vagina and motorcycle
By Maya Dusenbery • @mayadusenbery • 10 years ago

North Carolina lawmakers sneakily add abortion restrictions to #motorcyclevagina bill

vagina and motorcycle

Via @KarenStinneford

Pro-choice activists and the North Carolina legislature have been locked in tireless battle the last several days–and the lawmakers just launched their latest sneak attack.

Republican lawmakers are relentlessly trying to push through a set of abortion restrictions that would, among other things, restrict access to medication abortion, ban insurance coverage of the procedure, and force all but ONE clinic in the state to close. First, they attached the provisions to an anti-Sharia law bill (because combating Sharia law is priority #1, duh) and more than 60 activists were arrested on Monday at protests at the capitol.

Today, the Governor said that he’d likely veto the restrictions if they weren’t changed. So the GOP simply tweaked it slightly and snuck it into a different bill–this one relating to motorcycle safety.

Thankfully, despite the lack of public notice, North Carolina’s pro-choice community is ON IT.

They’re watching… 

women in the gallery watching NC legislature

Via @NARALNC.

 protestors standing in gallery in NC

Via @PPCNC

protestors standing around in the NC legislature

Via @LaPajama 

And we are watching, too. You can as well by following #standwithNCwomen and #motorcyclevagina (LOL) on Twitter.

Update: According to Planned Parenthood North Carolina, the bill will supposedly be debated tomorrow. Stay tuned.

St. Paul, MN

Maya Dusenbery is executive director in charge of editorial at Feministing. She is the author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick (HarperOne, March 2018). She has been a fellow at Mother Jones magazine and a columnist at Pacific Standard magazine. Her work has appeared in publications like Cosmopolitan.com, TheAtlantic.com, Bitch Magazine, as well as the anthology The Feminist Utopia Project. Before become a full-time journalist, she worked at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. A Minnesota native, she received her B.A. from Carleton College in 2008. After living in Brooklyn, Oakland, and Atlanta, she is currently based in the Twin Cities.

Maya Dusenbery is an executive director of Feministing and author of the forthcoming book Doing Harm on sexism in medicine.

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