No exception for mother's health in AK's "partial-birth abortion" ban

I've been sort of self-editing topics on this blog because I know my family reads it. I've avoided the topic of abortion because I know it's an issue that we vehemently disagree on. However, I posted this diary over at Kos and for the first time, the "Diary Rescue" team picked it as one of the diaries to highlight. As they have literally hundreds of diaries to choose from, it's an honor.

I decided that was a sign - it was being untrue to myself not posting it here. My family will have to understand what I already do - that sometimes I love them in spite of their opinions, not because of them.

From The Alaska Politics Blog:

Alaska lawmakers passed a ban on partial-birth abortion in 1997 but state courts overturned it as unconstitutional. Keller said he aims to restore the ban by modeling the language on a federal law passed by Congress and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

"That change will make our statute enforceable again," said Keller.

But critics in Alaska, like the dissenting judges on the U.S. Supreme Court, describe the ban as an effort to chip away at abortion rights.

Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, said the new language is vague enough to encompass all first- and second-trimester abortions. And she doubts it would survive another legal challenge, given the state's strict constitutional right to privacy.

A legal opinion from the Legislature's own counsel agrees. Attorney Jean Mischel wrote that nothing in the bill, or in current law, "limits the prohibition on partial-birth abortions to late-term abortions."

Awww...but that's just a coincidence. We would NEVER try to use a stealth bill to overturn Roe v. Wade!!! We would NEVER push this through immediately before Anchorage's Municipal election (April 1st) when everyone is busy with candidate politics! We would NEVER try to get this through during a troubling election year for Republicans in order to deflect the discussion from unimportant issues like rampant Republican corruption and FBI investigations into illegal oil contributions!!!!!

Rep. Sharon Cissna, D-Anchorage, said the bill was an affront to women faced with difficult medical decisions. She said it implies they will not act honorably.

"Bills of this kind that suggest what they suggest are a personal assault to me and to those women that I have known. This legislation is to me an assault," said Cissna.

An amendment to include an exception when the mother's physical health is at risk failed.

Keller said such a situation was not likely to occur and the amendment would only create a loophole.

In the legislative counsel's opinion, Mischel wrote that the law provides for a narrow life-saving exception but not a health exception. "Faced with compelling and conclusive facts," Mischel said a court could invalidate the bill on health grounds.

Efforts to amend the bill to add language that would limit the bill to late-term abortions also failed.

Huh? I guess I shouldn't be surprised, they completely ignored the evidence that showed the rare occurrence of late-term abortions so of course they'd ignore the fact that almost all of them happen because of a mother's life/health!!!! (Not to mention ignoring that most of the information they put out about "partial-birth abortions" are rehashings of OLD LIES.)

As someone who barely made it through my own pregnancy (and might not have if I had waited longer than 35 to have my baby), it's pretty guaranteed that either I wouldn't make it through another one or it would take years off of my life. While I'm armed with that information, there are a number of over-40 women who are having babies for the first time.

At least this bill shows the truth of what many of us have said for years: 1) that the goal of ALL abortion legislation is to somehow overturn Roe v. Wade. and 2) mothers lives don't matter to them.

We're going to see more of these bills coming from the Legislature as popular Governor Sarah Palin is rabidly anti-abortion and the right looks upon this as an opportunity. That leads into the most interesting wild card to all of this; Governor Palin is in her eighth month of pregnancy and is 44-years-old. God forbid anything should happen. But hypothetically, what do you think Sarah or husband Todd Palin would do?

Of course, my wonderful State Representative deserves the last word:

Rep. Berta Gardiner, D-Anchorage, said lawmakers would better use their time working on the problems that face "born children" like suicide and fetal alcohol syndrome.

Now there's an idea!