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Abortion Tag

Posted by Amy Miller on September 12, 2014 47 Comments
Today in New Orleans, attorneys for the State of Texas asked the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for an immediate stay to a previous ruling that disallows regulators from enforcing new laws against abortion providers. Earlier this summer, U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that the new laws were an unconstitutional undue burden on a woman's right to seek an abortion. That District Court decision has blocked enforcement of the new law “against any abortion provider –- present or future.” Via Bloomberg:
Texas accused Yeakel of making an end run around the appellate court’s 2013 decision that upheld Texas’s admitting-privileges rule, which requires that doctors gain permission to admit patients at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic where they perform abortions. Women’s health advocates and clinics fighting the anti-abortion limitations said in court filings that letting Texas go ahead with the measures while it appeals would have a “catastrophic impact on the availability of abortion services” in the state. “If a stay is granted, most of the remaining abortion providers would be forced to close overnight,” opponents of the law said in a filing asking the appeals court to deny the state’s request. “Many women’s constitutional rights would be extinguished before the appellate process ran its course, and their lives would be permanently and profoundly altered by the denial of abortion services.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 05, 2014 46 Comments
Well, this is interesting. I knew Wendy Davis was selling her new book while campaigning -- usually that's done before or after the campaign -- but we now know why. Davis' book reveals she had two abortions, something sure to shake up the race at a time when taking risks is worth it for her since otherwise she's going to lose. Via AP:
Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis reveals in a new campaign memoir that she terminated two pregnancies for medical reasons in the 1990s, including one where the fetus had developed a severe brain abnormality. Davis writes in "Forgetting to be Afraid" that she had an abortion in 1996 after an exam revealed that the brain of the fetus had developed in complete separation on the right and left sides. She also describes ending an earlier ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants outside the uterus. Davis disclosed the terminated pregnancies for the first time since her nearly 13-hour filibuster last year over a tough new Texas abortion law. Both pregnancies happened before Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, began her political career and after she was already a mother to two young girls.

Posted by Amy Miller on September 01, 2014 8 Comments
On Sunday, a federal judge temporarily blocked a new Louisiana law that would require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their practice. U.S. District Judge John deGravelles' ruling potentially saved all 5 of Louisiana's abortion clinics from being forced to close their doors today. Via Reuters:
"Plaintiffs will be allowed to operate lawfully while continuing their efforts to obtain privileges," Federal Judge John deGravelles wrote in the decision. A hearing will be scheduled within a month for the judge to make a more permanent ruling on the law. Abortion rights activists applauded the decision, the latest in a string of rulings against similar measures, saying it would give doctors more time to seek hospital privileges.
Last week, abortion providers from three Louisiana clinics sued the state over the new admitting privileges requirement, stating that it would cause all of Louisiana's clinics to close, forcing women to leave the state to seek an abortion. Similar laws have come under fire in Texas and Mississippi, and all are almost certain to head to the Fifth Circuit once the inevitable appeals are filed. DeGravelles' ruling is different than others we've seen in that it specifically addresses the problem of the time gap that exists between the time abortion providers apply for privileges at nearby hospitals, and the the that those hospitals either approve or reject the application. CBS News explains:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 29, 2014 52 Comments
U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel ruled today that portions of Texas' 2013 abortion law are unconstitutional. "HB 2," which passed during the last legislative session in spite of the efforts of now-gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis (D-10), drew the ire of women's rights activists and abortion providers for its imposition of higher standards on clinics who provide abortion services. The Opinion is embedded at the bottom of this post. Via the Houston Chronicle:
"The ambulatory-surgical-center requirement is unconstitutional because it imposes an undue burden on the right of women throughout Texas to seek a previability abortion," Yeakel ruled, blocking enforcement of the requirement scheduled to take effect Monday. Yeakel also ordered the McAllen and El Paso areas to be exempted from a separate provision of the law requiring abortion doctors to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. He described the law, called House Bill 2, as "a brutally effective system of abortion regulation that reduces access to abortion clinics, thereby creating a statewide burden for substantial numbers of Texas women." Already, a couple dozen clinics have closed since its enactment.
From the opinion:

