The "Nuns on the Bus" have been a consistently popular and effective faith-based tool for religious progressives this campaign season, but on Monday a group of demonstrators apparently organized by a local Tea Party affiliate met the nuns at a stop in Marietta, Ohio, and provided a far different welcome than the sisters usually receive.

Holding placards with slogans like "Bums on the Bus" and "Romney-Ryan Yes, Fake Nuns No," the protesters focused their fire on the abortion issue, accusing the sisters of not being sufficiently anti-abortion.

Watch It:

Related:

"Right To Lifers" Protest Nuns

WASHINGTON, DC - Standing up for Ohio women to ensure that they are never discriminated against in the workplace during their pregnancy, Congresswoman Betty Sutton (OH-13) has signed on as an original co-sponsor of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, legislation introduced today that will establish strong protections for working women.

COLUMBUS - Peppered throughout his letter to his "Fellow Pro-Life Ohioans," Senate President Tom Niehaus reminds his readers of all the anti-woman bills that the current state legislature has passed, "more than any previous General Assembly in state history."

It is because of this anti-woman bravado that Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio is suspicious about reports that the "heartbeat bill" is dead.

"Notwithstanding news reports and headlines, Sen. Niehaus' letter never once declares the 'heartbeat bill' to be dead," said Gary Dougherty, State Legislative Director for Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio.  "His plea that anti-choice groups come to a consensus on the bill signals his clear desire to end legal access to all safe abortion care."

Because Faith2Action and Ohio Right to Life are so heavily invested in their positions for and against the "heartbeat bill," such a consensus may be unlikely.  However, Dougherty asserts that is the reason for continued vigilance.

"We cannot, and will not, be lulled to sleep by claims that the 'heartbeat bill' is dead.  This legislature has become a willing partner in the War on Women and cannot be trusted to preserve access to women's health care options.  Whether the 'heartbeat bill' remains an abortion ban bill or becomes an informed consent bill or a mandatory ultrasound bill, Planned Parenthood will continue to stand up for those women and their families who rely on us to advocate for their access to reproductive health care."

The Columbus Dispatch reports:

President Tom Niehaus says he won't pass legislation essentially outlaw abortion in Ohio.

House Bill 125, the so-called heartbeat bill, triggered an unprecedented split in Ohio's anti-abortion community, which disagreed about whether it was a good legal strategy to enact legislation almost certain to be declared unconstitutional.

In a strongly worded letter to "fellow pro-life Ohioan(s)," Niehaus said the bill was flawed and slammed supporters for questioning the commitment of majority Republicans in the Senate to ending abortion.

Read The Full Letter Below:

What do reproductive rights and bowling have in common? They come together in an event that can change lives: the Women Have Options (WHO/O) Bowl-a-Thon!

On April 29, we are holding our third annual Bowl-A-Thon. This year, the bowl-a-thon is about giving choices back to the women of Ohio. Lawmakers have done everything in their power to take away women's choices. We are standing up defiantly and giving choices directly back to women.

Whether you start a team or join a team, all bowlers are expected to raise a minimum of $50 (just $30 for students) to bowl at the event. When you register, you receive your personal donation/fundraising page with a unique link. So you can email it and post it on Facebook and Twitter. You fundraise for Women Have Options, telling your friends why you're bowling to increase access to abortion in Ohio. Then the progressive community comes together for a bowling party on April 29.

Interested in captaining a team, or joining a team? Check out the event website. Or email info@womenhaveoptions.org for details. We can tell you how to start a team or get you connected with a team.

College women targeted during testimony in today's Finance Committee hearing

COLUMBUS - Today, as an Ohio Right to Life advocate was testifying in the ongoing Finance Committee hearings on the Mid-Biennial Budget Review (HB 497), which now includes a provision to defund Planned Parenthood, State Representative Kathleen Clyde (D-Kent) was taken aback by the inappropriate comments made about young women.
During her testimony before the committee, the Ohio Right to Life advocate stated, "We know why Planned Parenthood clinics are in places like Kent."  The statement was made as if there is something wrong with locating a Planned Parenthood clinic near a college campus, where thousands of young women would be in proximity to the clinic's important, life-saving services.  That sentiment was expressed further during questions and answers.   
"These insinuating comments are completely out of line and disrespectful to young women around this state," said Rep. Clyde.  "Many college students are away from home, do not have a primary care physician on campus, and are not insured or are out of their network while away at school.  They often do not have the financial means to go elsewhere for these very basic and private healthcare needs such as annual pap smears."

House Republicans' new plan will curb access to vital health services

(Columbus) - State Senator Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) issued the following statement today in response to House Republicans' latest attempt to halt public funding for Planned Parenthood:

"What kind of state are we living in? It is unbelievable that elected officials--stewards of the public interest--would seek to deliberately deny millions of working class and underprivileged women access to high quality healthcare services.

This new plan is another vicious, heartless, and unconscionable volley in the Republican war on women. This narrow policy will disproportionately affect low income and rural areas, and will have consequences that will ripple across the state. I urge Ohio's 5.8 million women and the men who love and respect them to speak out against it."

Over 200 activists from across the state took part in the Freedom of Choice Ohio Storm the Statehouse Emergency Lobby Day today. FOCO is a statewide coalition that supports safe, accessible reproductive health care and comprehensive safe sex education.

View Slideshow:

View Larger Images Here

Last year, the Ohio House passed H.B. 125, the so-called Heartbeat Bill, which would virtually outlaw abortion in our state.  Senate President Niehaus has indicated that hearings could resume in the Senate Health Committee at any time.

On Wednesday, March 21, 2012, more than 200 Ohioans will take part in the Freedom of Choice Ohio (FOCO) "Storm the Statehouse Emergency Lobby Day" in opposition to this dangerous legislation.

Noon Statehouse rally speakers will include: Taba Aleem, Branislov Ugrinov and Nancy Pitts, who will share their personal stories about abortion. State Representatives Ted Celeste (D-Columbus), Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), Tracy Heard (D-Columbus) and Nancy Garland (D-NewAlbany), and State Senators Capri Cafaro (D-Hubbard) and Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) will also address the crowd.

Trainings at 10am will be held prior to the rally at the YWCA Columbus, Huntington Ballroom, 65 S. Fourth Street, Columbus.

Statehouse Rally 12:00pm; Ohio Statehouse North Staircase.

SPONSORS: The ACLU of Ohio, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, the National Council of Jewish Women and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio

Bill modeled after similar legislation to help women make informed decisions

(Columbus) -State Senator Nina Turner (D-Cleveland) announced legislation today that would protect men in Ohio from the risks of PDE-5 inhibitors, drugs commonly used to treat symptoms of impotence.  Turner's legislation would include provisions to document that the symptoms are not psychological in nature, and would guide men to make the right decision for their bodies. Physicians would be required to obtain a second opinion from a psychological professional to verify that a patient has a true medical malady before the medication could be prescribed.

"The men in our lives, including members of the General Assembly, generously devote time to fundamental female reproductive issues--the least we can do is return the favor," Senator Turner said. "It is crucial that we take the appropriate steps to shelter vulnerable men from the potential side effects of these drugs."

The legislation follows the FDA's recommendation that the evaluation of erectile dysfunction should include a determination of potential underlying causes and the identification of appropriate treatment following a complete medical assessment. Similar bills to more closely regulate reproductive health issues have been introduced in the state legislatures of Virginia, Oklahoma, Idaho, and most recently Pennsylvania.

COLUMBUS- State Rep. Nancy Garland (D- New Albany), Chair of the Ohio House Democratic Women's Caucus, released the following statement on yesterday's defeat of the federal Blunt Amendment:

"I applaud the United States Senate for rejecting the 'Blunt Amendment,' which would have severely limited a women's access to preventative healthcare and contraception. It is unfortunate, however, that Ohio House Republicans voted unanimously to urge passage of this very same measure just a few weeks ago.
 
"In passing HCR 35, House Republicans asserted their belief that employers should be allowed to deny women access to preventative healthcare and contraception for any proclaimed moral or religious reason.  That same day, House Bill 284 was voted out of committee with a provision that would change current law to prohibit physician assistants from inserting our removing IUDs, further limiting women's access to contraception.

"These attacks on women must stop.  They only serve to move our nation backwards and undermine the great progress we have made on equal rights. The U.S. Senate made the right decision in shielding women's rights from further attacks. It is time for Ohio to do the same."

Multiple-choice Mitt is at it again. For someone who lies so much, you'd think Mitt Romney would be better at it.

On Wednesday, the news that Mitt Romney had come out in opposition to the Blunt/Rubio Amendment--a bill that will let employers deny coverage for birth control if they find it morally objectionable--caused shockwaves, both on the Left, who couldn't believe he was starting his lurch back to the center so soon and from the Right, who have always been suspicious of his anti-choice credentials:

ROMNEY: I'm not for the bill, but look, the idea of presidential candidates getting into questions about contraception within a relationship between a man and a women, husband and wife, I'm not going there.

Watch It:

COLUMBUS - Today women leaders including Ohio House Democratic Women's Caucus Chair and Representative Nancy Garland (D-New Albany), State Senator Charleta Tavares (D-Columbus), President and CEO of the Betty's Family of Restaurants Elizabeth Lessner, Raising Women's Voices Ohio Regional Coordinator Nancy Pitts and Ohio Democratic Women's Caucus Director Lauren Harmon denounced recent attacks on women's health by Republicans at the state and national levels.

During a press conference at Ohio Democratic Party headquarters, the leaders voiced their strong support for President Obama and Senator Sherrod Brown's records on women's health and their leadership in ensuring that all women have access to contraceptives.

COLUMBUS, OHIO - Healthy Families Ohio, a broad-based coalition, has filed a legal challenge with Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine asking that he reject the summary of a proposed constitutional amendment because it is not "fair and truthful" as required by state law. The coalition based its claim on the facts that the summary is incomplete, confusing, and fails to address the far-reaching consequences of how the amendment would affect countless Ohio laws.

