Kelsey Williams said she knew something was wrong when the technician called a doctor during what should have been a routine 20-week ultrasound.

Her world crashed on that February day when the doctor informed her that the fetus had clubbed hands, feet, and severe deformities. He was not moving and would not be able to develop normally.

“We were completely shocked,” she told Rewire.

The doctors gave her three options—carry the fetus to term, opt for genetic testing, or end the pregnancy. Williams, 31, of Pittsburgh, went home devastated.

When the initial shock wore off, Williams decided to have an abortion. She also opted for genetic testing.

“I am forever grateful to the health care and support professionals at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC,” said Williams, who has a 5-year-old.

“On the day of my ultrasound, I had all of my follow-up consultation and care on the spot; they provided me with objective, straightforward information, answered all of my questions, and had all of my testing completed within a few hours,” she said. “And when I decided to end the pregnancy, they also provided me with my abortion care with all of my physicians and midwives working together for my benefit. This continuum of care provided by objective and compassionate professionals is absolutely what got me through those dark days of shock and grief.”

Williams underwent dilation and evacuation (D&E), a common abortion procedure, at 21 weeks and six days into her pregnancy. “It was the hardest week of my life,” she said.

So when she heard about the Republican-backed Senate Bill 3, which would make abortion illegal in Pennsylvania after 20 weeks of gestation, narrowing the threshold from the current 24 weeks, she said her reaction was “visceral.”

“My heart started racing, my palms started sweating .… I really had a physical reaction. I couldn’t wrap my head around it,” she said. “It’s unthinkable to me that legislators find it to be a priority to curtail a woman’s right to choose and to privacy, as if they know what’s best for each and every woman out there. No one can ever know what someone else is going through, what their personal circumstances are, what the baby’s prognosis is, what the woman’s social support or mental health status is. There’s only one person who can know all of that: the woman herself.”

Williams has since been a vocal opponent of the anti-choice bill, which could create one of the strictest abortion restrictions in the United States. It passed 32-18 in Pennsylvania’s Republican-held state senate in February, and was quietly passed Monday by the State House Health Committee. It is now up for a full house vote.

State GOP lawmakers have fast tracked the anti-choice bill without input from medical professionals, according to advocates at the Women’s Law Project (WLP). Officials at WLP charge that the abortion restriction has such narrow exceptions that it could land doctors in prison for providing standard abortion care.

“I share my story, my personal heartache, in hopes that it will give that woman the space to grieve and decide what is best for herself and her baby in private, without interference from legislators. And perhaps my story will also help to protect this constitutional right for us all,” Williams said.

Several women’s rights, physician, and hospital groups have fiercely opposed the fast-moving bill sponsored by state Sen. Michele Brooks (R-Crawford), calling it restrictive, dangerous, and unconstitutional. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, who plans to veto it, said it “would be a step backwards for women and for Pennsylvania.”

The state is already among the 19 that have the most restrictive abortion laws.

“We are alarmed by the Pennsylvania legislature’s attempt to interfere in medical practice by outlawing a very safe and common method of abortion care, and banning abortion after 20 weeks,” said Jodi Magee, president and CEO of the Physicians for Reproductive Health. “Individualized care is the cornerstone of the patient-provider relationship, and SB 3 takes safe options away from patients and their health care providers.”

The Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia, a legal advocacy group for women and girls, sent a letterWednesday to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives urging them to vote against SB 3.

Advocates are concerned that the bill criminalizes abortions past 19 weeks and the time-tested D&E procedure, uses non-medical terminology like “dismemberment,” contains a “method ban” provision, threatens to imprison doctors and stands in their way of providing standard care. Plus, it makes no exceptions for fetal anomaly, rape, incest, or unviability and is “blatantly unconstitutional.”

All it has is a narrow exception if the physician “reasonably believes that it is necessary to prevent either the death of the pregnant woman or the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the woman.”

There is more work to be done in advancing legislative proposals to support women’s health rather than waste taxpayer time and money to curtail it, advocates told Rewire.

