Dear Virginia, (CC: outraged left wing media)

Your little legislature was wrong. There is a state more demeaning to women than you. Up here across the Mason Dixon line, we’ve managed to come up with a forced ultrasound bill more cruel and medically unnecessary than yours! (It was tough, I’ll be honest)

If our bill becomes law, women will have to wait at least 24 hours after their ultrasound before an abortion, no matter how far away they live from the provider. And here in Pennsylvania, 113 of the 203 elected state Representatives have signed on to our ultrasound bill. That’s more than your twelve by a long shot!

Our bill FORCES the doctor to turn the ultrasound screen towards the woman’s face. Don’t worry – we avoided constitutional meddling by “allowing her” to look away. I heard you only give ‘the opportunity’ to view the ultrasound image. LAME!

LOVE the “free ultrasound providers” bit! We did that, too, so now we can funnel women to those so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” where they can be fed state-funded, unregulated misinformation. We don’t even require that ultrasound providers have any training!

Oh and you’ll love the part about the printouts – listen to this. We’re going to make the woman take TWO prints with her – one for her scrapbook, and the other one SHE has to bring to the doctor performing the abortion (if she hasn’t been shamed out of it at this point! LOL).

And come on now, only civil penalties? Our bill includes civil and criminal penalties for doctors and patients who dare defy our legislating of medicine.

Nice try, Virginia. But you’ve got nothin’ on Pennsylvania.

Your partner in crime,

Pennsylvania

Virtue, Liberty and Independence (Unless you’re a woman)
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You’ve probably heard about the Virginia ultrasound bill recently, but did you realize Pennsylvania has a bill pending that’s even worse? The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is poised to take up HB 1077, the disingenuously titled “Women’s Right to Know Act”. Are you ready to stop the cruel, demeaning attacks on women in Pennsylvania? Sign the petition and urge your representative to vote NO on HB 1077 and stop this demeaning and unnecessary bill from becoming law in Pennsylvania.

By Chelsea

While we prepare for the rally on Sept. 27th, it is important to remember that our voices are not just representative of women in Pennsylvania, but for women across the nation. 

In 2011, the number of state abortion restrictions skyrocketed. In fact, according to the Guttmacher Institute, there are now 80 new restrictions on abortions spread over just 19 states. Some of the restrictions, like Ohio's heartbeat bill (which would render abortion illegal after 6-10 weeks) and the Gestational Ban in Kansas, Indiana, Oklahoma, Alabama and Illinois (which would render abortions illegal after 20 weeks) are based on the false claim that fetuses can feel pain, and are bills designed to slowly make abortion more stigmatized. Other restrictions, such as requiring counseling and a waiting period, which has been adopted by five states in 2011, are simply barriers to make obtaining an abortion more difficult. 

The two bills being considered by the Pennsylvania state legislature have already been introduced in other states, and are little more than backhanded attempts to completely eliminate abortion providers.   The first, Pennsylvania’s Senate Bill 3, which would ban insurance companies that cover abortion in an exchange, would ensure that women who already have plans that would cover their procedures would lose that coverage. These restrictions on abortion coverage are already in effect in eight states, including Nebraska and Utah. Pennsylvania’s Senate Bill 732 is strikingly similar to the law passed earlier this year in Virginia – the draft regulations just came out this past week. It would force abortion providers to comply with the same regulations as a hospital or surgical facility, an unnecessary and expensive mandate which could undoubtedly cause many providers to close down and cause the cost of procedures to rise. 

Pennsylvanians who rally with us on Sept. 27th have a chance to speak out on behalf of themselves, but also a chance to speak out for all others living in a state where these restrictions may happen. And if you can’t attend in person, you can join us in solidarity by participating in the twitter rally going on at the same time!    These attacks on women are nationwide, and while we can fight for our own individual state, we still must fight in unity. 

By Jeff

Anti-choice legislators in Pennsylvania have really outdone themselves this time. Instead of coming out and telling women that they’re trying to take away their right to choose, they are pretending to protect them while really only following an agenda that removes their ability to get a safe, legal abortion in this state.

What is the justification for applying Ambulatory Surgical Facility (ASF) regulations onto abortion clinics? Larger rooms? Giant janitor closets? Nurse on duty at all times?

Do these regulations protect women’s health? Do they make abortion clinics safer? Do they make access to safe, legal abortion easier and less expensive?

Definitely not. And these are all questions the legislators refuse to answer. When questioned repeatedly on the floor about SB 732, the only answer was that we need to stop a repeat of the Gosnell clinic by adding more regulations.

That would be a good statement if ASF regulations actually did that. But the truth is that extensive regulations exist, the Pennsylvania Department of Health simply is not enforcing them. For clinics that abide by the law – which Gosnell’s clinic certainly did not – there will be no improvement to quality of care, instead only astronomical costs and unnecessary burdens. It could shut down many, if not all, clinics across the state, forcing women seeking an abortion to go back to unsafe providers or go out of state.

And if that sounds exaggerated, just look at Kansas, where abortion providers were given a long list of new regulations in June and told to comply by July 1. Two of the state’s three abortion providers were prepared to shut down, but luckily a federal judge granted a temporary injunction barring enforcement of the legislation until the trial for the lawsuit against the regulations can take place.

Similar laws went into effect in Virginia and Utah this year, while many other states have such laws on the table. These laws have already been shutting clinics down. That’s not a belief – it’s a fact (sadly Senator Orie doesn’t seem to understand the concept of a factual statement).

These bills do not help women and will not stop abortions. The result will be a public health crisis.

Nearly 40 years after Roe v. Wade made abortion a legal right in this country, our elected officials are trying to take that right away by lying about their intentions.

When it comes to debating this issue, I can respect the other side so long as the debate is honest and fair. This has been anything but that. I can’t help but to have lost respect for the legislators pushing this legislation as they repeatedly lie about both the intentions and effects of these bills.

Don’t be fooled by these bills. It’s time to say that we’ve had enough.