• “Arkansas is now shamefully responsible for being the first state to ban medication abortion,” said Dawn Laguens, the group’s executive vice president.
Follow Ireland's lead!
2
By not choosing to hear this case, is it possible that the Supreme Court is opening the door to further muddy the Medication abortion question? Or does it mean that the Supreme Court has decided that this is a personal choice and if someone wants to pursue a case they will only be able to be heard by a lower court?
2
Procedural hah! This is why Mcconnell held up the SCOTUS appointment while Obama was in office. The utter enslavement of half the human race is the long term conservative goal. Not allowing women to work at decent jobs for decent money was part of the 1950s economy that the conservatives yearn for. In the short term, conservatives are destroying the social safety net. Ensuring that women don't get medical care serves both goals.
3
The Arkansas attorney general is an elected office. Voter suppression may require even greater efforts to be overcome in the next election for that office to do what the Supreme Court has chosen not to do. And, it appears to be important to note that merely voting for a woman is not enough to protect women’s rights, given the gender and party affiliation of the current incumbent. “For the people” remains entirely dependent on “by the people” who are able and willing to vote.
Arkansas women will get their medical abortions online. The new rules are meant to stamp out abortion clinics, all of them.
2
As I understand American law a man’s right to purchase a gun is upheld by the constitution. So I gather is a woman's right to abortion. I also understand that a man can leave a loaded pistol anywhere in the house. If his daughter finds it and then plays with it and so murders a brother or sister he will unfortunately suffer a great deal from his indiscretion. Supposing the prolife and prochoice groups get a law in force that demands that a gun in the home will need to be put away in a safe and that this action is to be observed by a police officer and again when its removed. Perhaps Arkansas would go to court saying that this is against the constitution and the Supreme Court refuses to intervene.
Abortion is not a moral issue, it's simply the termination of a collection of cells that slowly develops into something that could possibly become a human being one day. Kind of like a computer CPU not plugged into a circuit and having so software running on it, it's about as useful as a stone. Some religious people want to believe that every sperm and egg are imbued with a "soul." As if a certain sperm joins and egg it somehow is immediately populated with some supernatural "spirit" and this is all orchestrated by a "God" who has decided that this "thing" must stay in a woman's uterus till it develops into an independent, unique creature. I guess that's also why they are against contraception, because trying to prevent this magical event is like slapping "God" in HIS face! Terrible! If "God" wants then "God" shall have. If "God" doesn't want then so be it! Never mind that not all religions agree. For example according to Judaism a fetus only becomes a person when it is born!
"Thus the act of birth changes the status of the fetus from a nonperson to a person (nefesh=soul). Killing the newborn after this point is infanticide."
So in consideration of that, since this administration is so hot on preserving religious freedom, at least Jews can say they that they cannot be restricted from having abortions since this is guaranteed in their religion!
Either way, I think that after Ireland has finally made abortions legal, anti-abortionists here should just go find another hobby.
1
Planned Parenthood is upset with the Arkansas decision as they see their cash cow (abortion) losing a lot of money. They are in the business to make money and they will lose profits if they are not allowed to participate in medical abortions. They put profits over people -- the innocent ones in the womb.
1. All for profit business are in business to make money. To make that some kind of negative aspect is childish.
2. It has been proven time and time again that abortion is not a "cash cow" for PP. To say so is immature.
3. Abortion is legal in this country so to say they put profits over people is inaccurate at best.
If you wish to live in a country governed by religion there are some over seas.
3
Mr Liptak’s piece is headlined:
“Supreme Court Allows Arkansas Abortion Restrictions to Stand” initially indicating to me that the USSC has agreed with
the Arkansas law.
It is necessary to pursue the story into the fine print that I discover that the Supreme Court expressed no opinion. The Supreme Court said only that “The case will continue to be
litigated in the lower courts.” That is different.
Apparently Times’ staff are not sufficiently aware of how people read the Times: not everything. Not everything you write is read. And failure
to recognize this writer-reader gap compromises the NYT role in our lives.
We deserve more.
Richard Lewis
Santa Barbara, CA
With most news organizations today the head line is not created by the article writer.
Clearly this is done for a reason and personally I don't care for that reason.
This article, in my view, does not sufficiently emphasize the procedural posture of the case. The decisions below were on a motion for preliminary injunction. There has been no decision on the ultimate merits.
Where are we headed? I hate the idea of abortion. But what I hate more is the concept of one adult trying to control the body of another adult. We must have family planning, sex education, and readily accessible birth control products.
7
Anybody with intelligence and cognition of the law knows the SCOTUS already decided this issue with their Texas decision. Legal sophistry aside - they dd and we all know it.
And people with real integrity will have to admit that the AR law is just another over-top-attempt to deny a woman autonomy over her life and body - a right settled by SCOTUS with Roe v. Wade.
What makes this whole AR thing so onerous is that:
- It violates the rule that the State (our Government by and for the People) has VERY limited right to force us to be exposed to dangers greater than other alternatives we could choose. Medical abortion in the early months of pregnancy is way less dangerous for the woman than carrying to term and birthing. The pill is less costly/stressful on mind and body than intrusion also. Normally the State has no right to put citizens in greater risk/discomfort than they'd be in given their own druthers as FREE CITIZENS.
