Half of the Abortion Clinics in Ohio Have Closed. And Kasich Is a ‘Moderate’?

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/article/half-of-the-abortion-clinics-in-ohio-have-closed-and-kasich-is-a-moderate/

But come on, pundits and editors. Do moderates defund public education and blast public-sector unions? And since when does moderate mean “one who does everything in his power to destroy women’s reproductive rights”? When you call him a moderate, what you’re really saying is that these issues doesn’t count when you’re filling out your scorecard. To focus on his attack on women’s health: Are we all so used to the notion that over a million women a year should be forced to give birth, no matter what, or seek illegal procedures? Is Texas the new normal?

Actually, Ohio under Kasich is a lot like the Lone Star State. Since becoming governor in 2011, Kasich has signed every anti-abortion measure placed before him—17 so far. He signed a bill that severely limits abortion access after 20 weeks and approved a ban on state-funded rape-crisis counselors’ referring clients to abortion services or even informing them of their right to end their pregnancy, even though he claims to support a rape exception. He signed a requirement that patients have (and pay for) an unnecessary ultrasound to test for a fetal heartbeat and be asked whether they want to listen to it (after they’re read a mandatory script written by anti-choice state legislators). He appointed to the state medical board the head of Ohio Right to Life, Michael Gonidakis, who is not a doctor. (But then neither is Richard Hodges, director of the state department of health, who is a former turnpike inspector.) In February, he signed a bill depriving Planned Parenthood of $1.3 million in state and federal funding, including funds for a program to curb infant mortality. Pro-life!

The most important anti-choice measure Kasich signed, though, was one quietly included in the 2013 state budget requiring abortion clinics to have a transfer agreement with a local hospital. Transfer agreements serve no legitimate purpose, since any hospital has to see patients on an emergency basis—and such emergencies are extremely rare in the case of abortion anyway. Like the Texas laws currently before the Supreme Court, the point is to make abortion practice impossible: Catholic hospitals won’t enter into such an arrangement, and public hospitals are legally barred from doing so. This seemingly innocuous requirement, supposedly to preserve women’s health and safety, has resulted in the closing of half the clinics in Ohio.

[w4rma]

1. Sell out to big business and talk calmly and you are a "centrist"! Easy. (nt)

[elleng]

2. Ohioans know he's not moderate, fwiw.

[pampango]

3. Indeed we do. He is not the Trump/Cruz 'rip up everything' style republican. He is more

the old-school 'give everything to the rich' style Koch republican. Kasich wants to preserve everything so the 1% benefits more. Trump/Kasich want to 'destroy everything' while the 1% gets its tax breaks, deregulation and 'right-to-work'.

[bulloney]

4. You have to wonder if this whole Republican POTUS campaign scenario is by design.

We've been seeing the looniest of the loonies with Trump, Cruz, Carson, Huckabee, etc. Kasich is a radical right winger with his record as a governor and Member of Congress, Faux Snooze personality and past Lehmann Bros. employee. But he looks and talks like a moderate compared to the goofs mentioned earlier. If and when the party brings him out and really pushes for Kasich to be the POTUS nominee, he will be easier to accept.

[hobbit709]

5. Well, he is a moderate compared to the ones

that want to burn down all of them, salt the earth afterwards,and execute any survivors that didn't get burned up.
That still puts him in lunatic fringe territory.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

6. What is this about? Are they trying to rid their states of "sinners" and "welfare queens"?

Is that what it's about? People in Ohio will move to Illinois?

Note to self: look at Texas, Ohio, etc.. population trends.

[Gothmog]

7. Kaisch is horrible on women rights and is out to destroy Planned Parenthood