Hadley Freeman:

I adore Matthew Parris’ writing, but this is wrong. It wasn’t “triumphalism”, it was abject relief that Irish women would no longer have to suffer so egregiously and needlessly https://t.co/9Bl1gqRSjW

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) June 2, 2018

Anyway, as it happens, my column today is about why the freedom to choose is something to cheer, and why men who wish to share their BIG THOUGHTS, philosophical musings and sensitive feelings can save 'em for another day https://t.co/mB1yA4ReCH

— Hadley Freeman (@HadleyFreeman) June 2, 2018

The column she wrote:

During the Irish abortion referendum there was a lot of talk about the extreme cases in which legal abortion is not just a right but a necessity: rape victims,

Originally a comment by iknklast on All for the fetus, nothing for the child.

The Nebraska budget bill is currently stalled in the legislature because the governor managed to get a passage stuck into it to end all Title X funding for any agencies that perform, counsel, or refer for abortions. This would end funding for most of the current Title X agencies, meaning that a lot of low income people wouldn’t be able to get important health care.

The governor is a tea party favorite who is also obscenely rich and has attempted to pack the legislature with people who will agree with him 100% of the time, supporting them with his own money. He is bullying the … Read the rest

The ACLU blog tells us:

The attacks on reproductive rights just keep coming. Today, Congress held a hearing on a bill that would outlaw abortion as early as just six weeks of pregnancy. This amounts to an effective ban on abortion, as many women do not even know if they are pregnant by that time. In fact, it’s the second unconstitutional pre-viability abortion ban that the House has considered in the last month. Just a few weeks ago, the House passed a bill banning abortion beginning at 20 weeks. And President Trump said that he would sign that bill if it landed on his desk.

It is clear that the goal of the president and leaders in Congress is

Michelle Goldberg has more on the government’s effort to force a teenager to have a baby she doesn’t want to have.

In early September, a 17-year-old girl from Central America was apprehended trying cross the border between the United States and Mexico. After being taken to a shelter for unaccompanied minors in South Texas to await immigration proceedings, she learned she was pregnant. The girl, referred to as Jane Doe in court filings, was adamant that she wanted an abortion. Because of Texas’ parental consent law, she needed to go to court to get a judge’s permission, which she did with help from Jane’s Due Process, a nonprofit legal organization that provides representation to pregnant minors in Texas. Jane’s Due

Originally a comment by Freemage on Forced childbearing.

Fuck, these guys just don’t quit, do they?

I do greeter volunteering at PP. Since we own the property the clinic is on, women are able to drive past protestors and park in the lot, so it’s a clear walk to the door, so our main job is 50/50 between giving the women someone to talk to on the way in so they don’t have to listen to the shouts, and standing near the edge of the property to give the protestors someone else to yell at instead of women seeking health care.

It veers between rage-inducing blather and low comedy (such as the guy who struggled to put on his … Read the rest

Here we go.

The House of Representatives passed legislation Tuesday that would criminalize abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for instances where the life of the mother is at risk and in cases involving rape or incest.

The bill passed the House by a vote of 237 for and 189 against, largely on party lines.

The Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which is similar to legislation that failed in 2013 and 2015, has support from the White House this time around.

The divisive issue of abortion has once again been brought to the forefront of national conversations since President Donald Trump assumed office. Trump issued support for the bill even before he won the election. In a

Alabama’s Attorney General is appealing a ruling by US Magistrate Judge Susan Russ Walker that blocked aspects of a state law requiring minors to get written permission from a parent or guardian before they could legally end a pregnancy.

“We’re disappointed that the state of Alabama has chosen to continue defending this reprehensible law,” Andrew Beck, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a statement. The ACLU brought the original lawsuit against the Alabama law, resulting in Walker’s ruling.

“While many teens turn to their parents when faced with an unintended pregnancy, others — particularly those with abusive parents — just can’t,” Beck continued. “Forcing a teenager to go on trial to get

The AP reports news from Alabama:

A federal judge has struck down Alabama’s one-of-a-kind law that enabled judges to put minors seeking abortions through a trial-like proceeding in which the fetus could get a lawyer and prosecutors could object to the pregnant girl’s wishes.

Alabama legislators in 2014 changed the state’s process for girls who can’t or won’t get their parents’ permission for an abortion to obtain permission from a court instead. The new law empowered the judge to appoint a guardian ad litem “for the interests of the unborn child” and invited the local district attorney to call witnesses and question the girl to determine whether she’s mature enough to decide.

“…in which the fetus could get a … Read the rest

Rewire reports:

A federal judge on Friday issued a preliminary injunction blocking the State of Texas from implementing rules that require cremation or burial of “fetal remains.”

Judge Sam Sparks wrote in the decision that the rules implemented by Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) constituted an “undue burden” on access to abortion care.

“It seems unlikely DSHS’s professed purpose is a valid state interest and not a pretext for restricting abortion access,” Sparks wrote. “By comparison, Plaintiffs face likely constitutional violations, which could severely limit abortion access in Texas.”

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit in December challenging the rules, and will now seek an order from the court to permanently strike down the rules.

Ohio is super excited about our new Trump future.

Ohio lawmakers passed a bill late Tuesday that would prohibit abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected — at around six weeks, before many women realize they are pregnant.

