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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what Nash called a "shutdown" of medication abortions is that the law requires abortion pills to be administered using outdated protocols, confusing providers and obscuring proper use of the drugs.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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Their goal is to control. If they can keep the rest of us in poverty and dependent on them, so much the better.
It's disturbing to see medieval minds at work, brewing trouble for women.
Take a close look at Gov. Brewer. Clearly she is as fertile as the dried prune that she is. She can create laws that will interfere with the procreation choices or all women in her state with impunity. We are in a season of evil politics and it is being led by self-gratifying zealots attempting to appear righteous. There is nothing she can do that will not be overturned immediately or in the not so distant future. At the present this is how you get votes in a state like Arizona. Play god while you can Gov.
Romney was concerned about Obama's new religion - "secularism" - when actually the new religion is Republicanism! The Repubs have re-written all standards for life and death. Life begins when they say it begins...the egg - fertilized or not. Because it could become fertilized... Wonder if they also believe that life begins with the sperm....before it is introduced to the egg? Not!
It's odd how they scream too much government in fiscal things but we have too little in social things. If the government is to adopt an influntial role at all, it should be done in just the opposite way, concern itself with fiscal issues and stay out of the social moral issues.
Could I be the only one here who thinks George Zimmerman is somehow involved in this?
This group of gop politicians disgust me to no end. Smaller government my butt. These "legislators" only want smaller government when it matters to them, such as regulation, assistant programs, etc... But when they want to control your life and how you live it, they are all about BIG government.
These people have no honor nor shame. Please vote these dictators out of office, please.
Why would you want to force women to bear children they don't wish to care for?
I used to work with emotionally disturbed children. Wards of the court removed from their parents by the state due to severe abuse and neglect. I don't think anyone will argue whether the state should intervene when punishment for 3 year olds includes frying baby's but on skillet (really).
These children cost the state $100,000 per child per year. They are at extremely high risk for drug abuse and violence. They have a high probability of ending up in prison where they will cost all of us $25K to $40K per year for the rest of their lives.
Yeah, I get that at some point (some point before actual birth) that fetus is becoming a life and that it's done nothing wrong and you want to protect it.
Now get this ... I care about a number of people in my life. If they get killed by some random criminal, there's a very good chance that criminal came from an unplaned and unwanted pregnancy. Once you force someone to do something they didn't want to do, you become responsible for the outcome.
The abortion war is unwinnable. Why? Because we've gone down this road before. It used be illegal everywhere. Why didn't that work? Because women weren't going to be forced to have children. Lots of women died in botched abortions. Women from all races and classes. The evidence of this pain and suffering and grief is what made us get rid of these legal limitations. The closer we get to the old restrictions, the more the unintended consequences will become apparent, generating a backlash against the restrictions -- just like before.
How about something more productive? It's time for universal birth control. It's quite clear now that abstinence only education was a failure. Teen pregnancies have begun dropping again now that we've down away with that. Let's provide free birth control to everyone that wants it. This is something that most liberals and I believe about 1/2 of all conservatives could get behind.
Barry Goldwater (5 term Arizona Senator) and his wife Peggy were both pro-choice. Peggy helped Planned Parenthood get started in Arizona. Their granddaughter, CC Goldwater who is one of the 15 trustees on the Planned Parenthood board . It would be interesting to get her take on the current state of affairs in Arizona regarding women's right to choose.
"..now defines gestational age as beginning on the first day of a woman's last period, rather than at fertilization.."
If they get carried away with that (& we all know that's their tendency); it won't be long until they outlaw the use of spermicides.
Come on everyone..sing along with me!
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.
These people have freaking lost their minds!
Did you see the TDS episode they did this week on that issue?
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-11-2012/bro-choice
Missed it..been having to work late this week. LOL! That's freaking amazing! Thanks for the link!
just wish if they can not critically think, at lease think things all the way out.
Critical Thinking>>>>>> the other American Deficit!
Immediately, my mind turned to the abundance of hospitals in the metro Phoenix area that are Catholic affiliates. To require the physician to have admitting rights at a hospital within 30 miles is one thing. But when most of the hospitals are Catholic, its a double whammy, since any doctor who would prescribe that from his office, would never be allowed to admit a patient he had given it to at Saint Joseph's et al.
What's next, Arizona? Prosecuting women for having periods? If you say that conception begins before conception, then menstruation is just another form of abortion, isn't it? After all, women who are actually pregnant don't have their periods. But women who do have their periods are also getting rid of an egg - and if conception begins before conception (as Arizona now says it does), then menstruating women are aborting a human life, according to this unbelievably warped and tortured logic.
Jan Brewer & Co. are all insane. Absolutely, certifiably insane. But I also hope that they, and the others in the women-hating GOP keep it up, so come November, voters will actually know what this pathetic, hateful party actually stands for.
time to crank up the recall effort!
Generally when a woman misses 4 periods:
a) she knows she's pregnant
b) she wants to be
When these women want to abort after 20 weeks, I can think of 3 reasons:
1) The baby will not survive anyway.
