New Alabama Bill Seeks Both to Fool and Misinform Women Seeking Safe Abortion Care →

stoneagechronicles:

 If HB 350 becomes law, women seeking safe abortion care will receive a list of sites where they can obtain free ultrasounds, all of which are crisis pregnancy centers that do not provide the  forced ultrasounds required by the state, but do intend to talk women out of their decisions. Women would also receive information on a state website of resources allegedly available for a woman who continues her pregnancy to term. She would also have to be provided with the business card of the physician who will be doing the abortion, and printed materials telling her abortion increases her risk of breast cancer (it does not), and that “Abortion terminates the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.”

Whoa.

Appalling. I can’t believe state legislators have nothing better to do with their time than finding new ways to screw over their constituents.

(Source: rhrealitycheck.org)

Michigan trying that transvaginal ultrasound shit again →

stfuconservatives:

The legislation introduced Tuesday in the state House ensures the “performance of a diagnostic ultrasound examination of the fetus at least two hours before an abortion is performed” and requires her to sign a consent form prior to the abortion. The bill was introduced by state Rep. Joel Johnson (R) and cosponsored by 22 fellow lawmakers.

So not only do you have to get an unnecessary and invasive medical procedure; you also have to wait two hours between getting your hoo-ha wanded and having the legal medical procedure you wanted. Thanks, Michigan.

liberal-life-and-randomness:

bebinn:

monotonousmoron:

This year, Virginia became the 8th state requiring a woman to get an ultrasound before having an abortion. #ProLife (Taken with Instagram)

Typical of anti-choicers not to understand or care about consent.

Typical of anti-choicers not to understand or care about the increased cost to patients and clinics, forcing clinics to cut down on non-abortion services.

Typical of anti-choicers not to understand or care about how waiting periods negatively affect people’s jobs and child care, or put people in danger from abusive partners.

Typical of anti-choicers not to understand or care about adding to the “trauma” of abortion they love to crow about.

Typical of condescending, paternalistic anti-choicers not to trust us to make our own decisions on our own time.

Oh yeah, I’m definitely feeling that pro-life love.

Aren’t the ultrasounds transvaginal? As in, the patient is getting penetrated by a device that they may or may not want inside of them? As in, things like consentual sex and abortion are not invasive because they’re what the person WANTED, as opposed to something that is being forced on them?

Virginia’s aren’t transvaginal (they tried and failed), but Texas has required transvaginal ultrasounds for almost a year, and North Carolina’s law is on hold by a judge. Oklahoma’s was thankfully struck down by a judge in March.

Transvaginal ultrasound requirements were a political fad that sputtered out in the spring. However, Paul Ryan, the GOP’s vice president pick, has a 100% anti-choice voting record, including forced ultrasounds. I bet he’d love to mandate forced transvaginal ultrasounds across the country if he couldn’t get his way banning all abortions outright.

(via masenko-your-face)

monotonousmoron:

This year, Virginia became the 8th state requiring a woman to get an ultrasound before having an abortion. #ProLife (Taken with Instagram)

Typical of anti-choicers not to understand or care about consent.

Typical of anti-choicers not to understand or care about the increased cost to patients and clinics, forcing clinics to cut down on non-abortion services.

Typical of anti-choicers not to understand or care about how waiting periods negatively affect people’s jobs and child care, or put people in danger from abusive partners.

Typical of anti-choicers not to understand or care about adding to the “trauma” of abortion they love to crow about.

Typical of condescending, paternalistic anti-choicers not to trust us to make our own decisions on our own time.

Oh yeah, I’m definitely feeling that pro-life love.

(via life-gift-love-eternal)

So this happened this morning: Judge Gives State OK to Exclude Planned Parenthood →

keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:

Yesterday, a federal judge in Austin said that Texas’ law to deny Planned Parenthood’s involvement in the state’s Women’s Health Program was unconstitutional. He put an injunction on the law meaning that TX could not deny PP until there was an appeal and trial on his ruling.

The state’s Attorney General immediately put in a request for a stay on that injunction.

The stay went through this morning. The injunction has been voided. The state can continue to exclude PP from the WHP.

The judge who granted the stay is a 5th circuit court judge, Jerry Smith. He is this guy: Federal Judge Demands Obama Explain ‘Obamacare’ Statements. Also, it was the 5th circuit that said TX’s forced ultrasound law was totes constitutional and should be in effect until an appeal is heard by SCOTUS.

So…this is why expectations in TX must be low.

(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus, via ok4rj)

walk4choicesea:

Total anti-choice measures enacted in 2011:

• 26 states enacted 69 anti-choice measures in 2011.
• Arizona, Florida, and Kansas enacted the most antichoice legislation in 2011, with five measures each.
• Since 1995, states have enacted 713 anti-choice measures.

