This has been in the news lately all across the USA, and I am curious if anybody has or knows somebody who has been impacted by all the anti-abortion legislation that has been passed in various States. At first you would think anti-abortion legislation, affects just one medical procedure, abortion, but this isn't the case as entire clinics get shutdown and ALL their services that they provided are lost to women and men. 1. Mammograms 2. Access to condoms 3. Access to counseling for rape victims, legal restrictions on what counselors can say during those sessions if you are able to obtain a crisis counselor. 4. Requirements that you can only obtain an abortion after being forced to see the ultrasound of the fetus inside you, in some cases hear it's heartbeat. (In some cases a vaginal ultrasound HAS to be done, meaning they stick the ultrasound device inside the vagina to get the ultrasound pictures) 5. Time constraints of having to get an abortion within a certain amount of weeks otherwise the medical procedure is denied to you. 6. False information about female gestation periods and the consequences of having abortion in health classes in the k-12 schools. These are the kinds of restrictions that States like, but not limited to, Texas, Virginia, North Dakota and Mississippi have passed in state law. So my question to you all, is have you been affected?
I haven't been affected but I think this is absolutely awful. I didn't know about this. I hope it doesn't spread to the 50 states.
Yeah spread the word Samantha, it's bad. Rachel Maddow, of MSNBC, is doing great news reporting on the issue of how and what State legislatures are doing in various states (all Republican legislatively controlled majorities that get around most filibusters from Democrats) to pass the toughest restrictions on women's reproductive healthcare issues. In some cases, the judicial courts have blocked some of the new laws, but that isn't the case in some states whose judical courts obviously like the new restrictions on abortion (which has more impacts other than just abortion issue, so even you are anti-abortion this still affects you ).
I'm just gonna link to full newscasts, that contain segments, where reports of these types of legislation are mention. It varies on what each bill/law is called state by state but the impact and clear message of what the Republican party is trying to accomplish is the same. So if you want the name of exact bills, you'll have to rely on google and computer text searches for that. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#52560186 ^Look on the sidebar too look for a particular day's news cast under 'Previously', change the date and you'll find the newcast of that day. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#52516513 ^ This is the link to 1 such particular news video about Texas's law. ---- Hope you'll watch it and continue the commentary. This thread can also double into the political section of the hipforums here, but this is relevant here as well since this impacts Birth Control options, and I want to see if anybody is affected. Q: Am I allowed to embed videos like this here rather than just post links?
I hope I started a thread that'll spark some interesting intense, but respectful discussion. Not the usual "pregancy scare help me" thread we've been seeing lots of lately. Nothing wrong it that it's just a bit...stale.
I watched some of the videos. I'm appalled. Wisconsin has already shut down all but four abortion clinics and plans to shut down one or more of the four remaining ones. Plus there the mandatory ultrasound. So if I lived in Wisconsin and wanted to get an abortion, I would have to hitch a ride with someone and tell them what I was doing. And they might refuse to take me. So there would be an unwanted child in the world, living below the poverty line.
It's horrible isn't it? And you know this issue is semi-related to the healthcare costs issue and the economy recovery. Here's why: Because there's an emphasis on closing down clinics, through legislation and executive branches of state government, by not renewing the licenses of clinics or barring them from having the approval to transfer patients to hospitals if that medical need arises between patient and doctor. The way I understand it, that sets up the next argument to say, that "Oh a clinic failed a patient's need of care, close the clinic". Their rebuttal is that this country forces women to get medical care via Emergency Room. But this is HIGHLY expensive both for the individual, and the country at large because usually by that point more medical resources get used up for SUPER critical urgent medical situations. Not to mention, it'll add to patient waiting lines/times for people who really need the ER, and it costs hospitals more $ which get passed on to consumers. (the rest of us whether we go to the ER or not) So it's not good the the country's budget, state's budget, individual household budgets, or for job creation for the middle class because it means more people have higher premiums on monthly healthcare insurance costs. That means less money is being spent on furniture, mom&pop shops, and that slows down job creation which slows down the economy. Completely backward....this is the conflicts and hypocrisy between fiscal conservatism, and cultural conservatism. Republicans gotta choose one, they shouldn't have both.
UPDATE: Here's what North Carolina has now done: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#52583281 (Backstory, North Carolina voters were promised by the current governor of their State that he wouldn't sign any new anti-women's right to choose bills) What he does next will test that campaign promise of his. There are other issues mentioned in that bill, but the abortion issue is mentioned around 1 minute into the video.
He signed it. This state is in a bad situation. We've lost more manufacturing jobs since 2007 than any other state, and they're never coming back. State Democrats have had trouble cutting expenses as fast as tax revenues were falling, so the voters decided to give the Republicans a shot at it, to see if they could do any better with the budget. Mostly, they've been hard at work on conservative social changes. I'm expecting a liberal voter backlash in November 2014. These Republican guys don't want to regulate anything except a vagina. It's bad for women in general, but I don't expect to see any personal impact from the recent changes. I'm not on a State health insurance plan, and my gynecologist says he should be able to handle almost anything I might need right there in his office. He also has the right to use the local hospital's operating room, in case of complications. I'm not the type of person to be undecided about a major decision, so I wouldn't be effected by an abortion cut-off rule unless it was less than 8 weeks. As usual, it's the poor who get screwed over the worst. Very few of them are getting regular check-ups from a guy as well-qualified as the one I see, because of their insurance situation. (I only have to pay a small amount for my annual exam, and $7 for birth control pills.) And when ObamaCare gets rolling next year, NC state law states that none of those new plans will be allowed to cover abortion, not even in cases of rape, incest, or medical necessity. Of course, there are ways to fudge on the paperwork. There are sympathetic doctors who will "fail" to detect a fetal heartbeat, if you don't want them to hear one. I know one who will do it. Those procedures don't get counted as abortions.
Keep us posted. Great hearing from you on this issue. I too expect a voter backlash, but with the way the Republicans are gerrymandering everything..we'll see....
That is a serious problem with state houses, but governors have nowhere to hide. Unfortunately, we have to wait until 2016 on that vote.
UPDATE: Looks like Republican controlled Nebraska is the next state that has set a horrible legal judicial precedent on access to birth control for girls/women. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26315908/#53223314 ^In a nutshell to get an abortion in Nebraska, you need written parental consent. Problem: This girl is a foster care kid, her parents are abusive and have lost their parental rights, and so now this kid is pregnant and in legal limbo because she doesn't have parents who CAN sign and give permission for her to get an abortion. So the ability for this 16 year old to obtain this medical procedure was taken to and decided by the Nebraska State Supreme Court. They said no. She's 4 months pregnant now, and soon she'll be forced to give birth against her will. (Disclosure: I don't know how she got pregnant, if it was related to the abuse she endured or not. But that shouldn't matter given that Roe V. Wade is in effect and carries the legal weight of the U.S. Constitution)
That story made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Anyone notice that the places with the least access to birth control and abortion are also often the places with the least sexual education available to public school students? How much you wanna bet if that same little girl wants to get a tubal ligation before age 25, (say, when she's 22) they won't let her?
Texas, land that spawned Roe v Wade, has locked down again. Sad. I have sat with young scared women in Texas clinics, and they got great, compassionate care. Now these docs and nursing staff are retiring, and the new day dawns cold.
