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Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback signs sweeping anti-choice bill into law

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:19:00 +0000

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a sweeping antiabortion omnibus bill into law, reaffirming the state's current ban on abortion at 20 weeks (without exceptions for rape or serious fetal anomalies), blocking tax breaks for abortion providers, expanding "conscience protections" for anti-choice groups and writing into state law that life begins "at fertilization."

It is, in effect, an antiabortion greatest-hits law.

At the bill's signing ceremony, the arch-conservative governor applauded the Legislature for passing the measure with sweeping margins and announced: "All human life is sacred. It's beautiful. With this, we continue to build this culture of life in our state."

Sadly, states like Arkansas and North Dakota have moved the bar for judging antiabortion legislation so far to the right that Kansas' 20-week ban seems "modest" when compared to North Dakota's six-weeks and Arkansas' 12 weeks. But make no mistake: The Kansas law is equally dangerous for women, and still violates the accepted definition of fetal viability as defined by Roe v. Wade.

Wichita throws down gauntlet to anti-abortionists

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:49:00 +0000

In mid-February, on the first day of lent, Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, held a small, quiet service, with a female and male pastoral team preaching about a gentle God who is slow to anger and quick to forgive.

The church, a multicolored brick building with stained glass windows that look like rolling waves, is flanked on one side by a domed Greek Orthodox church, and on the other by a field stretching out to a subdivision. Just inside its doors in 2009, 67-year-old Dr. George Tiller, one of the few late-term abortion providers in the United States and an usher at his longtime church, was shot and killed by a man named Scott Roeder.

To abortion rights advocates, the murder was the tragic culmination of a decades-long campaign by abortion opponents who had stalked Dr. Tiller; barraged him with nuisance lawsuits; blockaded and bombed his clinic; shot him in both arms in a previous, failed assassination attempt; and helped inspire Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly to begin a nightly television harangue against the doctor he condemned as “Tiller the Killer.”

Jan Brewer blocks anti-Planned Parenthood provision of Medicaid bill

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:22:00 +0000

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer blocked efforts by anti-choice activists to include an antiabortion provision in her proposal to expand the state's Medicaid program.

In a comment to critics, Brewer explained that she already signed legislation to prevent funds from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System from being used to support Planned Parenthood-affiliated services, a move that was reversed in federal court for violating Medicaid law.

"We went down that route last year," she said in remarks about the decision. "We lost."

"It's probably time that we just move on," she added.

But her decision may lose her support among state Republicans hellbent on more abortion show pony legislative antics, similar to the measure the Arkansas state Senate passed on Wednesday.

Johns Hopkins grants antiabortion group official status as campus organization

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:06:00 +0000

After previously being denied by the Student Government Association's Senate, an antiabortion group at Johns Hopkins University has been granted official status as a campus organization and will continue to conduct "sidewalk interference" sessions outside clinics, now with possible university funding.

Johns Hopkins announced on Wednesday that the Student Government Association's Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to overturn the earlier decision and grant the group official privileges, such as listings in all university publications and websites and on-campus fundraising opportunities.

The committee's decision coincided with a visit to Johns Hopkins from former Sen. Rick Santorum, who told students: "The vast majority of people who are pro-life are pro-life because they know something scientifically."

Santorum's faith in science only went so far, as he went on to remark that many scientific journals have been "discredited" on climate change: “The bottom line is in the last 15 years the earth is not warm,” Santorum said. “The warmest year was 1998. We have not seen any warming since then. This was somehow lost on the people in this room.”

North Dakota may not spend a dime defending unconstitutional abortion ban

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:34:00 +0000

When Republican State Rep. Bette Grande responded to critics over the financial burden of defending North Dakota's unconstitutional ban on abortion at six weeks or earlier, the "fiscal conservative" explained that she “didn’t look at [the measure] from the financial side of things” but from the “life side of things.” Grande went on to say that “fears about a legal challenge” shouldn’t prevent other states from pushing forward with similar unconstitutional laws.

Unfortunately, she may be right.

