Many of you read the diary about the Indiana “Unauthorized Reproduction” bill.

Patricia Miller, the state senator who was working on the bill has withdrawn it:

State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, issued a one-sentence statement Wednesday saying: “The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission.”

You can read the full story here

This story was covered by numerous blogs and because of it, Miller received a tremendous amount of unwelcome publicity, phone calls, and emails which obviously led to her backing down.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. Earlier this year, a Virginia legislator called John Cosgrove introduced a bill that would have

required any woman who experiences “fetal death” without a doctor’s assistance to report this to the local law-enforcement agency within twelve hours of the miscarriage.  Failure to do so is punishable as a Class 1 Misdemeanor.

This bill was heavily covered by feminist blogs and again the legislator received an immense amount of attention, almost all of it negative. Within days, Cosgrove withdrew the legislation.

These are two great examples about the power of the internet and the progressive community. And they tell me that we should all try to be much aware of bills being worked on in our state legislatures. A concerted effort to publicize a “bad” bill can clearly deter its sponsor from following through because, I think, state legislators know that, given the small number voters involved, any organized effort can dramatically effect their re-election.