A Year of Aggressive Attacks on Women’s Health (in Review)

(Image from Flickr, by Radarxlove)

The following are from Tanya Somanader’s year-end piece, “The GOP’s 10 Most Extreme Attacks On A Woman’s Right To Choose An Abortion,” in Think Progress:

According to Somanader, there were nearly 1,000 anti-abortion bills in state legislatures last year, while the GOP-led House led a “comprehensive and radical assault” on a federal level. She details the 10 most aggressive of these laws (you can click here for the complete article). Here’s my summary of her summary:

Redefining Rape: the federal No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act tried to narrow the definition of rape to “forcible rape,” by excluding women who say no but do not physically fight back; women who are drugged and raped; and minors impregnated by adults.

Abortion Audits: The No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act could force some women to undergo audits and prove that their abortions “fell under the rape/incest/life-of-the-mother exception, turning the Internal Revenue Service into “abortion cops.”

Let Women Die: House Republicans also passed the “Protect Life Act”, also known as the “Let Women Die” bill because it would allow hospitals that receive federal funds to reject any woman in need of an abortion procedure, even if it is necessary to save her life.

Personhood: Mississippi considered passing a “personhood” amendment to its constitution which would not only ban all abortions, but could potentially outlaw birth control, stem cell research, and in vitro fertilization for couples struggling to conceive.

Race/Sex Abortions: House Republicans introduced the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA) that bans abortions based on the fetus’s race or sex, even though the “problem” of selective abortion is virtually non-existent.

Fetal Pain: Several states tried to pass legislation limiting or banning abortions past 20 – 22 weeks based on disputed research that fetuses an feel pain at that point of development.”

Heartbeat Bill: Ohio Republicans are pushing the “heartbeat bill,” which, if enacted, would outlaw abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can occur as soon as “six to seven weeks into pregnancy,” before many women even know they are pregnant.

Free Stuff Trumps God in Texas

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

Over the weekend, Texas Gov. Rick Perry led 30,000 people in prayer at a rally in Houston he dubbed "The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis." 30,000 may seem like a lot of Christians in one place at one time, but even more remarkable than this, they endured seven hours of prayer and religious tinged politicking and anti-abortion hysteria. The gathering was sponsored by the American Family Association, according to Democracy Now, which opposes same-sex marriage and has condemned Muslims, and the International House of Prayer, whose founder believes that Oprah Winfrey is a Satanic religious leader.

At the same time, Democracy Now reported, just seven miles away, 100,000 people attended Houston’s first-ever, back-to-school event, where they received free backpacks, school supplies, uniforms, haircut vouchers, immunizations, and fresh produce. The demand was so intense that officials had to end the event early at 10:00 a.m. and turn people away.

Many of the people attending the back-to-school event were no doubt pious, perhaps even evangelical Christians. But when offered a choice between praying for an end to their privation and receiving free handouts, Texans by and large made the rational decision.

These two events were a stark reminder of the desperation and anxiety gripping so many Americans, with unemployment now worse than during the Great Depression and no visible light at the end of the tunnel. While some are turning to religion to help assuage their anxieties, ultimately they need financial relief. Instead, we are getting threats and punishment by S&P for not slashing government spending on social programs sufficiently or quickly enough.

The downgrading of the U.S. credit rating has been portrayed as an economic disaster for all. In reality, it was a cynical move to exacerbate an existing crisis to justify and speed up the imposition of austerity on the American people.  S&P was asleep at the wheel during the housing crash, having provided AAA ratings to numerous lending agencies that collapsed under the weight of bad loans. Its assessment of the U.S.’s ability to repay its debts can hardly be taken seriously.

At the same time, while millions of Americans continue to struggle daily to make ends meet, they remain indignant over the fact that trillions of dollars were readily available to bail out Wall Street and Detroit, and trillions more continue to be spent to slaughter civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Libya, while virtually nothing is available to help keep them in their homes, maintain their schools and feed their children.

Cheerleader Goes to Washington

Sneerleader, by r8r

In a previous post, I talked about a Silsbee, Texas, high school cheerleader who was kicked off her squad for refusing to cheer for the boy who had raped her. The boy eventually pled guilty, but was never disciplined by the school. The cheerleader’s family sued and lost and was required to pay the school district’s legal fees, $45,000. The court’s reasoning: she was the school’s “mouth piece” and could be compelled by the school to do its bidding, whereas the school had no obligation to promote her message of protest.

Her family has taken the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, in hopes that they will reinstate her free-speech suit against the school district.

Of course it is absurd that the student is in this position at all. If the adults at her school had been doing their jobs in the first place, the attacker would have been disciplined by the school immediately after pleading guilty (if not sooner) and the girl would have been treated with more respect and empathy by school officials, including allowing her to not cheer for her attacker. It is a pretty big stretch to say that her actions harmed the school in any significant way.

Free Speech for 6th-Graders

On a broader note, this case should be watched closely by teachers and students, as the court’s decision could either broaden student free speech rights at school, or further erode them, following the trend of the past several decades. (This trend does not apply to 6^th-graders wearing graphic anti-abortion t-shirts, which is still a protected free speech right, even if the pictures frighten the kindergartners).

For a summary of recent student free speech cases visit the ACLU site