It’s possible that Michigan could be left with only one abortion facility if Governor Snyder signs the bills currently on his desk…. Call his office, and tell your friends today!

Fyi I’m pretty sure that SB975 was not passed.

Rich people can go to Canada, or have procedures done in the private offices of their doctors. This law will not effect them. This is about forcing a twisted sense of morality on the poor, who aren’t, in the view of the Republicans, able to make such decisions for themselves. Believe me, if Snyder’s daughter were to get knocked up at 16 by a boy the family doesn’t approve of, she will be on the next flight to Sweden, Canada, or wherever, to get it taken care of. If a poor girl in inner city Detroit gets into the same situation, it’s because she’s morally deficient, and she should have to live with the consequences of her actions for the rest of her life. That’s what this is all about.

Could these be far behind?

http://markmaynard.com/2011/02/new-business-idea-137/

I’m not looking to pick a fight, but why is that when unions are under attack we can mobilize 15,000 in Lansing, but when women are under attack there’s no uprising? Only about 17% of Michigan’s adults are in unions. A full 50% are women.

That is an excellent question. I could be cynical and say that the union issue affects both men and women and so more people care about but since abortion only affects women* then fewer people care.

*In reality, it can certainly affect men. If a woman has your kid & comes after you for child support, say goodbye to about 25%-35% or more of your salary for the next 18 or so years. (Sorry for the cynical view but I did divorce/custody law for seven years….trust me, that is how some people viewed the situation).

PS: Welcome back, EOS!

Now you are talking about solutions to real problems. I hate to link this back to Newtown, but the real problem in this country is parenting. It’s easier to have a child than it is to adopt a puppy. The last thing we need in this world are unwanted, lonely, abused, abandoned children growing up to be anti-social, abusive, sociopaths. If a mother feels she cannot handle the responsibility of being a good parent, she should have the right to an abortion. On the other hand, I also believe the father should be consulted, but that is an argument for another day. Nice job, Mark.

On the rise of DIY abortion:

McCormack knew that an abortion would cost $400 to $2,000, depending on how far along she was. Utah has a mandatory waiting period of 72 hours, which meant she would either need to stay in a hotel for that time, or make the six-hour round trip twice over the course of several days. She couldn’t come up with that kind of money. So she called her older sister, who owned a computer, and asked her to order abortion pills for her on the Internet. The pills cost $200, and McCormack says the logistics of arranging it all took about two months.

By the time the medication arrived in an unmarked envelope on December 23, she was in her second trimester—at, she thought, week 14. Following the instructions, she took the first pill right away and the others some hours later. That night, she started having cramps. The next morning, Christmas Eve, she delivered a dead fetus alone in her bathroom, along with the placenta and a great deal of blood.

The fetus was much bigger than she had expected. It was about a foot long, clearly female, with identifiable features and hair. McCormack wrapped the remains in a bag with the placenta. Then she put it in a box and hid it under her bed. That evening, she attended Christmas Eve dinner at her father’s place and dropped her daughter off with her ex-husband for an overnight visit. She wrapped the children’s presents, including new clothes she’d bought on layaway for her fashion-conscious daughter, and put them under the tree. She told no one about the abortion apart from her sister.

After about a week, the box began to emit an odor. McCormack wrapped it up in more bags and put it out on the back porch, on the shelf of a covered barbecue. It didn’t feel right to her to throw it away. A week or so later, unable to figure out what to do, she finally confided in a friend. He called his sister, and his sister called the police.

On the afternoon of January 9, 2011, two officers arrived at McCormack’s house. She led them to the back porch and told them, according to reports, “My baby is in the box.” When an officer opened the parcel, he discovered the fetal remains, partially decomposed and frozen. One officer took McCormack to the police station, where she described the abortion. An autopsy would later determine that she had actually been between 19 and 23 weeks—around five months—pregnant.

Several months later, in May 2011, McCormack was charged by the Bannock County Prosecutors’ office under 1973’s Idaho Code 18-606, which makes it a felony for a woman to have an abortion in a manner not sanctioned by the state and carries a possible prison sentence of up to five years. McCormack isn’t the only woman in recent years to be prosecuted for ending her own pregnancy. But her case could change the trajectory of abortion law in the United States.

Read more:
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/111368/the-rise-diy-abortions

http://washingtonexaminer.com/planned-parenthood-reports-record-year-for-abortions/article/2517801#.UOtYiXy9KSN

http://www.sba-list.org/sites/default/files/content/shared/pp_fact_sheet_2011_2012_annual_report.pdf

It worked so well in Michigan, they’re trying it in Texas.

Three Texas lawmakers—all of them doctors—have filed a bill that would require all abortion providers to meet the “minimum standards” for ambulatory surgical centers. Sponsoring Senator Bob Deuell tweeted today, after filing the bill, that it would “force abortion clinics in Texas to put women’s health first.”

But the bill appears to be predominantly concerned with putting lawmakers’ political careers first.

“This is not medically motivated, it’s ideologically motivated,” NARAL Pro-Choice Texas executive director Heather Busby told RH Reality Check. She said the lawmakers “haven’t shown any proven track record of problems this legislation would solve.”

“In effect, it will make conditions more unsafe for women,” said Busby, pushing Texans to seek “unsafe and illegal abortions” by crossing the border into Mexico, or ordering abortifacients online. Legal abortion performed by a qualified provider is one of the safest medical procedures; childbirth, by contrast, has a risk of death ten times that of legal abortion, according to the World Health Organization.

The legislation would leave Texas with only five facilities providing abortions.

Read more:
http://rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/02/13/texas-lawmakers-propose-trap-bill-that-could-eliminate-all-but-five-providers-in-state/