Comments on: Everything You Need to Know About the GOP's War on Women's Rights, Reproductive Health

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Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:14:28 +0000

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By: queermo

queermo — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:21:25 +0000

PS – word in politics is that another parental notification measure is going to be on the ballot in 2012 in California, even though it’s already been defeated three times here.

Why then? To draw out more conservative voters to the polls come election day.

By: louvella

louvella — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 17:17:40 +0000

I really don’t like the whole “abortion shouldn’t be used as birth control” thing, because abortion is birth control! It prevents birth. It’s an expensive, inconvenient and uncomfortable form of birth control and I don’t know anyone who thinks it’s an ideal first method.

61% of women who have abortions already have one or more children. According to Guttmacher, “Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.” Those all seem like pretty valid reasons to me. Do those reasons count as using it as birth control, or something different?

I definitely believe in prevention first, though. Sex ed and birth control for everyone!

By: dragon_snap

dragon_snap — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:43:51 +0000

Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU, Carmen.

I live in British Columbia and am so grateful that if I needed an abortion I would be able to get one – AND that there would be no protesters in front of the clinic or hospital (b/c of a law preventing them from harassing clinic clients and employees).

I am so so so horrified by all these terrible, hateful laws; I am thankful that there are folks like you and websites like AS willing to write about and publish the truth about this quickly worsening situation.

And I just wanted to add to your excellent post, that some queer women have sex with men (for many reasons, including that they really enjoy it), which could then result in pregnancy. And that some men can get pregnant, and that sometimes sex with a woman could result in pregnancy, if these men and women, respectively, happened to be trans (and/or trans*) and quite a few other conditions were met.

Thank you again, Carmen. You are a rock-star.

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 12:44:21 +0000

I love how the second I clicked ‘play’ on the Heartbeat Bill video, a car alarm went off right under my window, blocking out all of the sound. I think it’s a sign.

By: Briannavin

Briannavin — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:40:03 +0000

A new Kansas state regulation might shutter the family planning industry in-state. The Associated Press states the State Rules and Regulations Board unanimously approved abortion restrictions that will bring KS that much nearer to becoming the first state in the nation without a single abortion company. Enforcement of the Kansas’ new abortion rules by the Department of Health and Environment can begin Friday. I found this here: New Kansas abortion rules will usurp the right to choose

By: Melanie

Melanie — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 01:59:12 +0000

This is well said. And you’re right that class issues are used (not suprisingly) to divide and conquer women, as they’ve always been. I volunteer at a library and someone there, close to 90, had had an abortion long before Roe, and with her it was like my mother once told me, if you knew the right MD they’d simply call it something else and do the procedure. It was arbitrary and unfair, back-alley for some people and not others.

This article is great but the USSC standard is not “viability,” as in whether or not the fetus is self-sustaining, but whether the law imposes an “undue burden” on a woman’s ability to get an abortion, which is weaker and more prone to restriction. It always worried me in Roe that (at least from what I recall when I read the case in law school 3-4 years ago) there were no hard standards on what viability was, that the goal post could be moved, which it was. The last time they ruled on abortion was 2007, and they upheld a state ban on D&E’s, which can be performed as early as the 12th week, as NOT being an undue burden. And they refused to require the state to provide a medical exception. And they also prattled on about the emotional heath of women and how the procedure was a trauma and that women were often ignorant or poorly informed in making the decision to have a D&E. It was dictum, mind you, but it was insulting. Like they were saving women from themselves.

By: kokari

kokari — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 20:15:24 +0000

I am trying to figure out what the Heartbeat Bill is about. It is clearly a power play. Anti-choice groups in Ohio including Ohio Right to Life are calling out Republicans on this because they see it as clearly unconstitutional and fear it will do more harm to their mission in the long run.

My best guess is that Republicans want this on the ballot in November 2012, to try and move their base to the polls to beat Obama. But I don’t know the statistics. Would that even make sense? It seems like there is a real threat of waking the Democratic voters who made Ohio blue in 2008. Does anyone know the stats on this? How do Ohio voters feel about abortion rights?

By: This week in the War on Women – Daily Kos | Trends Medical News Magazine

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 18:34:36 +0000

[...] being. The woman will feel degraded by the compulsive nature of the Pregnancy Help Center …Everything You Need to Know About the GOP's War on Women's Rights …Autostraddleall 14 news [...]

By: Sarah I

Sarah I — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 17:17:42 +0000

I had to stop following these bills in the news because they made me feel ill and filled me with rage.

By: Evidux

Evidux — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:35:26 +0000

Word. Obviously, the chances of me getting an unwanted pregnancy are slim, but nobody is telling my sisters what to do with their bodies in Sweden.

I’d be going mad, raging.

By: theflyingdutchwoman

theflyingdutchwoman — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:34:09 +0000

not to be arrogant and to say that it’s all better here, but god sometimes i’m glad i live in the netherlands and not in america..

how do you keep your sanity with all of this?