"We deeply respect the right of ballot access," said Sandy Theis, spokeswoman for Healthy Families Ohio. "However, as written, the summary circulated by this radical group is, at best, confusing and vague and, at worst, misleading and deceptive."

The complaint is available to read online here [pdf].

"We're fairly confident they don't meet the legal threshold of 'fair and truthful' and we're absolutely certain they don't meet the common sense definition of it," said Theis.

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Congresswoman Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11) made this statement after the passage of House Bills 125, 79, and 78 in the Ohio House on Tuesday. The provisions will now move to the Ohio Senate:

"These provisions are an all out assault on women. Ohio House Bill 125 is the most restrictive law against abortion in the country and the bill does not have an exception for rape or incest.  Even Ohio Right to Life acknowledges its unconstitutional nature," said Congresswoman Fudge.

"These bills infringe upon a constitutionally protected right, injecting government into a decision that should be made only by a woman and her doctor.

It places an undue burden on the right to choose and blindly ignores a decision heavily weighed by millions of women in Ohio."

Ohio GOP Lawmaker Compares Opponents Of Nation's Most Radical Anti-Abortion Bill To Slave Owners

Yesterday, the Ohio House approved three anti-abortion efforts, including the nation's most radical anti-abortion bill. Known as the "heartbeat bill," the legislation prohibits a woman from seeking an abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can be as early as "six to seven weeks into pregnancy." As NARAL Ohio pointed out, the bill targets "a point when many women don't even know they're pregnant." Nonetheless, the GOP-led state House offered a myriad of reasons to drastically roll back a woman's constitutional right to choose.

However, one state Republican lawmaker in particular found the most extreme reason to vote for the "heartbeat" bill. On the state house floor today, state Rep. Matt Huffman decided that the "heartbeat bill" is a "significant step" in the history of civil rights in all of western civilization. Declaring a fetus to be "a person," Huffman likened lawmakers who oppose the bill to slave owners who would eventually see the errors of their ways:

View More Images

Denounce eleventh hour attacks on Ohio womens' access to reproductive health care

COLUMBUS - State Rep. Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) today joined representatives of several pro choice groups to express strong opposition to a number of bills scheduled for a vote in the full House today.  The legislation includes House Bill 125, known as the "heartbeat" bill, HB 79 which bans insurances from covering an abortion in the Ohio exchange that will be created under the Affordable Care Act even when paying entirely with your own funds and HB 78 which criminalizes doctors who perform an abortion after 20 weeks.

"These bills would take away access to medical procedures for pregnancy termination without consideration of a woman's constitutional right to privacy and without any exceptions for rape, incest, the mental or physical health of the mother, "said Rep. Antonio.  "Calling this legislation the 'heartbeat bill' gives a false sense of humanity to a bill that will endanger lives and render dire consequences to Ohio women and their families."

Legislation would reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in Ohio
 
COLUMBUS - State Rep. Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) and Sen. Capri Cafaro (D-Hubbard) today unveiled the Ohio Prevention First Act.  The bill is designed to reduce Ohio's unintended pregnancy rate and make Ohio a healthier place for women, children and families.
 
Provisions of the bill include:
 
·         Provides comprehensive reproductive health education
·         Ensures that sexual assault victims have access to emergency contraception as well as testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections in all hospital emergency rooms
·         Creates a state teen pregnancy prevention task force
·         Prevents a health insurance company from limiting or excluding coverage for FDA-approved prescription contraception
·         Requires a pharmacy to dispense any prescribed drug, device or over-the-counter medication in stock without delay with respect to all customers
 
"I invite members of the General Assembly to join us in supporting women as fully responsible and capable citizens who are entitled to full access to contraceptives, comprehensive reproductive health information and compassionate assistance for rape victims," said Rep. Antonio. "Doctors take an oath to 'first do no harm' and I believe we legislators can apply 'Prevention First' as an important strategy to reduce unintended pregnancies and promote the health and well-being of all Ohioans."

Last week, in a secret attack, right-wing leaders in the Ohio Senate added bans on abortion services and insurance coverage to the state budget (HB 153). By sneaking this in at the last minute they avoided any possibility for public comment or debate, and they even turned off their phones when pro-choice supporters started calling to object.

Now it looks like they are continuing their back door deals on the budget. The committee charged with ironing out the all of the details of the final budget before it is voted on by the Ohio General Assembly - is only scheduled for ONE meeting.

What does that mean? It means that all of the deals will be made in secret before anyone outside of the closed circle of right-wing leadership in the Ohio House and Senate has any knowledge or ability to weigh in.

We need your help now to make sure that the voices of pro-choice Ohioans are not lost in these closed door meetings. The Ohio Senate and Ohio House leadership will greatly influence the budget conference committee's decision which will be taking place very soon.

Call or email them today and let them know that the final version of the state budget should not include the Senate abortion amendments.

Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus:

SD14@senate.state.oh.us

614-466-8082

Ohio House Speaker Bill Batchelder:

District69@ohr.state.oh.us

614-466-8140

Tell them:

• The budget is not the place for policy. The two abortion restriction amendments improperly added to that state budget bill have absolutely no impact on the amount of money that our state is spending, and should be introduced as stand-alone legislation.
• The pro-choice majority in Ohio will not stand quietly by and allow them to roll back our rights behind closed door without any public comment or debate!
• The amendments would ban public hospitals from providing abortion care to women even when the abortion is completely paid for with private money, and will tell townships and municipalities that they must follow the dictates of the Ohio General Assembly and cannot be trusted to choose the insurance coverage that works best for their employees.

These amendments were added at the last minute, at a point where there could be no public comment or debate. We need to make sure that these provisions are removed before the state budget bill (HB 153) is returned to the House and Senate for a final vote, which is expected to take place in the coming weeks.

Thanks for all that you do!

View More Images Here

COLUMBUS, OHIO - At a time when the state faces some of the most unconstitutional and onerous restrictions against a woman's right to reproductive choice, Ohioans took part in the Freedom of Choice Ohio (FOCO) Trust Women Lobby Day 2011.  FOCO is a statewide coalition that supports safe, accessible reproductive health care and comprehensive safe sex education.

The daylong Trust Women Lobby Day 2011 at the YWCA Columbus, 65 S. Fourth St., Columbus, featured legislative briefings and break-out sessions in the morning followed by a luncheon with keynote speaker Lois Uttley, co-founder of Raising Women's Voices, a national initiative to ensure women's health is protected as health care reform measures go into effect across the country.

"Today, pro-choice Ohioans came to the Ohio Statehouse with a simple message, Trust Women.  Right now there are seven anti-choice bills under consideration by the Ohio General Assembly, all of which will restrict access to safe, legal abortion services for women who need them, and none of them will actually do anything to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in our state," said Jaime Miracle, co-chair of the Freedom of Choice Ohio Coalition.  "Medical decisions need to be left to women and doctors.  Legislators should instead focus on ways to increase access to family planning services and comprehensive sex education so people have the information and resources they need to make healthy decisions."

Bills Restricting Decisions on Pregnancy Are Unconstitutional

COLUMBUS- The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio called on legislators today to shelve a group of bills restricting decision-making on pregnancies in order to avoid costly litigation. Ohio House Bill 125 would prohibit abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. This is often so early into a pregnancy, that it would be tantamount to outlawing almost all abortions. House Bill 78 would prohibit later abortions. On Tuesday, April 12, House Speaker William Batchelder postponed a vote on House Bill 78 and sent it back to committee, citing concerns that it might not withstand a legal challenge.

ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link said, "These bills will drastically limit people's constitutional right to make their own medical decisions. The state will be tied up in court for years, expending scarce resources to defend unconstitutional laws. The legislature is right to pause and avoid making taxpayers foot the bill for expensive litigation."

"Decisions on pregnancies should be made by families and medical professionals. Oftentimes, families must take a variety of health, financial, emotional, and personal concerns into consideration before deciding to go forward with a pregnancy," added Link.

Speaker Batchelder's decision to reconsider the bills comes after months of testimony in the Ohio House of Representatives' Health Committee. Throughout testimony on the bills, advocates from all sides of the abortion debate have raised serious concerns over the bills' constitutionality. Ohio Right to Life announced that it would not endorse H.B. 125 because it believed it would not be upheld by the courts.

In case you are confused about the duties of the Ohio Treasurer, a visit to his website explains the job quite nicely:

"The mission of the Ohio Treasury is to protect and invest state funds while providing innovative financial education and resources, empowering you to make Smart Money Choices."

Nowhere on Treasurer Josh Mandel's website does it mention, or even hint, that his duties include attempting to pass the nation's most restrict abortion law.

But Treasurer Mandel has taken up the cause - even though Ohio Right to Life said it will not support the legislation because it is clearly unconstitutional.

Mandel's anti-abortion rhetoric caught the eye of Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, who urged the new treasurer to do his job safeguarding Ohio's investments, rather than endorse extremist legislation that could saddle taxpayers with extensive legal bills:

"This legislation is so extreme that it would ban abortion before many women even know they are pregnant. If it passes, it will spur an expensive legal challenge. Rather than champion legislation that is clearly unconstitutional, Treasurer Mandel should concentrate on managing Ohio's money, something he promised to do on the campaign trail."

Copeland made her comments after Mandel joined with former state Treasurer Ken Blackwell and likely Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to endorse pending legislation (H.B. 125) that would ban abortion if a fetal heartbeat can be medically detected, which could deny women the right to choose at a very early stage of pregnancy.

Although Mandel said during the campaign that he would definitely would serve out his four-year term, he recently announced plans to seek the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

The winner of the primary will run against pro-choice Democrat Sherrod Brown.

The so-called "heartbeat bill," was recently passed out of the House Health and Aging Committee. The next action will be a vote of the full Ohio House of Representatives. Even though supporters of this HB 125 are scrambling for votes, it may be scheduled for a vote at any time.

The "heartbeat bill" would ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detectable. This occurs in the earliest weeks of pregnancy, often before the woman even knows she is pregnant! Therefore, HB 125 is tantamount to a total abortion ban! It's an extreme measure that would preclude abortion even in cases of rape and incest and does not even allow an exception to preserve the health of the pregnant woman!

