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The good news is, the political world was deeply interested in women's issues yesterday. The bad news is, despite all the interest, the story that arguably mattered most was largely overlooked.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed a measure yesterday banning most abortions in the state after 20 weeks of pregnancy, and requiring a state-mandated, medically-unnecessary ultrasound 24 hours before the procedure.
Characterizing the proposal as one that "protects" women, the Republican governor said in a press statement, "Knowing that abortions become riskier the later they are performed in pregnancy, it only makes sense to prohibit these procedures past 20 weeks."
Allison Yarrow, meanwhile, highlighted some key details and explained that the new state law is "likely to deter many Arizona women from seeking an abortion, and to distress those who nonetheless go through with one."
Life starts earliest in Arizona, which now defines gestational age as beginning on the first day of a woman's last period, rather than at fertilization. In practice, that means the state has banned abortions after about 18 weeks (20 weeks from the last menstruation) except in the case of medical emergencies. While that provision has been much discussed, abortions after that point account for only about 1 percent of the procedures currently performed.
The stipulation likely to be most widely felt is what experts are calling an effective shutdown of medication abortions. These nonsurgical abortions are usually performed within the first nine weeks of pregnancy, and account for between 17 and 20 percent of all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-rights advocacy group. While women often take the pills at clinics and in their homes, the bill now mandates that a medical provider must have hospital privileges within 30 miles of where the procedure takes place. Many times clinics or homes are not within 30 miles of hospitals, and the distance prevents providers from other cities or even states from caring for women, says Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute. Another factor that could contribute to what Nash called a "shutdown" of medication abortions is that the law requires abortion pills to be administered using outdated protocols, confusing providers and obscuring proper use of the drugs.
While it becomes the seventh state to pass such legislation in the past two years, many Arizonans believe theirs is the most restrictive and sinister because of the degree to which it will legislate health care, thwart evidence-based medicine, and shame women.
This will probably generate a small fraction of the coverage in what a largely-unknown pundit said about Ann Romney's professional background, but since policy matters more than rhetoric, I still believe what happened in Arizona yesterday will have a more meaningful impact on women's lives.
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i certainly hope governor jan is still fertile, may she bear many children at her age, it is only right and good. and as always may her god bless.
Immaculate conception is really a myth so I doubt she will.
I don't think I've ever heard the word "immaculate" used in any way in a discussion of Jan Brewer.
Jan Brewer wouldn't understand "sense" if it jumped up and bit her in her flat, wrinkled arse.
Well we sure didn't have to wait long for more of the republican war on women, did we? This is why Romney will get no lasting traction from the Rosen remark (anyone notice how hard it is to find her full comment? Almost every current article leaves out the rest of it, trying to get the focus on the first part.) Women need to keep watching and remembering what the republicans are doing. Fortunately they are making it easy by saying and doing so many stupid anti-women things.
Jan is several years pregnant.
I'm right now chatting with my sweetie about a bumper sticker
Jan Brewer's mom didn't get enough sunlight.
Problem is, older women giving birth can cause birth defects. Like Palin who had Trig while she was in her forties.
I wonder, did ALEC have anything to do with these bills? I am beginning to see another pattern and it is very disturbing.
ALEC isn't as powerful as MoveOn.org, and it knows that. So should you.
Good question. I suspicion the same thing myself. All media accounts on the recent ALEC reports about the Color of Change call out disclose nothing about this pattern but I suspected that this omission was purposely left out because it is in a different category somehow. Maybe reporters do not have the proof that ALEC is fostering the sweeping legislation against women's health issues. It certainly has the ALEC earmark with sweeping legislation being the key. Thank you for bringing this issue out. Time for reporters to do their homework on this issue.
@MeThree - you've got a good eye - it's not ALEC, but another right-wing group, AUL (Americans United for Life), that is providing these anti-abortion-bills-in-a-box to right-wing-contolled legislatures state-by-state:
COLORADO INDEPENDENT: Group pushes anti-abortion laws into state legislatures nationwide: http://coloradoindependent.com/114431/group-pushes-anti-abortion-laws-into-state-legislatures-nationwide
ALEC isn't as powerful as MoveON? Truly an idiot. Just do even a little research before you make a statement.
