sent to me by the ratling... A bad bill for choice, House Bill 15
From the Dallas Morning News
Opinion: Letters for Monday, 05/26/2003
A bad bill for choice
Are you 35 or older and pregnant?
Your obstetrician will probably recommend amniocentesis. House Bill 15, which just passed in the Texas Senate, eliminates abortion as a choice for most Texas women who discover a catastrophic fetal problem through amniocentesis. It severely restricts the facilities that can perform abortions after 16 weeks.
Women also will be required to wait 24 hours before an abortion can be performed. During the 24-hour waiting period, the Senate decrees you should be reading the state "information packet," which outlines health-risk "facts" that the American Cancer Society, the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health have all declared to be untrue.
In other words, the "information packet" is a packet of lies.
The arrogance and veracity of the senators supporting this legislation is breathtaking. Sen. Robert Deuell, R-Greenville, a staunch supporter of this bill, refuses to waive the waiting requirement, even for rape and incest victims. He claims that he knows "maybe hundreds of women [who were victims of rape and incest] who have been happy to carry the child to term." "They've been a blessing," Sen. Deuell asserts.
Only 15 counties, out of 254 in Texas, still dare to provide abortions. Highly organized fringe groups effectively have terrorized most doctors and almost all hospitals from offering this service. Now they have almost succeeded in closing down the few facilities still open by piling on ludicrous restrictions.
And Rick Perry stands ready to sign their edicts into law.
— Judy Sherrard, Double Oak
And after the brats are born? These shitheads don't want to support them then...
And more... Are winds shifting for abortion laws?
Backers regrouping after energized foes' legislative triumphs
05/26/2003
By CHRISTY HOPPE / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN – The 80-hour work weeks and metal bars on the office windows have not fortified Kae McLaughlin or her goals this legislative session.
She and her mission – "to make sure abortion is safe, legal and accessible" – have been pummeled.
From her seat in a tired green brick office next to a coin-operated laundry, she looked back over the last five months. "It's hard to call anything a victory," the director of the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League said. "We can't count on anything."
Now that the legislative leadership is all Republican, the long-stymied plans of anti-abortion groups have wheels.
Bills that had been hobbled, stalled and derailed are rolling along.
For Elizabeth Graham, the Capitol cafeteria has been her office away from Houston, and from that vantage below the rotunda she has helped orchestrate a menu of triumphs. But there is no hint of gloat.
"It's never a done deal, and I don't in any way take anything for granted," the associate director of Texas Right to Life said.
Her tailored suits with their straight, disciplined lines convey part of the agenda she is advancing. She wants her organization presented as one of modern, reasonable professionals.
"I don't want to perpetuate the myth that we're a bunch of fat, white guys working out of church basements," she said. "We carry a message of hope."
Compared with results in past Legislatures, these five months have been on message and on target.
"It's dramatically different," she said, and conceded a smile. "It's far more pleasant."
Among their apparent victories:
• A 24-hour waiting period, mandating doctors give patients a packet of information designed to discourage abortion and making abortions after 16 weeks more difficult to obtain by moving them to hospitals.
• Imbuing a fetus – from the moment of conception to birth – legal status as an individual.
• Cutting $13 million from Planned Parenthood's contraception and women-wellness programs, which could be saved only if the organization closed its privately funded abortion facilities.
Ms. Graham believes the measures will protect tax dollars, give women better health care and greater protection for their unborn children.
It's a message of caring and outreach, said Ms. Graham, who left a career in retail management six years ago. It's one that sells.
"There is a perception that we're an extremist, angry force and that you have to be against every abortion or we'll picket your house. The idea that abortion should be made illegal overnight is old school," she said.
She said that more than one in four women in Texas has had an abortion and they "don't need to be shunned or made to feel more guilty," she said.
Ms. Graham also works in other outreach. Last week, when the 24-hour waiting period passed the Senate, she wandered the Capitol until she found a corner with a clear cellphone signal.
"I called 100 of our top donors," she said. "They were thrilled."
Assessing the damage
Away from the Capitol, in a cluttered office where the saying, "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape," is taped on the wall, Ms. McLaughlin also is calling donors.
She too is selling a message, one of alarm that says the battle must be joined.
"I think our people have been complacent," she said. "This session we've lost things that will take us years to get back."
Currently, 15 of the state's 254 counties offer abortion services. Ms. McLaughlin said the waiting bill is another burden for women who must travel long distances to obtain those services.
For those who learn their fetus is severely abnormal, such medical test results almost always come after 16 weeks. And that measure will restrict any abortion after the first trimester to an ambulatory surgical center.
No abortion clinics qualify under those provisions, and no ambulatory centers perform abortions, she said.
"There's no respect for women's health or well-being," Ms. McLaughlin said. "Everything is on the table now."
