Trump Administration turns the screws on abortion
by Michael Cook | 22 Jun 2019 |
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It has been a bad week for legal abortion in the United States. Two developments have kept abortion and Planned Parenthood in the headlines.
In the first, a decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco handed at least a temporary victory to the Trump Administration’s campaign against abortion.
In March the Administration issued rules which banned taxpayer-funded clinics from referring for abortions and banned taxpayer-funded clinics from sharing office space with abortion providers. This makes many clinics unworkable. The measures were widely interpreted as an attack on Planned Parenthood.
The rules were immediately challenged and blocked by lower courts. But the 9thCircuit ruled that they were a “reasonable” interpretation of existing law.
"The Trump-Pence administration's gag rule is unethical, illegal, and harmful to public health," said Dr Leana Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood. The news out of the 9th Circuit this morning is devastating for the millions of people who rely on Title X health centres for cancer screenings, HIV tests, affordable birth control and other critical primary and preventive care."
In other news, health officials in the state of Missouri have refused to renew the license of the state’s only abortion clinic, run by Planned Parenthood of St. Louis. It remains open thanks to an injunction blocking its closure, but the writing is on the wall. The local representative of Planned Parenthood accused state officials of “weaponizing the regulatory process”.
Missouri could become the first state in decades without an abortion clinic. It is one of 12 states so far in 2019 which have passed laws restricting abortion access. The local representative of Planned Parenthood accused state officials of “weaponizing the regulatory process”.
Michael Cook is editor of BioEdge
This week Governor Andrew Cuomo threw in his cards, beaten in his attempt to pass a law legalising commercial surrogacy in New York. He was furious. “I say, how about a woman’s right to choose, which we just argued for Roe v. Wade?” Cuomo said in exasperation. (See article below.)
The thing is, Governor, the women did choose. They chose to oppose a bill which would exploit them. And it wasn't just the religious types. Deborah Glick, the first openly gay person to sit in the state assembly, said that Cuomo was not being respectful. “I certainly do not think that there is sufficient protection for the women who do not appear to be considered as people in the arrangement, but rather as the donor and as the surrogate.”
She is not alone. The president of the National Organization for Women said: "Commercial surrogacy does not depend on the willing choice of friends or family to help loved ones, instead it relies on the commodification of women’s bodies. History has shown us that the buying, selling and renting of their bodies does great harm to women."
It appears that Cuomo has failed to deliver on a promise to gay men to legalise commercial surrogacy so that they can rent the wombs of needy women. When push comes to shove, a new, rainbow-coloured patriarchy is just as ready to exploit women, feminists included, as the old patriarchy.
The thing is, Governor, the women did choose. They chose to oppose a bill which would exploit them. And it wasn't just the religious types. Deborah Glick, the first openly gay person to sit in the state assembly, said that Cuomo was not being respectful. “I certainly do not think that there is sufficient protection for the women who do not appear to be considered as people in the arrangement, but rather as the donor and as the surrogate.”
She is not alone. The president of the National Organization for Women said: "Commercial surrogacy does not depend on the willing choice of friends or family to help loved ones, instead it relies on the commodification of women’s bodies. History has shown us that the buying, selling and renting of their bodies does great harm to women."
It appears that Cuomo has failed to deliver on a promise to gay men to legalise commercial surrogacy so that they can rent the wombs of needy women. When push comes to shove, a new, rainbow-coloured patriarchy is just as ready to exploit women, feminists included, as the old patriarchy.
 Michael Cook Editor BioEdge |  |  |  |
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