Government "At" the People, instead of Government "of" the People

For those attuned to teach and discuss gender studies, several weeks could be productively spent deconstructing and exploring the implications of the “Super Bill [HB5711]” passed by the lame duck and vindictive Michigan legislature the day after passage of so-called “Right to Work” law. The GOP controlled legislature was stripped of its majority in the election, but has chosen to strike back at the electorate by passage of extreme and mean spirited laws that will need to be undone, if possible in subsequent years. The “Super Bill” attacks women, and particularly women in working and poorer classes in three main ways. First, consider that ending unplanned pregnancies is a more crucial decision for women of limited means who are struggling to support themselves and children they may already have. The law would prohibit private insurers licensed in the state to offer coverage for pregnancy termination services. Next, the bill allows employers to exclude contraception and birth control from coverage.

Cynically, this could lead to more unwanted or unplanned pregnancies, the termination of which would be most difficult and expensive under the new law. In addition, the law imposes regulations on health care providers that offer abortion services that will likely cause many to end such services, making those services less accessible even for the women who can find the money for them. There are also restrictions on advertising pregnancy termination services so that public information will be restricted. Nothing in the bill addresses enforcement of paternity obligations or seeks to balance the burdens of the legislation from the shoulders of women toward the men who father the children of unplanned and unwanted pregnancies. It is hard to believe that we are approaching 2013, and yet such retrograde social legislation is moving more than 60 years in into the past.