If Gov. John Kasich (R) signs the bill, it would pose a direct challenge to Supreme Court decisions that have found that women have a constitutional right to abortion at least until the point of viability, which is typically pegged around 24 weeks. Similar bills have been blocked by the courts. Because of this, even many antiabortion advocates have opposed such measures.

But some Ohio Republicans said they were empowered to support the bill because of President-elect Donald

This is being shared all over Facebook:

This is my Charlotte clinic. Right now. There are 4,000 people blocking access to our clinic. Tell me again how this isn’t terrorism?

The Times sent an undercover reporter to a Dublin-based pregnancy counselling centre where she was told a pack of outrageous lies by the “counsellor.”

A counsellor at the clinic, which is unregulated under Irish law, was filmed giving advice to an undercover Times reporter that was described as dangerous, outrageous and inaccurate by the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The Women’s Centre on Berkeley Street in Dublin 7 advertises itself as an impartial source of advice for women who want to travel to the UK to access an abortion but has direct links to a Catholic anti-abortion group.

They posted a helpful video compilation of the whoppers.

… Read the rest

Is it just a coincidence? Jacquielynn Floyd at the Dallas Morning News wonders.

A 2011 law forced through by the state’s Republican-led Legislature placed such demanding restrictions on clinics performing abortions that dozens of them have shut down. In some cases, women in poor and rural areas have been left with no access to reproductive care at all.

The law was overturned by a sharply worded U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June, but the damage has been done.

During roughly that same time span, Texas saw a dramatic spike in the number of women who die while pregnant, during childbirth, or in the first postnatal months. According to a disturbing study published by the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, U.S.

Reuters reports:

Reverberations from the U.S. Supreme Court’s major ruling backing abortion rights were felt on Tuesday as the justices rejected bids by Mississippi and Wisconsin to revive restrictions on abortion doctors matching those struck down in Texas on Monday.

The laws in Mississippi and Wisconsin required doctors to have “admitting privileges,” a type of difficult-to-obtain formal affiliation, with a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of the abortion clinic. Both were put on hold by lower courts.

The Mississippi law would have shut down the only clinic in the state if it had gone into effect.

There’s only one abortion clinic in all of Mississippi. That’s a big state, you know. It’s not big like Montana or New … Read the rest

CFI on the ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt:

A 2013 Texas law placed onerous and unnecessary restrictions on abortion providers, which would have forced the closing of all but a handful of the state’s clinics, cutting off abortion access to millions of women, particularly minorities and those of low income. The plaintiffs in this case argued that these restrictions impose an undue burden on women’s right to end a pregnancy. The Supreme Court today ruled against the state, preserving constitutionally protected abortion access for the women of Texas.

CFI filed an amicus brief with the Court in January, which was cosigned by dozens of prominent scientists and public intellectuals including Steven Pinker, Carol Tavris, Eugenie Scott,

The Supreme Court has struck down Texas’s horrific anti-abortion law.

In a dramatic ruling, the Supreme Court on Monday threw out a Texas abortion access law in a victory to supporters of abortion rights who argued it would have shuttered all but a handful of clinics in the state.

The 5-3 ruling is the most significant decision from the Supreme Court on abortion in two decades and could serve to deter other states from passing so-called “clinic shutdown” laws.

And (I assume) it will also make it possible for clinics forced to close by the law to re-open.

Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the majority opinion, which was joined in full by Kennedy. Breyer wrote that despite arguments that the

That was Oklahoma, today. Tuesday, it was South Carolina.

The South Carolina legislature passed a bill yesterday that bans abortions after 19 weeks, and is now on its way to Gov. Nikki Haley’s desk, where she will likely sign it. That would make South Carolina the 17th state to pass the ban.

Rep. Wendy Nanney, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act’s sponsor, said the bill is a step toward getting “rid of abortion altogether.” The bill does allow for exceptions if the mother’s life is in danger, or if a doctor determines the fetus cannot survive outside the womb. There are no exceptions for rape or incest, and it would be illegal to abort a fetus with a severe

The Oklahoma legislature has passed a bill making abortion a felony. That seems pretty blatantly unconstitutional, but I’m not a lawyer.

The bill passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives with a vote of 59-to-9 last month. On Thursday, the state’s senate passed it with a vote of 33-to-12.

That’s a horribly large majority of legislators who believe women have no rights.

“This is a ban on abortion, plain and simple,” Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement about the legislation after the state’s house passed it. “Punishing doctors for performing a legal, medical procedure is an assault on women.”

Women apparently don’t deserve rights.

Since taking office in 2011, [Republican Governor

The New York Times:

A doctor who performs abortions at a hospital in Washington [DC] filed a federal civil rights complaint on Monday, charging that the hospital had violated the law by forbidding her, out of concerns for security, to speak publicly in defense of abortion and its role in health care.

The doctor, Diane J. Horvath-Cosper, 37, an obstetrician and gynecologist, has in recent years emerged as a public advocate, urging abortion providers not to shrink before threats. Last December, her complaint says, officials of the MedStar Washington Hospital Center imposed what she described as a “gag order,” but what the officials termed a sensible precaution against anti-abortion violence.

You can see why they would want to do … Read the rest