Just as importantly, HB 125 is blatantly unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that a woman has the right to end her pregnancy prior to viability, a point when the fetus can survive outside the womb. Clearly, the supporters of the "heartbeat bill" know that it is unconstitutional and want this bill to pass so they can attempt to overthrow Roe v. Wade.

That is the real purpose of this bill - to revoke the right of women to make their own medical decisions by putting politicians between women and their doctors and also to restrict women's access to a necessary medical procedure.

Please contact your State Representative TODAY and urge him or her to OPPOSE HB 125, the "heartbeat bill."

Encourage them to stop the assault on women's reproductive health care.

Related:

Blackwell, Mandel And Huckabee Support Unconstitutional 'Hearbeat Bill'

Unconstitutional Hearbeat Bill Gets Full Hearing Before Being 'Postponed'

Leader Budish Protests As Ohio Right to Life Lobbies For 'Heartbeat Bill' From House Speaker's Dais

"Fetus To Testify" Today Regarding Ohio Heartbeat Bill

Christian Right's 'Heartbeat Bill' Will Never Pass Court Approval

From appointing out-of-state residents to cabinet level positions to the anti-American voter disenfranchisement bill, the House Leadership and the Kasich Administration have shown a disdain for the Ohio and US constitutions.  They have been moving their bus at the 'speed of business', which apparently means leaving the rule of law by the side of the road.

Still, there is hope on the horizon.  Thanks to the hard work of activists and citizens like you, the House Leadership may finally realize that they are not allowed to trample the rights of Ohioans to fit their narrow and extreme agenda.  There are limits laid out in the Constitution and no one, even the Governor, is allowed to pick and choose what sections to follow.

Just this morning, the Associated Press reported that the Republican House Leadership in the Ohio Statehouse has pulled multiple anti-choice bills from consideration on the floor in order to give more time for legal review.  The AP reports that Batchelder "would allow legal experts the chance to review the bill. He wants to be sure it could pass constitutional muster if it becomes law."

Opponents of the two bills, House Bill 78 which bans abortions after the 20th week and House Bill 125 which bans abortions after the 10th week, have argued for months that the United State Supreme Court has a bright line policy regarding state restrictions on abortion.  Restrictions on abortion rights are only allowed after viability, which the US Supreme Court has held to be after the 24th week and these two bills are obviously in violation of that standard.  Even Marshal Pitchford, Chairman of the Ohio Right to Life Society, the largest Ohio organization fighting against a Woman's right to choose, called HB125 "irresponsible" because it would not be upheld in courts.  

Even though any educated legislator knows that Ohio's proposed "Hearbeat Bill" is unconsitutional, the Republicans catered to their religous right base through weeks of hearings including an ultrasound conducted in the Hearing Room.

Now at they end, they have tacitly admitted what everybody knew all along and have postponed any vote on the legislation.

A vote has been called off for now on an Ohio bill that, if enacted, would be the most restrictive abortion law in America.

The House Health Committee decided against voting Wednesday on a proposal to outlaw abortions after the first medically detectable heartbeat. Chairman Lynn Wachtmann said it was "not quite ready," as concerns swirled about whether it could withstand a legal challenge.

COLUMBUS - State Rep. Nickie J. Antonio (D-Lakewood) today joined a national campaign called "Voices for Reproductive Choices" as it was launched by the National Council of Jewish Women.  The campaign encourages women and families to stand up for their rights. 

"I will continue to raise my voice in support of a woman's right to safe, legal reproductive health care and access to contraceptives and comprehensive reproductive information to prevent unplanned pregnancies," said Rep. Antonio.  "I am pleased and proud to lend my voice for choice."

Rep. Antonio pointed to a number of bills pending in the Ohio House, including one scheduled for a vote in the Health Committee today that prohibits, except in a medical emergency, an abortion after the 20th week of gestation.  The bill makes no exception for rape and incest. 

Rep. Antonio was joined by a number of organizations today who support women's health and reproductive rights, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio, League of Women Voters, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, Ohio Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio, Raising Women's Voices and Women Have Options.

COLUMBUS - Ohio House Democratic Leader Armond Budish (D-Beachwood) today expressed deep concerns about a decision to allow partisan lobbying from the Speaker's dais during this afternoon's session of the Ohio House of Representatives. The founder of Ohio Right to Life was permitted to speak at length in support of legislation pending before the House.

"Today is an unprecedented breach of House protocol, House Republicans for the first time in Ohio's history chose to push their partisan, extremist agenda from the Speaker's dais," said Leader Budish.

"It is a breach of the historic etiquette of this institution. At the beginning of each House session, the House honors Ohioans for significant achievements. Historically, this opportunity has been reserved to honor high school and college championship sports teams, community pageant winners and similar non-partisan achievements.

But, today the Republicans chose to bring forward the founder of the Ohio Right to Life Organization to lobby for passage of an extremely radical bill known as the "heartbeat bill", which would outlaw abortions after the first fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can occur as early as the 6th week. This bill is the most radical anti-abortion bill in the entire country and it violates the United States Constitution. The bill is so radical that even his organization doesn't support it.

We call on the House Republicans to reject the politics of partisan extremism. We should be focused on job creation, which we all support, regardless of party, rather than partisan divisiveness."  

Related:

Video: Testimony of Unborn Baby at 9 Weeks After Conception

"Fetus To Testify" Today Regarding Ohio Heartbeat Bill

Christian Right's 'Heartbeat Bill' Will Never Pass Court Approval

Sponsors of a bill that would make abortion illegal once a heartbeat is detected say a fetus will testify in committee this morning.

Via Right Wing Watch:

When Janet Porter is involved in something, you know it is just a matter of time before it goes completely off the rails.

It happened with her 2007 Values Voter Debate where a choir sang "Why Should God Bless America? " while Religious Right leaders asked questions to empty podiums representing the Republican candidates who skipped the event.

And it happened again with her May Day prayer rally at the Lincoln Memorial which left her facing $70,000 in expenses and cost her her daily radio show.

And so it was only a matter of time before her already bizarre "Heartbeat Bill" activism in Ohio took a turn toward the surreal, with Porter announcing plans to have a fetus "testify" in favor of the legislation:

A fetus has been scheduled as a legislative witness in Ohio on a unique bill that proposes outlawing abortions after the first heartbeat can be medically detected.

Faith2Action, the anti-abortion group that has targeted Ohio to pilot the measure, called the in-utero witness the youngest to ever come before the House Health Committee at 9 weeks old.

Faith2Action president Janet Folger Porter said the intent is to show lawmakers who will be affected by the bill, which abortion rights groups oppose. Ohio Right to Life has not endorsed the measure.

An aide to committee Chairman Lynn Wachtmann said a pregnant woman will be brought before the committee and an ultrasound image of her uterus will be projected onto a screen. The heartbeat of the fetus will be visible in color.

Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans are launching one of the most egregious attacks on women's health we've ever seen:

• They want to stop women from using their own private money to buy insurance covering a full range of reproductive health care.
• They want to block access to mammograms and other preventative health care services.
• They want to punish families and businesses that try to keep or buy insurance that covers a full range of reproductive health care.
• Before the public outcry, they even proposed changing the definitions of rape and incest to actually take away health care services from victims of these heinous crimes.

When a bill like this comes along, we have to act fast and we have to be strong. Thousands of Americans have joined us already -- and we need you, too.

Join our fight to keep Congress from infringing women's health.

Kirsten Gillibrand U.S. Senator

Barbara Boxer U.S. Senator

Janet Porter got her start in Religious Right politics back in Ohio, serving as the Legislative Director of Ohio Right to Life.

Porter has resurfaced promoting a piece of anti-choice legislation called "the Heartbeat Bill":

Representative Lynn Wachtmann, the new Chairman of the House Health Committee, has announced he will be introducing the "Heartbeat Bill" in the Ohio House which will protect unborn babies from abortion once their hearts have begun to beat.

"Science has already given us a yardstick to determine if someone is alive--a beating heart;" said Wachtmann, "We just want to see that measurement applied evenly. This bill calls for an end to discrimination and the protection of every human being with a beating heart--no matter their age!"

Now Porter's former colleagues at Ohio Right to Life are refusing to support her measure because it won't stand up in court: 

[T]he so-called "Heartbeat Bill" legislation, which would ban abortion as early as 18 to 24 days after conception, isn't supported by the Ohio Right to Life Society. That organization is backing a number of other anti-abortion bills, including a ban on late-term abortions after 20 weeks except when necessary to prevent the death of the mother or the irreversible impairment of a major body function.

Mike Gonidakis, the group's executive director, said the heartbeat legislation would not survive a court challenge. "Despite noble aspirations, there is no scenario under which the heartbeat legislation will be upheld by any court and therefore no lives will be saved by passage of this bill," Gonidakis said in an e-mail. "Our goal is to protect the lives we can now and that is why we introduced the late-term ban."

...

Janet Porter, a key backer and a former Ohio Right to Life legislative director, said, "If we never ask, we're never going to get it."

HT: Right Wing Watch

When the group tried to erect billboards that state "Shame on Steve Driehaus! Driehaus voted FOR taxpayer-funded abortion," the Ohio representative complained to the state elections commission last week that it was a "false claim" and therefore illegal under the state's election law.

The commission agreed that the ads probably broke the law and allowed the case to proceed, and the billboard company took the ads down as a result. But SBA List isn't taking the commission's decision lying down.

The group filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court yesterday arguing that the state election law governing false claims is unconstitutional because it violates the group's right to free speech. "SBA List's speech is chilled because SBA List is unable to post its planned billboards," the group's lawsuit states.

SBA List's speech has undoubtedly been chilled, but the group's desired speech, in this case, is also undoubtedly false. With two weeks before the election, the group will likely be unable to run its ads, but the courts' eventual decision will have implications for the the limits of freedom of speech and the determination of what constitutes an acceptable campaign ad.