- the State has no right to ACTIVELY disadvantage the already disadvantaged. Richer people can and will work around this law - poorer will be much more disadvantaged. I know the Ranting Right does not think a poor Citizen has a right to healthcare equal to a Senator's healthcare - that care predicated on wealth is just life in the big city - but this is NOT paying for someone's healthcare - this is denying someone (basically poorer folk) a healthcare option they could have easily otherwise.
Anti-choice stinks! Glad Ireland got woke!
18
There are two philosophies at war within the radical republican game plan, between the libertarians and their evangelical acolytes.
First, the economic libertarian republicans want all social support programs in the nation totally dismantled, so every citizen must provide for her/himself with no government support structure of any kind. Can't afford to privately educate a child or pay for daycare?
Well - that's your responsibility and you should never have a child. We're all rugged individualists, right, responsible for our own destiny?
Second, the evangelical libertarian republicans want to deny women any type of birth control, starting with making safe abortion medication illegal or unobtainable. Meaning every rugged individual woman has no control over the decision to have children.
Am I the only one who sees a problem here?
One hopes the evangelical and economic libertarians collide with sufficient force to implode and disappear.
13
So the Supreme Court is unconcerned that Arkansas legislators are now practicing medicine without licenses. Anyway, Arkansas doesn't need the court's help, it knows how to deal with medical personnel and all others that don't meet Arkansas' religious standards.
10
I do not like abortion and have never, thankfully, had to choose it though I might have given the serendipitous circumstances of living. No matter my personal choices regarding abortion I would not presume to impose on a stranger those choices I’d make for myself. And there is no sadness greater than the sadness of an unwanted child. That reality I know. There is no cultural depravity greater than children with parents incapable of nurturing them, caring for their most basic needs. Our nation has become so mean spirited that we are now without either heart or soul.
16
Science, economics and health support the abortion side. A fetus doe not have a mind; it is not a person but a mass of cells. Abortion cost less than childbirth by almost a factor of ten. Then there is the cost of producing people are not able to make a living. Unless a child is educated it will most likely end up on welfare or in jail. This cost should also be considered. People who don't want to be parents should not be parents!
8
Constitutional rights are meaningless if the courts refuse to defend them.
17
This decision, like the one that separates children from their immigrant parents, is presented as virtuous, when, in fact, it is the exact opposite. It is a decision, or in this case a non-decision, with only one real goal in mind - to punish, as severely as possible, those who disagree with the hollow, vacuous, duplicitous, hypocritical and wholly inconsistent religious "morality" of the right.
If Republicans are so concerned about the welfare of children, why do they do everything in their power to prevent them from getting any kind of real assistance? I'll tell you why. It's because, as they have shown with the 2,500,000 homeless children currently living in this country, they couldn't care less.
Life is only "precious" so long as it gets them votes. If it didn't, it wouldn't take a New York second for them to suddenly find it no longer that "precious" after all.
11
When will people realize that a freedom doesn't functionally exist if it is gated behind arbitrary and illogical restrictions? The supreme court has already decided that women have the right to have an abortion. Putting up unreasonable barriers to that freedom is clearly unconstitutional.
9
Ireland just voted overwhelming - 66% to 33% - to permit abortion; a deeply Catholic country. America - wake up! Your basic human rights are being stripped - especially the marginalized, women, children, people of color, etc.
In the '50's, my father used to go to a neighboring state to perform "D&C's - early abortions. When counseled by the leader of the pack, head MD in town, a devote Catholic - who, unlike my father, would NOT treat those without heath coverage - my father was pressured into not performing D&C's across state lines for fear of jeopardizing his professional future and that of his family.
Another sad, sad day in America especially for all women.
9
' doctors in Arkansas who perform abortions “risk being ostracized from their communities and face harassment and violence toward themselves, their family, and their private practices.”'
I doubt that Arkansas is unique. And the abortion lobby still wants us to believe that the majority of Americans favor abortion? It doesn't sound like it.
1
It astonishes me how much Arkansas hates so many of it's own citizens.
And the Supreme Court continues to favor everything (usually business) except actual American human beings.
This country is so hostile to humans, I don't how this will all eventually end up.
8
Shame on the Supreme Court for denying women the civil rights women in European countries have.
Women are people. Abortion will NOT go away no matter what laws are passed. It will just go underground and become a dangerous criminal activity. Just like twentieth century Prohibition such laws will be uninforceable and ignored.
10
There will be many innocent lives spared from the evil of abortion due to this action by the Supreme Court. Isn't this wonderful. The pro life activists are probably celebrating right now. It is a new day and a new dawn.
2
Women will always find ways to end an unwanted pregnancy. Don’t you know this will only lead to more death? Have you ever seen a woman with septic shock from inducing her own abortion? I have. In one case I cared for her for over a week. Every organ system was affected. Septic emboli caused a stroke, and she lost the use of her right arm at age 37. If you rejoice over such stories, you have been duped by a cruel agenda.
11
And innocent lives will be lost. Pregnancy and childbirth are not as risky as they used to be, but life- and health-threatening issues are not that uncommon, especially among women who don't have access to medical care or prenatal care and counseling. You know, like in red states, which have maternal/fetal death rates as bad as many undeveloped nations. Are you as passionate about maternal health as about abortion? If not, you're doing evil to innocent lives.
