Tag: birth control
Liz Cheney

Liz Cheney Says GOP's Extremist Abortion Policies Are 'Untenable'

Former Rep. Liz Cheney said the restrictive abortion policies put in place by her fellow Republicans have created an “untenable” situation for millions.

Cheney made the comments during a Monday town hall session in Wisconsin alongside Vice President Kamala Harris. Cheney has endorsed the Democratic nominee’s presidential bid, citing the need to cross party lines to defend democracy against Republican nominee Donald Trump and events like the January 6 attack on the Capitol that he instigated.

“I’m pro-life and I have been very troubled, deeply troubled, by what I have watched happen in so many states since Dobbs,” Cheney said, citing “women who, in some cases, have died, who can’t get medical treatment that they need because providers are worried about criminal liability.”

Her conclusion: “We’re facing a situation today where—I think that it’s an untenable one.”

The 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization by a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and allowed Republican-led states to implement and enforce anti-choice laws and regulations. Trump appointed three of the six justices who voted with the court majority.

Cheney warned that there are “fundamentally dangerous” things that have happened in the years following the court’s unpopular decision.

Among the issues Cheney singled out: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s pending lawsuit that seeks to obtain the medical records of women who have crossed state lines to get an abortion. Abortion is illegal in Texas except “when a doctor, in their ‘reasonable medical judgment,’ believes it is necessary to save the life or protect the health of the pregnant patient,” according to the Texas Tribune.

”Even if you are pro-life, as I am, I do not believe … that the state of Texas ought to have the right, as they’re currently suing to do, to get access to a woman’s medical records,” Cheney said.

Cheney also cited cases where women have died because they could not receive abortion care.

As she noted, Cheney has a legislative record of opposing abortion access and even received an “A” rating from the anti-choice group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. But she said that several states’ extremist actions following the Supreme Court’s decision cause her concern.

Cheney pointed out that Trump has praised himself for appointing the justices who overturned the precedent.

“You just cannot count on him, you can’t trust him,” she said.

Trump has claimed he isn’t affiliated with anti-choice extremists and tried to distance himself from Republican efforts to pass a federal abortion ban. But recent opinion polling has shown that most voters are skeptical, with 51 percent surveyed by Navigator Research saying they believe he would sign such a law.

Harris has argued that those with strong religious objections to abortion should still back efforts to curtail the fallout from Trump’s effort to pack the Supreme Court with justices who eventually nullified the constitutional right to an abortion.

“One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree: The government, and Donald Trump certainly, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” she said during her September debate against him.

Harris backs federal legislation that would enshrine the protections of Roe in federal law and has said she backs killing the Senate filibuster if it would enable the passage of such legislation. Current Senate rules require that if legislation is filibustered by a single senator, 60 votes are required before an issue can be voted on, even if a majority supports a proposal.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Moderator Debunks Trump Lie On 'Execution Of Babies' After Birth

Moderator Debunks Trump Lie On 'Execution Of Babies' After Birth

DONALD TRUMP: They have abortion in the ninth month. They even have, and you can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia, not the current governor; he's doing an excellent job. But the governor before, he said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby, in other words, we will execute the baby.

And that's why I did that because that predominates, because they're radical. The Democrats are radical in that and her vice presidential pick -- which I think he is a horrible pick by the way for our country because he is really out of it -- but her vice presidential pick says, "Abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine." He also says, "Execution after birth." It's execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born is okay, and that's not okay with me, hence the vote.

...

LINSEY DAVIS (ABC MODERATOR): There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born.

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters.

When Trump Rants About Abortion, Women Voters Must Listen

When Trump Rants About Abortion, Women Voters Must Listen

It was one of those rants that would disqualify a normal candidate. Speaking to Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, Donald Trump took off on abortion, saying things that are flat-out untrue and mouthing opinions entirely out of the mainstream. Most of the media ignored it, Trump being Trump.

"It's a beautiful thing to watch," Trump said of states passing extreme and near total bans on access to abortion. The consequences of those bans — horrific consequences — have been documented. A 13-year-old rape victim in Mississippi forced to carry a pregnancy to term because she was denied access to a safe and legal abortion — what is beautiful about that? A young woman in Texas who almost died because doctors were afraid to treat her — does Donald Trump find that beautiful? A Florida woman who was turned away from the emergency room and lost roughly half her blood in a single day after experiencing a miscarriage — beautiful to watch?

Twenty states now have near or total bans on abortion, forcing women to travel out of state to secure needed and necessary medical care. The most vulnerable are the most seriously affected — teenagers who don't even know that they are pregnant, poor women who lack the resources and connections to find or afford help in distant states. It is dangerous and downright cruel. Trump claims he supports exceptions for rape and incest and the life of the mother, but he finds it a "beautiful thing to watch" states pass laws that include no such exceptions.

