Republicans are running the country right now—holding the White House, majorities in Congress, governorships and many state legislatures. In an ideal world, they would use that power to do good for the American people and work across the aisle to bridge the intense division and myriad of problems plaguing our country. But, sadly, we don’t live in the ideal world—we live in this one. The one where reality show star and shady businessman Donald Trump is president and Republicans have abandoned any shred of intellect, compassion, decency and common sense. They have chosen to forgo doing anything meaningful for the country and instead are spending their time doing all they can to pass policies to hurt nearly everyone who isn’t a rich, straight white male.
Hurting women and limiting access to abortion is their modus operandi. They’ve been busy over the last few years and months trying to make it happen on a number of fronts at the national and statewide level. Their latest attempt comes in Wisconsin, where they are trying to pass a bill that bans doctors from the University of Wisconsin from providing abortion services at clinics.
The measure, AB 206, would ban UW staff from providing abortion services or training at private clinics, like Planned Parenthood, or any medical facilities other than hospitals.
State-funded UW doctors have been performing abortions at clinics like Planned Parenthood for several years, in order to get the training they need and also abide by a state law prohibiting the use of public dollars on abortions. This training is required for UW to maintain its federal accreditation for obstetrician-gynecologist training.
But, citing risks that state-funded employees are being paid by Planned Parenthood, proponents of the bill argued in favor of putting an end to the arrangement, which would effectively shut down UW’s training program.
So what does this mean? It’s state Republican lawmakers saying they want to take away the ability of doctors working at the university to train in abortion, and obstetrics and gynecological services in general just to punish clinics and Planned Parenthood and “save” unborn babies (even though they don’t actually want to pay for anyone’s children). And they are willing to risk the university medical school’s accreditation to do it.
Robert Golden, dean of the UW’s School of Medicine and Public Health, argued at the hearing that the measure would only weaken the university’s ob-gyn program and do nothing to stop abortions. Calling the bill a “grave concern,” Golden said it would result in the loss of accreditation for the school’s ob-gyn training program, as well as its rural residency track.
Golden added that it would “reduce the number of ob-gyn physicians trained in Wisconsin each year at a time when our state desperately needs more.”
The rationale that they are trying to save the state’s unborn children only means that Republicans see women’s health and well-being as expendable in their religious crusade against abortion. This will not only end up being problematic for doctors and the medical school overall, it will also worsen the dearth of ob-gyn professionals in the state. Wisconsin currently has a shortage of ob-gyn practitioners which means many women aren’t getting the care they need. And, though Republicans would have us believe that abortions are available on every corner in the state, the number of actual abortion facilities and providers is on the decline.
According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, in 2014, Wisconsin had 556 ob-gyn physicians serving a population of more than 2.3 million women. Twenty-six of Wisconsin’s 72 counties have no ob-gyn professionals at all. The number of abortion-providing facilities in Wisconsin is also at an all-time low, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which reported a 13 percent decline in the number of overall providers since 2011. As of 2014, there are seven abortion-providing facilities in Wisconsin, four of which are clinics.
Of all the things state Republicans could do, this is what they are spending their time and energy on. Look no further for proof that Republicans despise women and want to force us into having babies, no matter what the cost. If it means taking away trained doctors who can tend to women’s reproductive health care, so be it. This is vile but no longer surprising. The party of the Moral Majority and family values has shown itself as good for nothing by being absolutely morally bankrupt.