” Boxer told Lankford. “I’m pro-choice and I just have to say, using pregnancy as a political football doesn’t sit well with the people I represent and the people of this country.”

“We have to respect one another,” she continued. “I respect your view entirely. I’m asking you to respect mine. Keep Uncle Sam out of my private life and my children’s and my grandkids’ and your’s. Families will make these decisions with their God, with their doctor.”

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/gop-senator-i-can-lecture-women-on-pregnancy-because-abortion-is-a-mens-issue/

boutons_deux

08-05-2015, 01:28 PM

GOP senator: I can lecture women on pregnancy because abortion is a ‘men’s issue’

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/gop-senator-i-can-lecture-women-on-pregnancy-because-abortion-is-a-mens-issue/

standard Christian/Old Testatment (or any religion) bullshit to render women 2nd class, powerless humans, men being exclusively 1st and powerful.

Kefka1

08-05-2015, 01:50 PM

standard Christian/Old Testatment (or any religion) bullshit to render women 2nd class, powerless humans, men being exclusively 1st and powerful.

Sorry to bully you more, but can you point out to me in that article where it mentions anything about…

Christianity

Old Testament

Rendering women second class

Rendering them as powerless humans

Men being exclusively 1st and powerful

Thanks in advance! :tu

FromWayDowntown

08-05-2015, 01:59 PM

Outlawing abortion won't stop abortion.

boutons_deux

08-05-2015, 02:00 PM

Sorry to bully you more, but can you point out to me in that article where it mentions anything about…

Christianity
Old Testament
Rendering women second class
Rendering them as powerless humans
Men being exclusively 1st and powerful

Thanks in advance! :tu

Christian Taliban/Repug War on Women

Kefka1

08-05-2015, 02:09 PM

...this poster has to be a paid shill or bot of some sort

Spurminator

08-05-2015, 02:11 PM

GOP senator: I can lecture women on pregnancy because abortion is a ‘men’s issue’

more
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/gop-senator-i-can-lecture-women-on-pregnancy-because-abortion-is-a-mens-issue/

Shooting sperm is hard.

boutons_deux

08-05-2015, 02:13 PM

Shooting sperm is hard.

and she probably didn't cum

boutons_deux

11-13-2015, 03:00 PM

Supreme Court To Hear Abortion Case That Could Erode Roe v. Wade

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/supreme-court-abortion_564613dfe4b060377348c0a0?ir=Politics&section=politics&utm_campaign=111315&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-politics&utm_content=FullStory&ncid=newsltushpmg00000003

rmt

11-13-2015, 04:36 PM

What are your thoughts if the father wants the baby (say the baby is past 5 months - viable outside the womb)? Does he not have any rights? Isn't the baby his too?

boutons_deux

11-13-2015, 04:51 PM

What are your thoughts if the father wants the baby (say the baby is past 5 months - viable outside the womb)? Does he not have any rights? Isn't the baby his too?

5 months is an extreme preemie condemned very probably to life long infirmities, diseases.

If they are still married, then it's question I can't answer.

If they are divorced, seprated, then if he wants to pay all the care and raise the kid by himself, then OK, he lay the claim under those conditions.

rmt

11-13-2015, 05:09 PM

5 months is an extreme preemie condemned very probably to life long infirmities, diseases.

If they are still married, then it's question I can't answer.

If they are divorced, seprated, then if he wants to pay all the care and raise the kid by himself, then OK, he lay the claim under those conditions.

I'm talking about a healthy, viable baby - not with any incurable disease/disability (not that a disability is a dis-qualifier - I have a child with missing fingers). What happens when the mother doesn't want it and the father does?

boutons_deux

11-13-2015, 05:12 PM

5 months is not a healthy baby, it's not finished and viable.

rmt

11-13-2015, 05:17 PM

5 months is not a healthy baby, it's not finished and viable.

Will you please let go of the 5 months - healthy, viable baby

boutons_deux

11-13-2015, 05:24 PM

Will you please let go of the 5 months - healthy, viable baby

5 months is not a healthy baby, it's not finished and viable.

rmt

11-13-2015, 05:40 PM

5 months is not a healthy baby, it's not finished and viable.