And he spouts lies and spreads misinformation about abortion. Trump claimed, as he has repeatedly, that "everyone" has been in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade since the case was first decided in 1973. It is simply not so that legal scholars on all sides were united in criticizing the decision. Indeed, what is noteworthy is that as the years have passed, Roe became more firmly entrenched in the nation's jurisprudence, leading some early critics, such as the late conservative Solicitor General Charles Fried, to reverse his critical position on Roe and support it as firmly established precedent.

Trump is right that he is responsible for overturning Roe, because he appointed the three justices who cast the deciding votes to do so. But they turned themselves into pretzels to avoid telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that they planned to do so, mouthing words that they did not believe and did not abide by about respecting precedent. They didn't do that because "everyone" wanted to see Roe overturned — just the opposite.

Trump lied about Democrats approving abortion in the eighth and ninth months and "even after birth."

"Everybody knows that in the eighth month and the ninth month and beyond that — hard to believe, they have some states passing legislation where you can execute the baby after birth," Trump said. "It's crazy." Another lie. Executing newborn babies is homicide, and no state and no Democrats support legislation to allow it. More than 90 percent of abortions take place in the first trimester, and the one percent that take place after 21 weeks legally involve women whose lives are in danger or who are carrying much-wanted pregnancies where they receive a fatal fetal diagnosis late in their terms. To suggest otherwise is simply irresponsible.

Trump has been trying to "defang" the abortion issue by his stance that it should be left to the states, and then applauding what the states do, even at the expense of women's lives. It is a purely political move, reflecting no principles at all. The anti-abortion movement, which has lost at the ballot box in Ohio and Kansas, has almost as much reason to turn on Trump, who was pro-choice before he bargained away his soul to the right to win their support in 2016, as the pro-choice movement does. When it comes to abortion, he has no principles at all. And that is so typical that he gets away with it, sloppy rants and all.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Alabama's Law Protecting IVF Embryos Is Wrong -- But Consistent

Alabama's Law Protecting IVF Embryos Is Wrong -- But Consistent

I'm not here to join the mockery of Alabama for declaring that embryos are children — and, therefore, in vitro fertilization clinics must protect them forever. On the contrary, I admire its honesty. Many states have effectively banned abortions, arguing that destroying an embryo amounts to baby killing. Yet they look the other way when fertility clinics discard hundreds of thousands of unused embryos, which they routinely do.

Let's be clear. I believe in the right to an abortion within a reasonable time limit and whenever the mother's life is in danger. Mothers-to-be often refer to the cluster of cells that constitute the embryo as a "baby," which is understandable. Science does not.

Nevertheless, an Alabama court ruled that frozen embryos resulting from IVF treatments are considered children under the law. Other states have hypocritically gone halfway in that direction. Some of their fetal personhood laws let women sue for back child support since conception.

Give Alabama credit for walking the walk.

Biologically speaking, there is virtually no difference between an embryo created through IVF and one conceived naturally. And that's what the Alabama court is saying.

Fearing the political repercussions, however, Republican lawmakers in Alabama are trying to weasel out of the consequences. They are working on proposals to redefine a frozen fertilized egg as "potential life," as opposed to the fully human one inside the uterus.

Baloney. Both kinds of fertilized eggs are potential life.

Some pro-life advocates hold that while most of the embryos created in IVF clinics will never be used, the clinics enable couples to create life that wouldn't have happened without them. That's a valid argument.

But for the true opponents of abortion, that argument is one of political convenience. Former President George W. Bush made a show of pushing for adoptions of frozen embryos by women who would have them implanted. He called the embryos "snowflakes."

But fertility centers continued to discard unused embryos. Bush never threatened to close them down or force the IVF clinics — and the egg and sperm donors — to preserve them in perpetuity.

Another dodge by alleged abortion foes is the exception for rape and incest. Many politicians throw that in their abortion bans because it sounds only fair to victimized women. But if a fertilized egg represents innocent life, then the circumstances of the conception should not matter.

The pro-choice movement often aids that phony argument by condemning abortion bans with the words, "They don't even allow an exception for rape and incest." Darn right there should be no exceptions.

Democrats like Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth have foolishly helped take states that ban abortion off the hook by offering legislation that would protect IVF services nationwide. No, their politicians should live with the fallout of declaring that an embryo is a baby.

The pro-choice stance should be that a woman has a right to end an unwanted pregnancy early on and for whatever the reason: rape, an unwise night of unprotected sex, failed birth control — no questions asked. Certainly no woman should have to present police evidence that she had been brutally violated.

In the wake of the Alabama ruling, there's been an explosion of memes about listing fertilized eggs as children on tax returns and using a box of chicken eggs to get access to high-occupancy vehicle lanes. They can be pretty funny.

But those who support a constitutional right to abortion should also praise Alabama for stripping away the veils that provide phony exceptions to the protection of embryos.

Alabama has bravely followed through on its position that a fertilized egg is a child. The position may be biologically false and politically dangerous, but give the state credit for honesty.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

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