It’s almost an unbelievable figure – 916. That’s the amount of legislation that Republicans introduced from January to April, trying to regulate a woman’s reproductive system. It’s absolutely stunning!
This information comes from a report by The Guttmacher Institute, and it finds that 49 states have contributed to this number with various bills geared towards regulating abortions and a woman’s right to choose. The report says that in 15 states, the following measures became law:
- expand the pre-abortion waiting period requirement in South Dakota to make it more onerous than that in any other state, by extending the time from 24 hours to 72 hours and requiring women to obtain counseling from a crisis pregnancy center in the interim;
- expand the abortion counseling requirement in South Dakota to mandate that counseling be provided in-person by the physician who will perform the abortion and that counseling include information published after 1972 on all the risk factors related to abortion complications, even if the data are scientifically flawed;
- require the health departments in Utah and Virginia to develop new regulations governing abortion clinics;
- revise the Utah abortion refusal clause to allow any hospital employee to refuse to “participate in any way” in an abortion;
- limit abortion coverage in all private health plans in Utah, including plans that will be offered in the state’s health exchange; and
- revise the Mississippi sex education law to require all school districts to provide abstinence-only sex education while permitting discussion of contraception only with prior approval from the state.
The report continues;
In addition to these laws, more than 120 other bills have been approved by at least one chamber of the legislature, and some interesting trends are emerging. As a whole, the proposals introduced this year are more hostile to abortion rights than in the past: 56% of the bills introduced so far this year seek to restrict abortion access, compared with 38% last year. Three topics—insurance coverage of abortion, restriction of abortion after a specific point in gestation and ultrasound requirements—are topping the agenda in several states. At the same time, legislators are proposing little in the way of proactive initiatives aimed at expanding access to reproductive health –related services; this stands in sharp contrast to recent years when a range of initiatives to promote comprehensive sex education, permit expedited STI treatment for patients’ partners and ensure insurance coverage of contraception were adopted.
Four months, 916 bills introduced. Sounds like a new record is about to be set. Whatever happened to Roe v. Wade? You know, the 1973 decision by the Supreme Court that gives women the right under the 14th amendment of the Constitution to have a choice? The law that has guided this issue for the last four decades.
Why is Roe v. Wade now a mute issue?
You are stupid. How about you carry one of these “people” inside your body. That’s right you can’t you stupid man. You carry a baby and you will have a point until then, SHUT UP!
Women need to exersize their rights to thow a man in jail anytime they feel like it.
Slogan: Yes they CAN! have you thrown in jail when they have a bad day.
cy, you are so right. When I get my period each month, I just go crazy and start making all kinds of silly woman-like mistakes. I yell at random people on the street and lose my ability to properly operate a motor vehicle. I just had twins, which were babies #2 and 3 for me. The whole time I was pregnant, and even now, I fully relied on my husband to make any and all decisions because of my altered psychological state. Sheesh, if it wasn’t for him I might have to live in a cardboard box because I’m so incapable of rational thought. I’m so glad that men like you are able to completely understand us weak and feeble-minded women. NOT. You are ignorant.
What absurd and ignorant comments that are based upon opinion, not fact. You must be a man because you have no idea what you are talking about.
First of all, if a female has her period, that means she is capable of bearing children, but it by no means indicates that they are mature enough to be considered adults. Some females get their period as early as ten years old; you think they’re old enough to have sex and deal with the consequences? NO; they are still children!!!
Women do not go through psychological changes during pregnancy, they go through changes that are hormonally influenced.
How does one become qualified as a “sound-minded male?” Are you the expert here? I surely hope not.
And have you ever considered that older women (post-menopausal) who have a lifetime of wisdom – are who other women should turn to in times of uncertainty?
Is that “sound-minded male” going to help bring up that child – including changing diapers, child support, baby sitting and feeding? Probably not.
Of course it’s harder for women to jump through hoops – because ignorant and opinionated men such as you continue to throw inexplicable, cruel and unfair obstacles in our path. Women are AT LEAST 50% of the population. We gave birth to the world, for God’s sake. We know about children much more than you do, thank goodness.
When will people learn the Republican Right continues to take away rights and money. Makes it hard for our President to do anything. Allow corporations to pay little taxes to support their country. And more. All under the cloak of religion. Wake up People! Republicans are for Republicans! Not America!
