Bill Straub: Kentucky legislators, governor repeating tired, predictable efforts to limit women’s rights

WASHINGTON – For the record, I’ve never had an abortion. If history is any indication it’s unlikely I will have one anytime in the future – I am, after all, well past what generally are referred to as the child bearing years.

Given all that, I prefer leaving decisions regarding whether or not to undergo this perfectly legal and safe procedure to those most affected by the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy – women, certainly younger than I, who often find themselves in desperate straits who nonetheless are fully capable of making decisions on their own, based on advice from their physician.

That, according to the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Constitution, is the American way. But 43 years after the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade that recognized a woman’s right to an abortion, any number of people who are not contemplating the procedure continue to insist on getting in the way of those who want or need one.

As its first act this session, the Kentucky General Assembly, that great font of wisdom, got together and passed Senate Bill 4, which requires any woman seeking an abortion to consult with her physician for a medical consultation, either face-to-face or via live video chat, at least 24 hours before undergoing the operation.

Funny, but state law doesn’t require such counseling before a tonsillectomy, or a vasectomy or any number of perfectly normal procedures. Only abortion is singled out despite the rather obvious claim that the government should have no more right to interfere with an abortion than it does with a hemorrhoid-ectomy.

If you ever thought one of the jobs of government is to find ways to make the burdens of life easier for their constituents, think again. The good folks in Frankfort are also pondering legislation to prohibit state dollars from going to any organization, like Planned Parenthood, that provides abortions.

Kentucky isn’t the only place that imposes, or attempts to impose, unfair and illogical burdens on pregnant women. Here in Washington, Congress is almost certain to attempt to insert into the next budget language to prohibit funds from going to Planned Parenthood. And someone is almost sure to make a stab at terminating abortion rights altogether.

Not a single Republican presidential candidate supports a woman’s right to an abortion and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, who flopped so badly in New Hampshire this week that his own political aspirations may have been aborted, prefers that even those who become pregnant as a result of rape be precluded from undergoing the procedure.

In its 2015 legislative report, Americans United for Life noted that 48 states introduced about 315 measures related to abortion, a 17 percent increase over 2014. And state lawmakers enacted 30 of those measures, which included 20-week abortion bans, abortion facility regulations, chemical abortion regulations and admitting privilege requirements.

Gov. Matt Bevin, meanwhile is overjoyed at the prospect of keeping young Kentucky women barefoot and pregnant, the logical outcome if he should have his way. His administration already has moved to shut down a facility operated by Planned Parenthood in Louisville that provides abortions even though it received the go-ahead during the administration of his predecessors, former Gov. Steve Beshear.

Bevin signed the so-called informed consent bill the moment it arrived on his desk, declaring that the opportunity constituted “an extraordinary day.”

Of course there’s nothing extraordinary about the prospects of a 16-year-old pregnant girl in anywhere Kentucky whose boyfriend left her flat, as did the commonwealth’s historically lacking educational system, leaving her bereft of any job skills she’ll need if it’s taken to term.

Anti-abortion forces always talk a good game about protecting the “unborn child,’’ identified in most medical texts as a fetus. But when it comes to providing support for those who opt not to get an abortion and keep a child once it’s born, they’re nowhere to be seen and governmental assistance remains wholly inadequate.

As former Congressman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, once famously remarked, anti-abortion forces “believe that life begins at conception and ends at birth.’’

What it all means is young women, those emotional, sad little creatures, are simply incapable of looking after themselves and rendering their own judgment. We, as a paternalistic society, must make the decision in their stead and then abandon them quicker than you can say Jack Robinson.

It’s one of life’s great ironies that Planned Parenthood, which does more to prevent unwanted pregnancies with its contraception services than the Congress of the United States, remains in the anti-abortion cross-hairs. This one organization provides greater assistance to women, both pre and post-partem through its health facilities, than all of these so-called “pro-life’’ outfits combined.

The proof is in the numbers. Birthrates in the U.S. have been declining for years. In 2011, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the overall birth rate was 63.2 per 1,000 women of childbearing age — the lowest since at least 1920, the earliest year for which there are reliable numbers. Most of the decline, according to the Pew Research Center, came from immigrant women. A year later, in 2012, the rate declined even further, to 63.0 births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, another historic low.

That didn’t come about because of abortion. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, abortions declined by 4.2 percent during the same period, resulting in about 31,000 fewer overall.

In other words, the birthrate is declining at the same time the abortion rate is declining. Unless women of child-bearing years are having less sex – a dubious proposition at best – it likely means they’re making greater use of contraceptives, taking advantage of the sort of service Planned Parenthood provides. Further, since it’s immigrant women leading the charge, those who would most likely utilize clinics like those operated by Planned Parenthood, it’s obvious the organization is playing a significant role.

The abortion debate has been with us for a long time and it undoubtedly will continue for a long time hereafter. Federal and state budgets come and go, various educational theories rise and fall, roads get built and elections are won and lost. The one issue that has remained constant for almost half a century is abortion and the needle has hardly moved.

Support has fluctuated. According to Gallup, in a survey released last year, 50 percent of those questioned said they consider themselves pro-choice while 44 percent consider themselves pro-life. There have been years, according to the pollster, when a majority considered themselves anti-abortion, the most recent point coming in 2013. But for most years it is a nominally pro-choice nation.

The debate certainly isn’t going to end here. But it’s impossible to take seriously any group or individual who would prohibit a young woman from getting an abortion and then provide her with little help or hope as a result. You try being a single teenage mother running the cash register at the Quickie Mart who can’t afford child care, let alone diapers and baby food, having to quit school as a result of the unwanted pregnancy.

Then we’ll talk.

Washington correspondent Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.com.