Repro Wrap: GOP Wants to Take D.C.’s Birth Control, TRAPs, even couple positives...
Care2 Causes
Congressional Republicans know they aren’t going to get very far this year when it comes to blocking abortion on a federal level. Even if they manage to pass any of their abortion bills in the works — a ban on funding Planned Parenthood, a bill to make abortion illegal after 22 weeks gestation, even a “personhood” amendment — they know that a presidential veto will stop it from ever becoming law. Maybe that’s why they are taking their personal frustrations out on Washington D.C. itself, and taking this lack of home rule advantage to its furthest limits.
The District often finds itself bearing the brunt of a GOP obsession with abortion due to the rule that allows Congress to create laws for the city. Whenever there is a Republican majority, for instance, District residents can be sure that their Medicaid funding for abortions for those who are low income will disappear. This time, the GOP is going further than it has in decades when it comes to telling D.C. what it can do with its reproductive rights, by putting a “religious freedom” bill out that will overrule a new law forbidding employers from firing employees for using birth control and other reproductive health care services.
“{I}f you’re a member of Congress, you’ve got the people of the District of Columbia to whom you can teach a thing or two; they’re not allowed voting representation in Congress, so no need to worry,” explains Amanda Teuscher. “And because of the District’s peculiar status as the nation’s capital, and the congressional oversight that comes with it, you’ve got quite the stage for making your point. Feel free to use the liberal city as a fun experiment for your conservative policies.”
According to the Washington Post, this is the first time in 23 years that Congress has tried to overturn a D.C. law, and it’s going to make for some serious bad blood. But of course, since the city has no representatives to punish, there’s very little that they can do to retaliate.
In other federal news, Attorney General Loretta Lynch has been confirmed now that the stalemate over the Hyde Amendment in the federal human trafficking bill has been somewhat resolved. Abortion rights activists are demanding that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton come out strong in favor of abortion and birth control access as she hits the campaign trail. And anti-abortion activists are all banding together to demand the 20 week ban be reintroduced in the House, which means it was probably already about to happen.
It was a big week for waiting periods this week as Tennessee’s 48 hour waiting period (with two clinic appointments) proposal heads to the governor’s desk for signature. A North Carolina three day wait is being fast tracked in an effort to get it to their governor soon as well. Luckily, the initial appointment does not need to be in person, and the rule stating that the medical schools cannot offer abortions has been stripped. Florida’s in person, two trip 24 hour waiting period has made it through the House and is expected to meet with little opposition as it heads to the governor.
In other news, a new bill in Alabama that would make it impossible for an abortion clinic to do business if it is located within 2,000 feet of a school is meant to close the Huntsville clinic, but could close every provider in the state, too. Lawyers for the only clinic in Mississippi are demanding the Supreme Court refuse to hear the state’s case regarding admitting privileges requirements. And Montana passed a bill requiring that an abortion on a fetus at 20 weeks use anesthetic – for the fetus.
A lawmaker in Iowa blocked a bill that would have stopped rapists from obtaining parental rights over a child conceived via sexual assault, calling it a “feel good bill.” Apparently that’s a bad thing. Louisiana is continuing to rewrite its rules governing abortion clinics, even though it still has a current TRAP law held up in the courts.
In good news this week, Illinois is hearing a bill that would require crisis pregnancy centers to provide a referral to an abortion clinic to a patient if she asks for one, and provide accurate medical information about abortions, and a contrived lawsuit around an alleged “botched” abortion in West Virginia has been dismissed due to lack of evidence (and some pretty serious accusations of meddling by an anti-abortion physician).
Finally, gay marriage is NOT going to cause tens of thousands of abortions. You’re welcome.
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