This is not a good week for my old state. First, we’re even closer to having an amendment to the Indiana constitution banning gay marriage. Because you know, a law isn’t good enough when you’re homophobic.
Now? New abortion restrictions have just won committee approval.
HB1210, authored by Rep. Eric Turner, R-Marion, was originally drafted as a measure forcing abortion doctors to tell their patients that “the fetus may feel pain” and forcing patients to view an ultrasound picture unless they said in writing that they did not want to.
An amendment by Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Jasper, added many more provisions, including one forcing the health department to produce materials saying abortion can increase the risk of breast cancer, another saying patients must be told about opportunities for child care and child support payments and a provision saying abortions could not be performed after 20 weeks except to save the mother’s life. The amendment was approved 8-5.
[…]Messmer’s amendment says a relative of the woman, a county attorney or the attorney general could file an injunction against a doctor who performs or attempts to perform an abortion after 20 weeks.
“If you have an abortion provider providing post-20 week abortions across the state, it may take the attorney general,” Messmer said. His measure also includes a provision saying that life begins when an egg is fertilized.
What. The. Fuck. I wish I was surprised, but frankly I’m not. At least there are some sane voices in Indiana:
Lawson and other Democrats said the supporters’ testimony was based on faulty medical information. Planned Parenthood representatives said abortion does not increase the risk of breast cancer and that scientists and doctors have found fetuses cannot feel pain until well after 20 weeks.
A representative of the Jewish Community Relations Council testified that Jews do not believe life begins at fertilization — they believe it begins at birth — so codifying Messmer’s definition would write religion into state law.
Opponents questioned whether the purpose of the law was really to make women more informed or more safe.
“I’ve heard it before,” Lawson said. “They’re not going to change my mind. They’re bullies.”
Props to Lawson (who’s a representative from my home town’s congressional district) for calling out these people for who they truly are, Planned Parenthood for actually using science in their arguments, and the Jewish Community Relations Council for supporting the separation of church and state. Some people in Indiana get it. Unfortunately it’s not the majority.
It’s not just Indiana. They are trying to shove through the same sonogram crap here in TX. Suddenly, Handmaid’s Tale is starting to look like viable future. Best, and keep on blogging.
And this is why everyone from Indiana with two brains cells to rub together dreams of leaving.
The ultrasound thing is already in the state of Louisiana. Many conservatives were surprised and upset to discover that this did not stop women from going through with the abortion
I gotta admit, the Jewish community surprised me there. But other than that, this kind of story is all too common really. “Red state drafts horrific and evil new laws, crowd cheers, educated minority of the country attempt to keep their food down despite utter disgust.”Happens every damn day. =/
Hurrah for the Jewish Community Relations Council! But isn’t it kind of sad that we can’t just say that saying life begins at conception is not supported by medical science and is an attempt to write religious doctrine into the law? Why can’t we say this from a non-religious perspective and get any respect, it has to come from a minority religious group, not a minority non-religious group. Oh well, thanks for taking the freedom of religion stand, Jewish Community Relations Council.
I don’t think that actual science matters much to some people. I grew up in Tennessee, home of the Scopes trial. I grew up hearing “I’m not descended from no monkey!” I thought it was just the South, but now it is everywhere.
We’re already the state that almost legislated pi as 3.2, now we’re going to try and legislate science? See what happens when you leave, Jen? The whole State goes to hell.
It is fortunate for us that the same people who refuse to accept the scientific method as a valid means of finding truth, also refuse to use it to refine their methods of spreading lies.
I was born and raised as a Hoosier farm girl, and all of my family still lives back in Indiana. I love my home and a lot of the people there, and have often contemplated moving back to be near family again…but far too often lately, Indiana, you’ve broken my heart by pulling shit like this.
This is a horrible week for women’s reproductive rights around the country, ugh.It’s amazing to how helpful that the Jewish community has been in trying to secure a woman’s right to choose, considering I grew up in the conservative South and still tend to associate religion with anti-choice doctrine. Back in the 80s when the Hyde Amendment was challenged, the Jewish community was involved in that ruling as well, saying that the bill was impeding on their religious freedom. (For the record, they also worked the “establishing a religion” angle too but it was shot down by the conservatives on the bench.) It just goes to show that when certain Christians blather on about “religion,” they mean their religion but are still codifying themselves to somehow be worldly and accepting.
My Aunt Mary also posted this today: http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin…Join me in a, “hooray for not living in Indiana anymore” dance?
It’s simple really….My body is my body, and I make my own decisions about my medical care…it should be exactly the same for a woman…It’s HER body…Throw God into the equation, and all logic goes out the window…
Julie, I was going to post this:http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin…The appeals court sided with the father until the formal proceedings, but it’s still embarrassing that this could even be an issue. What century is this again?I’ve lived here less than three years and Texas is looking better and better. A few years of allergy injections against fire ant allergies and I’ll be going back!
I just heard that there is now a bill that would give couples getting married a discount if they take “marriage classes”. According to a source of mine the cost of marriage license is normally $72, but under this bill the license would only be $18. EDIT: Thankfully it’s been dropped, but I also heard birth control may be another issue before the congress ends the session. I suspect this, because Planned Parenthood has been a big issue here lately. http://www.wfpl.org/2011/02/16…EDIT 2: I’ve been informed that this bill is still in Committee, and here is the full text of the bill: http://www.in.gov/apps/lsa/ses…
“An amendment by Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Jasper, added many more provisions, including one forcing the health department to produce materials saying abortion can increase the risk of breast cancer”Wait, what? Can legislatures actually force a department of government (the health department no less) to say things that are not scientifically supported? I don’t know why this surprises me so much after all the evolution wars but it does somehow. Just a matter of time before a republican congress tries to force NOAA to say that hurricanes are caused by impure thoughts.
I’m going to have to agree that this would be a good idea: “patients must be told about opportunities for child care and child support payments”And then I’m going to have to say that the rest of that proposal blows my mind. They have no respect for women.
Except women are almost certainly already being told about all their options by their doctors, and a woman with a nonviable pregnancy, where she does’t want an abortion but it’s her only option, shouldn’t have to sign some stupid form saying she’s been informed about child care, etc.
Ugh. This is just awful to begin with, but I’m especially pissed off that these things keep happening because currently I really don’t want to move out of Indiana. I like Indianapolis; it’s a good city and it’s cheap to live here. But it does sort of make me want to walk over to the Capitol building and ask the IN congress “WTF?!”
Goddamnit Indiana just doesn’t roll off the tongue like Mississippi Goddam.
Don’t worry Jen, you’re not the only one disappointed by their home state, I live in Texas (enough said)
and where are you going to go? where in this country can you go and not get this ignorance? – really, I would like to know because I have yet to find it.
I am sick of you people accusing good Godly conservatives of putting the government between a patient and her doctor. Conservatives would never do that. That’s why we’re against Obamacare – it puts government between patients and their doctors. And we would never do that. Never. Well, unless God tells us to. Otherwise, never.
If you think Indiana is bad google “heartbeat bill.” Yep that’s my state for you, trying to challenge Roe v.Wade…
As much as I hate to say it, the Jewish position is pretty silly, too. Life begins well before birth. It even begins well before conception, as both the egg and sperm are alive. In the end it’s just as arbitrary as anything else, but that’s okay. We have a lot of arbitrary ages. 18 to be allowed to vote. 16 to be allowed to drive. 18, 19 or 21 to be allowed to buy alcohol. At least ‘after birth’ the baby can survive outside the mother’s womb (except in extreme malformation cases), which is probably a far more useful benchmark than ‘can feel pain’ or ‘has a heartbeat’.Someday perhaps we’ll have the technology for safely removing unwanted embryos without damaging them. Of course, even if we had this, I don’t imagine there would be a huge queue of anti-abortion women lining up to donate their wombs to “save the babies” from destruction. However, we don’t have that technology, and the only thing we’ve discovered that reduces the number of abortions isn’t these silly restrictions and hoops you make women jump through; it’s accurate sexual education (i.e. not abstinence-only) and easy/cheap access to effective birth control. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a very large portion of the anti-abortion crowd hates these things, too.
“HB1210, authored by Rep. Eric Turner, R-Marion, was originally drafted as a measure forcing abortion doctors to tell their patients that “the fetus may feel pain”…”So if a foetus can feel pain, that means a new born baby can feel pain.Circumcision of boys is pretty popular in the USA, isn’t it? Perhaps they should introduce a bill requiring doctors to tell parents that their baby “can feel pain” when they circumcise it?
Meh, well you know, the War on Terror is practically over, so War on Women is ON!
Having lived in 5 states, I can honestly say Indiana is, at best, 3rd (maybe 4th… would have to seriously weigh it) in my short list of favorite places to live. People really are different in different places, which isn’t to say all people of each region or state are identical. The fact is, I would consider Indiana similar to living in a Southern state (which makes cultural sense, since the state is largely populated by former southerners who underwent white-flight),As someone who has lived in Indiana and other places which were obviously more progressive, open-minded, and less bigoted towards women and minorities…I can honestly say, with complete certainty, that there are better places to live than Indiana.