Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

Anti-Abortion Film, "South Dakota: A Woman's Right to Choose," Is Shown to High School Girls

LA Times: Creators of abortion film say they want honest debate, by Robin Acarian:

But some who have seen 'South Dakota' say it leans more toward the anti-abortion side.

It was an unusual field trip for the nearly 1,000 high school girls who spilled from yellow school buses in front of a Westwood theater one recent October morning. They came from all over the county: the tony enclaves of San Marino, Pasadena and Beverly Hills and the grittier reaches of Boyle Heights and South L.A.

The movie they had come to see, " South Dakota: A Woman's Right to Choose," had already been vetted by a handful of their administrators, who were satisfied with the film's depiction of teen pregnancy and abortion.

. . . Isacson said his movie's purpose is to edify, inform and not take sides, but some may view "South Dakota," intentionally or not, as subtly weighted against abortion. The film's emotional highlight, after all, is the rescue of 14-year-old Barb by her boyfriend from an abortion clinic exam room and its grossly insensitive nurses. As for Chris, even the staunchest abortion foes usually concede that abortion is acceptable in the case of rape.

Ross Douthat Compares "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" and Planned Parenthood

NY Times Opinion: The Politics of Pregnancy Counseling, by Ross Douthat:

In the course of praising a Baltimore ordinance requiring crisis pregnancy centers to advertise the fact that they don’t perform abortions, Emily Bazelon dismisses the suggestion, raised by an opponent of the bill, that Planned Parenthood should have to post signs as well:

Saying what, though—what does Planned Parenthood say it provides that it doesn’t actually offer? “We have an obligation to do nondirective counseling,” Nugent says. “For anyone who comes in and has a positive pregnancy test, we have to go through the options. That includes referring women for prenatal care, talking about keeping the baby, providing referrals to adoption agencies, and then also providing information about terminating the pregnancy. The only difference between us and any other ob-gyn is that we don’t do deliveries.”

Well, that and the fact that they perform abortions. (And while those “referrals to adoption agencies” do happen, the “nondirected counseling” is considerably more likely to point to abortion: In 2007, for instance, Planned Parenthood reported performing 305,310 abortions, and referred less than 5,000 women to adoption services.) But yes, there’s no sign that you could hang outside a Planned Parenthood clinic that’s exactly equivalent to the “we don’t perform abortions” sign a pro-life crisis pregnancy center could be required to put up.

See also: WeNews: Baltimore Puts Heat on Crisis Pregnancy Centers, by Julia Marsh:

In late November the Baltimore City Council ordered crisis pregnancy centers to post disclaimers and a Maryland county council will debate a similar bill Dec. 10. Pro-choice activists hope other local governments will follow suit.

BALTIMORE (WOMENSENEWS)--Alexa Cole, an organizer for pro-choice NARAL California, watched closely as Maryland counterparts shepherded a first of its kind bill through the Baltimore City Council.

The bill requires the four crisis pregnancy centers located in the city to post disclaimers that clarify what they don't do: provide or refer for abortions or birth control.

The bill, which passed the majority-Catholic City Council by a vote of 12 to 3 on Nov. 23 as a truth-in-advertising, patient protection measure, levies a $150 fine if the centers haven't posted disclosures by the end of a 10-day warning period.

Baltimore Cracks Down on Anti-Abortion "Crisis Pregnancy Centers"

Feminist Wire Daily Newsbriefs (Ms. Magazine): Baltimore Passes First City Regulation of CPCs:

On Monday, Baltimore became the first city in the country to require crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) to post signs disclosing that they do not offer referrals for or information about abortion and contraception. The Limited Service Pregnancy Center Disclaimers Bill passed by a 12-3 vote of the Baltimore City Council and will now move to the the desk of Mayor Sheila Dixon. WBZ reports that the Mayor is expected to sign the bill, and that it will go into effect 30 days after receiving her signature.

There are an estimated 4,000 CPCs nationwide, most of which are affiliated with one or more national umbrella organizations. CPCs pose as legitimate health centers and offer "free" pregnancy tests and counseling. Some CPCs coerce and intimidate women out of considering abortion as an option, and prevent women from receiving neutral and comprehensive medical advice. Many disseminate false information about both abortion and contraception, and they are typically run by anti-abortion volunteers who are not licensed medical professionals.

