It was just a of couple days ago that we learned that Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis thinks Texas’s gun controls are too strict. Now we’ve got this: Wendy Davis said Tuesday that she would have supported a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, if the law adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor. First, what in the hell is that even? What does “if the law adequately deferred to a woman and her doctor” mean? Okay, explain yourself: “My concern, even in the way the 20-week ban was written in this particular bill,...
Continue reading...abortion
Are all choices equal? Does it matter?
There’s a fascinating article in Elle from July, in which Bettina Paige recounts her decision to undergo a “selective reduction” when she found out she was carrying twins after going through fertility treatment. She already had a toddler, felt the family couldn’t afford to take care of two new babies, and her husband was strongly opposed to twins. So she chose to have one of the fetuses terminated, and then she chose to tell her story publicly– a brave choice, I think, considering the judgment she would inevitably encounter. On DoubleX yesterday, KJ Dell’Antonia described her own...
Continue reading...High Risk Insurance Pools, or Yet Another Way to Screw Over Women
Oh, what’s that you say? You say health care reform might actually still allow some women who need it to access a legal medical procedure AND have it covered in their health insurance? Lordy, no, we Democrats won’t stand for THAT. So we come to another battle over abortion in health care, only this time, the Obama administration caved even before anti-choicers brought out the pitchforks. Here’s the background: the federally-funded Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plans (or PCIPs) were set up to provide coverage for people whose pre-existing conditions prevent them from obtaining insurance through private carriers. This...
Continue reading...Good News from Nebraska
Well, that was quick. Today the US District Judge in the Nebraska biased counseling case I mentioned yesterday issued an order– just a day after hearing oral arguments. She agreed that the clinic filing the suit has a likelihood of prevailing on its claims, and agreed to block the state from enforcing any of the bad provisions of the statute until the case is resolved. Victory! Judge Smith Camp noted that the NE legislature explained its motivation for the law as concern that the existing preabortion screening and counseling procedures were not accurate– and then pointed out...
Continue reading...Biased Counseling
I’ve talked before about my frustration at the skillful ability of the right-wing to harness language. This comes out all the time in regard to abortion, and sometimes, the issue is that the other side does a really good job of making something sound rational when it really isn’t. An example is the wave of so-called “informed consent” laws, which sound not only innocuous but also inarguable. Who could oppose making sure women have given their informed consent before undergoing an abortion? Not me, nor, I’m sure, any other pro-choicer, including anyone who provides abortions. And in...
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