The Carpetbagger Can't Stop Criming

You almost get the impression he has no more respect for Kentucky laws and Kentucky courts than he does for Kentucky voters.

From the AP:

Gov. Matt Bevin's office was ordered Monday to pay Planned Parenthood for its expenses after the Republican's representatives were a no-show for a deposition in an abortion case.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Whalin told Bevin's office to reimburse Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky for travel and legal expenses incurred for the deposition that had been scheduled Aug. 18.

Planned Parenthood's legal team wanted to question someone from Bevin's office about his administration's denial of a license to the organization to provide abortions in Louisville.

The deposition was rescheduled ahead of a trial held in September in the abortion case. Another federal judge has not yet ruled on the abortion licensing dispute.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article181768156.html#storylink=cp Gov. Matt Bevin’s office violated Kentucky’s Open Records Act when it refused to provide an Arizona attorney with some of the emails it exchanged with the White House, according to a new ruling by Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office.
Spencer Scharff, a civil rights attorney in Phoenix who previously served as voter protection director of the Arizona Democratic Party, said in a telephone interview Monday that he has been seeking similar information from other governors and state officeholders across the country “in the name of transparency and to help journalism.”
Amanda Stamper, a spokeswoman for Bevin, accused Beshear of abusing his power for political gain.
“Just last year, a long-time employee in his office accused Attorney General Beshear of politicizing open records decisions,” Stamper said Monday. “Simply put, we will not be a part of Attorney General Beshear’s abuse of the Open Records Act.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article181721956.html#storylink=cpy

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin’s office violated Kentucky’s Open Records Act when it refused to provide an Arizona attorney with some of the emails it exchanged with the White House, according to a new ruling by Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office.

Spencer Scharff, a civil rights attorney in Phoenix who previously served as voter protection director of the Arizona Democratic Party, said in a telephone interview Monday that he has been seeking similar information from other governors and state officeholders across the country “in the name of transparency and to help journalism.” 

Amanda Stamper, a spokeswoman for Bevin, accused Beshear of abusing his power for political gain.

“Just last year, a long-time employee in his office accused Attorney General Beshear of politicizing open records decisions,” Stamper said Monday. “Simply put, we will not be a part of Attorney General Beshear’s abuse of the Open Records Act.”

Another non-denial denial from Governor Smirky.  They don't deny they violated the law; they just attack the elected official for doing his job.

But who cares about Kentucky? To Governor I Got Mine Fuck You, Kentucky's just a bunch of unsophisticated rubes and rednecks barely sufficient to serve as a political stepping stone to the White House. 

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article181721956.html#storylink=cpy

Last KY Abortion Clinic Fighting for Life

Yes, Life.  The lives of women suffering from malignant unwanted pregnancies.  Scratch that redundancy: all unwanted pregnancies are malignant.

Yes, Malignant, as in Tumor.  Until it takes a breath outside the womb, it's a tumor.  Dictionary definition: a collection of rapidly growing cells endangering the health and life of the host.  That's what a fetus, an embryo, a blastocyst, a sperm-penetrated egg is:  a tumor.

Yes, Clump of Cells.  Not a baby.  Not a child.  Not a "preborn" anything. Not a human being of any description.

Which is why anyone attempting to deny the bodily autonomy of a woman by restricting abortions is a sex-terrified, woman-hating, freakazoid piece of shit who should have been drowned at birth.  Which would be murder. Unlike abortion, which is simple removal of a malignant tumor.

Deborah Yetter at the Courier:

Gov. Matt Bevin's administration is seeking to shut down Kentucky's only abortion provider, prompting a federal lawsuit by the clinic to block the move it says would have “a devastating impact on women.”

Bevin’s administration has ordered the EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville to stop providing abortions starting Monday, claiming it lacks proper agreements for patient care in the event of a medical emergency.

EMW's lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Louisville, calls the order "blatantly unconstitutional" and asks a federal judge to bar the Bevin administration from revoking the EMW clinic's license.

"They've made it clear they won't stop until no woman can get an abortion in Kentucky," said Donald L. Cox, a lawyer for EMW. "It's just an attempt to ban abortion in Kentucky."

A Bevin spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment.

SNIP

But EMW, joined in its lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, said the clinic already complies with the law and says that if the state succeeds in forcing it to close, “abortion will be effectively banned in the commonwealth.”

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to temporarily block state efforts to stop abortions at EMW. It says the clinic has patients scheduled and an abrupt shutdown would deprive them of their right to the procedure.

