Here's How the Right Wing Choreographs the Perfect “Scandal” - DAME Magazine

"Defunding Planned Parenthood as a health care organization would do a great deal to energize the values voters grassroots that the GOP needs desperately to turn up at the polls during the next election. Depressing Planned Parenthood’s PAC donations, and keeping them from being able to play a significant role in the 2016 cycle? That’s even more valuable, and with a major and continuing scandal being packaged and fed to media outlets, that’s entirely possible."

 Read the rest at DAME Magazine

Abortion Opponents' Latest Tactic? Crying "Eugenics" - DAME Magazine

It was about halfway into my 20-week ultrasound that I noticed something was slightly off. The technician, who had been chatting with me earlier as he did the scans, had grown quiet. He asked me to shift a bit, saying he wanted to see if the baby would move into a better position. He ran over the same section of my stomach repeatedly, staring at the screen with a slight frown. Eventually he moved on, but remained awkwardly silent.

“When is your next appointment with your doctor?” he asked me when the ultrasound was completed.

“Two days,” I responded.

“That’s good. That should be soon enough.”

Read the rest at DAME Magazine

Could Abortion Opponents' Latest Tactic Inadvertently Protect Roe? - DAME Magazine

"[W]hat if viability were instead agreed to be at 22 weeks gestation, as this study argues could be possible? If that occurs, then a '20-week fetal pain' ban is no longer an unconstitutional 'pre-viability' ban. Instead, it becomes a post-viability one. The ban could co-exist with Roe, without the '20-week' ban setting a new precedent that would override it. That would also remove the possibility of new, more restrictive, earlier gestation bans being introduced across the country."

read more at DAME Magazine.

How This Woman Helps Hundreds of Pregnant Women in Ireland Access Safe, Legal Abortions - Cosmo

"At the end of the day, restricting abortion doesn't stop it. It just doesn't. It just stops safe abortions. About 5,000 women a year travel over from Ireland and Northern Ireland for abortions, and those are just the ones we know about. It doesn't count the women who go to other countries. It doesn't count the women who were using herbal remedies. It doesn't count the women who are accessing safe but illegal early abortion pills. It doesn't count the even more women who are being scammed by dodgy websites that just steal their money, claiming to [sell] abortion pills. It doesn't count the women who can't afford to come over.

This is what happens. To the women in the U.S., there but for the grace of God go you." Read the rest at Cosmopolitan.com.

The "Fetal Pain" Bill Is Back, and It's Worse Than Ever - DAME Magazine

Even if a rape survivor sits through a mandatory counseling session in order to get an abortion, or happens to have documentation from a “medical treatment” relating to the incident, the language also appears likely to move the onus for verification (and potential legal issues should any of the information be wrong or incomplete) onto the provider. The end result of these new rules, as anti-abortion activist Jill Stanek notes, is to make medical professionals unwilling to offer an abortion after 20 weeks even if that person was impregnated due to sexual assault and technically should be allowed to obtain one. “The new language will make committing late-term abortions with exceptions very unappealing to the slime who would commit them in the first place,” writes Stanek.

- Read the rest at DAME Magazine, where my new weekly column, "Access Denied" is published.

Why Protesters and Anti-Choice Activists May Not Be the Greatest Threat to Abortion Access - Cosmopolitan.com

"People think that because we have Roe v. Wade that people are protected and that fight is over. That couldn't be further from the truth. I think there has been a combination of less activism from liberals and more activism from conservatives over the issue. The other thing is, people have been very focused on anti-abortion extremists — the people committing violence. That is not the greatest threat to abortion today. The greatest threat is the people making laws that are being passed."

Read the full Q&A with TRAPPED director Dawn Porter at Cosmopolitan.com

When 'Praying For A Miracle' Hurts Pregnant Women - TPM Cafe

Placing “God’s will” over that of pregnant people, their families, and their medical providers doesn’t just harm the medical relationship by sowing mistrust between a doctor whose advice and diagnoses can never be completely verified because the Lord could eventually intercede. It also implies an ability to judge the character of the pregnant person herself based on whether she is blessed with a miracle birth that defied medical odds, or instead still gives birth to a less than medically perfect child.

read the rest at Talking Points Memo.