Ohio lawmakers attack women’s rights with hideous bill demanding they bury fetuses [View all]

Abortion is legal in this country. And it has been since 1973, when Roe vs. Wade was decided. But Republican lawmakers are constantly seeking ways to circumnavigate the law, to make it more difficult and more painful for women to get abortions.

In 2012, Virginia Republicans pushed a law mandating that women get an ultrasound before receiving an abortion. This is a medically unnecessary procedure that often involves a painful vaginal probe. The law was designed for one purpose: to humiliate and shame the patient. In that same year, similarly invasive measures were proposed in Alabama, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Earlier this year, Republicans in the North Carolina State Legislature approved a bill with a party line vote requiring women to wait three days before receiving an abortion. There was already a law on the books requiring women to wait 24 hours. And this is in a Southern state that deplores government encroachments upon individual freedom. As Manny Schewitz noted, Republicans in North Carolina see no reason to impose comparable waiting periods for gun purchases.

The latest anti-abortion gambit occurred in Ohio, where “State lawmakers are introducing new legislation that would require women who have abortions or miscarriages to designate arrangements for burial or cremation of fetuses,” according to a report by WVXU in Cincinnati. And no, that wasn’t a typo – women treated for miscarriages are also required to sign a form “designating burial or cremation of fetal remains,” because 6-week old embryos are human persons with friends and family members who need closure after their death.

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http://www.salon.com/2015/12/22/anti_abortion_activists_hit_new_low_ohio_lawmakers_attack_womens_rights_with_hideous_bill_demanding_they_bury_fetuses/