She takes exception to Ms. Graham's belief that this session's abortion bills reflects moderation.
"Their proposals are still outrageous. They just don't have to be as strident because they have the leadership on their side," Ms. McLaughlin said.
So Ms. McLaughlin has been mobilizing backers. On the 24-hour waiting period bill, abortion rights advocates generated 7,700 contacts with lawmakers, she said.
"I think the only victory we can claim from this session is that the pro-choice community is responding," Ms. McLaughlin said.
Close to the action
That's one of the reasons Ms. Graham keeps her office in the halls of the Capitol. In her face-to-face meetings, sometimes lawmakers will confide that they're a little worried about the "four or five" negative e-mails they've received on abortion bills, she said.
Within a few hours, she'll find Right to Life members in those lawmakers' home districts, call them and request that they write a few thank-you notes to their representatives.
Ms. McLaughlin hopes those notes won't be enough.
"Every indicator I have is that the pro-choice community is incensed. They didn't know how far it would go," she said. "I think the voting public truly believed that the candidates would exercise some restraint in this agenda."
She said the bills moving through the system, in addition to directly curtailing access, also border on harassment. They include fines on physicians of $10,000 for noncompliance, require higher fees, more registration, increased paperwork and are designed to make abortion more expensive.
She also worries that other proposals – such as requiring abortion providers to perform pathology reports on each fetus – could be tacked on to other legislation.
She said some of those bills were only stopped when the Democrats hightailed it to Ardmore, Okla., for four days.
"If it's not a big issue in the election of 2004, the Republicans will have the Democrats to thank for leaving so they couldn't pass everything they were going to," Ms. McLaughlin said.
Meanwhile, Ms. Graham sees Right to Life back in the Legislature bigger and stronger in two years. She doesn't know what the wish list will include yet, but she does know one thing:
"What happens in Texas will so go the nation," she said.
AUSTIN — A push to create a "Choose Life" license plate was derailed in the Texas House Sunday when a San Antonio Democrat said a committee that passed the bill violated a House rule requiring two hours' notice of a meeting.
"This bill won't come back," said Rep. Larry Phillips, R-Sherman, sponsor of the measure that contained the license plate provision. He said he'd look for other ways to revive the bill.
Committee deadlines have passed and the session ends June 2.
Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, called the "point of order" after Republicans moved to cut off debate and vote on the bill despite several proposed amendments yet to be considered.
He said the House Transportation Committee met May 14 and voted out the legislation without giving enough advance notice, as rules require.
The maneuvering sparked tension in the chamber, where several members raised their voices at each other and cursed as they discussed the bill long after Speaker Tom Craddick sustained the point of order.
Besides allowing for new specialty plates, the bill would have changed the way Texas issues the tags to make the process consistent. It also allowed for the sale of Texas souvenir license plates.
Some money generated from the fees, an estimated $1.9 million over the next two years, would have gone to the state's general revenue fund and the transportation fund for road projects.
But it was the anti-abortion plate amendment by Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, that drew the most passionate debate and sparked the parliamentary battle.
Wohlgemuth wanted a portion of the $30 raised from sale of the plate to go to charities that help pregnant women and adoptive parents and that encourage women not to have an abortion.
"It is devoted to trying to make sure those babies are born to begin with," Wohlgemuth said.
Proponents said people who choose to buy the plate should have the right to know their money is going to organizations they support.
Before debate was halted, Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, wanted to also create a "Choose Choice" plate that would also send money to the adoption charities. Her amendment failed 83-46.
Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, argued Wohlgemuth's move was meant to erode a women's right to choose an abortion. People who support adoption charities could donate money to them without buying a license plate, she said.
"It's not about adoption; it's about making a political statement," Dukes said.
The bill also allowed for specialty plates for veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a Juneteenth tag, one for the March of Dimes and several others. Backers of those were upset with the measure's demise.
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The specialty license plate bill is SB 1704.
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AP reporter Natalie Gott contributed to this report.
Thanks: --> to Lia, my sensei, who has inspired me to draw again. I
wouldn't be doing this without your support, Domo Arigato!
--> to Talon, for sending me her fabulous fics, inspiring me with her writing to draw my first
illustration for a story and actually liking what I drew.
--> to Dasia, for her words of encouragement when drawing her original chara.
--> to Joules, a wonderful epic fic writer, for liking my art enough to want to post them with Talon's
and her own stories.
--> to Lutra, the other half of the epic team, for being so supportive.
--> to Jacque' & Becca Raddittzu, we met on eBay as bidder and sellers and now we are face-to-face
friends. You showed us the real DBZ with your fansubs. It's all your fault the house is full of
doujinshi! *LOL*
:: welcome to bakayaro onna's mindless ramblings, rants & raves :: 
