The Republican War on Women, Ohio Edition
By And yet, Kasich’s restrictions are unapologetically out-there. Overnight, the nation’s political barometer has become an anti-choice fanatic’s wet dream. Anyone seeking an abortion will be forced to submit to a state-mandated ultrasound—and to pay for that ultrasound after it is forced on them. Planned Parenthood has been effectively stripped of state funding, but so-called “crisis pregnancy centers”—unregulated anti-abortion disinformation centers famous for placing misleading ads, providing medically unsound advice and using coercive tactics—will be receiving taxpayer money. Any clinic providing abortions will be required, by law, to enter into a contract with a nearby hospital, guaranteeing transport if a client experiences complications and needs urgent care. But public hospitals will be prevented by law from entering into such contracts, meaning that clinics will be shut down if they can’t find a local, privately owned hospital willing to comply. The state’s rape crisis centers are also under attack: If they refer a pregnant survivor to abortion services, or even mention the word “abortion,” they too will be defunded. According to Phipps, the law even endangers people who miscarry. Surgical abortions are often necessary after a first-trimester miscarriage to prevent hemorrhaging or infections. But the Kasich budget requires a 48-hour waiting period unless a doctor determines that the patient is at immediate risk of death.
So this, too, is a way the nation can go. If the reproductive rights battle in Texas is a story about how even conservative states can be brought to feel the power of pro-choice voters, then Ohio is a story about how, even in a state where most people do not share extremist anti-choice views, a few sufficiently conservative men in positions of power can bully their way into enacting extremist anti-choice policies. A poll released shortly before the budget passed indicated that 52 percent of voters said they did not support the proposed restrictions. Indeed, when similarly radical bills have been put forward on their own, and not within the context of a budget, as in the case of 2012’s “heartbeat bill,” they’ve been shot down. But because Republicans control the state legislature, the anti-abortion radicals have the edge.
In fact, I think these types of restrictions, and worse as we go forward, can be expected any time Republicans control all three branches of a state (or god forbid, national) legislature. And I’m also not convinced at all that the story of Texas was showing the power of the pro-choice movement. The law passed anyway. Texas Republicans simply don’t care. The reality is that all of us, no matter what progressive movements we believe in, need to understand that Republicans have declared war on the nation we believe should be created and are determined to roll back all of it to a Gilded Age, patriarchal, and racist structure that grants rich white men full rights to control the nation and makes poor white men at least feel superior to women and people of color. That’s the Republican Party platform of 2013 and they’ve already done a heck of a job moving closer to their goals.