What’s that saying? The devil works hard, but anti-choice lawmakers trying to pass nonsense bills that give a fetus an attorney work harder?

That’s right folks, it’s time to check in on some anti-choice tomfoolery in the courts.
Last week the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked an Alabama law that would have required minors seeking an abortion to endure a trial-like hearing, complete with a lawyer to represent their fetus or embryo.
This lawyer would be allowed to cross-examine the minor on why they were seeking an abortion—as if they were representing an actual person and not, say, a cluster of cells.
You might be feeling a vague sense of deja vu reading this.

That’s probably because we were there when Alabama lawmakers first passed this law back in 2014: rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2014/1…
The "lawyers for fetuses" law has remained blocked since 2017.

It’s 2021 and the courts are *still* fighting over it.

That’s the legal landscape for abortion rights and access in this country even *without* a big fight at the Supreme Court later in the fall.
And lest you think this is just a problem for Alabamans, our own @AngryBlackLady wrote about a similar law introduced in Texas just this year: rewirenewsgroup.com/ablc/2021/02/1…
If you’re looking for a fun (not fun) thought experiment, ask yourself what kind of questions a lawyer for a fetus might ask.

Things like, "Do you think that fetus wants to be born?" or the classic, "What if it grows up to cure cancer?"
Like all abortion restrictions, laws requiring fetuses be represented in court have one end goal: restricting abortion. For more on these absurd measures and how advocates are pushing back, stay with us on Twitter and on Instagram @RewireNewsGroup.

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More from @RewireNewsGroup

9 Jul
Happy Friday, law nerds! We’re ending the week with some good news:

This week, Colorado lawmakers expanded access to reproductive health care for survivors of sexual violence and undocumented immigrants.
Jared Polis, @GovofCO, signed SB21-142 into law, ensuring that rape survivors who become pregnant can access abortion care anywhere in the state, and undoing a decades-old restriction that required them to travel to a clinic that Medicaid approved of.
“A patient’s income or ZIP code should never determine their access to quality health care...This new law eliminates additional stress, expense, and inequality.” —Dr. Kristina Tocce @PPRockyMountain vice president
Read 7 tweets
8 Jul
Here's a sentence we don’t get to say often: Last week we got some good news out of Indiana.

A federal judge blocked a new Indiana law that would have required providers to share outright false information with their patients about abortion.
Indiana lawmakers wanted to make providers talk about “abortion reversal”—specifically, to tell patients that they could reverse a medication abortion after they had taken the first of two doses.
This is an entirely bogus claim.

There is no scientific evidence that indicates a medication abortion can be reversed, and leading medical organizations oppose laws that require providers to discuss abortion reversal for that very reason.
Read 8 tweets
7 Jul
Hey, law nerds! We just dropped our final Boom! Lawyered podcast episode of this Supreme Court term—and possibly of democracy?

Don't miss this one: rewirenewsgroup.com/multimedia/pod…
🧵Some highlights:

@AngryBlackLady and @Hegemommy mark the one-year anniversary of the June Medical Services v. Russo decision.

And Imani accuses Jess of trying to murder her with a hammer at our smash room fundraiser, which you can catch up with here:
Jess and Imani also chat about what they like to call “SCOTUS sweaty season,” which as @AngryBlackLady pointed out, was not quite as sweaty as we expected it to be—despite the Court’s decision to hear potentially the most consequential abortion case in decades.
Read 6 tweets
6 Jul
Fellow law nerds! The time has come to bid adieu to another Supreme Court term.

From Amy Coney Barrett’s first time hearing oral arguments to the announcement that SCOTUS would be taking up the most consequential abortion case in decades, it was a doozy.
🧵To mark this momentous occasion, here's a look back at some of our best coverage of this SCOTUS term:
Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation seems but a distant memory at this point, but if there’s one thing about the ignominious justice, it’s that she was out of line from day one.

@Hegemommy and @AngryBlackLady said so in this episode of Boom! Lawyered:

rewirenewsgroup.com/multimedia/pod…
Read 15 tweets
29 Jun
Hi friends! @AngryBlackLady here. I want to talk about this for a minute:
An OB-GYN in Columbus, Ohio has a policy banning patients from wearing bonnets.

Considering the vast majority of women who wear bonnets are Black women, this bonnet ban is the sort of microaggressive racism that Black women face every day. It’s discriminatory.
A bonnet ban is an extension of the hair discrimination that Black women face regularly. Black women wear bonnets in order to protect our hair—rain and frizz, for example, can be the kiss of death for some Black women, especially those with chemically straightened hair.
Read 12 tweets
29 Jun
Whew! It’s been exactly a year since the Supreme Court shook @AngryBlackLady and @Hegemommy to their core by siding against Louisiana in June Medical Services v. Russo.

As yet another abortion fight looms at the Court, we’re looking back on the significance of the case.
June Medical Services was about a Louisiana law that required abortion providers to get admitting privileges at a local hospital.

These kinds of laws seem reasonable enough, but they are designed to force clinics to close.
Lawmakers claim that admitting privileges laws protect pregnant patients, but that is poppycock.

Due to abortion stigma and the Catholic takeover of hospitals, many hospitals refuse to grant admitting privileges to abortion providers. Lawmakers know this.
Read 13 tweets

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