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Rep. Bart Stupak
Rep. Joe Pitts
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I sifted through blogs and media to find out what women bloggers and writers both obscure and well-known are saying about the Stupak-Pitts amendment.
I noticed one thing while researching. Overwhelming, white, straight women are writing about this issue. Queer women and women of color and QWOC are not as focused on this issue as white straight women are. Is abortion a white, straight issue?
Katha Pollitt at the Nation: Whose Team Is It, Anyway?
Laura Flanders at GritTV: Compromise on Women’s Backs Again
Kate Harding at Salon: Face it: The Democratic Party is not for women
Jessica Arons at Think Progress: The Stupak Amendment Is A Monumental Setback For Abortion Access
Jill Filipovic at Feministe: Stupak Amendment: A Coup for Republicans
Kjerstin Johnson at Bitch Magazine: Health Care Reform and the Stupak Amendment
Sarah Jaffe at Global Comment: Hey Stupak, women’s bodies are not bargaining chips
Natalia Anatova at her eponymous blog: Way to go, Democrats
Melissa McEwan at Shakesville: Our Mendacious President
and: Stupak Starts Making Threats
RobinNWLC at Feministing: Abortion and Health Care Reform: How The House Bill Forces Women to Accept Less Coverage Than They Already Have
Pilgrim Soul at the Pursuit of Harpyness: You Can Put Down Your Champagne Now
M. Leblanc at Bitch Ph.D: Life-saving, life-changing, affordable health care
Echidne at Echidne of the Snakes: Now In The Pulpit: E.J. Dionne
Sara E. Anderson at F-Words: Why not abortion insurance?
Amy Siskind at The Daily Beast: How Obama Sold Women Out
Latoya Peterson at Jezebel: Message to Obama: Abort the Stupak-Pitts Amendment
and: Wimpy Wimpy Wimpy: Democrats Are Dithering on Issue of Abortion
Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling at the New York Times: Trading Women’s Rights for Political Power
Dr. Susie Baldwin at RH Reality Check: Another Doctor Mad as Hell
Amie Newman at RH Reality Check: Dear Progressive Allies in Health Care Reform: Where Were You on the Stupak Amendment?
and: RNC Health Plan Covers Abortion and Other Facts & Lies Behind the Stupak Amendment
Actually, you can just go to RH Reality Check and do a search for “Stupak”.
This is great DIY fun for the whole family both born and unborn.
This is for serious peoples. If you don’t believe me, go to the American Life League website yourself and feast your eyes. You can download your own stencil!
Or not.
It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It could be as intricate as the design here or as simple as the word “Pro-Life.” Whatever your skill level, be creative and tell the world about the personhood of preborn babies!
Any occasion is the right occasion to be a scary pro-life activist. I’m glad they discovered the synergies they have with the overall spooky nature of Halloween, or “the eve of All Saints Day”, as ALL puts it.
h/t Evil Slutopia
Exciting UPDATE: Here’s my own, with a couple friends.
Oklahoma has a wretched track record when it comes to women’s bodily autonomy. I have written about the law requiring doctors to show them “the baby” on their ultrasound, the law forcing extra medical penetration on women seeking abortion, and the fact that OK allows health insurance agencies to deny medical coverage to women who have been victims of domestic violence.
Anyways, get ready for more of the same.
As of November 1, doctors in Oklahoma will be compelled — under penalty of criminal prosecution — to post the details of each abortion they perform online. Among the details to be posted for every abortion is the patient’s age, marital status and race; her financial condition; her education; and the total number of her previous pregnancies.
This amazing piece of law-making is called the Statistical Reporting of Abortions Act. Women must answer 37 personal questions about themselves that would, though names won’t be posted, make it easy to identify many of the women who get abortions in Oklahoma.
No reason. Oklahoma just wants to know. Or wait, no, that’s not right, Oklahoma is Just Doing It For Women’s Own Good. Because women benefit by… uh… alright, I can’t find even a facetious reason for Oklahoma to do this.
