While America is distracted by the Drumpf freakshow, Indiana just passed

[KamaAina]

one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the nation

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/14/while_america_is_distracted_by_the_trump_indiana_just_passed_one_of_the_most_restrictive_abortion_bills_in_the_nation/

While most of America observed in shocked horror as Donald Trump’s ignorant mobs obediantly carried out the fascistic orders of their orange cult leader to pummel and hurl racial epithets at protesters over the past several days, a terrible new bill slipped quietly into law, completely under the radar.

Frankly, it’s not surprising given our national fascination with narcissistic reality show divas like Trump that one of the most restrictive anti-choice, anti-abortion laws is due to be signed any minute now by Indiana Gov. Mike Pence — and no one seems to have noticed.

HB 1337 was approved by the Indiana legislature late last week, roughly at the same time as Trump’s supporters decided to lash out against protesters. The legislation authorizes an entire menu of grotesquely unconstitutional anti-choice TRAP(Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) laws, as well as new forms of authoritarian, misogynistic devilry, each of which could be defined as reproductive Jim Crow laws. Put another way, the new Indiana bill is in keeping with a series of laws that don’t outright ban abortion, but which makes it really, really difficult to have a safe and legal abortion....

First and foremost, HB 1337 requires that women who undergo the procedure must also pay for — get this — the burial or cremation of the fetus. It goes without saying that the law adds an additional financial disincentive to having an abortion, in this case additional expenses that could easily make it monetarily prohibitive to terminate a pregnancy. There’s also the macabre notion of paying for a mini-funeral for what amounts to, in most cases, a microscopic clump of undifferentiated cells. This raises an interesting thought: Given that sperm constitutes half the genetic material of human life, should legislators also require half-funerals every time men in Indiana have orgasms? Of course that’ll never happen because laws like HB 1337 are as much about oppressing women as they are about rescuing every zygote.

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. Elections have consequences. We need to win the next one. nt

[maxsolomon]

2. Is the Gov going to sign it?

Will it survive a Federal court challenge?

Both TBD I suppose, but the strategy is the same as it's been for 2 decades: the death of a 1000 cuts. Each new impediment making it practically impossible to get an abortion, but leaving the general legality of it alone.

There needs to be a definitive SCOTUS smack down of these laws. Obama needs to win the Post-Scalia fight - it's going to be a legacy issue for his Presidency.

[KamaAina]

5. Well, he is a repuke.

You tell me.

[maxsolomon]

6. I suppose there's a chance he'll think better of it

knowing that it will be struck down.

he vetoed a gambling law last year.

but, yeah.

[Initech]

3. This is why local elections matter as much as the national ones!

[maxsolomon]

7. Dems are unlikely to win many elections in IN any time soon

It's a vast sea of red with a couple blue islands.

[WhiteTara]

4. sneaky bastids. nt