SNIP

The state's new finding that the agreements are deficient amounts to a "bureaucratic sleight of hand," said Brigitte Amiri, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. "This is an attempt to ban abortion in Kentucky, plain and simple. We are fighting to keep this from happening."

SNIP

The dispute comes amid EMW's legal challenge to a new state law requiring doctors providing abortions to first perform an ultrasound and attempt to show and describe the image of the fetus to the patient. EMW and the ACLU argue the law passed in January by the General Assembly is unconstitutional.

The United States of Misogyny

Via LGM:

The Resistance: Every Protest Counts

So the freakazoids and misogynists could only come up with 12 people to protest at Lexington's Planned Parenthood.

Supporters of women, children and healthcare got out there anyway.  Six of them, but that was enough to keep the motherfuckers from falsely claiming they had no opposition.

A protest is a protest, no matter how small.

From the Herald:

A small crowd gathered in front of Planned Parenthood on Southland Drive in Lexington on Saturday morning for opposing rallies.

About 20 people, including some children, lined the sidewalk for a Defund Planned Parenthood rally, while about half a dozen counter-protesters came out to show their support for the organization.

“I feel like it’s important to speak up for those that are victims (sic) of abortion,” said Judith Lund, who held a tiny model of a 12-week-old fetus. “That kind of helps me to keep in mind those who have been killed (sic).”

The only victims of abortion are women who need them and can't get them, or who are forced to get lethal back-alley abortions because people like you, Judith Lund, support forced-birth laws.

The only people who have been killed because of abortion are the women who die from wire hangar abortions and from forced birth, which is hundreds of times more dangerous than abortion.

Also, I seriously doubt the "model" you held accurately represents a 12-week old fetus, because a 12-week-old fetus does not look remotely human.

Self hatred is so sad.   

Other protesters carried signs that said “Stop Abortion Now” and “Planned Parenthood Lies to You.”

The projection is positively trumpian.

Joanne Brown was part of the opposing group, which stood in a median a few yards away.

She said she was inspired to become a nurse practitioner focusing on women’s health by a nurse practitioner who “provided kind, compassionate care and was a wonderful role model” to her at a Planned Parenthood facility when she was 19. She said the organization was a source of “contraceptives, education and preventive care.”

“That’s what Planned Parenthood does,” she said. “I came out today to defend Planned Parenthood and show my support.”

The local Planned Parenthood office, which was not open during the rallies on Saturday, does not provide abortions.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article132177884.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/counties/fayette-county/article132177884.html#storylink=cpy

Gov. "Forced Birth for All the Bitches" Bevin Orders Doctors to Rape Their Patients

Do not fall for the euphemism: "ultrasound" before an abortion refers to jamming a mechanical object deep into a woman's body against her will.  That's Object Rape, and that's what Bevin signing this bill requires.

From the media advisory:

Gov. Matt Bevin will ceremonially sign two historic pro-life measures during the Kentucky Right to Life Association’s annual “Rally for Life” at the Capitol on Wednesday. 
 

More than a dozen state legislators and pro-life advocates from across the Commonwealth will participate in the event, as Gov. Bevin commemorates the recently enacted Senate Bill 5 (protecting unborn children after 20 weeks of gestation) and House Bill 2 (requiring an ultrasound before a pregnancy is terminated), which both passed with broad bipartisan support in the General Assembly.

Yes, Kentucky DINOs are cowardly, misogynistic pieces of shit.  What else is new?

Not this:

State-sanction rape is not enough for Stan "Nobody can have sex that I don't approve of" Lee.

From the Courier:

Many conservatives have touted "defunding" Planned Parenthood as a goal for years, but a new bill targeting that organization potentially could affect a wider range of groups, including churches, if Kentucky's Republican-run legislature approves it.

House Bill 149 would prohibit public funds from going to any organizations or individuals that provide abortion services or are affiliates of that type of group. It includes exceptions for hospitals, universities and medical schools.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Stan Lee, R-Lexington, said it targets Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, which currently doesn't provide abortions in the state. Critics say the legislation could prevent other organizations from getting public money.

"This legislation is directed at essentially defunding Planned Parenthood," Lee said. “This was designed to ... make sure there wasn’t a way for them to kind of sidestep this requirement, get around it and obtain funding.”

Lee said he filed HB 149 because he didn't think a similar bill in the state Senate went far enough in terms of preventing Planned Parenthood from getting a shot at public funding.

