By Larry Jones
Kathleen Sibelius, Governor of Kansas, on March 27 signed into law a bill which attacks, undermines, and narrows abortion rights for women. The new Kansas law “requires abortion 
providers who use ultrasound or fetal heartbeats monitors to give their patients access to the images or sound at least 30 minutes before an abortion.” It also requires the state to distribute pamphlets about the growth of a fetus and what happens during the medical procedure of abortion, and further requires clinics to post signs telling patients that coerced abortions are illegal.
providers who use ultrasound or fetal heartbeats monitors to give their patients access to the images or sound at least 30 minutes before an abortion.” It also requires the state to distribute pamphlets about the growth of a fetus and what happens during the medical procedure of abortion, and further requires clinics to post signs telling patients that coerced abortions are illegal.
Sibelius, who is now President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has long been under bitter attack by anti-abortion zealots because, among other things, she refused to endorse previous versions of this law.
The law as signed by Sibelius was promoted by anti-abortion groups and right wing religious groups. In her signing of the law, Sibelius, a Catholic who has a history as a pro- choice advocate, skirted past another head-on collision with her opponents on the right. She may have done that to make her Senate approval as HHS Secretary smoother; instead her middle-of-the-road position has unleashed another round of vicious attacks on her from the right, and muted criticism from some women’s groups.
With this law’s passage, Kansas joins 16 other states that currently have laws related to abortion ultrasounds, some requiring that they be performed and others requiring a woman be told where she can get a free ultrasound. Another 11 states, including Indiana, Texas, and Nebraska, are currently considering laws that would mandate all women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound prior to the procedure, and in several cases require that a doctor both show the images to the woman, and that a doctor “describe the picture”. A similar existing law in Oklahoma is being contested in the courts.
The new Kansas law, similar to laws in other states, represents a deadly serious attempt to further restrict and eventually eliminate a woman’s right to choose. As Celine Mizrahi of the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York said of the proponents of such laws, “They really do not even conceal their goal. Which is to make a woman feel really badly and to make her change her mind.”
MODERN SONOGRAM IN 4-D
A report by National Geographic in February 2005 describes modern sonograms, which were developed around 2001. Some abortion providers may still use the older gray sonograms, but, says NatGeo writer Brian Handwerk: “The new generation of three- and four-dimensional ultrasound imagery provides striking views of fetuses inside the womb. … Four-dimensional imagery shows objects in 3-D moving in something close to real time. Doctors have long known that fetuses move, but the physical behavior revealed by 4-D scans is expanding that knowledge exponentially.”
"We see the earliest movements at 8 weeks," said Professor Stuart Campbell of the Create Health Clinic in London. "By 12 weeks or so they are seen yawning and performing individual finger movements that are often more complex than you’ll see in a newborn," he said. "It may
be due to the effects of gravity after birth.
“The images reveal facial expressions, like smiling, at 20 weeks. Beyond 24 weeks fetuses may suck their thumbs, stick their tongues out (perhaps using newly developed taste buds to sample amniotic fluid imbued with the flavors of the mother’s food), and make apparently emotional faces.” Campbell has spoken on the value of these realistic sonograms for parents who strongly desire knowing the health of their expected baby. He has said: “Everyone agrees that the new scans already provide dramatically better visualization for parents, which can result in an even stronger parent-child bond. … You just see the whoops of joy when the fetus does something like blink," he said. "That’s a very powerful impact."
True, but such an impact is not helpful to a woman who needs an abortion, not a guilt trip. That’s why Planned Parenthood said that they had hoped Sibelius would veto the Kansas bill. The pro-choice organization also stated that anti-abortion forces are basically trying to use ultrasounds as a political tool rather than a medical procedure.
The state-mandated use of these ultrasounds (and the fetal heart monitoring) is a fusion of modern technology with reactionary, patriarchal ideology. It is meant to prey upon women at a vulnerable moment, and compel them into making decisions based on emotion, not science or rationality. The fact is, a fetus is not a baby. (See the article on the Revolution website “What is an Abortion and Why Women Must Have the Right to Choose” for further explanation of this). This development is particularly dangerous now when so many young people are being systematically miseducated in science, and abortion rights are crumbling under a steady onslaught, all too often acceded to by many of those who should know better.
THE RUSE OF CRISIS CENTERS
One of the most troubling parts of this legislation requires that contact information for crisis pregnancy centers be included in the state-mandated informational materials women receive 24 hours before their procedure. Such centers deceitfully cover up the fact that their real mission is to convince women not to have an abortion. A Time Magazine article from 2007 provides an example about abortion “advice” from the “Pregnancy Crisis Center” of Wichita (PCC).
Says PCC: “Abortion is a legal choice, but that doesn’t make it easy. You may feel pressured into an abortion decision by a boyfriend, friends or family, financial problems, career or educational goals. If you are considering abortion, we want you to know what this choice could mean to your future. At PCC, advocates will help you examine the reasons surrounding your desire to end your pregnancy and will offer education on abortion procedures along with physical risks and post abortion stress.”
The “education” on abortion procedures is the open door to frightening pregnant women into keeping the fetus to term regardless of their desire or life situation.
It is clear to anyone actually investigating this law that it is part of an effort from ultra-conservative people and organizations to continually chip away at a woman’s right to choose. So, even though
Sibelius may have been trying to stand in the political middle regarding this law, she is now the target of stinging attacks from the right. Her confirmation hearing has been postponed and the anti-abortionists are using the next days to mount fierce opposition to her being
confirmed as HSS Secretary.