3
Finally some good news on the pro-life front in America after the devastating loss by those fighting for the rights of the unborn in Ireland. We need the American pro lifers to head to Ireland once the dust has settled from their depressing vote and start a strong anti-abortion campaign. If we can do it here with over 325 million Americans, we can surely do it in Ireland with less than 5 million Irish.
1
Do "the rights of the unborn" include their mothers getting access to high-quality medical and prenatal care, and good nutrition and housing? Or do you care more about birth itself than whether the mother and baby survive and are healthy?
2
This law is a crime aimed at uneducated impoverished minority women that may ironically end to their good since THEY unavailed of abortion rights will unintentionally go on to produce America’s future generations!
Meanwhile women of means and even pro-lifers will practice abortion as they always have, thus diminishing the number of bigoted anti-abortionists.
The anti-abortion law will thus eventually kill racism and inadvertently enhance Democracy.
Anti-abortionists are stupidly cutting their own throats.
5
Why any woman votes for the GOP, is a complete mystery. Is it bigotry? Religiosity? Greed? The Stockholm Syndrome?
9
Anti-abortion laws have nothing to do with faith and are both bigoted and impractical. The poor and uneducated ) thus will continue to make babies and produce America’s future generations.
Women of means will get abortions just as they always have thus diminishing the population Republicans adore.
Underground abortion will flourish and provide big business for the criminal world.
Anti-abortion laws serve no political purpose and do not serve the American people.
8
The Republican war on women, bearing fruit.
8
Wildly misleading headline.
It's telling that the "pro-life" GOP is completely unwilling to give any help what-so-ever to the 2,500,000 homeless children currently living in this country. In fact, they go out of their way to make sure they get as little help as possible. Canceling existing lunch programs that were currently working, for example. What it tells me is that, for the GOP, life is only "precious" as long as it doesn't require any time, money or effort.
I also have to conclude that the ~100,000 innocent children killed in the GOP's war of choice in Iraq probably weren't considered too "precious" either.
Let's put it this way, the GOP may consider life to be "precious", but, considering their actions, it's at the bottom of the list. - Well after power, profits, political puffery, pontification, profligacy, and personal aggrandizement.
30
Blanket statements like yours is why trumps approval rating and those of the GOP are going up. You don't provide a source to support your accusation either.
Heck, millions of women have no access to the pre-natal care and counseling that would keep them and their newborns alive and well. A lot of maternal deaths and complications, and fetal abnormalies are preventable. But forget about life and health before and after; all that counts is birth.
7
I am disappointed that this article regarding the Arkansas abortion law does not adequately describe the court procedure. Nonlawyers are unlikely to understand that the case arose from an injunction preceding a decision on the merits. Even a lawyer is unlikely to be able to determine whether the injunction followed a preliminary hearing on the merits or was only a temporarily restraining order. In any case the reporter failed to explain that the Supreme Court rarely reviews interlocutory decisions because the facts are not fully developed. In this case, that is particularly true because the Court of Appeals reversed because of insufficient findings of fact. Tactically the application for review was worthwhile because it kept the injunction in place until today's Oder denying review.
7
There are literally tens of millions of pro-life women in this country. Using progressive, pro-choice logic a war is also being waged against these women by the pro-choice crowd.
Groups like NOW, NARAL, and progressives in general do not now, nor have they every, represented all women in this country, only the women who agree with them politically.
Some much for the ridiculous "war on women" meme.
2
So says...Larry. Eyeroll.
4
Stay out of my uterus!
3
Those pro-forced-birth women have a perfect right not to get an abortion. They do not represent tens of millions of pro-choice women, either. We believe that EVERY WOMAN has a choice. By the way, if a government has the power to mandate birth, what would stop them from someday mandating abortion? Giving women choice keeps that from ever happening.
6
Ireland just voted to repeal abortion restrictions from its constitution, thus taking a powerful step to give women in that country the freedom to control their health and their own bodies. Here in America, however, we seem to be going backwards with the help of the depraved trump, the hypocritical Republicans and religious evangelicals. At this pace, the United States will soon regress to the 15th century.
23
Yeah, witch hunts everywhere...
2
They can now go to Ireland. Democracy at work.
2
Democracy is not at work here. Americans have not been allowed to vote on abortion law since 1973.
Ireland? Why don't we repatriate Scott Kelly instead.
Who is "they,"
MiguelM? Way to dehumanize women. By the way we can't get pregnant without male sperm.
1
It appears to me that the Arkansas law couldn't survive the SCOTUS's undue burden standard of prior courts. Is this the beginning of compelled human incubation?
13
Ireland just fought this battle.
Actually, American women did, too, over 50 years ago.
I say we start chipping away at men's right to decide their reproduction: no condoms, no vasectomies, no adoptions, no step-parenting, no fostering, no storing sperm.
If they attempt to impregnate after all of that, then they shall be, WILL be...... hummm, what would be a proper punishment......?
You see how easy it would be to set out laws that would prohibit men from reproducing.....for as the "officials" here said, "....... there is no right to choose....."
