Salon.com > Abortion clinics

Gosnell: Still a local crime story

Mon, 13 May 2013 21:35:00 +0000

In the end, the case of Kermit Gosnell, convicted today of first-degree murder of three babies and numerous other charges, is a local crime story.

That, of course, was the phrase famously used by Washington Post reporter Sarah Kliff to respond to questions about why she hadn't covered the case. She was widely pilloried by the right for it, and she later said, "I was clearly wrong." But she wasn't.

There are, of course, national implications to the case because policy shapes so many aspects of our lives, including how we access healthcare and under what terms. And Gosnell's dangerous clinic was inexcusably allowed to continue operating despite numerous complaints to state authorities. But if you're horrified by what Gosnell did -- along with the major pro-choice organizations, according to their statements today -- you should be satisfied that the criminal justice system did its job. He broke the law, and he is being punished. (Quite possibly with the death penalty, which one self-identified pro-life scholar, at least, opposes for Gosnell out of a sense of consistency.) In the meantime, there is no reason to think the case has changed much about the world outside Gosnell's.

The real Gosnell conspiracy

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 11:45:00 +0000

I want to revise some of my earlier statements. There is, in fact, a conspiracy around the case of Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell. But it's being engineered not by a mainstream media cowed by the left out of covering his trial, but by the antiabortion movement. And while Gosnell's trial deserves fair, accurate and contextualized coverage, some journalists seem happy to stop at playing into the right's hands by buying their phony media narrative.

No one who supports the provision of safe abortion care to women excuses any of what Gosnell is accused of, from willfully gruesome conditions to sadistic treatment to infanticide. He is not typical, and there was, and has been, swift renunciation of his facility. But the case provides the ideal opportunity for the right-to-life movement to conflate his abusive clinic with all abortion as it's widely practiced in the U.S., and to focus on graphic later abortions, conveniently redirecting attention from their desire to ban all abortions for everyone. That desire, by the way, is being enacted into law explicitly in states like Arkansas and North Dakota, and implicitly with laws designed to close abortion clinics in states like Mississippi and Virginia.

Our impotent Supreme Court

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:48:00 +0000

This week’s arguments before the Supreme Court on the legality of anti-same sex marriage laws illustrate two inter-related truths.

First, contrary to the widespread belief that the Court plays a key role in fighting what has been called the culture wars, the cases now before the court are excellent examples of how, in regard to culture war issues, the Court almost invariably reflects, rather than creates, social change.

This claim is heresy to the ears of aging law professors, who grew up in a world in which it was taken for granted, for example, that (relatively) liberal federal courts in general, and the Supreme Court in particular, played a major part in advancing various civil rights agendas from shortly after World War II until the Reagan revolution.

But that belief has been largely discredited. As political scientist Gerald Rosenberg demonstrated more than 20 years ago now, even the most famous and controversial Supreme Court decisions, such as Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade, have had only limited impact on the American political process. For example, on the one hand, legal segregation was as a practical matter ended in the United States by legislation, not court decisions. On the other, in many parts of the country, schools today are as segregated as they were prior to the Brown decision.

Alabama GOPer: A baby is “the largest organ in the body”

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:03:00 +0000

In defending her bill to crack down on abortion clinics, Alabama state Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin argued that abortions should be more strictly regulated because “When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body.”

McClurkin, a Republican, added: "That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.”

From the Montgomery Advertiser:

The legislation, sponsored by [McClurkin], would require physicians at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at local hospitals; require clinics to follow ambulatory clinic building codes and make it a felony — punishable by up to 10 years in prison — for a nurse, nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant to dispense abortion-inducing medications.

“This alarming level of noncompliance among abortion and reproductive health centers in Alabama puts abortion patients at unreasonable risk,” the bill says.

Michigan, Virginia pass backdoor abortion restrictions

Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:44:00 +0000

On the Friday before the long holiday weekend, the Republican governors of Michigan and Virginia snuck in a little New Year's surprise for the women of their states, quietly signing abortion legislation that helped make 2012 the second most restrictive year for reproductive rights.