Under his bill, an organization wouldn't have to perform abortions to be considered an abortion-services provider. The bill says abortion services also include providing referrals to or information about facilities where abortions are performed as well as "providing counseling, advice, written materials or other information that encourages or promotes abortion."

 

Yeah, it's an unconstitutional gag rule and completely typical of Stan "No saying anything I don't want you to say" Lee.

 

Somebody need to start counting the bodies of all the Kentucky women who now cannot get health care anywhere.

The Resistance: Rally For the Issues You Care About

Meanwhile, here in Kentucky, our all-repug General Assembly is preparing legislation to make the national fascist trainwreck look like a liberal festival.

Don't let them think you don't care and aren't going to fight.

From the ACLU:

The General Assembly returns from break soon, and we're preparing to challenge legislation that seeks to limit reproductive freedom and legalize discrimination against LGBT Kentuckians.

There are three upcoming opportunities to meet with your legislators and raise your voice on these important issues.

I ♥ Repro Rights Lobby and Rally Day Tuesday, February 14
Kentucky State Capitol
700 Capital Avenue Bay
Frankfort, KY 40601 Register using Google Docs

Kentucky Fairness Lobby and Rally Day Wednesday, February 15
Kentucky State Capitol
700 Capital Avenue Bay
Frankfort, KY 40601 Register using Google Docs

Ally Event: Refugee & Immigrant Day at the Capitol Thursday, February 16
Kentucky State Capitol
700 Capital Avenue Bay
Frankfort, KY 40601 Register at the SurveyMonkey website

If we learned anything from the first week of the session, legislators are rushing bills through the legislative process faster than ever before. It's important they answer questions and hear feedback from their constituents before these measures are signed into law. Let's build on all the great energy from the Women's March and pack the Capitol three days in a row — February 14, 15, and 16.

The Resistance: Funding Abortion

From Zandar:

The Dutch government says it will launch a global fund to help women access abortion services to counter NGO aid cuts announced by the Trump regime yesterday.

We're going to have to smuggle abortion pills and transport minors across state lines very soon.

The Resistance: Rally for Reproductive Rights TOMORROW in Frankfort

Capitol Rotunda, 1 p.m. BE THERE.

From the ACLU:

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky and the ACLU of Kentucky will need you January 4th and 5th at the State Capital. Come and join us to show that the Commonwealth will not stand for attacks on its people. We need send a clear message that we will not back down and we will not go back!

Thursday, January 5 1:00PM

We ARE Kentucky: Days of Action for Repro Rights Rally Day  

The cafeteria in the annex basement will be our staging area:

10:30AM Lobby Training
10:45AM Direct Action Training
11AM-12:45AM On your own lobby legislators, grab lunch
1:00PM Rally in the Capitol Rotunda

Fill out this coalition registration form to receive additional information:  https://docs.google.com/a/nyu.edu/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc_F-lX9XfJMspd9KnDwFR3TsuF49tZFscShNoORlFKnpWTqg/viewform?c=0&w=1

Carpool information:

Louisville carpool will leave from Von Maur end of Oxmoor Mall at 11:15AM
For those in Lexington a bus will depart at 9:30am sharp from the Fayette Mall near Dillards at 3625 Nicholasville Rd. Please arrive by 9:15am to ensure that we leave on time.

The Resistance: Lawsuits

Donate to your favorite mouthpieces now:  ACLU, Planned Parenthood, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Human Rights Campaign, Southern Poverty Law Center and more

 

Wonkette:

Taking a page from the GOP playbook, Democrats are getting ready to stall, sue, and resist Republican and Trump policies now that the crooks and cranks from the fringes of politics are being pulled in and propped up.

And Fuck Pink, Too

The very LAST thing the fight against cancer needs is more "awareness."  Especially when that "awareness" is not only raising money not for cancer research or treatment but for anti-woman, anti-choice lobbying groups; not only pink-washing corporations seeking cover for their crimes, but also allowing the companies who actually manufacture the poisons that cause breast cancer to skate off the hook entirely.

PZ Myers:

(I)t’s as if daubing pink paint on something suddenly makes it an accomplishment in cancer research.

So we had pink drill bits. Fracking for the cure!

Pink fighter jets! Strafing and bombing for the cure!

 

They cut support for Planned Parenthood! Who needs mammograms and education when you’ve got drill bits and bullets?

Susan G. Komen has long held deep ties with right wing groups. Now we learn that another aspect of those ties is that they have scheduled major fund raising events at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.

