Abortion & Contraception Rights Under Attack

[LFC]

Mar 13, 2023 15:21:14 GMT goldenvalley said:

The Texas guy suing people for aiding his ex-wife in getting an abortion is probably the fine upstanding sort of guy who would deny paternity if ex-wife went ahead with the pregnancy and sued for child support.

Judging from the people's comments, he sounds like an abuser. Maybe not physically but definitely a nightmare for the poor woman married to him.

[LFC]

These people are f***ed up.

Making The Performative Pro-Life-ing Permanent

What we need is more statues.

One of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ first initiatives as Arkansas governor became official in recent days when the Nepo Baby signed a bill into law that will allow for a “monument to the unborn” to be built on state capitol grounds. The structure will very blatantly be a political statement and not an actual memorial. The language of the law dedicates the monument exclusively to the terminated pregnancies between the years Roe was around: it will serve “as a memorial to the lives lost from 1973 to 2022 due to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court.”

It’s as dystopian and pointed as the abortion ban in Arkansas that sprung into effect when Roe was overturned last year, banning abortion in all cases except to save the life of a pregnant person, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 21, 2023 15:32:10 GMT LFC said:

These people are f***ed up.

Making The Performative Pro-Life-ing Permanent

What we need is more statues.

One of Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ first initiatives as Arkansas governor became official in recent days when the Nepo Baby signed a bill into law that will allow for a “monument to the unborn” to be built on state capitol grounds. The structure will very blatantly be a political statement and not an actual memorial. The language of the law dedicates the monument exclusively to the terminated pregnancies between the years Roe was around: it will serve “as a memorial to the lives lost from 1973 to 2022 due to the decisions of the United States Supreme Court.”

It’s as dystopian and pointed as the abortion ban in Arkansas that sprung into effect when Roe was overturned last year, banning abortion in all cases except to save the life of a pregnant person, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Dystopian and just plain ghoulish.  It's all tied up with sex and it somehow titillates people.

[LFC]

DeStalinist and his GOPstapo allies have once again put their performative fascism on full display.

The Florida Senate on Monday approved a bill to ban abortions after six weeks, a measure supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis as the Republican prepares to launch his expected presidential candidacy.

The proposal must still be approved by the House before it reaches the governor’s desk. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks.

A six-week ban would more closely align Florida with the abortion restrictions of other Republican-controlled states and give DeSantis a political win on an issue important with GOP primary voters ahead of his potential White House run.

The bill would have larger implications for abortion access throughout the South, as the nearby states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi prohibit the procedure at all stages of pregnancy and Georgia bans it after cardiac activity can be detected, which is around six weeks.

“Bodily autonomy should not give a person the permission to kill an innocent human being. We live in a time where the consequences of our actions are an afterthought and convenience has been substitution for responsibility, and this is unacceptable when it comes to the protection of the most vulnerable,” said Sen. Erin Grall, a Republican who sponsored the bill.

The proposal allows exceptions to save the life of the woman and exceptions in the case of pregnancy caused by rape or incest until 15 weeks of pregnancy. In those cases, a woman would have to provide documentation such as a medical record, restraining order or police report. DeSantis has called the rape and incest provisions sensible.

It would require that the drugs used in medication-induced abortions — which make up the majority of those provided nationally — could be dispensed only in person by a physician.

[LFC]

Dems need to step up even more on abortion because a) it's the right thing to do and b) it's good politics. They just notched another win.

A month after the Democratic-controlled state legislature sent the bill to her desk, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) officially repealed the state’s abortion ban, which has been law in the state since 1931, but remained dormant while Roe was intact.

It was a really nice moment:

This comes just one day after another major abortion rights victory in the Midwest: Wisconsin voters elected Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, who campaigned primarily on a promise to defend abortion rights. She defeated Dan Kelly, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice with a track record of anti-abortion positions.

[LFC]

Laws? We don't need no steenking laws! We have corrupt judges!

[goldenvalley]

Apr 7, 2023 23:12:05 GMT LFC said:

Laws? We don't need no steenking laws! We have corrupt judges!

I'll see your judge and raise you another!

See you in the US Supreme Court.

[LFC]

Idaho has the anti-abortion blueprint that the other red states want. And, of course, the comments after the SCOTUS decisions about this being a state by state issue have been repeatedly shown to be a lie.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a first-of-its-kind law Wednesday evening, which bans minors from traveling out of state for an abortion without parental consent.

Experts warned TPM back when the Supreme Court let Texas’ bounty-hunter law stand that these jurisdictional disputes would be the new front in the abortion war: red states seeking to police the procedure across their borders, and blue states trying to protect their providers from out-of-state prosecutions. With Idaho’s new law, that reality is taking shape.

