Walker's Republicans seek revenge for Supreme Court's repeal of Wisconsin's unconstitutional Abortion law.

Were Scott Walker's abortion laws created to protect women’s safety and health? Didn’t think so….

Not only that, Scott Walker and AG lapdog Brad Schimel got that whole constitutional rights to choose thing wrong:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal from Wisconsin of a federal appeals court ruling that struck down the state’s law placing restrictions on abortion providers.

Watch the tantrum begin in the Republican legislature as they set out to prove how oppressive they can truly be when it comes to banning the constitutional right to choose. This is what we get for questioning their authority. WSJ:

1. State lawmakers pledged new abortion-related bills during the next legislative session.

2. State Attorney General Brad Schimel said said Monday’s ruling “is disappointing and undermines the respect due to policymakers.”

3. Walker on Tuesday tweeted, “We’re disappointed an activist court overturned common sense standards on abortion providers, (and) we will cont(inue) to protect sanctity of life.”

4. Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said the anti-abortion group remains “undeterred in our efforts to protect women and unborn children from the abortion industry.”

5. Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum, said he plans to propose a bill next legislative session requiring doctors to inform patients of the ability to reverse medication-induced abortions. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists urged its members in 2015 to pressure Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to veto a similar bill on the grounds that the medical advice is unscientific and could be dangerous.

6. And Rep. Andre Jacque, R-De Pere, who authored the bill that included the abortion restrictions that Tuesday’s decision invalidated, said he plans to introduce again legislation that bans research using fetal tissue, which was unsuccessful last Legislative session.

7. Myranda Tanck, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said in an email that Fitzgerald fully expects to see bills related to abortion next legislative session.

Washington Post now says Walker's Justice Bradley isn't against Contraception, doesn't believe it terminates life, or is Murder?

The supposed “Pro-life” movement is against two things; abortion and contraception. Their biggest weapons supporting their cause; conservative judicial courts and passing the “conscience clause.”

I would argue real pro-lifers would be battling for universal health care, but that's a whole different blog about a completely inept Democratic Party.

The Washington Post just ignored the pro-life movements repressive agenda so they could give a pass to Rebecca Bradley’s recent comments comparing contraception to murder. Yes, she did make that comparison, using the Roman Catholic churches guidelines and the pro-life terrorists own language. She's the courts scary religious foot soldier for Walker.

But the Post went out of its way to make a surreal case against “choice” advocates like Hillary Clinton. They started out by reprinting Bradley's outrageous comments from 2006...saying she wasn't specific enough. But history tells us something different, like the comments pictured here...:

“Proponents of ‘choice’ oppose such conscience clauses because they interfere with the elevation of women’s convenience over pharmacists’ objections to being a party to murder…. Notably, patients do not have the right to demand abortions, sterilizations or euthanasia from Roman Catholic or other morally guided hospitals or providers … law certainly should protect pharmacists who choose not to be a party to the morally abhorrent termination of life.”

Generally speaking we’re talking the pill here, pretty basic stuff, which WaPo decided to ignore, or worse, obscure. Their tortured logic starts by actually making an argument against their own final conclusion:

Bradley ... directed readers to an organization known as Pro-Life Wisconsin for more information. Its website at the time listed birth-control pills as potentially “causing chemical abortions in the earliest stages of life” … Saying that the birth-control pill may lead to an abortion is controversial even within the Pro-Life movement … (medical community) members saying the pill is not an abortifacient and other members arguing that it is one.

And yet, even after all that, somehow, they made these startling conclusions (my comments in bold)?

But there’s no indication in it that she was opposed to all forms of birth control (REALLY?)… A fair reading of Bradley’s 10-year-old column is that she is describing and defending the views of pharmacists who object to prescribing chemical ways of terminating a pregnancy, including possibly a birth-control pill (AGAIN) But Bradley is not writing about all forms of birth control (YES SHE IS), as Clinton suggests (“birth control, which millions of women use every year”) nor does Bradley specifically write that women using birth control are a “party to murder.” (Yes she does infer that) If Bradley actually believed all birth control was tantamount to murder, as Clinton claims, then it’s doubtful she would find obtaining contraceptives from another location so reasonable.

Amazingly, the Post completely missed Bradley’s argument using the language of right wing extremists and terrorists, to chip away at contraception’s availability.

Any wonder why were drifting as a nation to the extreme right? 

Republicans exploit Planned Parenthood videos to kill off Biotech Industry in Wisconsin. What a jobs plan.

