Morning Roundup: Arkansas Tries to Prevent Insurance Coverage of Abortion

Beth Saunders

Arkansas poised to prevent insurance coverage of abortion in new plans, Ted Haggard now says he's bisexual, a woman in Brooklyn tricked another woman into taking misoprostol to induce an abortion, and the history of sodomy laws in the United States.

Arkansas poised to prevent insurance coverage of abortion in new plans, Ted Haggard now says he’s bisexual, a woman in Brooklyn tricked another woman into taking misoprostol to induce an abortion, and the history of sodomy laws in the United States.

  • Insurance companies in Arkansas that would like to offer abortion coverage in new plans would have to do so with a special rider, if proposed legislation becomes law in that state. Vicki Saporta of the National Abortion Federation said, “Telling a woman to buy a separate abortion rider that doesn’t even currently exist is not an answer.”
  • Ted Haggard, former evangelical megachurch preacher who was caught with a male prostitute and meth a few years back, now says he recognizes that he is bisexual in an interview with GQ. Actually, he says that he’d be a bisexual if he was 21, but at his age, he will continue to enjoy sex with his wife. I’m not sure how I’d take that if I was Gayle Haggard.
  • A horrible story out of Brooklyn about a pregnant woman who tricked her husband’s (also) pregnant mistress to take misoprostol in order to induce an abortion. The woman pled guilty and will be sentenced next month. The pregnant mistress went into preterm labor, but the premature baby survived.
  • Interested in the history of sodomy and sexual privacy laws in the United States? Check out “Give Sodomy a Chance” in LA Weekly.

    It seems nonsensical at first glance to assert that sodomy is a fundamental right, particularly in a legal culture incapable of recognizing sexual rights more generally. The real problem, however, is that we’ve had blinders on for so long that we can’t see the obvious: Adult consensual sex, including sodomy, must logically be considered one of the most fundamental human rights of all.

Jan 27

Jan 26