“The women of Pennsylvania need our state legislators to pass workplace accommodations for pregnant women and nursing mothers, protection from the epidemic of sexual harassment, and access to reproductive health care, to name a few,” said Susan Frietsche, senior staff attorney at the Women’s Law Project. “These bills are sitting on a shelf while our lawmakers keep passing abortion restrictions. SB 3 will harm women’s health and take away our rights. It is unconstitutional. We have reason to be outraged.”

Medical experts who have denounced the bill have not been allowed to offer testimony as the bill’s sponsors declined to hold public hearings. Law Project advocates told Rewire that medical personnel in their white coats have become a common sight this year at the State Capitol in Harrisburg as they try to make their voices heard.

“Let’s be clear, this is not about patient safety. This is an incredibly safe procedure,” said Dr. Lisa Perriera, who has been providing abortions since 2003. “The public don’t realize that it is safer to have an abortion at this time than it is to have a full-term pregnancy and birth.”

A doctor at the Philadelphia Women’s Center and a member of the Women’s Law Project board, Perriera told Rewire if this bill was law, she wouldn’t have been able to offer the surgical solution she provided to a woman this week who was at 22 weeks in her pregnancy. The ultrasound showed that the fetus had a serious heart malfunction that surgeons could not fix. Her patient chose “the humane option to have an abortion and not make the baby or herself suffer.”

“These laws are forcing women to be incubators by not allowing them to make choices for their health and for the health of their babies,” Perriera said. “A women must be able to make decisions about her health without interference from politicians.”

A lot of fetal abnormalities are unfortunately not spotted before 20 weeks, which makes the proposed ban even more problematic for doctors and patients, Perriera added.

Williams said she can’t imagine what she would have gone through if she had not had the procedure. She thinks politicians should stop legislating women’s bodies.

“Since my abortion, I’ve had to listen to proponents of these bills like SB3 say that they know what’s best for babies and mothers, that they are the true voice for life. And that’s just flat out wrong,” she said. “I’m the only one in this world who ever held my son, carrying him in my womb for nearly six months. And I loved him enough to let him go so that he didn’t live only to know pain and suffering because life is about so much more than just a heartbeat.”

https://rewire.news/article/2017/12/08/unthinkable-pennsylvania-lawmakers-fast-track-dangerous-anti-choice-bill/

Texas’ GOP-held legislature has gradually increased funding for a state program directing money to crisis pregnancy centers, also known as anti-choice fake clinics, which try to dissuade people from seeking abortion care.

Rewire has identified at least half a dozen state lawmakers and officials who are board members or are otherwise connected to fake clinics that receive funding today or could qualify to receive state funding, including one Republican lawmaker who authored amendments to bolster state funding to fake clinics.

The Texas Alternatives to Abortion Program (A2A) is administered by the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) through the Texas Pregnancy Care Network (TPCN), a nonprofit that distributes funds to subcontractors the network selects and oversees.

The TPCN distributes funding to 50 approved subcontractors that operate 115 locations throughout the state, according to a list of subcontractor providers submitted to HHSC monthly. There are 29 subcontractors operating 52 fake clinics, including three so-called mobile clinics.

Rewire reviewed personal financial disclosure forms, tax returns, and other related documents to identify relationships between lawmakers and organizations. At least one state lawmaker and their spouse serve on the board of directors of a TPCN subcontractor, and at least three other lawmakers and a state official have direct connections with organizations that could qualify to receive state funding as a subcontractor.

Rep. Bill Zedler (R-Arlington) serves on the board of advisers of Metroplex Women’s Clinics, an Arlington nonprofit that offers pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, and counseling services. Zedler’s wife, Ellen, serves on the nonprofit’s board of directors.

Metroplex Women’s Clinics, formerly known as Arlington/Mansfield Pregnancy Center, has been a TPCN subcontractor since January 2016. It operates four facilities and a mobile clinic.

At least three other state lawmakers and one statewide office holder have similar relationships with anti-choice fake clinics that could qualify as TPCN subcontractors.

Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) serves on the board of directors for Prestonwood Pregnancy Center, which offers pregnancy tests and ultrasounds at the organization’s Richardson clinic. Prestonwood Pregnancy Center is a ministry of Prestonwood Baptist Church, an influential megachurch in Plano that claims a congregation of more than 40,000 members.