What happens when the mother doesn't want a healthy, viable baby (in the womb) and the father does? Doesn't he have any rights? It's his baby too.

boutons_deux

11-13-2015, 05:45 PM

What happens when the mother doesn't want a healthy, viable baby (in the womb) and the father does? Doesn't he have any rights? It's his baby too.

you're posing a very rare hypthetical, so it's useless. Most abortion are first trimester. late term abortions are nearly always because of defects in the foetus and/or risk to mother.

rmt

11-13-2015, 06:14 PM

you're posing a very rare hypthetical, so it's useless. Most abortion are first trimester. late term abortions are nearly always because of defects in the foetus and/or risk to mother.

Abortion is allowable right up until birth in some states, is it not? So if the baby has some defect, that makes it okay? Good thing my daughter had the parents she has.

ElNono

11-13-2015, 06:15 PM

What are your thoughts if the father wants the baby (say the baby is past 5 months - viable outside the womb)? Does he not have any rights? Isn't the baby his too?

We would need new law to grant the father any rights. The mother obviously has inherent rights since she's the host and it's her life on the line. The state also has inherent rights in regulating abortion.

Right now, fathers have zero rights.

rmt

11-13-2015, 06:22 PM

We would need new law to grant the father any rights. The mother obviously has inherent rights since she's the host and it's her life on the line. The state also has inherent rights in regulating abortion.

Right now, fathers have zero rights.

As medical imaging improves, how can anyone deny that it's a baby and condone (late 2nd, 3rd trimester) abortions? I remember looking at our 16 week sonogram picture trying to figure out who the baby will look like.

ElNono

11-13-2015, 06:32 PM

As medical imaging improves, how can anyone deny that it's a baby and condone (late 2nd, 3rd trimester) abortions? I remember looking at our 16 week sonogram picture trying to figure out who the baby will look like.

Medical imaging doesn't matter. What matters is medical progress that makes birth less medically dangerous than abortion. Or the ability to transplant the fetus without damage to another host.

What's to understand here is that no right is above the other. The mother's health risk right is exactly as important as the unborn well-being.

You might not agree with that, but that's what the law is.

boutons_deux

11-13-2015, 09:18 PM

"What matters is medical progress that makes birth less medically dangerous than abortion."

we have plenty of medical skills, natal and perinatal, to greatly reduce infant and materal death at birth.

The Repug and Christian Taliban DEATH PANELS work very hard to screw poor non-white women out of contraception and perinatal care.

===========

As rate of women dying in childbirth falls globally, US sees rise

While maternal mortality rates across the globe have decreased by nearly half in the last 25 years, the United States is one of 13 countries where the rate has risen, according to a new survey (PDF (http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/194254/1/9789241565141_eng.pdf?ua=1)) published Thursday by the United Nations and World Bank.

The rate of women dying during childbirth has declined globally by 43 percent since 1990, when U.N. member states launched a series of pledges called the Millennium Development Goals aimed at making significant improvements in global indicators.

A survey led by the U.N.’s World Health Organization estimates there were 303,000 maternal deaths globally in 2015, down from 532,000 in 1990. Over the same period, the approximate global lifetime risk of maternal death fell from 1 in 180 mothers to 1 in 73.

But in the U.S., the rate of mothers dying in childbirth rose from 12 out of 100,000 births to 14 in the years from 1990 to 2015.

By comparison, the same rate in Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Norway, Italy, Iceland, Greece and Kuwait has remained below 10 in 100,000 births for the last 25 years. And Canada’s rate is about half that of the U.S.

William Heisel, director of global engagement for the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent research center at the University of Washington, said several factors help to explain why the U.S. has more women dying in childbirth — including higher rates of obesity, diabetes and other conditions that can complicate pregnancies.

“We don’t do as well as many high-income countries on a whole range of health outcomes,” said Heisel of the U.S rates.Underpinning the U.S. increase in the number of women dying in childbirth are the country’s racial disparities and health care gaps, studies have shown.

Black women in the U.S. died in childbirth at a rate three times higher than white women in 2011, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/pmss.html).

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/11/12/global-maternal-mortality-numbers-decline.html

===============

COUNTRY COMPARISON :: INFANT MORTALITY RATE

167
UNITED STATES (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

boutons_deux

01-29-2016, 02:54 PM

Ohio GOP greasebag head: ‘Not sexist’ to call opponent ‘sweetie’ and tell her she belongs at home with kids

http://2d0yaz2jiom3c6vy7e7e5svk.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/tom_patton-800x430.jpg

head of the Cuyahoga County Republicans jumped to the defense of the state senate majority leader after he made condescending remarks about his GOP opponent, calling her “sweetie” and saying she shouldn’t be running for political office because she’s a young mother.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Patton was blasted on Thursday after comments he made about fellow Republican Jennifer Herold,

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/ohio-gop-head-not-sexist-to-call-opponent-sweetie-and-tell-her-she-belongs-at-home-with-kids/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29 (http://www.rawstory.com/2016/01/ohio-gop-head-not-sexist-to-call-opponent-sweetie-and-tell-her-she-belongs-at-home-with-kids/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29)

Repugs are just all-around nasty, misogynistic mofos, and their voters are, too, and stick with them all the way.

