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Article: The State War on Planned Parenthood Heats Up

Taken from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/14/defund-planned-parenthood-birth-control_n_899334.html

When 21-year old Christina Martel would renew her birth control prescription at Planned Parenthood, it was usually a relatively simple affair. But this summer, getting her prescription became significantly more difficult.

Martel, who is uninsured and makes less than $1000 a month at her part-time job, said she can't afford to go to a regular gynecologist to get her prescription adjusted, so she asked her new Indianapolis Planned Parenthood clinic about their sliding-pay scale for low-income patients this past June.

The clinic told Martel she would have to pay full price to meet with a physician because they had just been defunded by the state government, so she decided to wait until she returned to her home-state New Hampshire last week to have a doctor's appointment. Not only had Planned Parenthood been defunded there as well, she found out, but their license to dispense birth control and antibiotics had also been taken away.

"I was shocked to learn that they were no longer able to dispense medication on-site, and enraged when I realized this meant that I would have to pay triple the cost to get it filled at a pharmacy," she told HuffPost in an email.

Martel had paid $12 for a month's worth of birth control pills at Planned Parenthood. She now has to pay $33 a month at the regular pharmacy, which she said really starts to add up.

"I'm just an average broke college student with loans coming out my ears, and I don't want to shell out $33 every month for a prescription that I take first and foremost as a relief to the discomfort I experience on a monthly basis due to painful menstrual symptoms, and secondarily as a means of not getting pregnant," she said.

GOP lawmakers in four states so far -- Indiana, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Kansas -- have defunded Planned Parenthood in their 2011 legislative sessions because some of the organization's clinics provide abortions. A council of five men in New Hampshire voted to stop the flow of Title X family planning funds to Planned Parenthood and cancel a state contract that allowed it to dispense low-cost birth control and antibiotics on site. Texas passed a bill that puts Planned Parenthood at the bottom of the priority list for state funds, and an Ohio lawmaker floated a "Dear Colleague" letter on Wednesday announcing his intention to defund the health provider.

Article: Mothers We Could Save

Taken from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/opinion/08kristof.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


Here’s a Mother’s Day thought: There’s a way to save many of the world’s 350,000 women who die in childbirth each year. But it’s very controversial, for it’s called family planning.

Republicans in Congress have gone on the warpath this budget season against family planning programs at home and abroad. To illustrate the stakes, let me share a Mother’s Day story about a pregnant 30-year-old Somali woman named Hinda Hassan.

Article - What the Battle Against Reproductive Rights is Really About

Taken from: http://skepchick.org/2011/03/what-the-battle-against-reproductive-rights-is-really-about/


Across the United States, the news from the reproductive rights front hasn’t been that great lately. Between trying to criminalize miscarriage in Georgia to whatever the hell is going on now in South Dakota (I’ve lost track at this point), the legal right of a woman to have a child when she judges is best to is under more simultaneous attacks than it has been in quite some time.

To me, this is glaringly apparent right now in my home state of Ohio. At the beginning of 2011, we learned the newly-elected state legislative body proposed five different bills that limit abortion rights in the first eight days of the session. Five bills. In eight days. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty relieved we’ve cleared out of the way every other political issue Ohio currently faces so that we can devote most of our time and energy to introducing bills that infringe on the rights already guaranteed at the federal level to all U.S. women by Roe v. Wade and have a slim chance of making it to law.

Article - GOP Floats New Version of "No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion" Bill

Assuming I'm correct in remembering where she lives, this one is for Alicia.

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Taken from: http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/02/gop-floats-new-version-no-taxpayer-funding-abortion-bill


House Republicans have dropped some controversial provisions from a bill that would permanently bar federal funding for abortions, but still plan to extend the reach of existing bans to cover tax credits and some deductions, according to a GOP memo [PDF] obtained by Mother Jones on Monday.

The "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), is designed to ensure that tax dollars do not "pay for, subsidize, encourage, or facilitate abortions," say the sponsors. But abortion rights groups have argued that the law, also known as H.R. 3, would effectively eliminate private insurance coverage for abortions by creating a strong disincentive for employers and individuals to select plans that cover those services. In turn, they argue, many insurers would likely stop offering abortion services in order to avoid losing customers.

Article - GA Law Could Give Death Penalty for Miscarriages

Taken from: http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/02/miscarriage-death-penalty-georgia


It's only February, but this year has been a tough one for women's health and reproductive rights. There's a new bill on the block that may have reached the apex (I hope) of woman-hating craziness. Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin—who last year proposed making rape and domestic violence "victims" into "accusers"—has introduced a 10-page bill that would criminalize miscarriages and make abortion in Georgia completely illegal. Both miscarriages and abortions would be potentially punishable by death: any "prenatal murder" in the words of the bill, including "human involvement" in a miscarriage, would be a felony and carry a penalty of life in prison or death. Basically, it's everything an "pro-life" activist could want aside from making all women who've had abortions wear big red "A"s on their chests.

Article - Who's Behind the Bills That Could Legalize Killing Abortion Providers?

Taken from: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/americans-united-life-justifiable-homicide-bills


First, it was South Dakota. Then Nebraska and Iowa. The similarly worded bills, which have quietly cropped up recently in state legislatures, share a common purpose: To expand justifiable homicide statutes to cover killings committed in the defense of an unborn child. Critics of the bills, including law enforcement officials, warn that these measures could invite violence against abortion providers and possibly provide legal cover to the perpetrators of such crimes.

