Hey ladies? You weren't going to use your rights, right? ^UPDATED 2*

Been wanting to get to this for awhile now. So, as we are in the 40th anniversary year of Roe Vs. Wade, let's see how the rights of women stand.

You may not like the state of reproductive rights.

In three states, access to abortion are all but gone. In North Dakota, South Dakota, and Mississippi, there are solitary facilities for women to, in any way, have an abortion procedure done. Per Roe vs. Wade, it isn't being banned. But conservatives are working on many ways to limit women. Through business pressure, social pressure, threats, and government. In Mississippi, the rules placed on any facility have grown more and more onerous. They've moved from demanding they own extraneous machinery to having closets of a certain size to demanding doctors have privileges at a nearby hospital. And that is the magic one. Because any hospital that doesn't want to be made to suffer is not going to give those privileges  We can only hope the court agrees that these laws are all bullshit.

Arkansas has just made it law that a pregnancy that reaches 20 weeks cannot (barring fine print exceptions) be terminated. The state senate overrode a veto to do this. And this follows on a number of states that have also passed bills into law to also ban abortions at 20 weeks. But it isn't stopping there. The now are working on a Heartbeat Bill. This will push the ban on abortion to the 12 week mark.

North Dakota is working on a bill that will give fertilized eggs legal rights. And as such, you can go after women seeking to abort them. More than this, it means, along with abortion, many forms of birth control and infertility treatment will also become illegal. These conservatives keep trying to pass bills that are loaded down with so many side effects. It is sickening.

Iowa Republicans are thinking a lot like North Dakota and pushing the idea now of redefining murder in the state. It would now include knowingly killing a fertilized egg. What is impressive here is that it is about charging murder. That means women will go to prison.

Indiana is looking at the transvaginal probe idea again. But they don't want to be banal about it. So, they want to force women to be transvaginally probed TWICE. Why? They don't like women. Also, it is worth reminding ourselves that 12 states currently go force women to have mandatory ultrasounds. This problem has not gone away.


South Dakota is placing mandatory new waiting periods on women seeking an abortion. Now they already require 3 days of waiting, along with being ministered to by anti-abortion advocates. But a new law will be declare weekends and any holidays WILL NOT count. So If you begin on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday do not count, and you have to wait over Monday and Tuesday as well. With only one facility in the state, and with it being on the edge of the state. This means a lot of travelling and hotel expenses for women (Not to mention missing work.). But more than that, why doesn't a Saturday or Sunday count as waiting? What's different? It's like having women face a second transvaginal probing. It's meant to trouble and stress women. It's about making women pay for daring to not follow the dictates of conservatives.

And, quite sadly, their is so much more being done to deny women their rights.

Not good news at all. Conservatives across the country are trying to find ways to bypass Roe Vs. Wade. In places like South Dakota, bans on abortion continually fail when put to a vote. So states just try and harass and torment to get what...a conservative zealous minority want. And that is not considering the segment of the US Supreme Court who are eager to tear down 40 year old decision.

This fight keeps going on. They keep pushing us back.

So, just as a reminder, 2014 is coming. Be sure to vote. It matters. And this year, be sure your state legislators and governors are reminded you have a vote and voice, and they don't get to stay in office forever. Get pissed off and get active.

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ADDENDUM:

Hey! Remember how I said Arkansas was looking to bar women from seeking an abortion after 12 weeks? They passed the idea into law. If women don't act fast enough, and leap across every other hurdle the conservatives place to keep women from using their rights, you will be denied.

Welcome to the GOP vision of the future. Discovery of the pregnancy, decision to made, waiting periods, repeated counseling sessions, repeated doctor visits, and limited numbers of doctors available, all to be dealt with in 12 weeks from conception. If only they could force women to train for and run a marathon before they can visit a doctor.

Look forward to this being pushed into law in more states before long.


We can hope Gov. Beebe will veto this law, as he did the 20 week ban. But, as with that, the state senate looks ready to overturn the veto. Still, I hope he stands bu the fact this law is bad for the state, and will drag the state into a losing lawsuit.

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ADDENDUM 2:

What has looked this year like a dash, among conservatives, to bar access to abortion services has turned into an outright speed race. It is only growing more disconcerting. Conservatives have encroached more and more on the rights on women. And following electoral losses, they are charging harder.

So, now, in North Dakota, following their previously mentioned efforts, they are now banning abortions after 6 WEEKS. No typo there. So, if their fetal rights law doesn't work, they are hoping to just make it impossible for women to have the time to get help.

So now women will have to learn they are pregnant, then travel to the ONE clinic in the whole state, which will depend on if they can get the time off work, etc. THEN they will be required to wait one day. So, if it takes you a month to realize a pregnancy, that's 4 of 6 weeks gone. With the time left you have to make your decision and then travel and wait.

It's just unbelievable. No, it isn't, is it?

We know, so many red states are howling at this bill now, conservatives bitterly jealous that they hadn't thought to push this far. So, soon, they will join. Or, they will be trying to ban abortion after 3 weeks, or 1 weeks, or 1 day.

It is what they want. They want a woman going to a hospital the morning after conception to be too late to get assistance. These are constraints that conservatives long have dreamed of placing on women, once again.

They salivate at the idea it could be true again. In so many ways conservatism wishes it was the 1950's.