Aztecfan03

01-29-2016, 11:45 PM

. The mother's health risk right is exactly as important as the unborn well-being.

Yep. But that doesn't excuse the large majority of abortions.

boutons_deux

01-30-2016, 09:51 AM

Yep. But that doesn't excuse the large majority of abortions.

what's your "excuse" for Repugs denying contraceptives, STD testing, cancer screening, perinatal care to poor women?

ElNono

01-30-2016, 12:51 PM

Yep. But that doesn't excuse the large majority of abortions.

Why would it have to "excuse" anything? Whether abortion is good/bad, needs and excuse or not is a moral question, which is completely separate from the legal rights question.

boutons_deux

02-15-2016, 06:27 AM

Male Politicians Are Going to Keep Taxing Tampons as 'Luxury Items,'

This week, legislators in Utah voted to reject a bill aimed at exempting tampons from taxation.

Across the United States, tampons and other feminine hygiene products are being taxed (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-tampon-tax_us_569950f0e4b0778f46f94d97) as luxury items, an entirely appropriate idea when you consider what a luxury having your period is.

This week, legislators in Utah (http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/2/11/all-male-utah-panel-votes-to-keep-sales-tax-on-tampons.html)continued to make feminine products part of the 1 percent by voting to reject a bill aimed at exempting tampons, sanitary napkins and other feminine products from taxation.

http://www.alternet.org/gender/if-male-politicians-are-going-keep-taxing-tampons-luxury-items-they-might-well-tax-these-10

Repugs cut taxes on the wealthy and BigCorp, while their misogynistic War on Women keeps taxes on vaginas.

boutons_deux

02-15-2016, 06:34 AM

These are the U.S. states that tax women for having periods
http://i0.wp.com/fusiondotnet.files.wordpress.com/2015/06/fusion_tampox-tax-state_1b.png?resize=740%2C684&quality=80&strip=all

http://fusion.net/story/142965/states-that-tax-tampons-period-tax/

boutons_deux

02-16-2016, 06:30 AM

Kentucky GOPers Advance Bill to Force Ultrasounds and Make Women Listen to Description of the Fetus

The latest in the assault on women's right

Republican state senators in Kentucky have advanced a bill that would force women seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound.

By a vote of 11 to 1, the Senate Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection Committee approved Senate Bill 152 (http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/16RS/SB152/bill.pdf), which proponents say is necessary for women to have “informed consent” before going through with an abortion,

it would require the doctor to describe the fetus to the woman. Under the bill, the description “shall include the dimensions of the embryo or fetus and the presence of external members and internal organs, if present and viewable.”

Doctors who violated the proposed law would be fined $100,00 for their first offense, and $250,000 for each additional offense.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/kentucky-gopers-advance-bill-force-ultrasounds-and-make-women-listen-description

You rightwingnuts really, really hate women, and LOVE VAGINA REGULATIONS.

boutons_deux

03-23-2016, 11:42 AM

Florida GOP to send women to dentists for reproductive care?

But in Florida’s Republican-led state government, the story has taken an odd turn. Slate reported (http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/03/21/florida_legislators_tell_women_they_can_get_birth_ control_from_dentists.html) this week (thanks to my colleague Will Femia for the heads-up):

Florida lawmakers may be hostile to comprehensive sex education, but they have no problem leaving reproductive health care to elementary school nurses’ offices.

To back up anti-abortion omnibus bill HB 1411, which passed the state legislature earlier this month, conservative legislators have offered a list of places women can go for birth control, pap smears, and other reproductive services once Planned Parenthood is barred from taking Medicaid. That list includes dozens of elementary and middle schools, several dental practices, and at least one optometry center.

This may sound like an odd joke, but it’s quite real.

The point of the measure is for GOP policymakers in the state to defund Planned Parenthood, not because the group has done anything wrong, but because of the Republicans’ commitment to a culture-war agenda.

As part of the effort, one of the legislation’s chief sponsors produced a lengthy list of health facilities that already exist in Florida that meet a technical definition of a qualified health center.

