Pro-Choice Maryland

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - A Texas grand jury has indicted two anti-abortion activists in a case involving covert videos on fetal tissue procurement talks with Planned Parenthood and found there was no wrongdoing on the part of the health group, a district attorney said on Monday.

The grand jury decision was a result of a probe launched last year under Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, who accused Planned Parenthood of the "gruesome harvesting of baby body parts." No evidence was provided by Texas to back the claim.

The videos released last summer led Texas and several other Republican-controlled states to try to halt funding for local Planned Parenthood operations

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What? You mean they lied! Who knew? *sarcastically* Anyone surprised by this? I'm sure as hell not. However, it's good that they are getting charged for this. Maybe other anti-abortion activists will see this and see that lying doesn't pay off. Also, talk about denial from the Texas govenor

First, the Good News :)
Late Wednesday night, Republican Congressional leaders announced that they would be dropping the planned vote for today on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which, if implemented, would have instilled a nationwide ban on all abortions after week 20 of a pregnancy.

The Washington Post reports that the vote was abandoned largely because of the failure of many Republican women to support the proposed bill — led by Reps. Rene Ellmers (R-N.C.) and Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), who had raised concerns about public fallout with female and younger voters.

Since it was introduced during the first day of the new Congressional session, the bill has been the source of great controversy and public outcry, including from the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, had explained that the bill was necessary to prevent “defenseless children” from being “torturously killed without even basic anesthetic.” Research has shown, however, that a fetus is not able to sense pain until the beginning of the third trimester, or 28 weeks, at the earliest.

Late-term abortion is typically done only in instances such as the discovery of debilitating conditions in the fetus — many of which would make survival outside of the womb impossible — or when the life of the mother is at risk; in fact 99 percent of abortions are conducted before the 21st week of pregnancy.
Yes!!!

( Unfortunately.... )

*Heavily editted since I learned about the bill passing after I posted about asking your rep to say no to the H.R 7

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away Arizona's bid to revive a state law that would have banned most abortions after a woman's pregnancy reached 20 weeks.

The law, signed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer in April 2012, would have barred abortions past the 20-week mark except in cases of medical emergencies.

Unfortunately, to see the rest of the article, I think you need a subscription to the site.

Remember this story last December about Jennie McCormack?

A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday blocked the prosecution of an Idaho woman who aborted her pregnancy by taking pills instead of traveling to a clinic or hospital as required by state law.

Jennie Linn McCormack, an unmarried mother of three, was charged by Bannock County prosecutors last year after she ingested medication to induce an abortion. The drugs were approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and prescribed over the Internet, according to the opinion from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Idaho requires that abortions be performed during the first trimester in a hospital, doctor's office or clinic. No licensed healthcare providers offered the procedure near where McCormack lived in southeastern Idaho, the opinion said.

The criminal case against McCormack was dismissed, and she filed a lawsuit claiming Idaho's abortion law is unconstitutional. An Idaho federal judge issued an injunction saying the law can't be enforced.

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From PP:
After weeks of debate and an enormous outcry from Planned Parenthood supporters nationwide, the Senate rejected the Blunt Amendment, a measure that would have allowed any employer to deny women who work for them insurance coverage for birth control. The message is clear: birth control is basic health care, and your medical decisions should be between you and your doctor.

This is a huge victory for women's health, and your senators were an important part of that victory. Please, take a moment right now to thank your senators for voting to defend access to affordable birth control.

For people that live outside of Maryland, you can go here to see how your senators voted for and send them a message of thanks or outrage.

From Naral MD:
On February 10, the Obama administration announced a new policy solution that will make sure women of all faiths who work at religiously affiliated hospitals, universities, and service organizations can get contraceptive coverage. The president’s plan guarantees that women will encounter no barriers from their bosses or insurance plans in getting birth control without a copay.

Anti-contraception groups and their political allies in Congress are not satisfied, and they continue to attack women’s contraceptive coverage.

Maryland is lucky to have leaders like Gov. O’Malley, Sen. Mikulski, and Rep. Cummings who have stood for choice and denounced these legislative attacks.

( What our leaders have done )

Please help us show our pro-choice leaders how much we appreciate them, and we'll deliver it on your behalf.

I'm proud I come from Maryland since our leaders there believe in reproductive freedom

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Abortion opponents say they're still pursuing life-at-fertilization ballot initiatives in six other states after Bible Belt voters in Mississippi defeated one Tuesday.

The "personhood" proposal was intended to prompt a legal challenge aimed at overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision that established a legal right to abortion.

Keith Mason is co-founder of Personhood USA, which pushed the Mississippi measure. The Colorado-based group is trying to put initiatives on 2012 ballots in Florida, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada and California. Voters in Colorado rejected similar proposals in 2008 and 2010.

Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the initiatives represent an "extreme, dangerous and direct assault" on abortion rights.

Mason told The Associated Press that Personhood USA might revive efforts for another ballot initiative in Mississippi.

Speaking of the failure in Mississippi on Tuesday, Mason said, "it's not because the people are not pro-life. It's because Planned Parenthood put a lot of misconceptions and lies in front of folks and created a lot of confusion."

Planned Parenthood Federation of America said in a statement: "Mississippi voters rejected the so-called 'personhood' amendment because they understood it is government gone too far, and would have allowed government to have control over personal decisions that should be left up to a woman, her family, her doctor and her faith, including keeping a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy from getting the care she needs, and criminalizing everything from abortion to common forms of birth control such as the pill and the IUD."

The so-called "personhood" initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of Mississippi voters, falling far short of the threshold needed for it to be enacted.

The measure divided the medical and religious communities and caused some of the most ardent abortion opponents, including Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, to waver with their support.

Opponents said the measure would have made birth control, such as the morning-after pill or the intrauterine device, illegal. More specifically, the ballot measure called for abortion to be prohibited "from the moment of fertilization" — wording that opponents suggested would have deterred physicians from performing in vitro fertilization because they would fear criminal charges if an embryo doesn't survive.

Opponents also said supporters were trying to impose their religious beliefs on others by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest.

This is an awesome victory that this amendment was defeated, especially in a state that leans towards being pro-life :)

However, it sucks though that this organization won't stop trying to push this amendment on other states' ballots. It's like they can't take a hint that people on their own side don't like the amendment.