Susan B. Anthony List, Other Anti-Reform Organizations Could be Penalized for False Ads

Washington, DC - The Ohio Elections Commission today found probable cause that the group Susan B. Anthony List broke the law by falsely asserting in political advertisements that Congressman Steve Dreihaus (OH-01) voted to allow federal funding of abortion. The ruling has wide-reaching implications for self-described pro-life groups currently engaged in smear campaigns against a number of elected officials who voted for the health care reform act earlier this year.

Since the bill passed, a host of organizations - including the Susan B. Anthony List, Americans United for Life, National Right to Life Committee, Family Research Council, and the National Republican Congressional Committee - have used the false abortion funding claim to improperly influence the November elections. In doing so, they ignored expert analyses and independent fact-checks showing that the abortion funding claim was inaccurate. The ruling has national implications because similar ads sponsored by the Susan B. Anthony List and Americans United for Life are running against numerous Democratic Congressional candidates, including Reps. John Boccieri (OH-16), Kathy Dalhkemper (PA-03), Joe Donnelly (IN-02), and Tom Perriello (VA-05).

"The Ohio Election Commission's probable cause finding confirms what we've said all along: that organizations like the Susan B. Anthony List are deliberately spreading lies for political gain," said Chris Korzen, executive director of Catholics United. "In doing so, these groups have betrayed the voters and made a mockery of the democratic process."

I received a superb email today from Planned Parenthood, regarding the anti-choice TV ad that is to air during this year's Super Bowl. The message from Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards got to the heart of what it means to be pro-choice (see below).

I've signed on to the Planned Parenthood statement and I hope other members of the Progress Ohio community will too. Locally, click here to check out the advocacy campaigns led by Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio Action Network.

Dear Lorraine,

By now you've most likely heard all about it — the anti-choice group Focus on the Family is spending millions to run an ad during the Super Bowl featuring football player Tim Tebow and his mom talking about a deeply personal medical decision she made years ago. She decided to continue her pregnancy against medical advice, due to what had been diagnosed as a high-risk pregnancy.

People have been asking us at Planned Parenthood what we think about the ad and Mrs. Tebow's decision. It's simple. Planned Parenthood respects the right of every woman to make important medical decisions for herself.

Mrs. Tebow weighed medical and moral considerations and decided what was right for her. She made her choice in private, and without government interference. That's exactly what we want every woman to be able to do.

The truth is, the Tebows' experience is completely consistent with what Planned Parenthood doctors and nurses have learned from the millions of women they've served over nearly a century. Women take decisions about their health very seriously. They consider their doctors' advice, they talk with their loved ones and people they trust, including religious leaders, and they carefully weigh all considerations before making the best decision for themselves and their families.

That's the way it should be. And that should be our shared goal — on Super Bowl Sunday and every day.

I hope you'll show your support for ensuring that every woman makes her own personal medical decisions by adding your name to a brief statement from Planned Parenthood.

Thank you for joining with us today.

Sincerely,
 
Cecile Richards, President
Planned Parenthood Federation of America

Where in the Constitution does it say that religious extremists get to hold our rights hostage? Oh yeah, the Constitution specifically tried to protect us from this:

An aide to Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) coordinated opposition to the Senate health bill’s abortion compromise this morning with the Republican Senate leadership, according to a chain of frantic emails obtained this morning by POLITICO.

Stupak, in an interview with POLITICO, called the Senate bill’s abortion position "unacceptable" – but disavowed his staffer’s collaboration with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“I never talked to McConnell about the health care bill,” said Stupak, adding that “I did not authorize the email [which] “was sent without my knowledge.”

Stupak said that he has discussed the Senate’s abortion position with Democratic senators Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Robert Casey (Penn.), who both hold conservative views on abortion.

Stupak's continued opposition to the Senate plan, despite those conversations and intense pressure from the White House, suggests that reconciling it with the House bill may prove politically challenging.

The Senate language represented “a dramatic shift in federal policy,” said Stupak, adding that he remained hopeful that the differences could be resolved in conference. Nelson, though, said earlier Saturday that his support for the legislation was contingent on the abortion compromise remaining in it.

The emails suggest a previously unseen degree of coordination between the offices of Stupak and McConnell. Stupak is the leader of a group of pro-life Democrats who say they’ll oppose the sweeping legislation if it uses government money to pay for abortion, while McConnell is firmly committed to killing the legislation.

The fact that their offices have made common cause against the Senate's health care compromise will likely further infuriate Stupak’s Democratic colleagues in the House, and demonstrates his willingness to stop any bill that doesn’t pass his test.

“Guys - when will we see your letters of opposition to the managers amendment?? We need them ASAP!” wrote Erika Smith, the Stupak aide, at 9:23 this morning, less than an hour after the amendment had become available.

The email’s recipients included key staffers for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Right to Life, the Family Research Council, as well as Autumn Fredericks Christensen, aide to top pro-life Republican Chris Smith, and Lanier Swann, a McConnell aide.

A minute after Smith sent out her plea, Lanier reiterated it to the list.

“Nelson is telling people in the building he will vote yes. If there was any time to weigh in against this deal —- THIS IS IT,” Swann wrote at 9:24 a.m.

Abortion Takes Center Stage (Again)

A month ago, House leaders were forced into a corner by conservative Democrats insisting that health reform legislation include language prohibiting abortion coverage on the exchange. This week, the scenario is threatening to play out again in the upper chamber, where Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) will introduce an amendment today mirroring the House provision.

The amendment isn’t likely to get the 60 votes needed to pass, but its failure might not be the end of the debate. That’s because Democrats will likely need Nelson’s vote to pass the final bill sometime down the road, and the Nebraska moderate has threatened to withhold that support if strong anti-abortion language isn’t attached.

For supporters of abortion rights, the sticking point has been infuriating, if only because the Senate bill already retains the decades-old ban on federal funding of abortions. Indeed, under the legislation, women seeking abortion coverage would have to pay for it from their own pockets. The Nelson amendment — like the House provision — takes the prohibition a giant step further, effectively telling women that they can’t buy coverage for a legal medical procedure with their own money.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) was quick to point that out this morning in an interview with CBS:

Let’s be clear, the bill as it stands does continue current law, which says no federal money can be used to fund abortions. [...]

What this amendment does is goes further, it actually says you can’t use private money in a private market for any kind of health services related to abortions. And frankly, I think that goes too far.

Don't let the anti-choice Stupak amendment become law!

Sign the petition

Watch It:

Chris Matthews corners Rhode Island Bishop Thomas Tobin, who has banned Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., from receiving Holy Communion due to his views on abortion.

In the interview Mathews exposes the moral hypocrisy at the heart of the Church's abortion position: If it's really and truly murder, you're talking about prosecuting mothers, sisters, lovers and friends for having them. Mathews is quite aggressive with the bishop, demanding to know exactly what legal penalties he thinks should be legislated.

Watch It:

A new study by the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services adds some expert imprimatur to what many progressives have been saying all along: The Stupak amendment to the House health care bill--which will prevent millions of women from buying health insurance policies that cover abortion--is likely to have consequences that reach far beyond its supposedly intended scope.

The report concludes that "the treatment exclusions required under the Stupak/Pitts Amendment will have an industry-wide effect, eliminating coverage of medically indicated abortions over time for all women, not only those whose coverage is derived through a health insurance exchange."

In other words, though the immediate impact of the Stupak amendment will be limited to the millions of women initially insured through a new insurance exchange, over time, as the exchanges grow, the insurance industry will scale down their abortion coverage options until they offer none at all.

Although the Amendment appears to address only plans that receive federal exchange subsidies, even health plans sold to private, large employers that purchase outside the exchange ultimately are likely to be affected, the analysis concludes. These findings are based on an assessment of the extent to which the health benefits services industry adjusts its products over time to conform to the regulatory environment in which it operates.

"Under national health reform, millions of women, including women who are covered by small employers (as employees or spouses or dependents of employees) as well as those who are currently uninsured, will receive their coverage through health insurance exchanges. By barring the sale of subsidized products that cover medically indicated abortions as part of a broader package of benefits, the Amendment can be expected to cause the industry to re-design its offerings in order to avoid violating the legal restrictions on abortion applicable to exchange products that receive subsidies," said Professor Sara Rosenbaum, JD, lead author and Chair of the Department of Health Policy. "The Amendment also can be expected to chill efforts to develop supplemental coverage for medically indicated abortions, because it appears to prohibit the joint administration of both a basic and supplemental product," Rosenbaum noted.

Additionally, "based on past experiences with claim administration decisions involving treatment exclusions," the analysts conclude that insurers are likely to interpret the exclusion broadly, and exclude not just elective abortions, but also medically indicated abortion and "treatments for serious illnesses, injuries, and medical conditions that include an abortion undertaken for health reasons." Insurance administrators, they find, are likely to err on the side of coverage denail in order to avoid sanctions.

The report also includes findings on the "rider" provision of the legislation, the provision that would supposedly allow women to purchase supplemental abortion coverage. From the full analysis [pdf].

The provisions of the legislation, as well as the technical challenges that arise in benefits administration, militate against the creation of a supplemental coverage market. Thus, if the result of national health reform is to move millions of women into a market that operates subject to the exclusion, then it is fair to predict that the entire market for coverage ultimately will be affected as a product tipping point is reached and virtually no supplemental market appears." (p. 14)

Orrin Hatch plans to introduce the Stupak amendment in the Senate.

This amendment isn't just a reiteration of Hyde, it's a direct attack on a legal, medical procedure, not to mention the women who might need it.

• A majority of private health insurance plans now provide coverage for abortion services.
• One in 3 women will have an abortion within her lifetime.
• Abortion is one of the most common surgical procedures. 

Under the Stupak-Pitts abortion ban, which passed the House in the health reform bill, women would not be covered for abortions in the new health insurance market despite spending their own money to purchase coverage.

And women who opt into the more affordable public option would be banned from getting coverage for abortion services, even if their own money was used to buy insurance.

With Stupak-Pitts, it would be much harder—and perhaps impossible—for private insurance companies to offer abortion coverage for plans under health reform

The same politicians who oppose healthcare reform because it is “big government” now want to dictate the terms of women’s healthcare coverage.  

