Michigan

The Michigan House voted last week to approve a bill that would require all hospitals to make emergency contraception available to victims of sexual assault. 

Legislation moving to the state Senate would require Michigan emergency rooms to provide emergency contraception to individuals who are sexual assaulted.

Four bills, originally part of a 15-bill initiative promoted by Planned Parenthood, passed the Michigan House last week and would extend access to contraception, said state Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing.

Michigan lawmakers have also introduced bills to require crisis pregnancy centers to display disclaimers (similar to that passed in Baltimore, Maryland), to require medically-accurate sex ed classes in public schools, and to educate the public about emergency contraception.

Teenagers Seeking Abortions

Last week a mother in Washington state raised a public fuss when she discovered her daughter sought and obtained a legal abortion without her knowledge. This week a San Diego school reevaluates their current position that a faculty member must inform a student’s parents if she is considering an abortion, instead making the pregnancy a confidential matter.  However, in Chicago, another school considers a permanent policy against keeping a student’s choice confidential and instead forcing faculty to notify her parents.  This comes on the heels of an Illinois judge delaying enforcement of a bill on parental notification while appeals are still underway. 

Teenagers are also the target of an anti-choice bill that passed the Missouri House requiring that clinics notify prosecutors if a teenager seeks an abortion, even if she decides not to have the procedure.  The bill claims to be protecting the young women from potential sexual abuse, but opponents consider it yet another level of bureaucracy and shame after already informing a guardian.

Sponsoring Rep. Bryan Pratt, a Republican attorney from Blue Springs, said his intent is to provide tips to prosecutors of potential cases of forcible rape, incest or statutory rape. Sometimes, the perpetrator may accompany the teen to an abortion clinic, intimidating her from telling doctors or nurses the truth about how she became pregnant, he said.

“We’re going to shine the light on those who would rape children,” said Pratt, the House speaker pro tem.

Rep. Mary Still, D-Columbia, called the legislation “a mean-spirited effort to intimidate and bully.”

“We might as well say, ‘Let’s hang these women up by their heels for an hour before this procedure begins,”’ Still said.

Oklahoma

Finally, three of the seven stalled anti-choice bills broken down from Oklahoma’s multi-billed legislative packages since 2009 have now passed the house and senate, and are waiting for the governor’s inevitable signature.  Lawmakers make it very clear in the hierarchy of woman versus unborn child which one matters more to them.

“In recent years, we have seen the value of human life disintegrate, and these bills are an attempt to reverse that trend,” said House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa. “It is our job as legislators to protect the least among us, the most of which is the life of the unborn.”