By Jos Truitt • @jostruitt • 11 years ago

Michigan House passes anti-choice super-bill after 20 minutes of debate

Protestors wearing pink shirts in the Michigan Capitol

Sadly not actually voting members of the House. Maybe change that next election? (image via Progress Michigan)

It didn’t take much time or thought for the Michigan House to rubber stamp a beyond extreme anti-choice bill with the not-so-subtle goal of ending abortion in the state. Yesterday evening, after only 20 minutes, the House voted 70 to 39 in favor of the bill. Yeah, those numbers scare me too.

This is the legislation Chloe called “the Chubby Hubby of anti-choice bills.”

Except instead of a whole bunch of delicious things rolled into one yummy ice cream, it’s a whole bunch of shitty anti-choice measures rolled into one awful bill.

At the risk of sounding like Stefon, this bill has everything: state-mandated scripts for doctors that masquerade as faux concern for women who are being coerced into abortion, new TRAP laws to make insurance more complicated and expensive for providers, stricter regulations for clinics, new rules about the disposal of fetal remains that would affect women who have miscarriages as well as abortions, and a new measure requiring the presence of a doctor for a medical abortion in a state where many women rely on tele-med prescriptions because so few counties have a provider on the ground. And, in case that wasn’t enough, a ban on all abortions after twenty weeks except to save the life of the mother. Way to go all in, Michigan.

TRAP laws are particularly insidious attempts to shut down clinics that provide abortions by making them conform to rules that simply aren’t necessary.

The bill passed despite Rep. Rashida Tlaib trying to pull a last minute Lysistrata, urging women in the state to stop having sex with men until they stood up against the bill.

The Senate is not expected to take up the bill until September, so at least there’s some time. But the state Senate is also anti-choice.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Michigan is organizing a protest against the passage of the Chubby Hubby bill today at the Capitol Building at 10am.

Boston, MA

Jos Truitt is Executive Director of Development at Feministing. She joined the team in July 2009, became an Editor in August 2011, and Executive Director in September 2013. She writes about a range of topics including transgender issues, abortion access, and media representation. Jos first got involved with organizing when she led a walk out against the Iraq war at her high school, the Boston Arts Academy. She was introduced to the reproductive justice movement while at Hampshire College, where she organized the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program’s annual reproductive justice conference. She has worked on the National Abortion Federation’s hotline, was a Field Organizer at Choice USA, and has volunteered as a Pro-Choice Clinic Escort. Jos has written for publications including The Guardian, Bilerico, RH Reality Check, Metro Weekly, and the Columbia Journalism Review. She has spoken and trained at numerous national conferences and college campuses about trans issues, reproductive justice, blogging, feminism, and grassroots organizing. Jos completed her MFA in Printmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute in Spring 2013. In her "spare time" she likes to bake and work on projects about mermaids.

Jos Truitt is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Development.

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