The Republican War on Women -- The Battle in Ohio

This is the fourteenth in a series of articles on the subject of women, abortion rights and the Republican Party. 

Republicans continue to say 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 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 Ohio Front

the facts and commentary:   Ohio has abandoned the national conservative Republican stance being used in many states that abortion restrictions are needed to protect the health of women.  Ohio anti-abortion crusaders blatantly acknowledge that their purpose in enacting new restrictions is to eliminate abortion completely in their state and that they intend to do it in small steps so as not to attract federal oversight. 

Last year, anti-abortion groups failed to garner enough signatures to get a fetal heartbeat on the state ballot.  In the face of apparent citizen support for abortion rights and in attempt to avoid federal scrutiny of outright abortion bans, the state legislature began a program of small, incremental steps to prohibit abortion.  Most recently, Ohio's Republican lead legislature thought they would sneak new regulations into Ohio law by adding abortion restrictions onto the state budget at the last minute. Governor John Kasich (R) has signed all the new abortion restrictions into law including those tacked onto the state budget.

In his anti-abortion crusade, Mr. Kasich has even gone so far as to appoint Mike Gonidakis, anti-abortion crusader and President of Ohio Right to Life, (and who is NOT a medical doctor), to the Ohio State Medical Board and Marchal Pitchford, another anti-abortion crusader and chairman of Right to Life to a panel that will help choose who will fill an Ohio Supreme Court vacancy--the same court that will review upcoming challenges to the legislature's new abortion restrictions.  I guess if you can't win fairly, stacking the deck in your favor is seen as an acceptable option.

Anti-abortion proponents say these restrictions "rightfully make women think twice before ending a pregnancy".  Do these idiots really think a woman has NOT thought long and hard about her choice before entering a clinic?  

Ohio's recent incremental restrictions include:

1. ending competitive bidding for federal family planning grants in order to assure that none of that money goes to Planned Parenthood. ----- The one-thought legislature fails to take in account that--by law--PP uses NO FEDERAL MONEY to fund abortions. All abortion costs are covered by private donations, so their punitive action accomplishes nothing on the anti-abortion front but does prevent poor Ohio women from obtaining services like mammograms and pap smears which PP does use federal money to provide.
2. arranging new financing for state rape crisis centers if they agree to never mention abortion as an option. ----- Because carrying a rapist's child for nine months would not add to the trauma a woman has already experienced?  
3. naming a specific drug protocol for doctors who perform medical abortions.  Ohio doctors and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists state that this protocol is outdated and less safe than the protocol they recommend. ----- Apparently we are supposed to believe that being elected to state office grants you instant access to more medical knowledge than the M.D. who has gone through years of rigorous training.  
4. barring public hospitals from signing emergency transfer agreements with abortion doctors. For years, Ohio has required abortion clinics to obtain emergency transfer agreements before granting them a license to operate, so this restriction is designed simply to override a previous law. ----- Maybe Ohio legislators are unaware that this particular restriction has been ruled unconstitutional in North Dakota and Oklahoma?  And do these legislators really think they have the right to decide who gets emergency care and who doesn't?

Ohio's latest attempt to curtail abortions, includes a law that took effect just this month requiring abortion providers to perform an ultrasound--even if the doctor deems it unnecessary--ask the woman if she wants to see it; and, following a mandated discussion of fetal heartbeats, ask the woman if she wants to hear it.  After this, the woman must wait 24 hours before returning to the clinic for the actual procedure.  As one Cleveland woman, who already has two children and who suffered severe postpartum depression after the last birth, said "It's a hard decision for anybody to make. To make it more difficult by passing these laws and making women feel guilty is terrible."

This past week, the ACLU filed a challenge to Ohio's latest restrictions, asserting that, because they were added to an unrelated budget bill, they violate the Ohio Constitution's "single subject" rule.

Currently, prodded by activists like Mr. Gonidakis, Ohio legislators are considering a heartbeat bill that would ban all abortions after six weeks--before many women even realize they're pregnant.  This would be the exact same heartbeat bill that failed to garner enough votes to be put on the state ballot last year. 

 The Republican War on Women is "fiction"?

WHAT YOU DO SPEAKS SO LOUDLY

THAT I CANNOT HEAR WHAT YOU SAY. 

Read more here: http://midwestdemocracy.com/articles/kansas-house-advances-anti-abortion-measure/#storylink=cpy