Woman Forced To Watch Her Baby Die Because Nebraska Anti-Abortion Law Prohibited Doctor From Acting
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on March 11th, 2011 5:37 am by HL
Woman Forced To Watch Her Baby Die Because Nebraska Anti-Abortion Law Prohibited Doctor From Acting
Since the start of the year, Republican lawmakers on the federal and state level have charged headlong into a comprehensive assault on a woman’s right to choose.
In Nebraska, one law already in existence heaped needless trauma on a mother’s tragedy. Thirty-four-year-old Danielle Deaver was 23 weeks pregnant when she faced a fate “worse than your own death” — her baby would not make it. Her water broke early and, without amniotic fluid, the fetus would not develop lungs to survive outside the womb. Deaver and her husband decided they wanted to let “nature take it’s course” and would not risk harming the child further, so they asked their doctor to help “put an end to this nightmare.”
But because of Nebraska’s law prohibiting any abortion after 20 weeks, the doctor could not assist or he would “face criminal charges, jail time, and lose his medical license.” Her doctors told her “she’d just have to wait.” So she did, in “torture,” and gave birth to Elizabeth at 3pm, watched her gasp for breath, and then watched her die at 3:15pm on December 8, 2010. “The outcome of my pregnancy, that choice was made by God,” said Deaver, but “how to handle the end of my pregnancy, that choice should’ve been mine.”
She told her story to the Des Moines Register, watch it:
“If they thought about their daughter, their sister, their mother, their wife being in this situation, they would never want them to go through that,” Deavers said of the legislators who created the law.
Yesterday, in a 94-2 vote, the Oklahoma House passed a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks based on the dubious assumption the fetus “can feel pain.” Oregon, Minnesota, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, Missouri, and Ohio are also considering joining the 31 states that currently have such a ban. Should these states successfully push the ban through, Danielle Deaver’s personal tragedy may become a common expectation.
Subprime Schools Throw Fundraiser For Rep. Kline After He Blocks Funding For Proposed Regulation
House Education Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN)
For-profit colleges — which, as ThinkProgress has been documenting, make the vast majority of their revenue from the federal government, pay their CEOs huge salaries, and leave their students with crippling debt and bleak job prospects — have declared a lobbying “WAR” in order to block new regulations from the Education Department and preserve their almost limitless access to federal dollars. They have hired a bipartisan phalanx of lobbyists and are astroturfing on Capitol Hill, supplying students with their industry-approved talking points.
In the last election cycle, the for-profit college industry also donated millions to congressional candidates, including $100,000 to House Education Committee Chairman John Kline (R-MN). Kline dutifully inserted a provision into the House Republicans’ 2011 spending bill that scuttled the Education Department’s regulations. And Tuesday night, as Higher Ed Watch reported, the industry threw Kline a personal fundraiser:
The Political Action Committee connected to the group formerly known as the Career College Association hosted a dinner reception for Rep. John Kline (R-MN) at “the refined and elegant” Capitol Hill Club, which is the premiere social club and restaurant for Republicans in the nation’s capital.
The career college group, which now known as the Association for Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU), invited for-profit college officials who were in town for the organization’s “Hill Day and Policy Forum” to join in the festivities. Those who wished to attend were required to make a donation to Kline’s re-election campaign of either $2,500 to be considered a “sponsor” of the event, or $1,000 to be a “patron,” according to a copy of the invitation that Higher Ed Watch obtained.
Many for-profit schools make 90 percent of their revenue from the federal government, while posting profit margins of 30 percent. Strayer University CEO Robert Silberman was paid $41 million in 2009. With those sorts of numbers, giving $2,500 to Kline’s re-election campaign is likely a good investment. Senate Republicans have already introduced legislation similar to Kline’s, which would deny the Education Department funding to implement new regulations.
On Monday, a lobbyist for Kaplan University — which makes 91.5 percent of its revenue from the federal government — likened Democratic efforts to regulate for-profit colleges to “jihad” while speaking at a gathering of for-profit schools. “I’d guess almost everyone here agrees,” he added.
Cross-posted on The Wonk Room. For more information, see our report, “For-profits, not students.”