In Michigan, Rick Snyder signed a bill passed by the lame-duck Senate -- the same one whose anti-union legislating dominated headlines in recent weeks -- requiring clinics that perform more than 120 abortions a year to become surgical outpatient facilities, a level of licensing intended to be onerous and put clinics out of business. He also approved a bill that purports to screen for women being coerced into abortions.

Snyder did veto another bill limiting insurance coverage in private employee plans, which would have required purchase of a separate abortion rider. He objected to that on the grounds that rape victims would have to pay out of pocket if they didn't buy the rider, and because, "As a practical matter, I believe this type of policy is an overreach of government into the private market." Overreach of government into other realms, of course, is another matter entirely. (According to Michigan resident Emily Magner, one legislator interrupted her to cry, "THIS ISN’T ABOUT WOMEN! THIS IS ABOUT PROTECTING FETUSES!”)

Akin tied to “domestic terrorist”

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:20:00 +0000

New documents show Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin donated to the political campaign of a violent antiabortion activist named Tim Dreste, whose ties to Akin we reported on earlier this week.

Dreste, as the Riverfront Times described him, was a “domestic terrorist, religious fanatic, [and] paramilitary right-wing nut." In 1999, Dreste was convicted in federal court of making “true threats to kill, assault or do bodily harm” to abortion doctors. Before that, as we reported, Akin popped up in several groups led by Dreste, who was one of St. Louis' most prominent pro-life activists until his conviction. Dreste was also chaplain in the militia that Akin praised in a letter just a few months before the Oklahoma City bombing.

Now, as it turns out, Akin was one of only a handful of contributors to Dreste’s 1993 run for the Missouri state House. Then-state Rep. Todd Akin’s campaign gave Dreste $200, according to campaign finance records, making him Dreste’s third largest contributor, tied with a pro-life PAC. The records were obtained by Progress Missouri from the secretary of state’s archives and provided to Salon.

Akin arrested three times

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:20:00 +0000

Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin was arrested at least three times in the 1980s while protesting abortion clinics, according to a forthcoming St. Louis Post-Dispatch story that the Akin campaign leaked this afternoon.

Akin has already acknowledged being arrested once, but according to the draft report the campaign leaked, the congressman was arrested on three previous occasions, all in 1985 for criminal trespassing and resisting arrest at abortion clinics in St. Louis and Illinois. In one instance, Akin “had to be carried by police to an elevator because he refused to walk.” The paper found the arrests by searching through its archives (it had previously missed them because Akin changed his first name).

The Akin campaign leaked the story when spokesperson Rick Tyler (of Newt Gingrich fame) posted on the campaign website an email exchange with Post-Dispatch reporter Kevin McDermott, who included a draft of the story in an email seeking comment.

Todd Akin’s militia ties exposed

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:10:00 +0000

On May 9, 1987, police arrested 30 anti-abortion protesters for blocking the front door of an abortion clinic in St. Louis, Missouri. Among those arrested, according to new information uncovered by the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, was Rep. Todd Akin, the Missouri Republican Senate candidate best known for saying women can’t get pregnant from “legitimate rape." The arrest ties Akin to one of the most radical anti-abortion activists of the 1990s -- a man later convicted in federal court of threatening abortion doctors -- and, through him, to a right-wing militia group he's long denied having anything to do with.

In August, BuzzFeed uncovered a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article from 2000 reporting that Akin had been invited to speak at a rally of the 1st Missouri Volunteers militia in 1995. He apparently didn't attend the rally, instead sending a laudatory letter to be read to the gathering. According to the paper, a video of the rally “shows a man in camouflage fatigues reading Akin's letter to a crowd of 300.” The letter read, in part: "The local militia can bring a positive influence to our community…. Your patriotism and concern for our state and nation is to be commended.”

Va. health commissioner resigns over abortion clinic regulations

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:47:00 +0000

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Health Commissioner Karen Remley has resigned over the state’s controversial new abortion clinic regulations.

Remley submitted her resignation to Gov. Bob McDonnell Thursday. Her resignation is effective immediately.

Remley said in the letter that issues surrounding the development and enforcement of the clinic regulations have created an environment that compromises her ability to fulfill her duties. She did not elaborate.The state Board of Health last month adopted regulations that require existing abortion clinics in Virginia to meet the same construction standards as new hospitals. Abortion-rights advocates argued the strict standards could force most clinics out of business.