10 Most Inhumane Laws Courtesy of Southern Republicans

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http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/10-most-inhumane-laws-courtesy-southern-republicans

1. Mississippi Anti-Abortion Law 1390

When it comes to reproductive freedom, the Deep South abuses women on multiple fronts. First, Republicans and the Christian Right have plagued southern schools with failed abstinence-only sex education programs, which lead to unwanted pregnancies. Then they attack healthcare reform, thus making access to contraception more difficult. And when unwanted pregnancies occur, their solution is to restrict abortion. Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has been quite open about his desire to make Mississippi an abortion-free state. The entire state of Mississippi has only one abortion clinic left (in Jackson), and in 2012, Bryant happily signed into law Mississippi House Bill 1390, which requires any doctor who performs abortions in that state to obtain admitting privileges in a local hospital. The goal is clear: Bryant and his Christian fundamentalist allies want to see that Jackson clinic shut down. In July, a federal appeals court ruled that Bill 1390 was unconstitutionaland a violation of Roe v. Wade.

2. Tennessee Law SB 1391: The Tennessee Pregnancy Criminalization Law

In April, Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam signed into law a bill that allows women in that state to be prosecuted for assault if they use some type of narcotic while pregnant. But Tennessee Law SB 1391—or as the law’s critics call it, the Tennessee Pregnancy Criminalization Law—could actually have the effect of harming fetuses because it discourages pregnant women with substance abuse problems from seeking treatment. Opponents of 1391 have ranged from the Drug Policy Alliance to the American Civil Liberties Union. In July, Tennessee resident Mallory Loyola, 26, became the first woman arrested under the law: two days after giving birth to her daughter, who tested positive for methamphetamine, the 26-year-old Loyola was charged with assault.

3. Bill 2566: Tennessee’s “Turn Away the Gays” Bill

Marriage licenses for same-sex couples are now being issued in around 20 states, including all the New England states and every Pacific state except Alaska. With courts striking down bans on gay marriage in many parts of the U.S., states prohibiting gay marriage will soon be a minority. Those facts are not lost on the Christian Right, which reasons that if they cannot stop gay rights from advancing in New England or the Pacific Northwest, they can fight them in the Bible Belt. In Tennessee, State Sen. Mike Bell (a Republican) sponsored Bill 2566, which would have allowed businesses to refuse to serve gay couples on religious grounds. Under 2566 (which gay activists called the Turn Away the Gays Bill), businesses that refused to serve same-sex couples would have been protected from lawsuits. The bill was withdrawn, but the fact that Bell introduced it in the first place shows how quick southern Republicans can be to pander to the Christian fundamentalist fringe.

4. Alabama and Louisiana Admitting Privileges Laws

In 2013, Alabama Republican Gov. Robert J. Bentley signed into law a bill similar to Mississippi’s Law 1390: the Alabama law states that any doctor performing abortions in that state must have admitting privileges in a local hospital. Alabama has more abortion clinics than Mississippi (five altogether), but when the ACLU filed a suit against the law, it asserted it would have the effect of forcing clinics in Mobile, Birmingham and Montgomery to close and leave only the clinics in Tuscaloosa and Huntsville open. In May, the Louisiana State Legislature passed an admitting-privileges bill of its own (which Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law into June). Planned Parenthood fears the law could result in three of Louisiana’s abortion clinics having to close.

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1. It's comforting to see Tennessee, with a governor whose family-owned business has gotten a lot of

bad press over nefarious, alleged illegal business practices, leads the pack in cruel, inhumane laws to punish the unwashed wrongdoers. Go Tennessee. Go USA.