Tell Congress: Don’t ban healthcare coverage for abortion that millions of women already have

Findlaw

How the Stupak Amendment Violates The Establishment Clause

First, the Amendment violates the Constitution's separation of church and state. The anti-abortion movement is plainly religious in motivation, and its lobbyists and spokespersons represent religious groups, as is illustrated by the fact that the most visible lobbyists in the Stupak Amendment's favor have been the Catholic Bishops. This is a brazen and frank attempt to impose a minority's religious worldview on the entirety of American healthcare. (A majority of Americans have favored a woman's right to choose for many years.) There is no secular purpose for the extension of the Hyde Amendment to all private health insurance plans as well. Accordingly, whatever secular purpose might be devised by those trying to defend the Stupak Amendment in court would be a sham purpose, intended to cover the frankly religious pandering the Amendment represents.

One of the clearest Establishment Clause principles is that the government may not impose a certain group's religious beliefs on those with different beliefs. The principle was articulated by the framer of the First Amendment, James Madison, in his important work "Memorial and Remonstrance," and it has been a mainstay of Establishment Clause doctrine. The Stupak Amendment violates this principle by imposing on the entire country a religious worldview that millions of Americans do not share. Moreover, this imposition of religious belief in the private sphere is in the context of healthcare, which every American needs.

How the Stupak Amendment Violates The Equal Protection Clause

The Stupak Amendment also discriminates on the basis of gender. Only women have to deal with the difficult question of abortion. Conspicuously missing are parallel exemptions barring funding for Viagra, or for, say, prostate surgery treatments, which can leave a man sterile and therefore operate as a birth control measure.

In addition, the exemption (the purpose of which is, again, obviously a religious one) does not serve any medical end, when serving medical ends is presumably the overall and most important purpose of the Health Care Reform Act. If health is truly to be served, then refusing to permit women to obtain even private health insurance that covers unplanned pregnancies, or pregnancies involving fetuses with fatal abnormalities, is not just discriminatory, but outright irrational.

How the Stupak Amendment Violates Substantive Due Process and Privacy Rights

Finally, the Stupak Amendment attempts to curtail -- across the board – the privacy rights that Roe v. Wade and its progeny secured for women. While other restrictions on abortion (including the Hyde Amendment) have been upheld by the Supreme Court, this is a far more expansive and repressive move against women, and it surely institutes an undue burden on a woman's right to obtain an abortion in consultation with her doctor. Although it is not clear precisely where the boundary line lies, it is very clear that this move transgresses any reasonable interpretation of the line the Court's cases draw.

The Stupak Amendment is also a harbinger of future constitutional violations, for it erects a slippery slope of top-down control of the spectrum of healthcare options. Abortion is surely just the first foray of the religious lobbyists' battle to take away Americans' right to choose among the full panoply of healthcare options. Attempts to control and halt the funding of both emergency and ordinary contraception surely are not far behind, for such attempts are part of the very same politico-religious platform that includes the Stupak Amendment. There is no more obvious violation of Griswold v. Connecticut – which established that laws prohibiting contraception are unconstitutional under the Court's right-of-privacy doctrine -- than for the federal government to reduce the affordability and, therefore, the availability of contraceptives for all Americans.

Conservative Senators who are pandering to religious interests (and/or simply imposing their own religious beliefs on the country) have been quoted recently as saying that they will not permit the Health Care Reform Act to backtrack on abortion issues. But backtracking is a misleading description of what the religious lobbyists are seeking. The truth, instead, is that the Stupak Amendment is a far reach beyond the already repressive Hyde Amendment, and that the advent of the federalization of healthcare is giving anti-abortion religious believers a one-stop lobbying opportunity on an issue that they were previously having to address on a state-by-state basis.

In sum, if the millions of Americans who believe in choice do not act quickly and in a concerted fashion, then we will have a historic rollback of women's liberties. That would be a true disaster, for not only is the Stupak Amendment repressive and regressive, but it also violates constitutional rights.

On September 29, 2009 Senator Teresa Fedor and Representative Tyrone Yates came together in the Ladies' Gallery of the Ohio Statehouse to formally introduce the Ohio Prevention First Act..

Senator Fedor's statement on Senate Bill 176.

Watch It:

The Ohio Prevention First Act is a comprehensive bill that would increase access to family planning and comprehensive sex education in Ohio.  

The provisions of the bill include:

• Forbid a health insurance company from limiting or excluding coverage for FDA-approved prescription contraception if the policy covers other prescription drugs or devices.
• Require sex education classes to provide students with medically accurate information about abstinence, contraception and condom use as ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and STD's including HIV/AIDS.
• Create a teen pregnancy prevention state task force that would recommend medically accurate and scientifically proven effective programs for reducing Ohio's teen pregnancy rate.
• Require a pharmacy to dispense any prescribed drug, devise, or over-the-counter medication in stock without delay, consistent with the normal time frame.
• Ensure that sexual assault victims have access to emergency contraception and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases in all hospital emergency rooms.
• Require the Department of Health to create and make available on their website, materials to educate medical professionals and the general public about emergency contraception.

After a week of lies engulfing the conversation on health insurance reform, the tide is clearly turning.

Today at a townhall meeting, President Obama laid out the case for insurance reform in three sentences:

If you don't have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options, once we pass reform.

If you do have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company, or a government bureaucrat, gets between you and the care that you need.

And we will do this without adding to our deficit over the next decade, largely by cutting out the waste and insurance company giveaways in Medicare that aren't making any of our seniors healthier.

Those basic principles of health insurance reform are widely supported by everyone who's not an insurance company executive. So what we've been subjected to the last few weeks are increasingly desperate and bizarre lies that are centered on obscuring the real issue - increasing access to reliable, affordable health care.

Planned Parenthood hit the streets of Columbus today, helping to raise awareness about the need for health insurance reform. You can see more photos from the event here.

Will Saletan over at Slate has an informative piece up about legislation sponsored by Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), which aims to reduce the number of abortions in the country.

Saletan manages to cover key provisions in the bill, its history, its supporters on the right and left and the dishonest arguments those on the far-right are engaging in. Saletan provides over 50 links in the article, providing a wealth of documentation for those interested in most the bill. One not included is this Vindicator article that documents Rep. Ryan's back and forth with advocacy groups on both sides of the abortion debate.

The antis have been getting louder and braver since the election of President Obama. Then on May 31st, we had the tragic shooting of Dr. Tiller at the door of his church. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE) is supposed to protect clinics, clinic workers, clients and their families. Sadly, those of us who work at the clinics, who have done clinic escort, who have gone to the clinic as a patient or accompanying a family member or friend have experienced first hand how intimidating and terrifying the anti's can be, and how the laws that should protect us and our right to an abortion often fail.

The clinic in Akron, Ohio has been the site of a protest every Saturday morning for years. There are the regulars with their signs and bibles, some who stand quietly and pray others who are much more verbal and intimidating. There are the in your face group, who try to stop people from entering the clinic, threaten, intimidate and occasionally try to push or grab. And now we have the Jericho Riders, self proclaimed Motorcycle Ministers, warriors for Jesus Christ, who have declared war on abortion, gays, and sinners. Their website states "Those of you who would call truth HATE, simply HATE the truth! The site proclaims they are unashamed, unafraid and unapologetic. And even offers a warning before you enter the site www.jerichoriders.com. There posted on the missions calendar every Saturday from 0800 until 1200 -1300 in front of the Murder Mill at 839 East Market, Akron, Ohio.

And it was there while defending the clinic and a woman's right to choose that Charles Wright, a long time Akron Area NOW member and activist was beaten to the ground on Saturday morning. Wright who was unconscious, was taken to the hospital where he spent the night in the ICU. Fortunately, he was not hurt seriously and was released from the hospital on Monday with a few broken ribs and bruises. When I talked to him at the hospital Sunday, he told me he was hesitant about going to the clinic because the antis were getting more aggressive. He also stated that though he will continue to believe in a woman's right to choose, he was not sure he was willing to put himself in danger outside of a clinic again.

These sentiments were also expressed by another NOW member who on July 8, 2009 was instrumental in helping get a guilty verdict of Criminal Trespass against an anti at the same clinic. She has been grabbed and threatened and does not feel safe going to the clinic again. Her question to me was "Where are the police? Why aren't they protecting the clinic, it's workers and clients?

The good news is that it seems the Akron Police are taking the attack against Wright seriously. The charges are to be Felonious Assault. NOW along with many other prochoice and gay rights groups will be watching to make sure they do their job. We will be meeting in the near future to discuss the violence and what we can do to help protect the clinic, workers and patients. We cannot allow the antis to succeed in closing down another clinic. We cannot walk away from our sisters in need. We cannot allow hatred to win. We must stand together against violence and speak out against discrimination and hatred.

We've setup a system so that you can send Charles a note with your thoughts by clicking here.  

In sisterhood,

Diane Dodge
President
Ohio NOW

Two reproductive right decisions were issued by the Ohio Supreme Court earlier this morning. In one, Planned Parenthood of SW Ohio was barred from being forced to hand over confidential medical records as part of a lawsuit.

In the other, the court ruled 4-3 that state law requires RU-486 be dispensed consistent with national FDA guidelines.

More on these later.

Accompanying a none-too-revelatory article (politicians, particularly Republicans, are moral hypocrites) by NYT "visual Op-Ed columnist" Charles Blow, is an intriguing chart. It shows that states that voted for McCain are far more likely to have more teenager mothers, online porn subscriptions & divorces, per capita than those who voted for Obama.

Ohio shakes out in the bottom half of the divorce and pregnancy numbers and has the fourth lowest porn subscription rate (don't tell Phil Burress).

Not a moral hyprocrisy, but worth mentioning, is that 26 of the 31 states that voted for Bush in 2004 receive more federal money than they pay in taxes. Meanwhile, 2/3rds of the states that voted for Kerry pay more than they receive.

Connie Schultz Keynote Speech- Prevention First Lobby Day 2009 from Freedom of Choice Ohio on Vimeo.

