While the fight rages on (solidarity, WI!), a lesser-known but just as coordinated, pervasive attack is raging against women’s rights. For years, the anti-choice movement has been sending up test balloons at the state level to determine the most effective ways to chip away at abortion rights. Now, they’re launching a multi-front attack.
To an untrained eye, it may seem like a hodgepodge of random laws, varying in their effectiveness, without coordinated strategy. But make no mistake, their strategy is as coordinated as the attack on the middle class. The laws introduced in each state are tailored to the progress regress they think they can make there, and they add up to one giant step backward for women’s rights.
For those of you who think this is all hyperbole and reproductive freedom is safe – I’ll point to these four laws, all about to be signed by the Governors of their respective states:
Virginia – Requires abortion providers to rebuild their clinics to meet standards of a hospital
Ohio – Outlaws abortion at heartbeat, 18 days conception
South Dakota – Mandatory 72-hour waiting period, forced counseling by anti-choice “pregnancy help centers”
Texas – Requires women to undergo an ultrasound and listen to the doctor’s physical description of the fetus; no exceptions for rape or incest
Along with fights in all of these states.
So you can identify their tactics, I’ve summarized the anti-choice movement’s efforts into five main categories. Here's your guide to the anti-choice playbook: http://www.progressivemajority.org/...