That these measures have emerged simultaneously in a handful of states is no coincidence. It's part of a campaign orchestrated by a Washington-based anti-abortion group, which has lobbied state lawmakers to introduce legislation that it calls the "Pregnant Woman's Protection Act" [PDF]. Over the past two years, the group, Americans United for Life, has succeeded in passing versions of this bill in Missouri and Oklahoma. But there's a big difference between those bills and the measures floated recently in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa.

Article - Iowa Bill Opens Door For Deadly Use of Force to Protect the Unborn

I'm losing my ability to be surprised anymore. This is so sick and messed up. :(

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Taken from: http://iowaindependent.com/52869/iowa-bills-open-door-for-use-of-deadly-force-to-protect-the-unborn


Two bills sponsored by Iowa House Republicans could have significant public safety consequences, and perhaps the most unnerving of those potential outcomes would be the justifiable use of deadly force against abortion or family planning providers.

When the two pieces of legislation are combined they create a situation where a fertilized egg would be considered a person, and allow for the public execution of those who would threaten such a person.

Article - Nebraska Revives "Justifiable Homicide" Abortion Bill

*sigh*

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Taken from: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/nebraska-justifiable-homicide-abortion-bill


Just when abortion rights supporters thought they had beaten a controversial bill they believe would legalize the killing of abortion providers, it has cropped up again—this time in a more expansive form that has drawn the concern of law enforcement officials.

Last week, South Dakota's legislature shelved a bill, introduced by Republican state Rep. Phil Jensen, which would have allowed the use of the "justifiable homicide" defense for killings intended to prevent harm to a fetus. Now a nearly identical bill is being considered in neighboring Nebraska, where on Wednesday the state legislature held a hearing on the measure.

Article - House Blocks Fed. Aid for Planned Parenthood

*headdesk* WTF? Because Planned Parenthood provides abortions, that justifies cutting their aid? Nevermind all of the other helpful and necessary services that PP provides... >:[
I will be watching this issue for sure in the days to come.

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Taken from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41669274/ns/politics-capitol_hill/?ocid=twitter


WASHINGTON — The House has approved a Republican proposal to block federal aid for Planned Parenthood.

The 240-185 vote on Friday is a victory for anti-abortion forces led by Indiana GOP Rep. Mike Pence. He says taxpayer money should not go to groups that provide or promote abortion.

"This afternoon's vote is a victory for taxpayers and a victory for life," Pence said Friday. "By banning funding to Planned Parenthood, Congress has taken a stand for millions of Americans who believe their tax dollars should not be used to subsidize the largest abortion provider in America."

Article - South Dakota Shelves Bill Aimed at Defending Unborn

Here's an update on an article I posted a couple of days ago.

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Taken from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/us/17dakota.html?_r=4&adxnnl=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1297958503-w3B/PKX72O7gv1phxJsKHA


A state bill to expand the definition of justifiable homicide in South Dakota to include killing someone in the defense of an unborn child was postponed indefinitely Wednesday after an uproar over whether the legislation would put abortion providers at greater risk.

The House speaker, Val Rausch, said that the legislation had been shelved, pending a decision on whether to allow a vote, amend the language or drop it entirely. A spokesman for Gov. Dennis Daugaard said, “Clearly the bill as it’s currently written is a very bad idea.”

Article - South Dakota Moves to Legalize Killing Abortion Providers

Wow... WTF is wrong with parts of the US? :/

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Taken from: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/south-dakota-hb-1171-legalize-killing-abortion-providers


A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of "justifiable homicide" to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions. The Republican-backed legislation, House Bill 1171, has passed out of committee on a nine-to-three party-line vote, and is expected to face a floor vote in the state's GOP-dominated House of Representatives soon.

Article - Officials Consider Requiring Insurers to Offer Free Contraceptives [US]

This is wonderful news! Hopefully this will pass, and reproductive rights for women in the US can take a step forward.

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Taken from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/health/policy/03health.html?_r=1


WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is examining whether the new health care law can be used to require insurance plans to offer contraceptives and other family planning services to women free of charge.

Article - New GOP Bill Would Allow Hospitals to Let Pregnant Women Die Instead of Having an Abortion

Taken from: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/02/new-gop-law-would-allow-hospitals-to-let-women-die-instead-of-having-an-abortion.php?ref=fpb


The controversy over "forcible rape" may be over, but now there's a new Republican-sponsored abortion bill in the House that pro-choice folks say may be worse: this time around, the new language would allow hospitals to let a pregnant woman die rather than perform the abortion that would save her life.

Article - GA State Rep Says There's No Such Thing as Rape Victims

Taken from: http://www.dlcc.org/GA_Rep_Says_No_Such_Thing_as_Rape_Victims


U.S. House Republicans have received a great deal of attention over the past week since seeking to qualify the crime of rape with the term “forcible” in a high-profile piece of legislation. Such a distinction could create classes of rape victims, with “forcible rape” victims somehow being ordained as worse off than victims of statutory rape, date rape, rape by coercion or deception, rape of the disabled or mentally impaired… You get the picture.

Article - The House GOP's Plan to Redefine Rape

All I can say is that I'm so glad I'm not American. Bunch of sick BS is what this is.


Taken from: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion