Roe v Wade is on deck

[lpetrich]

Seems a lot like slavery, an issue that the US was divided on for decades before it was resolved by the Civil War. The division started in colonial days, and the Founders papered over that division in the Constitution with their 3/5 compromise for counting slaves for Congressional representation and with calling slaves "other persons".

So it went for over half a century. Expansion westward caused a problem: incoming states may be either free states, without slavery, or slave states, with slavery. To avoid conflicts over that issue, the politicians agreed on the Missouri Compromise: admit new states in pairs, one free and one slave. But it was not very satisfactory. Northerners grumbled about the "slave power" or "slaveocracy" having undue influence over the nation.

That system broke down in the 1850's, with proslavery and antislavery settlers both settling in Kansas, then a territory, and fighting it out, making the territory "bleeding Kansas". Slavery supporters pushed through their Fugitive Slave Act, giving slaveowners the right to send slave catchers into northern states to capture and return escaped slaves. That was too much for many northerners, and they often passed "personal liberty" laws, wanting such things as proof of ownership.

Also happening was demographic changes. The US accepted large numbers of immigrants, and they preferred to settle in the northern states, the free states. That eventually enabled the North to overcome the South's 3/5-slave advantage in Congress, and that eventually enabled a North-supported Presidential candidate to be elected: Abraham Lincoln.

The Southern states seceded, provoking the Civil War. In their secession statements, they said that it was to protect slavery. The North was mainly in it to keep the nation together, at least at first. President Lincoln wanted to keep the pro-Union border states on his side, so he did not press the slavery issue very much at first. But to get more support for the war, he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, decreeing that all the slaves under anti-Union rule were to be freed. As Union armies approached, slaves often freed themselves, and some of them ended up joining those armies.

The Southern slave-plantation society was completely destroyed.

 

[lpetrich]

How is abortion like this? Let's look at some history.

• History of Abortion in the U.S. Timeline | Eastside Gynecology
• Timeline of Attacks on Abortion
• The surprising history of abortion in the United States | CNN
•  Timeline of reproductive rights legislation

First, the US culture war about abortion is *very* recent, and it did not exist more than half a century ago. For a long time, abortion was legal in many places before "quickening", when the fetus starts to move. But over 19th cy., the American Medical Association succeeded in getting most abortions outlawed in the US, and similar laws were passed in several other nations. This happened for reasons like eugenics and the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion and birth control.

But over the early and middle 20th cy., several places had efforts to liberalize abortion laws, with varying success. Among them was the US, and abortion laws were liberalized in several states. Some of the less restrictive states nevertheless had residency requirements, but New York didn't, and in the early 1970's, that state was a major destination for abortion tourists.

Then in 1973:

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe v. Wade, declared all the individual state bans on abortion during the first trimester to be unconstitutional, allowed states to regulate but not proscribe abortion during the second trimester, and allowed states to proscribe abortion during the third trimester unless abortion is in the best interest of the woman's physical or mental health. The Court legalized abortion in all trimesters when a woman's doctor believes the abortion is necessary for her physical or mental health and held that only a "compelling state interest" justified regulations limiting the individual right to privacy.

It came at the end of over a decade of huge reforms, reforms that shook up American society and made its more conservative members think that it was doomed. According to  Cyclical theory (United States history) the US alternates between liberal and conservative periods: reform vs. stagnation, public purpose vs. private interest, increasing democracy vs. containing democracy, concern with the wrongs of the many vs. concern with the rights of the few, concern with human rights vs. concern with property rights.

Each kind of phase generates the other kind, making a self-generating cycle. Liberal phases end from activism burnout on a society-wide scale. Activism can be exhausting, and one might eventually want a more normal sort of existence, especially if it seems like one has succeeded. In retrospect at least, that can mean a lot of unfinished business. Conservative phases end from unsolved problems that provoke efforts to solve them, problems that society's elites are unwilling to solve, if they accept that those problems are real problems that must be solved.

Reforms that come at the tail end of a liberal period are often not adequately assimilated by society. Reconstruction in the Civil War Era, women voting in the Progressive Era, and armed-forces desegregation in the New Deal Era, for instance.

Abortion fits in very well. It was legalized toward the end of the Sixties Era, and later decades show that acceptance of it was not adequately assimilated. Reconstruction was destroyed by white-supremacist counterrevolutionary "redeemers", while the North did little to stop it. Feminists had a lot more that they wanted to do than getting women the vote, but they did not get started again for almost half a century, in the Sixties Era. Civil-rights activists wanted to do much more than desegregate the armed forces, which President Harry Truman did after WWII. But it was nearly a decade before their activism got into full gear again.

 

[lpetrich]

Though the Catholic Church has long taken a hard line against abortion and birth control, conservative Protestants had been less hard-line in the early 1970's, and at first, the right wing was not very interested in abortion. Right-wingers were more interested in issues like  Bob Jones University v. United States about whether the IRS was right in revoking tax exemption for that fundamentalist university's racial policies. That university first refused to accept black students, citing its interpretation of the Bible, then from 1971 to 1975, accepted them only if they were married, then after 1975, accepted unmarried ones but forbade interracial dating.

But that did not grab people very much, but someone discovered an issue that did. Abortion. Abortion as baby killing. The outrage of baby killing was very good for rallying the troops.

The first shot in the ensuing political battle over abortion was fired very early, likely by Rep. Henry Hyde R-IL. In 1976, he proposed an amendment to an appropriations bill forbidding the use of Federal money to finance abortions. The  Hyde Amendment was then attached to budget bills ever since.

That seems to me much like the Missouri Compromise.

But it now seems to be fraying.

Opponents of abortion are trying a variety of tactics to make abortion difficult to get, and they have gotten some of them past the courts. Waiting periods. Ultrasound scans. Counseling. Imposing awkward regulations on abortion clinics. This from a party that claims to be opposed to government regulation of business.

Texas has gone one step further with its heartbeat law and other abortion opponents are planning to introduce similar bills.

On the pro side, abortion defenders are digging in, improving abortion protections in the states where they are strong, and wanting to repeal the Hyde Amendment.

This seems like Bleeding Kansas all over again, and Texas's heartbeat law seems like the mid-19th-cy. Fugitive Slave Act saying that northerners are obligated to help southerners catch escaped slaves.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

December 1, 2021 is the date set for the Mississippi case in SCOTUS.

Now there is something weird. The MS bill says abortions are legal until Week 15. I'm not certain how the MS AG can argue Roe v Wade needs to be overturned when the state law he is protecting says abortion is legal to week 15. Is he arguing MS state law is unconstitutional?

America is on the edge of their seat to figure out how the religious right on SCOTUS will rule. Abortions are: illegal, state's choice, *punt* to get to better case. SCOTUS usually likes to make as little change as possible. And finding abortion illegal really just requires too much work, primarily providing constitutional protections to an unborn fetus. They do that, well, what other rights does an unborn fetus have? But with this SCOTUS... who knows what they'll say. Precedence has largely been getting ignored with the higher publicity cases, so right to privacy (is it on the cutting block too?), right to marital privacy (not to Rep. Greene, that also isn't Marital Law), 14th Amendment based Federal oversight? Who the fuck knows. We'll find out in the spring, probably, although with these US, 1st World Taliban equivs, they might just rule right there at the bench.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

So Texas doctor says he performed illegal abortion in Texas. A prisoner in Arkansas is suing for a payout and a guy from Illinois is suing to get the law found unconstitutional.

These people are making a mockery of the Texas law. And it shouldn't be that easy to make a mockery of a law.

The wanna force women to birth the babies crowd is not happy.

"Neither of these lawsuits are valid attempts to save innocent human lives,” said John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, which lobbied for the new abortion law. “Both cases are self-serving legal stunts, abusing the cause of action created in the Texas Heartbeat Act for their own purposes.”

So now it is in the courts and we await a Judge to say, "The law does WHAT?!"

 

[Keith&Co.]

"Neither of these lawsuits are valid attempts to save innocent human lives,” said John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, which lobbied for the new abortion law. “Both cases are self-serving legal stunts, abusing the cause of action created in the Texas Heartbeat Act for their own purposes.”

Well, what did you THINK would happen? You put a bounty on dead babies.

 

[blastula]

Oh no, someone made a mockery out of a clown car law.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Can a Texas baby sue the abortionist and his circle of felons? That might be the heartstring-pull that the Pro-Lifers have been waiting for. Baby Sues Baby Killers!! Don't babies have standing? Aren't they closest to the age and situation of the fetus? Google: Any child from birth to age 4 can be called a baby. By age 4, you could coach your baby to sign a complaint document, or at least leave a pudding fingerprint on the signature line. Judging from what I hear 3- and 4-year-olds shrieking in checkout lines, they could give testimony, too. "This witch would kill me, if you let her!! ME!! I want cookie! Want it! Want itttttt!" The danger for the Pro-life side, I suppose, is that prolonged testimony from such a witness might raise the sympathy level for the pro-choice side.

 

[Shadowy Man]

So Texas doctor says he performed illegal abortion in Texas. A prisoner in Arkansas is suing for a payout and a guy from Illinois is suing to get the law found unconstitutional.

These people are making a mockery of the Texas law. And it shouldn't be that easy to make a mockery of a law.

The wanna force women to birth the babies crowd is not happy.

"Neither of these lawsuits are valid attempts to save innocent human lives,” said John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, which lobbied for the new abortion law. “Both cases are self-serving legal stunts, abusing the cause of action created in the Texas Heartbeat Act for their own purposes.”

So now it is in the courts and we await a Judge to say, "The law does WHAT?!"

I’m more interested in whether the judge says “and you have standing to sue because?”

 

[ZiprHead]

So Texas doctor says he performed illegal abortion in Texas. A prisoner in Arkansas is suing for a payout and a guy from Illinois is suing to get the law found unconstitutional.

These people are making a mockery of the Texas law. And it shouldn't be that easy to make a mockery of a law.

The wanna force women to birth the babies crowd is not happy.

"Neither of these lawsuits are valid attempts to save innocent human lives,” said John Seago, legislative director for Texas Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group, which lobbied for the new abortion law. “Both cases are self-serving legal stunts, abusing the cause of action created in the Texas Heartbeat Act for their own purposes.”

So now it is in the courts and we await a Judge to say, "The law does WHAT?!"

I’m more interested in whether the judge says “and you have standing to sue because?”

The judge will go along with the suit but it will get bumped up in appeals.

 

[ZiprHead]

Bill limiting abortion-inducing pills heads to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk to be signed into law

I just heard Abbott just signed it.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I'm going to start a Kickstarter to sell Mifepristone and Misoprostol as pest control. Kill mice. Not my fault if thry use it in violation of the label instructions.

 

[lpetrich]

H.R.3755 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress


Roll no. 294 - motion to recommit: last-minute obstruction
D: N 219
R: Y 210, nv 2
Total: Y 210, N 219, nv 2

The nonvoters were Liz Cheney, R-WY and Debbie Lesko, R-AZ-08

Roll no. 295 - the bill itself
D: Y 218, N 1
R: N 210, nv 2
Total: Y 218, N 211, nv 2

Same nonvoters as before. The only Democrat to vote No was Henry Cuellar, D-TX-28.

But someone is trying again to primary him:

Jessica Cisneros on Twitter: "Today, Henry Cuellar was the only Democrat to vote against protecting human rights.

His vote against #WHPA is a vote against reproductive health care for all South Texans.

It is clear where he stands: directly against our reproductive freedom and our health care. (pic link)" / Twitter

Jessica Cisneros on Twitter: "South Texas communities deserve a representative that will fight tooth and nail for our health care and reproductive freedom.

Help us take down the last anti-choice Democrat in Congress. (link)" / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

H.R.380 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Abortion Is Not Health Care Act of 2021 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
S.124 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Abortion Is Not Health Care Act of 2021 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
"This bill prohibits a tax deduction for medical expenses paid for an abortion."

This essentially makes a law out of the Hyde Amendment.
H.R.18 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2021 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
S.92 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2021 | Congress.gov | Library of Congress
"Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions or for health coverage that includes abortions."

Lots of Republicans supported both pairs of bills, and the second one was supported by nearly every Republican in Congress, but those bills went nowhere.

 

[ZiprHead]

Fox News Host Confronts GOP Gov. Greg Abbott on Texas Abortion Law, Vow to 'Eliminate Rape'

Wallace raised the issue with Abbott during a Sunday interview on Fox News Sunday, pointing out that the law does not even offer any exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The GOP governor has previously defended the law and argued that Texas will "eliminate" rape going forward.

"In 2019, which is the last year that we have numbers for, almost 15,000 cases of rape were reported in your state of Texas," Wallace said. "And almost everyone says that's a severe undercount. There are a lot more cases that just aren't reported."

"Is it reasonable to say to somebody who is the victim of rape and might not understand that they are pregnant until six weeks, 'Well, don't worry about it because we're going to eliminate rape as a problem in the state of Texas?'" the Fox News host asked the Republican lawmaker.

Abbott responded by saying that survivors of sexual assault "deserve support." He said that his state is "stepping up to make sure we provide that by signing a law and creating in the governor's office a sexual assault survivors task force."

Wallace then interjected, again reiterating that "there were more than 15,000 rapes in 2019 when you were governor." He asked Abbott if he would be willing to sign legislation to amend the current ban to carve out exceptions for rape and incest. Texas state Representative Lyle Larson, a Republican, has put forward a bill that would make such exceptions, but it's not expected to pass in the conservative legislature.

More and video in the link.

 

[lpetrich]

With Abortion Largely Banned in Texas, an Oklahoma Clinic Is Inundated - The New York Times

On a windy Tuesday morning, the parking lot outside a small brick building on the Southside of Oklahoma City was filling up fast. The first to arrive, a red truck shortly before 8 a.m., was from Texas. So was the second and the third.

The building houses one of Oklahoma’s four abortion clinics, and at least two-thirds of its scheduled patients now come from Texas. So many, in fact, that it is trying to hire more staff members and doctors to keep up.

... About half the patients at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La., are now from Texas, up from about a fifth before the law. At Little Rock Family Planning Services, in Arkansas, Texas patients make up 19 percent of the caseload now, compared with less than 2 percent in August.

Oklahoma does not require two trips to a clinic to get an abortion in most cases, so it has been a common choice. Trust Women had 11 Texas patients in August; it has 110 so far in September. Patients come from as far away as Galveston and Corpus Christi. Some drive through the night, in time for a morning appointment. The high demand from Texas has meant that the clinic’s schedule is full for weeks. Last week, the earliest appointments were for mid-October.

...
The longer women have to wait, the more expensive their procedures become. Abortions at Trust Women range in cost from $650 for earlier stages to $2,350 for later stages. Financial assistance is also available.

Abortion tourism from TX to OK and LA. But the legislatures of OK and LA are dominated by Republicans, so they may try to stop that.

 

[TomC]

With Abortion Largely Banned in Texas, an Oklahoma Clinic Is Inundated - The New York Times

On a windy Tuesday morning, the parking lot outside a small brick building on the Southside of Oklahoma City was filling up fast. The first to arrive, a red truck shortly before 8 a.m., was from Texas. So was the second and the third.

The building houses one of Oklahoma’s four abortion clinics, and at least two-thirds of its scheduled patients now come from Texas. So many, in fact, that it is trying to hire more staff members and doctors to keep up.

... About half the patients at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La., are now from Texas, up from about a fifth before the law. At Little Rock Family Planning Services, in Arkansas, Texas patients make up 19 percent of the caseload now, compared with less than 2 percent in August.

Oklahoma does not require two trips to a clinic to get an abortion in most cases, so it has been a common choice. Trust Women had 11 Texas patients in August; it has 110 so far in September. Patients come from as far away as Galveston and Corpus Christi. Some drive through the night, in time for a morning appointment. The high demand from Texas has meant that the clinic’s schedule is full for weeks. Last week, the earliest appointments were for mid-October.

...
The longer women have to wait, the more expensive their procedures become. Abortions at Trust Women range in cost from $650 for earlier stages to $2,350 for later stages. Financial assistance is also available.

Abortion tourism from TX to OK and LA. But the legislatures of OK and LA are dominated by Republicans, so they may try to stop that.

I think Texans already did.

Can't I file suit against the federal government for building "freeways" between Texas and Oklahoma? Thereby enabling Texan women to get an abortion in Oklahoma?
Tom

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Eliminate rape?

Like the Islamist nations that have a simple solution: An accusation of rape is taken as proof of sex outside marriage. If the accusation isn't upheld (and the requirements for proving rape are almost never possible to meet) she's convicted of sex outside marriage.

 

[lpetrich]

Cori Bush on Twitter: "Tomorrow, I will share a story that I’ve never fully told publicly before.

I am testifying at the Oversight Committee hearing on abortion care and I will share that when I was 17, I was raped, became pregnant, and got an abortion.

And I am not ashamed. (link)" / Twitter
“I Felt Like There Was No Mercy”: Cori Bush Is Ready to Talk About Her Abortion | Vanity Fair
She talked about a church trip to Jackson MS that she did when she was 17. Some man got on top of her and had sex with her. She didn't fight back because she didn't know what to do.

She ended up pregnant.

She backed up a few years, describing when she moved from a mainly-black K-8 school to a mainly-white high school.

“I was told by the administration that I was the number-one student coming in the door...I took the entrance exam. They said I scored number one on the entrance exam,” she said. “[Then they] told me they didn’t believe that I scored that high...they said that they thought that I cheated. So they made me retest,” she said. “Then I scored better the second time.” Still, the harassment and discrimination continued. Bush’s grades fell and after a few months, she transferred schools. But, she recalled, “I lost something.” Being smart no longer felt safe. “That really knocked me off my square.”

By the end of high school, Bush was happy to be graduating at all. “I thought people would be knocking on my door, and now I’m knocking on doors, hoping that I get accepted,” she said. “I just felt defeated.”

She was also pregnant.

She decided to go full-time at her job and get an abortion. The father wasn't interested in helping out, so she had to raise the money by herself: $328. She was then 18, and with her year of birth 1976, that was 1994.

The first of the two appointments was for an ultrasound scan, and she was besieged by abortion protesters. The second one was for the abortion itself, and it was preceded by a counseling session. The counselor seemed very hostile to her.

The woman told Bush that she was nine weeks along in her pregnancy, but that the fetus was underdeveloped. Abortion was her best option, the woman implied—the alternative was welfare. “She was almost angry. The way she was speaking to me, it was very belittling and degrading. I didn’t know why she was directing all of that onto me,” Bush said. “I felt like I wasn’t given an opportunity to make a decision. I felt like I was going to go in there and that person was going to be warm and welcoming and telling me about, like, if this was the right decision for me—not that it was their decision to make—but I felt like, if I’m not supposed to do this, I’m gonna hear that in this conversation.” Bush didn’t. “So I went ahead with the procedure.”

The other young women waiting for an abortion, about her age, all white, had different experiences.

“They felt like the person was more biased for them to not have the abortion and to keep the child, or put the child up for adoption...very, very different,” Bush said. “I say, ‘That’s not what they said to me.’ And I remember that they all looked at me like they didn’t know what to say.”

Then the time came for her. She was taken to a room with one doctor, one nurse, and one other person. “It was a very, very cold situation.” She had to lie on the table, and she contemplated some abstract art on the ceiling.

“I remember after that, leaving the parking lot, and again getting to the part where everybody’s swarming a car,” Bush said, “I remember thinking…You’re yelling at me, but you don’t know my story. You’re not going to help me with this baby if I had the baby. I felt like there was no mercy, coming from people that didn’t even know me.”

Bush spent the rest of the day in bed, her stomach cramping. “I was very emotionless for quite a while,” she said. “That was the beginning of a very, very dark period…. That was the darkest period of my life.”

As Bush spoke, she only broke down crying once: When she described a younger teenage Black girl in the clinic’s lobby. Bush remembered overhearing the staff discussing the young girl, lamenting that she “got herself into this situation” and what a “shame” it was. Bush said she still thinks about that girl. “I didn’t say anything...and now I’m a totally different person,” she said. “But how far have we really come when Black women and girls are still being so mistreated in our health system to the point of death? Regardless of what type of health care we’re talking about, that’s still a thing.… The right to have an abortion is only one part of the need. So those are the things that we have to work on now…making sure that all people who want to have an abortion have the access to those services, equitably, and then also fix the mistreatment.”

CB hopes that other people will share their stories, and she hopes that people can be motivated to stop anti-abortion laws.

 

[lpetrich]

The ReidOut on Twitter: "In an exclusive seen first on #TheReidOut, @NBCNews Capitol Hill correspondent @alivitali spoke with @RepBarbaraLee, @RepCori & @RepJayapal on their deeply personal stories of abortion ahead of testifying at a House hearing on reproductive rights.
#TheReidOut #reiders (vid link)" / Twitter

Rep. Barbara Lee was born July 16, 1946, making her 75. She describes going to a back-alley abortionist in Mexico, likely in the mid-1960's.

Pramila Jayapal was born September 21, 1965, making her 66, and Cori Bush was born July 21, 1976, making her 45.

A State of Crisis: Examining the Urgent Need to Protect and Expand Abortion Rights and Access | House Committee on Oversight and Reform

Washington D.C. (September 21, 2021)—On Thursday, September 30, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. ET, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, will hold a hearing to examine the threat to abortion rights and access posed by extreme anti-choice state governments and a Supreme Court that is hostile to reproductive rights. The hearing will also evaluate actions the federal government can take to protect the right to abortion and expand access in light of these existential threats —including passing the Women’s Health Protection Act and putting an end to the Hyde Amendment.

The hearing witnesses are to be

• Ms. Maleeha Aziz - Community Organizer, Texas Equal Access Fund
• Reps. Cori Bush, Kat Cammack, Judy Chu, Pramila Jayapal, Barbara Lee
• Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi - Texas-based OB/GYN, Board Member, Physicians for Reproductive Health
• Ms. Melissa Murray - Professor of Law, New York University
• Ms. Loretta Ross - Co-Founder of the Reproductive Justice Movement, Associate Professor of the Study of Women and Gender, Smith College
• Dr. Ingrid Skop - Texas-based OB/GYN
• Ms. Gloria Steinem - Feminist and Social Activist

Gloria Steinem has been a feminist activist for over half a century. She was born March 25, 1934, making her 87.

Like Bernie Sanders, she's a veteran of the most recent Schlesinger liberal phase, from the early 1960's to the mid 1970's. The current Schlesinger period is Gilded Age II, a conservative phase. I'm not going to proclaim its end just yet, but it looks like a new era and a new political order are struggling to emerge.