We have two men to thank for this “common-sense legislation” (their term): Republican Senator Todd Lamb and Republican Representative Dan Sullivan.
You can contact Mr. Lamb here.
You can contact Mr. Sullivan here.
Mike the Mad Biologist has an excellent suggestion: “Why don’t we just tattoo a Scarlett “A” on their foreheads?”
Thank the Lord two women are suing the state, Lora Joyce Davis and former state Rep. Wanda Jo Stapleton, with the help of the Center for Reproductive Rights. I’m sure CRR could use your support right now.
Rachel Maddow recently did a show on this very issue.
I’ve divided today’s issue into sections. Oh boy!
Overseas
The Czech people are celebrating the collapse of American plans to put (more) American military equipment in their country! Go Czechs!
Idiot far-right German political party NPD sent offensive letters to “parliamentary candidates of immigrant heritage, telling them to go home.” It’s part of their cynical plan to stir up the not-properly-riled dormant xenophobic neo-nazi element in German society to vote for NPD in future elections.
Good news for the gheyz!
Not only does Nevada’s same-sex Domestic Partnership Registry Act take effect today, but the ban on same-sex marriage in Texas was declared unconstitutional!
So Topical!
Ed Kilgore wrote about David Brooks and anti-anti-racism. Did you read what he calls Brooks’ “unintentionally hilarious column”?
American Girl debuts “Gwen”, their new homeless doll! How topical! Here’s a snippet of her story:
Gwen and her mother Janine fell on hard times when her father lost his job; they later lost the house as they were unable to keep up payments. Soon after, Gwen’s father left them and they became homeless the fall before the start of the book’s events.
LOL your post-racial America!
(got that title from Shakesville btw)
US attorney Jim Greenlee in Mississipi targeted convenience store owners based only on the evidence that their names sound Muslim. Not like kinda on the DL, but as a stated initiative. The Convenience Store Initiative, to be precise.
Of the more than 100 people listed as being investigated by federal authorities, nearly every name appears to be Islamic. FBI officials would not comment.
FAIL. Good thing my pals at Mississippi Immigrants Rights Association are ON IT.
ANNnnnd to cap it all off with the worst thing ever: a white woman claiming to be an immigration officer stabbed an immigrant woman and stole her 4-day-old baby. This 
happened yesterday in Tennessee to mother Maria Gurrolla. Her missing baby’s name is Yair Anthony Carrillo. Investigators said:
“The child was taken by a white female who was posing as an immigration worker. She had come to the residence and demanded the mother give her the baby. When the mother refused to comply she stabbed the mother approximately 8 times.”
From the National Women’s Law Center:
Take Action Now: Oppose Anti-Choice Efforts to Take Away Abortion Coverage from Millions of Women in Health Care Reform
As we speak, insurance coverage for abortion care is being negotiated out of health care reform. This is unacceptable and your action is urgently needed.
And as you are reading this, there’s language on the brink of being included in health care reform that will take away coverage of abortion that millions of women currently have. We must not let this happen because comprehensive reproductive health care is basic health care for women.
Call and email your Senators and the White House TODAY. Tell them to protect women’s coverage of abortion care in health care reform!
To call your Senators, dial 202-224-3121. When you call, you’ll reach the Capitol switchboard. Ask to be connected to your Senators. Note that you’ll need to call two times to reach both of your Senators.
Click here to email.
If you can’t read the small print, this shindig will be at McCarren Park (in Brooklyn) Saturday September 19 from 2-5pm.
The Doula Project “is a pro-choice New York City-based organization that was started in 2008 to provide services to lower-income individuals across the spectrum of pregnancy.”
Welcome to The Exciting Times, a collection of news items that caught my interest!
*There has been another anti-Latino hate crime in Patchogue, New York, a small town with a history of anti-Latino violence, including the murder of Marcelo Lucero. This time a Latino mad was beaten and robbed by a gang of white men. White dudes: get your shit together over there!
