Read the week's best commentary from bloggers at Slate's "DoubleX," Daily Beast and more.
ABORTION-RIGHTS MOVEMENT:
"Want Viagra? You'll need a rectal exam first." Christina Cauterucci, Slate's "DoubleX": A new Kentucky bill (HB 396), sponsored by state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian (D), "would install several barriers to accessing erectile-dysfunction medication, mirroring the restrictions women face when they pursue abortion services in the state," Cauterucci writes. The bill "is a response to recent moves by the Kentucky state Legislature and Gov. Matt Bevin [R] to make it even harder for women to terminate pregnancies," Cauterucci notes, citing one bill (SB 4) that would add requirements to the state's mandatory counseling law and another (SB 152) that would require physicians to perform an ultrasound and describe the images to women seeking abortion care. Pointing to a trend in similarly "tongue-in-cheek proposals" targeting men's reproductive health care in other states, Cauterucci writes that "these bills are handy rhetorical tricks that expose the hypocrisy and one-sidedness of right-wing overreach," but she questions "their impact as a form of protest." She explains that bills comparing ED access to abortion access can "minimize the urgency of the need for safe, affordable abortion access," because denying men access to ED pills "is not the same sort of imposition on their bodies and lives as forcing them to carry an [unintended] fetus to term and give birth to a child." Further, such legislation is "unlikely to turn any staunch anti-choice believer or misogynist bully, the likes of which are limiting abortion access in the first place." Cauterucci notes that though the first of these bills exposed the "hypocrisy" of abortion restrictions, that "shock factor" might no longer accompany current bills. Cauterucci concludes, "If they want to effect real change, pro-choice politicians should consider messaging tactics" that continue beyond this initial "narrative shift" (Cauterucci, "DoubleX," Slate, 2/17).
What others are saying about the abortion-rights movement:
"'It is time we regulate men's reproductive choices': Kentucky lawmaker on why her new bill limits Viagra access to married men with notes from their spouses," Mary Lou Marzian, Salon.
~ "Stitching for abortion rights," Prosper Hedges, Ms. Magazine blog.
ABORTION RESTRICTIONS:
"Abortion barriers hit Latinas the hardest," Samantha Allen, Daily Beast: While the Supreme Court's ruling in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt "is set to be the most important abortion decision since Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), with sweeping consequences for the sort of restrictions that states can place on abortion providers," the "most immediate effects of the decision will be felt disproportionately by one group: Texan Latinas, and especially those living in the Rio Grande Valley," Allen writes. She cites an amicus brief filed in the case by the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH), which discusses how "barriers to abortion access have become extreme" since parts of the law at issue in the case, Texas' HB 2, took effect. Noting that more than half of the abortion clinics in the state have closed since provisions in the law took effect, Allen writes, "For Latinas living in the Rio Grande Valley, the clinic closures and reopenings have made abortion access especially convoluted and, in some cases, impossible." According to Allen, the NLIRH amicus brief includes the experiences of three Latina women in Texas under the law, including one whose abortion care was delayed until she was in the second trimester, when the procedure was unaffordable for her, and another who unsuccessfully attempted to self-induce an abortion. "[M]any women have to travel longer distances to reach abortion providers" under the law, Allen writes, but that option might not be feasible for "undocumented Latinas [in the Rio Grande Valley] who cannot get driver's licenses or cannot afford to travel." She notes that while the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals "has allowed Whole Woman's Health in McAllen, Texas, to stay open because it is the sole abortion provider in the Rio Grande Valley," its closure could mean that "Texan Latinas in the Valley may once again have to travel all the way to San Antonio -- or risk Mexico -- for an abortion" (Allen, Daily Beast, 2/18).
What others are saying about abortion restrictions:
~ "Anti-choice governors face Twitter backlash," Jenn Stanley, RH Reality Check.
