Krystal Ball: How the War on Women is Unlike the War on Caterpillars

Yesterday, in my appearance on Martin Bashir’s MSNBC show, Bashir Live (See Clip below), I lost it a bit over Reince Priebus’ comparison of the War on Women to a War on Caterpillars. In my spluttering rant, I listed evidence of the many ways in which the War on Women is very much real and very much a product of the GOP working with shadow organizations like Americans United for Life (AUL). Below are a SMALL and not nearly comprehensive sample of the provisions being introduced nationwide which are designed to shame women and dictate to them what they can and can’t do. Please email additional examples to me at kmb.uva@gmail.com.

Overall

• 1100 anti-choice provisions introduced in 2011
• 900 anti-choice provisions introduced so far in 2012

War on Planned Parenthood

***Please note that only 97% of what Planned Parenthood does is preventative health care or providing birth control and other contraception which DECREASES the need for abortions. One in five American women have relied on Planned Parenthood for services.

• In 2011 – 7 states passed bills defunding or limiting funding to Planned Parenthood (IN, KS, NC, NH, WI, TN, TX)
• In 2012 – 8 states are considering legislation to defund or limit funding to Planned Parenthood (AZ, IA, MI, NE, NH, OH, OK, PA)
• Mitt Romney has stated he would defund
• Congressional Republicans nearly shut down the government last year trying to defund Planned Parenthood
• Congressional Republicans launched a bogus investigation of Planned Parenthood last summer based on equally bogus Americans United for Life “research” and gave Susan G. Komen for the Cure an excuse to discontinue their partnership with the organization
• In Texas, Governor Perry decided he would rather low-income women go without preventative health care than have them receive it from Planned Parenthood.

Transvaginal Probes

• Legislators in 13 states have introduced 22 bills seeking to mandate that a woman obtain an ultrasound procedure before having an abortion. Of these, 7 states are pursuing the staterape vaginal probe variety.

Insurance Coverage

• Legislators in 11 states (AL, IN, KS, MI, NE, OK, OR, SC, TX, UT and WV) have introduced 18 measures that would restrict abortion coverage under all private health insurance plans.
• Legislators in 23 states (AL, AR, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, KY, MI, MT, NE, NJ, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TX, UT, VA and WV) introduced 49 measures that apply to exchange coverage.

Personhood

• Legislators in 13 states seek to grant legal rights to embryo

TRAP Bills

• Mississippi legislators using arbitrary standards to attempt to close the states single remaining abortion clinic
• 11 states already have instituted arbitrary standards for abortion clinics with the sole purpose of shutting down increasingly rare clinics

Just purely WTF bills

• Attempt in Arizona to allow employers to fire women for using birth control as contraception
• Attempt in Arizona to define pregnancy as starting 2 weeks before conception.
• Attempt in Georgia to criminalize miscarriages.
• Attempt in South Dakota to legalize murder of abortion providers.
• Attempt in Tennessee to publish names of abortion doctors and possibly disclose identity of individual patients.

State legislator craziness

• Georgia legislator Rep Terry England compares women to cows and pigs on his farm in support of bill forcing women to carry even unviable fetuses to term.
• Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett justifies forced ultrasound bill by telling women to “just close your eyes.”

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Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from ShoqValue.com