The New Year Brings New Possibilities and New Attacks on Reproductive Justice

It’s 2013 and anti-choice policymakers are at it again. 2012 was a time of great achievements in defeating bills that tried to take the control of women’s health out of their own hands. No on 6  specifically was the Amendment we in Florida fought hard and defeated; but with the New Year comes new attacks on women and specifically their access to necessary medical procedures.

What seems to be the new technique for far-right ideology is attacking building specifications. These rules however only target facilities that offer abortion and other reproductive health services. The scope of work that would need to be completed to follow the new laws would end up being so expensive and laws could change so frequently that facilities wouldn’t be able to afford or keep up with the new specifications. They would be forced to close their doors, and an incidence like this would restrict access to women in areas that may not be able to receive the care they need elsewhere.

Officials are also constantly trying to shut down Planned Parenthood, and stop government funding to it, even though the majority of Planned Parenthood services are about general health practices and prevention. Texas has started early by doing just that, their policy went into effect the first day of 2013. It has a lot of women of lower socio- economic status running to find new doctors because they can no longer receive the services that they need for affordable rates. This is just another step in the wrong direction which will ultimately lead to the restriction and possible annihilation of access to abortions.

Other states are trying to make certain legislation so that facilities are allowed to lie about aspects of a woman’s pregnancy, for instance how far along she is. This legislation would also force women to have ultrasounds before they are able to get abortions, and include a possible wait period between the initial appointment and the abortion.  Wisconsin legislators are working on a forced abortion bill currently. All these tactics are ploys to shame women into keeping unintended pregnancies that they are in most cases not ready and not equipped to handle.

So with all these attacks on reproductive health, we as individuals and supporters of access need to band together and stop those from the far right from attacking our rights to basic and necessary healthcare. I pledge that in 2013, we fight these right wing politicians, and stop their attack on our access. It’s about time we as citizens band together so that each time we are attacked and our civil liberties are threatened we can stand as a united front, and protect our right to privacy and basic healthcare.