Alabama governor signs bill to regulate abortion clinics like sex offenders

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Alabama’s Republican governor, Robert Bentley, signed a bill into law on Thursday that will regulate abortion clinics like sex offenders.

The bill, SB 205, could shut down two clinics in which the vast majority of the state’s abortions occur. One of the clinics, Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville, was temporarily closed in June 2014 as a result of Trap (targeted restriction on abortion provider) laws in the state when it was determined that the facility could not be retrofitted to comply with the laws’ building code regulations. Its new building, however, sits across the street from Huntsville’s Academy for Academics and Arts, a K-8 school, making it vulnerable once again to shutdown under the newly signed law.

SB 205 mandates that abortion clinics be more than 2,000ft (600 meters) from any public school serving children elementary through middle school age, the same kind of restriction required of registered sex offenders.

James Owens of Naral Pro-Choice America points out that there are no other laws on the books in Alabama, or any other state, regulating what kind of medical procedures can be done within a certain proximity of a school.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/12/alabama-abortion-clinics-schools-sex-offenders-bill

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Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy in Atlanta
Thursday 12 May 2016 23.11 BST

[uppityperson]

1. I know their reason is to stop any abortions, but this rule makes no sense.

[riversedge]

5. And the Repugs claim to be the party of less government and regulations, unless

of course, when it comes to women's bodies.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Of course it does.

It is aimed squarely at the one clinic which is adjacent to a school.

There a thousands of laws all over the country which are targeted at one or 2 specific "problems".

[Thinkingabout]

2. Republicans are just plain sick, obsessed, no wonder we cant get reasonable

Governing today, they are sick perverts.

[RKP5637]

4. There is really something mentally unstable about republicans, seriously. n/t

[houston16revival]

3. I'm not often left speechless

but here I am stumped

They will move the goal posts to suit their Bathroom, Bedroom, and Beyond

mentality wherever it leads them

Control of others through their own religious freedom

Is the true nature of God to force others into their way of thinking?

[yallerdawg]

7. One of the arguments for the school restriction...

was protesters typically carry offensive posters of abortions and fetuses and such which school children should not be exposed to.

Ban the offensive posters or shutdown the clinic?

Alabama legislators have been asked how a state this broke can afford ridiculous court costs when they know the Feds will toss this? They said no amount of money should stand in the way of saving baby lives!

Meanwhile, Alabama Medicaid is short $85,000,000. Which covers:

47.2 percent of Alabama’s children, or 563,000 children, are enrolled in Medicaid.

Alabama will lose $2.22 in federal matching funds for every $1.00 in state money it cuts from its Medicaid budget.

https://www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/federaladvocacy_medicaidfactsheet_alabama.pdf

[47of74]

8. I think that whole thing with residency restrictions on such offenders...

...was a dry run for shit like this. They needed to iron out the procedures and like so they targeted the one group that they could and not get too much blowback on.