neadods | New Anti-Abortion Tactics

I'm about to link to an article from Montana, so before people say "that doesn't affect you," yes, I know this isn't my state or even my coast. But link I shall, because I think we're seeing the opening of a new set of anti-abortion tactics.

The new GOP-led state legislature has unveiled eight new abortion-related bills they want drafted. These include:

- Rep. Keith Regier of Kalispell, to criminalize the death of an unborn child. God help you if you miscarry and can't prove it, ladies!

- Sen. Jim Shockley of Victor, to require girls younger than 16 to get parental permission to have an abortion. It sounds so reasonable and family friendly. Have I ever mentioned that I personally know someone who was knocked up by her own father at age 15?

- Rep. Wendy Warburton of Havre, to amend the state Constitution to define a person by declaring that human life begins when an egg is fertilized. See my first comment

- Rep.-elect Alan Hale of Basin, to revise health laws regarding abortion. Because, according to news reports in other states, "life and health of the mother" is actually MEANINGLESS because doctors can just decide shit like that on their own without getting antiabortionist input. So God help you if that pregnancy goes wrong, ladies, because health and life exceptions shouldn't be made.

- Rep. Cary Smith of Billings, to regulate family planning and abortion clinics. Regulate... how? Heath and life actually have legal meaning; does "regulate"?

- Rep. Pat Ingraham of Thompson Falls, to require women to have an ultrasound before an abortion. Been passed before. Known to add to stress and distress. I haven't heard of any occasions where it made a woman change her mind, though

- Sen. Jeff Essmann of Billings, to create the crime of obstructing a protest at a health care facility. The money shot, people. A crime not to obstruct the clinic itself, but to obstruct the protest. Like, say, escorts taking patients past the people shoving things at you. Escorts talking to you to drown out the shouts. Escorts standing between patients and cameras. I've done all of that. ALL of that, including blocking with my body. And now someone wants to make that illegal.

- Rep. Mike More of Gallatin Gateway, to provide abortion screening to prevent provider negligence and patient coercion. Another standard, meaningless bit of propaganda. It sounds so reasonable - and yet how are these to be measured? By what standards? Especially 'patient coercion' - neither the doctors nor the escorts go grabbing women off the streets nor block their exit once they go into the clinic. There have been some heartbreaking cases where a woman goes into the clinic and comes back out almost immediately and then sits in the car for a long time, arguing/talking/crying with whoever they went in with. You think we all don't know what's going on? Sometimes they go back in. Sometimes they drive off. You know what NEVER happens? Nobody pulls them back in. None of the escorts argue with them or even talk to them unless directly addressed... it's our job in those cases to make sure that they have privacy and that the protesters don't start pushing their literature right up against the car or come into the private parking lot to shout at them. We know it is a CHOICE, we know the choice isn't easy, and we know that it's not our right to make that choice, just make sure that the legal options remain open.

So don't talk to someone about 'patient coercion' if they haven't stood in a fucking parking lot trying not to cry because someone is hurting THAT MUCH and you can't do jack shit about it... except literally and silently stand with your back to them between them and the person shouting "BABY KILLER! DON'T KILL YOUR BABY! JESUS LOVES YOU!" Who's doing the fucking coercion then?