You hear that, boys....?
Your turn.
18
There's no birth like a forced birth. And no child like a sick, hungry child.
But that doesn't matter, right ????
22
I could say that this decision is Neanderthal. But I would not want to insult any Neanderthals in the Republican Party.
10
This decision, along with most everything else the Trump administration is unraveling, makes me think of those films where most people live in desperate poverty held in check by corporate elites. Elysium comes to mind.
5
Thank you, Planned Parenthood, for continuing to fight the zealots. Another donation is on its way. One of these days soon enough, those of us who can will have to learn to perform abortions ourselves.
18
The Christian Dominionists now in charge of the GOP, who produce these intolerable laws on reproductive rights and so many other issues, have to be defeated and removed -- vote by vote, election by election, year by year. If their laws disgust you: volunteer, contribute, and VOTE!
20
Don't like it? Vote Democrat. Nothing else will make any difference.
25
Just another example of the religious minority trying to force their narrow minded beliefs on women everywhere. They should move to Saudia Arabia where they would feel right at home.
22
Did these misogynists give any reason for this their action?
9
Why do the legislators and no-choice gang hate women?
12
Wake up women of America!! Vote, vote, vote!
37
53% of white women voted for Trump, so they are vote, vote, voting already -- just not the way you would like them to, Maureen.
1
Not exactly, Bobby. 53% of white women who voted at all chose Trump, but half of America did not vote for anyone. Of the other 50%, well over half voted for a candidates who were NOT Trump. And -- newsflash! --white women are not the only women in America who vote, nor the only ones whose votes matter.
Abortion wasn't on the ballot, Bobby.
To circumvent the law, could a single hospital willingly provide admitting privileges to providers at these clinics? Does the law stipulate what the scope of these privileges must be to count?
3
The big problem is that hospitals don't want to touch the issue of abortion. While its true that many of the doctors providing abortions in this country are providing outpatient procedures and aren't typically the sort of doctors who would typically apply for admitting privilege, hospitals have no obligation to grant admitting privileges to doctors, even if they would otherwise meet the standards applied to other doctors seeking admitting privileges. If they want to avoid the issue of abortion the panel can just deny the application for any reason.
2
Elections have consequences. Voters in "Red" states like Alabama chose this government. A famous consultant is found of saying "Sometimes you have to show that something is broken before people will agree to fix it." Our government is VERY broken. Too many "Blue" voters stayed home in 2016 -- especially in urban MI, WI, and PA.
Donald Trump and his GOP Collaborators (including the voters of Alabama) are doing EXACTLY what they said they would do. There have been no surprises here.
Civilized Americans will have to live with this right-wing Supreme Court for a very long time. This dark period of American life will not soon dawn.
Elections have consequences. Those who don't like this decision should remember this next November.
22
Blue voters didn’t stay home, too many voted for candidates that had no chance to win. Don’t blame red voters, they want this. Blame Stein and Johnson voters. If Trump or Pence gets to replace RBG or Kennedy, kiss Stare Decisis goodbye.
11
Traymn, you can blame Stein voters if you must, but you should actually thank Johnson voters, and also those who voted for Evan McMullin, because they took away a lot of red votes which would have otherwise gone to Trump (very few if any Johnson or McMullin voters would have otherwise voted for Clinton). Johnson and McMullin combined got more than 5.2M votes, while Stein got less than 1.5M. Johnson and McMullin cost Trump more states than Stein cost Clinton. The conventional third-party narrative of 2016 is easy but inaccurate.
This time around I believe you have the conventional view. Because of his strong identification with drug legalization, and the dreadfulness of Clinton and Trump, Johnson picked up a lot more socially liberal voters than any previous Libertarian candidate. It also didn’t take a lot of voters to swing it to Trump. And I don’t actually blame anyone for their vote until they start whining about Trump or the Supreme Court.
Who are the major companies in Arkansas? Pressure them to cease expansion. Any considering moving there? I wouldn't want to live in a restrictive state like that. Hit the state in the pocketbook. I would imagine that growing companies like Amazon and Apple and Google would find it harder to find good employees in such a backward state.
25
1. "Judges considering laws restricting access to abortion, Justice Breyer added, must make a cost-benefit calculation, weighing the burdens a law imposes on abortion access against the benefits it confers."
There rests the biggest problem with our judicial branch. Unelected, unaccountable judges are allowed to create public policy through cost-benefit calculations and other methods. That belongs reserved for the legislative branch whose members are actually held accountable for their decisions on election day. Politicians in robes never are and their authority should reflect that. In our present system it extends way too far.
In elementary school students are taught that the responsibility of the legislative branch is to create law, the executive to enforce law and the judicial to interpret law. May we one day return to that. If it never existed in the first place, then we better change what students are being taught since it's inaccurate.
2. "This was unsurprising, Judge Baker found, as doctors in Arkansas who perform abortions “risk being ostracized from their communities and face harassment and violence toward themselves, their family, and their private practices.”
Tell them to get a firearm and concealed carry permit. If they have no problem terminating an innocent human through abortion, they should have none with a guilty one attempting to attack them. It's Arkansas, not some liberal state that doesn't value residents natural right to self-defense.