It's been a common theme under Scott Walker to oppose all things that hint of liberalism, science, and logic. Walker destroyed a regional concept tying Milwaukee with Chicago by opposing high speed rail and the development that went along with that (also between Milwaukee and Madison), trashed attempts to expand and develop an alternative energy industry, and made major cuts to the UW system because those radical liberal eggheads continue to indoctrinate our kids.

Here we go again. The world acclaimed biotech stem cell research at the UW is the next victim of Walker's ideological one party nationalist agenda, pushed by Republican Neanderthal State Rep. Andre Jacque. Jacque found freeloading off the taxpayers much easier than getting into life saving medical research.

Exploiting the Planned Parenthood video tapes showing nothing illegal or unethical, Jacque compared the use of fetal tissue to Nazi research. For some reason, and despite actual similarities to past nationalist socialist societies that have threatened world peace, Republicans continue to compare Democrats and scientists to Nazi Germany with impunity. Audio from the Devil's Advocates show:

Jacque: "Respect for human dignity is essential to the authorization of scientific research, a fight underscored by numerous and horrific past failures to establish or follow such protocols, such as Josef Mengele's  atrocities at the Auschwitz concentration camp..."

Jacque wasn't done making outrageous, base agitating, bizarre comparisons:

"I suppose a similar philosophy would justify the likely continuing mass occurrence of forced organ harvesting and transplantation from executed political prisoners to the well-connected in China."

Here's the coverage from WISC and WKOW: 

The Assembly's Criminal Justice Committee held a hearing on a measure Tuesday that would outlaw selling, donating and experimenting with fetal body parts in Wisconsin.

The dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, the Wisconsin Medical Society, the Medical College of Wisconsin and a trade association representing biotech companies are all lobbying against the measure. Dr. Robert Golden, dean of the UW-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health said, "This lifesaving research would come to a complete abrupt stop in Wisconsin with a devastating effect on our state's capacity to attract and retain biotechnology."

State Republicans give Men the right to sue over Abortions, and take the word of cherry picked doctors over major Medical groups opposed to 20 wk abortion bill.

The instinctively brutal and punishing nature of the republican party is on full display now, and the state Capitol has never felt more repressive. The vicious attack on women's health choices borders on religious fundamentalism.

And Democrats, while putting up a great fight, failed to mention this important part of the 20 week abortion ban. Oops?:

Rolling Stone: Men can sue abortion providers for "emotional and psychological distress," The Huffington Post reports ... citing Guttmacher Institute data, "6 of the 11 states that currently ban abortion at 20 weeks post-fertilization -- Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma -- have similar language tucked into their respective laws that allow the parents to sue a doctor who performs an abortion after that point."

Sure it's unconstitutional, but that's the point. Republicans want to take this to the activist conservative supreme court, where outcomes are pretty easy to predict:

Twenty-week abortion bans are unconstitutional because they ban abortion before the point of fetal viability (today, considered to be around 24 weeks' gestation), the standard established for legal abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973. As such, these bills, which have been enacted in over a dozen states and blocked in three, are designed to directly challenge Roe and ultimately end legal abortion in the United States.

Here's coverage from Madison's WISC and WKOW newscasts, along with a frightening Q&A showing the arrogance and callousness of the bills supporters:

While all the largest medical groups oppose the bill (like the Wisconsin Medical Society), we're supposed to write public medical policy on a few cherry picked like minded anti-abortion zealots (yes, they're doctors too). When asked why Republicans were ignoring the professional opinion of these groups, Sen. Mary Lazich didn't hesitate:

Crazy Sen. Mary Lazich: "I would put my trust in physicians that ah, that wrote this letter. I would want to be in their care if I were to be in a crisis situation...I would want them to be in the care of physicians that take the um, the life affirming approach."

In fact, Lazich "asked Tuesday why it mattered whether the bill was written by someone with medical training."

TPM:  The exchange began when state Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa (D) said: “Can I ask who wrote the bill and did they have medical training?"
“Who wrote the bill?” Lazich said. “Our drafting attorney wrote the bill. As all bills are written.”

“Do either of you have any medical training?” Zamarripa said.

“What does that have to do with the bill?” Lazich asked. “Do you have medical training?”

Lazich also dismissed the need to include a rape or incest exception in the bill, saying: “Rape and incest, people tend to deal with that in the very early stages — days, weeks.” Lazich’s comments come after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said Monday of the 20-week abortion ban that women mostly worry about rape and incest pregnancies “in the initial months.” On Friday, Walker said ultrasounds were “pretty cool,” when discussing the mandatory ultrasounds for women seeking abortions.

