(A) The way anti-abortionists have gone about whittling down access to abortion is to make abortion providers the primary target (terrorizing them by murders, arsons, bombings, death threats, etc.), either leaving women to be only the secondary target (mainly to be shouted at in front of clinics) or presenting women as "victims" of greedy abortionists or pro-choice cultural elitists or both. Terrorize, harass, and browbeat doctors and doctors-to-be, and you'll be able to diminish access to abortion without using any police powers directly against women. On the legal front, they can and have similarly targeted abortion providers -- threaten doctors with revocation of medical licenses and jail time, and you'll be able to enforce laws against some forms of abortion, without using much police powers against women or even most doctors for that matter (because of the chilling effect), _or so goes the idea_. Luckily, the Supreme Court did not uphold the Nebraska ban challenged by Dr. LeRoy Carhart (bless him): <http://www.cnn.com/2000/LAW/06/28/scotus.partialbirth/>. This victory notwithstanding, doctors _are_ the weakest link, because many of them have _much to lose and little to gain_ by providing abortion services (as opposed to other non-controversial medical services).
(B) Another way anti-abortionists -- of the respectable kind, rather than of the fire-and-brimstone fundamentalist kind -- have diminished access to abortion is through hospital mergers:
***** Hospital Mergers: The Hidden Crisis
Since 1990, a record number of secular, community-based hospitals have affiliated with religiously-owned hospitals. The merger of medical facilities may make economic sense when more cost-effective services are provided. But mergers have another consequence when the religious hospital imposes religious restrictions on the secular hospital. In more than 34 states, mergers of religious and community hospitals have curtailed or eliminated comprehensive reproductive health care services, including abortion services. "Merger mania" has created a hidden crisis in reproductive health care....
<http://www.rcrc.org/pubs/speakout/merge.html> *****
At 1:12 AM -0600 2/11/03, Stephen E Philion wrote:
>the massive seachange in attitudes toward the requisite police enforcement
Notice that (A) and (B) can and have taken place without the "massive sea change" in the US public opinion "toward the requisite police enforcement." -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>