Salon.com: Fess up, faux women's clinics!, by Tracy Clark-Flory:

A Baltimore measure requires crisis pregnancy centers to cop to their ban on abortion and birth control referrals

Under legislation approved Monday night by Baltimore's city council, crisis pregnancy centers that do not offer referrals for abortion or birth control would be required to post signs saying as much. It seems like such a reasonable plea for transparency! After all, these types of centers are infamous for engaging in religiously- and politically-motivated deception of pregnant women -- and yet, if the city's mayor signs the measure, it will be the very first law of its kind in the U.S.

Time and again, we've written about how crisis pregnancy centers masquerade as legitimate healthcare facilities and target young, poor and minority women by offering free pregnancy tests and counseling. In reality, these centers, which are often staffed by unqualified volunteers, provide medical misinformation as a means of coercing women into going through with a pregnancy and, in some cases, to give the baby up for adoption (to a good Christian family, natch). Some clinics have been found to delay pregnancy test results so they can first subject patients to graphic anti-abortion imagery and propaganda.

Pro-Choice Groups Challenge Nevada Abortion Ban Initiative

RGJ.com: Nevada groups sue to stop anti-abortion petition, by Anjeaenette Damon:

Two abortion-rights groups filed a lawsuit Thursday to block an initiative petition aimed at banning abortion in Nevada.

The Nevada Personhood initiative violates state law by misleading voters about the true outcomes of the constitutional amendment, according to the lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood.

"It utterly fails not only to mention it will ban all abortions-- even in the case of rape and incest-- that it will prevent much fertility treatment and birth control, but that it conflicts with a prior vote of the Nevada electorate and it conflicts with the U.S. Supreme Court," said Lee Rowland of the ACLU of Nevada. "Voters need to understand what a monumental change they would be making should they vote for this initiative."

The petition filed by conservative Las Vegas activist Richard Ziser seeks to add a single sentence to the state constitution: "In the great state of Nevada, the term 'person' applies to every human being."

Scott Roeder Admits to Killing Dr. George Tiller

If anti-choice advocates and politicians insist on calling embryos and fetuses "babies" and abortion "murder," it should surprise no one when some individuals on the fringes of the anti-choice movement take this rhetoric at face value and kill doctors in the name of "saving lives."  In The Meaning of "Life": Belief and Reason in the Abortion Debate, 18 Colum. J. Gender & L. 551 (2009), I argue that abortion rights opponents need to talk about abortion in a way that is consistent with their considered positions on the issue, and that means clarifying the vague and misleading rhetoric of "life."  I also argue that politicians and others who support the right to choose abortion should not flinch from exposing the inconsistencies between anti-abortion-rights rhetoric and the positions of the "mainstream" anti-choice movement.

LA Times/Mcclatchy Newspapers: Murder suspect confesses to killing abortion provider:

The man accused of killing a Wichita abortion provider confessed in an interview Monday, saying he had no regrets because "preborn children were in imminent danger."

In a 20-minute phone call from the Sedgwick County Jail in Kansas, Scott Roeder said he believed shooting Dr. George Tiller saved lives.

"I've already been told that there's at least four women that have changed their minds and are going to have their babies," Roeder said. "Even if it was one woman, then who would have a regret for a motive of protecting preborn children? That was the motive."

Roeder is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of Tiller, one of a handful of doctors in the country who performed late-term abortions. He was shot to death in his Wichita church on May 31.

The Stupak Amendment's Effects on Abortion Access

The Huffington Post: Why the Stupak Amendment Is A Monumental Setback for Abortion Access, by Jessica Arons:

If you thought that just because abortion is a constitutional right and part of basic reproductive health care it would be available in the reformed health insurance market known as the Exchange, think again. The Stupak Amendment, passed Saturday night by the House of Representatives after a compromise deal fell apart, potentially goes farther than any other federal law to restrict women's access to abortion.

The claim that it only bars federal funding for abortions is simply false. Here's what the Stupak Amendment does . . . .

Abortion Rights Opponents Influence Health Care Reform

NY Times: For Abortion Foes, A Victory in Health Care Vote, by David D. Kirkpatrick & Robert Pear:

A restriction on abortion coverage, added late Saturday to the health care bill passed by the House, has energized abortion opponents with their biggest victory in years — emboldening them for a pitched battle in the Senate.

The provision would block the use of federal subsidies for insurance that covers elective abortions. Advocates on both sides are calling Saturday’s vote the biggest turning point in the battle over the procedure since the ban on so-called partial birth abortions six years ago.

Both sides credited a forceful lobbying effort by Roman Catholic bishops with the success of the provision, inserted in the bill under pressure from conservative Democrats.

