Gender Traitor

Sometimes (okay, almost all of the time) I just want to renounce my U.S. citizenship and become an expat someplace where the lawmakers aren't total jackwagons! Some of the statements and proposals made by our elected officials are so blatantly ridiculous and offensive that I am truly embarrassed to admit that I live in this country. Example? New Mexico GOP Representative Cathrynn Brown's recent bill in the State House of Representatives that would prohibit women who have been raped from obtaining an abortion. Why? For "tampering with evidence of a crime" that could land them up to three years in prison. Yes, that's right-prison! For the rape victim!

Even setting aside the question of whether an embryo or fetus can be considered "evidence," proving that a rape victim is pregnant is totally irrelevant to proving that a rape occurred. One does not need to be raped to be pregnant; conversely, one does not need to be pregnant to provide evidence of a rape. The reasoning behind this proposed legislation implies that if a woman does not become pregnant, then no rape has occurred. This bit of insanity even contradicts another great GOP thinker, Senate nominee Todd Akin of Missouri, who recently stated that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy! (How can so many blithering idiots be allowed to govern? Just asking.)

Representative Brown has defended her bill by suggesting that it is intended to punish the perpetrator of the rape who then assists or coerces abortion to destroy evidence of the crime. We all know that the majority of rapists are keen to "assist" their victims in obtaining abortions. They just love to hang around after the crime to see if their victim becomes pregnant so they can coerce her to tamper with evidence. Rep. Brown claims that "by adding this law in New Mexico, we can help to protect women across our state.” I see. The state will be protecting women by prosecuting them for a felony and threatening them with prison. I, for one, am glad I do not have New Mexico's law protecting me! I would like to be able to make my own reproductive decisions without worrying about whether or not I'm destroying evidence!

This assbackwards law would not only criminalize victims of a crime but would most likely prevent rape victims from coming forward to report the crime at all.  Why would a women risk reporting a rape when she would then be forced to carry a resulting pregnancy to term? This law is just one more example of the twisted thinking of the GOP and their assault on women. The fact that it was a woman who concocted this mess of a law astounds me even more. Rep. Brown should be tossed out of office for this offensive piece of legislation. Then she should have her status as a woman revoked as well.

Balancing the Budget on the Backs of Women

image source

So, the Republicans in the House want to balance the budget and show their opposition to abortion. Thus, they have voted on a bill that will effectively cost the taxpayer more money in Medicaid healthcare dollars by increasing teen pregnancy, increasing sexually transmitted diseases, and  increasing unintended pregnancies among poor women. And it will increase abortions. Oh, and cancer too. And HIV and AIDS. Way to go!!!

The House voted this month to block federal funding to Planned Parenthood, a huge provider of reproductive healthcare to poor and uninsured women.  None of the federal funding received by Planned Parenthood goes toward providing abortion services. These services are provided out of a different fund altogether.  In addition, the House, in an Amendment drafted by Rep. Mike Pence (R., Ind.), voted to eliminate the entire Title X program, which was founded in 1970 and is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and preventive health services, particularly to low-income families. These services include  breast and cervical cancer screenings, HIV prevention, education, and screening, pregnancy diagnosis, and counseling.

This is not just an attack on abortion, which, if I remember correctly, is still legal in this country. It is an all-out attack on women's health. By eliminating Title X, millions of women will lose access to the only healthcare they now have. They will have no means of acquiring birth control and will be at risk of unintended pregnancy. They will have no access to early cancer screening and detection and will be at risk of developing more advanced disease. Teen pregnancy rates will increase, and many of these teens will go on to give birth, as their access to abortion services will be increasingly limited. And just how is this supposed to save the country money? It won't. It will cost. It will cost money, and it will cost lives. But, what is the worth of health to a disadvantaged woman compared to the worth of political rhetoric to a politician? 

Keep Your Laws Off My Body: Roe v. Wade 38th Anniversary

Well, it's that time of year again--time for the March for Life in Washington, D.C. Come Monday, January 24, thousands of holier-than-thou anti-choice zealots will descend upon our nation's capital to mark the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by trying to influence our legislators to set women's rights back to the days of Mad Men. And what a lovefest it will be as they demonstrate their principal that every life deserves protection and respect! They will surely be carrying their iconic banners declaring those who practice or have an abortion "murderers," holding their breathtakingly beautiful pictures of mutilated babies high overhead for all to see, and perhaps a small minority may even be defending those vigilantes who, in the name of saving babies, bomb abortion clinics and murder abortion providers.

