Misogynist barbarians in Alabama impose forced pregnancy law

[Jeff Robinson]

New case pending before SCOTUS asks whether states can ban abortions necessary to prevent “serious impairment to bodily functions” or the “serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part”. In other words 'can states ban abortions necessary for pregnant people to avoid lives of permanent disability and prolonged pain and suffering'. 121 Republican Members of Congress, 22 Republican States and a litany of rightwing and religious reactionary organisations have intervened to urge the court to allow more women to be permanently disabled, live lives of prolonged suffering and pain, and, lets be real, die.

There are no limits to the savagery and depravity of the US right - they are sick, evil fucks, scum and filth of the lowest kind.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Arizona’s 160-year-old ban on nearly all abortions can be enforced, court rules - National | Globalnews.ca

The 1864 law criminalizes nearly all abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest, but allows the procedure only if a mother’s life is in danger.

globalnews.ca

The case examined whether the state is still subject to a law that predates Arizona’s statehood. The 1864 law provides no exceptions for rape or incest, but allows abortions if a mother’s life is in danger. The state’s high court ruling reviewed a 2022 decision by the state Court of Appeals that said doctors couldn’t be charged for performing the procedure in the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.

An older court decision blocked enforcing the 1864 law shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court issued the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a constitutional right to an abortion. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, then state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, persuaded a state judge in Tucson to lift the block on enforcing the 1864 law.

....

Currently, 14 states are enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. Two states ban the procedure once cardiac activity can be detected, which is about six weeks into pregnancy and often before women realize they’re pregnant.

The man who wrote the law was William Thomas Howell. He was married three times. One of them was 12 and the other two were 15. Two died in childbirth and he abandoned the third. Not exactly a good track record as far as women are concerned.

 

[spring-peeper]

 

[two sheds]

So that's one way they're going to do it

Louisiana governor signs bill classifying abortion pills as controlled dangerous substances

The state is the only one to categorize mifepristone and misoprostol this way.

www.nbcnews.com

The legislation makes possession of the medications without valid prescriptions or orders from medical professionals punishable by up to five years in prison. Pregnant people who obtain the medications for their own consumption would not be subject to prosecution, according to the legislation.

Schedule IV substances include some narcotics; medications within the category of depressants, such as Xanax and Valium; muscle relaxants; sleep aids; and stimulants that can be used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and weight loss.

that second sentence seems strange though

 

[hitmouse]

Three pro-choice activists given sentences of 30 days to 1 year in Federal prison for conspiracy charges over graffiti on fake clinics:

Justice Distorted: Activists Sentenced for Conspiracy, Avoid FACE Act Charges, in Unprecedented Attack on Pro-Choice Defenders | Civil Liberties Defense Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 12, 2024 Contact: Lauren Regan, Director of Litigation & Advocacy Civil Liberties Defense Center info@cldc.org | (541) 687-9180 Justice Distorted: Activists Sentenced for Conspiracy, Avoid FACE Act Charges, in Unprecedented Attack on Pro-Choice Defenders Tampa, FL...

cldc.org

In a deeply troubling move, a federal court today sentenced pro-choice activists Amber Smith-Stewart and Annarella Rivera to 30 days in custody and 60 days of home confinement and Caleb Freestone to 1 year and 1 day in federal prison for Conspiracy, while dismissing two counts under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, 18 U.S.C. §248. This unprecedented use of the FACE Act—originally designed to protect abortion clinics and their employees—has been twisted to prosecute activists protesting so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which are in many cases religious-run facilities that actively work to manipulate and prevent people from accessing abortions. The crimes these defendants have admitted to and took responsibility for would normally result in a state or municipal court misdemeanor for graffiti. Caleb Freestone’s longer sentence was attributed to minor activism he had been arrested for wheat-pasting flyers on private buildings–the charges were later dismissed but the court heavily punished him for it.


The Federal Judge from the Middle District of Florida, Virginia Hernandez Covington, at one point inconceivably argued that spray painting the outside of a closed fake clinic building was more threatening than fire bombing and causing a fire at an abortion clinic. Judge Hernandez Covington argued that the fear the crisis pregnancy center workers felt was in some way more serious than hurling two molotov cocktails at a legitimate health provider. Lawyer for Amber Smith-Stewart, Lauren Regan pushed back on this statement with the Judge eventually conceding, “They’re both bad."

 

[Cloo]

Well, there it is, more sure to follow: Amber Thurman was killed by Georgia's abortion ban. There will be others | Moira Donegan

After Trump screaming in caps this week that abortion is 'where it should be' with 'exemptions for rape, incest and life of the mother' I would be interested to know if there is any state where those exemptions are actually functional. From all I've heard they are there but worded in such a way that medical practitioners are advised legally not to use them because they could still lead to prosecution if someone feels like it. I guess we hear about places where that is the case, but is there any way to find out if there is anywhere the exemptions actually function and allow medics to make an immediate decision without fear of prosecution?

