Despite the fact that voters across the country rejected radical anti-choice legislation in this month’s election, Ohio lawmakers have been busy reviving the War on Women during their lame duck session. Ohio’s Health And Aging Committee voted to strip funding from Planned Parenthood last week, Republican lawmakers introduced a misleading “sex-selective” abortion ban at the same committee meeting, and Ohio’s Senate may soon consider an extreme “heartbeat” bill that represents the most restrictive anti-choice legislation in the nation.

And Ohio lawmakers are so focused on their radical anti-choice agenda that they don’t have time for practical legislation that would actually help lower the abortion rate. The Dayton Daily News reports that the House’s health committee gave a “complimentary” hearing to HB 338, which seeks to establish science-based standards for comprehensive sexuality education in the state’s public schools, but has no intentions of advancing the legislation:

In the final weeks of two-year legislative session, Ohio lawmakers are sparring over several bills related to abortion and women’s health, leading to charges from Democrats that their Republican colleagues are engaging in a “war on women.” [...]

Meanwhile, a Democratic bill that is being touted as a comprehensive sexual health and education measure, had its first and probably last hearing this week.

[Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R)] chairman of the House Health and Aging Committee, said he gave the bill a “complimentary hearing” on Wednesday, but it won’t go any further, at least not this year.

In fact, if Ohio lawmakers are so concerned about preventing abortions that they feel the need to target Planned Parenthood clinics, they might want to start with ensuring that students receive medically comprehensive information about human sexuality, the female reproductive system, and preventative measures like birth control and condoms. Equipping young adults with comprehensive sex education is directly related to helping prevent unintended pregnancies. The states that push abstinence-only education programs in their public schools — which often mislead students about birth control’s rate of effectiveness, and aren’t honest about the best ways to prevent sexually transmitted diseases — have the highest rates of teen pregnancies, while adolescents who actually receive instruction about prevention methods are 60 percent less likely to get someone else pregnant or get pregnant themselves.

A recent survey of the health classes in New York state’s public schools found that they have “shocking gaps” in their sex education programs, highlighting the need for standardized guidelines requiring up-to-date, scientifically accurate information across schools. Ohio’s school system could have the same kind of gaps — but, thanks to Ohio lawmaker’s insistence on prioritizing attacks on abortion access and Planned Parenthood funding, they won’t get addressed this year.

The city council in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, voted unanimously this week to create a buffer zone around the entrances and driveways to reproductive health clinics and medical facilities, stopping protesters from being closer than 20 feet to offices. Planned Parenthood had asked for the measure to prevent anti-abortion protesters from harassing patients and staff at its local clinic.

After Planned Parenthood began offering medication-induced abortions almost a year ago, police have responded to incidents between protesters, patients, and staff members. Kim Custer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood’s Northeast, Mid-Penn & Bucks County locations said that being able to separate the demonstrators from the patients trying to get into the clinic and staff members will Kim Custer, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood’s Northeast, Mid-Penn & Bucks County locations“>help to stop the fights:

“Our employees, our patients or anyone else visiting our patients at that time shouldn’t have to be followed, harassed, yelled at or feel that their safety is at risk,” Custer said. “We’re thrilled that it was a unanimous vote.” [...]

Planned Parenthood offers an array of services and too many people assume that women visiting the clinic are going there for abortions, Councilwoman Susan Brown-Wilson said.

Everyone has the right to enter a health care facility without being interrogated, Brown-Wilson said.

“Women have a right to choose for themselves. And people really don’t know what [women] are going there for. They assume that everyone is going there for abortions and that’s not true,” she said. “Planned Parenthood isn’t just about abortion, it’s also about health care and providing other medical services.”

While the council’s vote was unanimous, one anti-abortion protester questioned why the measure was needed. Suzanne Doller claimed that existing trespassing laws would protect patients and staff without stopping her ability to protest against abortion procedures. “Babies are being killed there. [Protesters] are citizens, and we should be allowed to walk on public sidewalks like anybody else does,” she told the local newspaper. One councilwoman said they were not trying to limit freedom of speech, but simply trying to ensure that women had access to medical care. “We’re just here to assure that those persons seeking medical care can get there without being detained or harassed,” said councilwoman Sandra Reid.

And the Harrisburg clinic has a reason to fear additional violence between protesters and people trying to get into the reproductive health clinic. In Oregon, an altercation between a woman and an anti-abortion protester at a Planned Parenthood clinic that does not even perform abortions led to a stabbing. And harassment from anti-abortion protesters forced one anti-abortion clinic in New York to stop providing services.

Officials in New York City are also pushing back against clinic harassment. The city has started a program to recruit and train clinic escorts who will assist women in passing the anti-abortion protesters and so-called sidewalk counselors outside of health care offices.

