House vote on ‘abortion coercion’ bills held to appease Right to Life. Supporters of choice have been wondering when the other shoe was going to drop on the deceptive anti-choice “abortion coercion” bills that passed out of the House Judiciary Committee in September 2015. That shoe hit the House floor on March 24, with a vote almost entirely along party […]

The bills stipulate that all health insurers must make rider policies available to all women. Women’s reproductive health took a giant step backward in Michigan in 2013, when legislation written and lobbied for by Right to Life passed the Michigan Legislature. The law, which took effect in 2014, requires women to buy a separate insurance rider in case they might […]

Right to Life-backed bills would legislate substandard care for pregnant women by making a legal procedure illegal. With their non-solution to road funding as a prime example, Michigan Republicans keep proving they’re not very good legislators. They’d make even worse doctors — especially since none of them have medical licenses. But that’s not stopping them from playing doctor. Legislation that […]

Tell the committee not to criminalize the safest method of abortion for women after 14 weeks of pregnancy. Some Michigan lawmakers think they know better than doctors what method of abortion is best for women. With two critical bills up for a committee vote on Tuesday, November 10th, the time to be heard is now. The House Criminal Justice Committee […]

These bills aren’t about protecting women from reproductive control. They are about satisfying anti-abortion activists. As early as this week, the Michigan Legislature could vote on a pair of bills that would criminalize the act of forcing a woman to have an abortion. Although we can all agree abortion coercion is a bad thing, it’s not the problem Right to […]

In a blatant display of bias, opponents of choice keep trying to stack the deck against women’s legal access to abortion. I’m not sure which of these pieces of news makes me angrier, so I’ll start with the most recent. On Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down Massachusetts’ buffer zone law, siding with anti-abortion extremists who think they […]

An extremist group’s rights don’t get to trump everyone else’s, unless we let them. I’m utterly disgusted by Right to Life of Michigan’s latest crusade, this time against U.S. Representative Gary Peters and his daughters. Now I truly understand how disgusted and outraged my parents were when an evangelical relative showed me photos of aborted fetuses when I was 10 […]

Thanks to Right to Life and Michigan Republicans, elective abortion is effectively outlawed for women who can’t afford it. This is a historic week for Michigan women, and not in a good way. It’s the week the Abortion Insurance Opt-Out Act becomes law, forcing women to buy a separate insurance policy just in case they might need an abortion one […]

Groups with firmly held beliefs don’t want the rest of us making their healthcare choices. Why do they think they can control ours? A Michigan woman being denied care at a Catholic hospital while having a miscarriage because of the dictates of bishops. Another in Texas being kept on life support against her wishes and those of her family because […]

Sorta like gerrymandering, when you think of it As I wrote about in my now-viral piece “Michigan about to require women to buy “rape insurance” based on petition signed by 4.2% of voters”, a new law will likely go into effect in the near future in Michigan that will require women to plan ahead for their abortions — even if […]

The War on Women continues… Graphic by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog. NOTE: this post has been corrected as noted below. There is also an update with a link to Planned Parenthood’s petition. Thanks to a petition drive that resulted in 4.2% of Michiganders voicing their minority opinion, Michigan is about to become a place where women have to […]