For the anti-choice younguns', there's a Student Essay, Poem, and Poster Contest! This year's theme is "Thou Shalt Protect the Equal Right to Life of Each Innocent Born and Preborn Human in Existence at Fertilization. No Exception!  No Compromise!" Just think of all the cute posters the kiddies will create with that theme! And the possibilities for poems are just endless! I'd be just dizzy with all the rhyming variations I could make with "fertilization!"

One of the goals of the annual March for Life is a Mandatory Human Life Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment would ostensibly follow the "Life Principles" set forth by the anti-choice crusaders and make them law. Care to hear a few? Obviously, they are against abortion. But they are against abortion IN ALL CASES, NO EXCEPTIONS! Raped? Too bad. Incest? Tough luck. Genetic defect incompatible with life? So sorry. Mom with 6 kids and a life threatening pregnancy? They'll pray for you. Oh, and for those of us who use an IUD for contraception, rip those babies out right now!  They're considered murder because "the life of each human being shall be preserved and protected from that human being's biological beginning when the Father's sperm fertilizes the Mother's ovum..."

I wonder how many of the "pro-lifers" are also against capital punishment. It seems that if you respect the sanctity of life no matter what, then you would also be against the death penalty no matter what. Somehow I doubt those statistics overlap 100 percent. Also, it seems that if you really wanted to decrease the number of abortions in this country, you would encourage sex education so that young women who are sexually active could prevent unwanted pregnancies. I also doubt that those numbers line up equally.
 

Who are these people that they think they can decide what is best for everyone else? If you're against abortion, they don't have one. If someone asks your advice or opinion, feel free to offer it. But please, KEEP YOUR LAWS OFF MY BODY!!!

Missy Smith Is a Conniving Shitweasel** (This Is a Protected Political Message)

**In honor of the Empress's Phraseology,  (check out her fabulous blog The Ranter's Box) I have retitled this post

It's campaign season, so I expect to see all sorts of sordid, exaggerated, and nasty political ads on TV. But then I saw D.C. House of Representatives candidate Missy Smith's baby ad. This was not the typical politician kissing a baby ad or even the hazy "Candidate X will ruin our children's future, so vote for Candidate Y" ad, but an intensely graphic ad with images of mutilated, dead babies. The voiceover for this ad is Missy Smith talking about her anger and regret over having been "exploited" into having two abortions and her mission to "end legalized child killing."

Although she is running as a Republican and Tea Party member against incumbent Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Republican party does not endorse her. Why? Most probably because she isn't a true political candidate but an anti-choice zealot who is abusing the political process to gain air time for her extremist views. Her ads (I've only seen one, but there is another) are so brutally graphic that You Tube rejected them. I'm not going to post them, but if you want to see them, you can go to her website.  How did this whack job manage to get her disgusting pictures on television, during daytime and primetime viewing no less?  By exploiting a law for her own crusade. Local television stations are required by law to air political campaign ads during a small window of time during election season. By calling her fanatical invectives political ads, Missy Smith was able to get them on TV.

Now whether you support a woman's fundamental right to decide what happens to her own body or you support religious zealots and paternalistic legislators making a woman's choice for her (you can guess which side of this issue I'm on), Missy Smith's approach is out of line. Although she claims to have opinions on other issues and briefly mentions them on her website, she makes it clear that "the number one duty of true patriots is to end the legalized slaughter of unborn babies." All of her campaign contributions go toward airing her anti-abortion ads. She is clearly using a loophole in campaign law to publicize her message in a manner that, in any other situation would be unacceptable. 

Her ads are not only graphic but misleading. The images in the ad I saw showed fully developed babies that had been mutilated in some manner. Missy Smith says, "When people see the truth - these images of healthy and dead unborn children - they cannot escape the reality that abortion is murder." Well, these images are NOT the truth. Most abortions are performed during the first trimester, when the fetus is nowhere near fully developed.  I'm not even sure the images in her ad are from abortions at any stage, as I couldn't find their source. I won't even begin to address her claim that the "abortion industry" is in cahoots with the "body parts industry" and is selling body parts of aborted babies for huge profits. I'll leave that task to her psychiatrist.

I'm sure Missy Smith won't win the Congressional seat in the D.C. race. I'm pretty sure that she doesn't expect to either. She's just using her pseudo-candidacy to take advantage of the opportunity to broadcast her reprehensible rhetoric to those unfortunate enough to be tuned in to their local TV station when her ads air. Too bad real life doesn't have a mute button.

cartoon by Stephanie McMillan, 2006