How Republicans Are Cynically Exploiting COVID-19 to Ban Abortion

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

It’s terrifying to be pregnant during a deadly global pandemic that has cleared grocery store shelves, started to overwhelm hospitals and infect staff, slashed hundreds of thousands of jobs, confined many Americans to their homes, and in some cases, banned partners from being present in the hospital room during childbirth. But it’s a special kind of nightmare to be in that situation if the pregnancy was the result of violence or was unwanted to begin with.

Nevertheless, in this dystopian reality, Republican leaders in Texas and Ohio are cynically exploiting the novel coronavirus outbreak as a pretext to further their personal ideological goals and criminalize abortion.

On Monday, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton—who calls himself a “Pro-Life All Star” on his website—included abortion in a list of “non-essential” surgeries that the state is suspending, directing providers either to stop performing them unless the mother’s life or health is danger or to face heavy fines and up to 180 days in jail. Ohio’s attorney general David Yost also mandated all of the state’s abortion clinics to “immediately stop performing nonessential and elective surgical abortions” last week. Politicians in both states have been trying for nearly a decade to shut down abortion clinics but have been repeatedly thwarted by the courts, because the Supreme Court decided in 1973 to protect a woman’s right to access abortion until her fetus would be viable outside the womb.

Actual doctors swatted down these Republicans’ dubious claim that abortion is “nonessential” healthcare. "Abortion is an essential component of comprehensive health care," said the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) in a joint statement with several other reproductive health organizations last week. “It is also a time-sensitive service for which a delay of several weeks, or in some cases days, may increase the risks or potentially make it completely inaccessible. The consequences of being unable to obtain an abortion profoundly impact a person's life, health, and well-being."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/how-republicans-are-cynically-exploiting-covid-19-to-ban-abortion/ar-BB11EAHL?ocid=msn360

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. These bastards will stop at NOTHING to harm and control women.

Of all the cynical moves they've taken, this takes the cake.

I am normally a non-violent person, but this development makes me wish I were.

[crickets]

2. K&R for visibility.

oof, that hits the yikes quota for the day...

[Gothmog]

3. Abortion-rights advocates sue Texas officials for limiting abortion access in coronavirus order

Link to tweet

A group of Texas abortion providers and abortion rights advocates are suing state officials after Texas opted to include abortions among nonessential surgical procedures that must be deferred or canceled to focus on the coronavirus pandemic.

On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton confirmed that "any type of abortion that is not medically necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother" was included in Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's order that health care providers "postpone all surgeries and procedures that are not immediately medically necessary" to preserve a patient's life or condition.

Paxton noted that violating the order, which lasts until April 21, could result in fines of up to $1,000 or 180 days imprisonment.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday against Abbott, Paxton and other state officials by local providers, as well as Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, the groups called on a federal judge to block the restriction on abortion. They argued that it "violates Plaintiffs' patients' fundamental constitutional right to decide whether to have an abortion prior to viability."

"The Texas Attorney General's enforcement threats are a blatant effort to exploit a public health crisis to advance an extreme, anti-abortion agenda, without any benefit to the state in terms of preventing or resolving shortages of (personal protective equipment) or hospital capacity," they wrote. "As a result of these threats, this week Plaintiffs have already been forced to turn away patients in need of time-sensitive care."