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We talked the other day about the seemingly endless stream of bills from congressional Republicans targeting American women’s reproductive rights. But it’s worth noting the crusade in Washington pales in comparison to what we’re seeing at the state level. Emily Bazelon explains today:
Ever since Republicans took control of half the country’s statehouses this year, the anti-abortion movement has won one victory after another. At least 64 new anti-abortion laws have passed, with more than 30 of them in April alone. The campaign is the largest in history and also the most creative. Virginia started regulating abortion clinics as if they were hospitals. Utah, Nebraska and several other states have stopped private health insurers from covering abortions, with rare exceptions. South Dakota will soon tell women that before they go to an abortion clinic, they must first visit a crisis pregnancy center whose mission is to talk them out of it.
For abortion foes, the state victories are a balm after a long period of frustration. “In eight years of Bush, we saw almost no movement,” one anti-abortion organizer told me. But now? “The way we’re gathering momentum is just amazing,” says Charmaine Yoest, the president of Americans United for Life. Her group offers state lawmakers 32 pieces of model legislation, and its approach is to chip away at the protections of Roe v. Wade rather than challenge it outright. Taken together, these new state laws are hugely effective — incrementalism on steroids.
Naturally, abortion rights advocates are terrified by this.
And they should be.
It’s worth noting that the point of Bazelon’s piece was to explore the legal strategies involved in the larger debate, and the ways in which pro-choice advocates “are being remarkably shrewd in their case selection.” It’s an important observation, and it’s well worth reading.
But I’m still taken aback by the scope of the conservative efforts themselves. Congressional Republicans have prioritized abortion over unemployment; state Republicans have passed at least 64 bills related to abortion rights in just five months; and in some states, the crusade is so aggressive, policymakers are banning specific abortion procedures that aren’t even being practiced in those states.
I wonder how many Americans, who don’t closely follow the struggle to protect reproductive rights, were lulled into a false sense of security, assuming that recent Republican victories would lead to far-right economic policies, but not a renewed culture war over abortion. For that matter, I also wonder how many pro-choice advocates didn’t bother to show up to the polls in 2010 because they simply didn’t appreciate the seriousness of the threat.
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c u n d gulag on May 29, 2011 8:08 AM:
Look, they can't do much about the gays, blacks and hispanics anymore, so they fall back on beatin' on da bitch's an' ho's. *
It's how they roll...
*We know them as WOMEN.
Don't CAPTCHA it - KILL IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
FRP on May 29, 2011 8:18 AM:
Sharia law has been comfortingly dealt with as well . The simple anger of being forced to think and employ repeatable logic has broken the thin tether to cause and reaction , sadly , of the leading lights of the Very manly Very Victorian parties wet panties brigade .
Will no one help ? Please donate a thought for the worn out thinkers of the Very manly Very Victorian parties wet panties brigade , you will be glad you did .
DAY on May 29, 2011 8:33 AM:
Interesting, is it not, these folks morbid fascination with the fetus, and their total disregard for the vessel?
The commercial exploitation of the masses-Dancing with the Stars, for instance- is the American Way.
But spontaneous Dancing with the Self at the Jefferson Memorial is a such a grievous affront to Decorum that arrest is warranted.
Money is now First Amendment protected Free Speech. Dancing, not so much. Down the Rabbit Hole, once again. . .
JCT on May 29, 2011 8:42 AM:
Yes, it's unfortunate that so many democratic voters stayed home, but the essential aspect of this anti-woman campaign is that it was stealthy. Just like the anti-union crusade. These guys didn't campaign on any of this...
msmolly on May 29, 2011 9:10 AM:
@c u n d gulag on May 29, 2011 8:08 AM:
I thought you weren't going to comment any more until CAPTCHA is gone. Are you falling off the Benen wagon already?
LOL. I'm with you, I hate CAPTCHA and I am mostly not commenting because of it. My comments aren't important enough to put up with the headache.
SteveT on May 29, 2011 9:20 AM:
DAY said:
Interesting, is it not, these folks morbid fascination with the fetus, and their total disregard for the vessel?
Not to mention their total regard for the fetus after it's born.
But as with the Republican plan for Medicare, the Democrats could get a lot of political milage out of talking about the Republicans' agenda for restricting all aspects of women's health -- not just abortion but also things like contraception, pre- and post-natal care and cancer screenings.
Every single time a Republican talks about Roe v Wade and Democrat needs to ask them whether they agree with Griswold v Connecticut.
Every single time a Republican talks about "the sanctity of human life" Democrats need to go on he attack. Democrats need to ask Republicans wether they believe human life is sacred after it's born, because their actions show that they don't.
In fact, almost every political issue today is an issue of human life. Republicans want to deregulate mining? How many miscarriages is acceptable? They oppose stricter enforcement of food safety? How many children dying from salmonella is okay? They want to cut health care? How many deaths from cancers that aren't caught on time are they willing to accept? They say people should be responsible for their own health care? Ask them why they help ship American jobs overseas.
The blowback against the Ryan proposal gives Democrats a clear path toward victory. That's assuming, of course, that Democrats actually believe in and are willing to fight for the agenda of the the people they're supposed to represent.
Personally, I still think the Democratic party looks more and more like the Chicago Black Sox.
berttheclock on May 29, 2011 9:35 AM:
Steve, you continue to not discuss the power of ALEC, the American Learning Exchange Council founded by "Moral Majority" Paul Weyrich. ALEC was formed to defeat both the Equal Rights Amendment and abortion on demand. They have accumulated a vast war chest and have their tentacles into the state legislatures across this nation. It is no wonder the concerted efforts of the many legislatures to all produce anti-abortion bills has become a pattern of one. The power of many state legislatures comes from suburban and rural legislators. The cities may be blue, in some states, but, there is a great deal of power from those areas and ALEC has made useage of their war chest. Please, Steve, would you write a thread about this group?
c u n d gulag on May 29, 2011 9:36 AM:
msmolly,
What can I say?
