Letters to the Editor
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Sad days for women's rights
Unfortunately for this young poor women, the elected officals who work to dismantle abortion rights are in most cases the same elected officals who vote agnist minimum wage increases, welfare benefits, and other health care for womne in need. The so-called pro-lfers also worked diligently to mke sure that young women do not have access to compreshensive sexuality education and affordblee birth control.
Most abortions are [performed in the first treimester (1-12 weeks). However second trimester abortions are not late term abortions, but the ANTIS have cleverly wrapped the second trimester into their "late term" rhetoric.
Today abortion rights are being turned back to pre Roe v. Wade and with a Supreme Court that has moved quickly to the far right, we can see Roe totally dismantled in the near future. Don't be fooled they are chipping from the top down. The so-called partial birth aboriton ban was totally unnecesary, as under Roe aboritons after viability (aprox 23 weeks) were already limited. Later Term abortions were very rare. Only .004% of all abortions were performed late term. The difference now is women who have severe health problems late in preganncy can not get an abortion, as the SC late term abortion ban makes no exception for women's health. The new late term law is so unclear that it may also be ued to ban second trimester abortions. Yet I see no outcry from young women or men. I guess because they never faced the days before Roe when abortion was legal in some states and baned in others. The an older women, fought the battle, for your rights. Younger women it's time to step UP!
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Memphis Serves Mississippi, Too
Often those who live in other parts of the country don't know that Memphis, Tennessee is practically a city in Mississippi due to our close proximity and shared culture. Here in Memphis, we have Memphis Regional Planned Parenthood (MRPP) which serves thousands of women from Mississippi who cross the state line seeking reproductive health care services. Of course the clinic is not convenient to all women in Mississippi, but MRPP does serve thousands each year. Family planning services are provided at reduced or no charge to women in poverty and there is some financial assistance for poor women who need an abortion.
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Is there a fund to help?
In my home town, there is a fund, to which I make an annual contribution, which uses its money to help out with the cost of abortions for people who cannot afford them.
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you can make contributions
I called the National Women's Health Organization and they gave me the address and phone number for the Jackson clinic. You can mail contributions. To keep the anti-abortion crazies at bay, I won't put the address here but if you're intrerested, here's the link: http://www.gynpages.com/jwho/. Glad to see someone had the same idea!
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Why?
"It's hard to imagine someone who can't afford a bus trip taking responsibility for a new life -- especially when she doesn't want to. Yet Tammy, who reportedly had her baby a few weeks ago, will no doubt find a way. Anti-choice activists can now chalk one more victory up to the passage and enforcement of Mississippi's latest abortion restriction -- even if, for Tammy, it means defeat."
I always find it ironic that the people who end up being so avidly anti-choice ("pro-life") are the ones who are also against programs that might help these poor mothers raise these children. Lawmakers are forcing these women to bear these unplanned for children, then to make matters worse, they do nothing to help the mothers support the children.
These are also the same lawmakers and activists who don't want sex ed in school and who don't want contraception to be available to teenagers. Many of them are also for the death penalty and for the war, a "pro-life" contradiction I have never understood.
If these lawmakers were truly thinking of the best interests of the mother and child and believe in the sanctity of human life they would help these women to raise their children, rather than denying them the choice to bear them.
Why do they put the lives of the unborn ahead of the lives of these poor, scared, desperate women?
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Oklahoma's New Law
The Oklahoma House and Senate passed a law this year that forbade any state money going for any abortion or to any facility that performed abortions. Abortion was defined as removing a fertlized egg from the womb. The law also states that any abortion also requires an insurance rider specifically for abortion. No known insurance even offers such a rider.
Many OB/Gyn's were furious, and rallied at the State Capitol. The Democratic Govenor vetoed the bill, but it was overwritten.
What this means in Oklahoma, among other things, is that any woman who has a dead or severely deformed fetus must carry it until it self aborts or pay for it herself. This will even impact D&Cs. Also, the premier hospital in the state that deals with unborn birth defects gets state funds. So, if a woman wants a procedure with a specialist there, tough luck.
This law may be the straw that broke the camel's back. Ordinary average women who are getting procedures that were available pre Roe v Wade will find those procedures largely illegal or extremely expensive in Oklahoma after November 1st. The fundies may have pushed this one too far.
Maybe the reality will finally wake some religious nuts up when they realize exactly what they have done to themselves.
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Morality my ass!
The phony breast cancer/abortion link is all the proof I need that these people don't know the meaning of the word "morality"! Creating a phony medical condition to prevent abortion isn't any more moral then the abortion itself! "It's okay to lie because we're saving babies!" These people are authoritarians to the core! TIME magazine even did an article (I forget the actual date) earlier this year where they talked about the new "pregnanacy crisis centers" and how an abortion group and an anti-abortion group would sit down and talk to one another about their differences. The one issue they couldn't get past was the false information that these so-called pro-life groups were putting out there. The anti-abortionists summed up their feelings by saying that yes, lying is wrong but if it's done in the defense of saving babies it's okay. For me, this would be a deal breaker (incidently, the anti-abortion group has come under fire from some of their own for even sitting down with these people in the first place)!
If they are going to lecture everyone else about morality, they might wnat to start practicing what they preach!