On the issues: Rep. Michelle Steel and Jay Chen on abortion, immigration and healthcare
March 30, 2013
1) A new study by the Guttmacher Institute reports that abortion rates are highest in the states with the most restrictive abortion laws, while rates drop in the states with the most expansive ones.
2) New York’s new law, which bans abortions in nearly all cases of a woman’s livebirth and would force many illegal immigrant women to seek illegal abortion, was passed by 61 percent of New York voters and signed by the governor.
3) The New York Times says that one reason that many New Yorkers are opposed to the new law is the idea that it might help illegal immigrants evade immigration laws. The Times points out that New York has a higher percentage of illegal immigrants than neighboring states. But the Times said that the law is “hardly unique” in that regard.
4) An online survey conducted by Marist College, a Catholic liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, shows that the percentage of Americans who believe that the government should mandate sexual activity is more than double the percentage of Americans who believe that it should not.
5) The head of America’s largest private-sector union, the SEIU, sent a strongly worded letter to President Obama on the issue of immigration and reproductive health care. The union said an “unbelievably high” number of SEIU members, including those who carry out work as physicians, believe that it is a moral issue, but is at odds with the law.
6) California’s Board of Supervisors voted to postpone a vote on a bill that would require all doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital in the state. The bill, which would ban abortions in most cases, was passed with 67 percent of the vote last week.
7) Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) introduced legislation to ban taxpayer funding