{"id":10408,"date":"2012-01-09T13:36:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T18:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=10408"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:07:43","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:07:43","slug":"the-worst-gop-attacks-against-a-womans-right-to-choose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/01\/09\/the-worst-gop-attacks-against-a-womans-right-to-choose\/","title":{"rendered":"The Worst GOP Attacks Against A Woman’s Right To Choose"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Article:<\/strong> The GOP\u2019s 10 Most Extreme Attacks On A Woman\u2019s Right To Choose An Abortion<\/a> by Tanya Somanader in Think Progress<\/p>\n

The Text:<\/strong> 2011 marked a banner year in the Republican war on woman\u2019s health. Close to 1,000 anti-abortion bills sped through state legislatures as the GOP-led House led a \u201ccomprehensive and radical assault\u201d on a federal level. But in surveying their arsenal this year, 10 bills stood out as particularly perturbing and far-reaching efforts to stymie women\u2019s access to abortion services, birth control, and vital health services like breast cancer screenings. Here are ThinkProgress\u2019s nominations for the most extreme attacks on a woman\u2019s right to choose:<\/p>\n

\u2013 Redefining Rape:<\/strong> Last May, every House Republican and 16 anti-choice Democrats passed H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act. Anti-choice activists Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) tried to narrow the definition of rape to \u201cforcible rape,\u201d which meant that women who say no but do not physically fight off the assault; women who are drugged or verbally threatened and raped; and minors impregnated by adults would not qualify for the rape and incest exception in the Hyde Amendment. Smith promised to remove the language but used \u201ca sly legislative maneuver\u201d that essentially informs the courts that statutory rape cases will not be covered by Medicaid should the law pass and be challenged in court.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Abortion Audits:<\/strong> The No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act also bans using tax credits or deductions to pay for abortions or insurance. Thus, a woman who used such a benefit would have to prove, if audited, that her abortion \u201cfell under the rape\/incest\/life-of-the-mother exception, or that the health insurance she had purchased did not cover abortions.\u201d This requirement turns the Internal Revenue Service into \u201cabortion cops\u201d who, agents noted, would have to force women to give \u201ccontemporaneous written documentation\u201d that it was \u201cincest, or rape, or [her] life was in danger\u201d which made an abortion necessary.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2013 Let Women Die:<\/strong> This October, House Republicans also passed the \u201cProtect Life Act\u201d, known by women\u2019s health advocates as the \u201cLet Women Die\u201d bill. The measure allows hospitals that receive federal funds to reject any woman in need of an abortion procedure, even if it is necessary to save her life. Though federal law already prohibits federal funding of abortions, the GOP insisted that the health care law \u201ccontains a loophole that allows those receiving federal subsidies to use the money to enroll in health care plans that allow abortion services.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Personhood:<\/strong> Mississippi entertained the idea of passing a \u201cpersonhood\u201d amendment to its constitution this year, one that defines a person as \u201cevery human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.\u201d The measure\u2019s \u201cprofoundly ambiguous\u201d language regarding the definition of fertilization not only would ban all abortions, it could potentially outlaw birth control, stem cell research, and in vitro fertilization for couples struggling to conceive. Mississippians rejected the amendment but personhood activists are making headway with versions for other states and GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is championing a national personhood amendment.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Race\/Sex Abortions:<\/strong> Taking their queue from Arizona, House Republicans introduced the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA) \u2014 a so-called \u201ccivil rights\u201d bill that bans physicians from performing abortions based on the fetus\u2019s race or sex. The problem of selective abortion is virtually non-existent, as not one state official or independent research offered any evidence of race-based abortions. Only 5 percent of abortions occur after the point when a fetus\u2019s sex can be determined. Arizona\u2019s measure, now law, sends doctors and clinicians to jail for three years if they knowingly provide such abortions. The federal bill PRENDA allows for civil suits against the physicians.