Komen has held their annual “Perfect Pink Party” at Mar-a-Lago since 2011, and Trump has attended throughout the years. The AP reported today that the party is still planned for January 2017, and that the organization won’t make a final decision about whether to go ahead — or cancel and lose the deposit — until after October. Komen spokesperson Andrea Rader declined to comment beyond the AP story.

The AP also reported that two alleged instances of Trump touching women inappropriately occurred at Mar-a-Lago.

There’s also this little gem.

Nancy Brinker, who is the founder and chair of Global Strategy for the Komen Foundation [but who is currently on leave] endorsed Trump earlier this year.

Trump’s support among women is dismally low — this is a thug who thinks women need to be punished for getting an abortion — and yet Komen doesn’t think this is enough of a problem that they should distance themselves from him.

I’ll never donate to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, and I don’t see how they can stop their slide into irrelevance at this rate. I’m just waiting for the Republicans to slap a coat of pink paint on their logo to show that they are pro-woman. It’s the least they could do.

Bevin Gets Stomped by Planned Parenthood

Oh, man, I can't wait to see what unconstitutional shit the forced birthers in the Kentucky General Assembly come up with to try to get around the new judicial consensus in favor of abortion RIGHTS.

From the Courier:

A Jefferson Circuit Court judge has tossed out a lawsuit by Gov. Matt Bevin's administration against Planned Parenthood that alleged the reproductive health organization illegally provided abortions at its new clinic in downtown Louisville.

In dismissing the lawsuit filed by Bevin's general counsel, Steve Pitt, Judge Mitch Perry found that Planned Parenthood had, as it had claimed, been following directions of state officials when it began offering abortions in December as part of its effort to obtain a state license.

Lawyer Thomas Clay, who represents Planned Parenthood, said his clients were "very pleased" with the decision.

"It remains to be seen whether the Bevin will accept this decision or whether it will seek appellate review," Clay said.

You mean appellate review to the new pro-abortion majority on the Supreme Court?  Is Gov. Pants Shitter that eager for a beatdown from Notorious RBG and Sonia "Supreme" Sotomayor?

Go ahead, motherfucker. 

KY's Austerity Budget Not As Bad as Bevin Will Make It

Kentucky governors have a line-item veto.  Top of Bevin's cut list has to be the funding the General Assembly protected for Planned Parenthood. As long as Governor Lying Coward is in office, we're still all fucked.


From the Courier:

House and Senate negotiators finally reached agreement Thursday morning on a 2016-18 state budget that will infuse the state’s troubled pension funds with more than a billion new dollars but slash funding for state universities by 4.5 percent.

SNIP

The two top legislative leaders gave a few major details of the agreement. They said it:

* Does not cut the many support programs for K-12 education such as preschool, textbooks, safe schools and extended school services. Bevin's proposal would have subjected these programs to 9 percent cuts.

* Does include a modified version of the House's priority "Work Ready" scholarships. To qualify, students would have to take at least 15 credit hours a semester and maintain a grade point average of at least 2.5. The new program is expected to cost about $25 million over the next two years.

* Does include a modified provision for performance-based funding for state universities and community colleges. Stivers and Stumbo gave no details of how much of university funding will be based on performance and when it will start.  Stumbo said, "It's sufficient enough to, I think, ensure that performance-based funding will be something that the universities will have to adhere to."

* Does establish a reserve fund called the "Permanent Fund" that Stivers said will be the depository of certain surplus funds and use them to stabilize the particular state pension funds with the greatest need. The leaders did not say how much money will go to this fund.

* Does include cuts of a bit less than 4.5 percent to funding for state constitutional offices such as attorney general and secretary of state. This is less than the 9 percent cuts sought by Bevin.

* Does not include money to hire more public defenders and social workers that Bevin sought in his budget.

.* Will transfer about 60 percent of coal severance tax revenues back to coal counties. Currently, the coal counties get back half of these revenues. The House proposed that, over time, 100 percent be sent back to the coal counties.

* Allows the Executive Branch Ethics Commission to raise registration fees it charges lobbyists to more than offset the effect of  the budget's cut in the state appropriation to the commission.

* Does not include a provision Bevin wanted to eliminate the requirement to pay prevailing wage on public construction projects.

* Does not include a provision Bevin wanted to cut public funding to Planned Parenthood.

Matt Bevin Admits Lying About Planned Parenthood; Fails to Write 8-figure Check in Apology

Pay Up, Motherfucker.  A nice, round, $10 million right out of that lying libertarian billionaire pocket of yours.  Oh, and another $5 million to cover the ACLU's legal costs to drag your lying, worthless ass into court. Also another $1 million apiece to every woman who needed and wanted an abortion from Planned Parenthood and couldn't get it because Governor Lying Coward was lying. Again. Still. Always.