Providing women in rural areas with access to abortion services through new technology — such as video conferences with doctors who can prescribe abortion pills, and then distribute them using a remote control — can help give those women the medical services they need without actually increasing abortion rates, a new study finds. Researchers examined a “telemedicine” system implemented in an Iowa-area Planned Parenthood four years ago and concluded that remotely administered abortions can have positive effects.

The Planned Parenthood in Iowa was the first clinic in the nation to implement a telemedicine system for the women who lack access to nearby abortion doctors. When the program first went into effect in 2008, critics claimed that it wasn’t safe to allow women to take an abortion pill without a doctor physically present in the room. But proponents of telemedical abortions explain that they are simply in step with a larger trend toward remote treatments, which are increasing across all medical fields, as well as a critical program for the women who live in rural areas where no other doctors offer abortions. And David Grossman, a co-author of the study, explained that his results the confirm that telemedicine is an important step forward for those women:

“I think the most important thing is that it showed how access was improved after telemedicine was introduced,” said Grossman, vice president for research at Ibis Reproductive Health in Massachusetts. The organization works to improve access and choice for women’s reproductive health services.

The study also found a slight decrease in the number of abortions performed during the second trimester of pregnancy, when risks of complication are higher, said Grossman, also a clinical professor in the obstetrics department at the University of California in San Francisco. He noted the decrease was small enough to require further study.

“In the reduction of second trimester abortions, it will be important to see how that continues to play out,” he said. “We know that earlier abortions are safer than later abortions.”

Planned Parenthood officials in Iowa told USA Today that the results from this study underlines the fact that telemedicine allows women to make the medical decisions that are best for them, including about where and when they want to end a pregnancy. According to Planned Parenthood, there were 1,021 abortions performed through telemedicine during their last fiscal year, and surveys of the women who have used the procedure show high rates of satisfaction and low rates of complications.

Despite the positive effects that telemedicine can have on expanding access to women’s health services, House Republicans introduced a bill over the summer — spearheaded by Iowa’s own Rep. Steve King (R) — to end funding to women’s health clinics that allow doctors to prescribe contraceptive services, like the morning after pill, through a video conference.

Planned Parenthood protestors outside Ohio hearing. Taken by @joingles

After a lengthy and heated hearing, an Ohio bill meant to defund Planned Parenthood cleared a House committee on Wednesday by an 11-9 vote along party lines. House Bill 298, ostensibly about re-prioritizing federal family planning money, seeks to strip $1.7 million from Planned Parenthood clinics in the state. According to Planned Parenthood Ohio CEO Stephanie Knight, nearly 100,000 Ohio women depend on the organization for health care — overwhelmingly for preventative care including cancer screenings and birth control.

As Innovation Ohio notes, just two Planned Parenthood affiliates out of 36 family planning organizations received the federal grants in question, undermining the bill’s false pretense that other organizations are being overlooked in favor of Planned Parenthood.

Every single medical professional present testified against the bill. Dr. Grant Morrow of Nationwide Children’s Hospital decried HB 298 as the result of a “political agenda” that would have a devastating impact, primarily on poor and young women. Planned Parenthood is frequently a punching bag for many conservative politicians, despite the fact that abortions comprise only 3 percent of services provided by the women’s health organization. And as Dr. Kimberley Shepherd, a Columbus-based OB-GYN, testified during the hearing, defunding Planned Parenthood in Ohio would jeopardize cancer prevention screenings, STI care, hypertension testing, and many of the preventative measures the organization provides to low-income women.

Religious groups also sent multiple representatives to testify against HB 298. Former state representative Marian Harris of the National Council of Jewish Women argued that no one religious viewpoint should receive preferential treatment under the law, and pointed out that the legislation would gut funding for family planning clinics. Religious leaders also testified in support of Planned Parenthood, including a rabbi, a Lutheran minister, and a United Methodist minister.

And a rape survivor named Emily Shaw gave an emotional testimony about how she relied on Planned Parenthood services after she was raped at 13.

According to State Senator Nina Turner (D-OH), exit polls from Election Day showed that 56 percent of Ohioans support legal abortion all or most of the time, while just 39 percent thought it should be illegal. Nevertheless, HB 298 is just one example of the radical anti-choice legislation currently being considered by the Republican-controlled legislature in Ohio. Republicans in the state are also reviving a “heartbeat” bill that would categorically criminalize abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, representing the most restrictive ban in the country.

The bill will advance to a floor vote once it receives one more vote, most likely from one of three Republican members who were absent this afternoon. The rolls will be left open Thursday morning to get the required 12 votes.

A new study shows that women rely heavily on publicly-funded women’s health clinics — such as Planned Parenthood affiliates across the country — not just for contraception care, but also for their general health care needs.

The Guttmacher Institute reports that 40 percent of American women seek primary care at a women’s clinic, while 60 percent rely on them specifically for their contraception needs. The study also finds that these clinics prove more effective for women; eighty percent reporting seeking care there because of “respectful staff, confidential care, free or low cost services, and staff who are knowledgeable about women’s health.”

