A Woman's [Dwindling] Right To Choose

On Tuesday, abortion was the word of the day:

Federal Level

The House passed an anti-abortion bill that would limit nearly all abortions to the first 20 weeks after conception. The vote count, which broken down mostly along party lines, was 228-to-196.  (Note: only 19 of the 234 Republican House  members are women.) Most print news outlets reported that the measure has no chance of becoming law under the Obama administration because (1) it has not scheduled a vote on it, and (2) the White House issued a veto threat Monday, calling the bill an "assault on a woman's right to choose."

State Level

On the same day, the Texas Senate passed a bill that may result in massive closures of abortion clinics across the state.  The pending legislation requires abortions to be done in ambulatory surgical centers by doctors with admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic.  Only 5 out of 42 clinics meet the proposed guidelines.

Michigan, too, followed suit, when it's Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee approved legislation that could make it more difficult for a minor to end a pregnancy by abortion without parental consent.  As it stands, Michigan law bars clinics from performing an abortion on a minor without parental written consent (or a waiver from a judge).  This new law would close that supposed loophole, which supporters of the bill claim allows minors to "waiver shop," going to court multiple times until they find a judge willing to grant them permission.  The bill seeks to deny a minor from obtaining a waiver in family court if a previous judge denied a request involving the same pregnancy.

Lastly, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo conceded that "enshrining abortion rights more firmly into state law"--one of his top two priorities--were not likely to be taken up by the Legislature this year. 

Cuomo, a Democrat, has proposed passing an abortion measure as part of a 10-part Women's Equality Act.  His proposal was supported in the Democrat-controlled Assembly, but not in the more conservative Senate.  After a recent objection by Republicans to the abortion language of the Act, a bill was introduced Sunday omitting the abortion provision, which intended to codify the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling into state law.