What We're Reading This Morning -- April 30
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Good morning everyone and happy Monday! It’s a busy day today across the states, so we’ll head straight to the highlights….
In Mississippi, the fight over women’s health is far from over. “Analysis: Abortion politics not fading in Miss.” — “JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Abortion remains a divisive issue in Mississippi, months after 58 percent of the state's voters rejected an amendment that would've defined life as beginning at fertilization. The personhood amendment last November was aimed squarely at setting up a court challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The failure of the initiative didn't end efforts to limit access to abortion. Rather, it appeared to energize some legislators and Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who were elected on the same ballot as the initiative…. Abortion opponents this year pushed House Bill 1390, which will become law July 1. It requires anyone performing an abortion at the clinic to be an OB-GYN with admitting privileges at a local hospital. Many of the bill's supporters say they hope it will shut down Mississippi's only abortion clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization. ‘It shows you that the Mississippi House and the Mississippi Senate, we are pro-life. And we believe that life begins at conception,’ said House Public Health Chairman Sam Mims, R-McComb, the bill's sponsor.”
Actress Tamara Tunie of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit fame reacts to the anti-women’s health measures being pushed forward in Mississippi. “Why I Fight to Keep Abortion Safe and Legal” — “Abortion is a deeply personal and complex decision that should be left up to a woman and her family, not politicians. I am frightened -- and, frankly, angered -- by politicians meddling in these personal decisions, because I've seen firsthand how important it is that women have access to safe and legal abortion. What's more, some politicians are perfectly willing to sacrifice women's access to other health services -- including lifesaving breast and cervical cancer screenings, regular gynecological exams, affordable birth control and STD screening and treatment -- just to achieve their goals of shutting down health centers that also happen to provide abortion services. Let's be clear: When far-right Republican lawmakers talk about shutting the doors of women's health providers, what they're really talking about is taking away the only source many low-income women have for receiving a wide range of reproductive health care services.”
Governor Perry will restrict access to women’s health, with little concern for the consequences. “Texas legislature should consider women’s health” — “In our view, the efforts of the Republican Party to prevent Texas women from accessing quality reproductive care from Planned Parenthood-affiliated clinics in Texas is the latest roadblock for women who have been given the least opportunities to better their position. Rick Perry has embraced a flawed philosophy that more restrictive laws will change a woman’s mind about whether or not to have an abortion…. We believe these people, though they mostly have good intentions, are ignorant of the reality of what happens to women like the one described in the story above. More abortions, not less, will result from making it harder to get contraceptives and reproductive care. Changes in culture and morality cannot come about from worsening the conditions of the lives of those in need, no matter how hard portions of the privileged population wish it to be so. Culture is not that simple because people are not that simple.”
