A new bill currently moving through the Tennessee House of Representatives would require the state to publish the names of doctors who perform abortion procedures for the public as well as detailed information about women who receive them. The Life Defense Act of 2012, sponsored by Representative Matthew Hill (R-Jonesboro) would also require the Tennessee Department of Health to make detailed demographic information of these women available to the public, including age, race, marital status, education, number of children, location of procedure and how many times they have been pregnant.
If this law sounds unconstitutional, that's because it should. Almost 50 years ago, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Griswold vs. Connecticut that a state cannot prohibit the use of contraceptives on the grounds that the Constitution protects the right to privacy. After this landmark case, the Supreme Court further ruled in Roe vs. Wade that a woman's choice to have an abortion was protected as a private decision.
Despite the triumphs for women's rights in cases such as these, the so-called "War on Women" still wages on 50 years later. Our own presidential candidates have only added to this rhetoric. Rick Santorum has argued that cases such as Griswold should be overturned, and Mitt Romney recently spoke in an interview with a Missouri television station of his plans to eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood, while it does provide abortion services in some clinics, is an organization that has given thousands of women access to family planning advisors, cancer screenings, HIV tests, and contraceptives. To cut this basic health-care funding would be a detriment to thousands of women. In Texas, this is already being seen as lawmakers have slashed $40 million from the program, which is 90 percent of the program's funding. The Center for Public Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan organization working to alleviate poverty, said poor women would have difficulty finding new doctors who participate in the program. About 130,000 women receive healthcare from the Texas Women's Health Program through Medicaid, 44 percent of whom are treated at Planned Parenthood clinics. This cut, along with $73.6 million cut last year in state funding for women's health and family-planning services, has given dozens of clinics no option but to close. What's more is that even though taxpayer money isn't allowed to go to organizations that provide abortions, the law is simply cutting off funding to any clinics with an affiliation to a provider, even if it's just a shared name, employee, or board member. To top it off, Georgia Republican state representative Terry England even went as far as to say that women seeking abortions of stillborn fetuses should carry these fetuses to term because that's what cows and pigs must do.
Sadly, the list does not stop there. While many Republicans have been supporting legislation that shames women out of exercising their constitutional right to access abortions or contraceptives -- or literally trying to rid them of their options, such as cutting funding to Planned Parenthood -- they have failed to realize what birth control and safe abortions have given women. Contraception has allowed women to pursue careers and personal goals, options that were limited to many women before birth control and abortion were made legal and accessible. To go back to a time when women could not enjoy the same freedoms as men should be unthinkable. Instead, many Republicans, such as Rep. England, are essentially trying to force society to take five steps backwards and reduce access basic health care.
As a female and member of a younger generation, it is not only discouraging, but actually frightening to see what is happening across the nation. I hope to grow up in a society that recognizes and upholds the reproductive rights of women -- not one that essentially takes them away. For a teenager that is on her way to entering the real world, I hope for all women in this country to have access to basic health care, to be in control of their reproductive health, and to be able to decide when it is right for them to have children. Legislation itself cannot prevent all of this from occurring, as our rights are still being legal challenged. Reproductive rights are not an issue of right or left, rather is an issue of politicians prioritizing our health before their ideology, which in the end benefits the entirety of our society. Not only are reproductive health services life-saving, but making them accessible reduces unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions, as well as granting women the freedom to control the timing of their children. Women, young or old, and also men need to let this message -- that our rights cannot be taken away -- ring loud and clear, whether it's by spreading the word and informing others, calling our state representatives to prevent absurd laws from going into place, or taking to the streets in protest. This is our time to remind our politicians and leaders, just as men and woman did 50 years ago, that we demand, not ask, the recognition of our right to privacy, the right to control our bodies, the freedom to determine when and in what manner we reproduce, and to not have these rights taken away from us simply because we are women.