From WDRB:

 Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin says Planned Parenthood in Louisville was given permission to perform abortions, but it was still illegal.

False.  Abortion in this country is LEGAL. Screaming tantrums by state officials don't make it otherwise.

SNIP

“In this particular case, the Inspector General not once but twice authorized Planned Parenthood to commence operations in anticipation of receiving the license,” said Planned Parenthood attorney Thomas Clay.

But the original lawsuit says Mynear, who left the job in January, acted "without authority" and calls her a "sympathetic advocate willing to ignore the law." The response filed on Thursday reiterated that point.

“It certainly appears to me that they are acknowledging that Planned Parenthood began operations with the express authorization of the person who was allowed to let them commence operations,” Clay said.

Since the initial lawsuit was filed, University of Louisville Hospital has canceled a mandatory agreement to provide emergency care for women at the clinic.

Clay believes the hospital was pressured by the Governor’s office to end that agreement. General Counsel for the Governor denied that claim in a statement saying, “…No one in this administration put any pressure on anyone."

The Planned Parenthood facility has not performed an abortion since that lawsuit was filed.

How Abortion Saves Lives

One life that could have been saved by abortion, and another that may still be.

First, a Louisville teen so denied the facts about sexuality, contraception and abortion that she gave birth in a toilet and was so terrified someone would find out that she killed the infant.

Matthew Glowicki at the Courier:

The teenage mother who police say killed her newborn girl last summer told police in an interview she gave birth to the child unexpectedly and then smothered her.

Visiting her grandmother who was ill at Jewish Hospital on July 22, then-15-year-old Jasmine Wade felt something in her stomach. She went to the bathroom, sat on the toilet and gave a slight push, she said.

“Something just came out, and I had looked down and … it was a baby,” she tells them and begins to cry.

She picked her up and held the child in her hands.

“I didn’t believe it was happening,” she told the two Louisville Metro Police detectives interviewing her from her hospital bed later that day, as detailed in police evidence recently filed in Jefferson Circuit Court by prosecutors.

SNIP

 

“Why did u kill her” the friend asked.

“I had to. i had no choice.”

Precisely.  Governor Lying Coward closed the only place in Kentucky that offered education, contraception and early abortion to low-income teenage girls. Planned Parenthood would have saved her by helping her avoid pregnancy or by ending it by removing a microscopic clump of cells.

Instead, we have a dead infant and and might-as-well-be-dead-teenager, who will be spending the rest of her life in prison.

Meanwhile, a Kentucky woman with a much-wanted and cherished pregnancy is faced with the likelihood of giving birth to a microcephalic "infant," which has no chance at a remotely human life.

From the Herald:

The Kentucky Department of Health says it has confirmed the state's third case of the Zika virus in a pregnant woman.

A statement from the agency on Friday said the woman, who is from the Louisville area, tested positive for the disease after traveling to Central America in recent months. She has recovered from the illness.

The mosquito-borne virus, which is spreading in Latin America and the Caribbean, normally causes only mild symptoms.

Health officials are investigating whether there is a link between Zika infections in pregnant women and a rare birth defect called microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads.

That means profound permanent retardation rendering them unable to ever feed, clothe or clean themselves, much less communicate.

Unless that woman has private insurance and a rational, non-freakazoid doctor, she's in for a lifetime nightmare.

The kind that Indiana Governor Steve Pence is forcing on the doomed women of his state.

Republican Gov. Mike Pence has signed a bill making Indiana the second state to ban abortions because of fetal genetic abnormalities such as Down syndrome.

Yes, there is an alternative to these horrors.  Encourage more new doctors like this one, who is determined to fulfill her Hippocratic Oath by providing abortions.

We live in a country where roughly half of all pregnancies are unplanned, so there are, unsurprisingly, many women who become pregnant and choose not to give birth. We know that about one in three women will have an abortion by age 45. Is this number, as some have argued, too high? In the 1990s, the Clinton administration popularized the notion that abortion ought to be "safe, legal, and rare." I understand this sentiment, but I think this misses the point. There are a great number of ways to reduce abortion rates. Some of which, as I would argue we have seen in the past couple of decades, do not promote the health and reproductive autonomy of women.

 

Moreover, insisting single-mindedly that abortion should be "rare" further stigmatizes the one in three women who will make this decision. From a public health perspective, the end-all objective should not be to reduce abortion rates, but instead to further empower more women to make informed reproductive choices.

