Prepare for the onslaught.
Highlights of anti-abortion absurdity in the southeastern region include a desperate attempt by Marco Rubio to pander to his base, a bundle of anti-choice amendments attached to a Sharia law ban (I know, right?) that was hidden from the public until the vote, and a bill so racist, five legislators just walked the hell out of the chambers during the debate.
Keep in mind, this is just some of the legislation proposed in 2013. There’s been plenty of anti-choice bullshit introduced and passed in past years, especially since 2011. You can find your state’s current laws on the Guttmacher Institute.
If you’re not sure what’s wrong with any of these bills, I’m happy to answer any questions.
Let’s see what’s happening in your state!
Alabama:
- In effect: A ban on telemedicine abortions, eliminating access to early abortion for those who don’t live near one of the state’s five providers.
- In limbo: Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit to block the Women’s Health and Safety Act, which would require physicians performing abortions to have hospital admitting privileges. The law also requires abortion clinics to upgrade to ambulatory surgical clinics, an endeavor too costly for many providers and unproven to improve the safety of abortion.
Why is this a problem?
Requiring abortion providers have hospital admitting privileges poses a threefold problem: 1) Due to the stigma surrounding abortion in the great country of Amurrca, hospitals are usually reluctant to associate themselves with the procedure, and aren’t likely to grant admitting privileges. 2) Many abortion providers do not live in the area in which they work (this may have something to do with the arson, bombings, vandalism, threats, harassment, and, you know, murder by “pro-lifers”), which makes getting these privileges more difficult. 3) Abortion is too safe. Providers can’t admit enough patients to meet some hospitals’ annual requirements.
Arkansas:
- In effect: Abortion is banned after 20 weeks with exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the pregnant person.
- In effect: Insurance plans under the new health exchanges may not cover abortion.
- Temporarily blocked: A 12-week ban on abortion with exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the pregnant person. This is one of many “heartbeat” bills, which would ban abortion once a heartbeat can be detected by ultrasound.
- Failed: A bill requiring a physician to be present during both doses of a medication abortion, which are taken two to three days apart.
- Failed: A bill that would have ramped up the existing anti-abortion rhetoric in state-mandated counseling 24 hours before the abortion.
- Failed: A bill that would ban telemedicine abortions, eliminating access to early abortion for people who don’t live near one of the state’s three providers.
- Failed: A bill that would defund Planned Parenthood’s two centers.
Why is this a problem?
Did you see all the bullet points?
Any law that lengthens the time necessary to access a safe, legal abortion, or requires multiple trips to the clinic, is designed to reduce that access. Many states have few providers (five have one provider to serve the entire state), which means hours of driving between home and the clinic. Patients have to miss work, find and pay for transportation, and arrange care for dependents, something many people would find difficult, if not impossible.
Florida:
- Reportedly in progress: A bill, sponsored by Marco Rubio, that would ban abortion after 20 weeks.
- Failed: A bill that would ban race- and sex-selective abortions (during the debate, at least five women walked out after inflammatory race-baiting remarks by the bill’s sponsor, Charles Van Zant).
- Failed: A bill that would require doctors to describe the medically unsound theory of fetal pain and require the patient wait 24 hours between their examination and the abortion.
Why is this a problem?
The medical community agrees that the perception of pain is not possible before well into the third trimester (1.5% of abortions take place after 21 weeks). In addition, fetuses are not “conscious,” as born human beings are, so even if the circuitry is there by 28 or 30 weeks gestation, fetuses do not experience it as an unpleasant event.
Georgia:
- Failed: A bill that would make it illegal for any state- or federally-sponsored insurance plan to pay for abortions, which would affect over 600,000 residents.
Kentucky:
- Failed: A bill that would require patients to view an ultrasound before an abortion.
- Failed: A bill that would prohibit insurance plans on the health benefit exchange to pay for abortions.
- Failed: A bill that would require providers to have hospital admitting privileges.
- Failed: A “heartbeat” bill that would ban abortion once a heartbeat can be detected, with no exceptions for rape and incest.
