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* Texas…
Texas’ abortion restrictions – some of the strictest in the country – may be fueling a sudden spike in infant mortality as women are forced to carry nonviable pregnancies to term.
Some 2,200 infants died in Texas in 2022 – an increase of 227 deaths, or 11.5%, over the previous year, according to preliminary infant mortality data from the Texas Department of State Health Services that CNN obtained through a public records request. Infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects rose by 21.6%. That spike reversed a nearly decade-long decline. Between 2014 and 2021, infant deaths had fallen by nearly 15%.
The increase in deaths could partly be explained by the fact that more babies are being born in Texas. One recent report found that in the final nine months of 2022, the state saw nearly 10,000 more births than expected prior to its abortion ban – an estimated 3% increase.
In 2021, Texas banned abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy. When the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights the following summer, a trigger law in the state banned all abortions other than those intended to protect the life of the mother.
But multiple obstetrician-gynecologists who focus on high-risk pregnancies told CNN that Texas’ strict abortion laws likely contributed to the uptick in infant deaths.
* More from Texas…
A hearing in a lawsuit challenging Texas’ abortion ban opened Wednesday with dramatic testimony from three women who experienced serious pregnancy complications but were denied abortions.
One of the plaintiffs in the suit, Samantha Casiano, vomited on the stand while discussing her baby’s fatal birth defect, which she said also put her life at risk. […]
Casiano is part of a group of 13 women and two OB-GYNs who are suing the state of Texas. The lawsuit, filed in March by the Center for Reproductive Rights, asks the court to clarify the types of situations that constitute a medical emergency under Texas’ abortion laws.
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June 2022 triggered a ban in Texas that outlawed all abortions, except to save the life of a pregnant woman. Prior to that, the state had banned abortions after the detection of a so-called fetal heartbeat — around six weeks into the pregnancy. Physicians who violate Texas’s abortion laws can lose their medical licenses, face up to 99 years in prison or incur fines of at least $100,000, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
* Nebraska…
A law that bans abortions at 12 weeks while also restricting gender-affirming care in Nebraska will stay in effect for now.
According to the Nebraska examiner, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, who filed a lawsuit directed at the “let them grow act” had asked the judge to place a preliminary injunction on the bill due to its damaging impact on abortion providers and medical care.
A judge said yesterday she would take a request to block its enforcement under advisement.
Planned Parenthood and the ACLU of Nebraska had filed the lawsuit because they say it violates the single subject rule in the Nebraska constitution.
* Florida…
The Florida Board of Education approved a new set of standards for how Black history should be taught in the state’s public schools, sparking criticism from education and civil rights advocates who said students should be allowed to learn the “full truth” of American history. […]
The new standards require instruction for middle school students to include “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” a document listing the standards and posted in the Florida Department of Education website said.
When high school students learn about events such as the 1920 Ocoee massacre, the new rules require that instruction include “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” The massacre is considered the deadliest Election Day violence in US history and, according to several histories of the incident, it started when Moses Norman, a prominent Black landowner in the Ocoee, Florida, community, attempted to cast his ballot and was turned away by White poll workers.
Similar standards are noted for lessons about other massacres, including the Atlanta race massacre, the Tulsa race massacre and the Rosewood race massacre.
* Virginia…
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration said Tuesday that it has finalized new policies on the treatment of transgender students, guidance that will direct school districts to roll back some current accommodations and increase parental notification requirements about certain discussions involving gender identity.
Youngkin said the guidelines, which have been sharply criticized by LGBTQ+ advocacy groups since they were first unveiled last year, will empower parents while prohibiting discrimination and creating a safe learning environment.
“This is about doing what’s best for the child,” Youngkin said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And oh, by the way, also recognizing that we need to ensure the privacy and dignity and respect of all children and all parents in the school system. And that’s what I think we have … very carefully constructed here.” […]
The guidance says students’ participation in certain school programming and use of school facilities like bathrooms or locker rooms should be based on the sex assigned at birth, with modifications offered only to the extent required under federal law.
* Ohio…
A bill similar to an unconstitutional Tennessee law prohibiting drag queens’ performances in public or where children are present has come to Ohio.
House Bill 245 was introduced at the Statehouse Monday to ban “adult cabaret performances,” defined as a show “harmful to juveniles” that features “entertainers who exhibit a gender identity that is different from the performers’ or entertainers’ gender assigned at birth.” The bill would prohibit these shows in all locations other than “adult cabarets,” meaning “a nightclub, bar, juice bar, restaurant, bottle club or similar establishment.”
