This week, North Carolina Republicans continued their efforts to trample reproductive rights — this time, with motorcycles.
With no public notice and three minutes to spare before the bill went up for debate on Wednesday morning, lawmakers inserted a series of sweeping antiabortion provisions into a motorcycle safety measure. The provisions of the bill are awful, would greatly restrict access and have faced criticism from state health regulators and the governor, as Salon has previously noted.
But lawmaker’s latest attempt to roll back reproductive rights has yielded one wonderful thing: #vaginamotorcycle.
The Republican dominated NC House passed SB353, a motorcycle safety law, stealthily amended to restrict abortion access, by a vote of 74 to 41. The NC Senate previously passed similar, but not identical legislation to limit abortion attached to an anti-Sharia bill that Governor McCrory promised to veto. SB353 now goes to the NC Senate for approval. When he ran for governor McCrory promised that he would veto legislation that reduced abortion access.
The legislation (S.B. 353) would bar so-called sex-selective abortions and impose additional regulations on abortion clinics. Public employees and individuals who obtain health coverage through the federal health care law's new public exchanges would also not have access to a plan that includes abortion coverage. ...
"Like a thief in the night to steal women's reproductive rights, this bill came hurriedly through the Senate, rerouted through the House on a motorcycle, we think," lamented state Rep. Alma Adams (D). "No input from stakeholders, no public scrutiny, no transparency, no fiscal note."
James Protzman at BlueNC observes that Republican claims of concern for women's safety ring hollow.
Doctors are needed for abortions, but not for live births:
This Article may be cited as the "Home Birth Freedom Act."
The General Assembly makes the following findings:
(1) There is a need for a person to have the freedom to choose the manner, cost, and setting for giving birth. (2) Access to prenatal care and delivery services is limited by the inadequate number of providers of midwifery services, and the practice of midwifery may help to reduce this shortage. (3) There is a need for the safe and effective delivery of newborn babies and the health, safety, and welfare of their mothers in the delivery process. (4) In the interest of public health, the State should promote the regulation of the practice of midwifery for the purpose of protecting the health and welfare of women and infants. (5) Midwifery is a profession in its own right, and it is not the practice of medicine.
This diary is not intended to disparage those who believe in and/or practice home delivery via midwifery. But it demonstrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that Republican claims of concern for women's health are merely a cloak to hide their true intent. And I'm surprised nobody has brought this up in debate yet. A lot more women die in childbirth than in pregnancy terminations, but Republicans are just fine with leaving the doctors out of that process:
Before anyone laughs and puts down North Carolina, yes this is ridiculous, but this is where the Republican party is headed nationally. The same anti-democratic process has been used by Republicans in Wisconsin, Texas and Michigan. It's coming to your state via ALEC and the Republican party if you let Republicans control your state.