Welcome To The Divided States Of America.

Source: USA Today

Thanks to South Dakota, that's what we've become. Every state down to the very last person is split on what to do about Roe vs. Wade. Do we protect abortion rights or do we restrict them so heavily that even a girl who is raped by her father cannot get an abortion?

How divided are we about this?

Twenty-two state legislatures are likely to impose significant new restrictions on abortion. They include nearly every state in the South and a swath of big states across the industrial Rust Belt, from Pennsylvania to Ohio and Michigan. These states have enacted most of the abortion restrictions now allowed.

Nine states are considering bans similar to the one passed in South Dakota -- it's scheduled to go into effect July 1 -- and four states are debating restrictions that would be triggered if the Supreme Court overturned Roe.

•Sixteen state legislatures are likely to continue current access to abortion. They include every state on the West Coast and almost every state in the Northeast. A half-dozen already have passed laws that specifically protect abortion rights. Most of the states in this group have enacted fewer than half of the abortion restrictions now available to states.

•Twelve states fall into a middle ground between those two categories. About half are in the Midwest, the rest scattered from Arizona to Rhode Island.

The result, according to this analysis, would be less a patchwork of laws than broad regional divisions that generally reinforce the nation's political split. All but three of the states likely to significantly restrict abortions voted for President Bush in 2004. All but four of the states likely to maintain access to abortion voted for Democrat John Kerry.

The 22 states likely to enact new restrictions include 50% of the U.S. population and accounted for 37% of the abortions performed in 2000, the latest year for which complete data were available.

The 16 states likely to protect access to abortion include 35% of the U.S. population and accounted for 48% of the abortions performed.

Of course, some of this information is somewhat incomplete because of certain factors that weren't/couldn't be taken into consideration when the analysis was conducted.

Among the states ranked as likely to enact new restrictions, Michigan and Wisconsin now have governors who support abortion rights and presumably would veto a ban if they were still in office. Courts in Florida and Tennessee have ruled that their state constitutions protect abortion rights, limiting the impact of Roe's reversal.

(That's not necessarily an insurmountable hurdle, though: Florida voters amended the state constitution in 2004 to allow a law requiring minors seeking abortions to notify their parents, and Tennessee activists are pursuing a constitutional amendment to limit abortion rights there.)

The states ranked as likely to continue current access to abortion could be pre-empted if Congress passed laws that restricted or criminalized abortion nationwide.

And first things first: Reversing Roe may be a more distant prospect than activists in both camps think. It would require a change of heart or retirement by at least one of the five current Supreme Court justices who have endorsed it.

What's more, while the confirmation of two new justices has heartened abortion foes, neither Chief Justice John Roberts nor Justice Samuel Alito has said clearly where he stands on Roe.

Now we come to the point in the article that is "the funny": Tom Brinkman, Jr. If you live in the Cincinnati area, you are already familiar with "Dr. No."

In Ohio, Brinkman, a three-term legislator and father of six, acknowledges that he may be rushing things with the bill he has submitted to ban all abortions in the state except those necessary to save the life of the woman.

But the 48-year-old Republican, who owns a small printing firm in suburban Cincinnati, predicts it's just a matter of time. "It will happen," he declares in an interview just off the floor of the ornate House chamber.

Ohio already has done nearly all it can to restrict abortions. The state requires women seeking abortions to be told about alternatives and then to wait at least 24 hours. Hospitals and doctors can refuse to perform them. Minors must get a parent's consent. A controversial late-term procedure that opponents call "partial-birth abortion" is barred.

Brinkman's bill would go much further. It would make performing an abortion or transporting a woman across state lines to have an abortion a felony.

Brinkman boasts that a hearing finally has been scheduled on his bill for early next month, and he notes that the Assembly plans a lame-duck session after the November elections. If a Democrat is elected governor, the Republican-controlled Legislature might rush to enact legislation that Taft can sign before leaving office.

"We could have a substantial lame-duck session -- more substantial if a Democrat governor got elected," Brinkman says.

It isn't time to panic yet, though, because Ohio is in political hell right now. One of its Reps is involved in the whole Abramoff mess, Mike DeWine faces a tough re-election fight, and Bob Taft is convicted of ethics charges, so he'll be "retiring" soon. There's no guarantee that any anti-abortion bill will even make it far enough to be signed.

And Brinkman has a "history" in Ohio, you see, so there's still no reason to panic just yet. As previously noted, people in the Cincy area are already familiar with Brinkman's antics. Even members of his own party often question his intelligence.

On a national level, some may still be familiar with him since he made news back in 2003. Some UC law students discovered that the Fourteenth Amendment had been rejected in Ohio by post-Civil War-era legislature, and they persuaded the General Assembly to ratify it. Well, every representative voted to ratify it...all except for one jackass. Yes, that jackass was Brinkman.

And why did he vote against ratification?

It's misapplied constantly by the country to get states to do things they don't want to do. Most importantly to me, 45 million babies have been murdered since judges forced Roe v. Wade down the throats of citizens.

Want to see the other reasons why people in the Cincy area groan when there's news concerning this idiot?

There's this:

Following the repeal of Article XII of the Cincinnati city charter, which forbade the city from passing an ordinance protecting homosexuals from discrimination, the Cincinnati city council approved a hate crime ordinance that included sexual orientation. Brinkman said the ordinance "send[s] the message that you openly approve of homosexuality," citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Brinkman had previously served as treasurer of the committee which opposed repeal of Article XII.

Oh no! Not the gays in Cincinnati!!

And then there's this:

Brinkman prided himself on his perfect attendance and for coming home to Cincinnati every night from Columbus, but when Columbus Monthly in late 2003 did a survey of legislators, lobbyists, and others working in the State House asking them to rate the members of the Ohio General Assembly, Brinkman was rated the single worst legislator in the 132-member General Assembly. The magazine said Brinkman was "an uncompromisingly principled man. But he's a terrible, terrible legislator." Those surveyed ranked him as least knowledgeable, least hardworking, least likeable, least compassionate, and least savvy.

My apologies to USA Today, but while this jackass is able to get re-elected thanks to a group of wealthy citizens in Cincinnati, those of us who know him all too well must take whatever he "boasts proudly" with a grain of salt.

Sadly though, there is a small reason to start fretting in Ohio. Some Democrats in the State House admit that if an anti-abortion bill was voted on right now, it could possibly pass. Almost every Republican in the House is against abortion, and quite a few Democrats are against it, too.

So just as Ohio was the "new Florida" in '04, it is now the "next South Dakota" in '06. Maybe one day, Ohio will wake up and try being itself instead of trying to mirror the ignorance that other states produce.

At least there's a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

Ohio Right to Life supports Brinkman's goal but hasn't endorsed his bill.

My thanks to whoever produced the flag image for "The Divided States of America," found through a Google Image Search.

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