Why is this a problem?
Physicians already perform ultrasounds before abortions when necessary to determine the gestational age of the embryo or fetus. This lets them know if the patient is within the window for a medication abortion, if they are past 9 weeks and require a surgical abortion, or if it’s too late to perform an abortion at all, thanks to state term limits or the doctor’s capabilities. Government-mandated ultrasounds, besides disturbing the medical process and doctor-patient relationship, are designed to shame or guilt patients. They are especially harmful to those who have had a traumatic pregnancy, or who were impregnated against their will.
Louisiana:
- Passed: Physicians must be physically present during an entire medication abortion.
Why is this a problem?
A medication abortion takes days to complete, as it’s essentially an induced miscarriage. This makes medication abortions virtually impossible to provide – to be present for the entire abortion process, a doctor would have to live with their patient for a little less than a week.
Mississippi:
- Blocked: A 2012 law that would require the state’s only abortion provider to have hospital admitting privileges – this will never happen with Mississippi hospitals.
- Passed: A ban on telemedicine abortions, eliminating access to early abortion for those who don’t live near the state’s abortion provider.
North Carolina:
- In progress: A bundle of amendments to a Sharia law ban that would require clinics that provide medication abortions to adhere to the standards of surgical clinics, ban sex-selective abortions, restrict abortion insurance coverage, allow health care professionals to refuse to provide treatment or medication they believe would result in abortion, and require a physician to be present during the entire abortion, both surgical and medical. This would shut down all but one provider in the state. The public was not notified about the bill before it was voted on.
Why is this a problem?
Medication abortions are a series of pills, not a surgical procedure. There is no need for a costly upgrade with equipment and space that will go unused, and supporters of this amendment know that. This is meant to shut down clinics that can’t afford the upgrade.
Conscience clauses have long been a thorn in patients’ sides. There is a growing trend among thick-headed pro-life physicians that hormonal birth control is, in fact, an abortifacient, based on the unproven theory that it prevents the implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterine lining. This means they can refuse to dispense birth control, even if the medication is not being used as birth control (for example, to regulate painful periods or treat polycystic ovarian syndrome). In areas where there is only one doctor or pharmacist, this means no birth control at all.
South Carolina:
- Failed: A personhood amendment that would have granted the full rights and protections of born US citizens to newly fertilized eggs.
- Failed: A bill that would require abortion providers to have staff privileges at a local hospital.
- Failed: A bill that would prohibit state health insurance plans from covering abortion unless an additional rider is purchased.
Why is this a problem?
It is impossible to tell when exactly an egg is fertilized. Doctors measure a pregnancy starting from the patient’s last menstrual period, so even they would have no idea when an egg was fertilized. This results in something of a Schrödinger’s Pregnancy – any sexually active person with a uterus could have a fertilized egg inside them at any moment, with all the rights and protections of a fully independent human being. Could any period be evidence of manslaughter, if a fertilized egg failed to implant or grow? What about miscarriages? How do two entities with equal rights occupy one body, one inside the other?
Tennessee:
- Failed: A bill that would force patients to either look at an ultrasound or listen to a detailed description before getting an abortion. They would then be given a copy of the image to take home and hang on the fridge.
- Possibly in progress: A 2014 ballot measure that would require a 48-hour waiting period, and for all but first-trimester abortions to be performed in hospitals.
Virginia:
- Passed: Insurance plans under the new health exchange are prohibited from covering abortions. People cannot buy riders to cover abortion services either.
- Failed: A bill that would have removed the state-mandated ultrasound before an abortion.
West Virginia:
- Failed: An amendment that would prohibit insurance plans under the new health exchange from providing abortion coverage, including riders.
- Failed: A bill that would ban abortion at 20 weeks based on the medically unsound theory of fetal pain, with no exceptions for rape and incest.
I want to make this clear: Just because a bill or amendment failed during this session does not mean it will never come up again. Given what we’ve seen in the past couple of years, it’s likely that these and other proposed restrictions will be introduced in the 2014 session.
Tomorrow: The Northeast!