This may seem like a trivial distinction, but it is the difference between an agenda that conforms women's health to socially accepted standards and an agenda that truly promotes the health of women.

Bevin's War on Kentucky's Women

Shame on you, Herald-Leader. You've just lost your right to claim First Amendment for anything, after refusing to defend your Pulitzer-Prize-winning cartoonist's completely accurate and fair depiction of how Governor Lying Coward is destroying the commonwealth.

Zandar:

Pulitzer Prize-winning Lexington Herald-Leader cartoonist Joel Pett takes on Planned Parenthood's fate in Bevinstan:



The LHL pulled the cartoon before it went to print.  Can't piss off the Gov, even if he has let women in Kentucky have it.  Pett posted it anyway.  And yes, Pett has run afoul of Governor Bevin before.

I wonder if Bevin will lay down any more unconstitutional and open threats against Pett like he did back in November, despite the First Amendment clearly being on Pett's side here.

We'll see.

Governor Lying Coward Tells More Lies in Cowardly Attack on Planned Parenthood

Really, motherfucker? You really think a baseless lawsuit against Acorn Planned Parenthood is going to vault you into the White House in 2020? 

FRANKFORT, Ky (Feb. 18, 2016) - Governor Matt Bevin today announced that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services has filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, Inc. for operating a facility in which 23 abortions were performed unlawfully from December 3, 2015 through January 28, 2016.

False. Abortion is legal in this country, and no amount of harassing, unnecessary rules can make it not legal.  Don't libertarians and repugs hate government regulations? Because they interfere with small business?  The almighty Free Market demanded abortion services in Louisville.  How dare Faux-Bro Bevin defy the holy market?

James Bruggers at the Courier on Jan. 31:

Gov. Matt Bevin's heated statement issued Friday evening accused Planned Parenthood of providing "illegal abortions," and accused the health care nonprofit of admitting it had violated state law.

But Planned Parenthood on Saturday countered by adamantly saying it made no such admission.

"We did not perform illegal abortions," said Betty Cockrum, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky. "We worked in good faith ... following Kentucky precedent" when it comes to licensing of its new Louisville facility, she said.

The only mistake Planned Parenthood made was suspending its abortion care while Governor Lying Coward finished his hissy fit.  Which isn't over yet.

KY Repug Senate Votes to Kill Poor Women and Their Children

Because that's what cutting Planned Parenthood funding does.

From the LRC:

The state Senate has passed legislation intended to curb the flow of non-Medicaid, state-administered tax dollars to Planned Parenthood clinics in Kentucky.

Dubbed the “Defunding Planned Parenthood Legislation,” Senate Bill 7 passed by a 33-5 vote on Tuesday. The bill now goes to the House of Representatives for consideration. 

 It's the "Killing Poor Women and Their Children Legislation," and here's why:

What terrorists like Dear and Republicans in Congress want is basically the same: to shut down Planned Parenthood and deny women access to abortions. If they got their wish, it would serve only to make poor women poorer and increase the number of unintended pregnancies.

Indeed, unintended pregnancies are already concentrated among low-income women, an imbalance that has been increasing. The rate of such pregnancies among women with incomes below the poverty line jumped 56 percent from 1994 to 2008, while for higher-income women it actually fell by 24 percent. In 2008, the unintended-pregnancy rate for poor women was more than five times that of the most well-off. All of this means that poor women have higher rates of unplanned births as well as abortions—six times and five times higher, respectively—than women at the other end of the income scale. Poor women also have fewer places to turn for affordable contraception and reproductive care—except for organizations like Planned Parenthood.

Taking away the option to seek an abortion would not just infringe on the constitutional rights of poor women; it would almost certainly make them poorer. If Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that made abortion legal throughout the country, were overturned and states were allowed to implement their own bans, poorer nonwhite women would see their abortion rates decline more significantly, according to researchers. In part, this would be due to the simple problem of having to travel long distances just to reach a clinic.

Current research already tells us what happens to women who want an abortion but can’t get one. Women who seek to terminate a pregnancy but are turned away are three times more likely to fall below the poverty line over the following two years than women who successfully get an abortion. They are also more likely to end up unemployed and to rely on government benefits to get by. Women themselves already know this: Among the main reasons they cite for seeking the procedure is that they can’t afford to have a baby, and that doing so would interfere with their ability to work or gain an education.

