Friday Feminist Fuck You: Anti-Choicers Gone Wild!

Transcript after the jump.
Links to news stories we mention — and where to take action:

• North Dakota fetal personhood legislation – Take Action
• Montana fetal personhood legislation – Take Action
• Missouri legislation to challenge the (as yet un-passed) Freedom of Choice Act and legislation to create the new crime of “coercing an abortion” – Take Action
• Arkansas law to strengthen penalties imposed by the Federal Abortion Ban – already passed

UPDATE: Apparently they are going wilder than we thought. Two states that we missed: Tennessee and Minnesota. According to RH Reality Check, the Tennessee House is considering two bills that would give the state the ability to further restrict abortion.
In Minnesota, there are FOUR bills on the table. The anti-choicers are really going wild there, with a bill that would mandate abortion reporting, another that would require that abortions be performed within 20 miles of a hospital, another would further limit low-income women’s access to state funds for abortion and the last would ban a rare rarely used form of abortion called saline amniocentesis.

Miriam: Hi everyone. Welcome to the Friday Feminist Fuck You, double-trouble edition. Ann and I wanted to talk about a little spring phenomenon that we’re noticing… Springtime’s near, the weather’s getting warmer…
Ann: Birds are chirping…
Miriam: It’s Mardi Gras time. And we’re noticing something going on in state legislatures all over the country: The anti-choicers are going wild!
Ann: They’re going wild.
Miriam: They’re going wild about things like fertilized eggs, fetal personhood…
Ann: …federal laws that haven’t even been passed yet. They’re really taking it to the next level.
Miriam: They’re really freaking out about abortions in your neighborhood. So we want to talk about a few state legislatures and what they’re doing.
Ann: First up, looking at you, North Dakota and Montana. The legislatures in both states have decided to pass a law declaring that a fertilized egg is basically a human being. Like a full adult — man, woman — same rights, everything. Which jeopardizes a lot of other rights of full-grown human beings, such as the right to contraception, or the right to abortion. That’s pretty screwed up, and pretty extreme. Luckily, governors in those states have not signed the bills yet, so there’s still time to intervene.
Miriam: In Missouri, a lot is going on. They preemptively passed legislation about a bill that hasn’t even passed at the federal level yet, the Freedom of Choice Act, which would codify Roe vs. Wade and guarantee a woman’s right to choose, through legislative means. It hasn’t been passed by Congress, we don’t know if it’s going to get passed. But the Missouri House of Representatives is so freaked out that they needed to pass an ANTI-Freedom of Choice Act to send a message to Congress that they’re not down with pro-choiceness or abortion.
Ann: You might even say they went wild.
Miriam: They went wild. Also from Shark-Fu, who had a birthday this week (happy birthday, Shark-Fu!), the Missouri House is also debating a “hellish anti-choice abortion restriction bill” —
Ann: — those are Shark-Fu’s words, not the Missouri legislature’s —
Miriam: — that’s straight from Shark-Fu’s mouth. The bill would create the new crime of “coercing an abortion” and would do nothing to reduce the number of abortions in the state. Way to go, Missouri. Goin’ wild.
Ann: And finally, Arkansas. So you may recall that awhile back, our government passed a federal abortion ban, on certain types of abortion procedures. Well, Arkansas didn’t think that was extreme enough, or vague enough. And they decided to kick things up a notch, make it even vaguer and more extreme, and impose stricter penalties on doctors who perform this abortion procedure. The federal government says doctors might have to spend 2 years in prison. Arkansas is like, no, 6 years. I would say that’s pretty wild. So I don’t know if it’s the season or what. But in all these legislatures… if you live in one of these states, it’s a good time to write in and tell them to stop freaking out.
Miriam: Calm down…
Ann: We don’t want anyone going wild. We’ll include information in this post on where you can write in and tell them to stop going wild, anti-choice style.
Miriam: Fuck you, anti-choice legislatures!
Ann: And happy spring.