Alaska Beat

Abortion permission slips? Alaska lawmaker thinks it's a good idea.

A comment from Interior House lawmaker Alan Dick concerning abortion caused quite a ripple across the web, eliciting responses from people everywhere.

On March 13, Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, called a meeting to discuss state funding of abortion. Keller is chairman of the House Health and Social Services Committee and Dick is co-chairman.

Anti-abortion groups and others have been fighting state-funded abortion since the Alaska Supreme Court mandated such funding. However, longtime abortion opponents like Keller have fought the ruling by continually passing state budgets that leave no room for abortion funding, notes the Anchorage Daily News in a Friday column.

Clover Simon, a Planned Parenthood official in Alaska who was at the meeting, went on record supporting women's right to choose and to keep such medical decisions between doctor and patient. Response from Dick, as reported by the ADN, has ricocheted across the Internet, exacerbating what many perceive as disconnect between Republicans and women on health issues.

Among Dick's contributions? The Nenana Republican intimated that women ought not to request abortions without signed permission from the prospective father.

It gets much worse. Read the ADN article here.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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