The state of Arkansas is now home to the nation’s strictest abortion law, which prohibits all abortions after 12 weeks. That clearly violates the central holding of Roe v Wade. Even worse is how the bill became law after it was vetoed by the governor:
Category Archive: Reproductive Rights
Mar 07 2013
TX Discovers Cost of Defunding Family Planning
Here’s the least surprising story of the year. After massively cutting state funding to family planning clinics last year, the state of Texas is now discovering that it will cost them almost four times as much because of all the unwanted pregnancies and they’re trying to figure out how to restore the funding without angering …
Mar 04 2013
South Dakota: Women Can’t Think on Weekends or Holidays
South Dakota has long had the longest mandatory waiting period for women seeking an abortion, but now they’re about to make it even longer, 72 hours. And to make things even worse, the new law says that weekends and holidays don’t count toward the 72 hour wait:
Mar 02 2013
Oklahoma GOP Tries to Overrule Federal Contraception Mandate
Republicans in Oklahoma, who apparently think the interstate commerce clause doesn’t exist, are trying to pass a bill that overrules the contraception mandate for insurance companies in that state. And you’re going to love the argument for this being made by the sponsor of the bill:
Mar 01 2013
Indiana Senate: Only One Vaginal Ultrasound
The Indiana Senate amended a bill that would require vaginal ultrasounds for many women seeking abortions. The original bill called for such a procedure, even if doctors don’t consider it necessary, both before and after an RU-486 abortion. Now they’ve cut that down to just one.
Feb 27 2013
Private vs Public in Indiana
My friend Sheila Kennedy, a longtime Dispatches reader and a law professor who has done some important work on church/state matters, has a blog post about the guy who submitted the bill to require transvaginal ultrasounds in her home state of Indiana:
Feb 26 2013
Dumbass Quote of the Day
An Indiana Senate committee last week passed a bill that would require trans-vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions — not one, but two of them. Indiana Right to Life legislative director Sue Swayze sees no problem with this. After all, those women got pregnant through their vaginas so what could be wrong about putting something …
Feb 19 2013
Pope Benedict, Age and Strength
Soraya Chemaly has a post at Reproductive Health Reality Check about the pope’s sudden retirement. The announced reason for this is that his age and lack of strength prevents him from carrying out his duties. Chemaly relates this to one of the most appalling actions the Catholic Church has taken in recent years.
Feb 03 2013
The Heckler’s Veto in Kansas
Longtime friend of Dispatches (and of me) Gretchen writes about a heckler’s veto being attempted in Kansas to prevent an abortion clinic from opening in the same building used by George Tiller before he was murdered. An anti-abortion group is arguing that the clinic will be disruptive. Why? Because they’ll protest there after it opens.
Feb 03 2013
Another Invasive Ultrasound Bill? Yep
Man, you’d think the Republican party would have learned a thing or two from last year, when they got blasted for a whole range of authoritarian policies that harm women and lost the female vote by a sizable margin. Not in Arkansas, where they want to require invasive vaginal probes before a woman can get …
Feb 01 2013
Personhood USA Wants Rape Exceptions Gone
The anti-choice zealots at Personhood USA, who believe that a fertilized egg has more rights than the woman whose body produced the egg, have launched a new campaign called Save the 1 to eliminate rape exceptions in all abortion-related laws. My friend Robin Marty has their press release:
Jan 30 2013
Santorum’s ‘Pro-Life’ Propaganda
Former senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s latest column at the Worldnutdaily is about the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade and the March for Life. Unsurprisingly, it contains some seriously slanted rhetoric on the subject.
Jan 29 2013
Banning Abortion Increases Their Number?
A new study of abortion rates around the world finds that the rates are higher in countries where the procedure is illegal, and those abortions are, of course, unregulated and far less safe and a lot of women die as a result of botched illegal abortions.
Jan 28 2013
NM Legislator Tries to Ban Abortion to ‘Preserve Evidence’
I should probably have reached the point where I can’t be shocked anymore by what any Republican politician does by now, but I apparently haven’t. You’d think the GOP would be staying a million miles away from any issue to do with abortion and rape, but one New Mexico legislator has submitted an appalling bill:
Jan 27 2013
Access to Abortion 40 Years After Roe
The Daily Beast mapped out all the clinics in the country that provided abortion services and found, unsurprisingly, that they are clustered around big cities and that many women would have to travel hundreds of miles to get to one. They even made the map interactive so you can search your area.
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