Right, it's Arkansas, not some liberal state that values its residents' natural right to self-determination and control over their own healthcare decisions/bodies, not to mention safety from rampaging gun worshippers.
5
"Elected" judges have to campaign, and that means they might have to "BEND" towards the wishes of the donor(s)...
Judges should be APPOINTED, with input from other judges, the Bar, etc - and NOT elected.
2
@John Fasoldt: The goal of my post wasn't to advocate for judges being elected. It was to support eliminating their ability to create public policy through cost-benefit calculations and other methods. That again belongs reserved for the legislative branch with judges only interpreting the constitutionality of the laws that they pass.
In regards to what you said, I'll respond by saying that judges like politicians only belong accepting money from donors who already agree with their existing positions. They don't belong accepting money from ones who expect them to change. There is no doubt trade offs with appointing and electing judges. Having to select between judges being held accountable to the public through elections and complete independence from the political process so it doesn't potentially influence their rulings are tough value judgments.
Bad decision and a frightening portent.
22
Well, this was the point of denying Obama his SCOTUS appointment. The people who decry SCOTUS decisions they disagree with a being imposed by an unelected few welcome actions and decisions that are in line with their social agenda.
19
There is something terribly wrong with our Democracy.
14
It is eminently reasonable that the clinic have a contractual relationship with a doctor who has admitting privileges. Anything else is unsafe care.
3
That's absurd, Alice. Other states don't require it, and have no problems. And please don't forget, ANY type of abortion is less risk to the woman than pregnancy and childbirth. Especially in red states that provide few services to pregant women. Many red states have maternal AND fetal death & serious complication rates as bad as many less developed nations. In my native state of Texas, which has also tried to ban abortion, 25% of the population don't have health coverage -- a quarter of all Texans. That is NOT "pro-life" in my book.
10
This is not true. Most doctors who practice outpatient procedures like abortions (including many who do far riskier outpatient procedures like hip/knee replacements and whatnot) don't have admission privileges at local hospitals, and even most emergency room doctors at hospitals tend not to have admitting privileges at their own hospital. Even if we ignored the fact that abortions, particularly medically induced abortions, are among the most safe outpatient procedures out there, this has never been a medical or safety necessity for any similarly situated outpatient doctors who don't perform abortions.
All this is is yet another attempt to chip away at the right to abortion and make women's lives less safe (just look at Texas where there was an increase in pregnancy-related deaths and deaths due to illegal abortion procedures following their recent anti-choice laws, which have since reversed after SCOTUS struck them down) masquerading as promoting "safety".
10
The laws being created in various conservative states reflect the attitude of those states that abortion is not a constitutional right (despite the binding precedent of SCOTUS). If they truly believed it to be the constitutional right that it is, conservative states would treat it with at least the same reverence as the right to bear arms or practice a religion. Many such states can barely stomach basic gun regulation in the face of mass murders and terrorist attacks, yet they do not hesitate to create every possible impediment to abortion in the name of speculative "safety" issues.
And let's not play games about guns and religion being more sacrosanct because they actually appear in the text of the constitution. Conservatives and liberals alike depend on any number of rights flowing from a "privacy" right that is never actually expressed in the supreme law of the land. Far more than the right to have an abortion would disappear if we went down that road.
The issue of whether a woman has a constitutional right to have an abortion has been raised, argued, considered and decided in the affirmative. As is so often the case with theocratic-minded leaders, rule of law is not enough to secure a right. Roy Moore demonstrates that much. They must be dragged into the reality of secular government even if they are kicking, screaming and calling down hellfire upon the heathen world (see interracial marriage and gay marriage).
15
The real agenda is to roll back women's progress, as they are now successfully competing with men for good jobs. If the real goal were to make abortion more 'rare' there would be momentum to make effective contraception widely accessible and inexpensive. Instead, the many 'crisis pregnancy centers' attempt to mislead women even about contraception.
7
Excellent work, Arkansas. Now close the remaining abortion clinic.
2
Then we'll just donate money to orgs that provide transportation to places that aren't backwards, and which therefore allow women to make their own decisions about their bodies. Sad, when a country like Ireland is moving forward, and the US is moving backward!
#bluetidalwave2018
17
Jacob,
And while they are at it, let them close all the abortion clinics throughout the country. Shut them all down now! Just think of all the innocent lives that will be saved.
1
You mean, like Brazil where abortion is illegal? A million illegal abortions occur each year -- 20% of the women end up needing medical/hospital care. This is your idea of saving lives? You want to save a life? Donate one of your kidneys to a stranger in need. There are tens of thousands of them. I did -- and I don't even call myself "pro-life." What's stopping you? You're eager put other people's bodies on the line -- but not your own, it seems.
The Arkansas GOP aims to make abortion as humiliating, invasive, dangerous, embarrassing, onerous and painful as possible. The goal is to punish and shame women for having sex without welcoming pregnancy. If they could, they would fine women for having orgasms. I'm a little surprised the zealots aren't openly advocating female genital mutilation to control our sexuality.
68
Pro-life advocates don't care about women's sexuality. We just want to protect children from being killed by their parents.
1
Since effective contraception is fought by these same organizations as well, the likeliest agenda is to render it more difficult for young women to effectively compete with men for good jobs. Some who voted for Trump for economic reasons are now getting regressive Santorum type social policies.