Freedom of Choice Ohio is a coalition of non-profit organizations across Ohio who believe that women, not government should make personal reproductive health decisions. We host annual events on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision in January and an annual Prevention First Lobby Day in April. You can learn more about Freedom of Choice Ohio or the Ohio Prevention First Act at ProChoiceOhio.org/events/lobbyday.shtml.

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, the political arm of the pro-choice movement, is mobilizing hundreds of supporters across the state to get involved in the political process. Our political activities range from contacting legislators to support or oppose legislation, to working on campaigns to increase the number of pro-choice legislators representing us at the State House.

Reproductive rights are severely threatened at the state and national level, and we need you to stand with us in the coming months as we fight to protect reproductive freedom for women in Ohio. To learn more about our political program, please call 216-283-2180 or 800-GO-NARAL, or choice@prochoiceohio.org

From Cincinnati's City Beat:

Sex Education That Makes Sense

Ohio Prevention First Act has been in limbo for three years while Planned Parenthood Action of Ohio, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio and supporters requested a hearing for the “a common-sense, common-ground measure that would reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in Ohio by increasing access to birth control and ensuring fact-based sex education programs in public schools.”

With teen pregnancy on the rise under abstinence only “education” programs, ProgressOhio.org has been working to bring a reality check to the unrealistic expectation that young adults can, should and need to be willing to act like adults on fifties TV shows.

“Many of you in the Progress Ohio community wrote letters and made phone calls, and yesterday your efforts paid off: the Ohio Legislature finally held its first hearing on the Prevention First Act,” says a press release from the group. “As the legislature hears testimony and makes decisions, it's a great time to create some "buzz" in the media. Can you take a moment to write a Letter to the Editor.”

The group’s Web site has a customizable template – all you need is your zip code and a few minutes to share your thoughts.

They also share some important information about the legislation currently under consideration.

(HB 251, SB 179) focuses on the prevention of unintended pregnancies through comprehensive sex education for teens (including science-based information about reproduction, birth control, and abstinence) and affordable, accessible birth control,” the press release says.

“The Ohio Prevention First Act would:

• earmark existing state funds for family planning purposes;
• require insurance plans that cover prescriptions to also cover birth control;
• require pharmacies to fill all in-stock legal prescriptions and to dispense all over-the-counter medications;
• ensure access to emergency contraception in all emergency rooms for sexual assault victims;
• ensure that Ohio's state funded sexual education programs provide young people with the information they need to make safe, informed, responsible choices; and
• launch a teen pregnancy prevention grant program through the Ohio Department of Health to award grants to public and private entities to establish or expand programs geared toward at-risk youth.”

COAST is officially opposing Kevin Dewine's imminent election as Ohio GOP chairman and gathering support from the state central committee.

“Kevin DeWine, who consistently voted for all of Bob Taft's foolish tax and spending policies (yes, 100% support for that nonsense), and who has done utterly nothing to advance a fiscally conservative agenda has now been quoted as indicating he wants to abandon the socially conservative agenda of the Party,” the email reads.

To recap, the "Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes" is outraged  that the Ohio GOP may rebrand itself as a fiscally conservative party. Only in Cincinnati.

DeWine has subsequently backpedaled, issuing a "sincere apology", which [UPDATE] may or may not have looked definitely did not look like this.

After three long years, and after 12,600 supporters signed a petition urging a hearing, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio's request for a hearing for the Ohio Prevention First Act has finally been granted.

From Planned Parenthood's Announcement today:

Ohio House Health Committee Chairman Lynn Wachtmann (R-Napoleon) has scheduled House Bill 251 for a hearing on Wednesday, November 19, 2008. 

Sponsored by Representatives Jon Peterson (R-Delaware) and Tyrone Yates (D-Cincinnati), HB 251 focuses on the prevention of unintended pregnancies through comprehensive sex education for teens, including abstinence, and affordable, accessible birth control.

Among the provisions of the Ohio Prevention First Act are to:

    * ensure that Ohio's state funded sexual education programs provide young people with the information they need to make safe, informed, responsible choices;
    * launch a teen pregnancy prevention grant program;
    * ensure access to emergency contraception in all emergency rooms for sexual assault victims;
    * require pharmacies to fill all in-stock legal prescriptions and to dispense all over-the-counter medications;
    * require insurance plans that cover prescriptions to also cover birth control; and
    * earmark existing state funds for family planning purposes.

Incidentally,  also being heard on November 19th is the most sexist, insulting anti-choice bill in, well, who knows how long: HB 287, sponsored by Representative John Adams (R-Sidney).

If HB 287 passes, a woman or girl would be required to get written consent of the prospective father of the fetus before being allowed to have an abortion.

If the identity of the prospective father is unknown, the woman must submit a list of possible fathers. Those men would have to be tracked down, would have to agree to paternity testing, and the prospective father would then have to grant permission for the abortion.

Rape and incest survivors would need a police report.

A woman or girl who does not know (or doesn't want to reveal) who the man is, or cannot track him down, or cannot secure permission, would be unable to have an abortion.

Planned Parenthood supporters are invited to attend the hearings next Wednesday. From Planned Parenthood:

The hearing is scheduled to begin at 2:30PM or later depending on the length of the preceeding House voting session.  Because of the session schedule, lengthy committee agenda, and seating capacity limitations, interested persons are encouraged to contact Stephanie Craddock of Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio at 614-358-8729 or advocacy@ppcoh.org for further details about the hearing

Look for an email blast soon from Progress Ohio about ways you can take action.

So why haven't they been able to get a hearing in the past three years?

The Ohio Prevention First Act (HB 251) is a bipartisan bill that will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in Ohio by increasing access to birth control and comprehensive sex education. It provides funding for family-planning programs, guarantees access to birth-control prescriptions at pharmacies, and promotes emergency contraception access and education.

NARAL today delivered more than 2,100 postcards signed by Ohioans urging lawmakers to schedule a hearing on the bill.

Matthew 25 Network Expands Advertising

The progressive Matthew 25 Network has launched a new Web site and next week plans its largest radio ad buy to date as it continues its efforts to woo Christian voter support for Barack Obama.

"Can you be pro-life and support Senator Obama?" asks Doug Kmiec in the new radio ad. "Barack Obama knows a bad economy is tragic for human life and women facing the moral tragedy of abortion. They need tangible help, not condemnation. Too many unborn lives are being lost as we wait for judges to get it right."

A former aide to President Reagan, Kmiec has sparked controversy for his advocacy of Obama. While group spokeswoman Mara Vanderslice notes that "some most recent polling has come out that shows the values issues have dropped by a great deal," she says that most voters, no matter their religion, seem more concerned than before about health care, the economy and other domestic concerns.

"I think there's many who are pro-life, would like to see Roe overturned, however they've been frustrated by the Republicans' efforts and talk on this issue," she said, adding later that "Republicans have used this as a wedge issue, however, when at every level they've not done anything to reduce abortion rights." They see Obama's support for an expansion of child care, education and health care issues as a more practical approach to reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions. The group has launched ProLifeProObama.com in an effort to promote those beliefs.

Watch It: 

In November 2006, then gubernatorial candidate Sarah Palin declared that she would not support an abortion for her own daughter even if she had been raped.

Granting exceptions only if the mother's life was in danger, Palin said that when it came to her daughter, "I would choose life."

Most people now know that, but most don't know this:

While Sarah Palin was serving as the Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, the city charged victims of sexual assault between $300 and $1200 for their own rape kits necessary to prove their case.

A rape kit is a sexual assault forensic evidence kit, used to collect DNA that can be used in criminal proceedings to assist in the conviction of those who commit sex crimes. The tests are to be performed as soon as possible after a sexual assault or attack has been committed.

The Frontiersman / May 23, 2000

ANCHORAGE - Gov. Tony Knowles recently signed legislation protecting victims of sexual assault from being billed for tests to collect evidence of the crime, but one local police chief said the new law will further burden taxpayers.

The governor signed House Bill 270, sponsored by Rep. Eric Croft, D-Anchorage, outside the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) exam room at Alaska Regional Hospital. In attendance at the signing were members of victims advocate groups, law enforcement agencies and legislators.

The new law makes it illegal for any law enforcement agency to bill victims or victims insurance companies for the costs of examinations that take place to collect evidence of a sexual assault or determine if a sexual assault did occur.

We would never bill the victim of a burglary for fingerprinting and photographing the crime scene, or for the cost of gathering other evidence, Knowles said. Nor should we bill rape victims just because the crime scene happens to be their bodies.

While the Alaska State Troopers and most municipal police agencies have covered the cost of exams, which cost between $300 to $1,200 apiece, the Wasilla police department does charge the victims of sexual assault for the tests.

Wasilla Police Chief Charlie Fannon does not agree with the new legislation, saying the law will require the city and communities to come up with more funds to cover the costs of the forensic exams.

In the past we've charged the cost of exams to the victims insurance company when possible. I just dont want to see any more burden put on the taxpayer, Fannon said.

Now, the article from the Wasilla hometown paper doesn't mention Palin by name or whether she specifically supported charging the victim of a potential crime to investigate that crime itself, but clearly she did support Fallon for and as Police Chief of Wasilla.  In fact, she hired him in what at the time was a very controversial move.

It was Palin herself who fired the previous Chief  because he wanted to close bars in Wasilla at 2am instead of 5am due to drunk driving incidents and reduce hand gun conceilment to protect his officers.

His firing led to a potential recall of Palin by citizens of Wasilla.

She then hired Fannon as police chief:

Police Chief Accused Palin of Politically-Motivated Firing.