Posted by Amy Miller on August 24, 2014 8 Comments
On Friday, several abortion providers sued the state of Louisiana over new laws governing doctors who choose to perform the procedure. Louisiana's new law, signed by Governor Bobby Jindal in June, requires that doctors who perform abortions have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services. Abortion providers are suing because they argue that the provisions in the statute may cause every clinic in the state to close. Bloomberg reports:
The Louisiana legislation, signed by Republican Governor Bobby Jindal in June, doesn’t allow enough time for compliance, the clinics argued in court papers. Hospitals typically need three to seven months to decide on a doctor’s application, they said. They were allowed only 81 days to comply with the law. “It is not at all clear that any doctor currently providing abortions at a clinic in Louisiana will be able to continue providing those services, thereby eliminating access to legal abortion in Louisiana” if the law takes effect as scheduled, attorneys for the clinics in Shreveport, Bossier City and Metairie wrote.
If this case ends up progressing through the court system, it will end up before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Although (as the article from Bloomberg points out) the government cannot "unduly" weigh down with regulations the right of a woman to seek an abortion (not "have an abortion," as is commonly misstated by abortion advocates,) the Fifth Circuit has previously ruled that “that driving distance alone to get to a clinic never constitutes a substantial obstacle. No matter how far." The story doesn't end there, however. A similar law in Texas has also come under fire in recent weeks over provisions governing abortion providers' facilities and admitting privileges, as are new laws in Mississippi. In Mississippi, however, the Fifth Circuit has ruled that Mississippi can't be allowed to "shift its burden" to neighboring states:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 09, 2014 39 Comments
In (speaks for itself) I presented the video of Emily Lett promoting her abortion. The video is embedded again at the bottom of this post. I used this screen cap to reflect what I saw as the flippant attitude. http://youtu.be/OxPUKV-WlKw But there was another aspect I thought about but didn't write about. It's reflected in the featured image. And it is captured by Elizabeth Scalia at The Anchoress, sent to me by reader Mike:
If you let yourself become distracted by what is coming from her mouth, you miss all that is revealed in her face, which tells the whole, and very different story. A month after the abortion — with the dramatic change in hairstyle that so many women effect when emotions are high and they need to feel in control of something — watch Emily, then. The light is gone from her eyes. The seeming disconnect between pc-fed head and instinctive heart is laid out in breathtaking and stark incongruity, even down to the shadows, the blue note, the lack of energy. Devastating. Cognizant of it or not, she is a mother in grief.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 14, 2014 45 Comments
Erick Erickson called Wendy Davis “Abortion Barbie” because of her cluelessness about the Gosnell shop of horrors at the same time she was fighting a proposed requirement that abortion clinics meet normal surgical center standards and abortion doctors have admitting privileges at local hostpitals. When Davis stepped back from that position the other day and declared that she could support a ban on late-term abortions if there were sufficient "deference" given to the doctor-patient relationship, I suggested the proper analogy was Gumby not Barbie because "infinitely flexible positions now are the hallmark of Wendy Davis’ campaign." For that change in position on late term abortion, Davis was accused of "betrayal" by abortion advocates. Davis, however, has changed her stance again, and now is back to opposing any ban on late-term abortions, because there is no amount of "deference" that could satisfy her, after all. Via San Antonio Express, Wendy Davis says it would be 'impossible' for Legislature to devise appropriate 20-week ban on abortion:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 13, 2014 21 Comments
The reaction to Wendy Davis' statement that she could support a ban on late-term abortion if there were more deference given to patients and physicians has caused angst in a Democratic base already upset over Davis' support of Open Carry laws. Amanda Marcotte at Slate.com called it a betrayal (emphasis added):
Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis made her name and kick-started her campaign for governor by filibustering an anti-abortion omnibus bill, standing and talking for 11 hours straight in support of abortion rights. So it comes as a surprise — and frankly, a betrayal — to learn that Davis told the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday that she could support a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, if it gave "enough deference between a woman and her doctor" to make the decision to abort after that point for medical reasons.... You may have bought her sneakers, but when it comes down to it, Wendy Davis is a politician.
Irin Carmon at MSNBC writes, Wendy Davis falls into abortion question trap:
This week, Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis delighted her detractors and confounded her pro-choice supporters when she appeared to support the very same 20-week ban she spent 11 hours filibustering..... It’s far too late for Davis to shy away from abortion rights, including the more politically uncomfortable parts, after confronting them head-on in her filibuster. Regardless of what she was trying to say, a political campaign isn’t a great place for complex or nuanced moral conversations. On the campaign trail, Davis would likely be better off if she stuck to the broader point she made in her filibuster: “The alleged reason for the bill is to enhance patient safety. But what [the provisions] really do is create provisions that treat women as though they are not capable of making their own medical decisions.”
Tata Culp-Ressler at Think Progress (yes, that Think Progress) wrote, Why Wendy Davis’ Position On 20-Week Abortion Bans Doesn’t Make Any Sense:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 27, 2013 34 Comments
Among the nicest things the Democratic smear machine called Sarah Palin was "Caribou Barbie." Just about everything else they called her was much worse. The term "Caribou Barbie" started within days of Palin's nomination for Veep in August 2008.  By September 2, 2008, the term was spreading throughout the left-blogosphere, as Michelle Malkin noted at the time. The term so took hold that it even was the subject of an SNL skit in October 2008, with Palin delivering the punch line in an attempt to make light of the term. It later was used by NY Times columnist Maureen Dowd:
"Caribou Barbie is one nutty puppy."
The treatment of Palin was sexist -- including liberal women who mocked Trig Palin and thought it the worst thing in the world that Palin had the audacity to bring him on stage with her -- but not just because of the term "Caribou Barbie."  That term was the least of it. The "Caribou Barbie" name was part of the myriad of accompanying photoshops and sexualizations of her, using any excuse to make sex jokes.  Palin wasn't just turned into any Barbie, but a sexy librarian and bikini model not just in the blogosphere, but from stars such as Stephen Colbert. With Palin it wasn't just the use of the term "Barbie," it was the full package of sexualized attacks, including from mainstream publications. [caption id="attachment_66047" align="alignnone" width="400"](Newsweek magazine, feature article, November 23, 2009) (Newsweek magazine, feature article, November 23, 2009)[/caption]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 18, 2013 16 Comments