*One of the first things I ever blogged about was that Oklahoma had passed a law mandating ultrasounds for women seeking abortion. Ultrasounds are commonly given before abortions, but it is unusual for the government to mandate normally elective medical procedures. My problem with this that it is almost assuredly just another ploy to make abortion less accessible, and it amounts to mandating medical rape.
Well, HUZZAH, because the law has been repealed! Though kind of on a technicality, and might be back again next year. Apparently the law also included a set of rules mandating that doctors go over the ultrasound with the patient and describe to her how much like a baby it looks. Can’t wait to see this one come back next year.
*Canadian citizen disowned and left in jail in Kenya. The woman, Suaad Hagi Mohamud, had immigrated from Somalia to Canada and is a naturalized citizen. For some reason her passport was “challenged” when she was trying to travel from Kenya to Canada this May. She was detained in Kenya, and when she appealed for help from the Canadian consulate, diplomat Liliane Khadour denied Mohamud was Canadian, claiming falsely that she had “carried out conclusive investigations” and determined that “the person brought to the Canadian High Commission on suspicion of being an imposter is not the rightful holder of the aforementioned passport.”
All’s well that ends well, right? Am I right? Well, Khadour has been “recalled” and Mohamud, after three months, the help of friends, and DNA testing, proved her identity and returned to her country.
*Don’t miss The Women’s Crusade in the NYT Magazine this week. Though I don’t agree with every statement in the article, there are plenty of intriguing points made. For example:
It appears that more girls and women are now missing from the planet, precisely because they are female, than men were killed on the battlefield in all the wars of the 20th century. The number of victims of this routine “gendercide” far exceeds the number of people who were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century.
and
[I]t is emerging that male domination of society is also a risk factor [for turbulence and violence]; the reasons aren’t fully understood, but it may be that when women are marginalized the nation takes on the testosterone-laden culture of a military camp… Indeed, some scholars say they believe the reason Muslim countries have been disproportionately afflicted by terrorism is not Islamic teachings about infidels or violence but rather the low levels of female education and participation in the labor force.
ANNNNnnnd finally:
*Need some fuel to win health care arguments with your backwards-thinking relatives and coworkers? Here are some numbers for you to take a gander at, comparing health data collected from the US, the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. One of these countries doesn’t have nationalized health care. One of these countries also shows significantly worse health and health care than the others. CAN YOU GUESS WHICH??
Am I right or am I right?
Like, OMFGWTFHolyShit what if more people being covered by health insurance means more people will have access to abortion! We’re talking about lives here people! Precious preborn patriots may DIE just so more postborn people can live! Where are your priorities?
Oh yes. Because that is exactly where certain people are at right now in the health care debate:
Kansans for Life sent out a “call to action” today, urging Kansans to contact their legislators and ask them to vote against any anti-life efforts, including easier access to taxpayer-funded abortions.
“This is the abortion-industry’s dream bill,” [Executive Director Mary Kay] Culp told Kansas Liberty.
I think some people out there in Kansas are particularly sore right now, now that beloved, and pro-choice, Governor Kathleen Sebelius is Secretary of Health and Human Services, a department that will be quite involved in any health care policy reform.
It’s good to know that “controversial” things like women’s bodily autonomy are still being leveraged to great effect for ever new purposes by the backwards-looking among us. For some people, even hindsight isn’t 20/20.
Last Thursday, at a licensing rules hearing for Nebraska psychologists, the topic of debate between the Nebraska Psychology Association and the Nebraska Catholic Conference was a “convictions of conscience” rule that would allow psychologists (and possibly counselors, social workers, and marriage and family therapists) to “refuse to treat — and refuse to refer clients — because of religious or moral convictions.”
At Amplify via Evil Slutopia
Nebraska, we need to have a talk. For starters, WTF!!?? Why is the Nebraska Catholic Conference even attending Nebraska Psychology Association hearings? I don’t recall them being a medical organization or an authority on the field of psychology.
