Culture War in Kansas--Reproductive Justice, Clinic Defense
i can’t get into a lot of stuff about the anti’s and what not most times. i just can’t stand those motherfuckers. it is true that abortion providers have bullet proof vests. we hade bullet proof glass at my last clinic and there were evacuation drills where we practice locking down and securing patients etc. so it is a war climate when it should be a health care providing climate (it is that, but there is the constant threat)
i just wanted to put this story about Kansas on your radar. Dr. Tiller was murdered there and supposedly the state is run by right wing tea party types that are encouraging lack of access and emboldening the violent fringes.
what happens, because abortion is so divisive is people want it to go away like the NOW person said. i’m for holistic health and justice and i get tired of the ‘choice’ debate. what am i saying? i’m saying i can’t stand that people won’t leave folks terminating their pregnancies or the people who provide services alone. and the fringe elements gain ground here, because people want to avoid the topic.
for example the ‘black is beautiful’ ad’s in Oakland directly affect the ability of new planned parenthood affiliates to open in Oakland. i was just speaking with someone who said they want to open one in fruitvale and are having a hard time getting support from the neighborhood. that might make sense on so many levels given the history of eugenics enacted on communities of color. that history needs to be examined by providers carefully, for sure. but then you have the ‘anti’s’ exploiting that feeling and at the end of the day support for clinics is so small, because noone wants to deal with the risk associated with fringe and violent anti-abortion types.
this doesn’t make much sense. just support abortion providers always if you get the chance because they’re literally and figuratively under fire.
Abortion Foes' Latest Backdoor Ban
Kansas has long been a frontline in the abortion wars, so it isn’t much of a surprise that anti-abortion crusaders there have pioneered one of the newest tactics for limiting access to legal abortion procedures: developing onerous regulations that specifically target clinics. And this strategy—which could lead to shutting down all of the state’s abortion clinics by the end of this month—is being embraced by abortion foes in other states as a way to end abortion in practice if not in law.
This is how it works: anti-abortion legislators pass what are often called “TRAP” laws, or “targeted regulation of abortion providers.” That is, regulations that only apply to abortion clinics, setting compulsory standards that are often difficult to meet, like mandated sizes for waiting and recovery rooms, reconfiguring of exits and entrances to facilities, and additional bathrooms. In Kansas, abortion providers last week were handed a long list of new regulations and told they must comply by July 1. Virginia and Utah have signed similar measures into law this year, joining states like South Carolina and Indiana that have previously targeted providers with stricter regulations, and a number of other states have been considering bills like these.
anti-abortion is really code for anti-women - brown women specifically. rich white women will ALWAYS have access to abortions.
Simply Disgusting: Kansas GOP Rep “Women should be prepared for rape. I mean, I carry a spare tire”
It doesn’t get any more disgusting than this. Equating rape to getting a flat tire.
Such is the argument of Rep Pete DeGraaf when they debated on a debilitating anti-abortion law that prevents insurance coverage from offering coverage for abortion with the exception of the mother’s health.
I’ll let the text speak for itself
During the House discussion there was predictably some disagreement over whether excluding rape pregnancies from coverage was perhaps the sort of callous treatment a recently violated woman shouldn’t have to deal with. Here’s DeGraaf’s response to Rep. Barbara Bollier’s challenge, as reported by the McPherson Sentinel:Rep. Pete DeGraaf, a Mulvane Republican who supports the bill, told her: “We do need to plan ahead, don’t we, in life?”
Bollier asked him, “And so women need to plan ahead for issues that they have no control over with pregnancy?”
DeGraaf drew groans of protest from some House members when he responded, “I have a spare tire on my car.”
“I also have life insurance,” he added. “I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for.”
Now, having never experienced it myself, yet knowing several of my friends who have, I can safely assume it’s not the same as getting a flat tire on the side of a road. I’ve never had a friend come to me and tell her about the time she was inconvenienced on the way home and that it’s a good thing she had birth control or things would have been really bad!
I don’t even think I can put my anger into words right now. It’s incomprehensible to me that anyone would even come to this first as an argument, let alone somehow think there’s borderline rationality behind it, and yet at the same time I’m doing all I can to keep from going off in a rant about how he should have that spare tire shoved you know where and see how well prepared he is after all.
But, I’m not one to really advocate violence against an elected official, regardless of how much of a knuckle-dragging neanderthal he may be.
(I sincerely apologize to all neanderthals for that comparison…)