Research? In the right-wing world, it's an article of unquestioned faith that left-wing organizations are all-powerful. That's always their justification: project on Democrats and the left everything that they wish for themselves.
They are taking Federal laws and altering them enough to pass through these republican state legilatures. They have attacked birth control, abortion, equality in pay for women, union rights, enacted right to work laws, will not support any gun law control, etc. How can states trump laws passed by the federal gov't, I don't get it.
Why would Jan Brewer deny herself access to her dietary necessity (aborted fetuses)?
LOL. That must be her beauty secret.
If it is, it's definitely not working.
its my body. I can do what I want with it.
Ummm ... apparently not in Arizona.
Not in Arizona you can't!
It's my body and I'll cry if I want to.
(Am I being fatuous or not? I can't tell any more.)
Which costs a society more? An abortion or a child who is born, unwanted, unloved, neglected, abused to uneducated (meaning teens who have not graduated high school) and unemployed parents?
These politicians lack common sense why can't they see this? Are they not the same politicians that cut programs that are necessary to provide for these children? Aren't the pro-lifers the same ones that complain about all of there tax dollars being wasted on welfare recipients?
They don't care if the kids starve to death while being beaten in the car they end up living in because they have cut off all forms of help for live children, as long as they aren't aborted by a doctor, a pill, a condom, or a period.
Catherine---these people don't rely upon common sense and things of that sort to guide them--they "leave it up to God" or some such hooey and they also hold fast to their ideology, come hell or high water!!!
They sure don't really give a hoot about personal freedoms in spite that they always talk about how much they love and are out to "protect, defend and extend" such freedoms.
Based on casual observation, I have concluded that the "pro-life" contingent places the highest value on the unborn. At least as it pertains to proscribing the duty of others. Once born, "pro-life" value appears to be more subjective and correlated to race. At which point personal preservation dictated the invention of "stand your ground" legislation.
I'm really looking forward to someone using the "stand your ground" defense in an abortion case.
Please note, however, that they're smart enough to place all of the blame on the MDs, not the women. Apparently they haven't considered the idea that pharmaceutical abortion can be done without an attending MD, just as contraceptives once dodged State laws.
I flat guarantee you that at some point they're going to have to face that problem: do you charge the woman for a self-induced abortion or not?
This is all about inciting religious fervor for votes in the most manipulative way possible. I don't see ANY of these people fighting against the death penalty and yet from a "christian" point of view abortion was NEVER mentioned in the bible. Murder and state execution was. Correct me if I am wrong but wasn't Jesus himself put to death by the DEATH PENALTY.
Pro Life my lilly white butt. Incidentally if this isn't the government stepping in and interfering with individuals liberty what is it? If this isn't the government forcing healthcare choices on individuals what is? If this isn't a "war on women" and women only (because I don't see any government forced healthcare decisions on men since I guess the Republicans think men CAN CHOOSE FOR THEMSELVES) than what is it?
Hypocrisy and denial. The Republicans want lower taxes for the very rich and less regulation for corporations. The things that almost ruined this nation but they willing to do it again because the really rich became even richer during those really troubling times. So they are willing to deny women and minorities their rights. Deny children and poor healthcare and food. Deny the middle class decent wages like they have been doing for 30 years. What's ridiculous is that these people calling themselves "Christians" of all denominations would be unrecognizable to Christ. Better to be Buddhist.
I would rather be Buddhist any day, than their kind of Christian. Buddhists believe in Karma. Karma would be kicking her butt right now, or she would be wary for when it showed up. Everyone should live by the same principle, "Do unto others what you would have them do unto you."
Not all Christians are that bad. I promise.
