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.

[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.

[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...

[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.

[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/

[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*

[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...

[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.