"RedState" spins outrageous Walker ultrasound comment with big fat lie.

Quick, to the rescue, it's RedState, the ultra-rightwing propaganda site that regurgitates the news in a way that makes Republicans look like the new Avengers.

Scott Walker insanely justified a woman's forced ultrasound before an abortion as a way for her to get "a lovely thing," "a cool thing" like a picture of the fetus she could proudly show her friends. Here's the ice cold quote:

“We signed a law that requires ultrasound which, think about that, the media tried to make that sound like a crazy idea. Most people I talk to, whether they’re pro-life or not, I find people all the time who’ll get out their iPhone and show me a picture of their grandkids’ ultrasound and how excited they are, so that’s a lovely thing. I think about my sons are 19 and 20, you know we still have their first ultrasound picture. It’s just a cool thing out there.”

Ugly and hideous, isn't it. But RedState spun the story and only picked up Walker's quote at the point where he says "Most people...," pulling the meaning of his comment out of context. Surprise:

Politico today led the way in a virtual tidal wave of outragey outrage stories across the leftosphere trashing Scott Walker as some kind of monster because he thinks that forcing women to have ultrasounds before they can have an abortion is “cool” and gosh doesn’t he just love rape. Only that’s not rape. And, oh yeah, he didn’t even say that.

Yes once again the media and the left have coincidented the same error … that magically makes Scott Walker out to be a woman-hating oppressor. However, radio and television host Dana Loesch, who conducted the interview from which the misquote was misappropriated, has the actual story. 

"On the subject of abortion, Walker discussed mandatory ultrasounds prior to obtaining an abortion. In discussing the ultrasound images themselves, he described how he and his wife still have their sons’s images and that they are 'cool.'”

That’s right. He was talking about ultrasounds in general being cool things. HOW SHOCKING!!! Says Dana, “anyone with the reading comprehension of a dolphin knows that Walker was specifically describing ultrasound images, not the legislation itself.”

Only if that dolphin doesn't read the whole quote, or can't watch the offending comment here:

Law intentionally blocking abortions declared Unconstitutional by Federal Judge.

This is big....

jsonline: A federal judge on Friday struck down a Wisconsin law requiring doctors performing abortions to get hospital-admitting privileges, concluding that the measure was enacted primarily to provide an obstacle for women seeking abortions.

U.S. District Judge William Conley, who earlier had put the law on hold, ruled that the 2013 law is unconstitutional. He issued a permanent injunction blocking its enforcement. "The only reasonable conclusion is that the legislation was motivated by an improper purpose, namely to restrict the availability of abortion services in Wisconsin," Conley wrote.

Lester Pines, a Madison attorney who argued the case for Planned Parenthood, said it was clear from the 93-page decision that Conley did not consider the matter a close call. "This was an overwhelming victory for the rights of women in this state," Pines said late Friday.

Of course Scott Walker will appeal the decision.

Walker's 20 Week Abortion Ban another Non-Answer before Election, now he's sure?

WPR's Shawn Johnson brought a little sunlight to slick Scott Walker's sudden commitment to 20 week abortion ban:

Gov. Scott Walker's announcement that he will sign a law that would ban abortions after 20 weeks came a day after he'd been called out by a national conservative group for not doing enough to stop abortion. On Monday, Frank Cannon of the American Principles Project blasted Walker for not taking a harder stand against abortion ... The very next day, Walker's campaign promised to do just that.

Johnson then pointed out Walker's non-answer before the Journal Sentinel board during his campaign for another term, a touchy subject he knew could blow up...here's the audio with Shawn Johnson's report and video clip of the Journal Sentinel Q&A of slick Scott:

Walker repeatedly declined to say whether he'd support banning abortions after 20 weeks.

"Those are all things we'd have to look at in a future session out there," he said.

This latest move by Walker also came after he promised to sign a right-to-work law, despite saying for years that right to work would not happen under his watch. 

Republican reasons for Abortion Doctor Admitting Privilege Laws exposed, with new bill to allow hospitals, doctors and nurses right to refuse emergency care.

Remember this line of BS from state Republicans trying to ban abortion by requiring admitting privileges:

The law's supporters argue that admitting privileges will ensure women get prompt and proper care if they need to go to a hospital.

They’re so concerned, aren’t they? And yet, just today in Congress, Sen. David Vitter introduced this conflicting bill:

“Allow hospitals, doctors and nurses to refuse to provide or participate in abortion care for women, even in cases of emergency.”

