Assault targets abortion rights

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Assault targets abortion rights

Opinions

Thursday, 07 April 2011 07:46

Robyn Blumner
Tribune Media

Watch out, ladies, the government is coming after your reproductive rights.
Election victories by a raft of self-proclaimed “small-government” Republicans mean that Big Brother is on the warpath against women’s autonomy.

We’ve seen this before, but this time it’s a true onslaught. In Florida alone there have been at least 20 abortion-related bills filed. The state’s 1 million unemployed will just have to wait while the legislature attends to the serious business of forcing women seeking an abortion to have an unnecessary ultrasound.
This year, Republican politicians see their best opportunity since 1973 to insinuate themselves between women and their doctors. GOP control of more statehouses and governorships has coincided with a U.S. Supreme Court primed by Bush-era appointees to slice and dice Roe v. Wade.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito have yet to explicitly call for Roe’s demise, like their colleagues Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas have, but, at the very least, they’re willing to see Roe erode into insignificance. Meanwhile, Justice Anthony Kennedy’s swing vote doesn’t sway very far in the direction of abortion rights.
In 2007, Kennedy upheld a federal law that banned so-called “partial birth” abortions, even though it failed to include an exception to protect the woman’s health. Kennedy’s majority opinion included a paternalistic lament for women getting this kind of abortion who “come to regret their choice to abort.”
In other words, the courts will allow Congress and state legislatures to swoop in to protect women from their own impulsive and uninformed decisions on abortion — as if women choose abortion like they choose new shoes.
What’s clear is that Republicans are willing to abandon every other principle they claim in order to actively erode abortion rights. They will tell doctors what to do, force expensive and unnecessary regulations on small-business abortion clinics, require women to get medical tests they don’t need or want, and restrict the ability of private insurance companies to offer abortion coverage.
It all points to one thing: Republicans view women as incubators first, autonomous beings second. And they’re on the cusp of making this the law of the land wherever they hold sway.
You can respond to Blumner’s column at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .