Salon.com > Reproductive choice

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.

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."

Indiana bill would require trans-vaginal ultrasounds for RU 486 Rx

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:38:00 +0000

RU 486 is a non-surgical early abortion medication that comes in the form of a pill and is generally used to end a pregnancy up to 10 weeks from a woman’s last period. So, naturally, a bill, approved by Indiana’s state Senate Health and Provider Services Committee on Wednesday, would require clinics to conduct trans-vaginal ultrasounds on women both before and after dispensing the pill. Senate Bill 371 passed by a vote of 7 to 5, and will next be voted on by the full state Senate. Specifically, the bill would require women to be presented with the sound and image of the fetal heartbeat before the abortion and to return for another ultrasound to ensure that she is no longer pregnant.

The bill makes no medical sense, whatsoever, and is a clear attempt to discourage women from taking RU 486, by adding two unnecessary trips to an abortion clinic and two unnecessary uncomfortable procedures to it. Dr. Anne Davis, the consulting medical director for Physicians for Reproductive Health, explained,

Reproductive freedom also means choosing not to have an abortion

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:57:00 +0000

In Texas this week, a pregnant teenage girl and her lawyers won a victory for reproductive freedom. She's been granted the right to not have an abortion.

The teen, who was 10 weeks pregnant and known in court documents only as R.E.K., recently sued her parents for trying to strong-arm her into having an abortion. According to the suit, the girl's mother threatened to "slip [the teen] an abortion pill," took away her phone and her car, and kept her home from school because she refused to have an abortion. The mother also allegedly told her she was "making the biggest mistake of her life" by going forward with the pregnancy. Her father, meanwhile, allegedly told her he "was going to look into canceling" her health insurance and said she "needs an ass whoopin'." The girl also says he told her "he was going to take her to have an abortion and that the decision was his, end of story." Oh, look, a man saying he's got the right to make choices about a woman's body. How refreshing. And that's when she got the Texas Center for the Defense of Life involved.

So what if abortion ends life?

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:43:00 +0000

Of all the diabolically clever moves the anti-choice lobby has ever pulled, surely one of the greatest has been its consistent co-opting of the word "life." Life! Who wants to argue with that? Who wants be on the side of ... not-life? That's why the language of those who support abortion has for so long been carefully couched in other terms. While opponents of abortion eagerly describe themselves as "pro-life," the rest of us have had to scramble around with not nearly as big-ticket words like "choice" and "reproductive freedom." The "life" conversation is often too thorny to even broach. Yet I know that throughout my own pregnancies, I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying a human life inside of me. I believe that's what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn't make me one iota less solidly pro-choice.

Idaho lawmaker thinks abortion and prostitution are the same thing

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:37:00 +0000

Joining Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock in the annals of WTF? is Rep. Ron Mendive of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

The Republican lawmaker sent shock waves through a legislative breakfast meeting when he asked representatives from the Idaho chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union if their pro-abortion rights stance also meant that they support prostitution. As reported by the Coeur d'Alene Press, Rep. Mendive said:

"I think that there's kind of a double standard ... With abortion there are two beating hearts, and prostitution, there's just one. If a woman were going to make a choice to be a prostitute, that's her decision as to what to do with her body."

ACLU-Idaho executive director Monica Hopkins wasn't pleased with the comparison, to say the least:

"He was correlating a criminal action with something that is constitutionally protected. Those are two completely separate issues. When we're talking about women's rights, and a woman's right to choose, we are talking about reproductive rights that are constitutionally protected. What Rep. Mendive was talking about in the arena of prostitution is something that the state has very clearly said is an illegal activity ... in the same way that someone may choose to rob a bank, but that would be criminal activity that is not constitutionally protected."

Roe v. Who? Young Americans clueless about abortion case

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:24:00 +0000

Roe v. Wade will turn 40 next week, and that's big news.

But as we mark the anniversary of the landmark ruling guaranteeing a woman's constitutional right to safe and legal abortion services, efforts to block women's access in the United States are more common than ever.

That's why recent findings from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life are so surprising. While 62 percent of Americans know that Roe v. Wade dealt with abortion rights, just 44 percent of people under 30 years old can correctly identify the nature of the Supreme Court decision.

What's more, a majority of Americans in the post-Roe generation -- 62 percent, in fact -- also say that they don’t consider abortion to be a critical issue facing the country.

Say what?

According to a policy review released by the Guttmacher Institute, 2012 saw the second-highest number of abortion restrictions ever enacted (2011 came in first). And while Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock became household names, one of the House’s staunchest antiabortion members got second billing on the Republican presidential ticket.

Planned Parenthood goes beyond “pro-choice”

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 23:01:00 +0000

With a new campaign released today, Planned Parenthood has quietly signaled a move away from the "pro-choice" label.

The women's health provider has long been the target of conservative chest-pounding (and budget slashing), and their latest video "Not In Her Shoes" is their first effort to get past the divisive rhetoric:

Most things in life aren’t simple. And that includes abortion.

It’s personal. It can be complicated. And for many people, it’s not a black and white issue.

So why do people try to label it like it is? Pro-choice? Pro-life? The truth is these labels limit the conversation and simply don’t reflect how people actually feel about abortion.

A majority of Americans believe abortion should remain safe and legal. Many just don’t use the words pro-choice. They don’t necessarily identify as pro-life either. Truth is, they just don’t want to be labeled.

What they want is for a woman to have access to safe and legal abortion, if and when she needs it.

Can a court order an abortion?

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 19:18:00 +0000

The idea of a judge making the decision of whether a woman can have abortion is utterly chilling to many of us. But in the fight for reproductive choice, what happens when a pregnant woman can't choose for herself?

That's the wrenching battle playing out right now in Nevada, where Washoe County District Court Judge Egan Walker has asked the state's Supreme Court to proceed with hearings on whether he has the authority to order an abortion for a mentally disabled 32-year-old woman.

Elizabeth E. Bauer's adoptive parents, William and Amy Bauer, became her legal guardians in 1998, when it was determined she couldn't care for herself. Bauer was born with fetal alcohol syndrome and has a variety of other physical maladies. With a reported IQ of 42, she has the mental age of an average 6-year-old child. Bauer was living in a group home when she became pregnant after wandering away from the facility 13 weeks ago. The circumstances of her pregnancy are still unknown, which raises a host of unsettling questions about the state of her prior care.

Is Apple’s Siri anti-choice?

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:45:00 +0000

It happens in plenty of relationships. Everything starts out so wonderfully. You're dazzled by how cool and life-changingly great he or she is. Then you notice a little Jesus fish on the car bumper. Or a Facebook "like" for "traditional marriage." And you start to think, Oh, maybe this person's not quite as progressive as I'd envisioned. Hey girl, have you met Siri?

When Apple introduced the voice-activated Siri last month, it seemed there was nothing she couldn't do. "Your wish is its command," Apple ambitiously promised. Indeed, iPhone 4S users quickly discovered she had "so much to tell you" -- eagerly responding to requests to remind you about appointments, provide directions, even update your Facebook status. Tell Siri, "I kinda feel like Chinese tonight," and she'll say, "Let me think about it," then suggest five restaurants. How many of us have ever had any human get our desires on that intuitive a level? But like your rad friend who one day says, "That Rick Santorum has some good ideas," Siri, it turns out, is a vexingly complicated creature. She may cheerfully abet you in hiding a dead body, but as the Abortioneers points out this week, she is totally not having it if you need help getting an abortion or emergency contraception.