Gov. Doug Ducey (R) signed a measure aimed at stripping Medicaid funding from abortion providers, despite a policy letter from the federal Medicaid program warning Medicaid directors that they cannot cut funding to health-care providers just because they offer abortion care.
Alyssa Miller, director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement that the anti-choice bill is “dangerous” and “made even more extreme” by the lack of exceptions.
Republican lawmakers have pushed legislation to ban the D and E procedure in several states over the past year. The measures have been copies of bills drafted by the legislation mill known as the National Right to Life Committee.
A Rewire investigation published earlier this year told the story of a 17-year-old girl and her mother who were targeted by an array of anti-choice activists who meddled in the teen's medical care, in an effort to thwart her ability to obtain an abortion. Stephen Crampton was at the center of this effort.
“I didn’t mean punishment for women like prison. I’m saying women punish themselves,” Trump claimed when questioned about saying in March that patients should face “some form of punishment” for receiving abortion care.
Trans patients now stand to access health care more easily, but enacting policies against discrimination isn't quite the same as actually eliminating it.
Republican leaders have been largely dismissive of Donald Trump's misogynistic track record—which speaks volumes about the party's own treatment of women.
The next question is whether, over the coming months, the federal appeals courts can once and for all put an end to this litigation by issuing consistent decisions, or whether it’s going to take a fifth justice on the Roberts Court to do so.
Nikema Williams, vice president of public policy for Planned Parenthood Southeast, said in a statement that the “misguided legislation” was passed after Republican lawmakers suspended debate to silence opposition from Black lawmakers.
NARAL Pro-Choice America this year gave Rhode Island a failing grade on its annual scorecard of states’ reproductive freedom, along with Republican-dominated legislatures in Alabama, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Texas, among others.
