Michigan Republicans have seized on a bogus story about abandoned fetal remains to push through a bill that callously disregards the feelings of women who have to abort wanted pregnancies for medical reasons.

RH Reality Check explains that here was never any proof to support an anti-abortion activist’s claim of finding fetal remains in an abortion clinic’s dumpster, but the anti-abortion lobby has nevertheless used the story as an excuse to propose an unprecedented bill about the disposal of fetuses.

Laura Berman of the Detroit News reports that as a result of the bill, one of the first questions hospitals may ask women who have just miscarried or had still births is “what do you want to do with the fetus?”:

In the wake of an Eaton County abortion clinic’s Dumpster scandal, the state Senate passed a package of bills Oct. 20 to ensure the “dignified disposition of fetal remains.” But if the bills would treat fetuses with newfound dignity, they don’t extend the same compassion to those especially vulnerable women who have lost pregnancies in clinics and hospitals. [...]

“I think some women will be devastated,” says Joanne Mulhere, who counsels women undergoing loss of pregnancies at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, where about 175 women lose pregnancies through miscarriage or stillbirth annually. Patients would be handed Kleenex, as well as a form to sign, requesting the remains be cremated, buried or interred. [...]

It’s a “choice” that effectively reframes the way women are supposed to think about early pregnancy, imposing new opportunities for grief where none might have existed.

State Sen. Rebekah Warren (D) of Ann Arbor notes that “This would be the first time in Michigan law that a fetus, or fetal remains, would be classified as a dead body at 10 weeks. That’s the most stunning piece of it.”

The bill is likely to pass, either this year or next. Anti-choicers may relish the idea of tormenting women who have had abortions with graphic reminders of their “crime,” but they have no problem traumatizing couples who have just lost pregnancies in the process.

Berman sums it up: “Unfortunately, Michigan legislators have crafted a bill that’s more sensitive to the needs of tissue that fits in a tablespoon than to grown women who, at vulnerable moments, will face a new form to sign, an unsought, disturbing decision to make.”

Michele Bachmann prides herself for pressing Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but during an appearance at Webster City, Iowa Wednesday night, the Minnesota congresswoman proved that she’s also leading the charge in developing outrageous new attacks against the legislation. At the town hall, Bachmann complained that undocumented immigrants are exempt from paying for the law, claimed that a seven-foot doctor told her the IRS had to approve medical procedures, and reiterated her long-standing view that doctors and hospitals would provide free care to the uninsured if they were shielded from malpractice claims:

– “Under Obamacare illegal aliens don’t have to pay for Obamacare. Only American citizens pay for Obamacare. [...] Illegal aliens have the possibility of getting the care, but they have no requirement to pay for the care. Only the citizens do.”

– “One man stood up, he was over 7-feet tall. He was a physician in the community. And he said, ‘I had a little lady in my office and because of Obamacare, I had to call the IRS and I had to get a number to put on a form before I could see her.’”

– “When I was a little girl…There were people who could not pay [for health care]. I mean they just did not have any money at all. And so the doctor would just write it off. [...] It’s very different today. Now, doctors don’t feel like they can do that…they worry about liability.”

Watch it:

It’s hard to make sense of any of Bachmann’s claims. Republicans successfully fought to keep undocumented immigrants from receiving tax credits through the exchanges and the ACA does nothing to change the existing Reagan-era law that requires hospitals to provide health care to everyone in need of emergency services. Undocumented immigrants also paid $11.2 billion in taxes in 2010, including $8.4 billion in sales taxes, $1.6 billion in property taxes, and $1.2 billion in personal income taxes.

The seven-foot doctor’s claims are similarly dubious, since the IRS does not begin enforcing the individual requirement to purchase health insurance until 2014 — and even then, the penalty is processed through personal income tax returns and would not require a medical provider to call the agency. Finally, Bachmann’s oft-repeated solution to reducing the number of uninsured — shield doctors from lawsuits and they’ll provide free health care to anyone who needs it — is a poor idea, to put it charitably, and hasn’t actually increased access to providers in states with existing “liability shield” regulations.

Over at Mother Jones, David Corn discovers that like the Newt Gingrich of three years ago, the former speaker’s for-profit think tank, the Center for Health Transformation (CHT), also promotes the individual health insurance mandate:

Gingrich first backed the concept in 1993, “I am for people, individuals — exactly like automobile insurance — individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance,” he said on Meet the Press. He supported the idea in 2007 — writing in a Des Moines Register op-ed, “Personal responsibility extends to the purchase of health insurance. Citizens should not be able to cheat their neighbors by not buying insurance” — and again in 2008: “Finally, we should insist that everyone above a certain level buy coverage (or, if they are opposed to insurance, post a bond).”

Romney himself pointed this out in a debate, saying, “Actually Newt, we got the idea of the individual mandate from you…and the Heritage Foundation.” “I absolutely did work with the Heritage Foundation against Hillarycare,” Gingrich conceded.

CHT also works with business groups that may benefit from the mandate. As Lee Fang has reported, CHT serves approximately 94 health industry corporations and lobby groups, including health insurance (BlueCross BlueShield Association, WellPoint, AHIP, UnitedHealth), health IT (L-3 Enterprise, Microsoft, IBM), and pharmaceutical companies — with each paying up to $200,000 annually.