New Law in Kansas Seen as a Threat to Abortions

[no_hypocrisy]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/25/us/25kansas.html?_r=1&hp

Opponents of abortion say that the licenses — which newly dictate requirements for the size of rooms at abortion clinics, the stocking of emergency equipment, medications and blood supplies, and ties to nearby hospitals — will ensure at least a modicum of safety standards in a state that Troy Newman, the leader of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said “had been the Wild West for abortionists for as long as anyone can remember.”

But abortion rights supporters, here and nationally, say the rules, which take effect next week, are onerous, have been rushed into place too rapidly and are actually aimed at ending abortion services at the only three places in the state now providing them, perhaps as early as Friday.

“These requirements range from the impossible to the absurd,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “They’re not designed to protect patient safety; they’re designed to shut down abortion providers.”

-more-


When the Rehnquist Court decided Webster in 1989, I was shaken as it wasn't just benign, safety regulations. I saw it as an opportunity to regulate the right to abortion to oblivion. If it weren't zoning, it would safety. If it weren't safety, it would administrative. And I hate that I was right.

[Tesha]

1. Lots of folks were right.

But because so many people on our side believed that
it was all over when Roe v Wade was decided, this
never got the attention within our Party that it
should have received. Neither have hundreds of other
"little" laws that have whittled away, nibble by
nibble, women's rights, especially regarding repro-
ductive rights.

And now the bitter fruit is ripening all over the
Red Zones of the country.

Well, maybe now (when it's too late for an entire
generation of women), the message will be heard.

(I still don't expect our Party to actually *DO*
anything about it, of course. They won't even
*THINK* about doing anything about it until it
starts to threaten their ability to garner votes.
Will it?)

Tesha

[jul61252]

5. +1

[RKP5637]

2. And KS wonders why people are leaving the state and in some cases

moving to states with higher unemployment. And the continence of the gay is a crime law, the Phelps family, all the negative news KS gets ... and now this on top of that. Some people don't want to live in a controlling big brother right wing state. And some of this IMO is indicative of an evolving theocracy given Brownback's background, connections and the makeup of the statehouse.

[Kurovski]

3. K&R

Rachel M did a good report on these new regs.

[Kurovski]

4. Kick (nt)