#whpa

I keep telling you, zines are where the real heart and soul of this hobby reside. This week’s posts I think really emphasize that, but none more than WHPA Fairhaven (2021), from Get Haunted Industries. The idea here is to present a simple dice pooling skill system to power a game about public access TV personalities investigating local strange phenomenon. It is precisely as weird and cozy as you imagine, a jumbling of Pee-Wee Herman, pro-wrestling, X-Files and Weird Al’s UHF, with a distinctly Connecticut feel. The zine is perfect in it’s very narrow, very precise way, filled with ads and fuzzy photos. There are a number of companion books, each more silly and unsettling than the last.

Vanity Fair, “It’s Political Media vs. Comedians as White House Press Association Disavows Michelle Wolf.”

Comedian says something not-so-mean about White House press secretary’s makeup: waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

April Siese at Daily Kos (05.10.2022): 

Ahead of Wednesday’s Senate vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts slammed Republican extremism for leading the country to this moment in which a handful of Supreme Court justices have the power to enact a deeply unpopular policy that would ban abortions. Warren squarely placed the blame on the many mechanisms that emboldened Republicans to attack reproductive rights at the highest level. “We are here because Republican politicians have spent decades plotting for this moment,” Warren explained. “They have cultivated extremist judges. Groups like the Federalist Society have screened possible candidates and drawn up lists of which possible candidates could and could not be counted on. Extremist donors spent billions in dark money so that their preferred ideologues could chip away at people’s fundamental rights and do it from the bench. Republican candidates for office pledged to support justices who would get rid of Roe v. Wade. And finally, when all of that still wasn’t enough, Republicans stole two seats on the Supreme Court.”

Much has been written about how the Federalist Society has helped shaped the Supreme Court. The conservative legal organization founded in the 1980s found a way to infiltrate Ivy league institutions, paving an easy path for privileged Republicans interested in law to serve on courts across the country. As the years have gone by, the Federalist Society has benefitted greatly from donors and continued to expand its reach. Money from disconnected donors is one of the major factors driving this push against reproductive rights, and Warren said this shows that “Republican extremism has been carefully nurtured for years.” It also shows how inequality is at the heart of this issue: “Those with money will always have the option to leave the state or leave the country to travel where abortion is safe and legal,” Warren continued. “No, the people who will pay the biggest price will be the most vulnerable among us.”

Warren listed many examples of the hundreds of anti-abortion legislation being introduced across the country, including Louisiana’s horrifying attempt to criminalize abortion as homicide. Warren questioned where Republican extremism ends—if it does at all. “Will they investigate every miscarriage,” Warren asked. “Will they put every obstetrician and gynecologist on a watch list? Will they monitor location data of every person that pulls into a parking lot of a Planned Parenthood clinic?”

Carl Hulse at NYT: 

WASHINGTON — Republicans on Monday blocked the Senate from taking up sweeping abortion rights legislation as Democrats sought to put lawmakers on the record on the issue in advance of the midterm elections and a coming Supreme Court ruling on access to abortion.

Democrats fell 14 votes short of the 60 needed to bring the Women’s Health Protection Act to the floor for consideration after the House last September passed it on a narrow party-line vote. One Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, joined all Republicans in opposition to beginning debate on the measure.

Lawmakers said it was the first time that the Senate had voted on a separate bill to enact the constitutional protections of Roe v. Wade into law. The outcome was anticipated, but Democrats were determined to hold the vote as members of both parties draw battle lines over what is expected to be a major election-year issue. The conservative-dominated Supreme Court is set to rule later this year on a case that could undermine or overturn the landmark abortion decision.

“We want Americans to know where their legislators stand on this important issue,” said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the No. 3 Democrat and a leading backer of the abortion rights bill.

The measure would codify in federal law abortion rights that have long been protected by the 1973 court ruling. It was pursued by Democrats and abortion rights groups as a way to counter the increasingly severe abortion restrictions being enacted at the state level as well as the prospect of a high court ruling upholding tough new abortion limits in Mississippi and leaving in place a Texas law that has severely limited abortion in that state.

“People are counting on the Senate to do what the Supreme Court will not,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

About two dozen states have readied legislation that would immediately restrict abortion rights if the court upholds the Mississippi law, which bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, about two months earlier than Roe and subsequent decisions allow.

During Supreme Court arguments in December, conservative justices indicated a willingness to scale back, if not undo, the federal abortion protections and leave most of the regulation up to individual states. Democrats say the measure is needed to guarantee that women around the nation have equal access to abortion and to prevent states from imposing restrictions that are not medically necessary as a way to unconstitutionally curtail abortion.

[...]

Both sides are bracing for abortion rights to be a major issue in the November elections, particularly if a high court decision in May or June is seen as gutting Roe. While abortion has traditionally been seen as an issue that is a stronger motivator for conservatives, Democrats say that a court decision striking down Roe and the spread of new abortion restrictions around the nation could rally women voters and turn the issue in their favor.

Democrats did not try to disguise the fact that Monday’s vote was aimed at getting Republicans on the record.

Alanna Vagianos at HuffPost: 

Inside the Supreme Court on Wednesday, justices heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson, a potentially landmark abortion case involving Mississippi’s attempt to ban all abortions past 15 weeks of pregnancy. Experts agree, based on what some justices asked during arguments, that the Court’s conservative majority is prepared to not only uphold the Mississippi law but perhaps take an axe to the fundamental abortion rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade.

Outside, on the steps of the Supreme Court, lawmaker after lawmaker offered a potential solution: The Senate needs to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA).

The legislation would protect the right to access legal abortion care across the country by providing safeguards against state bans and medically unnecessary hurdles. The bill, which passed with historic support in the House in September, would outlaw all abortion restrictions that “are more burdensome than those restrictions imposed on medically comparable procedures ... do not significantly advance women’s health or the safety of abortion services, and … make abortion services more difficult to access.”

Essentially, WHPA would make all of the hundreds of anti-abortion laws passed on the state level since 2011 illegal. In 2011, the country saw an unprecedented slew of unnecessary abortion restrictions ― like specific requirements for the width of a clinic door and waiting periods before getting an abortion ― enacted by anti-choice lawmakers who were trying to cut off access.

“The Court may never say Roe v. Wade is overturned, it may just chip away at it. That’s why in that building, in the United States Capitol, we need the Women’s Health Protection Act,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

“While the Supreme Court must do their constitutional duty and uphold that right, the Senate must do theirs by passing the Women’s Health Protection Act,” tweeted Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) shortly after stepping off the podium on Wednesday.

It’s likely that the law would face serious challenges in court, and probably end up back in front of the same 6-3 conservative majority, but that’s a fight many Democrats and abortion advocates want to have. “The Women’s Health Protection Act would make the provisions of Roe v. Wade the law of the land regardless of what zip code you are in. There would be challenges, of course, but yes it would be indeed the law of the land,” Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.), the lead sponsor of the bill, told HuffPost.

The bill, originally introduced in Congress in 2013, was reintroduced in June. After passing in the House, energy to set a vote in the Senate languished as the Build Back Better bill worked its way through Congress. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said the legislation will still get a vote in his chamber.

A serious effort to enact the WHPA would almost certainly have to involve eliminating the Senate filibuster. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Wednesday that she opposes the WHPA, though supports codifying Roe in some fashion — but in any event, it’s extremely unlikely that nine other Republican senators agree, meaning any such legislation would never clear the current 60-vote threshold.

Some Senate progressives are calling for exactly that. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said in a release Wednesday morning, “We must act immediately, including abolishing the filibuster if necessary, to pass federal legislation that protects millions of American’s access to legal abortion care.”

The majority of Americans, 60%, want the Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade, and 75% believe that the decision to have an abortion should be left to a person and their doctor. But state laws don’t reflect that. Since Roe was codified in 1973, states have enacted 1,327 abortion restrictions into law, 580 of which were put in place since 2011. Nearly 100 of those restrictions were put in place this year alone.

[...]

Advocates and lawmakers told HuffPost that passing WHPA and the Equal Access To Abortion Coverage (EACH) Act is the best solution to combat the potential fall of Roe. The EACH Act aims to reverse the Hyde Amendment and other insurance-related abortion coverage restrictions. The bill would largely benefit low-income or poor people, who account for 75% of those seeking abortion care.

Lauren Gambino at The Guardian:

House Democrats voted on Friday to establish a federal right to abortion, moving swiftly to advance the measure after the supreme court declined to stop a Texas law effectively outlawing the procedure and as they await a separate ruling next year that could further erode access.

The legislation, named the Women’s Health and Protection Act, is part of the party’s strategy to push back against the rush of state laws restricting abortions and to show their determination to defend reproductive rights, an issue they believe will resonate ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Joe Biden has urged support for the measure, but Republican opposition in the Senate all but ensures the bill will not reach his desk.

With the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, presiding over the vote, the House passed the measure 218-211. All Republicans and one Democrat, congressman Henry Cuellar of Texas, opposed the bill.

The bill is unlikely to advance in the Senate, where Republican opposition is sure to prevent the measure from winning the 60 votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. Nevertheless, the Senate Majority Leader Chuck announced on Friday that he intended to bring the bill to the floor for a vote “in the very near future.”

“We are currently seeing unprecedented and unconscionable Republican attacks on reproductive rights across the country laced with vicious vigilantism,” Schumer said in a joint statement with Senate sponsors of the bill. “Congress must assert its role to protect the constitutional right to abortion.”

The near-total party line vote reflects a decades-long shift in the Democratic party’s embrace of reproductive issues. While Democratic leaders were once reluctant to bring such measures to the floor out of concern for the more socially conservative members of their caucus, nearly every congressional Democrat supports abortion rights and those who don’t, like Cuellar, have faced increasingly difficult primary challenges.

Today, the Women's Health Protection Act passed the House 218-211 on a nearly party-line vote. Henry Cuellar was the lone Dem to vote against. 

The WHPA is a bill that seeks to codify Roe into law and protect abortion access.