[pnwguy]

Apr 10, 2023 15:14:18 GMT LFC said:

Idaho has the anti-abortion blueprint that the other red states want. And, of course, the comments after the SCOTUS decisions about this being a state by state issue have been repeatedly shown to be a lie.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) signed a first-of-its-kind law Wednesday evening, which bans minors from traveling out of state for an abortion without parental consent.

Experts warned TPM back when the Supreme Court let Texas’ bounty-hunter law stand that these jurisdictional disputes would be the new front in the abortion war: red states seeking to police the procedure across their borders, and blue states trying to protect their providers from out-of-state prosecutions. With Idaho’s new law, that reality is taking shape.

"If men can't control their breedstock, there is no freedom.  That's why we need guns, to fight such tyranny.  And we need our Idaho federal representatives to re-instate the Fugitive Slave Act.  Property rights are God-ordained, whether it's cattle or women"

[LFC]

Anti-abortion laws are working as intended.

In the wake of Idaho’s passage of a new, first-of-its-kind law that bans some interstate travel to receive abortion care, new data sheds light on just how crucial out-of-state travel has been and will continue to be in this post-Roe America.

The Society of Family Planning, a non-profit that helps support abortion and contraception research, shared the results of its #WeCount national research project with FiveThirtyEight in a piece published Tuesday.

The data collected by #WeCount shows several things we suspected to be true in the weeks and months since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling: that the number of abortions in the U.S. has decreased overall, that the number of telehealth appointments to get abortion pills increased and that the number of abortions in states where the procedures is legal spiked substantially in the six months after the Dobbs ruling, as women and pregnant people were likely forced to travel out of state to access the procedure in the face of increasingly restrictive bans in red states.

Between July and December 2022, more than 66,500 people reported being unable to receive an abortion in their home state. Broken down, nearly 44,000 of those unable to get abortion care in their state of residence couldn’t get access because their home state had banned the procedure, and another 22,680 were blocked by their home states reducing access to abortion, like Arizona, Ohio, Indiana and several others.

FiveThirtyEight’s analysis of the data from #WeCount found that about 35,330 of those who couldn’t get an abortion in their home state ended up traveling to another state to receive care. Additionally:

the data also shows 31,180 people were seemingly unable to get a legal abortion at all. We don’t know whether those people remained pregnant, or got an abortion some other way.

The data is not comprehensive and may shift as only 77 percent of the country’s providers shared data with #WeCount. The findings also don’t take into account the substantial uptick in people ordering abortion pills online, either from international organizations or medical and activist groups in the U.S. that ship abortion medication to people in places where it is illegal.

[LFC]

Even Trump realizes that abortion absolutism isn't a smart political play. He's asking "Christian" nationalist leaders to ease up. Yeah, good luck with that.

Since late last year, Donald Trump has been holding private meetings with religious-right figures in an effort to remind them about his anti-abortion record and ensure their support. But instead of thanking Trump for his role in repealing Roe v. Wade, the leaders are pressing for hardcore commitments that go far beyond what he is comfortable with — and what he thinks voters will allow him to get away with.

According to two participants and another source close to Trump, the ex-president has warned leaders in off-the-record conversations that Republicans risk “losing big” — in Trump’s words — unless they follow his lead. He has warned the leaders to shift their own messaging, telling them to emphasize “exceptions” to abortion bans, including in cases of rape, incest, or a threat to the life of the mother. In these frank talks, Trump has stressed this is his 2024 plan, saying it’s necessary to prevent Democrats from painting him as an “extremist.”

Privately, Trump is conceding those big losses have already begun. Trump has for several weeks vented to confidants that the GOP is “getting killed on abortion” or on “the abortion issue,” according to three people who’ve heard him use this phrasing on different occasions.

During his meetings, when pressed on what specifically he’d support in a second term, Trump has instead focused on his record as the “most pro-life” president in U.S. history. Among the anti-abortion leaders, religious conservatives, and politically active pastors gathered, Trump’s retroactive focus has left some unsatisfied, including anti-abortion advocates who previously endorsed him. Indeed, during one of these conference calls held around early March, one of the participants gently told Trump that his 2024 policy commitments were vague, requesting clarity and specifics. Trump responded by boasting about his past accomplishments, according to two of the sources.

One recent participant wondered to Rolling Stone: Is Trump “going to try to make us swallow getting next to nothing in return for our support?”

Republicans are scared of this issue, and for good reason.

