not cool, wisconsin, not cool.

the state of wisconsin is really on a roll with enacting legislation to regulate reproductive freedoms and scientific advances. there is way too much info for me to post it all here, but, suffice to say, in the past two days, the state senate has approved 4 bills, all of which threaten to impede science and/or public health: (1) banning "human cloning", (2) requiring docs to tell women seeking abortions about "fetal pain", (3) expanding conscience clause protections to include more procedures that a provider can refuse to perform, (4) requiring public schools to spend more time teaching about abstinence than birth control.

there was a fifth bill they approved as well, which would require providers to inform pregnant women they can donate umbilical cord blood to blood banks to harvest stem cells for research. (gotta try to be fair and balanced here, and include the non-rights-eroding stuff they do too. but really, it's 4 to 1 here, and i am not impressed, wisconsin.)

for more info on the specific bills, go here.