SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Iowa approves one of strictest abortion bills in US
The US state of Iowa has approved one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, banning most abortions once a foetal heartbeat is detected. Republican lawmakers, who control both chambers, passed the bill in back-to-back votes, sending it to the governor's desk to sign into law.
If [signed], the bill would ban most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Critics argue the bill makes having an abortion illegal before most women even realise they are pregnant.
[...] If [Governor Kim] Reynolds signs the bill into law, it will likely be challenged in court for possibly violating Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in 1973. [...] Some Republican lawmakers welcomed the challenge. "I would love for the United States Supreme Court to look at this bill and have this as a vehicle to overturn Roe v. Wade," Republican Senator Jake Chapman said.
Also at NPR, Reuters, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, and The Hill:
Nineteen states adopted a total of 63 restrictions to the procedure in 2017, which is the highest number of state laws on the issue since 2013, according to the Guttmacher Institute. State legislatures have proposed 15 bills that would ban abortions after 20 weeks and 11 bills that would ban abortions if the sole reason is a genetic anomaly like Down syndrome.
Related: Ohio Bill Would Ban Abortion when a Prenatal Test is Positive for Down Syndrome
These 9 Places in America Will Pay You to Move There
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday May 03 2018, @09:27PM (2 children)
There are also plenty of people who take the line that every embryo gets a soul the moment the sperm enters the egg and that there are absolutely no justifications ever for destroying human life even upon rape of mother or that the mother should die because that is God's will too.
Not all those answers have to go together, but the number that would disagree with your statements outright [gallup.com] and say that abortion should be illegal in all circumstances appears to hover around 20 percent.
Those who are pushing have diversity of opinion also. The majority I'm aware of (and I may be wrong that it is a majority) feel that unless the fetus can survive on its own it is biologically integral to the mother and it is therefore the mother's choice and that of her healthcare provider and should not be anybody else's business what she decides. That is what is codified in Roe. "Some such nonsense," seems to indicate you should educate yourself as to what the law is - I believe you do not understand what the decision actually specifies nor the reasons behind them. And the history of what happened in periods when abortion was illegal: Hint - they still happened and often took the mother's life also due to lack of knowledge regarding safety.
Roe certainly can be updated to reflect what modern medicine knows about survival and viability rates.
The rationale of the court, if overturned, can come and poke you in the behind as well: If the law can intervene and say that a woman's right to pursue the care she chooses is not legal you open the door for state interference with your own healthcare on any number of grounds it deems compelling. No, you can't have a _____ procedure if your weight is over thus-and-such. A smoker is not entitled to care for his or her lungs. Are you prepared to have the government tell YOU that YOU can't have a certain procedure because the Peepul have decided that a Higher Calling Exists which means you can't have it? Be careful.
And my apologies if any of the above offended you.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 03 2018, @09:39PM (1 child)
Please note the same source also shows that there's even a higher percentage that believe it should be legal under any circumstance.
http://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/Abortion.aspx [gallup.com]
While the majority of people (let's call them rational people) think it should be legal only under certain circumstances.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Friday May 04 2018, @12:23PM
Let's not call them rational people, as you have no foundation to do so. The majority of people are not necessarily rational nor educated. (Educated not meaning having attended enough school. Rather meaning having taken the time to both study things like ethics, standards of medical care, biology, and any other relevant fields to the question. Also in the sense that they have quietly and deliberately taken time to think through the issue on their own initiate and come to a moral conclusion.) Let's call that a majority of people. A mob.
Just because a majority of people believe something does not make it right, especially when considering a decision that applies to a minority of people. I'm not saying that community is unimportant, either - I've posted before that there are times when community standards may indeed override individual choice and it is right to do so in those circumstances. In this case, however, it is interference with an inidividual's right to choose a course of treatment. One done in the belief that the developing fetus has rights even though it has zero chance of survival outside the biological envelope of the mother, and with taken with absolutely no consideration of the developmental physiology involved. Sperm hit the egg and it's a person now!
Since you didn't respond to anything I said about viability, dependent survivability, and patient-provider confidentiality and autonomy that you feel the state can just dictate to you whatever it chooses about what medical treatments you may have for yourself. It implies the converse, dictating to the medical profession what it may and may not do - which is a legitimate circumscription but broadens the scope of it considerably in an alarming fashion. Enjoy that universe! Me, I'm glad I don't live in Iowa now.
This sig for rent.