War on women is still losing - By Joan Walsh

North Dakota’s ugly anti-abortion laws show the desperation of extremist groups as they focus on small states

BY JOAN WALSH

Well, the Republican Party is getting ready to do more outreach to women — once again using a transvaginal ultrasound to make sure they get the best reach. Just a week after RNC Chair Reince Priebus and friends urged their colleagues to “address concerns that are on women’s minds in order to let them know we are fighting for them,” North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple signed legislation that effectively bans abortion in his state.

One of the bills makes abortion illegal once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, normally around six weeks after conception, when many women don’t even know they’re pregnant yet. The law doesn’t specify the use of a vaginal ultrasound – those GOPers have gotten cagy — but since that’s the most reliable way to detect a fetal heartbeat, it almost certainly would be used. Another bill bans abortion in cases of genetic defects. Maybe the most dangerous one imposes new regulations on the state’s lone abortion provider, Red River Women’s Clinic, designed to put it out of business.

Let’s be clear: These laws aren’t designed to eliminate abortion. They’re trying to eliminate safe abortion. When abortion is criminalized, desperate women still find ways to end their pregnancies, often turning to unsafe, illegal practitioners.

It’s also clear that the fetal heartbeat law is unconstitutional, since the Supreme Court has placed fetal viability at 22 to 24 weeks. Dalrymple admitted as much when he signed the bill. “Although the likelihood of this measure surviving a court challenge remains in question,” he told reporters, “this bill is nevertheless a legitimate attempt by a state legislature to discover the boundaries of Roe v. Wade.”

-snip-

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/28/this_is_what_losing_looks_like/