Shaheen was among several GOP lawmakers who filed budget amendments to increase funding for A2A. He submitted two amendments that would have each doubled the program’s funding.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton also served on the board of directors of Prestonwood Pregnancy Center. The center refused to answer questions sent by Rewire.

Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) serves on the advisory board of Grace House Ministries, which operates the Options Clinic, a Weatherford facility offering pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, and counseling services. Rep. Travis Clardy (R-Nacogdoches) is a sponsor of the Heartbeat Pregnancy Center, a Nacogdoches nonprofit organization that offers pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, and adoption agency referrals.

Critics have charged that fake clinics in the state use deceptive tactics and disseminate misinformation, and a Rewire investigation found that state-funded fake clinics provide limited services to clients and measure success only by the number of clients served. Public health programs are typically evaluated on measures of health care outcomes of clients or cost savings incurred by the state.

Alexa Garcia-Ditta, communications and policy initiatives director for NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, told Rewire that Texas is funding “deception, coercion, and lies” by funneling taxpayer money to fake clinics across the state.

“The tactics that crisis pregnancy centers use to lure pregnant people into their facilities, they use scare tactics, peddle fake medicine, and bad science,” Garcia-Ditta said. “In funding crisis pregnancy centers, Texas is supporting that.”

State lawmakers this year passed a budget that more than doubled the A2A program’s funding, and TPCN will distribute more than $38 million during the 2018-19 fiscal year.

In response to the budget increase, HHSC has “identified additional need and several key opportunities to expand services, increase the effectiveness of the A2A program, and improve the lives of A2A clients and their children,” according to an agency report. The HHSC plans to use the increased funding to extend services for new parents until the child’s third birthday, connect pregnant people to programs such as Medicaid, and expand job training and placement programs.

Joe Pojman, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life, told the Texas Tribune that the program will save the state money because the new mothers will not need to rely on government assistance.

“If they’re self sufficient through the process of childbirth and afterward, that saves the state money and makes for much happier women and children and families,” Pojman said.

When TPCN was awarded the contract to administer the A2A program, the organization was required to file a 1295 disclosure form that identified interested parties—individuals who have financial interests. However, organizations are only required to file 1295 disclosure forms for contracts valued at at least $1 million, and subcontractors are not required to publicly disclose interested parties.

John McNamara, executive director of TPCN, told Rewire that the amount of funding each organization receives “vary by subcontractor and the time period in question,” and the TPCN submits monthly and quarterly reports to HHSC that include the funding that each subcontractor receives.

State lawmakers do make inquiries to TPCN, according to McNamara, about how potential nonprofit subcontractors in their districts can become subcontractors and how current subcontractors can expand the services they offer.

“In such situations, TPCN informs lawmakers about the requirements of the program to become a subcontractor and/or the requirements for an existing subcontractor to expand the program services they offer,” McNamara said.

Texas state ethics laws only prohibit apparent conflict of interests in very narrow circumstances,

McNamara noted according to the IRS sample conflict of interest policy, if a lawmaker or their spouse serves on a board of directors of a 501(c)(3) and has a financial interest, it “is not necessarily a conflict of interest,” unless the governing board or committee could determine it qualifies as a conflict of interest.

“TPCN is not aware of any Texas lawmaker or his/her spouse that serves on the board of directors of a subcontractor and has a conflict of interest,” McNamara said.

Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) told Rewire that several state lawmakers have served on the boards of a variety of nonprofit organizations that have received state funding, but that it is important for the Texas Ethics Commission to clarify what may constitute a conflict of interest.

“I don’t have any problem with any individual legislator advocating for causes and groups and issues that they care about and that they think will make a difference,” Howard said. “But I do believe that we have to be cautious about crossing the line of actually being on the board of an organization that is soliciting funds and will be considered in some kind of a procurement process to make sure we are not unduly influencing the awarding of those funds.”

Source: https://rewire.news/article/2017/12/07/conflict-interest-texas-gop-lawmakers-serve-boards-taxpayer-funded-fake-clinics/

A crisis pregnancy center in Massachusetts has scrubbed misleading claims from its website after a Rewire report prompted a legal complaint accusing the anti-choice center of masquerading as an abortion clinic.

