A Trial in Philadelphia

[BVS]

Originally Posted by nathan1977

My question was whether raising standards in PA led to the same result.

We wont know yet, but probably.

[anitram]

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has issued the following (and published it in some Texas papers as well).

http://images.magnetmail.net/images/...AdvocacyAd.pdf

Some choice quotes - but surely people like nathan know better than medical professionals.

While we can agree to disagree about abortion on ideological grounds, we must draw a hard line against insidious legislation that threatens women's health like Texas NB2 and SB1. That's why we're speaking to the false and misleading underlying assumptions of this and other legislation like it: These bills are as much about interfering with the practice of medicine and the relationship a patient has with her physician as they are about restricting women's access to abortion. The fact is that these bills will not help protect the health of any woman in Texas. Instead, these bills will harm women's health in very clear ways.

...

Truth be told, the scientific underpinnings of this legislation are unsound. First, there's the 20-week ban, which is based on the argument that a fetus can feel pain. Recent and rigorous scientific reviews have concluded that there is no evidence of fetal perception of pain until 29 weeks at the earliest.

These bills would also impose a number of requirements for abortion facilities that are touted as necessary to ensure the health of the woman, but are, in fact, unnecessary and unsupported by scientific evidence. These proposed requirements, concerning door width and other irrelevant issues would only make it extremely difficult or impossible for most clinics, including clinics that primarily provide important non-abortion well-woman health care services such as mammograms and prenatal care to low-income women, to stay open. For example, the bills would require physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles and allow abortions only in clinics that meet surgical clinic standards, imposing government regulations on abortion care that are much stricter than for colonoscopy and other similar low-risk procedures. The fact is that abortion is one of the safest medical procedures, with minimal - less than 0.5% - risk of major complications that might need hospital care.

...

ACOG opposes Texas HB2 and SB1, which jeopardize women's health care and interfere with medical practice and patient-physician relationships.

[Pearl]

Sarah Slamen intended to talk about the benefits of the Texas bill. But she made her true voice known today. Too bad she had to be escorted out of the state Senate for practicing her 1st amendment rights.

Here's the bit of Slamen's testimony that apparently upset state Sen. Jane Nelson (R), who was overseeing the proceedings:
"Thank you for being you, Texas legislature. You have radicalized hundreds of thousands of us, and no matter what you do for the next 22 days, women and their allies are coming for you," Slamen said. "Let’s start down the line. Senator Campbell, you’re an ophthalmologist. So I won’t be making you the expert on reproductive health. We can give you all the children with chlamydia and herpes in their eyes, since we don’t have Sex Ed in this state."
Nelson slammed her gavel and accused Slamen of being disrespectful. Slamen shot back, "Excuse me, this is my government, ma'am. I will judge you."
As the state troopers began to drag her out of the room, Slamen left with some parting words.
"This is a farce. The Texas legislature is a bunch of liars who hate women," she said

Sarah Slamen, Texas Woman, Dragged Out Of Senate Amid Fiery Testimony Against Abortion Bill

I'm at work so I can't view or post any video of this.

But I support Slamen for telling it like it is. That took guts many Americans seem to be afraid to use.

[anitram]

Meanwhile, sheer lunacy in North Carolina where the Republican Governor said he would veto the abortion bill being rammed through the Senate there. Not to be outdone, the House Republicans in the state have their own ditty.

Gov. Pat McCrory on Wednesday morning announced he will veto the controversial abortion bill unless changes are made.

“Unless significant changes and clarifications are made addressing our concerns that were clearly communicated by DHHS Secretary Aldona Wos, Gov. Pat McCrory will veto the existing bill, HB 695, if it is passed by the House and Senate,” said a statement issued by the governor’s office. “The governor would like to thank those members of the legislature who have been working with the administration to ensure that the bill’s goals and objectives are clearly to protect the health and safety of women. The governor believes that major portions of the bill are of sound principal and value.”

McCrory’s statement concluded by urging lawmakers to return to the task of improving the state’s economy.

You think that might be a better use of time?

Meanwhile, House Republicans – acting without public notice – began discussing their own abortion bill Wednesday, after taking a bill about motorcycle safety and inserted abortion language.

Nice and transparent!

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/201...tion-bill.html

[Pearl]

Here's the video of Slamen being escorted out for exercising her right as an American:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvuNSr3CaGo

[nathan1977]

Originally Posted by Pearl

Here's the video of Slamen being escorted out for exercising her right as an American:

Her conviction and passion is stirring. I'm not sure that threatening and insulting your representatives and opponents is the best way to make your point (and it's sad that she went out of her to slam the pro-life women who are in support of the bill), but to each their own. I'm also not sure that her voice should disqualify the majority of Texans, who seem to want tighter restrictions on abortion and the providers who want to offer it. But her voice is an important reminder that this issue is a complicated one, with passion on both sides.

