Angi Becker Stevens is a fiction writer whose work has appeared in many print and online literary magazines, in addition to being anthologized in Best of the Web 2010 and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. As a member of The Organization For a Free Society, she organizes around all varieties of social justice, and is particularly involved in feminist and polyamorous activism.
HB 4187 is about more than just the physical violation of a woman’s body with a transvaginal ultrasound wand. It is also about the mental and emotional violation of forcing women to view the most visually-detailed ultrasound images possible, in what is clearly an attempt to cause guilt and shame.
The meaning of “choice” here in Michigan—as in many other states in the country—has eroded a great deal since that day 40 years ago when the Roe decision was handed down. How did we end up here? And more importantly, how do we move forward?
Clearly not content with the recent passage of one of the most extreme pieces of anti-abortion legislation in the country, Michigan lawmakers are already hard at work pushing for still more barriers to abortion access.
Those who seek to dismantle unions and those who seek to deny women’s bodily autonomy are not two separate groups with two separate motivations. They are the same conservative politicians, motivated by a desire to protect their own interests by preserving the current hierarchy—one which places rich white men at the top of the social and economic order.
Sometime after midnight, the Michiagan House and Senate both voted one last time on HB 5711, giving concurrence to a final version of the bill.
On the Senate floor earlier today, Senator Rebekah Warren—longtime champion of reproductive rights—offered several amendments to the bill, all of which were defeated. Warren argued for the removal of the tele-med ban, pointing out the necessity of tele-medicine access in a state with many rural areas that lack abortion providers.
It’s been six months since the Michigan State House voted in favor of HB 5711, the anti-abortion “super bill” considered one of the most extreme in the country. Now that the year is about to come to a close, it appears that the bill is back on the legislature’s agenda, and is expected to be voted on by the Senate as soon as today.
![Protesters of the bill fill the Michigan House. [img src]](http://rhrealitycheck.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/../../files/teaser-images/2012-06-14-stevens-187x125.jpg)
The main portion of Michigan’s anti-abortion “super-bill”–HB 5711–passed through the state House easily on Wednesday, by a vote of 70-39. All of the 64 Republican representatives, as well as 6 Democrats, voted in favor of the bill.
In Michigan, it is clear that the GOP does not have a monopoly on anti-woman legislation. We need keep a close eye on our Democratic legislators as well, and hold them accountable when they vote against women’s health.
Michigan House Democratic floor leader Kate Segal and Planned Parenthood of Michigan respond to the anti-choice “super-bill,” quickly becoming known as one of the most extreme pieces of anti-choice legislation in the country.
