[direwolf]

Pretty scary and depressing article on Trump's executive order to restrict reproductive rights.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...rchers-w462977

The consequence of this rule is devastating. Health clinics of all types that receive U.S. aid money will be faced with a choice: either stop providing patients with necessary health care information, or stop receiving money from the United States. Neither choice is good, as both result in an increase in health risks for patients. Without U.S. funding, clinics may have to shut down, meaning people will not be able to get care that will prevent HIV, manage sexually transmitted diseases and access contraception. If they take the funding, the clinic will have to stop talking about abortion in any way, meaning patients will resort to their own devices to find safe abortion care – something that is difficult in many countries.

The most widespread effect of the law is that women who receive their health care through Medicaid cannot use that insurance plan to pay for an abortion. Without insurance, women are faced with exactly the choice that Medicaid was designed to prevent: use money they would have otherwise have spent on on food, shelter or dependent care to get necessary health care, or go without that care. In the context of abortion, this means that one in four women enrolled in Medicaid who wants an abortion is forced to become a parent because she can't afford to pay for an abortion.

Also on Tuesday, Rep. Steve King introduced a bill that would ban abortions at six weeks, or once a fetal heartbeat is detected. This clearly unconstitutional bill would come very close to being a total ban on all abortion, as most women don't know they're pregnant until after six weeks.