Reps. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania) and Angela King (R-Celina) are proposing the bill with the support of 41 out of 67 Ohio House Republican representatives. The 43 lawmakers outline the following penalties if entertainers are found violating the proposed law:
- A misdemeanor of the first degree if a performance occurs in the presence of a juvenile under the age of 18.
- A felony of the fifth degree if the performance is “obscene.”
- A felony of the fourth degree if the performance is “obscene” and occurs in the presence of a juvenile under the age of 13.
Williams said the bill’s intention is to modernize Ohio’s revised code regarding obscenity viewed by minors, not to effectively ban drag in Ohio. The lawmaker stressed that the proposed measure only means to prohibit shows “harmful to juveniles,” with events like drag story time readings and plays like “Mrs. Doubtfire” covered under the First Amendment.
posted by Isabel Miller
Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:08 am
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Sigh….apparently Greg Abbott isn’t happy unless he’s inflicting misery on someone else.
Comment by Galena Guy Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:16 am
Texas is awful and exhausting. the story several weeks ago about the woman who had to wait in a parking lot to get sick enough to die because they would not give her a medically necessary abortion was enough. and now more. Pence with his just give it a try to give birth it may live nonsense. it is infuriating and exhausting. imagine if you are a woman in need, not just infuriated and exhausted but in danger.
Comment by Amalia Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:17 am
The Guv’mint knows best if a fetus is viable or not. Great job with AbbottCare in Texas!
Comment by Jerry Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:19 am
The goal of opposite land is to place upon others the religiously zealot beliefs on even the heathens living in their state… “or please move out”
Nevermind the actual dangers to… women’s health, children’s exposure to easily halted diseases or infections, and the hated embraced on those “unlike them who are born again”… maybe born now in a cult of political anger.
There’s no shame in these folks, they think it’s a shame they can’t punish more, like the Good Book says in the Old Testament while pretending they live the New Testament.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:23 am
Illinois needs to work on attracting disaffected red state medical professionals and educators. Maybe Illinois can alleviate its own teacher shortage.
Comment by cover Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:24 am
I sincerely hope that every black student has a parent or guardian that can explain the real situation of their relatives and not this fantasy reality they are passing off as history.
Comment by cermak_rd Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:44 am
Where have you gone Barry Goldwater?
Comment by Lefty Lefty Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:48 am
==how slaves developed skills (e.g. agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation) which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit==
So what you’re saying is that chattel slavery wasn’t ALL bad? /S
Comment by Jocko Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:49 am
Texas, Nebraska, Ohio, they all contribute something. Not making excuses, but their existence is an overall plus.
Florida? Florida is this nation’s drunk uncle.
Comment by Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 11:49 am
Pretty soon FBoE will start to argue that Ruby Bridges had a lot of nerve wanting to attend Frantz elementary school.
Comment by Jocko Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:08 pm
Medicine is commerce.
Modern medicine is interstate commerce.
Congress has the enumerated power to regulate interstate commerce and together with the supremacy clause can step in and tell the opposite land states to buzz off.
They choose not to.
Comment by MikeMacD Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:34 pm
===They choose not to.===
Explain the rules of the US Senate.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:36 pm
Is this pro life?
Comment by AlfondoGonz Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:36 pm
Hmmm, that Florida rule sure is something! It makes me feel better about asking people who are spouting nonsense about black-on-black crime by asking them about the numbers in relation to white-on-white crime.
Comment by Blitz Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:45 pm
We can rest easy knowing these states are coming up with innovative solutions to the big issues facing us like climate change, inequality, growing the economy for all, etc. Oh wait, I was thinking of other states.
Comment by Sir Reel Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:51 pm
== Explain the rules of the US Senate. ==
The rules of the Senate are established by the Senate at the beginning of the new Congress. They are established by a simple majority vote. In the event of a tie, the Vice President can cast the deciding vote.
The rule can be whatever they want them to be.
These are their choices.
Comment by MikeMacD Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 12:59 pm
===The rules of===
You explained (copy and pasted) how the rules come about, you explained nothing about the rules.
Like, how one Senator can hold up 200+ military promotions.
===These are their choices.===
Your childlike wonder to a conclusion explains nothing of the Senate.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:11 pm
“Sigh….apparently Greg Abbott isn’t happy unless he’s inflicting misery on someone else.”
