Keep them Quiet

And keep them pregnant.  Last week the GOP "leaders" at the House held an all-male hearing on contraception.  This was seen by some as a continuing battle that the GOP is waging on women.  "Today, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Democrats will hold a House hearing Thursday on the issue of contraception and women’s health, and the key witness will be the woman the Democrats tried to get on Issa’s panel to testify, but who was refused." (TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com)  But the GOP still wants to keep it quiet.

The House Administration Committee, chaired by Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif, has issued a decree that there will be no public video or recording made of Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke’s testimony - who was to testify that about a classmate who lost an ovary because of a condition that causes ovarian cysts - which is treatable by birth control, but not covered by the Catholic-Church backed University.  The "black-out" is unprecedented and leads some to believe that the House Republican leadership is still trying to silence women on women's health.

But perhaps it is time to turn the tables.  "A group of female Democratic legislators in the Georgia House of Representatives has proposed a bill that would ban men from seeking vasectomies." "Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies," said bill author Yasmin Neal.  (HuffingtonPost.com)

The male counterparts in Georgia, however, don't think it is funny.  They want to push through a bill that seeks to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, instead of the current 24 weeks or after the 2nd trimester.

So... passing male based health laws is bad -and must be a joke, but passing female based ones is perfectly within the rights of the male legislators.


Maybe those women out there ought to just stop having sex with those men.  Maybe then the men will keep their noses out of what ain't their business.

The War on Women

It started with the contraception issue and now continues, pathetically, in the state of Virginia.  "The Virginia legislature has passed a bill that will force women seeking an abortion to undergo a medically unnecessary trans vaginal ultrasound." (HuffingtonPost.com)  That is a true birds-eye view of the uterus and surrounding organs, for no real medical reason, meant probably to embarrass and change the mind of the woman.


And back to the contraception issue in the war.  "As part of the same package, the legislature also enacted a 'personhood' law that would define life to begin at the stage of a fertilized egg, even before implantation, and hence would outlaw many forms of contraception and all abortions."  Amazing what a state can do. And as the author of this Huff Post article, Tobias Barrington Wolf, so rightly says "Every person who has a body should view this law as a direct assault. So, too, should every person who believes that women are human beings."


Because women aren't supposed to be human beings (?).  Most "public policies are responsive to the priorities and sensibilities of men."  The thought of a law that required men to have "an invasive rectal probing and prostate exam, for no medical reason, before obtaining a prescription for Viagra" would never get very far.


Although... it is a good thought.

Well, What I Meant to Say...

In our current era of politics, we do get to hear a lot about what they "meant" to say.  But generally, the first thing out of someone's mouth is what they really mean and the second thing is said to smooth over and make everyone think that it's all going to be ok.  Rick Santorum is doing that today.
First, what came out of his mouth was:  "But I do have concerns about women in front-line combat, I think that could be a very compromising situation."  And in the same breath said it was because "emotions that are involved."  (HuffingtonPost.com)


What he meant to say... after NBC's Ann Curry suggested that some had interpreted his original remarks to be a commentary on "women being emotional," wasn't that he was blaming women for emotions but, rather, how "men would react to seeing women in harm's way, or potentially being injured or in a vulnerable position, and not being concerned about accomplishing the mission."  So, see, what he meant to say is that men wouldn't be able to handle women in combat...


Then, on another occasion, not trying to hurt women again, he said that the Affordable Care Act providing birth control was not "about contraception.  It's about government control of your lives and it's got to stop."  (Yahoo.com)  He probably meant to say that.  But, that doesn't follow what he has said before.


What he said at the beginning of the year has a lot to do with government control of lives.  He said that he would pass a nationwide law that would define marriage as that one man - one woman type and "any now-legal same-sex marriages would be invalid."  (HuffingtonPost.com)

So, what he meant to say is... whatever I believe is the only truth and I will do whatever I want when you elect me.   So There!

Name Dropping

Generally in an election year, it is not too odd to have some candidate or another "drop names".  It usually shows how many folks are encouraging their run, or how many are monetarily supporting it.  But, when a candidate starts dropping the Big Guy's name, you just want to shout "STOP!"  Rick Santorum and his group have been doing that a lot lately.


First, his "honorary chairman" in the Florida campaign says gays "make God want to vomit."  That would be "the Rev. O'Neal Dozier, a firebrand social conservative" who also has said "that Mitt Romney was bound not for the White House, but for hell." (MotherJones.com)  Maybe he knows the way there, because he's headed there himself?


Now, another aide to Santorum has decided that a woman can't be president.  He asks the question “Is it God’s highest desire, that is, his biblically expressed will, … to have a woman rule the institutions of the family, the church, and the state?” (Care2.com)  This Iowa coalitions director, Jamie Johnson, would think it abhorrent and un-Biblical if the woman's place was in the "House" instead of in the "home".


But, then there is good ol' Ricky himself.  When asked why he opposes abortion even in cases of rape, he said that women should "make the best out of a bad situation."  He goes on (and on, and on, and on...) "accept this horribly created" baby, because it was still a gift from God, even if given in a "broken" way.  (HuffingtonPost.com)

So, don't make God throw up, don't let God catch some woman not doing her wifely duties and definitely bring God's "broken" baby into the world... because Rick Santorum said so.

My Mom Could Have Been Convicted of Murder

So, today the state of Mississippi is voting on the "Personhood" bill that would designate inseminated human eggs as legal persons from the "moment of fertilization."  This would make any end to pregnancy (they are pretty much saying abortion and the morning-after pill) legally equivalent to murder.  (MotherJones.com)  But there maybe more to this then meets the eye.