And also, where will this “conscientious clause” stuff stop? I don’t normally head down the slippery slopes, but come on, at this point we’re getting a little crazy. First some doctors don’t want to perform the medical procedure known as abortion. Ok, fine, give them a choice to opt out. Then religious hospitals don’t want abortions occurring anywhere in their facilities, even when medically necessary… getting away from the spirit of the Hippocratic Oath there. Then some pharmacies don’t want to carry emergency contraception, because they misunderstand the science behind it and consider it abortion. Uh, we tried to compromise on that one, but they weren’t hearing it. Problematic. Then certain pharmacists didn’t want to dispense ANY contraception because they decided it was all immoral/secretly abortifacient. Here we are fully detached from reality, and now the somewhat kooky “morality” of certain pharmacists may be codified to trump the morality of patients in every case. Flat out objectionable.
We move from these mounting “conscientious objections” that just so happen to only effect sexually active women (how random and coincidental!) to Bush’s move to allow any person, even remotely involved in healthcare, to refuse to treat and refuse to refer any patient for any reason so long as that reason is based in religious belief. Of course, women and queers were the intended victims of this creepy bit of federal rule-making. Obama did away with this rule.
But this is all why I’m freaking out and thinking that maybe this time we ARE headed down that slope.
Because now, it seems, Nebraska Catholic leaders would like to extend the creeping fog of healthcare refusals to psychologists and possibly other types of counselors. Awesome… they must be thinking, “Guys, I’ve got a great idea. Let’s create a rule, you see, so that when people are seeking mental healthcare services, if their concerns have anything, you know, to do with female ‘troubles’ or homosexuality, the practitioner can legally discriminate against them. To protect the psychologists’ conscience and save them from going to hell for helping out a fellow human being. It’ll be great! That’ll learn those harlots and homos! What’d ya say?”
Not cool. Nebraska, you gotta do the right thing here. At this point, the matter is merely up for discussion. But your Catholic Conference would like to actually change the psychologists’ code of ethics to perversely make it “ethical” to discriminate in this way.
It’s got to stop. Now.
Consider yourself warned.
From the Seattle Times: Judges strike broad ban on Wash. Plan B rules . Holla! An injunction against a Washington Pharmacy Board regulation mandating that all pharmacies dispense Plan B has been overturned. Yay. This is, of course, only a battle in the larger war for Plan B access. H/t Chloë.
Via Bilerico, I learned of Gena Edvalson, a mother in Utah who has been denied visitation rights to her child because she was the non-bio lesbian mother. The biological mother, Jana Dickson, broke up with Gena, married a man, and decided she was going to use homophobic laws and judges to prevent Gena from seeing her child again. FUCKED UP. Read the story at the link.
That seems to be unclear to certain assholes running around.
Because if everyone could agree that immigrants are people, things like this wouldn’t happen:
Immigration advocates are incensed over a Mexican woman’s fight to keep custody of her child after she was reported as an unfit mother two days after giving birth in a Pascagoula hospital.
…According to documents obtained by The Clarion-Ledger, staff at the hospital filed a report two days later listing Ruby as a neglected child.
…Court records obtained by The Clarion-Ledger indicate [Cirila Baltazar] Cruz is charged with neglecting her child, in part, because “she has failed to learn the English language” and “was unable to call for assistance for transportation to the hospital” to give birth. Her inability to speak English “placed her unborn child in danger and will place the baby in danger in the future,” according to the document.
Uh, since when was speaking English a requirement of motherhood? Whoever stole that woman’s baby, and anyone who colluded, should end up in jail. At least there is an apparently awesome organization involved to advocate for Cruz: Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance. Their Request for Action is down below the fold. If this incident shocks and enrages you, please check out their action items and get involved!
H/t Alas.
Interestingly, in the light of this sickening language-bigotry-based violation of human rights, just this past weekend Pat Buchanan and his white “nationalist” friends were having a conference where they “suggested supporting English-only initiatives as a prime way of attracting “working class white Democrats.””
Buchanan went on to mock Sotomayor for coming from a Spanish-speaking background, and conference participant Peter Brimelow, editor of white “nationalist” website VDARE.com, “urged the attendees of the Buchanan conference to attack affirmative action in an effort to attract the votes of “young whites” and “yellow people.”"