Those words sum up MAGA in general. It’s about making their small selves feel bigger by directing their rage and vengeance against the “others”. Owning and humiliating the libs is paramount. All in Jesus’s name, of course.
Comment by Independent Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:12 pm
===These are their choices. ===
Yep. And then they complain when members use the rules to gum up the works. Classic US Senate. Particularly when it comes to Democratic majorities.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:20 pm
===Particularly when it comes to Democratic majorities.===
See: Durbin, Richard J.
Joy in halting, equaling the exasperated angst of another grinding things to a halt. A feature, if you will, but by design, and unhelpful
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:27 pm
The cruelty is the point. The Texas law is having the predictable consequence of women being forced to carry to term fetuses with horrible genetic defects and abnormalities. It’s unconscionably cruel to the couple and especially the woman. We went through a situation like this, learning at 17 weeks that our unborn child had a fatal condition. We could carry the fetus to term but it would die within minutes. Republicans in red states would have forced my wife to carry it to term knowing it would die. It’s beyond my comprehension how you could force a couple to endure such trauma simply to prove an ideological point. But then again, I’m not a Republican.
Comment by New Day Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:51 pm
==The new standards require instruction for middle school students to include “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,”==
Florida government. Making bigotry the “in thing.”
Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 1:53 pm
Commerce clause all day long. I remember seeing Joe Biden lecturing to the audience at a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting about why they spent so much time on the commerce clause. He said because, “It’s has real teeth.”
It’s a far more achievable goal than a constitutional amendment, or packing the court or waiting for vacancies on the court or whatever it is the national Democrats are doing right now.
Of course do nothing is always a choice.
btw See cloture two thirds to three fifths.
Comment by MikeMacD Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 3:10 pm
More proof that “pro-life” is just a cutesy name and in no way describes their actual values.
Comment by wildcat12 Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 3:18 pm
===Commerce clause all day long===
As that gets then challenged in court, possibly to face a SCOTUS that is ready with even “made up” plaintiffs to knock down progress.
The genius in McConnell is never the phony maneuvering or blocking. The genius was maneuvering and blocking to get that 6-3 Court.
===or packing the court or waiting for vacancies on the court===
… because that has been put to bed, likely for a couple decades, given the ages of 5 justices that are “conservative”
These hard issues are about elections.
Which is why Republicans are continually trying to make voting harder, Gerrymandering better, and if that fails, ruin the credibility of the electoral process.
It’s not an easy fix here or there.
If things were easy it’d be done… or in the Senate’s case the the bug was always the feature, the only reform was eventually making those seats ones where the voters have a say, not legislatures.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 3:42 pm
There are acts that can be performed right now. The senate can begin having hearings on the impact of the various state laws on interstate commerce. They can establish the interstate commerce nature of modern medicine.
House and Senate Democrats can be crafting legislation addressing the issue and run on it. They can be telling the world that they have a very doable path to stopping the garbage that the red states are shoveling. But that would require that the issue really means something to them. They’re Democrats, so who knows.
There are 3 steps to problem solving.
1. Recognize the problem.
2. Analyze the situation.
3. Take action.
As for me, I recognize that the restrictions being enacted are a problem.
My analysis says stopping these restrictions is very popular throughout the country. It also says the Commerce clause with the supremacy clause is the easiest, most direct, and constitutionally solid method of solving the problem.
My action is to come on a popular political website and articulate a legitimate and viable path forward for people who want to take action.
If whining “no se puede” is all you’ve got, please, just get out of the way.
Comment by MikeMacD Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 4:40 pm
===The senate can begin having hearings on the impact of the various state laws on interstate commerce. They can establish the interstate commerce nature of modern medicine.===
Will it pass the House? Divided government is not a phony thing.
===House and Senate Democrats can be crafting legislation addressing the issue and run on it. They can be telling the world that they have a very doable path to stopping the garbage that the red states are shoveling.===
Yeah, I already said “elections”, read above.
===If whining “no se puede” is all you’ve got, please, just get out of the way.===
If this is “No Labels”, lol
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 4:52 pm
I get it.
You got nothing. And you’re sticking with it.
Comment by MikeMacD Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 5:04 pm
===I get it.
You got nothing===
Elections.
===These hard issues are about elections.===
Keep up.
Comment by Oswego Willy Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 5:08 pm
Businesses should be very alarmed at what’s happening in Florida, Texas and the old South that’s rising again. These are no longer places conducive to modern living.
Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Jul 20, 23 @ 5:37 pm