Trump isn’t the only Republican candidate caught between hardcore supporters demanding new curbs on legal abortion and a majority of voters who continue to reject an anti-abortion agenda at every available opportunity. Rolling Stone also spoke to half a dozen longtime GOP strategists working on races for next year, almost all of whom say they are advising their candidates to talk as little as possible about GOP abortion proposals at this time. And party operatives are hoping anti-abortion voters won’t notice or won’t care. According to a Republican operative working on 2024 Senate races and another source who’s pored over the private data, recent GOP internal polling in multiple states has shown that abortion doesn’t even rank as a top-five issue right now among those Republican primary voters.

While the intra-party debate rages, the losses are piling up. In a heavily contested Wisconsin Supreme Court race last week, a Democrat staunchly supportive of reproductive rights beat an anti-abortion Republican by 11 points in a race that was expected to be close — and in a swing state Trump won in 2016 and barely lost in 2020. The Wisconsin wipeout followed a dismal showing for the GOP in the midterms, where they failed to capture the Senate and underperformed in the House. (During his private gatherings, Trump has, according to two of the sources, specifically cited the case of far-right, anti-abortion Republican candidate Doug Mastriano, who in the swing state of Pennsylvania lost the 2022 governor’s race by 14 percentage points.)

[LFC]

Another Republican dog who doesn't know what to do with the car he caught.

The Republican Party still has no idea how to position itself nationally on abortion after its Dobbs success. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that, electorally, it will continue to be a winning issue in driving independent voters toward Democrats.

As Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) does a soft launch of a potential 2024 campaign, traveling from Iowa to New Hampshire, he has faced questions from reporters asking about the specifics of his stance on federal abortion policy. He has repeatedly deflected.

In Iowa on Wednesday, Scott wouldn’t answer questions about whether he supports his fellow South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s proposed 15-week national ban. Just hours later on Thursday morning, Scott told a local New Hampshire news station that he “definitely” would support a 20-week ban and sign it into law if he were president. For his part, he has said before that he endorses such a measure.

“We have to have a federal limit on how far we can go, and that is something that we have to discuss,” Scott said, again, dodging on details.

Well, that's clear.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 17, 2023 17:40:38 GMT LFC said:

Another Republican dog who doesn't know what to do with the car he caught.

The Republican Party still has no idea how to position itself nationally on abortion after its Dobbs success. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that, electorally, it will continue to be a winning issue in driving independent voters toward Democrats.

As Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) does a soft launch of a potential 2024 campaign, traveling from Iowa to New Hampshire, he has faced questions from reporters asking about the specifics of his stance on federal abortion policy. He has repeatedly deflected.

In Iowa on Wednesday, Scott wouldn’t answer questions about whether he supports his fellow South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s proposed 15-week national ban. Just hours later on Thursday morning, Scott told a local New Hampshire news station that he “definitely” would support a 20-week ban and sign it into law if he were president. For his part, he has said before that he endorses such a measure.

“We have to have a federal limit on how far we can go, and that is something that we have to discuss,” Scott said, again, dodging on details.

Well, that's clear.

The brain is so programmed to say pro-life that they actually don't know what they mean by that.  And reality is hitting them hard.  I heard a woman testify in an Ohio legislative hearing.  She was pro-life and when asked about a situation in which the 20 week anatomy scan showed a fetus with no kidney she said that wouldn't be an abortion to end that pregnancy.  They don't know abortion is a procedure...to them abortion is a bad thing that slutty sluts and naughty girls use to avoid responsibility.

[LFC]

Yes, they do hate women, love the fetus, and ignore children. Welcome to white Christian nationalism.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 21, 2023 21:44:45 GMT LFC said:

Yes, they do hate women, love the fetus, and ignore children. Welcome to white Christian nationalism.

Seems like they really fear trans women will hoodwink some red blooded American males.  

[pnwguy]

Apr 21, 2023 23:16:16 GMT goldenvalley said:

Apr 21, 2023 21:44:45 GMT LFC said:

Yes, they do hate women, love the fetus, and ignore children. Welcome to white Christian nationalism.

Seems like they really fear trans women will hoodwink some red blooded American males.  

Or Australian ones…

youtu.be/Z01Hm9tYj-A

[LFC]

Apr 22, 2023 3:21:06 GMT pnwguy said:

Apr 21, 2023 23:16:16 GMT goldenvalley said:

Seems like they really fear trans women will hoodwink some red blooded American males.  

Or Australian ones…

youtu.be/Z01Hm9tYj-A

Mick wasn't a real man like we have in 'Murica. He didn't beat or shoot the guy in the dress to reaffirm his manhood.

[LFC]

Gotta' love the Satanic Temple.