Shutting down Planned Parenthood wouldn’t just affect access to abortion, of course. The group provides many other services to low-income women. Poor women are more likely to have sex without birth control—and access to affordable contraception would shrink further without the existence of Planned Parenthood. Among 491 counties with Planned Parenthood clinics, 103 have no other place where low-income patients can obtain affordable contraception.

Access to reproductive healthcare is certainly about women’s right to bodily autonomy. But doing away with that right also comes with devastating economic consequences, especially for those already at the bottom. Eliminating Planned Parenthood would create a vicious cycle of impoverishment and unwanted pregnancies for the most vulnerable women among us.

Just one year ago, Kentuckians could count on our Democratic-majority house of representatives to shit-can bills like this before our Democratic governor even got a chance to veto them.  No more.

The Kentucky House now has a bare one-vote majority and has already surrendered to the conservatard freakazoid repugs by passing anti-abortion legislation that for decades it has refused to even let out of committee.

From the LRC:

The first bill the 2016 General Assembly delivered to the governor would require a an in-person or real-time video conference between a woman seeking an abortion and a health care provider at least 24 hours before the procedure.

The state Senate gave final passage of “informed consent” legislation, also known as Senate Bill 4, as amended by the House of Representatives by a 33-5 vote today. On Thursday, the House amended SB 4 to include the video conference option, known as “telehealth.” Backers of the House amendment said the telehealth provision would eliminate the burden of women having to make an extra trip to a clinic that provides abortions.

We. Are. So. Fucked.

  

Guess Who Responded to Flint Water Crisis Months Before Anybody Else?

This is community action.  This is public service.  This is dedication.  This is simple humanity in the face of disaster.  This. Is. Planned Parenthood.

Think Progress:

The Planned Parenthood in Flint, in a modest brick building off a lonely stretch of highway, might not seem like an obvious first stop for a resident concerned about the strangely colored, bad smelling water that started coming out of taps in the city in early 2014.

But for those who work inside, tackling the issue of access to potable water was a no brainer once patients began voicing concerns. As a preventative health organization with deep roots in the local community, the conversation came naturally.

After hearing reports from their patients about chemicals in the water, the clinic sprang into action months before any state of emergency was declared, handing out water filters and teaching people how to use them.

“We’re more than just a reproductive health organization, we work for reproductive justice,” explained Christina Soliz, field organizer with Planned Parenthood of Mid and South Michigan. “Having access to clean, safe water is a reproductive justice issue. It affects your health. Families deserve better than this.”

“It fits right in,” agreed Sabrina Boston, the health center manager. Water is “a basic human right.”

SNIP

As the crisis continues to unfold — residents are still being tested for lead exposure, and the effects might not show up for years — Planned Parenthood will continue to focus on educating patients. But years of political attacks and austerity have gutted the resources it has at its disposal. Conservatives’ fixation on its abortion services has turned the organization into a political football. Presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who led the charge in the Senate to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood’s funding, launched his campaign’s water distribution efforts at Flint’s crisis pregnancy centers, which seek to divert women from Planned Parenthood with misleading or outright false information.

Michigan funding for pregnancy prevention — some of which goes to Planned Parenthood — has dropped from more than $7 million in 2001 to just a bit over $600,000 as of 2012, with the most dramatic cut in 2009 when it was reduced by more than 75 percent. The cuts came as Planned Parenthood has been specifically targeted by Michigan lawmakers: last year, the state House passed a bill banning the organization from receiving state funding, even though it doesn’t allocate any dollars to Planned Parenthood as it is.

“We’re seeing the effects of [austerity measures] in a lot of different places,” Tunde Olaniran, outreach manager, said. “In Flint, there was a drastic cut and we’re trying to slowly rebuild.”

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“People who walk in the door — they’re people, so we wanted to address something that was a huge issue,” Olaniran said. “We’re trying to make sure we care about the entire lives of people who come into our doors.”

KY Planned Parenthood Offers Abortions; I Dare Bevin to Fuck Up Again

Donate to these brave patriots right now. They are fighting for the human rights of every woman in Kentucky, and against the massed anti-woman forces of darkness.

Go on, Governor Wasting-Money-on-Losing-Causes, sue them.  Spend tens of millions of tax dollars you claim the state doesn't have to takes this all the way to the Supreme Court where Notorious RBG will slap the stupid right off your face.

Read and rejoice, beloveds.

Deborah Yetter at the Courier:

Planned Parenthood has begun offering abortions for the first time in Kentucky at a new health center it opened last month in downtown Louisville - a move that quickly inflamed political passions in Frankfort, where anti-abortion sentiment is strong among some lawmakers.