"Wasilla got a new police chief Thursday, one who said he will bring to the job a philosophy of personal freedom that doesn't include his predecessor's support of limiting bar hours…'I don't think the answer to crime is restricting people's freedom more and more.' Fannon is replacing Irl Stambaugh, whom the mayor fired in January. Palin said she did not think Stambaugh supported her administration...Stambaugh has sued the city, alleging Palin fired him because local bar owners and the National Rifle Association asked the mayor to do so. Stambaugh wanted the city to adopt earlier bar closings as a way to combat alcohol-related traffic accidents, according to the complaint." [Anchorage Daily News, 3/28/97] 

In a town the size of Wasilla (then 5,000) with public statements being made by her controversial handpicked Police Chief to the hometown press with respect to this specific issue, it would be hard to say that Sarah Palin did not know of the practice. Without any comment to the contrary  by Mayor Palin at the time or since other than her position that rape babies must be carried until birth, one can fairly conclude that she supported the practice of charging rape victims for these tests.

Yes, I know that a few other states and cities have until recently conducted the same practice.  Though in  Palmer, AK a neighboring town to Wasilla of similar size and similar values they did not at the time and never did.

Palmer police chief Laren Zager said that to his knowledge, no sexual assault victim has ever been billed by the city of Palmer for an exam to collect evidence of a crime. Zager, who has been police chief since January, said he would never expect a victim to be burdened with the cost of a police investigation.

Im prepared to pay every dime in an investigation. As long as I am chief, I would never bill a victim, Zager said.

The primary reason that the heinous practice of charging possible rape victims for producing their own evidence has ended  is that under The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) states lose federal funding and grants (something that would get Gov, Palin's attention) if they are not in compliance with the Federal Law protecting women.

Who sponsored and wrote the Violence Against Women Act?

None other than Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Joe Biden. 

Senator Biden wrote the ground-breaking Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in the 1990s that set the national agenda on criminalizing violence against women and holding batterers truly accountable. It encouraged states to set up coordinated community responses to domestic violence and rape; was the catalyst for passage of hundreds of state laws prohibiting family violence; and provided resources to set up shelters so battered women abused by husbands and boyfriends had a place to go. The law also established the national hotline that over 1.5 million abused women have called for help. By empowering women to make changes in their lives, and by training police and prosecutors to arrest and convict abusive husbands instead of telling them to take a walk around the block, domestic violence is down 50 percent and rape is down 60 percent nationwide.

Each time the Senator renewed the Act – in 2000 and 2005 – he pushed for new initiatives. In 2000, the Act was attached to ground-breaking laws on human trafficking – crimes where over 80% of the victims are women. In 2005, the Violence Against Women Act tackled issues like domestic violence in public housing and treating children witnesses of family violence.

HT: AmericaBlog

Worst Pick Ever?

In fact, as Palin's cultural views become better known -- she oppose (sic) abortion in all cases and opposes the use of birth control pills and condoms even among married couples -- she will undoubtedly scare the hell out of the soccer moms and 98% of Hillary voters. In fact, many of these women may feel insulted by this choice in that McCain and the GOP think they are stupid and would bypass their own interest (reproductive and economic) to vote for the ticket due to gender and anger that Hillary was not the nominee.

McSexist

McCain’s War on Women

Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) campaign and the media would have us believe that herds of disaffected women voters will be stampeding to the Republicans this year because a woman candidate won’t be on the presidential ballot in November.

McCain’s campaign has been making a clear play for women voters in recent weeks, hosting conference calls with Republican women and touting that his policies on national security, the economy and healthcare appeal to women voters.

But the suggestion that women — and feminist women, at that — will be lining up behind him is a fairytale. At least, it should be. McCain’s record and policies on issues of importance to women are neither moderate nor maverick.

Read The Full Story Here 

More on McCain's War on Women Here 

Will the Ohio General Assembly Give Men the Final Decision about a Woman's Reproductive Health Care Choices?

One year ago, State Rep. John Adams (R-Sidney) introduced one of the most outrageous pieces of legislation we have ever seen.

House Bill 287 would require a woman to have the written informed consent of the prospective father of her fetus before being allowed to have an abortion.

That's right...If the man says "No," there will be no abortion. Period!

This bill may actually be scheduled for hearings in the coming weeks.

To raise awareness about this offensive bill, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio is partnering with ProgressOhio, an outreach organization that builds awareness of legislative issues.

Please click here to help us stop this bill!

You're not going to believe this...

HB 287 also requires that, if the identity of the prospective father is unknown, a paternity test must be performed to determine his identity so that his consent could be obtained prior to performing the abortion.

What is left unsaid is that prenatal paternity testing:

• cannot be performed until at least the 10th week of pregnancy, near the end of the first trimester,
• is an invasive procedure using a long needle through the abdomen to collect fetal cells,
• is expensive - up to $2,000 per test, and
• poses a potential medical risk.

The practical effect of the paternity test requirement would prevent some women from obtaining an abortion during the first trimester.

Once paternity is established, if the man says "No," there will be no abortion.

Please make a secure contribution to help us say "No!" to this outrageous bill!

Even worse...
• If the pregnancy resulted from rape, the woman would be required to provide a police report proving it.
• If the pregnancy resulted from incest, the woman would be required to provide a paternity test or a police report.
• If the woman chooses not to identify the prospective father (perhaps out of fear for her own physical well-being), her only recourse would be to continue the pregnancy against her wishes or have an illegal abortion, a first degree misdemeanor.

Speak out! Help ProgressOhio and Planned Parenthood "veto" this bill now!

We Can't Let Them Get Away with This!

Here's what you can do to help us fight this outrageous legislation:

• Click here to make a secure contribution to the PPAO Action Fund to support our efforts to fight this legislation and to support pro-choice candidates.
• Sign our petition against HB 287.

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about HB 287, the Abortion Veto Bill.
Tell-a-friend!



Brian Rothenberg
Executive Director
ProgressOhio.org

Click to Subscribe to "Shadows on High"

Please forward to your friends and colleagues!

ProgressOhio - "We're Powered By You"

The REAL John McCain is not the "moderate maverick" the pundits like to swoon over. The REAL McCain has spent the last 25 years amassing one of the worst anti-choice voting records in Congress.

If elected president, he has pledged to be the anti-choice movement's most faithful ally, carrying their water and enacting their dangerous agenda:

"If I am fortunate enough to be elected as the next President of the United States, I pledge to you to be a loyal and unswerving friend of the right to life movement." [Statement by Sen. McCain read by Sen. Sam Brownback at the March for Life in Washington, DC, January 22, 2008.]

 Learn More About John McCain's War On Women

In His Own Words

Think McCain is a moderate when it comes to a woman's right to choose? Think again. Here are some of the statements McCain has made about choice.

• Sen. McCain told Chris Matthews, "the rights of the unborn is one of my most important values."
  [Transcript, Hardball with Chris Matthews, April 15, 2008.]
• "I’m proud that we have Justice Alito and Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. I’m very proud to have played a very small role in making that happen." McCain explained further that he "will try to find clones of Alito and Roberts" to fill future court vacancies.
  [Transcript, Republican Presidential Candidates Participate in a Debate, May 3, 2007, and Carl Tobias, On judges, don’t doubt McCain’s conservatism: He pledges to appoint clones of Alito and Roberts, Christian Science Monitor, February 11, 2008.]
• "If I am fortunate enough to be elected as the next President of the United States, I pledge to you to be a loyal and unswerving friend of the right to life movement."
  [Statement by Sen. McCain read by Sen. Sam Brownback at the March for Life in Washington, DC, January 22, 2008. http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=26539 (accessed January 30, 2008.)]
• "I'm proud that we have Justice Alito and Roberts on the United States Supreme Court. I'm very proud to have played a very small role in making that happen."
  [Transcript, Republican Presidential Candidates Participate in a Debate, May 3, 2007.]
• On the Federal Abortion Ban, Sen. McCain said, "Today's Supreme Court ruling is a victory for those who cherish the sanctity of life and integrity of the judiciary. The ruling ensures that an unacceptable and unjustifiable practice will not be carried out on our innocent children. It also clearly speaks to the importance of nominating and confirming strict constructionist judges who interpret the law as it is written, and do not usurp the authority of Congress and state legislatures. As we move forward, it is critically important that our party continues to stand on the side of life."
  [Press release, April 18, 2007 (accessed February 4, 2008). http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/PressReleases/f96d220f-b10d-48fe-aee9-d69c0d2802c3.htm]
• Sen. McCain said that he has supported "the rights of the unborn" for 24 years "without changing, without wavering."
  [Michael Finnegan, Republicans Enter the Ring in Iowa; At a Key Party Dinner, Frontrunners for the Presidential Nomination Take a Beating From Lesser-Known Rivals, L.A. Times, April 15, 2007.]
• When asked about whether he supported supplying condoms to Africa to assist in the fight against HIV/AIDS, McCain had the following exchange with a reporter:
  Reporter: "What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?"
  Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.
  Reporter: "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"
  Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "You've stumped me."
  [Adam Nagourney, McCain Stumbles on H.I.V. Prevention, The New York Times, March 16, 2007.]
• Discussing his pro-life voting record, McCain said, "I have many, many votes and it's been consistent. And I've got a consistent zero from NARAL throughout all those years... [M]y record is clear. And I think the important thing is you look at people's voting record because sometimes rhetoric can be a little... misleading.... As you know I don't support Roe v. Wade... I thought it was a bad decision, and I think that the decision should be made in the states."
  [Transcript, The Full McCain: An Interview, National Review, March 5, 2007. http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=MTMxOWRkYjgyNDhjOTU5ZTY2OWU2ZTg2ZmUxMzQ1NjQ=]
• "I do not support Roe v. Wade. It should be overturned."
  [Ann Althouse, Rudy & Mitt Hem & Haw on Abortion, The New York Times, February 24, 2007.]
• Sen. McCain's 2008 presidential campaign website states that he "believes Roe v. Wade is a flawed decision that must be overturned."
  [John McCain for President 2008 campaign website, On the Issues: Human Dignity and the Sanctity of Life (accessed February 4, 2008.) http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm]

Angry Clinton Women ♥ McCain?

TEN years ago John McCain had to apologize for regaling a Republican audience with a crude sexual joke about Hillary and Chelsea Clinton and Janet Reno. Last year he had to explain why he didn’t so much as flinch when a supporter asked him on camera, “How do we beat the bitch?” But these days Mr. McCain just loves the women.

