In Florida, ‘uterus’ is a dirty word

Scores of US state legislators are pushing new anti-abortion laws to roll back Roe v Wade. But the uterati are fighting back In Florida, “uterus” is a dirty word. A member of the state house of representatives drew a reprimand when he complained that while Republicans want to repeal rules and regulations on corporations, they are all hot to impose rules and regulations on individuals. Women, for example. The rightwingers who control both the house and the senate in Florida have introduced 18 bills to restrict abortion . Representative Scott Randolph, a Democrat from Orlando, said that his wife had decided the only way to protect her rights was to, as he put it, “incorporate her uterus”. Maybe then the business sycophants of the Republican party would stop trying to micromanage it with laws circumscribing reproductive freedom. Speaker Dean Cannon said he was shocked – shocked! – at such language on the house floor, deeming it a breach of “decorum”. Stephanie Kunkel, Planned Parenthood’s Florida director, rolled her eyes: “If the speaker can’t bear to hear or say the word ‘uterus’, he shouldn’t be legislating it.” Newspaper columnists amused themselves concocting acceptable euphemisms: Frank Cerabino of the Palm Beach Post suggests “baby garage” . And that’s pretty much how Republicans see women – as a place to park a kid till he’s ready to pop out and go to Sunday School and learn that sex is filthy. Republican-controlled legislatures across the US are hell-bent on stopping women from exercising control over their own bodies. Florida is one of 13 states that would require women to have an ultrasound – which they would have to pay for – before terminating a pregnancy. In Indiana, Texas, Kentucky and four other states, a woman would be forced to look at the foetus. Doctors would have to describe to her, in great detail, the foetus and its physical functions. After all this, she would still have to cool her heels for several days before being permitted to actually have the abortion. Along with the waiting periods, which would seriously harm women in rural states who have to travel long distances to the only clinic or poor women who have to keep taking off work, some states want to allow only up to 20 or 21 weeks, the point at which many anti-choice activists claim foetuses feel pain. The medical evidence for this is highly disputed , but that doesn’t matter: science shouldn’t be allowed to get in the way of ideology. Mississippi, Alaska, Texas and Oklahoma tell women abortion increases their risk of getting breast cancer – even though the National Cancer Institute says that’s not true . Raising the ante, an Indiana legislator insists that women who are victims of rape or incest provide documentation – those chicks could so be lying! – while a Michigan legislator proposes a offering women a photograph of the foetus at least two hours before the abortion. Ohio Republicans want to ban abortions the minute a foetal heartbeat is detected, which could be as early as four or five weeks. In Texas, where they’re trying to restrict RU-486, the “morning after pill”, the legislature also threatened to cut funding for low-income contraception programmes on the logic that birth control among the poor leads to increased abortion rates. That’s bad and stupid, but not as bad and stupid as what’s going on in Louisiana where Representative John LaBruzzo has introduced a bill to outlaw all abortions – no exceptions, even where the life of the mother is at risk – and charge doctors who perform abortions with “foeticide”. On 26 April, Mother Jones reported that LaBruzzo would also like to make criminals of women who have abortions , but that he may remove that provision in his bill, making it easier to pass. LaBruzzo’s law would be, of course, unconstitutional. A lot of these new state laws (and some old ones) are unconstitutional. Women have a right to get an abortion (with some restrictions), and have had that right since 1973 when the US supreme court ruled in Roe v Wade. But unconstitutionality is the point. Anti-choicers no longer want to tinker with a state statute here and there; they want Roe v Wade overturned. They want to return to the bad old days of back streets and coathangers, of the wages of sin and Taliban-style circumscription of female sexuality. John LaBruzzo has admitted that he wants to “immediately go to court”. The plan is for one state of another’s illegal abortion laws to make it to a hearing before the US supreme court where Roe v Wade can be refought and, maybe, come out differently this time. At the moment, there are four solid pro-Roe votes (Kagan, Ginsburg, Breyer and Sotomayor) on the nation’s highest court and four solid antis (Roberts, Alito, Thomas and Scalito). Justice Anthony Kennedy, always the swing vote between the court’s progressive and rightwing blocks, has, up to now, voted to uphold a woman’s right to choose. Nevertheless, some think he might change his mind. Or that he might want to let each individual state decide where it stands on abortion. Or, if a Republican president is elected in 2012, Kennedy may retire from the court, opening up a place for a Roe foe. And you thought the Republicans were only interested in the economy. Outlawing abortion is the long-cherished dream of every evangelical in the US, especially the ones born without ovaries. Back in Florida, the resistance is mobilising: the uterus has its own Facebook page . Susannah Randolph , now famous as the woman who threatened to incorporate her uterus, has suggested starting a political action committee called U-Pac . “Who’s in?” she blogged. “It’s time to bring power back to the uterus.” The sister speaks true. As Gloria Steinem said, so many years ago: “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” Abortion Women United States US politics Republicans Florida US constitution and civil liberties US supreme court Diane Roberts guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 28, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.