Clinics like Planned Parenthood offer abortion as part of a broader range of health care services, and this study underlines exactly how the state initiatives to defund abortion services would have the unintended effect of undermining women’s health care as a whole.

In fact, the negative effects of defunding women’s clinics are already evident. In Texas, where the Governor moved to block funding to any clinic that had any affiliation with abortion, over 100 clinics have been forced to close due to a lack of funding, and 160,000 women are forgoing care because of budget cuts.

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) convened a press conference today to announce the creation of a fully state-funded Women’s Health Program for Medicaid recipients, but his political theater only served to obscure the truth about women’s health services in Texas.

Earlier this year, Texas announced its intention to fund the Medicaid providers in its Women’s Health Program solely through the state as a method of defunding local Planned Parenthood affiliates. Since states are not allowed to withhold federal Medicaid funds from qualified providers like Planned Parenthood, Texas legislators needed to find a workaround to continue to exclude the national health organization — which they chose to target as an “abortion affiliate,” even though abortion services represent just three percent of its total medical care — from the Women Health’s Program.

But even though Perry claimed his state is “ready” to begin fully funding the Women’s Health Program today — and even rolled out a new logo for the program — the Associated Press confirmed that they will not actually do so until Medicaid providers stop receiving federal funding. Since federal funding is guaranteed through the end of this year, Texas’ Planned Parenthood affiliates will continue to receive their full Medicaid funds until December 31. In a press release, Planned Parenthood officials celebrated the fact that their organization will be able to keep its doors open to the thousands of low-income women it serves:

Despite confusing statements from state officials, today’s announcement means that Planned Parenthood can continue to be a part of the Women’s Health Program as long as the “Affiliate Ban Rule” remains blocked by court order. Planned Parenthood and WHP patients expressed relief upon the announcement that tens of thousands of Texas women will not yet experience a disruption in WHP services, including breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control, and testing for sexually transmitted infections.

“Today’s announcement is an important victory for every woman who relies on the Women’s Health Program for basic, preventive health care,” said Ken S. Lambrecht, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. “Our doors remain open today and always to every Texas woman in need of affordable, high quality health care.”

Planned Parenthood filed a state lawsuit last week that blocks Texas from shutting down the Women’s Health Program altogether and preserves the organization’s federal funding for now. But thanks to the complicated legal battle that the national health organization is currently embroiled in, the future of the funding for its Texas affiliates remains unclear. Planned Parenthood officials say that Texas state law clearly stipulates that the Women’s Health Program needs to be funded federally — not on a state level, as Perry and his HHS Department are pushing for — so Texas lawmakers’ politically-motivated attacks on women’s health clinics will fall flat in court. Planned Parenthood’s next court date is set for November 8.

Ultimately, Perry is only serving to confuse the low-income women in Texas about the health care providers they can access through their Medicaid plans. Planned Parenthood is currently Texas’ largest Medicaid provider, serving tens of thousands of women across the state who often have no other means to access health insurance, and women deserve to know they can continue receiving critical health services at Planned Parenthood clinics in 2012.

In a blow to low-income Texan women, the Fifth Circuit federal appellate court has denied Texas Planned Parenthood’s request to receive a re-hearing before its full bench, allowing the state to move forward with its decision to defund the organization.

Last week, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) green-lighted rules to cut off federal funding to the state’s Women’s Health Program, after Texas officials targeted Planned Parenthood as an “abortion affiliate” that shouldn’t be eligible to participate in the program. A three-judge panel from the Fifth Circuit ruled that Texas could move forward with discriminating against Planned Parenthood, and the court’s move to deny Planned Parenthood’s re-hearing prevents the organization from contesting that decision.

In a press release, Planned Parenthood of Texas President Kenneth S. Lambrecht slammed the court for failing to recognize Texas HHS’s new rules as a politically-motivated attack on the essential medical services that his organization provides, as well as the low-income women in Texas who depend on them:

Planned Parenthood has been in Texas for more than 75 years, and we’re not going anywhere. We are here for the patients who rely on us and we will continue to evaluate every possible option to protect the health of our patients.

This case has never been about Planned Parenthood — it’s about the Texas women who turn to us every day. Politics should never come between a woman and her health care. Further consideration by the full court was needed to protect nearly 48,000 low-income Texas women’s access to preventive health care such as life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings, birth control and STD screenings.

In the wake of Texas HHS’s and the appellate court’s decisions, over 100 providers are expected to lose their funding, denying preventative screenings and other health services to thousands of low-income women in Texas — a state where over 160,000 women are already forgoing such care due to state budget cuts and regulatory restrictions. Earlier this week, a federal appellate court in Indiana and a federal judge in Arizona blocked those states from following in Texas’ footsteps and defunding their own Planned Parenthood affiliates.