After claiming it would be “suicidal” for any “white man” to vote for Obama, Brimelow contended that immigrants should not be eligible for affirmative action because “they weren’t slaves to this country, they’ve never been discriminated against”.
Those white “nationalists” sure are eloquent. To hear these actual words come out of their mouths, pop over to ThinkProgress, where you can also view their misspelled conference banner.
Request for action below. Read the rest of this entry »
Arg. Most of you probably heard about the Pope’s little African snafu, when he declared that condom use cannot help prevent the spread of AIDS. Of course, like many of the beliefs he propagates, this is demonstrably false.
But many over-looked another, equally incendiary and thoughtlessly dogmatic statement he made while in Angola.
The Washington Times reports:
[Benedict] criticized the “irony of those who promote abortion as a form of ‘maternal’ health care.” The pope was referring to an African Union agreement signed by Angola and 44 other countries that abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is endangered.
“How disconcerting the claim that the termination of life is a matter of reproductive health,” Benedict said.
Oh yes, how terrible it is that several African countries have taken steps to reduce maternal mortality and death from back alley abortion. It’s such a tragedy that these countries allow rape and incest victims choices regarding how to handle the crime done to them. Indeed, how disconcerting the claim that reproduction has anything to do with a woman’s body, health and life.
The pope has his finger to the pulse. Finger To The Pulse.
The pope left Africa on a final note of the importance of aid to the poor.
On Monday, the pope urged Angola’s leaders to make “the fundamental aspirations of the most needy people” their main concern.
“Our hearts cannot be at peace as long as there are brothers that suffer the lack of food, work, a house, and other fundamental goods,” the pontiff said in his airport departure speech.
However, the Catholic Church in Angola has been seizing land owned by poor families in order to build new Catholic churches. Over 2,000 families have been displaced, some violently. When Amnesty International pled with the pope to address this issue…
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi referred the question to Angolan Bishop Monsignor Jose Manuel Imbamba. The prelate denied anyone had been evicted or houses destroyed.
Nice one! Publicly declare compassion for the poor. Then violently remove families from their land to make way for new churches. Just what Jesus would do.
The Australian reports:
13-Year ban on Australian foreign aid for abortion has been overturned by the Rudd Government, despite [Prime Minister] Kevin Rudd being opposed to the policy shift.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has followed the lead of US President Barack Obama, who has scrapped the policy preventing non-government organisations using official funds overseas to advise about abortions or provide services.
“This was a difficult decision. This is a deeply sensitive area. It’s one where strong views are held deeply and very personally. …” Mr Smith said yesterday.
“I was left with the very distinct impression that the substantial, if not the overwhelming majority of the parliamentary members of the Labor Party believed that this was also the correct outcome.”
…Mr Smith said the change would mean women in developing countries had the same options as those in Australia, if local laws allowed terminations.
But he said that Australian aidfunding would still focus on avoiding abortions through family planning.
Yay!
A 9 year old Brazilian girl was pregnant with twins, which for someone her age is life-threatening. Her step-father reportedly is responsible for the rape. Her mother took her to the doctor and she got an abortion.
Catholic authorities have excommunicated her mother and her doctors. They have not, however, excommunicated her rapist step-dad, who is now in jail.
Abortion to save the life of a child = Murder! Excommunication!
Rape and incest of a 9 year old = eh.
Nice work, Catholic Church. Inspiring really.
Doctors in the northeastern city of Recife performed the abortion on Wednesday after deciding that the girl could have died if her pregnancy with twins was allowed to continue. According to media reports, the girl was nearly four months pregnant.
The Catholic Church’s archbishop for the area criticized the decision as against “the law of God” and excommunicated her mother, the doctors and other people involved in the abortion.
…”As doctors, we could not allow a girl of 9 to suffer like this or until she paid with her own life,” [her doctor] said.
…Globo reported police as saying that the stepfather had been arrested and had admitted sexually abusing the girl since she was 6 years old.
