http://themilitant.com/2018/8220/822006.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 82/No. 20 May 21, 2018
(front page)
‘Join fight against Iowa attack on women’s right to choose abortion’
BY LEA SHERMAN
More than 100 supporters of women’s right to choose abortion gathered at
the state Capitol in Des Moines for an “Iowa Fights Back rally” May 4.
They were protesting Gov. Kim Reynolds signing into law that day a
so-called fetal heartbeat bill. The law would ban abortions so early in
the pregnancy — at six weeks — that a woman might not even realize she
was pregnant.
The fight for reproductive rights is “all of our fight,” Suzanna de
Baca, president of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, told the rally,
“and it’s on all of us to push against these attacks on our lives, our
bodies … our rights.”
The law requires doctors to give all women an ultrasound before
performing an abortion. If any pulsation is detected, then an abortion
cannot be performed. Any doctor who does perform the medical procedure
could see their license revoked or charges filed by local prosecutors,
though no penalties are set by the bill.
“The law is bad. Every woman has the right to make her own decision.
Very young women get pregnant accidentally and now they won’t have the
option,” Ramona Chavez, a certified nursing assistant in Marshalltown,
Iowa, told the Militant. “Personally, I don’t believe in abortion for
myself, but I think every woman has the right to decide.”
The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and Planned Parenthood
announced they will file a lawsuit challenging the law, which they are
confident will be struck down.
This “would be the most restrictive abortion law in the country,” Iowa
ACLU Executive Director Mark Stringer told the press. “It is clear that
the goal of this legislation is to overturn Roe v. Wade, ultimately
banning all abortions.” Proponents of the bill in the legislature
readily agreed that the bill was promoted so it could be challenged in
hopes it would allow a revamped Supreme Court to outlaw abortion.
If this bill goes into effect, it could close the residency program in
obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Iowa, the only such
program in Iowa.
Similar abortion bans in Arkansas and North Dakota were ruled
unconstitutional in 2013. Other “heartbeat” law proposals are being
pushed in Missouri, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Attempts to restrict abortion rights have been facilitated by the
reasoning in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling itself. The Supreme Court
didn’t base its decision on a woman’s right “to equal protection of the
laws” guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but on
“medical criteria” instead.
Enemies of women’s rights use the fact the court allowed state
governments to ban most abortions after “viability,” described in the
ruling as the point at which a fetus is “potentially able to live
outside the mother’s womb.” Medical advances inevitably make this
earlier and earlier in pregnancy.
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