Recent Commentary:

Big Brother and Women
Carol Shane, Washington Borough

It appears that the Republican party is determined to revive Big Brother and remake the United States into a dictatorship. And, sadly to say, a handful of Democrats may be helping them.  I refer to the outrageous, the  "Women's Right to Know Act", or HB 1077 which may soon come up for a vote.  This bill is clearly designed to intimidate women and should instead be called the "State's Right to Intimidate Women" bill. Read more...

One Giant Step Backwards for Women
deLyn Alumbaugh, Cocalico Democrats President

Tom Creighton is a sponsor of HB1077 denying women the same rights in medical treatment and choice as men have. Please join others and me in this area and write Mr. Creighton an email expressing your point of view or call his office. Read more...

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What Others are saying about HB 1077...the Women's Right to Know Act

This section is dedicated to those responding to HB 1077. Add your comments...

To: Rep. Creighton

From: Sue Stoltzfus

HB 1077 "Women's Right to Know" is a deceiving title. It is an attempt to control women's health care and violates the confidentially between a doctor and patient.

I am appalled at the attack on Women's Health care in our United States of America and especially in PA. Women fought long and hard to have rights to vote and WE WILL NOT go back to the 1920's and 1950's and have our rights destroyed by a bunch of men who seem to think they have a right to control our minds and bodies.

Maybe a bill should be introduced that men should be required to have a rectal exam before being given a prescription of Viagra.

I am also appalled that you would be a co-sponsor of such a bill. HB1077 denies women the same rights in medical treatment and choice as men have, so I'm asking you to do the right thing and take your name off as a co-sponsor and VOTE NO on HB1077.

I know this is your last term but think of your daughters and granddaughters is this how you want them to remember your work?

From: Ward Latshaw

See, this is what happens when we allow Republican legislators to have unfettered political power: they do things to people they dislike, just because they can. And as we have come to discover, Republicans really seem to dislike women. Especially women who think they should have the same rights as men.

So it's not surprising that our state Republican legislators are hatching a bill forcing women who wish to exercise their rights by seeking a legal abortion to undergo (and presumably pay for!) a medically unnecessary ultrasound test.

One of the bill's chief backers, Rep. Bryan Cutler of Quarryville, claims this will help prevent deaths from botched procedures. Of course, the bill will do no such thing. Pennsylvania's Republican legislators, including those from Lancaster County, are doing this simply because they have the power to harass women who wish to make a choice they don't happen to agree with.

So in the name of fairness, how about this, Republican legislators? How about a law that says every time a man wants a prescription for Viagra, he has to have his doctor give him a prostate exam? Call it the "Man's Right to Know Act."

From: Sally Lyall

Lancaster County’s Republican State House Representatives want our state government meddling inside our gynecologists’ offices. That’s right. These self-important men want to force their hands with women and their reproductive choices. 

They talk a good line about reducing the size and scope of government in our lives, but they don’t have much to show for it.  Instead, they’ve co-sponsored House Bill 1077, to mandate the forced physical probing of women seeking to terminate a pregnancy under the guise of informing women. They can’t accept that women are informed and want the government out of their doctors’ offices and out of their wombs.

To the Republican Representatives reading this, suspend your disbelief while you try to comprehend three facts:

1.       Women do not need you to think for them.

2.       Women’s wombs are not the government’s property.

3.       Women will unite against you if you vote for HB 1077 to force the invasive probing of their wombs.

HB 1077, inoffensively titled, the “Woman’s Right-to-Know Act,” is not about giving information. It’s about shaming and punishing a woman who chooses to terminate a pregnancy. It’s about a regressive, social agenda that targets the removal of rights for women. The dangerous new Republican-Tea Party is racing towards the bottom with the most desperate, radical, and restrictive legislation.  

For your mothers, sisters, daughters, grand-daughters, and yourselves, call your Sate House Representative today and speak out against HB 1077.

From: Carol Shane

It appears that the Republican party is determined to revive Big Brother and remake the United States into a dictatorship. And, sadly to say, a handful of Democrats may be helping them.

I refer to the outrageous, the  "Women's Right to Know Act", or HB 1077 which may soon come up for a vote.  This bill is clearly designed to intimidate women and should instead be called the "State's Right to Intimidate Women" bill. The idea that women will be coerced into having an ultrasound, and even worse, forced to undergo an invasive  vaginal ultrasound, at a difficult point in their lives, is absolutely un-American!! As if most women in this country have no idea what a fetus looks like. This is the bill that smacks of the Nazis and Communism. That is precisely what they did.

To further prove my point, if a woman refused to look at the ultrasound, legislators originally planned to require that the medical personnel make a note of the refusal in her permanent medical records. This has since been changed, but the fact it was even considered is absolutely frightening. Tell me this isn't dictatorship. And McCarthyism. Most doctors do not want to be put in this position.

This is no "opportunity" for women as some try to suggest. It is coercion, pure and simple. And it would have little effect; studies have shown that the majority of women who seek abortions do not change their minds after viewing an ultrasound. There is nothing comparable to this for men. Perhaps we should make it equally difficult for men to have vasectomies?

I appreciate that others may have different religious views, but they should not impose them on everyone else. I am not pro-abortion, but I am pro-choice. The Constitution guarantees freedom FROM religion as well as freedom OF religion. The very first line of the first amendment is ,”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..”

As for the "wide support" in the House that the bill supposedly has, just over 50% is not a huge mandate. I believe this support will dwindle if we all contact our representatives immediately and tell them we strongly oppose HB 1077.

It is no comfort that the ultrasound would be waived in cases of rape and incest. Rape is one of the most underreported crimes in America and even when reported, is very difficult to prove. Every woman would have to first prove rape or incest to have an ultrasound waived.

PA legislators must stop taking time from critical state issues to play these dangerous games with our rights. They have gone way too far this time.

Carol Shane                                                                                      February 28, 2012

From: Debra Miller

To: Rep. Aument's office

Neighborhood blight, and Appropriations bills, are honorable issues to address. However, Representative Aument's website omits his co-sponsored bill HB 1077, so why is that?

Why do males in the State Legislature feel as though they have power to dictate the rights of women, which have been protected for decades by the US Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade? Why are men in government intruding into women's health freedoms? When many elected officials cry for "less government oversight", please explain to me how that does not apply to women's health. Where is the discussion about availability of affordable contraceptives, for women of all ages, to prevent pregnancies?

Regardless of my personal opposition to abortion, the law is the law and legislators should not play God. As a woman, and women have to fight hard for equality on many different levels, I am appalled by government intrusion and Ryan's co-sponsorship of this bill.

Our legislators should be working hard at job creation, education funding, and safe environment issues, not this nonsense.

Debra Miller

From: deLyn Alumbaugh

Mr. Creighton,

   As a sponsor of HB 1077 it appears that you may be condoning the violation of women’s rights, and a woman’s right to choose a course of medical treatment. While men would still have the right to choose a course of medical treatment, you want to deny that same right to women?

   Do you really want to protect our future men differently from our future women? Please consider rethinking your current point of view towards our women. And please stop this "bandwagon style politicking" by removing your sponsorship from HB 1077 in the name of equality and equal justice under the law.

    Please support our Constitutional guarantee of personal, human, and civil rights bestowed on all citizens of the United States, including women.

deLyn Alumbaugh, Adamstown Committee Person,
President of the Cocalico Democrats

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