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Forced Ultrasounds:<\/strong> Several states pushed bills that force doctors to show a woman seeking abortion services an ultrasound of the fetus, and in some cases, describe the image to her. The Kentucky bill, for instance, required doctors to describe the image if the woman chose to avert her eyes or face a $250,000 fine for disobeying the law. The bills are designed to dissuade women from undergoing the procedure, and in Michigan\u2019s case, provide a \u201cgift to the medical device industry\u201d by forcing doctors to use \u201cthe most advanced ultrasound equipment available\u201d to get the most \u201cdistinct\u201d image of the fetus possible. North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D-NC) vetoed her state\u2019s version of the bill, viewing it as \u201ca dangerous intrusion into the confidential relationship that exists between women and their doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Fetal Pain:<\/strong> This year, multiple states pushed legislation limiting or banning abortions past 20 \u2013 22 weeks \u201cbased on disputed research that fetuses an feel pain at that point of development.\u201d The idea is widely panned by many in the medical field, with the Journal of the American Medical Association determining that \u201cpain perception probably does not function before the third trimester.\u201d Regardless of the science, Republican lawmakers and even presidential candidate Rick Perry endorsed the fetal pain concept in order to challenge the Roe v. Wade ruling and push an earlier ban on abortions. So discredited is the concept of fetal pain that even a Kansas Republican slammed the \u201cfalse research,\u201d adding \u201cI would be embarrassed to be a state that bases its laws on untruths.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 Heartbeat Bill:<\/strong> Ohio Republicans are leading other states on the path to pass the \u201cheartbeat bill,\u201d which, if enacted, will be \u201cthe most restrictive anti-abortion law in the nation.\u201d The bill outlaws abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can occur as early as \u201csix to seven weeks into pregnancy\u201d or before a woman even knows she is pregnant. There is no exception in the bill for rape, incest, or mental health of a woman. What\u2019s more, the bill forces doctors to wait until a woman is actually in danger of dying to ensure the abortion falls under the \u201cthreat to life\u201d exception.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Government Shutdown:<\/strong> The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is an international development agency that promotes universal access to reproductive health services. UNFPA does not, nor has it ever, funded abortions \u2014 as dictated by its steering document and by its members. But as Matt Yglesias reported, Republicans were determined to believe that UNFPA funds abortion and thus held up negotiations to fund the government with a policy rider eliminating funding for UNFPA. U.S. law also forbids foreign funding to any entity that supports abortion, but House Republicans were so committed to their unfounded belief that the U.S. might be doing so that they threatened to shut down the entire government over it.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Attack On Planned Parenthood:<\/strong> While simultaneously trying to ban abortions outright, GOP lawmakers on a state and federal level launched a full-scale effort to defund Planned Parenthood. Only 3 percent of the women\u2019s health organization\u2019s services are related to abortion, but it\u2019s association with abortion compelled Republicans to enact legislation cutting or completely defunding Planned Parenthood clinics. Without the funds, many clinics across the country were forced to close, leaving hundreds of thousands of women without vital services like breast cancer screenings, STD testing, and contraception. Texas, the largest state to defund the organizations, may also shut down the entire Women\u2019s Health Program that served 125,000 Texas women in 2012 because some of the family planning clinics in the program are affiliated with Planned Parenthood. Arizona even passed a law banning charity contributions to any organization that is related to abortions or even donates to an organization that is related to abortions. Indeed, this year\u2019s Republican war on Planned Parenthood left thousands of low-income women and children who benefit from tangential health programs as collateral damage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Article: The GOP\u2019s 10 Most Extreme Attacks On A Woman\u2019s Right To Choose An Abortion by Tanya Somanader in Think Progress The Text: 2011 marked a banner year in the Republican war on woman\u2019s health. Close to 1,000 anti-abortion bills sped through state legislatures as the GOP-led House led a \u201ccomprehensive and radical assault\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[259],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Worst GOP Attacks Against A Woman's Right To Choose - Prose Before Hos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Article: The GOP\u2019s 10 Most Extreme Attacks On A Woman\u2019s Right To Choose An Abortion by Tanya Somanader in Think Progress The Text: 2011 marked a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/article-of-the-day\/01\/09\/the-worst-gop-attacks-against-a-womans-right-to-choose\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Worst GOP Attacks Against A Woman's Right To Choose - 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