Now that they control both houses of Congress, Republicans have submitted six bills attacking constitutionally protected abortion rights. One bill in the House bans all abortions after 20 weeks, disregarding whether a woman’s life or health is threatened by continuing her pregnancy or whether her fetus is even viable.
Republicans are proposing even more outrageous anti-choice laws. Another bill allows emergency room personnel to refuse service even if a woman requires an abortion because her life is immediately threatened by her pregnancy. And yet Republicans call themselves pro-life.
Here’s the topper from Alabama. Republicans in that state’s Legislature are trying to redefine Alabama’s court-provided public-defender program to include courtroom defense of fetuses. In other words, Alabama would use public defenders to represent fetuses in court and obtain injunctions preventing pregnant women from getting abortions.
Thus, pregnant women would be forced into a lengthy appeals process extending their pregnancy until they give birth and their cases become moot. And here I thought Republicans were all about getting government out of our personal lives. Limited government indeed!
Women, now that Americans have elected oppressive Republican governments in 31 states and Congress, your personal privacy and freedom are more threatened than ever. If you want to defend yourselves, your congressional House representative is Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, and your national senators are Sens. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, and Michael F. Bennet, D-Denver.
The rest is up to you. Go to web sites house.gov and senate.gov. I’m thinking of 2016 elections already.
James F. Andrus
Cortez