Widespread War on Reproductive Rights

[xchrom]

http://www.nationofchange.org/widespread-war-reproductive-rights-1346938315



More than 1,100 bills aiming to restrict reproductive health access were introduced in state legislatures in 2011. By the end of the year, 135 of these measures were enacted in 35 states. The trend continued in the first half of 2012, with legislatures passing 95 new provisions related to birth control and abortion. But supporters of reproductive rights are pushing back.

When a “personhood amendment” that would grant human rights to a fertilized egg was put on the ballot last November in Mississippi—a Bible Belt state with a legacy of entrenched conservatism—pro-choice activists knew they faced an uphill battle against an initiative that would undercut access to safe and legal abortion and outlaw many forms of birth control, the morning-after pill, and in-vitro fertilization.

Mississippians for Healthy Families, aided by students, civil rights activists, and faith leaders, organized successfully to defeat the bill, winning 58 percent of the vote. It is difficult, if not impossible, for women and medical professionals to pinpoint the exact moment an ovum is fertilized, so the new law would have been impossible to follow consistently. Had it passed, it would have necessitated a Supreme Court challenge, and thus an opportunity to reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that legalized abortion.

But Mississippi was just one battle in what many call “the war on women”—an assault on reproductive rights through bills to outlaw abortion, limit access to birth control, and eliminate funding for women’s health programs. The bills, all spearheaded by Republican legislators, are backed by the religious right and powerful lobbies. Prominent in recentcampaigns to limit or deny abortion and birth control were the the National Right to Life Committee and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

[lunatica]

1. I'm delighted they're bringing it front and center at the Convention

This war against women needs national exposure. I'm flabbergasted at how few of the women I work with have any idea of what's going on. When I tell them their first reaction is that I must be exaggerating. They're just like I was at first where I just shrugged the idiocy off because that war was a thing of the past.

So, yes, this war on women needs to be exposed big time. Where better than at the Democratic Presidential Convention?

[summerschild]

2. The "personhood" inclusion in the GOP platform should

alarm every woman, and every man who loves one!

Every spontaneous miscarriage would become a potential murder charge.

[niyad]

3. k and r