Yep. And the funny thing here? Is that if you look at the OK rep. who has put together a bill making it illegal to deposit sperm anywhere except in a woman's vagina---that is in the bible. It was against God's law to waste seed. One man was even put to death by God himself for pulling out.
Women are taking a stand on April 28th. You can read the FB pages here to find the one near you: https://www.facebook.com/UniteWomen We even got a mention in the Huffington Post recently. Our numbers are climbing.
Don't you get it? They expect a woman to carry a child for nine months, give birth, then hand it over to some stranger. Let alone, the risks for the mother and child, which do still exist. In the same situation, would they be that generous?
Just another state where the Republican tyrants need to be swept out of office.
"No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session." ~Author Unknown
I thought there was a petition to recall Brewer being circulated.
I thought she was just supposed to apologize for her rudeness to Obama.
Who are the people who voted this woman into office in the first place? For starters, I have no intention of ever visiting this state again until their political mess is cleaned up. What a disaster this state is.
This crap has a l-o-o-o-n-g tradition in Arizona, I'm sorry to say. This is the state that, back in the 80s-90s, under another Rethuglican Neanderthal named Gov. Evan Meacham, refused to make Martin Luther King day a bank holiday.
Nobody "voted this woman into office". She got in when people stayed home from the polls. This is what happens when good people get "too disgusted to vote". They don't seem to understand that what happens then, is people like the Repukes, ALWAYS GO VOTE--only now because of the "disgusted", they're the friggin MAJORITY. And, when THEY get in, knowing how precarious their position is, they immediately set about protecting what they've "won".
Israel knows this. They've watched us for many a year, ever since they became a country in 1948. In Israel, it's a LAW--every citizen HAS TO GO VOTE.
If the American People would only realize this, it'd be a lot harder for the Thugs to get in. They'd have to pull a Bush, every time, and eventually they'd be tried and prosecuted for electoral fraud. As long as we're asleep at the switch, with "close" elections--that's how long people like Brewer and Bush, will gain power. What's that saying again?
Evil triumphs, when good men do nothing...? Starting with the VOTE, people...
I always voted, thankyouverymuch. And then I voted with my feet and fled to Colorado last year.
The University of Arizona offered my very accomplished daughter a full ride to their law school. We decided she shouldn't take it because heaven forbid she get stuck practicing in such a backwards cesspool. (FWIW the UofA is my undergrad alma mater and it has been with great regret that I have had to give up on Tucson. But alas, they are at the mercy of the insane morons running things from Phoenix, and that will likely never change.) What's left of the rest of my family is in the process of decamping. You're rapidly losing your best and brightest, Arizona.
Since most Arizona legislators barely have a high school education and refuse to fund anyone else's, they may not even notice.
Well to be fair here. She first became governor because Janet Napolitano took the Secretary of Homeland Security job that the President offered her. So that is originally how she got into office. She then ran against Terry Goddard (right after SB 1070 was put into law) and the republicans turned out in droves for their immigration hero. BTW Goddard twice previously ran for Gov of Arizona and lost before this 3rd defeat. So there were no really strong Democratic Candidates in the field against her. But she does SUCK!
The problem with making everyone vote is the fact that there are so many misinformed voters out there Of course, they are probably the ones who vote and the informed stay home.
I believe the people(including women)are the ones that voted this WOMAN??? into office...you get what you ask for. Enjoy!
If she was voted for in 2010, that was the year of the revolt against democrats. They all got what they thought they wanted.
I remember when abortion was illegal in the US. We're not back there yet. And even if we were--there's still Canada and Mexico, as was true back then (the 50s). However these trends are alarming enough to cause the rest of us to sit up and take notice. What we all have to look out for, is politicians saying one thing, then taking off the mask when they achieve office, as happened in Wisconsin. I think we're all wide enough awake now, to GO VOTE--not "annoyed at President Obama for not moving fast enough"--as we were in 2010--and leaving the stage to his and our enemies...I sure hope we've learned better than that, from now on!
You can't cure a deep economic recession in two years. Even when he campaigned, he said it would take awhile. People just don't listen.
