Aggressive new abortion restrictions take hold in Wisconsin

[cali]

<snip>

Of the four provisions Texas lawmakers rolled into a single bill, Wisconsin has either passed, or is in the process of passing, three of the four. Two of the provisions are included in one bill awaiting Gov. Scott Walker’s signature. That bill would require a woman to have an ultrasound prior to an abortion, and would require abortion clinic doctors to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of the clinic.

A third component of the Texas bill, now in the drafting phase in Wisconsin, would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Wisconsin’s shift toward severely restricting women’s access to reproductive health care can’t be attributed to a swing in public opinion. Nor is it being driven by a call for change from the state’s medical community. Instead, it’s being driven by tea party politicians wielding their power at the state Capitol. They are pushing so-called model legislation championed by abortion opponents, who have a friendly audience here with conservatives now in control.

It’s an effective new strategy that continues to chip away at Roe v. Wade through legislation at the state level rather than waiting in hopes the law will be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court

Read more: http://host.madison.com/tncms/asset/editorial/7a9579b0-318a-51a7-8fc1-b51f8d0a2beb/#ixzz2Y4VlVaDz

[Ilsa]

1. They'll need to see dead sisters, daughters, etc

before they repeal this nonsense.

Even then, who is going to "invest" in making services available when the threat of closure looms?

Women in right-wing states are screwed, and unless they have money, some women are going to die from illegal abortions.

[Mariana]

9. These teabagger legislators won't ever see that

because it's the poorer women who will die. Most of these lawmakers have enough money that the women in their families will always have access, even if they have to travel to another state to obtain care.

[Ilsa]

14. And they probably won't ever know about it.

It'll be a secret between a few womeln in the family.

The voters won't care unless it affects them, too, and that's who I was thinking about in my post. It's such a personal issue, and one that RWers have created shame about, that it is hard to discuss openly for many people.

[catbyte]

26. True. The "loved ones" of bagger politicians will continue to have discreet "D & C's" as they always

have while everyone else suffers. Bastards. Hypocritical bastards.

[kickysnana]

2. Next up. Transvaginal scans at the Minnesota border.

[Nay]

3. Oh, well! This is called "getting what you vote for." What's sad is that you can't even

get people interested in voting even when their lives are on the line; you have to wait until people start dying. And you have to go through the same process every generation, because this country refuses to learn from experience.

[Ed Suspicious]

17. I fucking loathe this response. I see it nearly daily. It spits in the face of the million and a

half people who did indeed did vote the other way. We are not a hard right state except in so far as gerrymandering makes in that way.

[octoberlib]

23. +1

Same thing in NC. Dems had more votes but Repubs got more seats in the Legislature due to gerrymandering. We do NOT have a representative government.

[Bandit]

28. And just how could you prove your statement?

The evidence is completely the opposite of what you say. If it were not we would not even be having this conversation..

[Ed Suspicious]

31. I support my statement by pointing you to the fact that Wisconsin's 11 and recently ten

electoral votes have gone each election to the Democrat's candidate for president since the 1984 Reagan near sweep. Over the course of the last 30 years Democrat's total number of votes has increased each election cycle from around 1 million votes to a high point during Obama's first election of 1.67 million votes. There was a slight drop off during his second term that pushed the total amount of dems to the polls at 1.62 million, but it was still a strong number compared to the 1.25 (McCain) and 1.4 million (Romney) for the repuke candidate.

Democrats still hold a majority in this state's voting population.

Add to that the fact that we put Tammy Baldwin, the country's first openly gay Senator (who happens to be proudly liberal) into the senate over longtime (and I should say heavily favored) republican stalwart Tommy Thompson.

We are a very purple state whose urban centers vote heavily into blue territory.

Now, it may seem obvious to an outsider that we're solidly red, because of the loss of Feingold to Dumbass Johnson, and the Walker governorship as well as the red senate and assembly, but I put forward to you that much of the latter is due to very safely gerrymandered single member districts that are nearly impossible nuts to crack. It just isn't the reality that we are in recent history historically and firmly a red state.

Another indicator I point to is that strong historical protests over the Governor's Act 10 which had hundreds of thousands converging on the capitol in protest just a few short years ago. We (Democrats) seem to run shitty candidates in gubernatorial elections recently. I am unsure why this is, but tragically it is born out as true. But again, I assert, we are not a hopeless red state worthy of derision.

http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/2012/results/wisconsin

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/politics/2004_ELECTIONRESULTS_GRAPHIC/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin,_2000

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin,_1996

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election_in_Wisconsin,_1992

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1988

[emmadoggy]

32. .