You probably see where this is going. The Guardian reported (http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/19/defund-planned-parenthood-florida-bill-dentist-reproductive-care-alternatives), “As the bill heads to governor Rick Scott for his signature, several state lawmakers who have insisted that plentiful alternatives exist for reproductive and sexual healthcare have cited a list of health centers that includes dentists, optometrists, and elementary schools.”

This, of course, proved critics’ point: sending women, especially those with limited financial means, to dentists, optometrists, and elementary schools for reproductive-health services is absurd.

Salon’s Amanda Marcotte joked (http://www.salon.com/2016/03/21/conservatives_vs_contraceptives_in_both_florida_an d_in_the_supreme_court_right_wingers_hungry_to_con trol_womens_sexuality_are_targeting_birth_control/),

“That’s right: If your local Planned Parenthood gets shut down and you need a Pap smear and a birth control prescription, Florida Republicans will literally send you to a dentist instead. With that level of ignorance about female biology, one has to wonder how any of them have managed to father any children.”

Florida’s Republican governor is expected to sign the bill anyway.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/florida-gop-send-women-dentists-reproductive-care?cid=sm_fb_maddow

boutons_deux

07-20-2016, 08:13 AM

Texas Adds to the List of Unscientific Stuff Doctors Are Forced to Tell Abortion Patients

the restrictions knocked down by the High Court ruling aren't the only provisions in Texas law that force abortion providers to do or say things that, according to medical experts, have little to no basis in actual science (http://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2016/06/28/will-someone-challenge-texas-other-medically-unnecessary-abortion-laws)and medicine.

Take, for instance, the information booklet that doctors are forced by law to give to women seeking abortion called “A Woman’s Right to Know.” Created in 2003 as part of the state’s so-called “informed consent” law, the pamphlet has come under fire by reproductive rights advocates, doctors and even state lawmakers who call it an error-filled vehicle of official state misinformation.

And this month the Texas Department of State Health Services could add the list (http://www.dshs.texas.gov/wrtk/) of unscientific info abortion providers are forced to give their patients.

Currently up for review are tweaks to the booklet that would add mentions of so-called “fetal pain” and passages that, rather than using the typical medical language of fetus or embryo, talk to women about their “unborn child” and “your baby” when explaining gestation, even at as early as four weeks.

http://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2016/07/20/texas-adds-to-the-list-of-unscientific-stuff-doctors-are-forced-to-tell-abortion-patients

Fuck TX Christian Taliban to hell.

boutons_deux

08-04-2016, 12:30 PM

DAMN! Those Texas Fetus Funerals Are Gonna Cost A Non-Fetal Arm And Leg

Via Texas Observer (https://www.texasobserver.org/op-ed-fetal-tissue-dshs/):

If current prices are applied to the cremation of fetal tissue, the average would be around $2,000 per direct cremation or immediate burial, at a cost to Texas families of over $100 million, based on the number of abortions performed in 2014.

Even the lowest charge from the Texas funeral survey would cost Texas families over $31 million.

And that’s just for induced abortions — the total costs to Texans of cremating or burying the remains produced by spontaneous miscarriages that occur in health-care facilities is nearly unthinkable.

It’s highly unlikely that clinics and hospitals will be able to field this cost themselves, and the cost will likely be passed onto the patient. Greg Abbott and friends likely find the idea of this simply delightful, assuming it will lead to far less abortions in the state due to only very rich people being able to afford them.

http://wonkette.com/605135/damn-those-texas-fetus-funerals-are-gonna-cost-a-non-fetal-arm-and-leg

The Repug/Christian Sharia War on Poor (any color) Wimmen continues ...

This kind of law already blocked in very nasty Indiana, and is in court in very nasty Louisiana.

Chinook

08-04-2016, 01:02 PM

Why it it so expensive to burn something? Defeats the purpose.

boutons_deux

08-04-2016, 01:09 PM

Why it it so expensive to burn something? Defeats the purpose.

burying or burning is extremely expensive, has been a huge ripoff for many decades. "The Business of Dying" is very old book.

My mother was in a refrigerated drawer for two nights (no bath, no TV, no room service, no mini-bar, no bed), $800/night.

CosmicCowboy

08-04-2016, 02:19 PM

ElNono

08-05-2016, 02:12 AM

That's bullshit. i work on crematory and pathological incinerators. They wouldn't have to fire up the big boy for a fetus. They could do it in a tiny on site unit for a few dollars. Lots of difference in cost incinerating a few ounces of tissue versus a 300# fatass.

