The Republican Party's War on Women, the Arkansas Front

This is the first in a series of articles on the subject of women, abortion rights and the Republican Party.  What I am planning is to lay out some facts to show what is going on in our more conservatively run states and to demonstrate how women's lives are affected.

Republicans continue to say that they don’t have to change their core principles, they only have to change the language they use to get their message out.  One perception that they want to alter is the idea that they are running a “war on women”.  Looking at the news over the past few years, I’d say the Republican Party has a long way to go on this subject.

• Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky): “Talk about a manufactured issue.  There is no issue.” 
• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus:  “It’s a fiction.”

The War in Arkansas

the facts:   February 18, 2013 - The Republican led Arkansas General Assembly became the 10th state to ban abortion after 20 weeks.  Governor Mike Beebe (D) vetoed the bill, but the legislature voted to override his veto.  The 20 week ban is in clear violation of federal law which says that abortion is legal up to the time a fetus would be viable outside the womb with viability determined by the medical community.  Doctors say this would be at around 24 weeks.  

• Apparently, Republicans get an medical degree when they join the Party since they obviously know more about fetal viability than any licensed M.D.

March 6, 2013 - Jason Rapert (R) decided that the 20 week ban wasn’t extreme enough so he introduced a bill banning abortions at 12 weeks.  Again, it was passed, then vetoed by the governor and returned to the state assembly where they voted to override the veto. The veto was recorded and the ban became law at 2:11 CST.

At 4:40 CST, just hours after the 12 week bill passed, Mr. Rapert was back at the podium introducing a bill to defund Planned Parenthood in Arkansas.  “We are going to take this country back for conservatism.  And we are not going to allow minorities to run roughshod over what the people believe.”

• With his unfortunate choice of words, Mr. Rapert seems to imply that minorities are not people.  Freud would love this.
• So these Republicans would deny the women in Arkansas not only access to perfectly legal and safe abortion, but also access to any preventative health care?

The Republican War on Women is "fiction"?

WHAT YOU DO SPEAKS SO LOUDLY 
THAT I CANNOT HEAR WHAT YOU SAY.