John Cole - editorial cartoonist for The Times-Tribune, and is syndicated nationally by Cagle Cartoons.
This year's NC General Assembly was exceedingly tough on women. Sure, the bills had pandering titles like the "Women and Children's Protection Act", but these bills created additional obstacles to the availability and quality of reproductive healthcare and the right to choose.
Click HERE to read a comprehensive list on the truth of what happened in the realm of Women's Rights in the 2015 North Carolina Legislative session. But a few of the highlights (or very low-lights as it were) are as follows:
Does that sound like laws that empower women, or does it sound like one that shames and punishes them? It greatly discounts all progress the state has made in reducing teen pregnancy by scraping the very programs that have helped.
Be sure to read the full article by NC Policy Watch:
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/10/21/tolling-the-damage-to-reproductive-freedom-from-the-2015-general-assembly/
Click HERE to read a comprehensive list on the truth of what happened in the realm of Women's Rights in the 2015 North Carolina Legislative session. But a few of the highlights (or very low-lights as it were) are as follows:
- A 72-hour waiting period for a pregnancy termination means an undue burden on women forced into two trips to a clinic, 2 absences from work, and additional childcare.
- Additional burden on doctors to submit more info to DHHS.
- This bill will prevent women from having the choice to donate tissue, even if the fetus has a rare disease and donation could help research find a cure for that very disease in the future.
- Thanks to Senate Bill 279 basically anyone can teach sex education in public schools to the "values of the community," which could mean absolutely anything.
- At the same time, state funding has been completely cut off for medically accurate and comprehensive sex ed programs provided by Planned Parenthood that have been shown to reduce teen pregnancy rates in the state.
Does that sound like laws that empower women, or does it sound like one that shames and punishes them? It greatly discounts all progress the state has made in reducing teen pregnancy by scraping the very programs that have helped.
Be sure to read the full article by NC Policy Watch:
http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/10/21/tolling-the-damage-to-reproductive-freedom-from-the-2015-general-assembly/