Tag Archives: abortion

Helping anti-choice terrorists, one name at a time.

Last week, I got all caught up in my anti-War on Women fury and tweeted an article that, it transpired, was three years old. Oopsie!

In my defense, though, it was about a law in Oklahoma that was really, really heinous and had actually passed, so my brain was a bit addled. This law (later struck down by the courts) would have required that the details of every abortion conducted in the state be posted on a public website:

The questionnaire doesn’t include the woman’s name or “any information specifically identifying the patient,” but it does ask for age, race, level of education, marital status, number of previous pregnancies, and the county in which the abortion was performed, information which opponents of the bill argue would be enough to identify a woman in a small town. The questionnaire also asks about the mother’s reason for the abortion, her method of payment, and even what type of insurance she has, as well as whether the fetus received anaesthetic and whether there was “an infant born alive as a result of the abortion.”

So, you know – phew! At least we dodged that one!

Except we didn’t.

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Dear GOP: You do know how pregnancy works, right?

I have been pregnant four times.

These pregnancies led to the following four results, in this order: abortion, baby, miscarriage, baby.

These pregnancies occurred over a span of many years, across two continents, and in three different homes. There were at least seven different health care professionals involved, my hair styles varied widely, as did my levels of nausea. The only constant, in all four cases, other than me, was the presence of a penis.

It happened to be the penis I eventually married, but regardless, that is how pregnancy works. No matter who you are, no matter your sexuality, ability to reproduce, or family make-up, if there are children in your life, at some point along the way, there was a penis involved.

I mention this only because it seems the GOP may have forgotten.

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Tweet of the Day – The Case for Abortion

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430 abortion restrictions introduced this year alone.

I’ve had an abortion. (If you’re an old hand around these parts, you’re aware of this fact, because I’ve noted it before).

I’ve had an abortion, but I’ll be honest: For me, it wasn’t an easy decision. I don’t believe I ended a life, but I know I ended the potential for life, and while it was the best of (what felt to me like) two bad choices, that didn’t make it a happy thing.

I figure that’s ok. I’m not required meet the anti-choice stereotype of just loooooving me some good ol’ abortions in order to have the right to avail myself of a legal medical procedure. One may be conflicted, unsure, sad, even grieving, and still be pro-choice.

Which is why, despite whatever ambivalence I may have had about my own abortion, the following information (from a post by Sarah Kliff on the Washington Post‘s WonkBlog) makes my hair stand on end:

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Oklahama Democrat Adds 'Every Sperm Is Sacred' Amendment to Personhood Bill

Wins at life

 Oklahoma state senator Constance Johnson has a great sense of humor.  To poke fun at the sheer absurdity of the Personhood Amendment which would give zygotes the same rights as extra-utero-American citizens, Senator Johnson added the following language as an amendment to the bill:

However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.

Of course, such an amendment would ban all sexual activity, including masturbation.

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Attention, Male Talking Heads on My Teevee: Listen to Rachel, Please

When men can get pregnant, I’ll be interested in their opinions about birth control.

Any of y'all got a uterus? Didn't think so! STFU

My love affair with Rachel Maddow runs hot/cold. Precisely because she’s so smart and incisive, when she’s wrong it is more infuriating than when a dumber, less attentive pundit swings and misses yet again.

But all the elderly white men, most of them Catholics, who are hyping “Obama’s War on Catholicism” beyond any reasonable understanding of the actual American electorate, and the actual relationship between Catholics and their own leadership, need to have a seat and watch Rachel.

Yes, Chris Matthews, I’m looking at you. And you, Lawrence O’Donnell, and you, Mark Shields, and you, E.J. Dionne.

Pull up a chair. Comfy? Ready? OK, click play and learn.

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Dear Asian-Americans: I am so sorry that I didn’t warn you about the GOP.

Or: The GOP – they really don’t seem to like much of anybody!

Last week, I wrote a post asking the GOP to just shut up about black people, a post which got a surprising amount of attention across the web.

In the aftermath of that, I found myself wondering: “Huh. Who is the GOP going to demonize and belittle next in this election cycle?”

And I knew: Asian-Americans. A post began to form itself in my head, one I intended to write sometime this week.

I mean, they’ve demonized and belittled gay people already:

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Stop The Abortion Stupidity

Kansas lawmakers have six days to decide if it’s okay for doctors to lie to women who may consider abortion if they knew the truth.

Yeah, roll that around and digest it for a minute, I know I had to. The proposed changes would prevent women from suing doctors for malpractice if they withhold information that they feel might make the woman consider abortion as a viable procedure. A woman would have no rights to claim malpractice if her doctor didn’t mention birth defects that the doctor feels may cause her to consider abortion. A woman would have no say in court if she suffered damage to her body from a condition her doctor neglected to mention because in their opinion it might cause her to consider abortion.

The bill includes several other cheap shots and punitive measures aimed at women considering abortion, including hearing the heartbeat and removing tax deductions for “abortion related” health insurance coverage. Those are another topic for another post, a rant about how laws can punish people for taking advantage of a protected medical procedure. My main concern here is the idea that it could ever be right to hold back the truth between doctor and patient.

In a constant erosion of women’s rights, the GOP is now trying to intrude on the relationship between a patient and her doctor. They’ve resorted to telling outright lies, as well.
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GOP Still Pretending Abortion is 'Black Genocide'

Give it a rest already.

 I’ve written before about PRENDA (Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act) and the nonsense “abortion is black genocide” narrative (here).  As you may recall, it’s the basis for Operation Spite Babies.

I don’t have much to add on the matter, but I do want to point out this quote about which I have been laughing all morning:

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