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=> Political Climate

Political Climate
Posted by Jeff (Guest) jeff@attoz.com - Wednesday, September 22 2004, 6:04:57 (CEST)
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...it is interesting that you should mention the political climate. The right wingers have succeeded in placing as many restrictions as are humanly possible on abortions for over 30 years.

Here's just one example:

Rural Disparity

The majority of abortions are performed in abortion clinics. Clinics are located primarily in populated, urban settings. 87% of all counties and 97% of all rural counties in the United States have no abortion services at all for women . Of all women obtaining abortions in 2000, 25% of women had to travel at least 50 miles and an estimated 8% of women traveled more than 100 miles in order reach an abortion provider. Hospitals are, for many women, the only health resource available to them.

----> there are many, many other examples of state laws being passed which make it more and more difficult for women to obtain abortions. .....

News Release
Blumenthal Leads 17 States and Guam in Effort to Uphold Decision Preventing Violence Outside Abortion Clinics


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Monday, July 1, 1996
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal led attorneys general from 17 states and the territory of Guam today in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a federal appeals court ruling aimed at preventing violence and obstruction at abortion clinics.

"Violence and blockades at reproductive health care facilities pose an increasingly serious threat to public safety," Blumenthal said in the brief. "As the availability of legal abortions diminishes, the states are increasingly concerned with ensuring safe and adequate access to reproductive health care, while at the same time protecting the First Amendment rights of non-violent protesters."

Blumenthal filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in Schenck and Saunders v. Pro-Choice Network of Western New York, et al. The outcome of the case is expected to impact a landmark abortion clinic access lawsuit filed by Blumenthal and the U.S. Department of Justice on June 21, 1995. The Connecticut case is the first lawsuit brought jointly by the Justice Department and a state attorney general under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), enacted by Congress in 1994.

In Schenck, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld two provisions of an injunction that was issued to prevent further violence and obstruction outside of reproductive health care facilities in Buffalo and surrounding communities in Buffalo and surrounding communities in western New York. The provisions created a 15-foot "floating" buffer zone to protect any person or vehicle seeking access to or leaving the facility.

When considering FACE in 1994, Congress found that violence against abortion clinics has so reduced the availability of abortion nationwide that 83 percent of the counties in the nation have no abortion providers. Between 1977 and 1993, there were more than 1,000 acts of violence, including one murder, 36 bombings, 71 chemical attacks, 131 death threats, 84 assaults, 2 kidnappings, and 327 clinic invasions.

"Since then, two clinic workers were shot to death in Brookline, Massachusetts, prompting significant staff resignations at clinics across the country," Blumenthal said. "In order to ensure safe access to health care, as well as to control the cost of law enforcement, strong judicial protection is critical."

Many clinics that offer abortions provide several other health care services. Most of the 310 clinics responding to a 1995 survey said they also provide general health services other than abortion, including: birth control (94.8 percent); cancer screening (68.1 percent); pre-natal care (24.8) percent; menopause treatment (58.1 percent); adoption and referral services (22.3 percent); tubal sterilization (29.7 percent); treatment of premenstrual syndrome (51.6 percent); AIDS testing (60 percent); reproductive health counseling (83.2 percent); and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (82.3 percent).

The brief filed by Blumenthal refers to several examples of the adverse effects that blockades have had on patients, whether they are seeking abortions or other services. In one instance, a Mississippi woman who was four months into a high-risk pregnancy, was confronted by anti-abortion protesters when she tried to enter a clinic for a regular visit to her obstetrician.

The woman, who was accompanied by her 12-year-old daughter, repeatedly told the protesters she was not going to have an abortion, but the protesters still showed them graphic pictures of dead, bloody fetuses in various stages of development. The woman and her daughter were forced to use the stairs rather than the elevator, and were repeatedly blocked on the staircase. Psychiatric patients seeking medication faced similar harassment while trying to get to their psychiatrist's office in the same building.

The states that signed on to Blumenthal's brief, in addition to the territory of Guam, are Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia.


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Paul Younan wrote:
>Jeff,
>
>I called it a "report" casually....I was not meaning for it to be a technical statement in contrast to a "record". The statement I quoted was actually a conclusion of the Senate Judiciary Committee after much critical evaluation of the current law in light of the supreme court's opinions.
>
>Add to that that no woman, or butcher for that matter, has ever been prosecuted for having an abortion at any time in her pregnancy for any reason. No one would dare bring charges against a 7-month pregnant woman who decided she didn't want the baby any longer...even though the baby would be viable at 7 months. Not in this FemiNazi political climate.
>
>-Paul



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