The provision would apply only to insurance policies purchased with the federal subsidies that the health legislation would create to help low- and middle-income people, and to policies sold by a government-run insurance plan that would be created by the legislation.

Abortion rights advocates charged Sunday that the provision threatened to deprive women of abortion coverage because insurers would drop the procedure from their plans in order to sell them in the newly expanded market of people receiving subsidies. The subsidized market would be large because anyone earning less than $88,000 for a family of four — four times the poverty level — would be eligible for a subsidy under the House bill. Women who received subsidies or public insurance could still pay out of pocket for the procedure. Or they could buy separate insurance riders to cover abortion, though some evidence suggests few would, in part because unwanted pregnancies are by their nature unexpected.

Politics vs. Religion in Debate Over Abortion and Health Care Reform

Religion Dispatches: Politics, Not Religion, At Heart of Health Care Reform Wrangle on Abortion, by Sarah Posner:

As the House of Representatives health care reform bill edges closer to a vote, anti-choice Democrats continue their threats to hijack the bill over abortion funding. These members-and their supporters-are the very constituency Democrats have been urged to placate on abortion-related issues. That strategy, misguided to begin with, seems even more so as the "pro-life" Democrats are trying to bring down their own party's signature legislative initiative.

As part of Democrats' re-tooling in the post-"values voters" election of 2004, they tried to be more "friendly" to religion. A big part of that strategy included making anti-choice Democrats feel more "welcome" in the party by being less doctrinaire on choice, and acknowledging the claimed heartfelt religious belief at the core of these Democrats' position.

But now some of these Democrats, who claim to be pro-life, are playing politics with health care reform, aligning themselves more closely with the anti-choice hard right and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) than their own party. They insist that efforts to ensure that no public funds will be used to cover abortion services are insufficient. This game-playing is not about public funding of abortion, already outlawed in the Hyde Amendment (which bars federal funding from being used to pay for abortions for low-income women under Medicaid and other programs). Indeed, the House bill already incorporates Hyde through its own amendment authored by pro-choice California Democrat, Rep. Lois Capps.

Instead, these Democrats, led by Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, are pushing for an amendment to restrict womens' access to abortion. And that's not theology, it's politics. . . . 

Anti-Choice Advocates Cheer Republican Gubernatorial Victories in Virginia and New Jersey

LifeNews.com:Pro-Life Advocates Excited by Defeat of Abortion Backers in Virginia, New Jersey, by Steven Ertelt:

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Tuesday night provided a shot in the arm for the pro-life movement following the disheartening loss last year that resulted in the election of pro-abortion President Barack Obama. With victories in New Jersey and Virginia, pro-life candidates dispatched their pro-abortion opponents.

In Virginia, pro-life former Attorney general Bob McDonnell defeated pro-abortion candidate Creigh Deeds by a landslide 59-41 percent margin.

Virginians elected by overwhelming majorities the pro-life slate consisting of McDonnell and Bill Bolling for lieutenant governor and Ken Cuccinelli for attorney general.

All three candidates were endorsed by the Virginia Society for Human Life PAC, which also saw significant pro-life gains in the membership of the House of Delegates and the reelection of many pro-life incumbents. . . .

In New Jersey, the New Jersey Right to Life and National Right to Life PACs, along with pro-life leaders like Rep. Chris Smith were behind Chris Christie as he took on pro-abortion incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine.

Marie Tasy, the head of New Jersey Right to Life, told LifeNews.com she is excited by the election of what is the state's first pro-life governor since Roe v. Wade.

Former Planned Parenthood Employee Joins Anti-Choice Movement After Experiencing "Spiritual Conversion" While Observing Abortion on Ultrasound

Fox News: Planned Parenthood Director Quits After Watching Abortion on Ultrasound:

The former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Texas says she had a "change of heart" after watching an abortion last month — and she quit her job and joined a pro-life group in praying outside the facility. . . .

Johnson said she became disillusioned with her job after her bosses pressured her for months to increase profits by performing more and more abortions, which cost patients between $505 and $695. . . .

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood told FoxNews.com that it offers a range of services at it 850 health centers nationwide, providing pregnancy tests, vaccinations and women's health services, "including wellness exams, breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and STD testing and treatment." . . .

Johnson said she never got any orders to increase profits in e-mails or letters, and had no way to prove her allegations about practices at the Bryan branch. She told FoxNews.com that pressure came in personal interactions with her regional manager from the larger Houston office.