The website for Attleboro Women’s Health Center still offers appointments to “discuss the abortion methods that may be available to you,” along with detailed information about the costs and steps involved in abortion procedures. All of this still appears designed to obscure the fact that Attleboro Women’s Health Center is a fake clinic, whose purpose is to deter patients from seeking abortion care.

After Rewire exposed the fake clinic’s deceptive website, prompting a consumer watchdog to file a complaint with Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, the center made some edits.

It cut from its homepage a passage that appeared to be a near-verbatim copy of the stated mission of Four Women Health Services, an abortion clinic about half a mile away. It also deleted the phrase: “If you’re pregnant and wondering how can I get an abortion [sic], visit Attleboro Women’s Health Center,” replacing it with an invitation to visit the center, “If you think you’re pregnant.” It deleted a claim that the center “provides quality, safe, accessible reproductive healthcare.”

The fake clinic added sources for some information, although the credibility of these sources varied. The website cites NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts for abortion pricing, for example, but attributes unproven claims about the purported psychological risks of abortion to the American Pregnancy Association, which presents itself as an unbiased medical resource but acts as a funnel to anti-choice fake clinics, as Rewire has revealed.

Katie O’Connor, legal counsel with the Campaign for Accountability, noticed the edits last week after she filed the complaint against the center last month.

“I do think they changed sort of the most egregious things that they had put on their website, but I still think it’s totally inadequate,” O’Connor told Rewire in an interview.

O’Connor called for more clarity surrounding the relationship between Attleboro Women’s Health Center and Abundant Hope Pregnancy Resource Center, a self-described “Christian pro-life ministry” and affiliate of Heartbeat International, which describes itself as the world’s largest network of crisis pregnancy centers. Attleboro Women’s Health Center shares an address with Abundant Hope, and the health center’s website is registered to Darlene Howard, Abundant Hope’s executive director. In an interview with Rewire Monday, Howard said the entities are “two separate divisions” that “are under the same organization.”

Howard told Rewire that the fake clinic added the citation information to its site “because it was missing” and to avoid complaints.

Pressed by Rewire on why the fake clinic had deleted the phrase inviting patients to visit if they are “pregnant and wondering how can I get an abortion,” Howard asked if she would be able to review the Rewire article prior to publication and, when this reporter declined, said she did not want her statements included in the story. Howard said she believes all the information on the website is accurate. She declined further comment and hung up on Rewire.

The legal complaint accuses Attleboro Women’s Health Center of deceptive business practices and misleading advertising, among other violations of state law.  Attorney General Healey’s office is reviewing the complaint and has not yet taken any action.

Source: https://rewire.news/article/2017/12/05/massachusetts-fake-clinic-deletes-deceptive-claims-website-legal-complaint/

Extreme anti-choice activist Janet Porter appeared on CNN’s New Day today to defend Republican Roy Moore amid allegations of sexual misconduct and to promote falsehoods about his opponent’s abortion position in the looming Alabama special election. During a 17-minute interview, CNN did not disclose Porter’s anti-choice stance, and she leveled a series of baseless and inflammatory claims, among them attacking the integrity of Moore’s accusers.

The segment kicked off with Porter appearing as a spokesperson for Moore, congratulating host Poppy Harlow on her pregnancy and using it to make false claims about Democrat Doug Jones and his position on abortion rights.

“Congratulations on your unborn child,” Porter told Harlow. “That’s the reason why I came down, as a volunteer, to speak for Judge Roy Moore, because he will stand for the rights of babies like yours in the womb where his opponent will support killing them up until the moment of birth.”

Porter again invoked Harlow’s pregnancy later in the appearance to push anti-choice falsehoods and defend Moore against allegations from multiple women that he had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior.

“Here is the question that should be asked,” Porter said. “If you care about child abuse, you should be talking about the fact that Judge Roy Moore stands for protection, not only of our Second Amendment rights so we can protect ourselves against predators, for the rights of babies like your 8-month baby that you are carrying now. Doug Jones says you can take the life of that baby.”

