Five abortion clinics remaining in the state is five too many for Alabama Republicans.
Republican lawmakers in Alabama took a crucial step on Wednesday towards their goal of shuttering the state’s last five abortion clinics, advancing a bill to the full house that would impose strict requirements on abortion providers. [...]
If passed, it would require clinics to meet certain architectural standards and have a physician present for all abortions — a provision Republicans claim is for the safety of patients, but is in fact a smokescreen designed to make compliance as difficult as possible.
Among the staffing concerns is a provision which states that only a licensed physician with admitting privileges to a hospital within the same metropolitan area as the clinic be allowed to administer abortion-inducing drugs.
The name of the bill is the “Women’s Health and Safety Act.” It doesn’t get much more Orwellian than that.
It’s true that states such as Alabama and Mississippi are not electorally crucial, but I think it would be a mistake to assume there won’t be consequences at the national level for going full-on War on Women even if it’s in the south. Because by not denouncing this, the national party may as well be consenting to it and future candidates will be forced to take a position on it.
The Republican outreach to women continues.