Anti-choice measures enacted in 2011 included:

• Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, and Oklahoma enacted pre-viability bans on abortion care after 20 weeks. None of these laws includes an adequate exception to protect women’s health or for cases in which the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest. These laws are clearly designed as a challenge to Roe v. Wade.
• Eight states - Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia - passed abortion-coverage bans. Some of these measures ban coverage of abortion in the state’s health-insurance exchange; others prohibit abortion coverage in the state’s entire private insurance market.
• Seven states enacted laws restricting state funds from going to Planned Parenthood or to any health center that provides abortion care: Indiana, Kansas, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. These attacks took several forms, ranging from a New Hampshire executive-council decision to refuse to honor an existing contract with Planned Parenthood to budget bills that barred Planned Parenthood from receiving any state funds.
• Kansas and Virginia imposed onerous regulations on abortion providers that are intended to shut down all clinics that offer abortion care. In Kansas, providers were given only two weeks to comply with numerous new construction and facilities requirements that are wholly unrelated to patient safety. In Virginia, the state now will regulate first-trimester abortion clinics as a type of hospital. This regulatory scheme includes extensive requirements that are impossible to meet without extensive renovations or new construction.
• Arizona passed a law that removes the charitable tax status of any organization that provides, refers for, or provides coverage of abortion. The measure is so broad that it could sweep in any hospital or non-profit health center that refers for abortion as a standard of care or a non-profit organization that provides its employees with a comprehensive health plan that includes abortion coverage.
• Arizona became the first state in the nation to enact a measure that imposes criminal penalties on doctors who provide abortion care with the knowledge that race or sex is a factor in the woman’s decision.
• South Dakota passed a first-of-its-kind biased-counseling mandate. Of the law’s many onerous provisions, it requires a woman seeking abortion care to submit to an in-person lecture at a so-called crisis pregnancy center, many of which are biased, anti-choice, anticontraception facilities. The law also includes a precedent-setting 72-hour mandatory delay before care. This law has been temporarily enjoined pending the conclusion of ongoing litigation.

Source: http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/government-and-you/state-governments/key-findings-threats-to-choice.html

These new laws restrict the rights of all people who can get pregnant, not just cis women.

Update on Forced Ultrasound Laws

rhrealitycheck:

Virginia is now the 8th state with forced ultrasounds before abortion. When it passed its law, it joined Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. 

Texas has the harshest forced ultrasound law currently in effect. As Andrea Grimes reported,

“Texas has the most extreme law that’s being enforced right now,” says the Center For Reproductive Rights’ Julie Rikelman, the lead attorney on the CRR’s lawsuit filed against the Texas legislation. Despite the sympathetic leanings of a federal district judge who initially ruled on the case, the suit has more or less been stalled by a vehemently anti-choice Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which denied the CRR’s requested injunction against enforcement last month.  Now, that means that all aspects of the law—mandated ultrasounds, 24-hour waiting periods, and forced speech—are now in full force in Texas.

Oklahoma’s forced ultrasound bill, which was similar to TX’s, was struck down by a federal court recently.

North Carolina, which also has passed a harsh TX-style forced ultrasound bill, is unable to enforce their law pending a court decision.

Pennsylvania’s forced ultrasound bill is officially kaput, at least for this year.

And, as Robin Marty reports, Iowa:

What is the difference between a traffic light camera and a mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasound?  One is a violation of privacy, according to Iowa legislators.

Can you guess which?

The Iowa legislature is considering banning traffic cameras due to “privacy concerns.”  And those who are arguing for the ban are the same who think all women should be forced to undergo forced ultrasounds prior to an abortion.

These laws will affect all those with the ability to become pregnant.

(via stfuconservatives)

Arizona Bill Bans Abortion After 18 Weeks, Forces Women To Undergo Transvaginal Ultrasounds →

stfuconservatives:

“HB 2036 not only does both of the above mentioned, it also requires women to wait 24 hours before having an abortion, declares pregnancy to begin “from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman,” and declares that fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks or earlier. The bill also criminalizes doctors for performing abortions after 18 weeks and mandates them to “offer to show a pregnant woman the ultrasound, describe it to her verbally and provide her with a photo of “the unborn child.””

Oh, Arizona. Stop that. Why not just pass a law declaring all non-pregnant uterus owners property of the state until they agree to procreate with a white male? -Jess

(Source: stfuconservatives)

It’s Day 184 of Texas having IN PRACTICE FORCED TRANSVAGINAL ULTRASOUNDS.

keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:

I was under mistaken impression that the injunction against the ultrasound law stopped the transvaginal part until 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said law had to go into effect in February (even that was wrong - the entire bill was enforceable in January with guidelines for bill given in February).

Nope. I contacted the Center for Reproductive Rights who informed me that ALL forced ultrasounds in Texas, including transvaginal ones, were enforceable under TX law starting on October 1, 2011. 

We’ve had 184 days of them here. ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY FOUR DAYS.