After Harlow told Porter to stop talking about her pregnancy, Porter went on to claim allegations against Moore were false and that, “If we’re talking about what’s at stake here, we’re talking about fake allegations, concocted stories, about an innocent man versus real threat of child abuse, not only in the womb, but also in the locker room,” seemingly referencing anti-discrimination measures for transgender individuals.

But Jones, Moore’s opponent in the Alabama Senate race, has voiced support for current restrictions on later abortions except in cases of life endangerment. Though Jones told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd in September that he does not support a 20-week abortion ban, he later clarified in an interview with AL.com that though he supports “a woman’s freedom to choose to what happens to her own body,” when it comes to later abortions “the law for decades has been that late-term procedures are generally restricted except in the case of medical necessity. That’s what I support.”

Nevertheless, anti-choice activists like Porter and conservative media figures have latched onto Jones’ comments to falsely claim that Jones supports abortions up until “the moment of birth.” It’s a falsehood based on a procedure that doesn’t even exist. Media watchdog Media Matters for America pointed out in a recent fact check that the claim often comes up in discussions of “partial-birth” abortions, a term invented by anti-choice groups to mislead and inflame rhetoric in the abortion debate.

As Rewire Editor-in-Chief Jodi Jacobson explained when then-presidential nominee Donald Trump similarly misconstrued later abortions during a 2016 presidential debate, the suggestion “that third-trimester abortions are performed ‘on demand’ is an anti-choice myth meant to target women as being irresponsible and garner support for efforts to ban all abortions in the United States.”

“In real life and because of myriad restrictions and barriers to access, it is exceedingly difficult if not sometimes impossible to terminate a pregnancy in the last trimester, even when a wanted pregnancy goes horribly wrong or a woman’s life is in imminent danger,” wrote Jacobson.

Robin Marty further explained for Cosmopolitan that “there is no specific medical definition for a ‘late-term abortion,’ and because of that, abortion opponents are using it to mean anything they want.” Rutgers University professor and historian Johanna Schoen said that, as Marty puts it, the term is generally used to “group together any procedure after the first trimester and erase any distinction in developmental along the gestational period of the pregnancy.”

Though it was not disclosed in the segment, Porter has a long history of anti-choice activism. She heads the anti-choice group Faith2Action, the Southern Poverty Law Center-designated anti-LGBTQ hate groupbehind “heartbeat” legislation at the state and federal level that promises to outlaw legal abortion, and led a mid-November press conference bringing together a who’s who of anti-choice extremists to support Moore. As Rewire reported:

Porter orchestrated an Ohio GOP attempt to end legal abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy—before many people know they’re pregnant. The “moderate” Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) vetoed the total abortion ban in favor of an equally unconstitutional 20-week ban, but Republican legislators have resurrected it as a pending bill in the current legislative session.

Porter subsequently convinced Rep. Steve King (R-IA), an unabashed white nationalist, to debut the federal version in Congress while both attended the funeral of Phyllis Schlafly, as People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch first reported.

Porter’s leadership of the Moore press conference aligns with her increasingly prominent role on the national stage. Porter ran two Capitol Hill press conferences for King, the most recent after King’s contentious hearing on the total abortion ban. And she partnered with Tom DeLay, the former U.S. House of Representatives majority leader convicted on campaign finance violations that were later overturned on appeal, to lobby Vice President Mike Pence and his staff.

Porter’s and other anti-choice extremists’ support for Moore never wavered in the wake of the sexual misconduct allegations. Some, like Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, have refused to denounce Moore despite the allegations against him. Others, such as Janet Orient, the executive director of fringe anti-choice medical organization Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, have tried to play down the alleged sexual misconduct by Moore. Orient dismissed the claims against Moore in a Tuesday press release.

“Back in my day, jealous women might have called him a ‘cradle-robber’ because they felt they deserved him more,” said Orient. She went on to dismiss news that Moore had allegedly sexually abused a 14-year-old girl in 1979 as “heavy petting” with “an underage ‘child,’” though she did note that such behavior would be “icky” if it was true.

Activists with fringe views on abortion rights and LGBTQ rights consistently stuck by Moore as some establishment Republicans distanced themselves from him. The long-term strategy appears to have worked as the party has ultimately courted many of its supporters back to Moore’s camp.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), a frequent target of Moore’s ire, in mid-November told reporters that he believed the women who had accused Moore and said the candidate should exit the race. Fresh off his Senate GOP tax bill victory over the weekend, however, McConnell changed his tune.

