The Activista

N.H. House Bill Treats Fetus as a Person

The New Hampshire House is considering a bill which would allow prosecutors to charge people who kill a fetus with murder, manslaughter and negligent homicide.

Supporters say the bill is in response to a 2006 case where a speeding driver hit a cab driven by a pregnant woman. The passenger was killed, and the seven-month-old fetus was born not breathing. The fetus died after briefly being on life support. However, a judge ruled that, under the law, the speeder couldn’t be convicted for the death of the fetus; under current law, a fetus is not considered a person unless the baby shows evidence of life.

Opponents say the bill is an attempt to give unborn children legal rights. However the bill does include an exemption for abortion and doesn’t look to infringe on a woman’s right to choose.

WCAX News

IFPA Welcomes International Scrutiny of Ireland’s Restrictive Abortion Laws By Human Rights Watch

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) welcomed the publication of the Human Rights Watch report A State of Isolation: Access to Abortion for Women in Ireland.

The IFPA is not surprised that the Irish Government has been criticised by this important international human rights group. As a service provider IFPA has extensive knowledge of the extreme physical, financial and emotional hardship experienced by women who are forced to travel abroad for health care that should be available to them at home.

According to the IFPA, the criminalisation of abortion in Ireland violates international human rights standards because it disproportionately harms women’s health and well-being. The organisation believes that women and girls do not give up their human rights when they become pregnant nor should the State take these human rights away with impunity.

The experiences of women outlined in the Human Rights Watch report are illustrative of the reality faced by thousands of women in Ireland. Since 1980, at least 138,000 women have been forced to travel abroad to access safe and legal abortion services. The IFPA believes that the criminalisation of abortion has little impact on abortion rates, it merely adds to the burden and stress experienced by women experiencing crisis pregnancies.

Ireland’s restrictive laws on abortion are out of step with those of its European neighbours. Forty four out of 47 European countries provide for abortion to protect women’s health.

This is the second time in the last two months that Ireland’s restrictive abortion laws have been scrutinised by international human rights bodies. In December the European Court of Human Rights heard a challenge to Ireland’s abortion laws.
According to the IFPA, Ireland has a strong reputation for promoting human rights values around the world, yet it is unwilling to recognise the human rights of women in its own country. Ireland’s restrictions on abortion put it firmly outside of human rights norms.

The IFPA has called on the Government to take responsibility and stop exiling women experiencing crisis pregnancies.

About IFPA:
The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) has been to the fore in setting the agenda for sexual and reproductive rights in Ireland for the last 40 years. The IFPA offers a comprehensive range of services which promote sexual health and support reproductive choice on a not-for-profit basis, including clinical and counselling services, sexual and reproductive health information, education, training and awareness raising.

Longtime Reproductive Justice Advocate Dies at 102

that-neffster:sexismandthecity:

Amplify has created what they have called The Hanger Project, made to spread awareness about the restrictions anti-choice legislators are trying to put on abortion through the health care reform bill.

Join The Hanger Project, and learn about how you can help fight against politicians in Washington attempting to take away our legal right to have an abortion. Download and print the Hanger Project’s awesome flyers and hang them on wire hangers around your town or on your campus. I think we could get many more people to join our fight, but first we need to educate them on what is happening. Awareness is key.

“

I’ve been involved since I was 15, so we’re talking almost 30 years now.

My mother had an illegal abortion pre-1973, and it’s something that I would never want to face or want my daughter to be facing or any of her friends. Abortion is a right I feel must not go away, and I feel like people aren’t mobilizing so much because it’s so complicated and it’s difficult to understand.

— Cynthia Nixon (via ihatethismess) (via mry)

mry:ihatethismess: (via clingtomymouth)

Information on the Stupak Rally tomorrow!

“

Over the decades, while engaging in a campaign of intimidation, harassment and murder, the anti-abortion movement has managed, nibble by nibble, to get ever-more restrictive legislation into place. Ultimately, the right of affluent women to obtain an abortion hasn’t been much affected - except in the case of late-term procedures. But affluent women always had options even when abortion was illegal in every state. They could fly to Puerto Rico or Japan and get a safe abortion there without having to risk potentially lethal chemicals or abortions at the hands of unlicensed doctors or other providers operating on somebody’s kitchen table in less than sterile conditions.

Thanks to Hyde, low-income women in most states are still at a disadvantage when it comes to getting an abortion. Stupak-Pitts, if it survives the conference process, will not only reinforce this classist attack on women, it will also broaden it.

Being ferociously opposed to it is, therefore, not irrational or hypersensitive or over-reactive. It’s called standing up for progressive values.

[snip]

For those who might suggest this is one of those damned “social issues” that gets the Democrats in trouble on election day, let’s not forget that it’s at its core a class war, as Stupak-Pitts makes quite clear. Affluent women will always find a way to find a safe and legal abortion. Insurance or no insurance.

Stupak-Pitts may only be another nibble, but it is the cumulative effect that matters. Eventually, lots of little nibbles equal the entire pie. Those who say our vigorous, uncompromising opposition to it is an irrational overreaction ought to be ashamed of themselves.

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Daily Kos: What’s Really Pissing Me Off

(via champagnecandy:robot-heart-politics:think4yourself:letstalkequality:peacenikseekspeacenik)