1. A victory for anti-choice protestors in the Supreme Court. Now, this is obviously a major disappointment for the pro-choice movement. Any clinic worker or escort has seen how frightening these protestors can be. And indeed, anti-choice extremists have taken a physical toll:
Among other acts, in the past year there has been an attempted firebombing at a Louisiana clinic and one incident of arson in Florida. In the past decade approximately two murders, one attempted murder, two bombings, 18 incidents of arson, 298 acts of vandalism, 642 anthrax threats, 121 bomb threats, and 27 blockades have occurred at clinics. Since 1993, three doctors, two clinic employees, a clinic escort, and a security guard have been murdered. In addition to these seven murders, 17 attempted murders have also occurred since 1991.
The basic idea in the opinion is that to get an injunction under RICO, there has to be some proof of extortion or robbery. Violence doesn’t suffice. And while this is a major set-back, a narrow reading of the Hobbes Act does lend itself pretty well to the court’s ruling. What we need instead are free clinic entry laws, which bar people from physically blocking health clinics and hospitals, and from coercing people away from entering. Laws in some states require that protestors stay a certain number of feet away from clinic entrances, and those laws have been held constitutional. There is also the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which can be used in cases like these. It isn’t as effective as RICO, since RICO has tougher penalties, but it’s better than nothing.
2. A 95-year-old pro-choicer in Austin is running for Congress in Texas. Awesome.
3. Not so awesome: A Missouri court upheld 24-hour waiting periods in that state. Which is great, considering that the state already only has one abortion clinic, and that clinic is in constant peril of closing. Oh, and any doctor who violates the law faces loss of their medical licenses and misdemeanor charges punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine. And you know how anti-choicers feel about jailing doctors — they love it. Of course, this is just one more thing in a chain of really bad abortion-related events this week:
The ruling is the latest blow to abortion rights supporters.
A Mississippi House committee voted Tuesday to ban most abortions in the state. The only abortions allowed under the bill would be if the life of the pregnant woman were in danger.
It’s similar to a bill that South Dakota lawmakers passed last week that would make it a crime for doctors to perform abortions in the state except to save a pregnant woman’s life. The bill went to Republican Gov. Mike Rounds on Tuesday, and he has 15 days to act. Rounds has said he’s inclined to sign the bill into law.
And in Kentucky, legislation requiring women to receive face-to-face counseling before undergoing abortions was passed by the Senate on Tuesday, an effort to end the practice of some clinics to use recorded messages over the telephone.
4. Domino’s pizza tastes like greasy crap anyway, but here’s another reason not to buy it: Its founder is an anti-choice crazy man who’s in the process of creating his own crazyville. Which is fine, I suppose, as it moves a lot of the crazy people into one location where they can’t bother the rest of us. It’s not so fine, though, for the people who are living in crazyville involuntarily (i.e., the kids who have to move there with their parents, spouses who are coerced into moving there, and children who are born there). And then, you know, there the issue of whether or not a community should be able to decide that its members should have certain constitutional rights denied to them because they voluntarily moved into the community and agreed to its rules. I’d say that the answer to that is a resounding “no.”
If Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in a quiet corner of southwest Florida will be governed by strict Catholic principles, particularly when it comes to sex.
The pizza magnate, raised by nuns in orphanages, is bankrolling the town called Ave Maria with millions of dollars, calling its construction ”God’s will.” Stores won’t sell pornographic magazines, pharmacies won’t carry condoms or birth control pills, and cable television will carry no X-rated channels, he said in a speech last year to the first annual Boston Catholic Men’s Conference.
I love this — “especially when it comes to sex.” I wonder if they’ll follow Catholic rules in every other aspect?
5. We’ll end on a bit of good news: WalMart will carry emergency contraception pills. Their pharmacists won’t have to fill prescriptions for them, but at least they’ll be in stock. Which is a step in the right direction.