Abortion news: Parts 2 & 3

And to continue with the depressing news, here's a couple of stories from this past Friday:
Americans United for Life: The group behind a dramatic state-level anti-abortion legislation push

In effect, it is the legal arm of the anti-abortion movement, with an orchestrated campaign to undo on a state-by-state basis the legal rights to abortion enshrined in the historic Roe v. Wade supreme court decision in 1973.

Last year was a record-breaker in terms of the number of bills restricting abortion access: according to the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit body that seeks to advance reproductive rights, there were 92 such provisions enacted in 24 states. Almost a third of them, 28, came via AUL.

The Washington-based group drafts “model legislation” including gestational limits on abortions, additional regulation on abortion clinics, and bans on insurance cover for abortion and ultrasound requirements. In addition, it is pursuing efforts at both the federal and state level to defund Planned Parenthood.

Why am I not surprised? The legislative anti-abortion push has seemed a little too organized for the likes of the protesters outside of PP clinics or those miserable little fuckers that are committing thefts and arson (more below). The similarities of legislation that has been proposed has been bothering the hell out of me, too, but at least I know who to blame.

I would love to know who is funding AUL, but (here's another surprise) they keep their donor list private. Keeping a woman's medical choices confidential kills babies! Making sure that a doctor has professional and personal privacy kills babies! But millionaire conservatives? Idiot pro-lifers? We can't let the general public know who they are, that could be dangerous!

Money quote:

“AUL believes that all human life should be defined from conception to natural death. There’s a host of issues in that and we are committed to our efforts as long as it takes.”

 Natural death. So these people are against the death penalty, CPR, hooking brain dead patients up to life-support, etc etc? Nice try, asshholes.

FBI steps in as attacks on Georgia women’s clinics escalate

On Sunday, March 4, the North Atlanta Women’s Specialists’ offices were burglarized by a thief who stole two laptop computers that contained employees’ names and personal information. A second break-in took place on Saturday, March 17, when a suspect broke into the offices of The Georgia Obstetrical & Gynecological Society, again stealing laptop computers with staff members’ personal information.

...

The first fire took place at around 4:30 a.m. Sunday at the offices of Atlanta Gynecology and Obstetrics. A front window of the clinic was broken and police dogs indicated the presence of an “incendiary substance.”

Witnesses to Wednesday’s fire at Alpha Group GYN say that two men entered the building and went upstairs, then left just before the fire was discovered. The fire started on the offices’ fourth floor, damaging records and equipment, but no one was hurt.

I can't say it enough: this shit is escalating. While I'm happy that law enforcement continues to take these threats and attacks seriously, this kind of behavior will not stop until it is unacceptable to attack women's rights in the national political discourse. Until politicians learn that attacking women is wrong wrong wrong, we're going to see more and more of the nut jobs take the rhetoric a step too far.