According to a report from MSNBC, a non-profit conservative litigation group has offered to defend the state ban completely free of charge. Liberty Counsel chairman Mat Stavers extended his organization's pro-bono support through a public statement this week:

Cost should not be a part of Gov. Jack Dalrymple’s decision to sign or veto bills... Liberty Counsel will defend these laws pro bono. No rights are more fundamental than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant.

North Dakota sends three extreme antiabortion measures to governor’s desk

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:25:00 +0000

The North Dakota Legislature has made a sport out of denying women their reproductive rights. And they have gotten very, very good at it.

Three of the four extreme abortion bills state lawmakers passed in recent weeks are expected to reach Gov. Jack Dalrymple on Monday. Dalrymple has not indicated whether or not he intends to sign the measures, but the state House and Senate may have the votes necessary to override any veto he issues.

Once the bills arrive on his desk, the governor has three days to sign or veto them. If he fails to act, they will automatically become law.

The first of the three measures Dalrymple will consider is House Bill 1456, the "fetal heartbeat ban." The measure would make all abortions illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detected which, if a trans-vaginal probe is used, can be as early as five or six weeks after fertilization. If signed into law, doctors could face up to five years in prison if they perform an abortion after the cut-off date. After passing the state Legislature earlier in March, the measure beat out Arkansas' 12-week abortion ban to become the most extreme in the nation.

Arkansas bans abortion after 12 weeks

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 16:47:00 +0000

Less than a week after successfully banning abortion at 20 weeks, the Arkansas legislature voted to override Governor Mike Beebe's veto on a measure banning abortion at 12 weeks.

Under the Arkansas Human Heartbeat Protection Act, doctors will lose their medical license if they perform an abortion on a woman who is more than 12 weeks pregnant. While the ban has nominal exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, it remains the most extreme abortion law currently on the books.

Beebe vetoed the bill on Monday, arguing that it is "blatantly unconstitutional" and violates the fetal viability precedent set out by Roe v. Wade.

"In short, because it would impose a ban on a woman's right to choose an elective, nontherapeutic abortion well before viability, Senate Bill 134 blatantly contradicts the United States Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court," Beebe said in his statement. The governor added that such a ban would prove "very costly to the taxpayers of our state," given that "lawsuits challenging unconstitutional laws also result in the losing party -- in this case, the state -- being ordered to pay the costs and attorneys' fees incurred by the litigants who successfully challenge the law. Those costs and fees can be significant."

Antiabortion activists block sexual health funding for at-risk teens

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:16:00 +0000

Last year, a pair of researchers at North Dakota State University won a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families to start a sexual health program aimed at preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in at-risk teens.

But as Kate Sheppard at Mother Jones reports, the school had contracted Planned Parenthood to provide the services, and antiabortion activists in the state started complaining about NDSU doing business with the nationwide women's health -- and in states other than North Dakota, abortion services -- provider.

"When I see something that says this is Planned Parenthood — they’re not even a part of the state of North Dakota. They don't serve anyone in North Dakota, and they shouldn't be a part of North Dakota. They're not a part of how we do business in this state," said Rep. Bette Grande on a local radio show denouncing Planned Parenthood and NDSU. "It is an overt abortion industry that we don't want to be a part of," she added.

Arizona launches misleading abortion website

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 18:20:00 +0000

In a Sunday appearance on Fox News, Sen. John McCain (R. AZ) signaled that Republicans might be ready to reconsider their extreme position on abortion rights. "As far as young women are concerned, absolutely. I don't think people like me -- I can state my opinion on abortion. But other than that, leave the issue alone," he said. It's sound advice, and makes for good policy.

Too bad his home state didn't get the memo.

Less than 24 hours later, the Arizona Department of Health Services launched "A Woman's Right to Know," an informational website that uses manipulated ultrasound images and scary (read: medically inaccurate) claims about the risks associated with abortion to keep women from having the safe, legal medical procedure. State Rep. Kimberly Yee (R. AZ) and other Arizona lawmakers have not been shy about the intent of the website, either. As Yee told the Arizona Daily Sun, "the medical drawings, which are in full color and much more detailed than any ultrasound, may give some prospective parents additional reasons to reconsider their initial decision to terminate the pregnancy."