13
Come on. The anti-choice religious right is all about limiting women’s sexuality by limiting access to contraception and to safe termination of pregnancy. Abortion is fourteen times safer than pregnancy. This movement does not recognize that life is complicated. Fathers, uncles, ex-boyfriends and acquaintances rape their daughters, nieces, and ex-girlfriends. It’s hard to get written consent for an abortion when you’re 16 and your father is the one who impregnated you. Or he’s in jail. Or you don’t know who he is, but your state requires written authorization for abortion from both parents. Pregnant women become desperately ill and can only be saved when the pregnancy is terminated. I have practiced obstetrics and gynecology as a physician assistant for 26 years. I have seen many such cases and I have seen women die due to such illnesses. I cannot imagine practicing in a state like Arkansas or Iowa. Why punish a woman for being ill, for being poor, for being raped or for having someone force her into incestuous relations? Why should women suffer this way? If you don’t approve of abortion, don’t have one. Leave everyone else alone, please.
8
What a surprise...NOT!
The GOP owned and operated SCOTUS (including Gorsuchs the Illegitimate) will do everything in their power to erode a woman's right to her body.
"Every woman must bear at least three (3) Citizen-Soldier-Consumer-Tax-Payers for the sake of the elites."
23
Love "Gorsuch the Illegitimate"! Everyone should start using that moniker.
10
A similar issue was already settled in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt. The Arkansas law should have been struck down immediately.
37
The Arkansas law disproportionately affects the poor, who do not have the luxury of being able to travel to another state for an abortion. It is shameful that this attack on the most vulnerable people is allowed to go on.
71
You could also claim it disproportionately effects children as the poor are likely to survive while the wealthy die.
This makes absolutely no sense. Shane must have suffered a momentary dementia to write it.
Oh, I got it! Shane can't tell the difference between an embryo and a child. I suggest Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryo
Abortion choice is between a woman and her physician. For those who would restrict abortion, I suggest that is your personal choice and regardless of what might be at risk, I would indeed support your choice. As with many of these draconian abortion "rules", I would be dead (twice) today without appropriate medical intervention. Should a woman be forced to die to save a non-viable fetus? Many might say "no" but persist in regulations that would permit and promote this type of thinking. There is a great deal of stupidity with regard to reproduction and reproduction rights. Our current VP wanted all miscarriages to have a burial. What is this? Again, if this is what a person wants, so be it. But don't dictate to me what I must do.
39
Fetus is a Latin word. In the English language it means "infant", "baby", or "offspring". Let's just stick with the present language and call it what it is, a child.
2
No, let's not. Because it isn't.
20
Agreed. Let’s not call them children. They aren’t.
“Fetus” is derived from Latin, like many other words in our lexicon. So what? A fetus (before 14 weeks, the correct term is “embryo”) can’t survive in the extrauterine environment until about 24 weeks. An infant can.
5
It is never about the unborn. It has always been about control over women's bodies and subjugation of reproductive rights.
Handmaid's Tale is here.
The question remains, will women sit back and let a bunch of old white men make them slaves?
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If the only purpose of criminalizing abortion is controlling women's bodies, why are there pro-life women?
I'm pro-life, and I don't care in the least about controlling someone else's body. I just don't think it should be legal to kill innocent people.
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If it's wrong to kill innocent people then your God must be a sinner too since he allows billions of fetuses to die prematurely or to be born with disease or congenital defects.
Every case is different, you can't just make blanket statements like it's wrong to kill innocent children. Would you allow a mom to die while being forced to give birth to living but non-viable fetus???
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Mr. Kenworthy: The obvious answer to your disingenuous question is that people have a CHOICE in a non-theocratic state such as ours. We are not governed by Papal Bulls or the opinions of bishops. You call abortion murder, fine; that is your right. You do not have the right to impose your beliefs on anyone else. As to your assertion that you don't care about controlling other people's bodies...gee, thanks. I get the feeling, though, that you wouldn't lose too much sleep if gay marriage was banned or if we went back to criminalizing "sodomy." By the way, who appointed you Solomon?
More arguments over nits since the Right cannot win on direct attack on the merits of its arguments. It's a bother other equals are allowed to decide for themselves, isn't it Blue Noses?
And when does the separation of church and state get protected? The real victims of religious persecution are all those not members of some crackpot "faith".
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from the article: "Judge Kristine G. Baker, of the Federal District Court in Little Rock, blocked the [restrictive abortion] Arkansas law, ... But a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, in St. Louis, vacated that decision..."
Are those three judges ALL MEN? Yes! Of course they are. Why am I not surprised...
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Well this is why they stole the Supreme Court seat. What do you expect?
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Mrs. Clinton would have made a huge difference for this country. More freedom, more trust and a legacy of Judges who would be expanding rights that the rich and upper middle class don't even have to think about to all Americans.
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The right-wing war on poor women continues unabated.
Christian Shariah Law is thriving in America as the separation of church and state collapses.
"The best pregnancy is a forced pregnancy" GOP 2018
Vote on November 6 2018....for the 21st century, not the 12th century.
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Subjugation of women. Pure and simple.