Sibelius may have been trying to stand in the political middle regarding this law, she is now the target of stinging attacks from the right. Her confirmation hearing has been postponed and the anti-abortionists are using the next days to mount fierce opposition to her being
confirmed as HSS Secretary.
Catholic Church Opposition to Sibelius
Archbishop Joseph Naumann, head of Sibelius’ archdiocese, has asked Sibelius not to receive communion because of her “flagrant support for the intrinsic evil of abortion” and calling Obama’s nomination of her “offensive.” One Roman Catholic blogger said that “appointing Gov. Sibelius to HHS Secretary is like appointing Dr. Jack Kevorkian as Surgeon General.”
Vatican official Archbishop Raymond L. Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, said of Sibelius: "As a Roman Catholic, her appointment is the source of the greatest embarrassment because she has publicly and repeatedly betrayed her Catholic faith. … No matter how good Governor Sibelius’ record regarding other human life concerns may be, if she is not committed to the safeguarding of human life from its very inception, she should not be entrusted with the questions of health and human services for our nation."
It should be noted that Catholics for Choice is a UN accredited NGO with a $3 million budget which works around the world “to serve as a voice for Catholics who believe that the Catholic tradition supports a woman’s moral and legal right to follow her conscience in matters of sexuality and reproductive health.” Naturally, the Vatican is not pleased with their influence for women’s rights.
The folks best known for their attacks on abortion providers and their clinics, Operation Rescue, have said that “Sebelius (sic) is perhaps the most rabidly pro-abortion governor in the United States, and … is joined at the hip with the abortion industry.”
If you question the validity of Operation Rescue’s claims, they were all “verified” by none other than that eminent guardian of the truth, Bill O’Reilly of Fox News who told his audience that “she is unfit to serve.”
The Dangers of Seeking “Common Ground” With Fascists
At one point in earlier U.S. history, people who sat on the fence looking both ways were called “Mugwumps,” with their mug on one side and their wump on the other. Sibelius has tried to do this in the signing of the new Kansas abortion law.
The problem with trying to rule from the middle is that temporary agreements may come back to bite you. Gov. Sibelius did not need to sign the backward new abortion law in Kansas. She apparently did it to forestall more attacks from the anti-abortionist nut-jobs, and to appease Senate Republicans. The opposite was the result and now there is one more hole in the already weak wall protecting a woman’s right to choose. Seeking to find “common ground,” or “points on which we can agree” with the fascist types out to completely eradicate a woman’s right to choose will only push you into closer unity with them, whatever your intentions.
Sibelius should have stuck to her previously stated position, which is that she believes in full human rights for all people, but that those rights do not extend to unborn fetuses. Her nomination by Obama for the important post of Health and Human Services Secretary and her likely confirmation as such, will put her in a position of overseeing such life and death issues as abortion, health insurance, disease, drugs, and the protection of society’s most vulnerable people. She will be facing an enormous responsibility crucial to hundreds of millions of lives. Her approval of this law indicates that she may make future abortion decisions based on Obama’s continuing attempt to rule from the middle and attempt to appease the religious right. If so, her role as head of HHS would be disastrous for countless women.
Larry Jones describes himself as a former Protestant minister and American, but says he gave them both up for the sake of humanity
“Larry Jones describes himself as a former Protestant minister and American, but says he gave them both up for the sake of humanity.”
Three of the most socially relevant figures of the twentieth century–Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Dr. King–did not deem it necessary to abandon their religious faith “for the sake of humanity.” On the contrary, their social activism–pursued in the service of humanity–was utterly informed and sustained by their religious beliefs.
Said another way: Dr. King, e.g., is someone most sensible people would concede to being both deeply spiritual and engaged, politically speaking (i.e., an activist ON THE STREETS, not merely at his word processor). Get straight, man.
Also…
That is certainly a compelling photograph, i.e., a determined feminist holding aloft her personal manifesto on quote-unquote abortion rights: a clothes hanger with the intention, “Never again,” on a placard (discovered in Grandmom’s attic last Saturday, i.e., the issue certainly has matured, hasn’t it?). We ARE ever so sophisticated. That is, we certainly do pride ourselves on being utterly enlightened, savvy, etc. And, this, in conjunction with our misandrist rage makes of us a militaristic force to be reckoned with.
Said rage, though–however endemic it appears in the urban milieu–has, in fact, displaced a true evolution in thought.
That is, in lieu of any further insights addressing the issue, or promoting dialogue which engenders new understanding and action–whether personal or among the collective–we spin in dogmatic, circular argumentation and petty contempt, thirty-six years after Roe v. Wade. Feminist PRIDE, feminist DIGNITY, feminist RAGE…
Great. However, once the impulse to awe subsides, we are left with the initial issue, writ large, after almost four decades of political wrangling, a perennial gala event for the corporate media–something akin to the Shoah and what Norman Finkelstein terms “the Holocaust Industry,” i.e., The Abortion Issue Industry.
And therefore, the corporate media–and, of late, bloggers–are perfectly content to remain at loggerheads, ad infinitum, ad nauseam. Four decades from now, that woman’s granddaughter can hoist aloft that same placard–albeit the worse for wear–the young advocate carefully informed and indoctrinated by two generations of matrilinear misandry. That we do not address that possibility is because, e.g., why spend precious time and energy reflecting upon the crisis–both personally and as a collective–enabling alternative insights, approaches, dialogue, etc.–when a political movement inheres. Said another way: contempt is easier–and often immediately satisfying, like catharsis (q.v., political onanism). Evolving: now there’s work for you.