Don't Be Fooled – Criminalizing Abortion Is Punishing Women

In attempting to walk back his comments about “punishing” women who seek abortion, Donald Trump made his position clearer than ever: He wants to outlaw abortion, criminalize doctors, and is threatening women.

But the issue of banning abortion and criminalizing providers is not just about Trump.

Sure, he said it — but Ted Cruz has actually voted for it in the Senate, and John Kasich has even enacted it in Ohio.

That’s right: ALL of the Republican candidates for president want to outlaw abortion.

NewsFlash: Women Are Already Being Punished for Accessing Abortion

In fact, women are already being punished for accessing safe, legal abortion. Why? Because the Republican Party’s leadership has been waging a full-out assault on access to reproductive health care. Restrictive anti-abortion laws, which every GOP candidate supports, have forced women to travel hundreds of miles, risk losing their jobs, pay an exorbitant amount of money, and — in some places — take matters into their own hands.

Since 2011, states have enacted nearly 300 laws restricting abortion. They’ve passed 57 of these anti-abortion laws in the past year alone. In Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana, abortion has been so severely restricted it may as well be illegal for a large number of women.

The More GOP Candidates Show Their True Beliefs, the More Voters They Alienate

 

When it comes to preventing women from accessing safe, legal abortion, Donald Trump has said what Ted Cruz and John Kasich have worked to do.

• Just last winter at the 2015 Iowa Freedom Summit, Senator Cruz was asked whether or not he supported punishment for women who have received abortions and doctors who have provided abortion care. He dodged the question, and was asked a second time, “So you don’t support criminalization then?” His response was: “I am pro-life and I think we need to protect every human life from the moment of conception until natural death.”

• Meanwhile as Governor of Ohio, John Kasich has enacted 18 measures that punish women, resulting in the shuttering of nearly half of the abortion providers in Ohio –– forcing women to travel to Michigan to access health care.

Ted Cruz Wants to Overturn Roe v. Wade and Ban Abortion Without Exception for Rape and Incest

 

Here’s what you need to know about Ted Cruz when it comes to abortion:

• Cruz would force women to carry their rapist's child to term

• Cruz would allow abortion only in cases in which the woman’s life is in jeopardy.

• Cruz said that, if elected, he will nominate judges to the Supreme Court who will overturn Roe v. Wade.

• Cruz called Roe v. Wade a “shadow in our nation’s history”

• Cruz supports a 20-week abortion ban.

• Cruz signed Georgia Right to Life’s personhood affirmation, which could ban abortion and some forms of birth control.

• Cruz told Personhood Iowa that he would advocate for a constitutional amendment that “protects life.”

More on Ted Cruz

Kasich Wants to Ban Abortion, Too

 

Remember: John Kasich is no moderate. In fact, he has made Ohio a “living Hell” for women.

• Kasich’s spokesman has confirmed that Kasich hopes Roe v. Wade is overturned.

• Kasich signed a medically unnecessary mandatory ultrasound law that would punish doctors for failing to comply:

  • The 2013 budget that Kasich signed into law included a provision that requires that doctors test for a fetal heartbeat by giving a state-mandated, medically unnecessary ultrasound – even if women don’t want one and if their doctor doesn’t recommend one.

  • The provision also requires providers to inform the patient seeking an abortion in writing of the presence of that heartbeat, and then provide statistical likelihood that the fetus could be carried to term. The doctor’s failure to do so would be a first-degree misdemeanor carrying up to six months in jail for the first violation, and a fourth-degree felony carrying up to 18 months in jail for subsequent violations.

• As a U.S. representative, he supported legislation that would limit abortion and make it a crime for a minor to cross state lines to access abortion.

Governor Kasich is no moderate. He is an extreme abortion opponent: “Laws signed by Kasich prohibit almost all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, mandate ultrasounds before a woman can get an abortion and require abortion clinics to establish formal written agreements with local hospitals about emergency care — a provision that has been repeatedly modified to be even more restrictive and make it harder for clinics to comply,” according to POLITICO.

Under Gov. Kasich’s Administration, Nearly Half of Ohio’s Abortion Clinics Closed.

How is it possible that nearly half of Ohio’s abortion clinics have closed? Here’s how:

• Think Progress: “In terms of the areas where high number of clinics have recently been shuttered, Ohio ranks second only to Texas. And Ohio isn’t stopping there. Aside from the proposed budget, lawmakers have also been advancing a 20-week abortion ban; the state senate approved that legislation just last week. For years, reproductive rights groups have been warning that Ohio is becoming one of the worst states for abortion access. At the end of last week, the Plain Dealer’s editorial board also sounded the alarm: “These draconian rules aimed at closing Ohio’s abortion clinics appear to be a thinly veiled effort to get before the U.S. Supreme Court a challenge to Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion,” the newspaper wrote in reference to the proposed budget bill”.

• Toledo Blade: Ohio women are driving to Michigan to access abortion: “Michigan abortion clinics see an influx of Ohioans...Ms. Chilean said she began to notice women coming from Ohio to the Michigan clinics about two years ago when Ohio law changed and banned abortions after 22 weeks.”

Wonkette: Kasich wants to ban access to safe, legal abortion: “When Kasich was asked about a provision in the 2013 budget bill he signed that prohibits rape crisis counselors from telling victims that abortion is an option he wouldn’t answer why he signed the provision into law.

He said, “We certainly want to care. I actually believe in the exception of rape, incest, and life of the mother. Okay? But look, at the end of the day, I’m going to do what I think is a pro-life — you know, looking, being in a position of being pro-life. There’s nothing more I can say about it. I’ve said everything there is to say about it.”

More on John Kasich

Women Deserve Access to Safe and Legal Abortion — Period.

Just to reiterate: Donald Trump’s clear disregard for women’s health and lives is staggering. But we already know what it looks like to see women punished for having an abortion: It is already happening across this country, and the consequences are devastating.

Trumps stance is is part of the Republican party platform, and it’s what anti-abortion politicians like Ted Cruz and John Kasich have been voting on and enacting for years.

Bottom line: One in three women will have an abortion in her lifetime. Those women deserve to access medical care without fear of violence, harassment, or punishment. It’s clear that the GOP candidates’ anti-abortion agenda is far too extreme for the women of this country.

On CNN’s New Day, Dawn Laguens, Executive Vice President of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, weighed in on Donald Trump’s stance that women should be punished for having an abortion. She pointed out that while John Kasich, Ted Cruz, and the anti-abortion movement have tried to distance themselves from Donald Trump’s remarks, Donald Trump is just articulating the same platform all three have been pushing across this country.

Tags: Donald Trump, Election 2016, Ted Cruz, John Kasich