From the AP:
Fatima Maia, director of the public university hospital where the abortion was performed, said the 15-week-old pregnancy posed a serious risk to the 80-pound (36-kilogram) girl.
“She is very small. Her uterus doesn’t have the ability to hold one, let alone two children,” Maia told the Jornal do Brasil newspaper.
But Marcio Miranda, a lawyer for the Archdiocese of Olinda and Recife in northeastern Brazil, said the girl should have carried the twins to term and had a cesarean section.
“It’s the law of God: Do not kill. We consider this murder,” Miranda said in comments reported by O Globo.
So withholding this abortion from this child, which could have killed her and the fetuses, would not also be murder? I mean, if a someone were to deliberately impede someone seeking life saving medical intervention, and that person died as a result, is that not also murder?
Oh, I forgot. The 9 year old was female. According to Catholic extremists, her life is worthless, and she deserves to die while birthing her own half-siblings as a result of rape-incest. My bad for thinking she was a worthwhile human being with rights.
This is what the Pro-Life movement is working for in America. Can’t wait!
H/t Feministe.
h/t to commentor, ahem, Bubbabutt.
The Obama administration plans to reverse a regulation from late in the Bush administration allowing health-care workers to refuse to provide services based on moral objections, an official said Friday.
…Under the [Bush] rule, workers in health-care settings — from doctors to janitors — can refuse to provide services, information or advice to patients on subjects such as contraception, family planning, blood transfusions and even vaccine counseling if they are morally against it.
An unnamed Health Dept official said, “[W]e do not want to impose new limitations on services that would allow providers to refuse to provide to women and their families services like family planning and contraception that would actually help prevent the need for an abortion in the first place.”
I contemplated all the reasons that the Bush Administration’s rule would be terrible for women and gays and quoted ACOG and AMA objections to it.
I am so happy to hear that the Obama Administration is going to do away with this unnecessary and theocratic regulation. As the American College of Gynocologists states, “Although respect for conscience is important, conscientious refusals should be limited if they constitute an imposition of religious or moral beliefs on patients [or] negatively affect a patient’s health.”
Republican Colorado State Senators are really working hard to outstrip Utah State Senator Chris Buttars on the mind-boggling ignorant bigotry.
Colorado State Senator Dave Schultheis had some choice words about a bill that would require HIV testing for pregnant women. Obviously, he is against this bill.
The Colorado Independent reports:
Schultheis said he planned to vote against a bill to require HIV tests for pregnant women because the disease “stems from sexual promiscuity” and he didn’t think the Legislature should “remove the negative consequences that take place from poor behavior and unacceptable behavior.”
Listen to some of his words here.
He went on to say: “What I’m hoping is that, yes, that person may have AIDS, have it seriously as a baby and when they grow up, but the mother will begin to feel guilt as a result of that. The family will see the negative consequences of that promiscuity and it may make a number of people over the coming years begin to realize that there are negative consequences and maybe they should adjust their behavior.”
This is a state senator who believes that expectant mothers should not be tested for an incurable disease that could effect their child for life, because it is his opinion that HIV is contracted through “promiscuity” and therefore an HIV+ baby is the proper punishment for such a woman.
Let’s leave aside Schultheis’ obviously problematic belief that HIV is the result of promiscuity. Let’s think about the baby here. Schultheis is a Republican with warped beliefs about sex, so I’d say it’s a good bet that he is familiar with the “Culture of Life” bullshit and the anti-abortion movement. Purportedly, people who are fans of these movements care about the baybeez. Per usual, when it comes down to protecting children or shaming sluts, it appears that Schultheis would rather see babies born with HIV than allow a slut to get away with her slutty ways without being punished with a terminally ill child. An inspiring ideology, really.
But Wait! That’s not all that’s going down in Colorado! Oh no, it gets better (or worse, depending on your perspective.) Read the rest of this entry »
Incredible!
I am a reader of Angry Black Bitch. I enjoy her perspective, voice, and commentary. But I also have a secret additional affection for her: she lives in St Louis, my birth-town and current location of not one but TWO of my brothers.