I thought that there were laws on the books in most places that make it illegal for those who do not hold medical licenses from practicing medicine??? I know that we have a law of that sort here in Ohio--but that doesn't stop the tea bagger type politicians from doing the very thing that is supposed to be illegal when they mandate things that are of a political and ideological design over what is medically necessary and proper when it comes to abortion and related issues!! What BS this is!!!
they are probably supporting the ins. companies.
The Right to Life for Sperm (RLS) party suffers from foresight impotence. They believe "God" will pay them for "saving" babies. God demands a bigger plan.
Since every sperm is in fact A HUMAN LIFE, all sperm must be preserved until a gestational device (female human) can be fertilized with that sperm. From 13 to 50 all females will be employed totally in the gestation of Sperm Life. After 50, females make good dog food, waste not...
As for this folly of Women's Work, ask what retirement plan waits for a "stay at home mom" who has no legal right to support from anybody she is doing laundry for. It is exactly the kind of servile dependance Republicans worship.
A "Modest Proposal" if I do say so, myself.
Well said Ann!
Laws like this are why we have people such as Jan Brewer.
Thanks for covering this issue. As I tweeted to Rachel yesterday:
@maddow When "small" gov legislation includes words like 'transvaginal' and 'menstrual period'...you're doing it wrong. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/az-abortion-bills-arizona-gestational-age_n_1415715.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003
Where did all these elected idiots get their medical degree? They are instituting medical procedures that go against the way medical procedures are actually supposed to be done. Why don't they just pass a law that will tattoo an "A" on women's forehead and get it over? Or maybe they could create some jobs by using stoning pits instead.
These jerks are putting laws into effect that they use for excuses to invade other countries. How backward is that? Don't they realize if we have those same laws we can't use those excuses to bomb their asses off the planet to show them democracy?
Please men and women, governors and legislators and judges of the Republican Party, keep doing what you do as long and loud as possible. With each new bill, law, decision or statement, you provide further proof of your over reach and your hypocrisy. Please keep talking.
That's a very easy statement for a man to make, I must say. It would be one thing if it stopped with just talk, but these are actual laws and policies that are negatively affecting women's lives. So no, don't keep doing what you're doing. Stop it. Right now.
This is not about "protecting women", it is about satisfying the hypocritical politicians who pretend to be righteous, etc.
Requiring an Ultra Sound for what reason? If you want to be sure all women understand the reproductive process, what a fetus looks like at each stage of gestation, then mandate comprehensive Human Growth and Development education curricula in every class from K - 12 which would cover not just the basics of sexual intercourse, but every element of being a human from fertilization to death.
Then, instead of restricting birth control, make it readily available.
As far as "distressing" women who opt for an abortion, they are already "distressed" in many ways before they ever get to this decision.
Finally, when will the politicians begin laying down laws to control the actions of the males who create the pregnancy in the first place. And - no comments about "just say no". When was the last time one of these men said no to sex?
Wow, I am so surprised that Republicans would do such a thing. After all, one of the reasons why they attacked "Obamacare" was because it interfered between doctors and their patients. Now we have ideologically driven state legislators dictating policy and protocols to both.
So if conception is counted from the time the egg (unfertilized) drops, virgins can be counted as pregnant, "sort of?" This stuff is plenty wack-o and none of it stacks up well to any intellectual rigor in analysis. Nor does it conform well to the Catholic Church's teaching on respect for life, which does not mean just respect for a fetus or potential fetus, but respect for the quality of life for all people, from "in utero" to death. So Arizona cuts support for children, medical care, housing, and all sorts of other safety nets, approves guns and loves the death penalty. Crazy, eh?
The way it works Kate is that conception is considered when the woman stops menstruating as the result of a pregnancy. What is crazy about this bill is that by the language used that means that a woman would technically be considered pregnant up to 2 weeks before she even had sex to conceive the baby. I am actually quite shocked that Maddowblog didn't include that portion of the bill in their highlight above.
