The GOP War on Uteri

[Trigger warning for hostility to agency and bodily autonomy.]

Today in state-sponsored terrorism, in defense of an inherently violent ideology, the Idaho State Senate has approved "a measure that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and subject abortion providers who violate the ban to criminal prosecution and lawsuits."

The bill now heads to the state House of Representatives, where passage is expected. And a representative with the National Right to Life Committee, which is behind the legislation, predicted the ban will find favor with Idaho's Republican governor.

The legislation is patterned after a law adopted last year in Nebraska and is pinned to some medical research suggesting a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks.

That would be the Nebraska law which resulted in Danielle Deaver being forced to deliver a 1-pound, 10-ounce girl she and her husband named Elizabeth, who was known to have fatal birth defects and spent 15 minutes trying to breathe air into undeveloped lungs before she died.

So: Well done, Idaho! Not that it's just Idaho engaging in this fundamental assault on reproductive rights, reason, autonomy, agency, and decency: "Idaho is one of 17 states considering bills that would outlaw abortion after 20 weeks of gestation unless it could be proved the pregnancy endangered the woman's life." The Idaho law, however, not only seeks to grant the state control over pregnant people's bodies and intimidate abortion providers, but to empower men: "The bill would make it a felony to violate the 20-week ban and open violators to lawsuits by the woman and the unborn's father. It also would allow others—a spouse, relatives, other doctors—to file legal injunctions against abortion providers who break the ban."

Don't like the way your girlfriend/wife/daughter/niece/patient makes decisions about her body and her reproduction? Sue the abortion provider! Naturally, this empowers both male and female relatives/associates of a person who terminates a pregnancy, but reproductive coercion between two women (or a woman and a trans man) is vanishingly rare. Like HR3, this legislation stands to give increased influence to male partners who seek control over female partners' reproduction.

That is, of course, not a bug but a feature of this absurd legislation—which, by the way, is likely to result exclusively in preventing terminations of pregnancies like Danielle Deaver's: "According to the state, out of 1,650 abortions performed in 2009 in Idaho, only 14 involved pregnancies at 16 to 20 weeks." The idea that there are hordes of women seeking 20+ week abortions is, as always, a contemptible fantasy conjured by vile people who hate women.

[Via @TrustWomen.]