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Arkansas Near-Total Abortion Ban Appeals Directly to US Supreme Court

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a ban on almost all abortions in Arkansas. The law outlaws abortion except in cases where the mother's life is in danger and makes no exceptions for rape or incest. It will face legal challenges, but that's what proponents want: They want to see the issue go to the Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade.

Arkansas inserted very specific language into the bill that states: “"A person shall not purposely perform or attempt to perform an abortion except to save the life of a pregnant woman in a medical emergency." Performing or attempting an abortion in any other circumstance will result in a $100,000 fine or 10 years in prison, or both.”

In addition, the Arkansas legislature made a very specific plea to the Supreme Court in its preface to the law. The preface reads in part:

"The State of Arkansas urgently pleads with the United States Supreme Court to do the right thing, as they did in one of their greatest cases, Brown v. Board of Education, which overturned a 58-year-old precedent of the United States, and reverse, cancel, overturn, and annul Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey," referring to Supreme Court decisions in favor of abortion rights.

In January 2016, the US Supreme Court refused to review Arkansas’ blatantly unconstitutional ban on abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy. The SC let stand a May 2015 appellate court decision striking down the Arkansas law.

How this new crush of state anti-abortion laws will fare in the SC is unknown. With three new Trump-appointed justices sitting on the nine-justic court, anti-abortion activists are hopeful to overturn a woman’s right to an abortion mandated by the US Supreme Court.

Anja Rubik Is Super Taus in Vogue Czech March 2021 by Marcin Kempski AOC Fashion

The Art of Taus Makhacheva

Supermodel Anja Rubik is among the women covering the March 2021 issue of Vogue Czech in images tagged on Instagram with #whencreativitybecomesform. Jan Kralicek styles Anja in a fashion story pieced together by Google translator and me that focuses on the practices of Taus Makhacheva, Super Taus and Superhero Sighting Society. Taus Makhacheva, 38, is a Russian artist based in Moscow..

A COVID-impacted summer/fall exhibition in Germany at Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art adds additional texture to the understanding of the images. Taus Makhacheva also showed at the Armory Show in New York in 2019. Remember that the March issue of Vogue are devoted to creativity.

The Vogue Czech tagged IG post specifically references a Super Taus viral videl ‘Untitled 1’ by Taus Makhacheva. Photographer Marcin Kempski captures the fashion story with a distinctive feminist energy, anchored with fashion from Jil Sander, Rick Owens and more.

Abortion in Poland Update

When AOC last left Anja Rubik, she was naked on the cover of the December 2020 issue of Vogue Poland, anchoring an issue devoted to the power of women. The issue supported the topic of abortion rights in Poland, as the right-wing government sought to enforce the most onerous ban on abortion in decades. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary Polish citizens were in the streets for days.

In the United States most Trump supporters agree that a woman should be forced to carry a totally deformed fetus that will die at birth to term — one that doesn’t have a brain, for example. The new Catholic Church law in Poland demands this obedience from women with no regard for her own psychological and mental health over such a catastropic situation. If men were forced into such servitude of carrying a fundamentally ‘dead’ baby for months, such a law would never be passed or embraced by the Catholic Church.

AOC is sad to report that the anti-abortion law in Poland is now being enforced. Most recently, on January 27, 2021, Poland’s top court, known as the Constitutional Tribunal, ruled on the fetal-abnormality abortion ban and declared it law.

Searching for the update, it was a pleasant surprise to see that Vogue.com is carrying the February 11 update. No Google translator required. After Poland Issued a Near-Total Ban on Abortions, Marta Lempart Has Been on the Front Line of the Protests. Solidarity legend Henryka Krzywonos is interviewed about the past and present of her activism.