Publicly Funded Abortions and Health Care Reform

Swampland (Time): Does Focus on the Family Fund Abortions?, by Amy Sullivan:

It does if you hold the organization to the same standard it uses to  insist that health reform would result in publicly funded abortions.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the fungibility argument that many pro-life groups and politicians have employed to oppose health reform. The problem, they say, is that if any insurance plan that covers abortion is allowed to participate in a public exchange, then premiums paid to that plan in the form of taxpayer-funded subsidies help support that abortion coverage even if individual abortion procedures are paid for out of a separate pool of privately-paid premium dollars. You can debate about whether it makes sense to use this strict standard, but that's the argument.

But are those pro-life organizations holding themselves to the same strict standard? As it happens, Focus on the Family provides its employees health insurance through Principal, an insurance company that covers "abortion services." A Focus spokeswoman confirmed the fact that the organization pays premiums to Principal, but declined to comment on whether that amounts to an indirect funding of abortion.

Even if the specific plan Focus uses for its employees doesn't include abortion coverage--and I'm assuming it doesn't--the organization and its employees still pay premiums to a company that funds abortions. If health reform proposals have a fungibility problem, then Focus does as well. And if they don't think they do have a fungibility problem, then it would be interesting to hear why they think the set-up proposed in health reform legislation is so untenable.

Two Missouri Abortion-Related Ballot Initiatives Are Approved for Circulation

Kansas City Star: Two Missouri ballot initiatives on abortion-related issues OK'd, by Jason Noble:

JEFFERSON CITY | Two ballot initiatives concerning abortion were approved for circulation this week by the Missouri secretary of state.

One of the proposals would prohibit state and local governments from providing funds to medical facilities for some research and services, including abortion and certain types of stem-cell research.

The other would define the term “person” to include all human beings from the beginning of biological development and grant such persons constitutional rights. Advocates and opponents of the initiative say the change would ban abortion.

Both initiatives would change the state constitution. To get them on the ballot for a statewide popular vote, supporters must gather signatures from at least 8 percent of voters in six of the nine Congressional districts — about 150,000 signatures.

Anti-Choice Activists to Auction Anti-Abortion Memorabilia to Raise Funds for Man Charged with Murdering Dr. Tiller

Kansas City Star: Online auction to raise funds in Scott Roeder case, by Judy L. Thomas:

An Army of God manual. A prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons. An autographed bullhorn.

These are among the items that abortion foes plan to auction on eBay and other Web sites in a fundraiser for Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man charged with killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

“This is unique,” said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who will sign the bullhorn. “Nobody’s ever done this before. The goal is that everybody makes money for Scott Roeder’s defense.”

One abortion-rights leader called the auction deplorable and said it could lead to more violence.

Anti-Choice Group Has a New Spokesperson: A Talking Embryo

Salon.com: Meet Judy, the talking embryo, by Tracy Clark-Flory:

The antiabortion group Choice Kills introduces a new spokesperson -- or should I say "spokesfetus"?

From her voice, you would think she was a toddler, but she is much, much younger. "Hi, I'm Judy," she squeaks in the video you'll find below. "All I want is to get out of here alive." You see, Judy is an embryo -- a virtual talking embryo with her very own YouTube channel. "One out of four of us don't make it," she explains from inside her mother's womb. Then, out of nowhere, what looks to be a machete is wielded before her, which causes Judy to yell: "Oh no! What's that? Please help me!" (And please help the woman who has an abortion performed with a machete.)

The video spot (which we found via Right Wing Watch) is the brainembryo of the antiabortion group Choice Kills, which is targeting the adorable little peanut toward young women who might consider terminating a pregnancy. Judy is the spokesfetus of the campaign . . . . .

Anti-Choice "Street Activists" Tell Their Stories

NY Times: Abortion Opponents Tell of Their Journey to the Streets, by Damien Cave: 

OWOSSO, Mich. — Action means many things to abortion opponents. Lobbyists and fund-raisers fight for the cause in marble hallways; volunteers at crisis pregnancy centers try to dissuade the pregnant on cozy sofas.

Then there are the protesters like James Pouillon, who was shot dead here last month while holding an anti-abortion sign outside a high school. A martyr to some, an irritant to others, Mr. Pouillon in death has become a blessing of sorts for the loosely acquainted activists who knew him as a friend: proof that abortion doctors are not the only ones under duress, proof that protests matter, and a spark for more action.

“Jim suffered the persecution for us,” said Dan Brewer, who recalls swearing at Mr. Pouillon during one of his one-man protests in the ’90s, only to join him later after becoming a born-again Christian. “Now we just have to go out and do it.”