In his televised address on Barack Obama’s victory night of June 3, he dismissed Mr. Obama in a single patronizing line but devoted four fulsome sentences to praising Mrs. Clinton for “inspiring millions of women.” The McCain Web site is showcasing a new blogger who crooned of the “genuine affection” for Mrs. Clinton “here at McCain HQ” after she lost. One of the few visible women in the McCain campaign hierarchy, Carly Fiorina, has declared herself “enormously proud” of Mrs. Clinton and is barnstorming to win over Democratic women to her guy’s cause.

How heartwarming. You’d never guess that Mr. McCain is a fierce foe of abortion rights or that he voted to terminate the federal family-planning program that provides breast-cancer screenings. You’d never know that his new campaign blogger, recruited from The Weekly Standard, had shown his genuine affection for Mrs. Clinton earlier this year by portraying her as a liar and whiner and by piling on with a locker-room jeer after she’d been called a monster. “Tell us something we don’t know,” he wrote.

But while the McCain campaign apparently believes that women are easy marks for its latent feminist cross-dressing, a reality check suggests that most women can instantly identify any man who’s hitting on them for selfish ends. New polls show Mr. Obama opening up a huge lead among female voters — beating Mr. McCain by 13 percentage points in the Gallup and Rasmussen polls and by 19 points in the latest Wall Street Journal-NBC News survey.

Read The Full Piece From Frank Rich At The New York Times

Learn More About John McCain's War On Women

Sign the "Ex-Hillary Fans For McCain" Pledge

John McCain is ardently anti-choice — he wants to make abortion illegal and overturn Roe v. Wade. These positions put him out of step with mainstream voters.

McCain has voted consistently against women's health, and he supports overturning the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade.

Watch it:

The Republican party platform has a strict anti-abortion policy that has been pushed for years by social conservatives and embraced the Bush Administration.

The "Maverick" John  McCain was in favor of exceptions to this policy for rape, incest, and the mother's life. 

Far right conservatives (the Religious Right) want to maintain the hardline policy, taking away all authority of a woman over her own body and placing it in the hands of those who are "pro-life" when that life is in the womb, but couldn't care less after it is born. 

Assuredly, the new McCain will bow down before his "spiritual masters" once again in an effort to maintain the Republican Party's extremely fragile coalition.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., faces enormous pressure from social conservatives to ignore his repeated commitment to change the GOP's platform on abortion. 

"If he were to change the party platform," to account for exceptions such as rape, incest or risk to the mother's life, "I think that would be political suicide," said Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council, to ABC News. "I think he would be aborting his own campaign because that is such a critical issue to so many Republican voters and the Republican brand is already in trouble."

A senior Republican close to McCain told ABC News that building a more inclusive GOP is a top priority for the Arizona senator.

But this adviser does not see changing the party platform to include exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother as necessary for achieving that vision.

Watch Bush, McCain, and Keyes in 2000 debating abortion.

...until you consider the origins of Mother's Day.

Julia Ward Howe, who penned The Battle Hymn of the Republic, also authored a mothers' Declaration calling on women to oppose war, and worked to get recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. Says Code Pink: "Were she alive today, Julia probably would have told her kids to dispense with the roses and chocolates, and instead join her in an anti-war rally. Yes, Julia Ward Howe was a peacenik."

[Howe] saw some of the worst effects of the [civil] war -- not only the death and disease which killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war, and realized that the effects of the war go beyond the killing of soldiers in battle. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil War, the economic crises that followed the war, the restructuring of the economies of both North and South.

In 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause….She called in 1870 for women to rise up and oppose war in all its forms. She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us, and commit to finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts. She issued a Declaration, hoping to gather together women in a congress of action.

Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother's Day for Peace, but her effort was carried on by Anna Jarvis, who had organized women during the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and then toward reconciliation of Union and Confederate neighbors.

Jarvis’ daughter, of the same name, then took up the campaign for Mother’s Day. After the custom spread to 45 states, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day in 1914.

Julia Ward Howe's Mothers' Declaration:

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Maybe Pryce, Schmidt, Tiberi, Chabot, Boehner, Regula, LaTourette, Hobson, and Turner have a thing against moms. But YOU can make this Mother's Day a Mother's Day For Peace.

Help CodePink help Iraqi refugee moms here.

Send a MomsRising Mother's Day card and tell the presidential candidates to fight for family-friendly policies. here.

Oh and don't forget to call the Congressional Switchboard at 1-800-839-5276 to give the above members of Congress a piece of your mind about H.R. 1113.

Do you have another suggestion for honoring Julia Ward Howe's Mothers' Declaration? Are you a mom working for peace? Leave a comment below.

The REAL John McCain is not the "moderate maverick" the pundits like to swoon over. The REAL McCain has spent the last 25 years amassing one of the worst anti-choice voting records in Congress.

In fact, the Straight Talk Express has skidded off the road that most Americans drive. He is more extreme than even some who consider themselves "pro-life."

For example, most Americans would be stunned to learn McCain won't - or can't - say whether he even supports the right to use contraception.

Last March, McCain fumbled through this exchange about contraception with a reporter aboard his campaign bus;

"Reporter: "Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?"

Mr. McCain: "Well I think it's a combination. The guy I really respect on this is Dr. Coburn. He believes - and I was just reading the thing he wrote- that you should do what you can to encourage abstinence where there is going to be sexual activity. Where that doesn't succeed, then he thinks that we should employ contraceptives as well. But I agree with him that the first priority is on abstinence. I look to people like Dr. Coburn. I'm not very wise on it." (Mr. McCain turns to take a question on Iraq, but a moment later looks back to the reporter who asked him about AIDS.)

Mr. McCain: "I haven't thought about it. Before I give you an answer, let me think about. Let me think about it a little bit because I never got a question about it before. I don't know if I would use taxpayers' money for it [contraception]."

Q: "What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush's policy, which is just abstinence?"

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "Ahhh. I think I support the president's policy."

Q: "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "You've stumped me."

Q: "I mean, I think you'd probably agree it probably does help stop it?"

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) "Are we on the Straight Talk express? I'm not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I'm sure I've taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception - I'm sure I'm opposed to government spending on it, I'm sure I support the president's policies on it."

Q: "But you would agree that condoms do stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Would you say: 'No, we're not going to distribute them,' knowing that?"

Mr. McCain: (Twelve-second pause) "Get me Coburn's thing, ask Weaver to get me Coburn's paper that he just gave me in the last couple of days. I've never gotten into these issues before."

Emphasis Added

The Coburn that McCain has chosen as his mentor on all things reproductive is Senator Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, which is like having the Taliban head up the Office for Women's Initiatives. (Think that's an extreme comparison? Keep in mind Coburn supports the death penalty for abortion providers.)

When asked about his position on reproductive rights, McCain talking with the National Review advised, "I think the important thing is you look at people's voting record because sometimes rhetoric can be a little... misleading." And there's no truer statement. McCain's voting record, which NARAL Pro-Choice America scrupulously tracks, is telling. He has consistently voted against the right to a legal abortion and he has also consistently voted against contraception. McCain voted to end the Title X family planning program which is the only way millions of Americans have been able to plan their family. Title X has also been heralded as having prevented more than nine million unwanted pregnancies in the last two decades. Without Title X, the number of teenage pregnancies would have been 20% higher too.

McCain voted against legislation that would have required insurance coverage of prescription birth control and would also have provided more women with prenatal health care. (So, throw in anti-baby too. It's also worth noting that in 2004, McCain ranked among the 25 worst Senators for children, scoring 38%, according to the Children's Defense Fund Congressional Score Card.)

He's an unapologetic proponent of the failed abstinence-only approach as well. He voted against making "abstinence-only" programs medically accurate (the most authoritative study found that more than 80% of abstinence-only curricula, used by more than 2/3 of federal recipients, contains false, misleading, or distorted information.) He also wanted to take $75 million from the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant to launch an abstinence‐until-marriage program that prohibits sexually active teens from learning about birth control. Yet another time he tried to route one‐third of all HIV/AIDS prevention funds to the completely ineffective "just say no to sex" programs.

It's clear; Iraq is not the only unpopular war Bush started that McCain hopes to continue. The war on Americans' sex lives is another and McCain has already proven himself a good, loyal general.

The McModerate 

See Also: Voter Beware, A Bigger Battle Is Looming

"Bullying Bills" from the Moralist Far Right seem to be the latest method of legislating in Ohio.  What's a Bullying Bill? A bill that comes with the threat that if you don't vote for it, you will be targeted with misleading ads over your vote in the next election cycle. 

Received from a PO Member via email:

We received word today from the Ohio House that a co-sponsor request is circulating for a bill that would require consent from the "father" of the fetus before a woman could have an abortion in Ohio. This bill is being introduced by Representative John Adams.

Rep. Adams is the replacement for Derrick Seaver and the co-sponsor request states that it is the same as Seaver's paternal consent bill (HB 339) from the 124th General Assembly.

It would require a written consent from the "father" of the fetus before a woman were to get an abortion. If the woman did not know which man was the father she would have to undergo a paternity test to determine paternity. It does exempt women who got pregnant due to rape or incest, or women who needed an abortion to protect their health or life.

We will be watching to see when the bill is formally introduced and will let everyone know when it is.

Will they support more than abstinence only (which is just another version of their "no touch" philosophy) when it comes to providing real solutions that will reduce unintended  pregnancies and thereby lower abortions in Ohio. 

From Daily Briefiing:

Abortion rights supporters, searching for common ground, are pushing a soon-to-be-introduced bill in the Ohio General Assembly which aims to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies

The Ohio Prevention First Act can boast bi-partisan sponsors – Sen. Sue Morano, D-Lorain, in the Senate and Reps. Jon Peterson, R-Delaware, and Tyrone Yates, D-Cincinnati, in the House.

The bill, mirroring federal legislation introduced in February before Congress, would expand access and funding for birth control and comprehensive sex education programs covering abstinence, contraception and condom use. It also will guarante women access to emergency contraception in emergency rooms and hospitals.