Tag: anti-choice

The Most Vile Law School Essay You’ll Ever Read

The following article by Kathryn Rubino was posted on the AbovetheLaw.com website August 24, 2018:

This essay compares abortion to the Holocaust — and concludes freedom of choice is worse.

Scott Lloyd, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Credit: Drew Angerer, Getty Images

You may not know Scott Lloyd’s name but as head of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, he has a lot of authority over minor migrants in federal custody. And he has used that power to wage his own personal war against reproductive freedom, a battle that began after he paid for his former girlfriend to have an abortion. Now a vocal anti-choice advocate, he has personally intervened to stop migrants in federal custody — including at least one rape victim — from accessing a choice protected (at least for now) by the Constitution, a choice he himself made as a young man.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement acts as the legal guardian to underaged migrants in federal custody. In his role, Lloyd has radically shifted the policy under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama to allow teenagers in cusotdy to receive abortions provided they had private funding for the procedure. Now, Lloyd demands direct approval before any person under his authority is able to access an abortion, and according to a 2017 deposition, Lloyd has never approved such a request. In a chilling expose on Lloyd, Mother Jones documents the way Lloyd has handled such requests:

In one case before Lloyd was formally ORR’s director, a shelter halted a medication abortion halfway through at the agency’s request while Lloyd conferred with colleagues about deploying a scientifically unproven method to, as Lloyd recounted in a deposition on the case, “reverse” the abortion to “save the life of the baby.” (After being taken to an emergency room at the direction of Lloyd and another staffer to check for a fetal heartbeat, the girl received her second dose.) In another, he ordered a pregnant girl otherwise ready for release be held until she received anti-abortion counseling. In yet another case, he denied a pregnant rape survivor who had threatened to hurt herself if forced to deliver, stymieing her quest for an abortion until a federal judge intervened. Lloyd personally travelled to see one young woman in ORR custody to try to dissuade her from having an abortion, and he delivered a similar message to another young woman by phone.

View the complete article here.

Debunking the Anti-Choice Arguments in NIFLA v. Becerra

The following article by Anusha Ravi was posted on the Center for American Progress website March 19, 2018:

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments in a free speech rights case that focuses on a California law requiring a variety of organizations—including anti-choice “crisis pregnancy centers,” otherwise known as fake women’s health centers—to disclose to their clients the availability of state-provided prenatal birth control and abortion services.

The case, National Institute of Family and Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra, addresses the constitutionality of California’s Reproductive FACT (Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency) Act. Passed in 2015, the FACT Act requires organizations providing pregnancy-related care in California to disclose whether or not their facility is medically licensed and, if so, to inform patients that the state provides free or low-cost prenatal family planning and abortion services. Continue reading “Debunking the Anti-Choice Arguments in NIFLA v. Becerra”

Trump’s appointees are promoting anti-choice “alternative science” ripped from right-wing media

The following article by Julie Tulbert was posted on the Media Matters website June 20, 2017:

LA Times describes appointees as “the four horsewomen of disinformation” on abortion and contraception

A new article in the New England Journal of Medicine called out four of President Donald Trump’s recent appointees for promoting bad policy on contraception and abortion — policies that are rooted in “alternative science” supported by discredited research and right-wing media.

A new article in the New England Journal of Medicine called out four of President Donald Trump’s recent appointees for promoting bad policy on contraception and abortion — policies that are rooted in “alternative science” supported by discredited research and right-wing media.

In a June 14 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, University of Wisconsin Law School professor R. Alta Charo, who focuses on the law and bioethics, wrote about President Donald Trump’s appointment of Charmaine Yoest, Teresa Manning, and Valerie Huber to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), as well as his assignment of Katy Talento to serve as a health care adviser on his Domestic Policy Council. Charo lamented that these appointments exemplified how “reproduction has become the victim of alternative science, rife with alternative definitions of well-understood medical conditions.”

In a June 15 article for the Los Angeles Times, Michael Hiltzik characterized Charo’s article as “identifying four Trump appointees as carriers of the disinformation virus” and called the appointees “the four horsewomen of disinformation.” Most alarmingly, Charo told Hiltzik that these four appointees “could influence an entire generation’s attitude toward contraception, for the worse.” Continue reading “Trump’s appointees are promoting anti-choice “alternative science” ripped from right-wing media”

Trump picks antiabortion activist to head HHS family planning section

The following article by Juliet Eilperin was posted on the Washington Post website May 2, 2017:

Credit: Flickr/Steve Rhodes

President Trump is placing antiabortion activist Teresa Manning in charge of the Title X program, which provides family planning funding for poor Americans or those without health insurance.

Manning’s selection as the Department of Health and Human Services’ deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, which HHS officially confirmed Tuesday, marks the second agency appointment within a week that has pleased abortion foes and angered abortion rights proponents. On Friday, the White House announced that Trump had picked Charmaine Yoest, former president of Americans United for Life, as the department’s assistant secretary of public affairs. Continue reading “Trump picks antiabortion activist to head HHS family planning section”

Rightward Turn By Supreme Court Will Greatly Affect Women

The following article by Cynthia Tucker Haynes was posted on the National Memo website February 3, 2017:

Activists hold signs as they rally in support of Planned Parenthood on “National Pink Out Day” on the steps of City Hall in Los Angeles, California September 29, 2015. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

A new right-wing justice won’t change the Supreme Court. The confirmation of Neil Gorsuch — and he is quite likely to be confirmed — won’t alter its makeup. A committed ultraconservative, Gorsuch would take the place of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who was also a committed (and combative) ultraconservative.

Still, President Donald Trump is likely to get the chance to change the court — and to abolish Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that legalized reproductive rights. Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing voter who has kept Roe alive, is 80 years old. The reliably liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 83 and ailing. And liberal Justice Steven Breyer is 78. Their ages alone suggest relatively short service ahead.  Continue reading “Rightward Turn By Supreme Court Will Greatly Affect Women”

We kept our baby. Here’s how Republicans can prove that they’re pro-life, too.

The following article by Emily Barbero was posted on the Washington Post website January 27, 2017:

Emily Barbero lives in Minneapolis.

In 2012, while expecting our first (and only) child, my husband and I went in for a routine ultrasound. The technician saw something and alerted the resident perinatologist, who alerted the genetics team. We quickly wiped the gel from my belly, and they escorted us down the hall. In the rush, the black-and-white photos of our baby were left on the printer. Someone probably threw them away long ago.

After reviewing our file, the genetics counselor explained to us that they couldn’t quite know what was wrong for sure without further testing, but that our son’s brain showed clear anatomical issues. She said that some children with our son’s condition never walk or talk. They sometimes have cognitive, social and emotional delays. Their quality of life can suffer, and they can be a considerable drain on the emotional and financial health of families. Continue reading “We kept our baby. Here’s how Republicans can prove that they’re pro-life, too.”