When Virginia’s governor announced that TVU’s were too extreme for VA to even consider as part of legislation, we were already on day 144 of them IN PRACTICE here in Texas.

I wrote about Texas’ forced ultrasounds for Global Comment that explains this all in more detail.

(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)

COURT PERMANENTLY BLOCKS OKLAHOMA’S DEMEANING AND INTRUSIVE ANTI-ABORTION ULTRASOUND LAW →

prolongedeyecontact:

03.28.12 - (PRESS RELEASE) A demeaning Oklahoma law that would have inserted government between women and their doctors, forced medical procedures on women whether they need them or not, and compelled doctors to recite speech imposed on them by anti-choice lawmakers was permanently blocked from enforcement today by the district court judge overseeing a legal challenge brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
 
The law, which was passed into law April 2010 after the Oklahoma Legislature overrode then-Governor Brad Henry’s veto, would have forced a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound, have the image placed in front of her, and hear it described in detail—even if she objects. The statute has been blocked since May 2010 by a temporary injunction secured by the Center.
 
“The court has resoundingly affirmed what should not be a matter of controversy at all—that women have both a fundamental right to make their own choices about their reproductive health, and that government has no place in their decisions,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Today’s decision adds to the growing momentum of a nationwide backlash against the overreaching of lawmakers hostile to women, their doctors, and their rights.”
 
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed Nova Health Systems v. Pruitt with the District Court of Oklahoma County in April 2010 on behalf of Nova Health Systems and Dr. Larry Burns, two of the three abortion providers in the state.  The Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice also joined the case as a plaintiff.
 
The lawsuit argued the statute violated the principles of medical ethics by requiring physicians to provide unnecessary and unwanted services to patients, while patronizingly discounting a woman’s ability to make decisions about her pregnancy. A district court judge granted a temporary restraining order against the law in May 2010.
 
On February 7, Texas’ similarly extreme ultrasound law went into effect after a panel on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law’s provisions.  Until that decision, every court that has reviewed similarly intrusive ultrasound laws had ruled the laws unconstitutional—including the Center’s current challenge to a similar measure in North Carolina, which has been enjoined since October 2011.
 
The Center for Reproductive Rights represented the plaintiffs in this case along with co-counsel from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP, in New York, NY; Andrews Davis, PC, in Oklahoma City, OK; and the Hardwick Law Office in Tulsa, OK.

Cases: 

Nova Health Systems v. Edmondson (OK)

*Pregnant people, not just cis women. This is awesome news!

After the anti-choice losses in Idaho and Georgia, I really hope this is the beginning of the political backlash against anti-choicers. It’s time.

IDAHO'S FORCED ULTRASOUND BILL IS DEAD! →

rhrealitycheck:

We will have our own write up on this soon.

But we want to thank EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. who took time to contact a politician in Idaho, who signed a petition, who re-blogged, who tweeted, whatever. YOU DID THIS. WE DID THIS. 

Yes!

Thank god.

(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)

This is DAY 44 of TEXAS HAVING MANDATORY TRANSVAGINAL ULTRASOUNDS before abortion

keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:

While Texas is only state currently forcing people to undergo transvaginal ultrasounds, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, AND VIRGINIA all have forced ultrasounds before an abortion. 

Oklahoma and North Carolina have passed similar laws to the one in Texas but they are not being enforced due to pending court decisions.

Guttmacher’s updated .pdf of what ultrasound laws are passed and in effect in which states.

(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus)

"While we welcome the news, the session is not yet over and we will continue to make sure that legislators know that the ultrasound mandate does nothing for women’s health and is not right for Idaho. Our hope is that the Idaho Legislature has finally realized that they have no place in the exam room and that these decisions should be based on medicine, not politics."

Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest Legislative Director Hannah Brass, discussing the almost-but-not-quite dead Idaho forced ultrasound bill.

[Quote from Robin Marty’s piece at RH Reality Check]

Sign Change.org petition to tell Governor Butch Otter to veto the bill if it does reach his desk.

A Doctor on Transvaginal Ultrasounds →

Fellow physicians, once again we are being used as tools to screw people over. This time, it’s the politicians who want to use us to implement their morally reprehensible legislation. They want to use our ultrasound machines to invade women’s bodies, and they want our hands to be at the controls. Coerced and invaded women, you have a problem with that? Blame us evil doctors. We are such deliciously silent scapegoats.

It is our responsibility, as always, to protect our patients from things that would harm them. Therefore, as physicians, it is our duty to refuse to perform a medical procedure that is not medically indicated. Any medical procedure. Whatever the pseudo-justification.

It’s time for a little old-fashioned civil disobedience.

This type of legislation will affect all people the ability to become pregnant, not just cis-women.

One commenter suggested, if it’s required to enter an ultrasound image into a patient’s chart, that a physician repeatedly enter one identical image - something like this:

I enjoy this idea very much.