 

[teqniq]

Major result with this ruling in Georgia:

The Incredible Ruling Striking Down Georgia's Anti-Choice Law

Fulton County Judge Robert McBurney just struck down the Georgia LIFE Act, which makes abortion after six weeks a felony. The filing is a stinging rebuke of the anti-choice law.

www.muellershewrote.com

It is worth reading the judgement but this in particular leaps out:

 

[Cloo]

Another dead woman. Another child left without her mother, in this case for the sake of an unviable 17-week foetus.

A Texas Woman Died After Waiting 40 Hours for Miscarriage Care

Josseli Barnica is one of at least two pregnant Texas women who died after doctors delayed emergency care. She’d told her husband that the medical team said it couldn’t act until the fetal heartbeat stopped.

www.propublica.org

 

[Cloo]

And another:

A Pregnant Teenager Died After Trying to Get Care in Three Visits to Texas Emergency Rooms

It took three ER visits and 20 hours before a hospital admitted Nevaeh Crain, 18, as her condition worsened. Doctors insisted on two ultrasounds to confirm “fetal demise.” She’s one of at least two Texas women who died under the state’s abortion ban.

www.propublica.org

If Trump wins next Tuesday, you'd better hope you never get a serious illness while pregnant in the US because an abortion ban effectively enforces medical negiligence for pregnant women.

 

[mentalchik]

My heart breaks for these women...and so much anger for these criminally stupid men that put their own vile agendas before womens (and sometimes fetus' ) lives

 

[Cloo]

I saw another clip of a woman who nearly died, but luckily her doctors really pushed hard to get a review so they didn't have to wait 24 fucking hours before they could intervene, who points out that it was obvious after a few hours that 'we were never meeting this baby' because if the pregnancy wasn't ended by doctors, it would be ended by her death (leaving a living child without her)

 

[stdP]

A potentially... interesting documentary appeared on iPlayer that I felt belonged in this thread given what I think is its relevance to the US situation.

Young, British and Anti-Abortion

Film-maker Poppy Jay meets the Gen Zers leading anti-abortion campaigns. Online, on campuses and on the streets, she finds a movement growing in confidence, profile and money.

www.bbc.co.uk

(I'll post a magnet link if and when I find one for those outside of the UK/without a VPN)

For those without an hour to spare on it; the key take-away for me (quite likely because I'm an old and out-of-touch liberal, but probably mostly because I eschew social media in almost all its forms) is that I didn't really have any idea there was an apparently significant contingent in the UK - particularly young women if a great deal of the shots are to be believed - arguing against abortion without (or at least without easily admitting to) a religious aspect. They do tackle a few people who are openly arguing against it from a purely religious aspect. Well, one bloke.

Whilst I think the interviewer largely went a bit too easy on the anti-choice brigade (well, I guess that's my colours nailed to the mast) editorially - lots of the classic "life begins at conception, or even before it" and similar arguments went largely unchallenged - basically none of them had an answer to "What if the woman doesn't want a baby?" and generally boiled down to them not understanding how someone might not. I found the woman arguing against what she was framing as "coerced abortions" particularly hypocritical given that the alternative she was offering was, at least as far as I understood it, "coerced pregnancies", by dint of wanting to make abortion illegal. Multiple people diverted the question of pregnancies from rape to arguments along the lines of "the sins of the father should not be visited on the child", which I took as a tacit admission they believed abortion should not be allowed in this scenario either.

Probably the most eloquent words in the whole sphere came from an (openly religious) rapper and his mum. Whilst they largely disagreed with the premise of abortion, neither wanted to outright condemn the practice or the women resorting to it because neither claimed to be understanding of every individual situation.

Interested to hear if anyone here was aware of the UK aspect of the anti-abortion movement and if there's a crossover on social media with the (far more overtly religious and frequently downright racist/eugenicist) movement in the US.

 

[Cloo]

My oldest and I attended a counter protest to the main UK 'pro life' conference last year. Largely religious-led, very well funded by US Christian bodies. It's not massive and won't, I think, do that much to directly influence UK policy, because 'abortions make Jesus sad' doesn't really hit here the same way it does in the US. I do fear that the Tory-Reform coalition that is likely to win the next UK election will somehow go for abortion limitation, despite its total lack of popularity and the awful outcomes that will inevitably come from the US in the next 4 years. They won't go for the Jesus angle - my money is on making it a 'Selfish women aren't having babies and we have to get our birth rates up by any means necessary' (especially without immigration)

 

[Cloo]