She often covers Missouri news that really takes me back to my Midwestern upbringing.
A certain Missouri Representative Bryan Stevenson (R-Webb City) took to the floor and declared the not introduced so not really in question and certainly not a pressing issue if it ever does get introduced FOCA [Freedom of Choice Act] the “greatest power grab by the federal government since the War of Northern Aggression.”
Oh yes he did!
He compared a hypothetical federal law protecting Choice to Lincoln’s decision to save the Union and end slavery. Negatively.
A revealing hand-tip indeed.
Oh, to those of you who aren’t familiar, the War of Northern Aggression is the preferred term for the Civil War amongst Southerners who long for ye good olde days of codified white supremacy and black enslavement. Before that evil “power grab” by Lincoln.
Makes sense, I guess, that someone who still rues the end of slavery would also be so terrified of any lessening of our tradition of female servitude. Oh no, what about the patriarchy!
Hear the words from the horse’s mouth:
These cells may soon have equal rights to a human
Yes, this bullhooey just passed North Dakota’s House, and is moving on to the Senate. Apparently it is intended, as other (already failed) personhood measures were, to pose a challenge to RvW.
The bill declares that “any organism with the genome of homo sapiens” is a person protected by rights granted by the North Dakota Constitution and state laws.
The supergenius behind this measure is bill sponsor Rep. Dan Ruby, who said, “This is very simply defining when life begins, and giving that life some protections under our Constitution — the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
For a clump of cells inhabiting a human’s internal organs?
I have some questions.
What are the laws regarding flushing humans down the toilet? Since 50%-80% of fertilized eggs, excuse me, microscopic Americans, are ejected from the body pre-implantation, that means that over half of all humans are flushed down the toilet and are now located somewhere in the sewage system. Should police be investigating these millions of abandoned corpses? The dead are practically littering the streets!
To what country are zygotes loyal? Since citizenship is awarded at birth, preborn patriots do not actually have citizenship status, and are a grave national security risk.
When humans die in America, they receive a death certificate. When unborn urchins die at the age of 1 week post-conception, can they get a death certificate even though they haven’t been born? Can you die pre-birth?
Since life begins at conception and birth into the world is just a random happenstance of little import where babies are simply removed from their containers, shouldn’t we celebrate our birthdays based on what day we were conceived? Come to think of it, shouldn’t all of our important documents, to reflect our true lifespan, and include Date of Conception in order to be accurate? Of course, since it is medically impossible to actually know what day an egg met a sperm, so no one will ever know on what day they became a person, and documents will be rather imprecise.
Since common activities like exercise and breast-feeding are known to prevent embryonic earthlings from “taking”, resulting in the death of humans, should almost everything be illegal for women to do?
Since women are often not aware for the first several weeks that they have become walking incubators and may continue to smoke and drink during that time, which in some cases will result in murder of an incubating infant, can concerned citizens form vigilante groups to perform random womb-checks and summary executions, to help along what is sure to be an over-burdened justice system?
Just some thoughts. North Dakota, I’d like some answers.
So this makes four. Four bills meant to chip away at women’s access to abortion are currently circulating in Kansas.
I first posted about the bill to make women listen to the fetal heartbeat before being allowed to have an abortion.
Then I posted about a bill that would allow her family or husband to sue if they think a woman’s abortion was “illegal”. It would also force doctors to read a pro-life, anti-abortion script to patients before allowing them to have their procedure.
And now there’s two more!
The Kansas City Star informs us that Kansas Rep. Steve Huebert is sponsoring a bill to remove the mental health exemption for late term abortion. “I don’t think mental distress qualifies,” he states.
Is that your medical opinion, Steve, or from your experience as a woman with a difficult pregnancy and severe mental health issues?
The fourth (and final?) bill would force abortion providers to provide the Kansas government in Topeka with personal medical information about each late term abortion they perform so that the government can determine whether the medical decision was “justified”. Why the government has a compelling interest in double-checking doctors’ decisions only in the case of abortion is not clear.
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