Taking tax money from current job holders to ‘create’ make-work jobs for does not make more net jobs. It has been shown by the GOA to only destroy 1.5 non-government jobs for every job ‘created’. The 375 million in taxes paid to Planned Parenthood frees up funds for abortions. If that was not true then why this article? Planned Parenthood is and always was a private charity; and it can go back to being a charity that the tax payers are not forced to fund, the way it was before Nixon started this funded abortion mess. The government has to make cuts equal to 6,000 times the size of Planned Parenthood. To prevent a dollar collapse these program cuts have to be maid now, not some day but this year. Everyone in the world knows this and very few think that the US politicians are capable of it. That’s why gold is at $ 1,500.00 an ounce and rising, and why the U.S. dollar is now only worth 93 Australian pennies, or 95 Canadian pennies, or 11.5 Mexican pesos, and dropping fast. Without cuts in programs equal to 6,000 times the size of the Planned Parenthood program the dollar collapses, US trade stops, and gas quickly goes to $ 50.00 a gallon. Then the chaos in the streets starts. Planned Parenthood will not be the stumbling block that prevents 6,000 similar sized cuts. So just get over it. That program and many more are over.
If you want to talk about children dying of starvation, disease etc.. How about children dying becuase someone had a child they didn’t want or had the child out of wedlock. Most abortions are “accidents” or unborn children how about educating people to wait to have kids when they can support one. As for rape and dying mothers those cases are very few in number. It is unfathomable to me that we think we should have the right o determine whether a human Being lives or dies because of our “rights”. Doesn’t that person have rights too? They exist just as you are do and are the most defenseless of all. And as a man it is arrogant to deny the Father any say just because they baby is in you it is half his too. I am not a Reub or a conservative but I can not stand to see innocent live just thrown away in a society that gasps in horror when people are caught doing cruelty to animals but we turn a blind eye and justify needless life taking of our own kind.
Fascist liberals?.. What the hell are you talking about?. This is about the focus being taken off of job creation and onto the push for social agendas. No one is being “killed” here. But many children actually die and suffer because of preventable diseases, starvation, abuse, neglect in the US everyday. The GOP doesn’t care about those babies and children, only when it’s in the fetal stage. Please check yourself.
The question the begs to be asked is why the GOP have forsaken their rallying cry of “JOBS,JOBS,JOBS!!’ and have created absolutely NO legislation for job creation but have managed to find the time to create 916! bills–some of which have passed into law–against a women’s right to decide what to do with her body. Why isn’t the GOP more concerned with the BABIES that are here, who’s parents have NO JOB,NO SCHOOL FUNDING,NO HEALTHCARE INSURANCE, NO SOCIAL SECURITY NEST-EGG AND NO HOPE! Save THOSE BABIES GOP!!!
The Republicans continue to a support a suppressive, twisted, invasive, backwards agenda that has no business in our bedrooms. GOP!!… get out from under our beds and go create some damn JOBS!!
I dont believe in abortion, but I believe in a womans right to choose. I hope you never have an adolescent daughter that gets attacked and thus becomes pregnant, because not only will she be forced to carry that child, but raise it with no assistance as well. Men have no say in womens rights
Apparently, jobs to a Republican is just a campaign promise.
This rhetoric is getting ridiculous. Not one single bill opposes anyone’s ‘right to chose’. American women still have the legal right to kill single every potential American child if they want to. No one is trying to deny a woman’s right to kill her unborn child. The bills are opposing forcing tax payers to pay for these women’s abortions. The slick and loaded wording that is so politically correct that we are all expected to accept; is so twisted and backwards that it has just turned even the headline of this articles into an undeniable lie. Why can’t the fascist liberals learn to speak and write in English and not in slogans.
The South Dakota laws *sound* sensible on the surface, but consider that there are currently exactly zero abortion providers that live in South Dakota, and only one that comes in-state once a week to one location. It’s a big state. Most women that get abortions there are already driving many hours to get it and making whatever other arrangements they have to to make that drive. Now they have to make it twice. And they have to do all that after they realize they are pregnant and before the pregnancy gets too far along.
Clinics are not notorious for slipping under the radar. They are held to a much higher standard because they are a political hot spot. There is only one instance I know of where an abortion provider was cutting corners and skirting the law, and they’ve been shut down and he’s being prosecuted. Far more common is regulators bearing down hard on abortion clinics in an attempt to stop them.
It’s a lot like when police arrest you on trumped up charges, hold you for a few inconvenient hours, and then let you go saying all charges are dropped. Sure, they haven’t done anything wrong, but after awhile there is a pattern of official abuse. That’s the same kind of pattern of these “reasonable sounding but inconvenient” laws.
oops. “a good and necessary THING” . . “may or may NOT cover”. . sorry about the typos.
