Government small enough to fit inside your uterus
On the heels of their wildly successful year of “small government” where they created no fewer than 323 new laws, Michigan Republicans turned their attention to making abortion services as difficult as possible for Michigan women to obtain.
Last year, they passed a bill making illegal abortions illegal(er).
From a Detroit News article this morning we learn about new bills trying to make getting an abortion as hard as they possibly can:
- Making an abortion illegal after 22 weeks
- Creating a new “Choose Life” fundraising license plate for anti-choice groups (with no similar license plate fundraiser for groups working to give women better access to abortion services)
- Preventing any providers in a state-run health insurance exchange from offering coverage for elective abortions
- Mandatory screening of all women requesting an abortion to ensure she isn’t being “forced or coerced to have the abortion against her will”
- Mandatory requirement that any woman seeking an abortion be told she told she has an option to view an active ultrasound image and hear the fetus’ heartbeat before having the procedure
State Representative Jeff Irwin (whom I have adopted as my own Representative since Mark Ouimet decidedly does NOT represent my interests) had this to say:
They are trying to find every possible avenue to frustrate women and to frustrate providers that are in a position of dealing with this difficult choice and this difficult time in their lives.
Meanwhile, the anti-Choice folks are downright giddy:
“We have a strong contingent of pro-life legislators seated right now in both chambers,” said Ed Rivet, legislative director for the state’s Right to Life organization. “There are more bills introduced that we have an interest in than we’ve ever had before.”
Michigan Republicans: continuing to stretch the meaning of “small government” until it has become completely unrecognizable.
Adding…On a related note (i.e., women’s reproductive rights), have a look at who the television networks had on this past week or two to discuss the kefuffle over the Catholic church’s antique stance on contraception and new federal rules, via Think Progress:
