The War on Women is Real

[neadods]

By refusing to comply with a federal law allowing women to choose their own providers of basic wellness care health services (one of those providers being Planned Parenthood), Texas has lost federal funds and denied some 70,000 women of the funded services.

Wisconsin has reinstated a strict limit on the time women are allowed to sue over wage discrimination, eliminating a law that had been written when a specific woman was denied her rights because she found out about the wage discrimination "too late."

Mississippi, which has the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation, has laws banning the discussion of condoms in sex education *except* to discuss failure rates. Mississippi lawmakers are also trying to rewrite laws to force the state's single abortion clinic out of business. (For the purposes of overseas comparison, Mississippi state is roughly half the land mass of the island holding England, Scotland, and Wales. One. Clinic. In. The. Whole. State.)

Arizona just banned abortion after 20 weeks... which is calculated not by conception, but by the woman's last menstrual period, making the actual cutoff somewhere 16-18 weeks, depending on when the woman conceived.

Georgia tried to ban abortion for any reason after 20 weeks, including health of fetus or mother. When it was pointed out that this prevented removal of a stillbirth, one of the bill's supporters compared women carrying a dead fetus to the livestock on his farm. After the backlash, the overall ban went into affect, although with a codicil exempting mother's health or "medically futile" pregnancies.


I put on an orange vest and stood in a parking lot. (Fraulein and Father Corleone were uncharacteristically quiet today.)

We have to vote this upcoming election. But voting is not the only action we can take to fight back.

Comments

[amethyst-hunter.livejournal.com]

I am genuinely afraid that America as we know it will soon no longer exist. We've let this...insanity...take over common sense.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

This country has gone crazy before, listing to one side or another. It corrected itself then and will now, but only if people WORK to correct it.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Here's (http://blog.chron.com/nickanderson/2012/04/war-games-2/) a good summary (in cartoon form) of the pearl-clutching by the Republicans whose fee-fees are hurt at the SUGGESTION that they're engaged on a war on women. It's by Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle (I believe) and I actually saw it first here (http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/04/14/early-morning-open-thread-willard-got-nuthin/) at Balloon Juice.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

That is an excellent cartoon - and very true! I've already seen someone trying the "false issue" handwave, denying the facts as a "laundry list" that distracts from the real problem, the economy.

Problem was the guy was trying that gambit on the liberal mother of a daughter...

[faireraven.livejournal.com]

I don't really call myself liberal. I am socially liberal and fiscally conservative, which means that both sides of the current election debaucle piss me off... But the conservative side pisses me off more.

But he really should have known better.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I know you don't... but all of the anti-woman laws are direct social engineering, and you are, as you say, a social liberal.

It was a bit fascinating -- in a welcome to the Brave New World way -- to realize a few days later that this was the new official Romney platform being launched into the wild.

[big-wired.livejournal.com]

Up here in Canada, there is going to be an hour long debate by Conservatice MP Stephen Woodworth on how to change the law that states when a human being is a human being. Currently, Canadian law says that a human being is a human being AFTER a woman gives birth to them, but he is trying to change that law. I'm doing my part to fight that and tell my own MP that to change the law is to deny a woman her rights and make them second class citizens.

So you and all your friends, the ones who actually have common sense and sympathy and compassion and understanding that women ARE human beings, hang in down there and keep up the good fight. I'm gearing up for one up here, and if need be, we'll keep this place nice and safe for you in case you need to vacate the US.

Because this is some serious backlash against women...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Good golly, don't say he's arguing the person-from-conception law. You know it's a bad idea when a state as conservative as Mississippi's response is "Fuck no!"

Because this is some serious backlash against women...

Uppity bitches, thinking we're people and all.

[big-wired.livejournal.com]

It's not quite person-from-conception law, not like in Arizona, but it is trying to place that the fetus is a person at the expense of the rights of the ACTUAL PERSON giving birth to it.

He's basically looking to reopen the debate in Canada about when a human life begins, and my Prime MInister, who said he would, so long as he was PM, NOT REOPEN THE DEBATE, is letting someone else reopen the debate.

*sigh* That's what we get for letting an emotionless android become Prime Minister.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

the fetus is a person at the expense of the rights of the ACTUAL PERSON giving birth to it.

*headbang*headbang*headbang*

Y'know, there was some n00b at Pharyngula who jumped into a discussion of women's rights and wanted to turn it into a discussion of exactly when the woman has to cede her bodily rights to the fetus' right to life, apparently trying to pin down an exact day in the last trimester when it was "too late" - and often bringing up the fanciful hypthetical of a woman who "just changes her mind" at 8.5 months.

The Pharyngulites tore him limb from virtual limb for the triple crimes of trying to derail the conversation, demanding that the (male) blog owner answer while ignoring the many women pointing out their actual experiences, and the overall inability to grasp that a woman has bodily rights that cannot be ceded to another at any time, period, end of sentence.

You cannot legally compel a woman to donate an organ to anyone, including her own child. This is simply reiterating that point as the goal posts move.

[signeh.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand is why this, why now? The economy has been bad before - I'm old enough to remember the 70's era recessions, and they weren't pretty - but this avalanche of hatred of women feels new.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I think several things have crawled out from under rocks recently.

1) These attitudes have been around all along: Rush, O'Reilly, Beck, etc. are not news. They just didn't have much power.

