On August 1, the nation’s most draconian and regressive anti-choice legislation will go into effect in North Dakota. From Bloomberg:
One of the measures would ban abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can first be detected and before some women know they are pregnant.
Another would prohibit women from having an abortion because a fetus has a genetic defect, such as Down syndrome.
A third would require a doctor who performs abortions to be a physician with hospital-admitting privileges.
A fourth measure would outlaw abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy based on the disputed premise that at that point a fetus can feel pain.
North Dakota might be small population-wise but we have more than enough evidence to know that legislation such as this will have a domino effect on legislation attempted in other Red States.
With help from the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Red River Women’s Clinic has launched legal action to stop this legislation from going into effect. The action is costly but critical, the outcome here will have consequences for the rest of the nation.
Click here for information on how you can donate to support Red River and the Center for Reproductive Rights in their quest to protect North Dakota women from being sent back to 1971.
To learn more about what is happening in North Dakota, visit:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
http://www.nytimes.com/...
http://thinkprogress.org/...