2) The woman's health/fertility is endangered.
3) There are severe genetic abnormalities likely.
Just curious if Republicans are aware of the financial burdens they have introduced into their budget with this measure. The lifesaving care given to mother and/or child, sometimes fruitlessly, can be VERY expensive. The intense care often needed by children born with severe genetic abnormalities is even pricier as it can last decades.
Not to say that there aren't plenty of conservatives who'd say "So be it!" because every life is precious. I'm just curious whether the lawmakers that passed this bill or the Governor gave any thought towards any of the more obvious unintended fiscal consequences of their Christian piety. I really doubt it and I don't want to hear the whining about how many hospitals are going broke, how Medicaid isn't keeping pace, and how much higher their health insurance premiums become. Talk to the hand, Arizona. Being a good Christian ain't cheap. Wonder if there'd be an uptick in Arizona's "safe-haven" surrenders. Ka-ching. Again, lives are precious, but do they have their eyes open? Do they know what they're bringing on themselves?
What if Mr. Frees meant this: Spell Bayer, "Bare" and split aspirin into words, then hold your knees together and bend over. Natural contraception??
It is so sad but at the same time it is starting to get funny. Isn't AZ. one of those states screaming about there lack of funds due to illegals? So lets have more poor kids on the welfare rolls cause mommy & daddy didn't want this kid, or knew there was something medically wrong with it. Now more children will end up in the foster program where all those Arizonians can pay for those children for 18 years!!!! Or if it was a medical problem they could pay for the next 50, 60, 70 years !!! Not to mention ALL the medical care needed during all those years. I'd say dont retire to AZ...its going to cost to much because they didn't believe in a little white pill hahahaha
i am embarassed my own grandfather came from there and was a judge of the arizona supreme court at one time and that my father was born in arizona.
god, i'm glad i'm a canadian! i can walk the streets without some idiot asking for papers and, if i get sick, i'm covered.
life is good!!!!
This witch should have been aborted 68 years ago. Count Arizona as another place I'll never retire to. The rest is Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa and Kansas. I'll stay here in NJ.
Something that these people aren't taking into consideration is that if the SC rules that mandates are unconstitutional, at the very least, these states are going to have to pay for all these requirements that a woman doesn't need and wouldn't get if left to herself.
What's next? All women capable of reproduction become property of the state of Arizona? For their own protection, of course. To guard them against their own slutty sluttiness, of course. To make sure women are always kept on the straight and narrow, of course, and their purity in assured and...I just got a massive headache and need a shot of tequila.
Someone I know just had a fetus die, sadly, in the 19th week (of pregnancy not after last period--so Arizona is now counting fetal life to my last period 2 wks or so before it is even possible for the egg to be fertilized? I know it's an old OB/GYN practice but its' not helpful here--no purpose). She was a very wanted child, and they were completely wrecked by it. Nursery ready and painted and all...):
Carrying a dead body inside your body can be emotionally horrific for women. Supposedly it can also cause physical harm, including I believe blood clots. It took almost two weeks to arrange it (and get to the point she could face it), but my friend and her husband "aborted" the dead fetus--they do call it abortion even if the fetus is dead. She could not BARE the idea of carrying a dead body inside her, she felt frightened by it and it served as a constant reminder of her loss. She also had begun to had unremitting nausea possibly from the body inside her. FYI. Officially she was nearly 21 wks pregnant when she finally had the abortion. And, she would not have been able to have it, it seems, in Jan Brewer's state.
People might say "your scenario is very rare'. It's not as rare as you'd think IN the only 1% of abortions that are after 18 wks, MANY more of them are because of lethal or near lethal genetic defects or fetal demise than in earlier weeks. I worked in an abortion clinic for many years...the MAJORITY of later abortions had some compelling extenuating circumstance....like I just described, or an young teen who didn't know she was pregnant because her periods weren't regular yet so there was nothing to miss, or those in denial/immature/unstable so didn't realize they were pregnant, the raped, the victims of incest, the abused women who's boyfriend had been hitting her stomach, women who had pre-eclamsia or who's health was at risk--and more than one single mother thinking of her hungry other kids who's showing belly was threatening her job...it's not illegal to descriminate against and fire pregnant women. My recollection FYI is that few of these later abortions did not have some compelling reason why they were necessary--few were decided casually, frivously. Someone can argue that these should have been carried to term at that point--the ones that physically would not kill the woman. But what of the cost to her other kids, herself emotionally?
HAHA this video pretty much sum up how crazy this whole thing is:
http://youtu.be/aTm6lQ1b0As
I don't know as much as I should regarding Roe V Wade but wasn't the Texas law struck down because it required looking at medical records which violated the right to privacy? I know the court thought banning a late term abortion was OK because you would be showing the world you are pregnant and therefore privacy was not being violated but doesn't determining if the pregnancy is 20 weeks after the last menstruation or more require looking at medical records which is exactly what Roe v wade prohibits?
In the short term, if states do not want to comply. shift the monies to other states. If you are taken to an ER in FL because you have no insurance, they should transport you to Gov. Scott's mansion.