“We’re going to let the people of Alabama decide,” McConnell said on the Sunday morning talk show circuit.

President Trump on Monday formally endorsed Moore, encouraging the candidate to “Go get ’em, Roy!” in a phone call from Air Force One. He indicated that he would endorse Moore in an early morning tweet that said: “Democrats [sic] refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama. We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!”

The Republican National Committee, the party’s campaign arm, as of Monday restored get-out-the-vote funds to Moore, according to a New York Times report. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, doesn’t plan to do so, the newspaper reported.

Source: https://rewire.news/article/2017/12/05/anti-choice-extremist-false-claims-cnn-moore/

Congressional Republicans can’t use their tax cuts for the rich to define and codify the view that life begins at fertilization, according to the rules of the U.S. Senate.

The GOP’s initial tax proposals in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate each conferred 529 college savings plan benefits to an “unborn child…at any stage of development” in an unprecedented attempt to wield the tax code against reproductive rights. Republicans on Capitol Hill have long sought deeply unpopular fetal “personhood” bills that try to classify fertilized eggs, zygotes, embryos, and fetuses as “persons,” and to grant them full legal protection under the U.S. Constitution, including the right to life from the moment of conception. Personhood laws, repeatedly rejected by voters across the United States, would criminalize abortion with no exception and ban many forms of contraception, in vitro fertilization, and health care for pregnant people.

The latest fetal personhood effort ultimately violated rules associated with the fast-track process Republicans are using to pass their tax bill. Under “reconciliation,” Republicans need a simple 51-vote majority in the Senate instead of the 60-vote threshold typically required to bypass a filibuster and pass controversial legislation. But reconciliation is subject to the Byrd rule, which puts the kibosh on provisions that are “merely incidental” to the budget.

In other words, Congress can’t wield the reconciliation process for the sake of a political agenda.

Enter the Senate parliamentarian, a nonpartisan, staff-level position tasked with enforcing the chamber’s rules and procedures. The Senate parliamentarian in July ruled against key anti-choice provisions—defunding Planned Parenthood and restricting abortion access—in the GOP’s repeated failed attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Early Friday evening, in the home stretch to the 1:36 a.m. Saturday vote on the tax plan, the Wall Street Journal’s Richard Rubin flagged that the fetal personhood provision violated the Byrd rule.

Sen. Ron Wyden (OR), the top Democrat on the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, and his staff challenged the personhood provision with the parliamentarian, said a Democratic aide in the chamber. The parliamentarian then “Byrded,” or ruled, the provision out of order, and Senate Republicans removed it to avoid a floor challenge, the aide told Rewire.

Wyden in an email said he “successfully struck several provisions that should never have been wedged into a tax bill, including the misguided Republican attempt to radically change the definition of personhood under the guise of helping parents save for their kids’ college education.”

“Burying personhood language in this tax bill that is primarily a handout for the wealthy is another attempt to carry out the Republicans’ perennial, extremist agenda to limit women’s reproductive autonomy,” he said.

A motion to waive the Byrd rule for the provision would return the threshold for passage to 60 votes, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Most Senate Democrats would block the move, although anti-choice groups are using Democrats’ self-inflicted vulnerability on an abortion “litmus test” to end their legislative firewall on such proposals becoming law.

NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue welcomed the news but remained wary.

“[Republicans] know they cannot achieve this goal of the anti-choice movement in the light of day, since it has failed every time it has been in front of the voters,” Hogue said in a statement. “So, we have every reason to expect they’ll try to do it again, and when they do NARAL members will be ready to fight this again.”

The House is scheduled to vote Monday evening on a motion to go to conference with the Senate and reconcile differences between the chambers’ tax bills. Among the consequences for people with low incomes and other marginalized people, the House and the Senate tax proposals make 529 college savings plans, the vehicle for the fetal personhood language, even more “deeply regressive” by similarly expanding them to K-12 private schools.

https://rewire.news/article/2017/12/04/senate-rules-strike-extremist-fetal-personhood-language-regressive-tax-overhaul/