Congressman Luis V. Gutierrez schooled the House Republicans on the Oversight Committee a few weeks ago when they held a hearing on Planned Parenthood.
Naturally, this dose of reality didn’t make it into the news reels. Pity, because Congressman Gutierrez is correct.
At the Federal level, at least for the near term, any anti-abortion (aka “Pro-Birth”) legislation will be vetoed by President Obama. It is protected by the U.S. Constitution, as decided in 1973 by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade.
Sadly, though, the same is not true of efforts by the States. Because those legislatures, run in many cases by the GOP, keep enacting laws that step by step make it more difficult for women to get access.
Mandatory Ultrasounds
Requiring physicians to have admitting privileges at local hospitals
Prohibiting abortions after 20 weeks (about the time some of the most severe abnormalities become apparent)
Restricting access to “morning after” pills
Compulsatory parental consent (including in cases of rape and/or incest)
The list goes on.
Just as bad, are the healthcare rights they want to take away from women, many of which are provided to us by Planned Parenthood. Mamograms. Cancer screenings. Contraception.
So while we can be thankful for Congressman Gutierrez, and know he’s right at the FEDERAL level, there is a whole lot of work to be done to protect women’s rights at the State level.
Elections matter.
There are some coming up on NOVEMBER 3:
Governor:
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
State Legislatures:
Louisiana
Mississippi
New Jersey
Virginia
Mayor:
Anchorage, AK; Arlington, TX; Charlotte, NC; Colorado Springs, CO;* Columbus, OH; Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Duluth, MN; Fort Wayne, IN; Fort Worth, TX; Greensboro, NC; Houston, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Jacksonville, FL; Kansas City, MO; Knoxville, TN; Lincoln, NE; Memphis, TN; Montgomery, AL; Nashville, TN; Philadelphia, PA; Phoenix, AZ; Raleigh, NC; San Antonio, TX; San Francisco, CA; South Bend, IN; Tucson, AZ; West Palm Beach, FL; and Wichita, KS
* Mayors races have some interesting consequences, too. I wrote about the last mayoral election in Colorado Springs in this post.
Special thanks to Melinda, my very extended family member, who shared this video link. And thanks to Wikipedia for the list of states/cities with elections this November.
Sometimes, I feel my gag reflex going into hyper-drive.
And sometimes, I just need to get out of the way and let some folks speak for themselves.
So I’m gonna do just that tonight.
Here is GOP Presidential Candidate neurosurgeon Ben Carson, MD
And since I know you, and I KNOW you didn’t click on that video, I will have to step back up to the plate and tell you that the good doctor explained that we Democrats are all wrong.
It’s true, apparently.
Dr. Carson let all of us know that the GOP, well, they aren’t so bad. Women should like them, even.
So says the No. 2 (in some polls) Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. It’s true. He said on Thursday that Democrats were wrong to allege Republicans were waging a “war on women.”
“They tell you that there’s a war on women,” he said. “There is no war on women.There may be a war on what’s inside of women, but there is no war on women in this country.”
This guy should be headlining in the Poconos. What an eff’in commedian.
You probably can’t tell from my blog posts, but I love words. I love the sound of them, the feel of them in my mouth and at my fingertips. How changing just one word can transform a sentence from shit to shinola.
So I love it when somebody proves me right-ish. Or like I’m in the right pew.
For decades one term has bothered me. “Pro-Choice.”
Abortion ain’t a “whole wheat or rye” sort of “choice.”
So I’ve had my thinking cap on for all that time, trying to think of a better way to say it. What else could it be called? What word can express the magnitude of that decision for any woman.
And am I the person to come up with it anyway? You see, I never had an abortion. I never was able to get pregnant. So perhaps it isn’t my role.
But I do know women who’ve had abortions. I’ve sat with them, talked with them, consoled them. They have been friends and near-strangers who somehow tell me their deepest trouble. They are not women who are making a “choice.” Rather they are women slicing a piece of their own heart out, most often because they have no“choice.”
That includes two women who were forced to have late-term terminations. You know, the kind that is being outlawed in state after state, mostly by men, with no exceptions for rape, incest, the life of the mother. No basis in the real world of what women face.
These two women had nearly identical stories. Their prenatal testing showed that their fetuses had trisomy 18 (From WebMD):
A “trisomy” means that the baby has an extra chromosome in some or all of the body’s cells. In the case of trisomy 18, the baby has three copies of chromosome 18. This causes many of the baby’s organs to develop in an abnormal way.
There are three types of trisomy 18:
Full trisomy 18. The extra chromosome is in every cell in the baby’s body. This is by far the most common type of trisomy 18.
Partial trisomy 18.The child has only part of an extra chromosome 18. That extra part may be attached to another chromosome in the egg or sperm (called a translocation). This type of trisomy 18 is very rare.
Mosaic trisomy 18. The extra chromosome 18 is only in some of the baby’s cells. This form of trisomy 18 is also rare.
***
What Is the Outlook for Babies With Trisomy 18?
