The Republican War on Women: Appeals Court Lets Texas Law Stand

This is the twenty-ninth in a series of articles on the subjects 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 Texas Front

the facts and commentary:  This week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals permitted a 2013 Texas law to stand that will most likely result in all but a handful of abortion providers in that state closing their doors.

Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights said, "Once again, women across the state of Texas face the near total elimination of safe and legal options for ending a pregnancy, and the denial of their constitutional rights."

The law requires that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic.  The law's proponents claim this is to safeguard the health of women, but the Texas Hospital Association, which represents 400 hospitals in the state, called the requirement unnecessary, pointing out that no patient would be turned away because her doctor was not on staff.

The law also requires clinics to update their facilities to meet emergency surgical center standards, even if the clinic provides medical abortions only.  One clinic, in an isolated corner of Texas is exempted from this requirement.

With this court decision, abortion facilities in the state of Texas will drop from 40 to about eight. 

Considering the way Republicans are prohibiting a woman's legal right to abortion, are fighting the ACA requirements to provide birth control, and are at the same time looking to cut benefits for the poor, this cartoon is particularly apt:

The Republican War on Women is "fiction?"

WHAT YOU DO SPEAKS SO LOUDLY

THAT I CANNOT HEAR WHAT YOU SAY.