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Since approximately half of pregnancies lead to the birth of a female child, you could say unrestrained abortion is the real war on women.
@Shane
You could also say that, "Freeing the slaves actually enslaved them!". But, like your suggestion, it would be a patent lie.
Your comment reminds me of Paul Ryan's approach to the truly needy in this country, "If I help you, I'm actually hurting you!"
Which is nothing more than self-serving piety presented as virtue.
This is all about punishing women and taking control over their bodies.
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With no punishment, responsibility, or even an identification of the impregnating male. The GOP and their judges refuse to comprehend reality, and put the entire "blame" on the woman instead. It's the woman-hating Republican way.
Meanwhile, it looks more and more like Trump impregnated Playmate Shera Bechard and then arranged for her to get an abortion in 2017, while he was in office and married. Instead of being punished, Trump was named a "Pro-Life Hero" by the Susan B Anthony List. Sickening.
30
"There is no right to choose medication abortion." Really?
It's obvious that this Arkansas law is designed to punish women by forcing them to get a surgical abortion, rather than a safe, medication induced abortion. Scarier still? SCOTUS fails to rule.
Men with lawmaking power continue chipping away at a women's right to an abortion.
Want less of these innane decisions? Vote Blue and flip the Senate.
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Some procedural explanation would be helpful to readers.
As I understand it, the case now goes back to Judge Baker. She can cure the defect in her original decision by finding how many women are affected. And she can block the law again.
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That is how I understand the status having read the Eight Circuit decision.
5
That was my understanding too. If I recall, the Hellerstedt opinion put a lot of weight on the fact finding provided by the plaintiffs concerning not only how many women would be effective, but also how little effect similar requirements to the one in this case would have on the safety of women receiving abortions. You probably can just rehash the second set of findings, but you have to do an individualized fact finding for its effect on womens' ability to choose. For example, if say, Rhode Island passed a law that closed two out of three abortion clinics, it would be harder to make the argument that it was an undue burden due to the lack of convenient locations since Rhode Island is relatively small, as compared to the fact findings in Hellerstedt where women in the entire western half of Texas would be completely cut off from abortion access within a day's roundtrip drive or even here where women would suddenly have a 3-4 hour drive when they used to have an abortion provider locally.
1
Forced-birth zealots and their right-wing enablers will fight even harder than usual over medication abortion because they know it could allow women to avoid all the harassment, delays and other obstacles they have managed to throw up over the years.
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Well I guess we can all fly to Ireland for our abortion care now, right Arkansas? Or Oklahoma as the Arkansas officials suggested in their brief. Which again proves that the law isn't about "taking care of women" but making it more difficult to access legal medical care.
On a serious note, the Irish referendum passed because Irish people thought women should have bodily autonomy, and that actual living breathing women should take precedence over an embryo or fetus. It's not a wild or crazy idea. Science and medical knowledge carried the day.
Vote in November. Vote for science and trust women.
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There is no fundamental difference between a person before birth and after birth. An "actual living breathing woman" is no more human than a woman in the womb.
"Body autonomy" is simply a person with a stronger, larger body who wants to kill someone with a weaker, smaller body.
Science does not support the pro-abortion side.
1
First, there are no women in "wombs." Women breathe air and are sentient. Fetus are not. Until late in the pregnancy, they may look complete on the outside, but their insides are still rudimentary and non-functional, including the brain. Finally, there is no disembodied "the womb." There are only women's uteruses, which are none of your business.
Arkansas women, if you believe you are second-class citizens who do not have the right of agency over your own body and your own future, keep voting for Republicans. And if you do vote Republican, don't complain the next time one abuses you: your vote told them it's perfectly fine.
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Ireland, that most Catholic of European countries just got with it. There are only 3 abortion clinics in all of Arkansas? It must be as big as Ireland. And now they may close? And the Supreme Court refuses to review the new law? How is the United States a modern, civilised country?
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The answer, M.Lonne, is that it isn't, not any longer.
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Amen, sadly
Poland, I believe, is now the most Catholic of European countries.
It's worth getting comments like this from abroad, to remind us how extraordinarily benighted some of our state governments are. Far too many, indeed.
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So while Ireland takes a step into the modern era, the US Supremes green light Arkansas's gleeful retreat into the deep well of the past. No doubt in the wafer-thin guise of "divine fiat."
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Not really. The Eight Circuit vacated her decision based on technical merits, sent it back to her that she may correct, and the appeals process will go on. It's too early to go directly to SCOTUS.
3
Just another repercussion of the Trump presidency.
Say good by to abortion rights, another example of how the republicans are taking our country backwards. It is their strongly held belief that we need to bring America back to the 1950's or earlier. At least socially.
Ok, so lets do it and implement the same tax structure as in the 1950's where the upper 1% paid 90% in income taxes (up until 1970's wen it went down to 70%).
This 2018, women have a right to determine what happens to their own bodies. But the wannabe dictator has other ideas.
This fall we have an opportunity to turn this around. If we don't I fear what will happen to this country.
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Ironically, Ireland is now more forward looking than the U.S. when it comes to protecting the lives and health of its women.
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If this doesn't galvanize opposition to the GOP then our democracy is lost and we are no longer free. When those who seek control through their mythology hold absolute power then the "noble experiment" is finished.