[Pearl]

Originally Posted by nathan1977

Her conviction and passion is stirring. I'm not sure that threatening and attacking your representatives is the best way to make your point (and it's sad that she went out of her to slam people who are pro-life in the process, including the women who had spoken in support of the bill), but to each their own. I'm also not sure that her voice should disqualify the majority of Texans, who seem to want tighter restrictions on abortion and the providers who want to offer it. But her voice is an important reminder that this issue is a complicated one, with passion on both sides.

I don't see where she was attacking and she certainly wasn't threatening anyone; she was making a valid point. An ophthalmologist is not an OB/GYN, and Texas' lack of sex education has led to high cases of teen pregnancies and STIs. Sometimes politicians need a verbal slapping, especially when they're disrespectful to the people they serve. And Slamen's words "this is my government" is something all Americans need to be more aware of, in regards to any issue.

[nathan1977]

Originally Posted by Pearl

I don't see where she was attacking

A fair point; I changed it to "insulting."

[Pearl]

Sarah Slamen is making the rounds to the media, and they're giving her the chance the Texas Senate did not:

"What I would say to all of the Republicans on the Senate Health & Human Services Committee is that I understand why you are so careless with our health care," Slamen said. "You see, all of your constituency lies east of I-35, where the five clinics remaining after that bill gets passed will be. None of your constituents are west of I-35, so I guess their lives and families just don't matter to you."

Slamen also explained that she had finally reached her "breaking point" after watching hours of testimony from anti-abortion witnesses who had either provided medically unsound testimony, or suggested that pro-choice women were "murderers, killers, insinuating that we're promiscuous." The real turn came when one witness came to the stand to explain the difficult decision of aborting her pregnancy after finding out that her unborn child had a rare form of spina bifida. An anti-choice person next to her interjected and said that she'd known children with spina bifida who had been adopted. The interruption was not called out as a breach of Senate decorum.

The decision to have her dragged out of the room was indicative of a larger issue of Republicans not wanting to hear the facts, Slamen told O'Donnell. She said the demographics of the witnesses were a function of a number of socioeconomic factors.
"I'm privileged as a white woman from a middle-class background to be able to have attended all of those hearings," she said. "Women with two and three jobs, the 20 percent of women who might be living in the rural communities of Texas who can't get to the capitol, caregivers, they can't get to the hearings and stand up for their rights, and it's obvious that all the Republicans on that committee don't care about the right to their health care either. So someone had to say something."

Slamen said she thought her actions, both from Monday and since the now-famous incident, were indicative of a growing trend.

"Women all over the world are socialized to suppress their dissent, be agreeable, ask for what should rightfully be ours," she said, going on to note that women were finally getting "tired of it," especially in Texas' male-dominated legislature.

Sarah Slamen, Texas Woman Removed From Senate, Finishes Her Pro-Choice Testimony (VIDEO)

Tell it like it is

[MrsSpringsteen]

Texas state capitol confiscates woman's Maxi-Pad, but guns are okay

I guess they somehow got wind that there might have been some sort of planned protest involving tampons, maxi pads, and diabetic supplies? That poor lady who was crying. They will take our pads out of our cold dead hands!! A maxi pad in the hands of a bad woman...

[digitize]

Originally Posted by MrsSpringsteen

Texas state capitol confiscates woman's Maxi-Pad, but guns are okay

I guess they somehow got wind that there might have been some sort of planned protest involving tampons, maxi pads, and diabetic supplies? That poor lady who was crying. They will take our pads out of our cold dead hands!! A maxi pad in the hands of a bad woman...

When I read about this last night, it struck me as one of the most moronic things I'd ever heard. A Senator (from Austin) complained and got the practice (supposedly) ended, luckily.

[Jive Turkey]

How far can you throw a maxi pad anyway?

[anitram]

Very powerful and thoughtful article from the contributing editor to Vanity Fair, whose wife was recently diagnosed with breast cancer in Texas.

My Family, Our Cancer, and the Murderous Cruelty of Conservatives | Vanity Fair

But there were other feelings that struck us hard: fury, dismay, contempt. Not at our situation, but at the realization that untold thousands of women would not be as lucky as Theresa. Instead, they will die because of conservatives’ endless efforts to block poor women from having access to mammograms, breast exams and treatment. Theresa detected her cancer early enough that we feel confident she will survive. But we’re both aware that, right now, there are other women who don’t know they have this vicious invader growing inside them and will not find out until it is too late. Their husbands and loved ones will not have the chance, as I do, to sit in the waiting room of the hospital, and instead will stand at the entryway of the funeral home.