If a DNC (dialate and clear) procedure is necessary would a women have to ask the govenor for special permission?
No, dating of pregnancy is a medical standard that has been around for more than a century. When it was established, we had not idea when people ovulated or conceived, and no tests to date pregnancy (e.g. ultrasound, bHCG). So the first date of the last menstrual period was used as a standard for measuring the gestational age.
Now that we do know that ovulation/conception occurs, in most women, about 2 weeks after menstrualion, it's a bit late to change the standard. It would mean rewriting a hundred years worth of the medical literature, and would cause confusion all around.
When pregnancies are dated in weeks of gestational age, this is how its defined. SIlly, but for historical reason. This is not a recent innovation.
The Catholic Church has respect for life? Even the boys they molest?
Right. Let me get this straight: Moveon.org, with its issue ads and petition drives, is more powerful than ALEC, which only writes most current legislation and has direct access to nearly every Conservative legislator, state and federal, in the nation? (It is not at all funny how insanely disconnected the Right Wing rank and file has become.)
It's like w/ George Soros. When the right wing does something or wants to do something they must first accuse a Democrat of doing that same thing or wanting to do that same thing. It's almost sarcastic w/ how insanely projectionist Republicans have become.
I hope everyone is sharing this so it does get the exposure that Hilary Rosen's unfortunate, but true, choice of words got yesterday!
Oh, wow. Pregnancy begins at the last day of the woman's last period. Meaning you are pregnant even if you ain't. Smart, huh?
Not at all. In fact, "Life starts earliest in Arizona, which now defines gestational age as beginning on the first day of a woman's last period, rather than at fertilization" is completely wrong.
A pregnancy is normally dated, at least in medical practice and in the medical literature, form the first day of the last menstrual period. The law is NOT being changed. Pregnancy is NOT being redefined.
It is simply that, back before the 80s (the pre-ultrasound era), there was no good way to date a pregnancy. It's not that we think a woman is pregnant when she is not; it is just a standard that was easy for everyone to follow. And changing that standard would mean either having to go back and change 100+ years of medical writings, or causing confusion.
So please complain about the real travesties in this stupid bill which tries to limit women's reproductive rights. Don't make those of us who support women's health right look as scientifically ignorant as those on the right.
Women are most fertile about two weeks after their last period. Didn't always work, but it is called the rhythm method.
Now I see why this political slight of hand was manufactured yesterday about Ann Romney being a stay at home Mom/Wife. Someone has to supervise the house staff and make sure that the gardener does not sneak in anymore undocumented workers.
Today with this breaking news, I see yesterday's news as a "look over here" while we slip more oppressive legislation through yet another state in order to get the backing to ratify a constitutional amendment once the adequate number of states pass anti-abortion, anti-women's health legislation.
Whatever strides the Repugs may have made with yesterday's bruja they took a giant banana step back today.
Unfortunately, when people don't like the person presently holding office, they automatically vote for the other guy without knowing anything about either candidate.
I would like to see our AZ politicians show a little concern for the infant/child after birth!!!! Our politicians have made drastic cuts in programs that provide food, medical care, social services, and early childhood education. They have voted to potentially eliminate school lunch programs (often the only real meal impoverished children get), made major cuts to Access, and laid off social workers whose job is to protect vulnerable children from abuse etc. Their motto seems to be: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST and SINK OR SWIM, once an infant enters the world.
Not that "she" will read this....BUT...I now have a grandchild that wouldn't have lived if her dying twin were not aborted. But, lucky for us the powers that be in Arizona, who know what's best for everyone, were not in charge of that decision.
Jan Brewer will be 68 on her birthday in September; therefore, this bill that she has signed into law will not, likely, affect her. Too bad! I wish that she was still in her childbearing years and were to become pregnant, not know that she was pregnant because her menstrual cycle continued for a month or two and that more than twenty weeks passed before she found out that she was pregnant. I wonder!!!!!
Let's hope it's her last!