So much for “ensuring prompt proper care,” suckers.  

This is one of many "conscience clause" ideas that would turn our health care system into a strictly voluntary one for doctors, nurses and hospitals. No guarantees and no certainty when it comes to public health. 

Even before the Election, Scott Walker tries to limit access to Birth Control!!!

Scott Walker said he supports women's rights and loves a debate on abortions? All gentle reelection words. But even the election won't stop Walker's wheels from rolling over access to birth control drugs. He really couldn't wait?

WSJ: Two family planning providers serving low-income women say their operations will be at serious financial risk if state auditors stand firm on claims that they overbilled Medicaid by $3.5 million, largely for birth control drugs and devices.

Department of Health Services Inspector General Alan White defended his auditors’ choice of targets and their findings. “This administration, this agency has put a great deal of effort into improving program integrity,” White said. “And protecting the taxpayers of Wisconsin is their predominant responsibility.”

"Integrity." A Republican buzzword for “your next” for cuts, in this case the end of contraception for low-income women. The state has decided to change and interpret the rules differently for contraception, even though providers were never told or given the ability to itemize their services with the state. Here's the basics of Walker's scheme to supposedly "protect taxpayers:" 

The auditors are challenging a reimbursement price for oral contraception that providers say the state itself set and is what their peers use. The claims concern the clinics’ use of Medicaid’s 340B drug-pricing program, in which pharmaceutical companies are required to provide discounted drugs to safety net providers. They say the state never asked them to track those costs individually, and instead told them to bill for each monthly pack of birth control pills the “usual and customary charge up to the maximum allowable fee,” which the state set at $26.02 in 2009 … the higher reimbursement rates help the clinics avoid losing money. The auditors faulted the providers for failing to bill Medicaid for the actual cost of each pack of oral contraception, plus a dispensing fee.

Here's their sneaky way to go after contraception for low income women:

Office of Inspector General’s White argues that the rate does not apply to the 340B drug-pricing program — it was directed at “family planning clinics” — and so is irrelevant. But virtually all of the family planning clinics are enrolled in the 340B program.

Jennifer Waloway, NEWCAP’s director of community health services said NEWCAP may have to close; “I don’t understand how they can expect anybody to be sustainable in a business when all you can charge is acquisition price,” Waloway said. “Nobody can run a business like that.”

And it gets even more transparently obvious:

The state is also claiming money on the grounds that the providers entered claims incorrectly. It states the providers did not note the invoice price for medications. But providers say the state’s own computerized claim-entry system does not include a way to enter the cost. Public policy director Nicole Safar said, “This is a very under-the-radar way to block access to birth control.”

And as usual, Democrats were silent in their outrage, working behind the scenes I guess:

Two Democratic lawmakers, Rep. Chris Taylor of Madison and Sen. Dave Hansen of Green Bay, wrote the inspector general last week saying “there appears to be no legal basis” for the claims.

If this had happened to the Republicans, we wouldn't be hearing the end of it.

Walker discloses anti-aborition/anti-sex marriage agenda to lobbyist Wisconsin Family Action!! Gets their endorsement.

Scott Walker simply has a different opinion about abortion, with no plans to pass any laws making that choice impossible to make. Sure, others have plans and write bills that he will probably sign that advances his point of view, but it isn't on his radar. 

Walker’s argument assumes we’re idiots, and maybe those who believe him are, but we've grown accustomed to ignoring the obvious intent of the conservative fringe. I even had to get this story (printed Wednesday, on page 7, in the WSJ), from the twin cities Pioneer Press .

While Walker got a pass for desperately trying to look moderate on abortion, his position is more than clear below. Did you know women seeking an abortion aren't too smart, and thanks to Scott Walker, they’re now getting that important information? 

Wisconsin Family Action endorsed Walker on Tuesday. In a Sept. 5 letter seeking the group's endorsement, Walker said he passed legislation that gives women seeking abortions more information and health protection… Walker signed a bill last year that requires a woman seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound and doctors to show the woman the image of the fetus.

But Walker was just as proud of his unconstitutional position on same sex marriage, which proves these guys don't care one bit about our founding document. Equal protection? Forget it, since marriage between a man and a woman is right there in the constitution…somewhere.

He went on to say he was defending the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. He said he swore an oath to uphold the constitution and supports "marriage between one man and one woman."

That doesn't make any sense, but this same article simply accepts his statement as fact.

Walker also gets a pass for not saying what he means. No big deal.

Walker opposes abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, but he hasn't said that in so many words as he's been campaigning. 

So this is what we can expect of our politicians...not much?

Revealed: Incidental Governor Walker serves up Word Salad Non-Answers.

This is a test: Try to pull a clear "sound bite" position from any one of Scott Walker's non-answers.

We're going to look at the reason why Scott Walker won reelection in Milwaukee as their County Executive, and why he could win reelection as governor.

Walker earned the name "incidental governor" way back as county executive when he forced the board to raise taxes for him. He's still playing it safe, this time letting the legislature send him radically right wing bills he claims were never on his radar.

It was the Journal Sentinel's gift to Wisconsinites when their editorial board peppered Walker with a string of tough questions he typically steers clear of.

In a surreal, almost comedic Q and A, Walker ducks away every time with his word salad non-answers. Seriously, its as slick a con as you'll ever see.

Walker said donors ought to be public: That's what he said, all the while concealing contributions by directing money into 3rd party groups. Pretty cut and dried, except for his non-answer :



Does Walker...think a fetus is a citizen; still oppose abortion in cases of rape and incest; still want abortions banned after 20 weeks; opposes some forms of contraception? Non-answers to all, despite the JS questioning. Just as shocking, our incidental governor went further: He criticized the questions because they weren't important. He backed that up by saying no one is asking similar questions at public appearances. Weird:



Drug Testing for Veterans, and Cut Funding for Drug rehab centers while demanding drug testing for public benefits: Another big non-answer:



Minimum Wage: Walker says raising the minimum wage doesn't serve a purpose, ignores the massive low wage economy we have right NOW by offering dreams of abundant high wage jobs in the future, and tried to reshape poll responses to the simple question about raising the minimum wage. Amazingly, non-answers to all questions.

The biggest problem with the job market seems to be newly created jobs that pay less, on the whole, than the jobs that have disappeared.

Walker undercuts, and even contradicts his election year pursuit of creating high wage jobs, in a story he told about a woman who had her pay cut before losing her job. That's an honest look at today's jobs market:



Earned Income Tax Credit: Walker increased taxes on the working poor by reducing their EITC. His reason? Walker blames the poor for supposedly seeking low wage jobs so they can keep their public benefits. Hold on there. That's what big businesses like WalMart are doing right now. It's one big upside down non-answer:



Again, he's got no clearly stated position. Walker dispenses word salads that say nothing, leaving him free to avoid being identified with the right wing agenda he's forced to sign into law. Poor guy, he could use four more years.

Incidental Governor Walker forced to say something about annoying women's health issues in latest ad.

Poor Scott Walker, always having to deal with controversial issues that are just not on his radar...that he'll be forced to pass into law anyway. Can we just talk about jobs please? Oh wait, that might not be a good idea either. Uh, Mary Burke plagiarism?

Walker has done the same draconian things other governors have done when it comes to women's health care and women's rights, especially choice, but he's wisely let his legislative hit squad do the dirty work.

From WKOW's Greg Neumann:

Walker says in his latest ad he's "pro-life," which I take it to mean others are pro-death? Anyone ask him whether he's for the death penalty or not? Didn't think so.

Desperately trying to peel away one or two women in the state through simple deception, Walker wants to hide his real record and intentions. But Mary Burke's new campaign ad offers up where Walker will eventually take us, in his own words:

jsonline: Doug Laube, a longtime gynecologist in the state, took issue with an ad in which Walker said that he supported a law "to increase safety and to provide more information for a woman considering her options."

1. In July 2013, Walker approved a law requiring women seeking abortions to get ultrasounds.
2. mandating that doctors have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where they perform abortions.
3. Walker and GOP lawmakers have also decreased funding for Planned Parenthood.

Many similar big government regulations closed nearly all the clinics in Texas recently. Safer care?

"Closing health centers that provide women with preventive health care...puts women's health at unnecessary risk. These regulations do not to enhance the safety of patients.”

38% of registered Wisconsin voters favor requiring women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound and 56% oppose the requirement.

But this isn't about representing the electorate, it’s what the authority thinks is best for us. It’s what Republicans admiringly call leadership, and you will be happy with it. Oddly, it's also the never-ending conservative backlash over the 60's. Yes, they're still fighting that battle. These people are truly nuts...from a current bit of PolitiFact research:

State Sen. Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, said abortion "became popular in the '60s and it was almost the thing to do. You needed to get one of them to be a woman." And Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, said: "Let’s trust women to make choices for themselves, and for the love of Wisconsin, let’s stay out of their vaginas."