Rep. Mark Green's attack on women

The article in the Wisconsin State Journal yesterday comparing Governor Jim Doyle and Rep. Mark Green on women's reproductive rights and abortion left me speechless. And that is hard to do.

I had no idea that Rep. Green was such an extremist on the abortion issue. The title, "Green and Doyle differ on abortion" doesn't do the article justice.

So I started to wonder if Rep. Green had been this extreme when he was in the state legislature. Turns out his record of voting against reproductive freedom for women goes back pretty far.

In 1995 the state legislature voted to pass the 24-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion. It passed and then State Assemblyman Green voted for it. That didn't surprise me that much. What did surprise me was his vote against exempting rape and incest victims from the waiting period. What makes Rep. Green think that rape and incest victims haven't thought about what has happened to them almost every minute since it happened? By all means, make 'em wait 24 more hours.

The other really surprising vote that I found was Rep. Green voting against making it a felony to intimidate or harass doctors, patients or staff at family planning clinics. Everyone is entitled to their opinion on abortion by why does Rep. Green think it is ok to harass women going to a doctor appointment? That's not standing up for pro-life beliefs. That's saying it's ok to physically assault people just because they are women going into a family planning clinic.

Many women going to family planning clinics are going there for prenatal care too. I have friends that have been physically harassed by people when they were trying to get to a prenatal appointment. They were grabbed and shoved around while they were pregnant by total strangers who were yelling horrible things at them.

And in Rep. Mark Green's world, that's ok.