[AllyCat]

4. So the woman I cared for recently who had to abort a 23 week baby

(and it was a baby to her and her husband) to save her from dying of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia would now be dead here in Fitzwalkerstan. And a torturous, miserable death it would be.

Fabulous. What a cruel state we have become.

[TBF]

5. For those of us who were alive in the 1970s and remember the

hard-fought battles it is particularly difficult to watch the tea party go to work this summer in a systematic attempt to add this nonsense onto random bills and get it passed ... people are not going to realize what hit them until they need services. Very, very difficult to see this happen.

[broadcaster75201]

6. Don't give a shit. They could have recalled him, but didn't.

I no longer "feel" for the people in Red States. In every single one of those States, if 90% of Liberals, Liberal leaning, registered and voted, every single one of those States would be blue with the POSSIBLE exception of Utah.

I am no longer horrified at what the GOP does because many States obviously want it. Well . . sucks to be you.

[cali]

7. yuck.

I find your position truly disturbing and repugnant.

[etherealtruth]

10. Yeah, seriously

If 51% of a state is full of right wing nut jobs .... screw the 49% that is not.

A very simplistic view

[Ed Suspicious]

18. Fer heavens sake, why on earth do people talk like this?

[La Lioness Priyanka]

19. there are plenty of liberal women in the red states who did not vote for this guy

they deserve rights over their body

[WinkyDink]

8. So. I have lived long enough to see Wisconsin turn upside down.

[etherealtruth]

12. As have I

Who would have ever thought knuckle dragging inbreeding right wing nut jobs would be in "control" of the State of Michigan?

[elehhhhna]

15. uh, all of us who fought againtst vapor ballotts (and lost)?

[WinkyDink]

16. Privatized, no less.

[Left Coast2020]

22. But look at it this way...

We had Gov. Boobengrabber. He was termed out (thank gawd). And things here are turning around under Brown. What a breath of fresh air. But what is important is the story that came out 2 months ago by Howard Dean--back with DFA again.

What they are going to do is campaign for state Rep's since this is why things got out of hand in the first place. So we have to focus more on the state houses.

So I guess those of you who are (assuming) considering giving up, not an option. SImply clean out these scummy POS neo-cons, and work to HOLD on to what we accomplish.

Remember: politics is local.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. K & R

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

13. St. Paul's Planned Parenthood clinic is only about 25 miles

from the Wisconsin border. I expect they will soon see an increase in clients.

[SoCalDem]

20. Any family with a childbearing-aged female, should have a fund set aside

for "just in case".

Travel to a sensible state may be the only thing to to these days if you are behind state lines in a loony state.

Get on a plane, go on a road trip..whatever it takes.. It's bound to be easier/cheaper than to jump thru right-wing-nut flaming hoops.

Until reasonable people again inhabit the statehouses/governors' offices, that is the only real solution.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

30. yeah. immediate AND long term strategies

Women will need an Underground Railroad network and reliable sources of information And allies. And GOTV efforts....

[pitbullgirl1965]

34. Revival of the Jane network

needs to start now. It's very difficult for rural women and poor women to obtain abortions.

[RBInMaine]

21. WI and others who elected TeaScum or didn't vote are getting just what they asked for.

[octoberlib]

24. Or maybe they're trying to provoke a SCOTUS challenge

in hopes this court will overturn Roe vs. Wade.

[Kurovski]

25. K&R. (nt)

[ananda]

27. This should be so illegal and unconstitutional.

It's practicing medicine from the halls of the legislature, by regressive people
who know and care nothing for medicine really.

[dembotoz]

29. torquemada lives quite happily is wisconsin

[ahlnord]

33. Minnesota professor's allegations

Isn't now the time to re-visit the allegations of Minnesota professor Bernadette Gillick, that were inspired by Scott Walker's claims of continuous "integrity" during the re-call election? Google her name, or go here:
http://wcmcoop.com/2012/06/02/integrity-the-child-scott-walker-left-behind/
to be reminded of his personal history on women's health choices and "integrity."

[SylviaD]

35. This is religious extremism in action, plain and simple.

I used to believe it was about sexism and controlling women. Not anymore.

There are many anti-choice women out there. I have met them, I have argued with them. They do not respond to reason, because each and every one I have met has been a Christian fundamentalist whackjob.

When are we going to wake up and face this problem? Their aim is theocracy.

[blkmusclmachine]

36. War On Women.

Courtesy of the GOPee.