I'm weak.
And I love Steve - in a manly, manly, not at all gay at all manly way.
Did I mention 'manly?'
And, like Ralph Kramden"
I HAVE A BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIG MOUTH!
I'M A BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABER MOUTH!
A BLAH, BLAH, BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABER MOUTH!
gelfling545 on May 29, 2011 11:39 AM:
"I wonder how many Americans, who don’t closely follow the struggle to protect reproductive rights, were lulled into a false sense of security, assuming that recent Republican victories would lead to far-right economic policies, but not a renewed culture war over abortion.
I believe it's the opposite. They voter FOR the culture war stuff. It's the economic policies that have taken them by surprise. The culture war is how people are persuaded to vote against their own economic interests.
Kija on May 29, 2011 12:57 PM:
What do you mean they haven't done anything about jobs? Cutting access to abortion and contraception will mean more women pregnant get pregnant and some will leave the workforce for a year or two. Shoving women back in the kitchen is their jobs strategy. You know they think the whole world went to hell when women started working.
John Herbison on May 29, 2011 4:14 PM:
Referring to abortion rights as "reproductive rights" grates like fingernails on a chalkboard. Can anyone provide a quote from, or a link to, any serious person writing or speaking in opposition to the right to reproduce? (We see how that worked for the Shakers.)
Abortion rights (as well as the right to use contraception) involve avoidance of reproduction. Abortion rights and reproductive rights are accordingly different things, just as crime and crime prevention are different things.
G. Orwell, 1984 (1948)
S. Benen, Political Animal (5/29/2011)
exlibra on May 29, 2011 4:16 PM:
I wonder how many Americans, who don’t closely follow the struggle to protect reproductive rights, were lulled into a false sense of security,[...] --Steve Benen
There's that, for sure. But there's also the fact that the older generation votes in greater numbers than the youngsters do. And, for the Grey Berets Brigades, reproductive rights are a bit of a theoretical thought exercise. At 60+ I'm not going to get pregnant, so access to abortion isn't my first priority. Indeed, stopping those young hussies -- who're still getting what I ain't -- might be a motivator in itself.
Then, too, there's a sort of cavalier attitude among many of us (especially on the left), that local doesn't matter all that much; only the federal level is important. I'm guilty of it myself and I see it all around me; my husband -- a yellow dog Dem for 66 yrs of his 87 -- didn't even know who our State Senator was. He voted the ticket. But at least he voted; for him it's both an obligation and a long-standing habit. For someone in his/her twenties or early thirties, with a couple of kids still in diapers, it's too much effort and not worth the fight. Besides... Half of the time, our Repub representatives are so well entrenched, that we don't even have someone of our own (never mind a *credible* someone)running; who wants to spend months begging for money and running around weirdly-shaped districts, just to get trounced?
Captcha is in an especially ferocious mood today; it scared me off a couple of times, by making its letters upside down and/or in foreign script. But, a third time on this one it relented and sort-of aplologised, Repub style: "niusing been". Yes, dear; you've been a great nuisance.
zandru on May 29, 2011 8:45 PM:
SteveT says it well - every Democrat ought to start couching every Republican budget choice in terms of the Republican's stated "pro-life" position, and asking how they rationalize it:
That's right - and a budget is a statement of moral priorities. (Geeze, these are good campaign phrases!)
I've long been a fan of casting Republicans' rhetoric back at them, like describing their state-imposed Medicaid cutoffs or the Ryan Plan as "death panels". Here, by taking them at their word that they are just trying to "protect human life" and asking them to explain HOW, viewers ought to get some indication of how honest the GOP position is.
Follow up with additional questions on how starving, undereducating, and leaving our children with the wreckage of a once-great country will be consolation for the lower taxes they'll be paying - assuming they're even employed.
Then Democrats will be on a roll.
Crissa on May 29, 2011 8:54 PM:
It makes me wonder what possible legal excuse they can have for limiting insurance coverage to only cover illegal acts and not legal ones - or for the insurance companies to be gatekeepers of who was or wasn't raped.
Anonymous on May 29, 2011 8:58 PM:
John Herbison would like us to think that the right not to be pregnant, or to not continue a risky, doomed, or unwanted pregnancy isn't a reproductive right.
Apparently in his world, only men have reproductive 'rights' - women don't get to choose when or if they're taking the risk of pregnancy and parenthood.
John Herbison on May 29, 2011 10:45 PM:
Anonymous, I am a supporter of abortion rights, the right to use contraception, and the right to reproduce. These are distinct rights, and the language should reflect that distinction. Each party to an act of vaginal sex has the right to avoid reproduction by use of contraception, and a pregnant woman has the right to choose to carry to term and reproduce or to choose to abort and thereby avoid reproduction.
The U.S. Supreme Court has twice considered governmental restrictions on the right to reproduce. In Buck v. Bell the Court upheld a Virginia statute that authorized the superintendent of a residential facility for the feeble minded to order the sterilization of residents of the institution.
In Skinner v. State of Oklahoma ex rel. Williamson, the Court invalidated a state habitual criminal statute which required surgical sterilization of prison inmates who were convicted three times of certain specified offenses, including larceny. Inmates convicted of crimes of similar gravity, such as embezzlement, were not subject to sterilization. The Court decided that this violated Constitutional Equal Protection guaranties.
The constitutional rights of privacy and personal autonomy include different areas. Reproduction is one. The avoidance of reproduction, whether by preventing conception or by abortion, is another. The two should not be conflated because supporters of abortion rights are squeamish about calling that procedure by its name.
Any other questions about my world (view), please ask and don't speculate.