We’re heading into a holiday weekend and I’m going to take next week off (and it’s possible that after two very busy work weeks, I’ve already checked out). But before I leave you with one sex-free Wednesday, I wanted to give you a couple of updates to stories that we’ve covered recently.
Update #1: MO Legislators Compromise on Medicaid
Last week, we talked about Medicaid in Missouri. Republican lawmakers there refused to reauthorize a provider tax that essentially funds the state’s portion of Medicaid unless their Democratic colleagues would agree to anti-abortion wording that could have been interpreted as preventing the state insurance program from covering birth control. The regular legislative session ended without a solution, and advocates said if it stayed unresolved it would devastate medical care in the state. Republican Gov. Mike Parson said he would have to cut $722 million from the budget to make up for the shortfall if lawmakers didn’t work this out.
The legislature came back for a three-day special session and continued to argue about abortion. Senator Paul Wieland, who spearheaded the attempt to get anti-abortion language into the tax authorization vote, stuck to his medically inaccurate guns with claims that five approved birth control methods cause abortions: “All it does is says in our Medicaid program, and that’s the part taxpayers pay for, when we pay for a prescription drug, we don’t want it to kill a human life.” And Democrats pushed back. Senator Jill Schupp said: “There’s nothing more horrific or personal than a government inserting its big hands into a woman’s womb.”
In the end, it was a bipartisan group of women legislators who settled the debate. The 10 women sat down in Sen. Jeanie Riddle’s office. Riddle is a Republican but supports providing contraception. Of the attempted ban, she said: “Women in the state of Missouri need, want, and deserve contraceptives and I really don’t want contraceptives to be part of this.” The women reached a comprise in just a few hours. Sen. Karla May said, “It was such a peaceful, calm conversation. We were respecting each other’s opinion. We were honest with each other. That honesty is what was key in that room. That’s why we were able to arrive at a solution so quickly.”
The compromise language said that funds could not be spent on medication or devices “used for the purpose of inducing an abortion.” Okay. Sure. Of course, Medicaid rules already prevent money from being spent on abortion services, but if it makes the men of the Missouri Senate feel strong and manly and keeps the program afloat, I guess we’ll take it.
In other good Missouri news, an attempt to use the Medicaid debate as an opportunity to defund Planned Parenthood also failed during the special session.
Update# 2: Arizona Sex Ed Bill is Back on Governor’s Desk
In April, the Republican Governor of Arizona rejected a highly restrictive law that would have banned all sex education before 5th grade and seemed designed to prevent students from learning anything about sexual orientation or gender identity. Governor Ducey said he vetoed it because the bill was too broad and too vague. Now he has a second version on his desk and must decide if lawmakers’ changes were sufficient to address those concerns.
The new bill still bans all sex education before 5th grade but has eliminated the extra round of parental consent (some sex ed in Arizona already requires parental permission) for discussions around sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV/AIDS issues in sex ed classes. Any other teachers who want to discuss these issues in class (think history, law, or literature) will have to get special parental permission in advance.
Democrats say it’s clear that the law is still an attempt to prevent discussions about sexual orientation. Rep. Athena Salman said: "This bill is plainly intended to target the LGBTQ students in our schools and will prevent teachers and administrators from creating safe and welcoming education environments for all students. This ... is a sweeping bill that will attack the ability of teachers to speak about a wide variety of issues impacting all students.”
It’s worth noting that not-dissimilar legislation was recently passed in Hungary much to the horror of EU leaders and human rights group around the world. In the name of protecting children from pedophilia, the law prohibits sharing any portrayal of homosexuality or transgender people with anyone under 18. That law was aimed at sex education in school but also included any movies, television shows, or advertisements targeted at young people.
This is horrifying on so many levels. It conflates homosexuality with pedophilia, perpetuates the idea that being exposed to gay themes will “turn” kids gay, and can only serve to increase discrimination against LGBTQ people in the country. And, of course, it prevents young people—many of whom are struggling with their own sexual orientation and gender identity—from getting the information they need.
Someone should tell Governor Ducey that being compared to a country that has been downgraded from a democracy to a “hybrid regime” in a recent report is not a good look for any U.S. state and remind him that he has a second chance to stay on the right side of this issue by vetoing this new bill as well.
Ducey’s record on LGBTQ issues is mixed at best. He told Obama that there was no need for guidance on transgender bathroom use in schools and similarly argued there is no need for specific discrimination protections based on gender or sexual orientation. At the same time, he signed a law repealing language in the state’s sex ed law that prohibited discussions that might be deemed as “promoting homosexuality.” (Of course, he only did this after a lawsuit was filed against the state, so his motives could have been strictly monetary.)
It remains unclear what Ducey will do. Perhaps we’ll need an update to this update.
Update #3: Maybe He Can