Let's take for example an ectopic pregnancy.  "In an ectopic pregnancy, a fertilized egg has implanted outside the uterus, usually in the fallopian tubes."  And when the fetus grows, the tubes burst and the fetus is lost.  (KidsHealth.org)  Some time ago, my mother had an ectopic pregnancy that led to a miscarriage.  According to Mississippi, that's murder... or maybe manslaughter.


What might be more scary, though, is not that a miscarriage could be considered murder in Mississippi.  Republicans in congress are endorsing three similar bills that would extend the rights of legal personhood—including equal protection under the law—to a zygote.  This would make it a Federal law, so no matter where you live, you'd be going to jail.


Maybe Mom will get past the statute of limitations...

Let's Just Add More

So sometime on Halloween, Monday October 31, 2011, the world's population will hit 7 billion people.  The United Nations Population Fund has a few things to say about that.  It is a good sign, because it shows that we are living longer and more children are surviving world wide.  But not everybody has benefited.  "In some of the poorest countries women are having more babies, stymieing development and perpetuating poverty."  (MSNBC.com)


The state of Mississippi doesn't look at things that way, it seems.  Ballot Measure 26, if passed, would say that “human life would begin not at birth but at the moment of fertilization."  This would completely outlaw abortion and could possibly make birth control - pills, IUDs, even condoms - illegal.  All sex would be in trouble, because "fertilized eggs on their own have full legal rights, anything that could potentially block that implantation—something a woman’s body does naturally all the time—could be considered murder."  (PamsHouseblend)


Looks like there could be 7 billion people in Mississippi soon.  Don't know if murder will increase or not, but definitely poverty will increase.

Just Need to Save the Money

Yesterday, it was pointed out that in an effort to create jobs, the government in Florida was going to allow dwarf tossing so the little people could get work.  Today, in an effort to save money, the government in Kansas is taking another step.  Topeka is going to legalize Domestic Violence.  "Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced ... that he isn't going to prosecute misdemeanors anymore, which includes those for domestic violence, because he's too broke to deal with it."  (MotherJones.com)


The county commission has voted to cut the DA's budget by 10%.  So, in order to just save some money, the Topeka City Council decided to repeal the city code that makes domestic battery illegal.  That has allowed dozens of domestic violence case to be turned away and three alleged offenders released from jail.


Smart move.  And as pointed out by Kari Ann Rinker, the coordinator of the Kansas chapter of the National Association for Women, the DA's problem is with funding in 2012... and this is only 2011.


Oh, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.  Nice job.

Picking a Fight

What is the definition of Congress?  This week it might be hypocrisy.  On one hand the GOP lawmakers are fighting for eliminating federal aid for family planning and covering abortions. (Forbes.com)  They are demanding that federal money to Planned Parenthood be stopped.  They yell at the top of their lungs that things like NPR and FEMA should not receive any money either.


And here is the hypocrisy.  No spending money, unless...  "House Republicans have agreed to a new contract to pay a private law firm up to $1.5 million to defend the Defense of Marriage Act." (HuffingtonPost.com) The Attorney General had decided back in February that DOMA was unconstitutional and would no longer fight to support it.  But, House Speaker John Boehner thinks this is something that the money should be spent on.


This seems to no longer be just a fight over money.  This is definitely a fight over social policy.  And it looks like the right-wing, homophobic, anti-women's rights group is going to win the fight.

Since When...

does "preventative care" equal abortion?  Well, it seems anytime a women's health issue is discussed the anti-abortion people are right on top of it and complaining that it just gives women the right to kill babies.


Today, the Institute of Medicine recommended that birth control be free of charge under the new federal health care law.  As part of the Institute's task to determine what preventative care is, they deemed birth control as preventative.  Not just for preventing babies, but also care for "controlling hormone imbalances, reducing the severity of menstrual cramps, or dealing with acne." (MotherJones.com)

Now, Jeanne Monahan, director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council, says that this means that the morning-after-pill will be free and that is not good since they "act as abortifacients." 

Although the National Institutes of Health and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have said that pregnancy does not begin until a fertilized egg has been implanted.  Morning-after-pills prevent the implantation.


But, since this is a women's health issue, the anti-abortionists will persist.  They would rather not have any abortions or any women avoiding pregnancy using birth control.  They would just want all the women to have to run after all those kids.

Equal Rights

Usually in this little box, when the title has the word "rights" in it, the story would be about LGBT rights.  Today, is different.  There is a story on the Huffington Post that points out that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) that was passed by both houses of Congress in 1972, never became ratified and is not on the books.


As part of the rules, 38 states have to ratify an amendment for it to become part of the Constitution.  Only 35 states ratified it between 1972 and the deadline of June 30, 1982.  (Wikipedia.org)  So, these 24 words don't get in:  "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."


I guess I was unaware that the amendment had never passed.  Although it might explain some things that are still going on in the country - certain cuts to programs for women's health.  And although it was staunchly supported by Republicans in its infancy, it seems it is the GOP who doesn't want to see it go forward now.


Looking at the comments on the HuffPost story, it seems most men don't see the need for it either.  They also think that women's rights would translate into co-ed professional basketball teams and communal showers and bathrooms.


Amazing.  Living in this male-dominated, white bread world, it is no wonder that not everybody but the male white breads get the rights.