Well, they're clearly trying to pass this as the death of a human, which means there's no reason for providers of these services to really give you a discount.

The whole thing is so retarded, tbh... what they should creamate and bury is social conservatism, which has been dead for a long time, but apparently some of these fucks haven't gotten the memo yet.

boutons_deux

08-20-2016, 08:34 AM

Federal Judge Guts Florida GOP’s Omnibus Anti-Choice Law

A federal judge on Thursday permanently blocked two provisions of a Florida omnibus anti-choice law that banned Planned Parenthood from receiving state funds and required annual inspections of all clinics that provide abortion services,reported the Associated Press (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/judge-definitively-blocks-florida-abortion-law/2016/08/18/06adf20e-65a8-11e6-b4d8-33e931b5a26d_story.html).

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued an order in June (https://rewire.news/article/2016/07/05/gavel-drop-welcome-new-world-after-whole-womans-health-world/) to delay implementation of the law.

“The Supreme Court has repeatedly said that a government cannot prohibit indirectly—by withholding otherwise-available public funds—conduct that the government could not constitutionally prohibit directly,” Hinkle wrote in the 25-page ruling (http://floridapolitics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/show_temp.pdf).

https://rewire.news/article/2016/08/19/federal-judge-guts-florida-gops-anti-choice-law/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rhrealitycheck+%28RH+Reality+ Check%29

Pelicans78

08-20-2016, 10:59 AM

Government shouldn't pay for elective procedures.

Trainwreck2100

08-20-2016, 11:28 AM

Government shouldn't pay for elective procedures.

planned parenthood's out is that gov funding doesn't go to abortions. The women need to go to abortion clinics to not kill their kids for some reason.

boutons_deux

08-20-2016, 11:57 AM

Government shouldn't pay for elective procedures.

Fed law prevents Fed funds paying for abortions. This ruling says states can't defund abortion because it's legally protected.

Winehole23

08-21-2016, 09:31 AM

The rate of Texas (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/texas) women who died from complications related to pregnancy doubled from 2010 to 2014, a new study has found, for an estimated maternal mortality rate that is unmatched in any other state and the rest of the developed world.

The finding comes from a report, appearing in the September issue of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, that the maternal mortality rate in the United States increased between 2000 and 2014, even while the rest of the world succeeded in reducing its rate. Excluding California, where maternal mortality declined, and Texas, where it surged, the estimated number of maternal deaths per 100,000 births rose to 23.8 in 2014 from 18.8 in 2000 – or about 27%.

boutons_deux

08-24-2016, 10:44 AM

"Maternal deaths have indeed been increasing in Texas, members said, and African-American women are bearing the brunt of the crisis.

For 2011 and 2012, black mothers accounted for 11.4 percent of Texas births but 28.8 percent of pregnancy-related deaths."

https://www.propublica.org/article/a-spike-in-rates-of-pregnancy-related-deaths-in-texas-spurs-soul-searching

aka, The New Jim Crow in slave state TX run by Repug racists.

boutons_deux

08-31-2016, 05:34 PM

Meet The Anti-Abortion Activist Who Now Controls Texas Women’s Access To Reproductive Care

http://www.telesurtv.net/__export/1471342318475/sites/telesur/img/news/2016/08/16/carol-everett.jpg_1718483346.jpg

A Media Guide To Carol Everett’s Most Misinformed Claims About Abortion, Contraception, Reproductive Health Care, And Sex Education

Texas awarded anti-abortion activist Carol Everett, who runs a network of crisis pregnancy centers, the second largest contract in the state’s restructured reproductive safety net program.

Everett has frequently appeared on a local Fox affiliate in Austin, as well as on a number of conservative media outlets, to push misinformation about abortion, contraception, and general reproductive health care.

