After her adventures in Oz, Dorothy couldn’t wait to get back to Kansas. But if she lived there now, she might not be so eager to return. Governor Sam Brownback has just signed yet another bill that makes it more difficult for Kansas women to get the health care they need.
This behemoth 70-page sweeping anti-abortion bill attacks women’s health care from a variety of angles. It could impose new taxes on a woman who obtains an abortion and on the health center where she obtained it, and it could require doctors to inform patients about a supposed link between abortion and breast cancer — a risk that the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, and other medical experts roundly reject. The law also includes language about the legal rights of fertilized eggs, which lays the groundwork for even more extreme measures blocking access to reproductive health care.
And we know this is not an isolated attack. Kansas is the latest frontline in the current round of attacks in politicians’ war on women. Arkansas, North Dakota, and Alabama, have also each recently passed draconian measures to outlaw abortion care or otherwise eliminate a woman’s access to it. The worst part is this trend might not stop if we continue to let politicians to interfere in our most personal and private decisions. Troy Newman, an abortion opponent from Operation Rescue, was recently quoted saying he thinks the Kansas law is “delightful” because it “opens up so many avenues” to block women from accessing abortion care.
But we can keep it from getting worse - we have to. Now is the time to tell our elected officials to stop interfering in our private decisions and to leave these decisions with a woman, her doctor and her family. Tell your friends to spread the word. Politicians need to stay out of our private lives.
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