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Why aren't physicians standing up against the laws that tell doctor what they can and can't do, regarding women's reproduction?? These people don't even want to support an abortion if the life of the mother is endangered!!! This law would violate HIPPA, which allows only those people that you have specifically indicated to your doctor can have access to your personal health records. Many of these laws Republicans are passing seem to violate this - if a woman who was raped wants to avoid having a mandatory ultrasound, she has to provide proof of it!!! Can you imagine?
So I guess they want to tell the world about the 13-year-old down the street who had an abortion after being raped by her stepfather, or tell the perp where to find the woman he raped, because she had an abortion as a result of that rape!
7 or 8 states have shut down Planned Parenthood!! 97% of what they do has NOTHING to do with abortion! But the lies on top of lies they have been telling so they can make an end-run around women's right to an abortion, are making headway. HOW CAN WE STOP THIS?????
You have to.
Why?
Next round, they'll make sure that you don't have a vote anymore.
Women should be allowed to pursue careers and personal goals regardless of their reproductive and parental status, just like men. To say that our freedoms are dependent on taking a pharmaceutical drug or getting an abortion is a step BACKWARD for women.
How many young married couples do you know who want to start having children right off the bat? That's how it used to be. Now they want to concentrate on building their careers, put together a nest egg, and saving up a down payment on a house. And be comfortable enough to DECIDE whether or not one of them will stay at home with the children. All of these things are better for their children in the long run.
And of course what the religious right objects to is the fact that contraception allows UNMARRIED women to have sex without having children. They want to FORCE women to have babies when they are too young, or are not in a situation where they can take on that responsibility. They want to CONTROL women's reproductive processes because they want TO CONTROL WOMEN.
That's what this is about! Our freedoms certainly ARE dependent on getting contraceptive care and being able to decide NOT to have children. You are sadly misinformed, or misguided!
We don't see them making any health care legislation that has to do with men. NONE!
Why are the Catholic bishops on Fox talking about women having access to contraception is "an attack on our religious freedom?" I don't see them objecting to UNMARRIED MEN getting access to Viagra. What's the difference? If they oppose to sex outside of marriage for women, don't they oppose the same for men?
That tells me everything i need to know!
Best to you, May we hear more from you
All of these Planned Parenthood clinics they are closing down did breast cancer screenings, pap smears, provided pre-natal care, and all of the other things that women need. Rick Perry closed down 12 clinics in Texas that DID NOT DO ABORTIONS! SO that is just a HUGE lie. Federal funds CANNOT be used for abortion, which was his reason for closing them. So what was the point of that besides denying health care to women???
Out of all the money Planned Parenthood uses, only 3% goes to abortions. That means Republicans have destroyed the 97% that did everything else!
How many women are going to die because Rick Perry closed down these clinics in
Texas?? Texas is a huge state, with many rural areas. I'm sure these clinics have no other
facilities to replace them when they close, and women won't be able to get breast cancer
screenings, or pap smears. Women will die because of this.
Lack of pre-natal care is causing a level of babies dying in their first year of live only matched by some third-world countries! So Perry's not saving any babies, he's just making sure more of them will die after they're born. But let's not let FACTS get in the way of PRETENDING he's preventing abortions!
I have two girls, 19 and 26, both of whom are responsible women in all ways. I believe in choice and if they unexpectedly became pregnant, I would support their decision, whatever it may be. The fact that they have a choice is a good thing and for anyone to take that away choice from them would be a step back in our humanity.
This is not just about women's rights......it's about human rights. Bringing an unwanted child into this world has deleterious consequences for everyone involved, including the young man who will now have to help support a child. Adoption is one option but as a woman who has carried three children, I know for a fact that after nine months of feeling connected to the baby inside me I would never be able to give it away, no matter if I had previously made the decision to do so. To tell someone they have to carry a baby to term and give it up for adoption is easy to say but not easy to do.
It is an individual’s choice and not a political or government’s choice.
And closing down Planned Parenthood clinics deprives women of cancer screens that could save their lives! It's not just about abortion.