2) The Republicans are masters at reframing arguments; look at how they've redefined things all along. They were doing rather nicely with the whole "it's not about women, it's about freedom of religion thing" - until Limbaugh, who's never had to stop and think before, didn't stop to think that revealing the actual party line was going to blow up in his face. Even now, Etch-a-Sketch is whining that the comment about his wife being too rich to understand the middle class is denigrating stay-at-home mothers and trying to reframe the war on women as something Obama's done.

(And that lameass reframe is sticking; I've seen a nimrod complain that listing the various shots in that battle was a "laundry list" that "distracted" from the real problem. His problem was saying that on the blog of a liberal woman... with a daughter.)

And then there's the Tea Party. The Tea Party talks about money, says it can fix things... and gets elected. And all the people who've been thinking this crap all along finally have their voice. Not only that, they have power. And while they've talked about fixing the economy, the plan is the "screw the infrastructure, poor, middle class and unions" plan, nakedly and unashamed. Perry campaigned in Texas on jobs, then passed an antiabortion bill as emergency legislation before dealing with the budget. Walker promised to fix jobs and stripped the right to collectively bargain over *working conditions* of all indefensible things. (And on the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.) They're so unable to grasp that Government=compromise that they not only split their own party but are so instrumental in screwing up the economy that their attempts to shut the Government and deny raising the debt limit are *specifically* mentioned in the downgrade of the country's credit rating.

In this last election, candidates have outright pandered to this, promising to reinstate Don't Ask Don't Tell (really? Because it was pretty damned unpopular) and to defund Planned Parenthood (because that's also a popular idea. Just ask the Komen foundation.)

The Tea Party brought people to the polls, oh yes it did... but it wasn't long until the moderate conservatives knew that they were riding a tiger. And you'll notice that none of the real wingnuts really had a prayer, not really.

I honestly think that three things are happening right now:
1) Candidates pander to the Tea Party because it whips up the base and gets people to the polls.

2) BUT the Tea Party has been such a disaster that it's going to be ridden out on a rail and I think the moderate Republicans *want* that. They can't fix the economy either, so why not let the whackaloons fall on their faces, and come back in another 2-4 years and complain that the Democrats haven't fixed everything.

3) While in the meantime, the Tea Party members with a brain (I'm exempting, say, Bachmann) know that they aren't going to fix everything either, and that they'll probably be voted out. So why not go out in a blaze of glory, make as big a mess for the next person to have to deal with on top of the economy, be able to tell their constituents that they "stayed pure"... oh, and get the legal boot up the groups they don't like during their brief moment in the sun.

[kefiraahava.livejournal.com]

Don't know if you've seen this already, but there are rallies against the war on women being organized for April 28, including locally:

http://www.wearewomenmarch.net/groups/washington-d-c-we-are-women-march/

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Yes! I'll have to make sure I can be there. It may not have the massive turnout as the March for Women's Rights, but hopefully it will enough to be well noticed.

*checks calendar* Aw, hell, that's the middle of Malice. I've already paid a lot of money to be across town.

[kefiraahava.livejournal.com]

Rats, re Malice conflict.

I'm hoping it will be noticed. I passed the link to my assistant, who passed it to several other young women at my employer as well as her roommate and her sorority sisters who work in town. Last I heard she was organizing a group of young women to go....

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

I'm planning to be there, oh my, yes.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

TELL ALL!

And I love that icon.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

Feel free to gank it. Unfortunately, I've never been able to track down who created it.

[elasg.livejournal.com]

And they have the gall to tell us it's our imagination or it's actually the democrats who are oppressing us.

*shakes head*

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The ultimate "that dog won't hunt." The "OMGWTF how dare you bash stay at home moms!" is already drying up in the light of all the Republican shennanigans that hurt stay-at-home moms on top of working women.

[elasg.livejournal.com]

That one didn't even pass the smell test. As if Ann Romney has EVER known what a housewife goes through trying to balance a budget on a shoestring while raising kids WITHOUT 5 household 'staff'.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I like the political cartoon that showed her making the "tough decisions" about being a stay at home mom. Starting at which of the 5 homes to stay in.

[cozit.livejournal.com]

That livestock comparison from a *supporter*!?!? Dimwit is a bad farmer, our doesn't oversee his own livestock. Anyone with any sense gets a dead fetus pulled from livestock because it will most likely kill the mother, making the animal a waste in several ways...duh. Sigh. Amazing what over control of education brings about after a generation or so. Seems more and more like TX is being run like a cult...

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Amazing what over control of education brings about after a generation or so.

Yeah - the point was to raise a generation that thought like that... and so they've raised a generation that thinks like that. Problem is, now the rest of the country has had a good look at what that brings. Hey kids! Let's repeal the 20th and 21st centuries!

[cozit.livejournal.com]

And GA isn't far behind, apparently. (so many comments I could make on that part, and the differences between my southern siblings and those of us still in the north

[sethrak.livejournal.com]

And then there's this. http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/04/13/463317/tennessee-anti-hand-holding/

Damn right I am voting. Might not make a lot of difference in Lamborn's district, but I am voting.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've seen that. It's not law yet, though, is it? I'm trying to focus not on the insanity that's been proposed, but the insanity actually being imposed.