Here’s what the media should know about the anti-choice activist who now controls Texas women’s access to reproductive health care

1. Everett Has Made Unproven Claims About Abortion Safety, Procedures, And Clinics
A) EVERETT CLAIMED PROVIDERS PERFORM ABORTIONS ON WOMEN WHO ARE NOT PREGNANT

B) EVERETT CLAIMED ABORTION CLINICS AND PROVIDERS MUST BE REGULATED TO AVOID SPREADING SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES, HIV, AND EBOLA

C) EVERETT PROMOTED THE MYTH THAT 20-WEEK BANS ARE NECESSARY TO AVOID SO-CALLED FETAL PAIN

2. Everett Has Spread Misinformation About Contraception

A) EVERETT CALLED EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION A “DESTRUCTIVE DRUG” AND A “SOCIAL EXPERIMENT ON CHILDREN”

B) EVERETT ALLEGED THAT ABORTION CLINICS INTENTIONALLY PROVIDE DEFECTIVE CONTRACEPTION

3. Everett Has Pushed Extreme, Unfounded, And Anti-LGBT Myths About Sex And Sex Education
A) EVERETT ARGUED THAT SEX EDUCATION RADICALIZES CHILDREN AND TEACHES THEM “PERVERSE BEHAVIOR”

B) EVERETT CLAIMED THAT SEX WITH MULTIPLE PARTNERS “IS ALMOST LIKE RAPE”

4. Everett Has Partnered With And Promoted Extreme Anti-Choice Groups

A) EVERETT HAS PROMOTED DISCREDITED ALLEGATIONS FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDICAL PROGRESS (CMP)

B) EVERETT HAS SERVED AS AN “INTEGRAL PARTNER” TO TROY NEWMAN’S OPERATION RESCUE

5. Everett Has Made Misinformed Attacks On Planned Parenthood
A) EVERETT ALLEGED PLANNED PARENTHOOD HAS “A WEBSITE THAT ACTUALLY ENCOURAGES SEX WITH ANIMALS”

B) EVERETT PUSHED THE MYTH THAT PLANNED PARENTHOOD TARGETS BLACK COMMUNITIES

http://mediamatters.org/research/2016/08/31/meet-anti-abortion-activist-who-now-controls-texas-women-s-access-reproductive-care/212781?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mediamatters%2Fresearch+%28Me dia+Matters+for+America+-+Research%29

boutons_deux

09-10-2016, 09:02 AM

Obama Moves To Protect Planned Parenthood Funding, Permanently

His new rule would block states from defunding the family planning provider for frivolous reas

WASHINGTON ― The Obama administration has proposed a new rule that would prevent states from defunding Planned Parenthood or any other family planning provider for political reasons.

The new rule (https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2016-21359.pdf), which the Department of Health and Human Services proposed last week, says that

states cannot withhold Title X federal family planning money from certain recipients for any reason other than the provider’s “ability to deliver services to program beneficiaries in an effective manner.”

That means states can no longer vote to defund Planned Parenthood because some of its clinics offer abortion services.
“This will make a real difference in so many people’s lives,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood. “Thanks to the Obama administration, women will still be able to access the birth control they need to plan their families, and the cancer screenings they need to stay healthy.”

The Title X program provides basic preventive health care and family planning services for 4 million low-income Americans. About 85 percent of patients who use Title X have incomes below $23,500. Planned Parenthood serves about a third of those patients, using the $70 million a year it receives in Title X grants to subsidize contraceptives and cancer and sexually transmitted infection screenings (http://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2015/08/05/429641062/fact-check-how-does-planned-parenthood-spend-that-government-money) for people who can’t afford them.

Title X does not allow any money (http://www.hhs.gov/opa/title-x-family-planning/) to be used to pay for abortions for any reason.
Still, politicians in 11 states have voted to block public funds (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/opinion/the-state-assault-on-planned-parenthood.html?_r=1) from Planned Parenthood because its services include abortion.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/obama-planned-parenthood_us_57d2c654e4b06a74c9f42f46

boutons_deux

11-15-2016, 07:11 PM

Texas GOP opens new session with restrictive abortion bills, prohibitions on LGBTQ protections

The bill that they introduced (http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/85R/billtext/pdf/HB00201I.pdf#navpanes=0) would force people to essentially have a funeral for their fetal remains by cremating or burying them in the case of an abortion of miscarriage.

Abortion providers could face a fine of up to $1,000 and could potentially lose their licenses to practice if they don’t follow the provision.

When the same law was signed in Indiana, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood responded with a lawsuit, claiming that the law was unconstitutional.

Texas senators are working on passing a bill that “would prevent a city, county, or political subdivision from adopting or enforcing anti-discriminatory protections ‘on a basis not contained in the laws of this state.'”

