Have I Mentioned...

...a thousand or so times lately that the new battleground over abortion rights is on the state level, where anti-choicers are trying to render Roe an impotent statute...?

Louisiana: Women seeking abortions must have ultrasound just before procedure, bill proposes.

All women seeking abortions would have to undergo an obstetric ultrasound two hours before the procedure unless there is a medical emergency, under legislation proposed by the Senate's second-ranking lawmaker.

Senate President Pro Tem Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, said the bill is designed to make a woman "think twice about having an abortion. This is such a serious decision that a woman makes, the process should be exhausted with all the medical information on the procedure" available, she said.

Georgia: Senate passes abortion bill, would make it a crime to convince woman to abort child.

"This bill was created under the false assumption that abortion doctors solicit women of color, particularly, black women," said Sen. Donzella James of College Park.

...Throughout the afternoon, a host of senators – both Republicans and Democrats – lined up to speak for or against the bill. ... Several times, the words China, socialism, genocide, Obamacare, Holocaust and even serfs were used to show where the country is going.

"We are following China in many ways toward the road to socialism," said Sen. Tommie Williams (R-Lyons). "We are beginning that road to serfdom ourselves."

Going back to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, Williams said that in 1973, when the Supreme Court upheld a woman's right to an abortion, more than 90 percent of the country was against it.

A statistic that Vincent Fort of Atlanta found dubious.

"In 1865, if you had taken a public opinion poll on slavery, I would still be in chains," Fort said. "What we are doing here is irresponsible, to use genocide and holocaust and allusions to death panels. The underlying belief is that women of color cannot make decisions of themselves."

Naturally, I don't want to see any woman coerced into doing anything she doesn't want to do, including having an abortion. But a law created by a bunch of Republicans who don't give a flying flunderton about policy that helps impoverished women, particularly impoverished women of color, grandstanding about how they want to stop "boyfriends and pimps and mothers" from forcing pregnant women of color to get abortions, is just absurd. This law will clearly be used to target clinics, and reduce affordable access to abortion for the women (of any color) with the fewest options.

[H/Ts to Shakers Anitanola and Redlady 50.]