Iowa won't pay for rape victims' abortions or contraceptives
Source: ABC News
The Iowa Attorney General's Office has paused its practice of paying for emergency contraception — and in rare cases, abortions — for victims of sexual assault, a move that drew criticism from some victim advocates.
Federal regulations and state law require Iowa to pay many of the expenses for sexual assault victims who seek medical help, such as the costs of forensic exams and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Under the previous attorney general, Democrat Tom Miller, Iowa's victim compensation fund also paid for Plan B, the so-called morning after pill, as well as other treatments to prevent pregnancy.
A spokeswoman for Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird, who defeated Miller's bid for an 11th term in November, told the Des Moines Register that those payments are now on hold as part of a review of victim services.
“As a part of her top-down, bottom-up audit of victim assistance, Attorney General Bird is carefully evaluating whether this is an appropriate use of public funds,” Bird Press Secretary Alyssa Brouillet said in a statement. “Until that review is complete, payment of these pending claims will be delayed.”
Florida bill would allow supporters of Confederate monuments to sue over their removal
TALLAHASSEE — Supporters of Confederate monuments and other historical markers could sue over removal or destruction of the displays, under a controversial proposal continuing to move forward in the Florida Senate.
In a 6-2 party-line vote, the Republican-controlled Community Affairs Committee on Wednesday backed the bill (SB 1096), which would give standing to people to file lawsuits if they believe they have “lost history” or the ability to teach about the past because of monuments being removed or relocated or because the structures were not protected from damage.
“What I like about these memorials in public places is that everybody has the opportunity to see who we were,” bill sponsor Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, said.
“The older the monument, the more important it is, because it provides a starting point for what our country began as, who led our country,” Martin added. “And looking around in modern-day America, especially many of our big cities, sitting even up here in the committee room, we can look around and see that our America looks a lot different than it did when any of these people who are depicted in monuments were running things."
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird (R), who replaced the state’s Democratic AG of 30 years in November, has paused Iowa’s sexual assault victim compensation fund’s long-time practice of covering emergency contraception and abortions for rape victims, the Des Moines Register reported on Friday. Per a statement from Bird’s spokesperson, the directive comes as part of Bird’s ongoing “top-down, bottom-up audit of victim assistance.”
“Attorney General Bird is carefully evaluating whether this is an appropriate use of public funds,” Alyssa Brouillet, Bird’s press secretary, said in a statement to the Des Moines Register. “Until that review is complete, payment of these pending claims will be delayed.”
Bird, who ironically ran on a platform of “protecting victims”—which she even writes in her Twitter bio—has been vocal about her anti-abortion views. She’s defending the state’s six-week ban in court, after longtime Democratic AG Tom Miller had refused to do so. Under Miller, the state’s victim compensation fund covered the full range of care survivors needed, including emergency contraception and abortion. Upon being elected, Bird asked Sandi Tibbetts Murphy, who directed the fund under Miller, to resign. “My concern is for the victims of sexual assault, who, with no real notice, are now finding themselves either unable to access needed treatment and services, or are now being forced to pay out of their own pocket for those services, when this was done at no fault of their own,” Tibbetts Murphy told the Des Moines Register.
Missouri officials refuse to work with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, saying all federal 'so-called' gun laws are unconstitutional
Katie Balevic https://www.businessinsider.com/missour ... reddit.com
Apr 9, 2023, 8:25 AM
Missouri officials in one county have refused to work with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, claiming that the government agency is unconstitutional.
Six top elected officials in Camden County signed a letter to the ATF saying as much, according to the NPR affiliate KCUR 89.3.
"Under the Anti-Commandeering Doctrine, Camden County was the first county in Missouri, and possibly in the country, to pass an ordinance prohibiting any county employee from assisting your unconstitutional agency in violating the rights of our citizens," Ike Skelton, the county's presiding commissioner, said in the letter.
According to the documents we reviewed, the Board plans on introducing a “Superior Authority” section to the RCID Land Development Regulations. The proposed new section would give the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District authority over not only District planning and regulations but also those of the cities of Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake. The new section, which would be section 7-20.13 of the RCID Land Development Regulations, ensures that the District has absolute authority over the “reviewing, processing, evaluating, commenting on and approving, approving with conditions or denying applications for development orders throughout the District, including within the jurisdictional limits of City of Lake Buena Vista and the City of Bay Lake.”
Another change within section 7 of the RCID Land Development Regulations seeks to replace the Planning Board, which is a separate Advisory Board within the District, with the Board of Supervisors. The amendment would replace the Planning Board as the “local planning agency” with the Board of Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors would then be able to make development decisions and the amendment says that DeSantis’ hand-picked Board would be “the final decision-making authority for the District” and that “no further administrative appeal is available” once the rubber stamp Board has made a decision.
"Don't Say Period": Now Florida wants to ban students from discussing menstruation
(Salon) House Bill 1069, also known as the "Don't Say Period" bill, which passed in Florida's Republican-controlled House at the end of March, means what you think it means.
The bill proposes banning any form of health education until sixth grade and would prohibit students from asking questions about menstruation, including about their own first periods, which frequently occur before the sixth grade. If passed by Florida's Senate and signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, the ban will be effective July 1.
In response, much has been written about the harms of depriving young people of information about their own changing bodies, and howin such a void, schools will instead be teaching a culture of shame.
It's a dizzying moment.
How do we make sense of a culture in which state-sponsored shame and ignorance is possible in the very same year that Hollywood is set to release the first major motion adaptation of Judy Blume's "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret," an ode to puberty and menstruation, ushering us into what critics have called a Judy Blume-aissance? ............(more)
“Missouri House Republicans voted to defund all of the state’s public libraries, in a proposed $45.6 billion state budget that will soon move to a vote in the GOP-controlled state Senate,” WCPT reports.
These republicans are literally promoting idiocy. These people want the population to be dumber then dog shit. They're a major threat to the future of this nation.
Ohio GOP aims to amend Ohio Constitution to preempt abortion rights efforts
Two Republican-backed bills making their way through the Ohio Statehouse would together pose a major threat to ongoing efforts to protect abortion access through the Ohio Constitution — though neither bill makes any mention of abortion.
They would do this by creating an August special election — months after Ohio lawmakers got rid of most August elections saying they were a waste of money — and putting a constitutional amendment before voters making it harder to amend the Ohio Constitution in the future, such as when the abortion-rights amendment would go before voters in November.
The bills have received scorn from state Democrats and groups like Ohioans for Reproductive Freedom and Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights, who are leading the initiative to codify legal abortion into the state constitution. The bills also have fanned the flames of factional feuds within the House GOP.
A lot is riding on the future of these two pieces of legislation between now and November, but it’s unclear how it will play out. This quick explainer will help you get up to date on House Joint Resolution 1 and Senate Bill 92 before it all unfolds possibly in the coming weeks.
