The Manassas, Va. City Council passed a resolution to create a "committee" that would study the regulations and guidelines abortion clinics in the city operate under as well as decide if stricter guidelines are necessary.
This is all despite the fact that:
There are also architectural regulations, and more is being proposed, like allowing state inspectors to access patient records. Jennifer Blasdell, director of public policy for NAF, stated "Regulations such as these are calculated to chip away at abortion access under the guise of legitimate regulation."
This regulation doesn't even sound legitimate to me. Sigh.
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How the hell can they be allowed to access patient records?
Oh my God, I hate these people.
EG, duh, it's because slutty women like that don't deserve privacy. They should've thought about that before they got knocked up!
EG, duh, it's because slutty women like that don't deserve privacy. They should've thought about that before they got knocked up!
Oops! Sorry for the double post.
So, this is a little off-topic, but still related to the chipping away at abortion rights, and it's something that's been going around and around in my head, and that I'd love to know more about, if anyone can help or brainstorm with me here.
So, I recently read that one of the women who originally started Jane had written a DIY abortion book very soon before abortion was legalized. I had never heard of that before, and I found it fascinating. If it promotes safe, effective methods of aborting that a woman can do on her own (or at least without clinics and doctors and those crazy anti-choice protestors), maybe it's worth looking at again for areas like the one in this post. Aren't there something like 2 clinics in the entire state of Mississippi? Would disseminating info on DIY abortions be a good thing in areas where they aren't readily available?
I'd love to discuss this and see what the awesome ladies (and gentlemen) on this site think about it.
Ugh. I live just outside of Manassas, and have heard nothing about it in the news. For years, however, there have been peole picketing outside of that solitary clinic (which you would not know was there otherwise). On weekends, they move down the road and picket outside of the entrance to the Manassas Mall.
Even in Virginia, I have a hard time believing that they will get away with violating the right to privacy in your medical records/treatment, which is the basis of Roe v. Wade.
I think that this is just another instance of the success of a particularly vile set of politicians advancing their agenda in the area - In Manassas and outside in Prince William County, there are a couple of initiatives passed or in discussion by city/county councils to get rid of the illegals - none of which are endorsed by the police departments that would have to enforce them, and which seem to be based on the assumption that the large immigrant population in the area is composed of a huge number of illegal aliens. Can we say racist? The county had been pretty quiet until this year, and now we have thousands of people showing up (yay democracy!) to council meetings to put in their $0.02 about the immigration issue (on both sides). And thousands more picketing outside. Interesting to have news helicopters circling above your neighborhood at 11pm because of such picketing (the council stayed to hear everyone). Usually in Northern Va. you save the protests for when you head into D.C.
I moved away from Manassas last year because of crapola like this.
A similar piece of clinic-scrutinizing legislation was attempted in the VA State Leg., probably by Bob Marshall, who is from the surrounding county. The bulk of his sponsored bills deal with sex - either anti-gay, or anti-choice. I used to track the insane things he proposed - no in vitro fertilizations for unmarried (read subtext: lesbian) women, because it's his freakin' business to decide who should become a parent.
Seriously, living there was turning me into a ranting loon, and that was before immigration became the topic du jour.
God. There's a reason we call it "Manasshole" out here!
I live in California now, but I lived in Virginia for a long, long time. The things the Commonwealth tries to pull to control sexuality are mind-numbing.
I lived in a small, mostly blue city - Fredericksburg - and we used to just watch in horror when the red state around us got busy with nonsense like this.
*Sigh* - I miss my friends in VA, but I am glad to be away from this sort of thing.
I live in California now, but I lived in Virginia for a long, long time. The things the Commonwealth tries to pull to control sexuality are mind-numbing.
I lived in a small, mostly blue city - Fredericksburg - and we used to just watch in horror when the red state around us got busy with nonsense like this.
*Sigh* - I miss my friends in VA, but I am glad to be away from this sort of thing.