While all eyes were on the anti-abortion bill in Texas this week, another fight over women’s health has been brewing in Ohio. Thursday night, Ohio lawmakers approved a budget bill that includes several anti-abortion provisions, among them requiring a doctor to perform an ultrasound, inform the patient if the fetus has a heartbeat, and tell her the statistical probability of her fetus being carried to full term before performing an abortion. About 100 people gathered at the capitol in Columbus to protest the restrictions and 17,000 letters demanding a veto poured into pro-life, Republican Governor John Kasich’s office. As we await action from the governor, Ohio State Senator Nina Turner, a Democrat who opposes the restrictions and National Organization for Women president Terry O’Neill will join Chris Hayes to discuss the bill and its potential repercussions for Ohio.
Plus: after the Senate passed an immigration bill Thursday, Speaker John Boehner made it clear that the House would take up the issue on its own terms. “We’re going to do our own bill through regular order, and it’ll be legislation that reflects the will of our majority and the will of the American people,” Boehner said in a press conference Thursday. Rep. Luis Gutierrez is among the legislators pushing the speaker to act on immigration, and he will join Chris Hayes to discuss the status of immigration reform in the House.
Later, Chris Hayes will be joined by Josh Fox, the director of “Gasland Part II,” a follow-up to the 2010 Academy Award nominated documentary “Gasland” about the controversial process of fracking.
President Obama and his family arrived in South Africa Friday afternoon, where Former President Nelson Mandela remains in the hospital. John Nichols, Washington Correspondent at The Nation who traveled with Mandela in South Africa in 1994, Esther Armah, international journalist, author and host of WBAI-FM’s Wake Up Call, and Dayo Olopade, journalist and author of a book on Africa titled The Bright Continent will join Chris Hayes to discuss the latest on Obama’s trip and the former president’s condition.
Rachel Simon
Rachel Simon is a writer and editor based in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is the author of “Pickleball for All: Everything but the ‘Kitchen’ Sink.” Her work has been published in The New York Times, Glamour, Vulture, Teen Vogue and more. You can find her at @rsimon113.