From their latest email:
One month ago today, the Supreme Court - with two new Bush appointees - upheld the Federal Abortion Ban.[The what? You mean the "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003." Sorry, honey, you can't just rip headlines out of news media and capitalize the first letters as though that's the actual name of the law when it isn't. Nice try at duping the people of this nation.]
We know that the ban eliminates core protections for women's health that have been guaranteed since Roe v. Wade.[Not even those who argued against the Act produced evidence of this, so said the Supreme Court]
We know that the ban is sweeping, irresponsible, and dangerous.[Umm, nice try again, but it isn't any of those.]
And we know that this ban is set to become the law of the land within days...but what, exactly, does this decision mean for people like you and me?[Out of about 30, 50 or 100 steps, maybe, perhaps, and another lifetime...]Anti-choice activists are now one step closer to their goal of overturning Roe v. Wade.
A doctor who violates this ban could face criminal penalties of up to two years in prison, even if he or she was acting to protect a woman's health.[Go, Missouri and Virginia. And since when are laws supposed to be unenforceable?]
Because federal law trumps state law, historically pro-choice states like California must abide by the ban. It doesn't matter if states have stronger pro-choice laws than the federal government.
Unfortunately, there's more. As many state legislative sessions come to a close, anti-choice politicians are scrambling to pass abortion bans of their own. Women and doctors in Missouri and Virginia may be the first to feel the consequences of the Supreme Court's decision:In Missouri, a law similar to the Federal Abortion Ban will soon go into effect. Missouri's law is even more extreme than the federal ban. Doctors who violate the ban in that state could serve a life sentence in prison. The law had been unenforceable since 1999, but now - because of the Supreme Court's decision - it goes into effect.
Anti-choice lawmakers in Virginia will now likely see their state's 2003 ban go into effect as a result of the Court's ruling. Like Missouri, the Virginia ban, which had been unenforceable, increases the penalties on doctors beyond the scope of the federal law.
Missouri and Virginia are not alone. The Supreme Court decision gives other states a green light to attack safe, legal abortion.[The Supreme Court gave the green light? Safe abortion?? One, states have always had the green light to "attack legal abortion" via legal challenges, just as the NACCP did to overturn racial segregation precedents from Plessy v. Ferguson. The Supreme Court isn't the one dispensing that right.
And two, as for safe abortions, well... read for yourselves.]
In North Dakota, for example, the governor signed a law that would outlaw abortion if Roe is overturned. This is the fourth of those types of bans enacted in just the last two years.What? You don't believe me, that NARAL is hyping and broadbrush-attacking this law as though that is its actual name and that it actually bans all abortions which is the very thing NARAL's selective wordsmithing implies?
NARAL Pro-Choice America has taken our fight to the halls of Congress by asking members of Congress to support the Freedom of Choice Act. The Freedom of Choice Act would effectively repeal the [says NARAL] Federal Abortion Ban by codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law, guaranteeing the right to choose for generations to come.If there was ever a time to stand up and fight to keep politicians from interfering in women's personal, private decisions, it is now.
My best,
Nancy Keenan
President
NARAL Pro-Choice America
Google "Federal Abortion Ban"...NARAL comes up as the paying-for-top-dog-status "Sponsored Link"!
Talk about trying to pull the wool over Americans' eyes. When will people wake up to NARAL's propaganda?
Cross-posted on Abortion Pundit