Because trisomy 18 causes such serious physical defects, many babies with the condition don’t survive to birth. About half of babies who are carried full-term are stillborn. Boys with trisomy 18 are more likely to be stillborn than girls.
Of those babies who do survive, less than 10% live to reach their first birthday. Children who do live past that milestone often have severe health problems that require a large amount of care. Only a very small number of people with this condition live into their 20s or 30s.
Both women were happily married. They and their husbands wanted their babies; they were devastated by the news. These women had to choose when, not if the baby they wanted so much would die. One of them said that because their fetus had a condition called Intra-uterine growth restriction, the baby would essentially starve to death inside of her. And then she’d go through labor.
See what I mean about “choice”? It’s way more like being between a rock and a hard place. Or just being in a hard place.
In all my years, and with the numerous women I’ve known who’ve terminated a pregnancy, there was only one who did it casually. She’s a staunch Republican.
So I was delighted when I read about Sister Joan Chittister recently. Because she’s the one who made me realize it’s not us, it’s them.
We’re not necessarily the ones with the wrong term. They are. Because they are DECIDEDLY NOT PRO-LIFE:
I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there.
Thanks Google.
That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.
When I studied humor writing, I was taught something called “The Rule of Three.”
As the second deity in my holy research trinity, Wikipedia, says:
The rule of three is a writing principle that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things.[citation needed]
That is the only reason there are Three Stooges. Because two just wouldn’t be funny. Come to think of it, THREE haven’t been funny since I hit puberty. But still.
Anyway, the Rule of Three works. Three is funny.
So I was delighted this week to learn that the GOP has adopted the Rule of Three! Yes, It’s true. They are pushing the envelope for legislative giggles. Ba Da DUMB!
Google, Natch!
Have you been paying attention? Because here’s what happened just this week:
In the Ring on the Right, we have Michele Fiore, Majority Leader of the Nevada State Assembly who has a whole new take on cancer, cancer treatment and what is apparently cancer of her own mouth:
“If you have cancer, which I believe is a fungus, and we can put a pic line into your body and we’re flushing, let’s say, salt water, sodium cardonate [sic], through that line, and flushing out the fungus… These are some procedures that are not FDA-approved in America that are very inexpensive, cost-effective.”
Michele standing up for freedom with Cliven Bundy’s gang. Yeh Haw! Photo from Crooks and Liars.com
It really is amazing just how inexpensive death can be — there aren’t even any copays!
As my Dad would have said, “There’s a fungus among us.” That line is the only thing I could think of to say in light of this previously unknown cancer disclosure. Thanks, Michele.
Deja vu!
In the Other Right Hand Ring is Idaho Rep. Vito Barbieri (R) who showed once again how the GOP really, truly has no fucking clue about women – literally or figuratively. Or anatomically.
It all happened at a hearing on Tele-medicine – there is a bill in the Idaho Legislature that would prohibit doctors from prescribing medications that can induce a miscarriage — an abortion — from doing so via telemedicine – an online consultation. Have you seen how fucking BIG Idaho is? Or how it is somewhat phallic looking?
Dr. Julie Madsen, a physician who said she has provided various telemedicine services in Idaho, was testifying in opposition to the bill. She said some colonoscopy patients may swallow a small device to give doctors a closer look at parts of their colon.
Now wait for it. Here it comes … Your turn, Rep Barbieri!:
“Can this same procedure then be done in a pregnancy? Swallowing a camera and helping the doctor determine what the situation is?” Barbieri asked.
Madsen replied that would be impossible because swallowed pills do not end up in the vagina.
Allow me to rephrase this:
A man who has been duly elected to office – in the United States of America which office grants him a certain measure of control over many things including women’s reproductive rights, does not understand that there is no direct link from the mouth to the uterus.
The AP article went on to state:
Barbieri later said that the question was rhetorical and intended to make a point.
I’m pretty sure that Rep Barbieri made THREE points:
That he doesn’t know shit from shinola,
That he should just dig a hole and crawl inside for the remainder of his life.
He should try stand-up comedy because I have had too few good belly/vagina laughs lately. Until I read this.
You know where I got the stupid photo, already.
Now you know how there is always a serious guy in the comedic trio? This circus of GOPers is no exception.
In the Other Other Right Ring: Here is the MO of this trio: Idaho GOP state Rep. Christy Perry!
Christy, is (of course) a good Christian. Being a good Christian, she is “pro-life.” Well, as long as that life isn’t breathing oxygen on its own, anyway.
Because Ms. Perry is apparently pro-life only until a baby is born. Apparently she finds it perfectly OK for parents to deny their children medical care in the name of the Lord. For Religious Reasons. And, you know, for FREEDOM!
Remember at this point in the movie, they are removing his intestinal organs. There is no camera inside there. No vagina either, come to think of it.
* * *
So you see, our GOP reps really have the world of comedy all figured out. Ain’t it a shame though, that they only know slapstick.
And ain’t it also a shame that we as a nation are always the ones who slip on that damn banana peel? Because we are down on our asses until we get these folks out o’ Dodge. And DC. And out of your statehouse and mine.
FiftyFourandAHalf 