A song from John Elefante formerly of the group Kansas. Ed Morrissey writes: If you’re not choking up by the end of this video — when John and Sami explain the meaning of this video — check your pulse. Yup. It's not often we hear pro-life songs coming from...

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 15, 2013 18 Comments
Buzzfeed seems to engender pretty strong feelings all around.  Mostly the criticism was from the right during the election, but I'm seeing grumbling from the left lately as well. I cautioned last February not to underestimate BuzzFeed Politics, which is an emerging force in news and uses cats to maximum effect.  Despite my tongue-in-cheek post, 5 Signs BuzzFeed May Have Peaked, I'm not really seeing the engine slowing down.  They have a lot of dollars, very talented staff, and they have me pegged. One thing that has caught my eye recently was that Buzzfeed lured in conservative readers through its Community section.  Yes, conservative readers. It must be some kind of Sun Tzu military theory: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] (Buzzfeed: Some of our best friends are Conservative)[/caption] I first noticed that when two of the best listicles I've seen from the conservative side showed up at Buzzfeed. The first, 16 Things You Didn’t Know About Your Life Before Birth by National Right to Life on August 27, was highlighted here National Right to Life hits home run where it counts, Buzzfeed:

Buzzfeed National Right to Life 16 Things screen shot

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 06, 2013 47 Comments

The author doesn't have the guts to put his name on it. Not surprised. Disgusting: We're having twins and I'm not happy about it, thought about aborting one twin. ow.ly/kL9cG ow.ly/kL9l7— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) May 6, 2013 As horrible as this might sound, we found ourselves wishing these...

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