For the most part (but based only on the very scanty info provided), they seem like sensible proposals. There should absolutely be a cut-off point in gestation, after which abortion should not be permitted. Counseling is not a bad thing – any person contemplating any type of surgical procedure should be made aware of alternatives. The additional regulation of clinics may be a good and necessary – in some areas, they are notorious for slipping under the usual medical regulations because they’re such a political hot spot. No one should be forced to provide or participate in an abortion – in the views of some, it’s cold-blooded murder. Given that it’s not possible to prove them right or wrong, those views should be respected. It is not, however, up to the government to determine what any private insurance company may or may cover.
So, all you folks up in arms, how about my right to choose a light bulb?
Nosy parkerism is as nosy parkerism.
They’ve introduced 916 bills against women’s right to choose, yet they haven’t introduced any job bills.
Thanks for the article.
Um, I don’t see any legislation being introduced that would limit any of those things. It all comes down to what Tom said above: who should be making those decisions? That’s what “choice” is.
These numbers are A travesty on womanhood; the instigators ought to be truly ashamed about what it is they are trying to do to the Female gender. I only wish I could knock some sense into their pointy little heads.
Wow, you’ve got to be a troll. No one trying to make a serious claim would say this.
I assume you are a man – a woman would not say something like this.
Not to mention it’s HIS baby too… :/
Well women are adults, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to bear children ! I think if a girl is semenly too premature to conceive and somehow she gets pregnant she should be considered an adult. Its a green principal: ie. grass on the field. However, it is well known that women, go through a lot of psychological changes when they are pregnant. Like, certain documents signed in legal situations where someone not of sound mind, end up not being binding. Therefore, I believe if someone is to make such a strong decision as to kill a child, then there should be a sound minded male to help them make a decision. Like someone in the family, or a guardian of sorts. Women’s, menstrual cycles often coincide, so someone close to the pregnant thing who is female may also be in a unsound psychological state for such decisions. Therefore, it should only be a male who would be apt and capable at such a stressful time. If someone has to use there crackhead lover off the street, or there grandpa; then so be it, if that’s what it takes for them to get through the red tape. I’m not saying I agree with women having to jump through hoops for their rights. All I’m saying is it’s a lot harder for a pregnant woman to jump through a hoop.
They had six years of total Republican control of Congress during which time they never brought the idea up. The thing I hate most about the anti-choicers is how they refuse to understand that they are totally being used as cash cows for the Republicans, who grandstand when it doesn’t matter and deliberately avoid taking any steps to actually do anything about this topic they claim is SO important when they’re in power. The Republicans will NEVER overturn Roe v. Wade because it is WAY too profitable for them as a tool for demonizing women.
visit http://www.facebook.com/OMPOW?sk=wall (One Million Pissed Off Women) on facebook. Women are finally coming together to deal with the GOP’s attack on women.
Who is best equipped to make decisions about a woman’s reproductive health?
1. her husband, lover or rapist
2. her immediate or extended family or friends
3. her clergy
4. the government
5. her
It’s called privacy, nobody likes abortion especially liberals! But somebody’s constitutional and god given rights are going to get trampled on. I am a supporter of life think those rights should be given to the full grown living woman, not her unborn fetus.
If you don’t understand the abortion issue, you have no respect for the living full grown woman and do not understand Constitution of The United States of America.
You’re kidding, right? Why should a woman need a male to approve the decision she is making? He’s not the one pregnant, she is. By your reasoning, I could pull some guy off the street, wouldn’t matter anything about him, if he was young enough to be my son or old and senile, if he was a repeat offender with a long prison record or a junkie in need of a fix. Doesn’t matter anything about him except he is “male.” C’mon, women are adults, citizens, voters, work in a variety of professions — why would she need any other person’s approval for anything, especially based only on gender?
If the women goes with her man, and he says its ok, can she then proceed with the abortion before 24 hours? I think that clause should be written in; like as long as it is ok with some one—It doesn’t necessary have to be her boyfriend, or minister or who ever got her pregnant; just as long as someone male goes along to approve . ?
Seriously, disgusting. Way to watch out for the people for whom you are supposed to be working. Really? We need jobs a lot more than we need people telling us what to do with our bodies.
All this is about is abortion. What about the freedom to choose non-pharmaceutical birth control options? Most doctors these days don’t even know the difference between Natural Family Planning and the Rythym Method (hint one is a whole lot more hands on then the other). What about the freedom to choose to birth with a midwife in a bed at home or the freedom to choose to birth naturally, without that choice being overturned with horror stories about giving birth.What about being treated with respect for choosing not to have premarital sex? What about the freedom to choose to put a baby up for adoption, regardless of marital status? What about the freedom to choose to breastfeed in public, or even past 6 weeks. This is NOT about Freedom of Choice, all is about is Accessible Abortion.