A national tribute is already planned. Anti-abortion groups are calling on protesters to stand outside schools with signs that depict abortion on Nov. 24 in 40 to 50 cities nationwide. . . .

Chicago City Council Votes to Protect Abortion Clinics and Patients

Chicago BreakingNewsCenter: Council Curbs anti-abortion Activists, Who Vow to Fight On, by Kristen Schorsch & Hal Dardick:

The Chicago City Council today voted 27-11 to pass an ordinance creating a so-called bubble zone requiring anti-abortion activists to keep their distance from people entering clinics....

The ordinance establishes a 50-foot buffer outside the entrances of all health care facilities. Within that zone, no one can come within 8 feet of another person without consent to pass out fliers, display signs, vocally protest, educate or counsel.

After the vote, anti-abortion activist Joseph Scheidler said he'll probably bring more graphic pictures to clinics if those who pray and counsel women seeking an abortion aren't allowed within 8 feet of them.

Supreme Court Lets Stand Ruling Rejecting Free-Speech Claim for "Choose Life" License Plate in Illinois

LA Times: Illinois can steer clear of abortion debate, Supreme Court rules, by David G. Savage:

A group pushing for the state to issue a 'Choose Life' license plate loses its free-speech claim.

Illinois need not offer "Choose Life" license plates to motorists under a ruling the Supreme Court let stand today.

The justices turned down a free-speech claim from Choose Life Illinois Inc., a group that supports adoption and opposes abortion. It had gathered more than 25,000 signatures from persons who wanted a "Choose Life" plate, but the state refused to issue the specialty plate.

Officials said the state wanted to take no position on the abortion issue.

When the state refused to act, lawyers for Choose Life sued, arguing that the refusal amounted to discrimination against their pro-life message.

Last year, however, the federal appeals court in Chicago upheld the state's decision and ruled the state was free to steer clear of the abortion controversy entirely.

Despite today's setback in the high court, 24 states offer "Choose Life" license plates, and efforts are underway to gain approval in 14 more states.

Operation Rescue Warns of Its Financial Woes

Kansas City Star : Anti-abortion group singing the blues, by Lewis Diuguid (op-ed columnist):

It's hard to feel sorry for Operation Rescue.

The forthright and forceful Wichita-based anti-abortion group is tapped out. The cash it had to be the loud and aggressive voice against women's rights has run out.

Operation Rescue for years gained fame and fortune by hounding George Tiller, who provided late-term abortions for women who needed them. But his murder last spring also had the unintended effect of cutting off the parasitic life-line that Operation Rescue had to Tiller....

Coverage from the Associated Press available here.

Anti-Abortion Protester is Killed in Michigan

NY Times: Abortion Protester Is Killed in Michigan, by Emma Graves Fitzsimmons:

A man who had long opposed abortion and was known nationally among anti-abortion protesters was shot to death Friday morning while staging a protest outside a Michigan high school, the authorities said.

Leaders of anti-abortion groups said they knew of no other instance in which a person protesting against abortion had been killed. In May, Dr. George R. Tiller, an abortion provider in Kansas, was shot to death in a crime that renewed debate over the use of violence in the abortion battle.

The protester, identified as James Pouillon, 63, was one of two people, the authorities said, who were shot dead Friday by the same man in Owosso, a city of fewer than 15,000 people about 10 miles west of Flint, Mich. The other victim, a local businessman, was not connected to the anti-abortion movement, the authorities said.

A suspect was arrested and charged in both killings. . . .

Abortion's Stigma Affects Doctors' Willingness to Provide

Wash. Post: Abortion Stigma Affects Doctors' Training And Choices, by Sandra G. Boodman:

When Devin Miller, leader of the abortion rights group Medical Students for Choice at Virginia Commonwealth University, heard about the slaying of George Tiller, a Kansas physician who performed late abortions, she "took a step back" to ponder her future. The second-year student plans to become an obstetrician-gynecologist or family physician and expects she would sometimes terminate pregnancies. But the May 31 death of Tiller, who was shot in the head at church, allegedly by an antiabortion activist, has left the 23-year-old deeply shaken.

...Thirty-six years after it was legalized, abortion remains one of the most common procedures in American medicine -- and the most stigmatized. In 2005, 1.2 million abortions were performed, dwarfing the number of appendectomies (341,000), gallbladder removals (398,000) and hysterectomies (575,000). "There's this feeling it's dirty and should not be spoken about," said Miller. "It's hard to be brave and seek everything out yourself."...