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It is the responsibility of the Democrats to explain this in the simplest, shortest possible way, so that Americans, in Arkansas and beyond, realize they need to vote and vote Democratic.
Women deserve to have access to alternatives to surgical abortion.
7
Why would Arkansas restrict access to medication abortions when they are much safer and performed much earlier? Why is the state imposing regulations that will force women to undergo surgical abortions later in pregnancy when they should be able to access safer medical abortions. If its about safety, which we all know its not, then these regulations make women in Arkansas less safe.
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Because they want to do as much as they can to limit any and all forms of abortion. I don't know if they have any laws regarding surgical abortion, but if they only targeted medical abortions, its probably because they knew the law would effectively force all abortion clinics in the state to close, which clearly violates Whole Women's Health v. Hellerstedt (and I think the reason SCOTUS justified not hearing it was that there were procedural deficiencies particularly regarding the lack of comprehensive fact finding that was present in Hellerstedt). This way, two out of three clinics were targeted (only one provides surgical abortions), and this was by far the cheapest and easiest method of obtaining an abortion. It has nothing to do with safety and they aren't even really trying to hide that fact.
It should be noted that its even more absurd for them to target medical abortions given that the second pill is typically taken by the patient at her home. Unless the doctor has admitting privileges at the hospital closest to her house, if there were any issues, any medical professional would tell you to go to the nearest ER, regardless of whether they had admitting privileges at that hospital or not.
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Adding to CL's logically irrefutable answer, there is the wish to stop females from having a sex life outside their husbands' or future husbands' control. Except prostitutes, of course. I wonder how prostitution is doing in Alabama and similar states.
On the upside there are many websites which sell abortion pill kits. Hopefully women in Arkansas can order them online. That's one thing that the government is helpless against, the online world! All these freaky Republicans are doing is making abortions less safe and bringing back the dark ages. These monsters must be voted out in November and it would be great to just deport them to the mountains of Afghanistan so they can join the Taliban!
I find it so odd that apparently bright, learned, objective justices can't see a law made with a medical pretense to help but really made to restrict a procedure protected by the Constitution. What am I missing here?
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This shows you just how political this court has become. It's politics over justice. The founding fathers would turn over in their graves if they could see what has happened.
27
What really turns them in their graves is watching expectant mothers not looking forward to seeing their children come into the world alive.
The 'founding fathers' were trying to AVOID a theocracy. Although nominally all Christian, the founders themselves were definitely not zealots (compare to the Puritans, for example). So I believe the founders would be far more concerned with religious 'beliefs' being inferred from the Constitution. Laws banning abortion originated in the 19th century in any case.
Little by little, the constitutional deformity that is Roe v Wade, is being reversed. Abortion will never be illegal in this country, but the extremist 3rd wave feminists have tried to turn this regrettable life-taking procedure into a virtue. America has some of the most draconian pro-abortion laws in the developed world.
In what way does not requiring a doctor to have admitting privileges to a hospital protect womens' health?
The dirty secret of the abortion industry is that it has nothing at all to do with womens' health.
5
"Draconian?" No one is required to have an abortion.
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It most certainly does have to do with women’s health. It is unhealthy to have a pregnancy when you are unable or unwilling to care fir a child. It is psychologically unhealthy to be forced to be a breeding vessel. It is unhealthy for the child born to indigent or unwilling patents. Patriarchy is inherently unhealthy for society. It is unhealthy for the biosphere to be subjected to overpopulation. It is unhealthy to have your body controlled by others.
Religious freedom is also freedom from the imposition of other’s religion on you. No one is forcing anyone to have an abortion. No one should be forcing anyone to have a child.
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Managing pregnancy/abortion rights is absolutely a women's health issue.
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So, clearly Saudi Arabia is not the only country heading backward in a rush to reassert control over those with a female body.
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Will the GOP now call their own SCOTUS "activist"?
34
Jim, "judicial activism" only exists among liberal judges. Didn't they teach you that in civics class? Oh, there are no more civics classes.
1
The Republican War on Women and the Poor continues.
The only way to win this war is to vote in record numbers in November (and beyond.)
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Yeah if people cry and cry but sit home on voting day we are all sunk!
1
Democrats want controls on the constitutional right to own guns; Republicans want controls on the constitutional right to a pre-viability abortion. Each side picks its battle and neither listens to the other.
3
Except Democrats want common sense gun controls that still wouldn't prevent any law-abiding citizen who follows whatever processes are imposed on purchasing a gun from owning almost any gun they want.
Republicans are essentially trying to chip away at the constitutional right to obtain an abortion by imposing nonsensical rules such as the admitting privileges law, which have been repeatedly demonstrated to add nothing to the safety of the procedure and is only a trojan horse to force abortion clinics (who will never be able to get admitting privileges because no hospital wants to open that political can of worms) to shut down leaving many women without meaningful access to abortion in many parts of the country.
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George Oliver's comment is a perfect example of deliberate blindness to fundamental differences: the difference between reasonable and unreasonable (per CL), and the difference between wanting to help people live better and wanting to prevent them from living better.
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George, do you not see a difference in the right to own a weapon and the right to make personal decisions about your own body?
3