THE SATANIC TEMPLE: Abortion Clinic FUNDRAISER

TST Health provides free religious telehealth medication abortion care in New Mexico.

TST Health has named the facility “The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic.” Prior to 1973, doctors who performed abortions could lose their licenses and go to jail. In 1950, Samuel Alito’s mother did not have options. The clinic’s name serves to remind people just how important it is to have the right to control one’s body and the potential ramifications of losing that right.

Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion Clinic is an online clinic that provides religious medication abortion care. The clinic provides abortion medication via mail to those in New Mexico who wish to perform The Satanic Temple's Religious Abortion Ritual.
Image

While access to reproductive healthcare and abortion has been abruptly blocked in many parts of the country in the wake of the Dobbs decision, this initiative helps ensure that TST Members have a means to obtain the care they need.

[pnwguy]

Apr 22, 2023 14:18:12 GMT LFC said:

Apr 22, 2023 3:21:06 GMT pnwguy said:

Or Australian ones…

youtu.be/Z01Hm9tYj-A

Mick wasn't a real man like we have in 'Murica. He didn't beat or shoot the guy in the dress to reaffirm his manhood.

And like some socialist libtard, he wouldn’t carry a gun to stand his ground. What a pathetic ‘Murican-hating foreigner, even if looks white.

youtu.be/Xnww12a6W8o

[AnBr]

Apr 22, 2023 23:03:09 GMT pnwguy said:

And like some socialist libtard, he wouldn’t carry a gun to stand his ground. What a pathetic ‘Murican-hating foreigner, even if looks white.

youtu.be/Xnww12a6W8o

Probably the most famous scene from the movie.

[LFC]

Alabama is looking to expand the definition of homicide victims to include a fertilized egg.

This is text right from the bill.

This bill would expand the definition of person for the purposes of the criminal code to include an unborn child from the moment of fertilization.

The interpretations I've read is that a woman could literally be prosecuted for having a miscarriage if the DA (or state AG who can jump in) decides they are suspicious of the circumstances. Also we have this supposed exception.

to prohibit certain criminal prosecutions for certain medical care resulting in incidental or unintentional death or injury to an unborn child, provided all other reasonable alternatives to the medical care were exhausted

Alabama Republicans, of course, get to define "reasonable alternatives" on a case by case basis. What doctor is going to want to have anything to do with women's health down there other than one who believes a woman should always die if the baby can be saved?

Also note that this bill makes the pill and IUDs illegal since they would cause the "death" of a fertilized egg which, in this bill, is a person.

[pnwguy]

May 11, 2023 13:49:53 GMT LFC said:

Alabama is looking to expand the definition of homicide victims to include a fertilized egg.

This is text right from the bill.

This bill would expand the definition of person for the purposes of the criminal code to include an unborn child from the moment of fertilization.

The interpretations I've read is that a woman could literally be prosecuted for having a miscarriage if the DA (or state AG who can jump in) decides they are suspicious of the circumstances. Also we have this supposed exception.

to prohibit certain criminal prosecutions for certain medical care resulting in incidental or unintentional death or injury to an unborn child, provided all other reasonable alternatives to the medical care were exhausted

Alabama Republicans, of course, get to define "reasonable alternatives" on a case by case basis. What doctor is going to want to have anything to do with women's health down there other than one who believes a woman should always die if the baby can be saved?

Also note that this bill makes the pill and IUDs illegal since they would cause the "death" of a fertilized egg which, in this bill, is a person.

Pass it, GOP, and watch most OB/GYN's move to another state, unless they are Christian zealots.  Let's have more "pro-life" deaths from pregnancy neglect that kills both woman and fetus.  Victory for our God!

By their same logic, any actions that could decrease the chances a zygote is able to implant should be prosecuted as negligent homicide.  Get off those exercise bikes, ladies. Ban women's sports.  Shouldn't fertile women be ordered to bedrest for at least a week each menstrual cycle?  Should girls be walking around, going to school?  Maybe they should ban women's education.  

[LFC]

FFS, they could pull this one off. We can already predict right-wing partisan hack SCOTUS's decision. They'd probably have a stronger legal opinion on this one than some of the other bullshit they've pulled.

Anti-abortion groups are looking for new ways to wage their battle against abortion rights, eyeing the potential implications of a 150-year-old law, the Comstock Act, that could effectively lead to a nationwide abortion ban.

Congress passed the Comstock Act in 1873, making it a crime to mail or ship any “lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article” and anything that “is advertised or described in a manner … for producing abortion.”

There are now legal cases questioning the Food and Drug Administration’s regulation of mifepristone, one of the two drugs used in the standard regimen for medication abortion. If courts find that the FDA has the authority to approve mifepristone for abortion, the Comstock Act could still prevent the pill’s distribution.

