In the past four months, 916 anti-abortion bills have been proposed at the state-level. I have sat by and watched as this happened, feeling helpless and incapable of giving coverage to all of it. A sampling:
And today, the U.S. House passed H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. Sixteen Democrats joined all 235 Republicans to vote in favor of the bill that redefines rape, raises taxes, requires rape audits, tightens restrictions against federal funding for abortion services and discourages private insurers from providing coverage for abortion. No job creation measures.
And it’s not going anywhere. It will not pass in the Senate and President Obama has threatened to veto it. It is merely a massive public display of contempt for women. Sadly, I cannot say the same for the other bills I listed, which are railroading women’s rights across the country. Oh, and last month Congress reinstated a ban on taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia. The red meat the GOP is throwing to its base comes from women’s bodies.
You know, I really don’t get why abortion is such a big issue to right-wingers. I mean, if you don’t want to have one, don’t get one. But acknowledge the fact that a lot of women do and that it would happen whether it were legal or not, and allow for it to happen safely. Why so much posturing?
I’m willing to bet the wives/girlfriends/daughters/mothers of all kinds of these people have had abortions, too…
Apparently it IS possible to go back in time. How sad that after hundreds of years women are still being treated like garbage who can’t make their own decisions. It’s sad and pathetic that men get away with this.
@Endora: It’s their “Christian” values at work. God commands them to be fruitful and multiply, and that they will… and so will everyone else, whether they want to or not!
“I have sat by and watched as this happened, feeling helpless and incapable of giving coverage to all of it.”
Mega-ditto. Every fucking time I turn around. “Is this the same bill, or a new one? Does it matter? Should I say something? Is this just more Republican bullshit from the house?” The only question I can answer is the last, and the answer is always “yes.”
Yes, Endora, they have. I know that because clinic workers have told me so. But we don’t out them because we care about women and respect their privacy.
If you watch antis in action, you learn very quickly that the movement is fueled by rage. Antis, both male and female, are utterly committed to a male-dominated world, and the spectacle of women making their own decisions about sex and reproduction drives them frantic. It’s ironic, because they are virtually all self-proclaimed believers in God, yet they are unable to accept the reproductive system they must believe their God created.
When men can control women’s childbearing decisions, they have an ideal situation-procreation without inconvenience, danger, discomfort. When men control women’s childbearing decisions, they control the future. And the fear of losing that control is why they are willing to subvert the interests of the entire country to their drive to hold on to power.
What about jobs, jobs, jobs?!?! Why is it all about what women are doing with their uteri??!!
I’ve been headdesking over these bills for so long, I have a permanent dent in my face.
Oh, and as far as I can tell, all but one of the 16 reprehensible Democrats who voted for the bill are men.
I think bills that control women’s reproduction should be solely voted on by women of childbearing age.
@Ms. M good idea: “I think bills that control women’s reproduction should be solely voted on by women of childbearing age.” Maybe thirteen year old young ladies should be voting on this rather than sixty-five year old men deciding what happens with their bodies. This is crazy. If it’s a medical procedure, it should probably be treated like any patient who visits their doctor. I don’t believe in it myself, but it’s not about my beliefs. It’s about many individuals who are living in a country where all voters have freedom of choice. That’s what makes America different, freedom. That’s what I was told growing up here.
Yeah…I get the anger and frustration—believe me, I get it—but I don’t think making abortion an issue voted on only by women of childbearing age is the solution. Reproductive rights are a social justice issue for the entire society—men and women, young and old—not something that should be solely dictated by those with currently functioning uteri. That kind of essentialism really bothers me. Plus, it cuts out very important allies: older women and men–yes, men!—who are pro-choice.
If stripping a say on this subject from men would do anything to slow or reverse this attack, I wouldn’t mourn the loss of mine.
Women should be let to make their own decision, based on their feeling.It is a personal right of every woman, and therefore, the government should not be involved in making the decision. It serves no real function. In reality, it doesn’t solve the problems of the US economy, it only limits the women`s rights.
Ms. M: Well, that would be a good idea, if women were more likely to be pro-choice. Gallup’s most recent polling of the issue shows that there’s no substantive difference between men and women (49& of men identify as pro-choice, 47% of women).
Additionally, Gallup found that in 2010, more people identified with the pro-life label than the pro-choice label. If American is roughly half and half, that means slightly over half of american women are pro-life.
I know it runs counter to all our natural instincts, but it seems to be reality. Permitting only women to vote on abortions laws would, it seems, change very little.
The poll is here, if your interested: http://www.gallup.com/poll/128036/New-Normal-Abortion-Americans-Pro-Life.aspx
I AGREE that our lawmakers have made poor judgement and trangressed on some of the principals. YES, you can go back in time and be barbaric —
Definition of BARBARIC
1a : of, relating to, or characteristic of barbarians b : possessing or characteristic of a cultural level more complex than primitive savagery but less sophisticated than advanced civilization
2a : marked by a lack of restraint : wild b : having a bizarre, primitive, or unsophisticated quality.
Abotion for selfish purposes is barbaric and the taxpayers should not be forced to pay for it.
Don’t want to be a mother? Take the proper measures to protect yourself whenever possible. And conider the outcome of the lower-primal nature when you have sex. Make sophisticated choices.
And to men who use and abuse women, you’re scum.
I note that no state is advising increased funding for orphanages and care homes for the resulting babies who were/are not aborted. Nor are they funding research into artificial womb technology so that women could retain their personal sovereignty *and* consider the life of the child.
Could this be because it’s not really the babies that are the issue here, but control?
Hm…