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 […]

When you don’t have the support of the voters of Michigan, you have to go around them. Or OVER them. Graphic by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog. Last May, I wrote about how the forced-birth group Right to Life of Michigan, furious that Governor Snyder had vetoed the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” legislation send to him by the […]

Can you hear me NOW? Anne and I were up until after 1:00 a.m. watching the livestream of the Texas Senate last night, riveted by the drama and tweeting like mad people. We weren’t alone. At 1:00 a.m. ET, there were nearly 200,000 people watching the livestream. In the end, I ended up with three new heroes yesterday, all of […]

Ms. Davis Goes to Washington

In honor of Texas Democratic Senator Wendy Davis’s filibuster of anti-woman, anti-choice SB 5 being rammed through by Republicans in the Texas legislature:

Click through for a larger version for tweeting, pinning, and loving

Yeah, that’s a panhandle.

Get all the news you need to know about Senator Davis’s 13-hour talking filibuster at the Burnt Orange Report. They’re killing it.

Decline to sign

It’s not often that less than 3% of a state’s citizens get to create new law without having to let the voters decide or the governor to sign it into law but that is exactly what’s about to happen in Michigan. Yesterday, the State Board of Canvasser approved petition language submitted by Right to Life of Michigan that would force women to purchase a separate rider on their insurance to cover abortion. Not just government-subsidized or government provided health insurance. ALL health insurance. I’m calling it the “Plan Ahead for Your Abortion” law. If Right to Life can get only 258,088 in 6 months, the measure goes to the legislature which has 40 days to approve it. If they do, and they will, it becomes law. The rest of Michigan voters will have no say in it and it won’t require Governor Snyder’s signature.

It’s clever, for sure. Right to Life Michigan KNOWS they are on the wrong side of this issue from the majority of Michigan residents and from Governor Snyder himself so they have to bypass the normal process and exploit a loophole made possible by a legislature full of conservative extremists put in place by decades of Republican gerrymandering.

More, including video, awaits you after the jump.

Actions speak louder than words

As Michigan Republicans continue their corporatist agenda of eviscerating the middle class, destroying unions, harming public employees and taking women’s rights back to the middle of the last century, Michigan Democrats are proposing important pieces of legislation that solve actual problems.

The first comes from Representatives Jim Townsend, Vicki Barnett, and Andy Schor. They are introducing a package of legislation designed to reduce gun violence in our state and to increase public safety. A separate package of bills will be introduced by State Representatives Gretchen Driskell, Jeff Irwin, Adam Zemke and state Senator Rebekah Warren that will reverse some of the restrictions Republicans have put on women’s health care, educate women about health care options, support rape survivors and address health care inequities women face.

Details after the jump.

It’s hard to swallow you shoving your religion down my throat

The Michigan Republicans are trotting out a “new” bill to further their War on Women and those who don’t share their narrow worldview. I say it’s “new” because it was a bill that died in the last legislative session. They call their bill the “Religious Liberty and Conscience Protection Act” but it’s nothing more than a backdoor way to limit Michigan women’s access to safe and legal abortion services across the state. What makes this legislation so insidious is that it may also restrict all Michigander’s access to things like birth control, vaccines, counseling and even HIV/AIDS treatment.

Details and actions you can take after the jump.

Another day, another battle in the Republican War on Women Last December, in a rare veto of Republican legislation by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, bills changing the operating structure of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan were shot down. The reason Governor Snyder gave was that he objected to language in the bill that would require women to purchase a […]

Well, that didn’t take long

Just two days after some of the more anti-woman elements in the Michigan State House of Representatives introduced legislation that would essentially mandate invasive transvaginal ultrasounds for women getting an abortion, Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger says he’s not interested.

Maybe he saw what happened down in Virginia when they tried the same thing there. Details on this and more after the jump.

They aren’t giving up so neither can we

With the pushback they received after their explosive inflamed duck session and their loss of six seats in the state House of Representatives, you would think Michigan Republicans would be taking a breather, girding themselves for the battles ahead.

And you would be wrong.

On the contrary, fresh from the winter break, they came roaring back in and in the first few weeks, have shown that they aren’t satisfied in winning the War on Women in Michigan. They appear to believe there is so much more crushing of women’s rights and paternal “protecting” to be done.

Details after the jump.

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has vetoed SB 1293, a bill that would have overhauled Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and which contained a provision that would have required women to purchase a separate insurance rider that would cover abortions. A second bill, SB 1294 contained a provision requiring this for BCBS insurance, as well. Since 1294 was tie-barred to […]