As scholars of law and reproductive justice, we have been analyzing potential strategies to use this Victorian-era law to restrict the ability to get an abortion in the U.S.

Read one way, the Comstock Act could prevent mailing mifepristone to a person’s home, regardless of whether this person lives in a state where abortion is legal.

A broader interpretation, advanced by anti-abortion groups in recent months, would mean the Comstock Act applies to the distribution of all drugs and medical tools used for abortions, not just mifepristone.

The Supreme Court returned the question of abortion rights to states in June 2022. But it’s important to understand that the Comstock Act is a federal law that applies to states, regardless of their approach to abortion.

So while abortion remains legal in certain states, we believe it’s possible that a court could interpret the Comstock Act to prevent the distribution of any tool used for an abortion, anywhere in the U.S.

[LFC]

Welcome to the hellscape of a white Christian nationalist state. Notice how Biden is trying to protect women while Republicans are trying to kill them.

Mylissa Farmer knew her fetus was dying inside of her. Her water broke less than 18 weeks into her pregnancy last August, and she was desperate for an abortion.

But according to federal documents, during three emergency room visits over two days in Missouri and Kansas, doctors repeatedly gave Farmer the same chilling message: Though there was virtually no chance her fetus would survive and the pregnancy was putting her at high risk for life-threatening complications, there was nothing they could do for her.

In the 11 months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, similar stories have been reported in the 14 states where abortion bans have gone into effect. In Texas, five women are suing the state for denial of care, including one who went into septic shock and almost died.

Now, the Biden administration is employing one of the few tactics it has available to try to hold hospitals accountable for denying pregnant patients abortion care for high-risk conditions.

In April, a first-of-its-kind federal investigation found two hospitals involved in Farmer’s care were violating a federal law that requires hospitals to treat patients in emergency situations. If the hospitals do not demonstrate they can provide appropriate care to patients in Farmer’s situation, they stand to lose future access to crucial Medicare and Medicaid funding. Physicians who fail to treat patients like Farmer could incur fines, and patients may be able to sue for monetary damages, Farmer’s attorney, Alison Tanner, said.

The investigation, conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, documented that both Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri and the University of Kansas Health System breached their internal policies for complying with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, and that their protocols continue to place patients in “immediate jeopardy” of serious health risks, the highest level of violation.

Investigators concluded that future patients in similar situations could face “serious injury, harm, impairment or death.” The hospitals will remain under investigation while they come up with plans to ensure that patients in need of emergency abortion care are not turned away, federal officials said.

[goldenvalley]

May 22, 2023 17:36:11 GMT LFC said:

Welcome to the hellscape of a white Christian nationalist state. Notice how Biden is trying to protect women while Republicans are trying to kill them.

Mylissa Farmer knew her fetus was dying inside of her. Her water broke less than 18 weeks into her pregnancy last August, and she was desperate for an abortion.

But according to federal documents, during three emergency room visits over two days in Missouri and Kansas, doctors repeatedly gave Farmer the same chilling message: Though there was virtually no chance her fetus would survive and the pregnancy was putting her at high risk for life-threatening complications, there was nothing they could do for her.

In the 11 months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, similar stories have been reported in the 14 states where abortion bans have gone into effect. In Texas, five women are suing the state for denial of care, including one who went into septic shock and almost died.

Now, the Biden administration is employing one of the few tactics it has available to try to hold hospitals accountable for denying pregnant patients abortion care for high-risk conditions.

In April, a first-of-its-kind federal investigation found two hospitals involved in Farmer’s care were violating a federal law that requires hospitals to treat patients in emergency situations. If the hospitals do not demonstrate they can provide appropriate care to patients in Farmer’s situation, they stand to lose future access to crucial Medicare and Medicaid funding. Physicians who fail to treat patients like Farmer could incur fines, and patients may be able to sue for monetary damages, Farmer’s attorney, Alison Tanner, said.

The investigation, conducted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, documented that both Freeman Health System in Joplin, Missouri and the University of Kansas Health System breached their internal policies for complying with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, and that their protocols continue to place patients in “immediate jeopardy” of serious health risks, the highest level of violation.

Investigators concluded that future patients in similar situations could face “serious injury, harm, impairment or death.” The hospitals will remain under investigation while they come up with plans to ensure that patients in need of emergency abortion care are not turned away, federal officials said.

Unborn life is sacred and women are expendable.  These folks have spent years in a weird vacuum of real world knowledge.  For every woman who successfully bore 12 kids there are how many buried due to complications from pregnancy back in the bad old days?