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/11/texas-gop-opens-new-session-with-restrictive-abortion-bills-prohibitions-on-lgbtq-protections/

DMC

11-16-2016, 01:01 AM

I'm against abortion but pro-choice at the same time. However, both sides could settle if if they would just find the little fucker guilty of a capital offense and sentence it to die. The right would want it carried out right away and the left would stage a candleight vigil at the abortion clinic and petition to abolish abortion.

spurraider21

11-16-2016, 01:07 AM

i'm squarely on the pro-choice side of the debate, but i do have a sympathetic view for the pro-life camp... in that unlike the more cynical left wingers, im not under the impression that the pro life stance is anti-woman

the thing is, in a pro choice world, the most avid pro-lifers are free to practice their beliefs and proceed with an unwanted pregnancy.

boutons_deux

11-22-2016, 02:22 PM

Tell Rep. Marsha Blackburn: End the special committee attacking Planned Parenthood

The committee “investigating” Planned Parenthood for supposed wrongdoing has crossed a line.

Its chair, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), issued a

new round of subpoenas to medical companies for the names of anyone involved in fetal tissue research,

effectively putting a target on the backs of researchers, students and lab techs.
It’s wildly irresponsible for this committee to undermine the privacy of fetal tissue researchers, whose lives could be put at risk by having their names and identities connected to the false allegations put forth by this committee.

Exposing people involved in fetal tissue research to harassment and intimidation is not just wrong. It’s dangerous and irresponsible.

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/forms/tell-rep-marsha-blackburn-end-the-special-committee-attacking-planned-parenthood?detail=email&link_id=11&can_id=4217e8eb109c68bd0c2e4143dd2d8c15&source=email-msnbc-host-joe-scarborough-has-been-advising-trump-behind-the-scenes&email_referrer=msnbc-host-joe-scarborough-has-been-advising-trump-behind-the-scenes&email_subject=msnbc-host-joe-scarborough-has-been-advising-trump-behind-the-scenes

boutons_deux

01-06-2017, 06:48 AM

Repug ideology killing women and babies to please the Christian Taliban (pro-slavery Southern Baptists, etc)

Planned Parenthood chief calls out fake pro-life Republicans after maternal mortality goes up

Many Republicans like Paul Ryan and incoming Vice President-elect Mike Pence like to claim that they are “pro-life” but after so-called “pro-life” laws were passed in Texas that stripped Planned Parenthood from funding (http://www.rawstory.com/2016/12/texas-moves-to-cut-medicaid-funding-for-planned-parenthood/), the maternal mortality rate spiked.

Maternal death is the death of a woman while she is pregnant or within 42 days of the termination of a pregnancy, the World Health Organization reports.

Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday that he would be gutting funding from Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP’s repeal of Obamacare.

The GOP has been trying to cut federal funding from Planned Parenthood for years and up until now, their efforts have been unsuccessful.

A September report outlined results that show

Texas now has the highest death rate for pregnant mothers than most industrialized countries.

Richards explained that the clinics will not go under without federal funding the problem is with a bill like this, those on Medicare and Medicaid won’t be able to use Planned Parenthood services.

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/01/planned-parenthood-chief-calls-out-fake-pro-life-republicans-after-maternal-mortality-goes-up/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story% 29

New polls confirm: Planned Parenthood is very popular, and Republicans oppose it at their own risk (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/29/1575925/-New-polls-confirm-Planned-Parenthood-is-very-popular-and-Republicans-oppose-it-at-their-own-risk)

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/9/29/1575925/-New-polls-confirm-Planned-Parenthood-is-very-popular-and-Republicans-oppose-it-at-their-own-risk

boutons_deux

01-07-2017, 11:52 AM

A new war on birth control: Trump’s victory has empowered the sex scolds

Trump hires an anti-birth control policy adviser — and Republicans in Congress prepare to escalate the attack

Bad news for anyone who hoped that Donald Trump’s history as an adultery-loving and fornication champion might put a chill on the Republican Party’s war on sex: It seems that his election is instead inspiring the party of scolds to double down on their quest to punish ordinary people for having sex because they like it.

for those of us who aren’t privileged enough to be wealthy men, Republicans are going to do everything in their power to inflict punishment in the form of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted childbearing.

Trump’s willingness to fully embrace the Junior Anti-Sex League was demonstrated on Thursday, when his transition team announced (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-policy-staffer-katy-talento-thinks-birth-control-causes-abortion)the hire of Katy Talento as domestic policy counsel for the White House, focusing on health care. Not only is Talento against abortion — which is par for the course in Republican circles — she’s also an anti-birth control fanatic.

The Talento pick should put to rest any notion that Trump will stand in the way of the deep-seated Republican longing to deprive women, especially those with a low income, of access to contraception.

