Fla. Anti-Abortion Bill Stopped In Senate
A poll commissioned by Planned Parenthood in Texas says voters want to keep the provider in the state's Women's Health Program while an anti-abortion bill in Florida is stopped in the Senate.
The Texas Tribune: Poll: Voters Want To Keep Planned Parenthood In WHP
Fifty-nine percent of likely Texas voters oppose Gov. Rick Perry's efforts to keep Planned Parenthood out of the joint state-federal Women's Health Program, while 38 percent approve, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling. But the poll — released as the reproductive health program circles the drain — is likely to have critics. It was sponsored by Planned Parenthood, whose clinics currently provide reproductive health care for 40 percent of the low-income women in the program. And some of the language in the poll questions is hotly debated by Republican lawmakers and abortion opponents, who say they are following federal law — not breaking it — by excluding from the Medicaid waiver program Planned Parenthood and other clinics under the same organizational umbrella as abortion providers (Ramshaw, 3/5).
The Miami Herald: Anti-Abortion Bill Halted In State Senate
A wide-ranging anti-abortion bill that stirred controversy in the House last week was blocked by the Senate Monday when a bipartisan coalition prevented the bill from being heard on the Senate floor. … The bill, SB 290, would have created a 24-hour waiting period for abortions and required new abortion clinics to be owned by physicians. Physicians also would have been required to take three hours of unspecified ethics training, among other provisions (Sanders and Klas, 3/5).
In the meantime, NPR talks to a Ga. state representative about her bill regulating male vasectomies --
NPR: Georgia Lawmaker: Women's Voices Not Being Heard
There has been a lot of talk about regulating abortion for women, but what if the tables were turned on men? That's what Georgia State Representative Yasmin Neal was thinking when she proposed legislation regulating male vasectomies. But critics say she just wants to attract media attention (Martin, 3/5).