The news drew immediate fire from Gov. Matt Bevin, an anti-abortion Republican.

"They are openly and knowingly operating an unlicensed abortion facility in clear violation of the law," Bevin said in a statement. 

Oh, goody: Notorious RBG loves it when you commence lawsuits against legal medical care by lying, you motherfucking liar.

"We will use the full force of the commonwealth to put a stop to this. There is no room in Kentucky for this kind of blatant disregard for proper legal procedure."

A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman responded that the organization "applied for an abortion facility license and commenced services under the guidance of the Office of the Inspector General, the state office that is responsible for licensing health facilities."

That office is housed within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, part of state government. Planned Parenthood didn't say whether it had yet received the license, only that it followed the guidance of the licensing agency in beginning abortion services.

Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, or PPINK, said the decision to offer abortion services was based on women's medical needs, not politics.

"We knew we were functioning in a really important community where there's a great unmet need," Cockrum said.

She said Planned Parenthood officials considered the matter carefully before deciding to include surgical and non-surgical abortions (those induced by medication) among the health services at the new site on Seventh Street.

"It's a very important decision and absolutely you have to give much careful thought to it," Cockrum said.

Kentucky previously had only one abortion provider, a private clinic in Louisville that also operates a part-time clinic in Lexington.

SNIP

But supporters of abortion rights on Thursday hailed it as welcomed step.

"We believe Kentucky is vastly underserved when it comes to health care options for women," said Derek Selznick, reproductive freedom project director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.

And he noted that if the goal of opponents is to reduce abortion, Planned Parenthood helps achieve that through birth control services and family planning counseling it offers.

"I think they're part of the solution," Selznick said.

In a media release Thursday, PPINK said the center also offers cancer screenings, medical exams, birth control services, and testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.

SNIP

But Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, a Louisville Democrat and supporter of abortion rights, welcomed the news.

"Any time we have safe, legal health care services for women so desperately needed in this state, it's a step forward for women in Kentucky," she said.

Planned Parenthood, which previously operated from a  clinic on South Second Street, selected and designed its new location to accommodate abortion services. It is surrounded by privacy walls and fencing with a secured entrance.

At Louisville's other abortion clinic, patients must walk through abortion opponents who regularly protest at the storefront site on West Market Street.

KY Senate Repugs Find Another Way to Kill the Bitches

Because cancer screenings just make them think their lives might have value, and we know where that leads.

And of course they cited the fake abortion videos and of course they lied about Planned Parenthood so hard their tongues caught on fire.

John Cheves at the Herald:

A Senate committee overwhelmingly approved a bill Thursday intended to end state funding for family planning and women’s health services at Planned Parenthood clinics in Lexington and Louisville, which this fiscal year totaled $331,309.

Republican Sen. Max Wise of Campbellsville, sponsor of Senate Bill 7, said he was moved to act by “Planned Parenthood’s notorious history as an abortion provider.” None of Kentucky’s Planned Parenthood clinics provide abortions. But Wise’s bill seeks to block funding to clinics that offer abortion “referrals” or “counseling,” as Planned Parenthood does in the state.

SNIP
SB 7 proceeds to the Republican-led Senate, which is expected to pass it. The Democratic-led House traditionally has blocked bills that would restrict women’s access to abortion. House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, said Thursday that he has not reviewed Wise’s bill or a similar bill filed by House Republicans, so he had no comment.

Critics warned Thursday that Wise’s bill could imperil the $5.6 million the federal government gives to Kentucky annually in “Title X funds” for family planning and women’s health services at local health departments and other health clinics. The two Planned Parenthood clinics in Lexington and Louisville share in that funding.

Federal law requires that pregnant women served by Title X funds have the opportunity to hear medical information about abortion, including the “risks and benefits.” Other Title X services include birth control, pregnancy testing and counseling, examinations for sexually transmitted diseases and breast and cervical cancer screening.

Cutting Title X programs for low-income women to spite Planned Parenthood would lead to more unintended pregnancies in Kentucky, among many other health problems, said Derek Selznick, director of the Kentucky ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project.

“Essentially, they want to take away funds that prevent 6,000 abortions a year,” Selznick said.

Ashlee Bergin, a Louisville obstetrician-gynecologist, told the Senate committee that SB 7 is “bad medicine.”

“The legislature must not interfere with the doctor-patient relationship by dictating what health care information can be shared,” Bergin said. “My patients must be able to make medical decisions with knowledge of all options, and based on what’s right for themselves and their families.”