Texas may be getting a lot of publicity for State Sen. Wendy Davis' filibuster of an anti-abortion bill, but the women of Ohio were not so lucky. Unfortunately, the Ohio state legislature just managed to pass into law an extreme anti-abortion measure of their own, which was signed by conservative Republican Governor John Kasich. This was passed as part of the new state budget.
The right-wing's war on women continues.
The bill requires women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound and to have the anatomical development of the fetus described to them. Abortion clinics must give information to the woman about adoption and other alternatives to abortion.
Rape crisis clinics will lose their funding if they counsel rape victims about the option of abortion. This is just unconscionable to me. What if the rape victim is a 10-year old who was raped by her father, or her uncle? Is Governor Kasich going to be the one to tell that little girl that she has to carry that fetus to term? If he wants to sign such a restrictive law, he should have to.
The bill provides funding for pregnancy crisis centers, but most of those are run by religious organizations, do not give referrals for abortion services, and quite often give inaccurate health information. The bill effectively cuts $1.4 million of funding to Planned Parenthood.
In addition, there will be cuts to low-cost birth control and family planning, which seems counterintuitive to me, if they want to cut the number of abortions.
Yes, this is happening in the United States in 2013.
It's very interesting to me that these extreme anti-abortion bills don't include any provisions for state-funded orphanages, yet budgets like this always cut benefits for low-income women and children. The right always wants to see women have more babies, but they don't want to give them any assistance in caring for them, forcing many women into deeper and deeper poverty.
Please donate to Planned Parenthood, and pay attention to the laws your state senators, congressmen and governors are passing. Anyone not representing the needs of women should be voted out of office at the earliest opportunity.
