Roundup: Block Those Racist, Sexist Women Seeking Abortions

Feb 12, 2010, 9:36am

The new reason to "ban" abortion: because the potential abortion seeker (aka, the woman who is pregnant) is a racist? I'm not sure how else to read new proposed laws in Georgia and Oklahoma that seek to ban "reasons" for abortion.

Part of the goal of chipping away at abortion rights is to make
people think there are nefarious "reasons" for abortion. The new reason to "ban" abortion: because the
potential abortion seeker (aka, the woman who is pregnant) is a racist? I’m not
sure how else to read a new proposed law in Georgia. Just after the anti-choice
group The Radiance Foundation began putting up billboards around Atlanta
charging there is a "black genocide" going on, a new proposed bill in
Georgia wants to make it a crime "to
coerce or solicit an abortion based on race."

The bill was introduced as the
Prenatal Non-Discrimination Act and the main framework of the bill would make
it a crime to coerce or solicit an abortion based on race. Penalties would
include jail time and fines depending on the severity of the offense.

Supporters of the bill, such as
Georgia Right to Life, claim the state’s abortion rate points to a deliberate
attempt to target black women. However, Heidi Williamson calls that deceptive
and makes this counter claim, "they (Georgia Right To Life) make the
assertion that Georgia has the highest rate but part of it is…Mississippi."

Williamson is the National Policy
Coordinator for Sister Song.

The Atlanta based group defines
itself as Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective. She says another
mistruth being circulated is that Georgia’s 15 abortion centers are all in
black neighborhoods so the group did its own research, "we pulled the
demographics of each zip code and only four fall into neighborhoods that
actually have a 50 percent population of black people or more."

As Rewire Contributor Pamela
Merritt points out there are a lot of good reasons why reproductive healthcare
clinics are located near communities of color and more to the point, "women of
color are not children unable to make healthcare decisions."

Nor is Georgia the only state where anti-choice activists
are attempting to pass legislation that bans "reasons" for abortion. In
Oklahoma, the Senate just passed several abortion-related measures,
including one bill that "bans
abortions based on the sex of the fetus."

The panel also passed Senate Bill
1890, which bans abortions based on the sex of the fetus.

[Sen. Todd Lamb, R-Edmond] said he
had no evidence that women in Oklahoma were seeking abortions based on fetus
sex, but women in other countries had done so.

A bill signed into law last year
with the same provision faces a lawsuit in Oklahoma County. It banned abortions
based on sex and required women to report detailed information to be placed on
a state-maintained Web site. The information, however, would not identify the
person seeking the abortion.

The bill was one of several that the Oklahoma is considering
in wake of a law that was
tossed out last year as unconstitutional. So anti-choice lawmakers are trying
to have a "do-over."

An Oklahoma County judge last year
tossed out one law that would have required women seeking abortions to have
ultrasounds within an hour of the procedure and have the details explained. The
bill also covered the administration of the abortion pill RU-486 and lawsuits.

The court found the measure
violated constitutional requirements that legislation address a single subject.
The state is appealing the ruling.

The Senate Health and Human Services
Committee on Thursday advanced Senate Bill 1891, which deals with lawsuits in a
single measure and repeals the older measure. SB 1891 by Sen. Todd Lamb,
R-Edmond, also says health care providers who object to abortions may not be
required to perform them.

Mini Roundup: Two
letters writers, one in California
and another in Washington
State, say it’s pennywise and pound-foolish to make cuts to family planning
services.

Bonus item: David
C. Wiley, professor of health education at Texas State University and chairman
of the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, offers
his opinion of the recent abstinence education study.

February 12, 2010

Kan. Bill Would Require Special
Insurance For Abortions KAKE

Kansas bill would bar insurance
coverage of most elective abortions Kansas City Star

How men are harmed by abortion The Pilot

February 11, 2010

Jesuit university’s birth
control, pregnancy resources Catholic Culture

Forty-Something British Women
Matching Teen Pregnancy Rates U.S. News & World Report

NBC’s ‘SVU:’ Abortion Debate Boils
Down to ‘Pro-Choice or No Choice’ NewsBusters

‘Pro-choice’ columnist chides
abortion advocates for overreacting to Tebow ad Catholic
Culture

Valentine’s Day Cards From Planned
Parenthood Promote Abortion, Condoms LifeNews.com

Pro-choice akin to
pro-slavery Sparta Independent

Reader’s view: Super Bowl ad shows
adoption also a choice Duluth News Tribune