Many Republicans, either out of self-delusion or deceit, deny they are causing any such thing. But there is no question that, in their obsession with zygotes, embryos, and non-viable fetuses as part of their supposed pro-life stance, they are effectively murdering real, walking, talking women—mothers and daughters, grandmothers and sisters, all sacrificed on an altar of Pecksniffian hypocrisy and contemptible disregard by people who have the insurance, connections, and available health care to feel certain their politics won’t kill their loved ones. Perhaps Theresa and I are re-directing our anger from the cancer, but so be it; our rage has focused on the financially comfortable, morally blind, and arrogantly self-righteous who tyrannically conspire to rob poor women of years of life they might otherwise have. It is for this reason that Theresa is willing to disclose her condition, in hopes that, in doing so, we will help highlight how politicians are blithely choosing to kill women who are not as fortunate as she is.

...

What is scary here is not that kind of silliness, but what it shows about a scientific debate devoid of science: the advocates just don’t care. Like a boy trying to justify what he wants to believe, rather than forming belief around demonstrable facts, the Texas legislators and their mostly G.O.P. counterparts around the country aren’t making arguments. They’re just saying things based on a woeful ignorance of the issues involved. And small wonder: working in the Texas state legislature is a part-time job, involving people whose knowledge comes not from public-policy analysis but from all sorts of other professions. Lawyers, farmers, real-estate title searchers, and the like. One of the primary supporters of the House bill, Rep. Cindy Burkett, is the owner of three Subway sandwich restaurants. Given that she and other legislators are ignoring the recommendations and input from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, where have they learned about medical issues in public policy?

...

One of the requirements of the legislation is that any facility performing abortions must have a doctor on staff who has admitting privileges at a hospital no more than 30 miles away that has an obstetrical or gynecological health service. This is something that the Texas Hospital Association says is a bad idea. But when asked in the course of the House “debate” to define the words in this requirement, Burkett could not even explain what admitting privileges are! She, like the other forced birthers in the debate, just picked up the idea from the anti-abortion crowd that advanced it in states around the country as a means of shutting down clinics that provide the procedures.

But her lack of knowledge is nothing compared to that of Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, the bill’s author and the primary proponent of both the “rape kits can stop pregnancies” and “fetal pain at 20 weeks” nonsense. (She is also the legislator who, famously in Texas, opposed state funding of prenatal care—essential for the health of babies—because fetuses “aren’t born yet.” The sanctity of life, it seems, is not as important as the sanctity of tax dollars.) If the consequences of her ignorance were not so dire, Laubenberg could perhaps be forgiven for it. As she has zero medical training and her sole background credit is as a city-council member in a town of just under 4,000 people, there is no reason to expect that she would know anything about health issues.

...

Here is reality: Women’s-health clinics have been under assault for years. The legislature already barred Planned Parenthood—the conservative’s abortion boogeyman—from the state’s Women’s Health Program because it funds abortion clinics. Abortions make up just 3 percent of the services the organization performs (a number that was lyingly transformed in a speech by United States Senator Jon Kyl into 97 percent; an aide to Kyl later famously proclaimed that the falsehood “was not intended as a factual statement.”) Planned Parenthood estimates that 130,000 women in Texas go without preventive health care, like breast-cancer screenings, due to the cuts to women’s-health-care funding.

...

I just took a break. Theresa is still in surgery, and Dr. Aditi Anand, her pathologist, stopped by the waiting room to discuss her case with me. After our talk, I mentioned what I was writing and why. Dr. Anand’s eyes flashed. Not only did I strike a nerve, but she told me of a problem I didn’t know about that is caused by the onslaught against health clinics that provide abortions: even when doctors are willing to provide the services for free, the actions of the Texas legislature are all but guaranteeing that poor women at risk of cancer will not be able to find them.

Dr. Anand told me she is part of a Texas group known as the Bridge Breast Network, a coalition of physicians, mammographers, pathologists, and surgeons who have all volunteered to provide care for women who suffer from breast cancer. In other words, the treatment is available for these women— not because the state government makes the effort to help, but because the doctors are willing to donate their services. But the linchpins of this whole system, Dr. Anand said, are the clinics that provide referrals—the very clinics Texas is shutting down.

“These women go to Planned Parenthood and other clinics where women who have no insurance go, and they get referred to the Bridge,” she said. When these clinics get closed down, there is no way for these women to go anywhere. “This is just a strata of society that isn’t savvy, that nobody thinks about, nobody fights for, nobody cares about.”

When the clinics close, “the clients cannot reach you,” Dr. Anand said. “They are going to have advanced disease.”

[Jive Turkey]

"One of the primary supporters of the House bill, Rep. Cindy Burkett, is the owner of three Subway sandwich restaurants. Given that she and other legislators are ignoring the recommendations and input from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, where have they learned about medical issues in public policy?"

I can't understand why this isn't being addressed more often. It's a huge problem. We've got business owners and lawyers, almost exclusively, making decisions on issues they know nothing about. There's little to no variation in the expertise of politicians. I'm sure this stems from the amount of money you need to get into politics to begin with. It's shameful