About half of Planned Parenthood’s patients (https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/health-care-equity/medicaid-and-reproductive-health) — more than a million people (https://www.plannedparenthood.org/about-us/who-we-are/planned-parenthood-at-a-glance) — are on Medicaid. Ryan’s plan would immediately mean that this group of individuals would be prevented from relying on their current reproductive health center. That would leave hundreds of thousands of women abruptly cut off from contraception access, and many of them will not be able to find another provider, especially on short notice.

For many, there will be no way to restore that access, as

half of Planned Parenthood clinics are in medically underserved communities (http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/01/misconceptions-about-planned-parenthood.html),

meaning that there are few, if any, alternatives for the women who visit them.

Republicans have tried to justify cuts to Planned Parenthood by presenting supposed lists of alternative providers for women on Medicaid. These lists were, to put it bluntly, constructed of lies (http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/09/clinics-map-planned-parenthood). The majority of clinics on these lists do not have a gynecologist on staff. In Florida, the list of

“alternatives” to Planned Parenthood included dentists, optometrists and school nurses (http://nytlive.nytimes.com/womenintheworld/2016/03/21/florida-bill-defunding-planned-parenthood-cites-dentist-as-alternative-for-reproductive-care/).

http://www.salon.com/2017/01/07/a-new-war-on-birth-control-trumps-victory-has-empowered-the-sex-scolds/

Winehole23

09-26-2018, 12:04 PM

the Heidi Group -- the org tapped to replace Planned Parenthood in Texas -- misses its targets again, but continues to get its contracts with the state of Texas renewed:

Last summer, just days after the agency yanked back the $4 million under the Family Planning contract, HHSC quietly renewed its contract for two more years at the initial funding levels. Data obtained by the Observer shows that the agency clawed back money from the Heidi Group for a second time in fiscal year 2018, reducing its Family Planning Program grant from $5.1 million to about $2 million, and its Healthy Texas Women funding from about $1.6 million to $1.2 million, for again failing to meet its targets.
Despite these issues, HHSC recently renewed the Heidi Group’s contract for fiscal year 2019, which began a few weeks ago, at these adjusted amounts. Heidi Group is expected to serve more than 40,000 patients, still 12 times more than it was able to handle in 2017.
https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-anti-abortion-family-planning-group-promised-to-serve-70000-women-it-served-3300/

boutons_deux

09-26-2018, 12:29 PM

Winehole23

07-25-2019, 09:23 AM

the Heidi Group -- the org tapped to replace Planned Parenthood in Texas -- misses its targets again, but continues to get its contracts with the state of Texas renewed:

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-anti-abortion-family-planning-group-promised-to-serve-70000-women-it-served-3300/Heidi Group changed its name and is suing HHS to get its funding back.

But Vita Nuova incorporated on July 2, just one day before filing the lawsuit, according to a filing with the Texas secretary of state. Its founding members are affiliated with the Heidi Group, a troubled crisis pregnancy center that lost millions of dollars in contracts with Texas after repeatedly failing to meet agreed-upon goals. The new group lacks a website and, according to the complaint, has yet to raise funds or build a network of providers. It’s not clear what medical services, if any, it plans to provide.https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/24/texas-anti-abortion-group-family-planning-funds-1612795

RandomGuy

07-26-2019, 03:26 PM

Heidi Group changed its name and is suing HHS to get its funding back.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/24/texas-anti-abortion-group-family-planning-funds-1612795

I have little doubt that this group has more than a passing tie or two to the current GOP leadership of Texas, and is composed of clueless opportunistic hacks. Something of a theme in conservative circles.

spurraider21

06-29-2020, 01:28 PM

Supreme Court strikes down Louisiana abortion law (https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/29/supreme-court-louisiana-abortion-case-344296)

In a 5-4 ruling (https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf), with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the deciding vote, the court said the Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals created an unconstitutional undue burden for patients seeking an abortion.Justice Stephen Breyer, in an opinion joined by rest of the court's liberal wing, wrote that the Louisiana law would make it "impossible for many women to obtain a safe, legal abortion in the State and [impose] substantial obstacles on those who could."

Roberts, in a separate concurring opinion, disagreed with the liberal justices' reasoning but said he was bound by the precedent the court set just four years ago when it rejected a similar law in Texas.

"The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons," wrote Roberts, who had voted to uphold the Texas restrictions in 2016. "Therefore Louisiana’s law cannot stand under our precedents."

full decision

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf