Last month, Michigan Sen. Rick Jones quickly pushed the anti-abortion super bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee and on to the Michigan Senate to be voted on. And in order to uphold a tradition of unfairness when discussing abortion in the Michigan Legislature — read: Lisa Brown, Barb Byrum — Jones was sure to move the bill through as quickly as possible, barely meeting the Senate’s 18-hour time requirement, which allowed for little debate on the issue.

The following is a list of reasons why these bills are complete, patriarchal b*******:

1) This bill package would ban abortions after 20 weeks, which is a critical time in the gestation period for identifying fetal anomalies, the only exception being if a woman’s life is in danger. Note: This leaves no exceptions for rape or incest. But honestly, I’ve always been curious about the phrase “if a woman’s life is in danger,” because I think pro-lifers have a strikingly different idea of my life being in danger than I do.

Who’s to say being legally obligated to carry a pregnancy to term when a woman could be in any number of negative situations isn’t putting her life and her child’s life in danger? What if she were in an abusive relationship? Struggling with poverty? Unemployed? Homeless? Suffering from any number of issues? Are not these situations considered dangerous, only to be made worse by an unwanted pregnancy?

2) For women living in rural areas, this bill could limit access to emergency contraception such as the morning-after pill by prohibiting the use of telecommunication technology.

This means a licensed physician would be required to be physically present in order to prescribe the morning-after pill, rather than permitting abortion providers to hold video conferences with licensed physicians, which would accomplish the same goal. This, particularly when combined with reason number three, would severely limit access to emergency contraception for women in many locations across the state.

3) It will shut down all but about three family planning clinics in the state of Michigan because of the prohibitive costs of a required $1 million in liability insurance, in addition to a requirement that would force all abortion clinics to have surgical facilities, even if they don’t offer surgical abortions.

4) It would make it a crime for anyone to coerce a woman into having an abortion, thus making it the doctor’s job to determine whether or not coercion is present.

This is required despite the fact that it is more common for women in abusive relationships to be forced to carry a pregnancy to term, rather than terminate, because a baby would force a woman to maintain more connections with her abuser. Unfortunately, this could raise criminal suspicions toward supportive friends and family members who offer to pay for a woman’s abortion. Notably, doctors are not required to screen for coercion before any other medical procedures.

Conversely, there is no additional law requiring a doctor screen for signs of a woman being coerced into seeing a pregnancy to term. Perhaps that’s because by removing any access to safe and legal abortion, this law essentially does just that.

Aside from not considering a woman’s right to determine what happens to her body, it forces a woman to either put her life at risk by going back to the dark ages of wire hangers, or make the choice to keep a child whom she might not be able to take proper care of.

5) It will require fetuses from abortions and miscarriages be issued a death certificate and fetal remains be disposed of either by cremation or burial, an act that makes a very public issue out of what should remain a very private matter — not to mention making abortion far more dramatic and expensive. This portion of the bill essentially works to shame women until they are too scared to get an abortion.

The main reason these bills are so heinous is because they have been presented under false pretenses. These bills were not created to keep women safe. They were created to prevent women from getting abortions by making it as difficult as possible, while still somehow remaining within the confines of Roe v. Wade.

It is important that we, as citizens, use our right to vote to send as many pro-choice representatives to Congress in 2012 as possible in order to prevent these bills from becoming law.

We need to stop these attacks on women before these laws become insurmountable and more unfortunate changes are made in women’s lives without their consent.

The Michigan primary is Tuesday. Don’t worry if you’re behind on the issues; the Michigan National Organization for Women has released a list of pro-choice candidates who have received their endorsement. You can find that list on their website, michnow.org.

Caron Creighton is a guest columnist at The State News and a professional writing senior. Reach her at creigh16@msu.edu.