Fist Waving Feminism
Posts tagged Abortion
ROE V WORLD
Woman Files First Lawsuit Challenging ‘Fetal Pain’ Laws
Source: Jezebel.com
When pro-choice activists warn that restrictive abortion laws harm women in rural areas the most, Jennie Linn McCormack is who they’re talking about. In June, McCormack was charged with having an illegal abortion after police found a fetus in a box in her home that was between five and six months gestation. McCormack says she took abortion-inducing drugs she found online because she didn’t have enough money to get a legal abortion. When she got pregnant she was unmarried and unemployed and making only $200 to $250 a month. She already has three children and couldn’t spend the time or money necessary to travel from her home in southeastern Idaho to Salt Lake City for an abortion. The charges against McCormack were dropped, but now she’s challenging the laws she allegedly violated in what’s believed to be the first lawsuit to argue “fetal pain” restrictions are unconstitutional.
In the past two years, Idaho, Kansas, Alabama, Indiana, Oklahoma, and Nebraska, have banned abortions after 20 weeks, arguing that that’s when fetuses can feel pain. (Anti-choice activists aren’t all that interested in the scientific evidence that this isn’t true.) The Associated Press reports that now McCormack is seeking class-action status in a lawsuit that challenges the idea of “fetal pain” as well as other aspects of Idaho’s abortion law. A judge dismissed the case against her without prejudice for lack of evidence, which means that the prosecutor could refile she charges — unless McCormack is successful in having the laws declared unconstitutional.
Currently abortions in Idaho must be performed by physicians, and second-trimester abortions must take place in a hospital. If a woman causes her own abortion or goes to an unlicensed physician, she can be fined $5,000 and jailed for five years. The lawsuit says that this puts too much of a burden on women who live in rural areas of Idaho where there are no abortion providers. McCormack also argues that the ban on abortions after 20 weeks passed this year violates the Constitution because there’s no exception for abortions necessary to preserve the mother’s life, and it forbids some abortions before the fetus has reached viability. Roe v. Wade established that states can’t prohibit abortions before the age of viability, which other cases have found is between 22 and 23 weeks.
When the law was first passed, Idaho’s attorney general wrote a opinion warning lawmakers that the “fetal pain” measure might be unconstitutional, but they forged ahead anyway. If this lawsuit is successful, McCormack may be able to save herself from prosecution, and help prevent women like her from ending up in such a desperate situation.
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Stop the “Heartbeat” Bill
I just read an article that a 9 week old fetus “Testified” in front of the Legislature on the Ohio “Heart beat bill”
Everything that is going on with reproductive rights for women in America makes me want to RAGE (See rage here). BUT NOW Pro-Lifers are just plain insulting our intelligence.
Connie Schultz describes the hearing (source: Feministing)
“We‘re watching fetuses testify by ultrasound on a screen, and when the woman was rubbing the jelly on the belly of the woman, and she was only nine weeks pregnant and they couldn’t find a heart beat, she made a joke at one point that if only they had the vaginal probe, then they could get it and a bunch of the men on the committee started chuckling. And at that moment you realize that this has nothing to do with women‘s health. This has nothing to do with protecting life. This has everything to do with playing to their extremist base.
…And I sat there while an attorney from Washington got up and first suggested—not suggested—said that some women who are raped want to have those babies because it is a triumph over their rapist. And I could hear women gasp in the audience and some of them were tearing up. This is cruelty. This is an assault on women‘s rights.
The same lawyer at one point said if Romeo—I‘m not kidding you—if Romeo had known that Juliet still had a heart beat, Romeo would not have killed himself. And I wanted to look around the room and just ask for a show of hands, how many know this is fiction? How many know this was a play?”
Reading this description makes me sick, and at the same time wanna laugh. I cannot think for a moment that Pro-Life activists thought that these arguments will actually stand up as LEGITIMATE arguments. I really even struggle to describe this as extremism because even that sounds sane. Calling this extremism would actually make it seem LESS absurd than it is.
Everyday I read about new regulations on abortions, new bills being proposed, new bills being voted on that restrict a Woman’s right over her body, her life and her CHOICES. If you live in Ohio contact your local representative and STOP the “Heartbeat Bill”. Become an activist and regain rights over your body.
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The notions that rape is a possibility that women should plan for, or that abortions should not be provided to victims of rape or incest because some women might lie about an attack to get their insurance company to pay, reek of misogyny. Female voters need to pay closer attention to this rhetoric and be more vocal in challenging it, because ultimately it’s not the Kyls, DeGraafs and Turners who are losing control over their bodies. It’s them.
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Im feeling the need to rage
The United States government, headed by a bunch of white, privileged males, needs to get their fists and religion out of my uterus. What has been going on for the past 6 months regarding reproductive rights is NOT ok. Our countries’ government, almost SHUT DOWN over planned parenthood. THIS IS A JOKE. Your attention is needed, NEEDED, in many other places. Instead, Congress is meeting and voting on MY UTERUS, YOUR UTERUS, and what the best and most moral action for OUR UTERUSES are. This is my body, my rights, and my CHOICE! This should be enraging EVERY woman.
Rage finished.
- Fist Waving Feminism
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Things are getting a bit out of hand….
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