Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
On the National Level
In late January, I wrote a post titled Rape Redefined and Brought to You by the US House of Representatives in which I 
talked about members of Congress—mostly Republicans—who were attempting to “redefine” what the only REAL kind of rape is—that would be “forcible rape.” (I wasn’t aware there was any other kind of rape.) These Congressmen were proposing legislation that would no longer consider the following types of sexual assault as rape: The rapes of women with limited mental capacity and rapes in which women were drugged or given excessive amounts of alcohol.
Last week, Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw) wrote a post titled The Right’s War on Women in which he discussed legislation proposed by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Indiana) that would eliminate the entire budget for Title X. Lawrence wrote: “Rep. Pence and his fellow Republicans are trying to defund Planned Parenthood because it receives millions from Title X funds to assist women in their family planning and health matters. In order to try to end abortions without testing the strength of Roe v. Wade in the courts, the sponsors and backers of this bill don’t care if low-income women suffer by not getting the health care that they so desperately need. Many of these same legislators also backed the repeal of the Affordable Health Care act which would also assist low-income women get affordable health care.”
And Now from the State of Georgia
Just yesterday, I read about State Rep. Bobby Franklin of Georgia who is introducing legislation in his state that would require proof that a miscarriage—aka a spontaneous abortion—was the result of natural causes. If this legislation passes, there would have to be proof that a woman’s miscarriage was the result of natural causes. If a woman can’t prove that—she might face felony charges!
From a piece in Daily Kos: “Franklin wants to create a Uterus Police to investigate miscarriages, and requires that any time a miscarriage occurs, whether in a hospital or without medical assistance, it must be reported and a fetal death certificate issued. If the cause of death is unknown, it must be investigated. If the woman can’t tell how it happened, then those Uterus Police can ask family members and friends how it happened. Hospitals are required to keep records of anyone who has a spontaneous abortion and report it. Yup, we’ve been waiting for someone to suggest this–and Franklin has.”
Here’s the link to Franklin’s bill:
http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/en-US/display.aspx?Legislation=31965
There are millions and millions of American women who suffer/have suffered miscarriages through no fault of their own. Suffering a miscarriage can be an emotionally wrenching experience for a woman. Imagine losing a much wanted pregnancy–and then having to prove the miscarriage was the result of natural causes. How does a woman do that, Rep. Franklin? Can you explain to the women of Georgia how they should go about gathering evidence to prove that they haven’t committed a felony when they have a miscarriage?
By the way, Rep. Franklin also introduced a bill to change Georgia’s criminal codes so that victims of rape, stalking, and family violence could only be referred to as “accusers” until defendants have been convicted.
FYI
Here are some statistics on miscarriage for you:
From WebMed
Frequency of Miscarriages in the United States
The overall miscarriage rate is reported as 15-20%, which means 15-20% of recognized pregnancies result in miscarriage. The frequency of spontaneous miscarriage increases further with maternal age. With the development of highly sensitive assays for hCG levels, pregnancies can be detected prior to the expected next period. When these highly sensitive hCG assays are used early, the magnitude of pregnancy loss significantly increases to about 60-70%. Late implantation by the conceptus beyond the usual 8-10 days after ovulation also has an increased risk of miscarriage.
About 80% of miscarriages occur within the first trimester. The frequency of miscarriage decreases with increasing gestational age. Recurrent miscarriage, defined as 2-3 pregnancy losses, affects about 1% of all couples.
From American Pregnancy Association
Miscarriage is the most common type of pregnancy loss, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Studies reveal that anywhere from 10-25% of all clinically recognized pregnancies will end in miscarriage. Chemical pregnancies may account for 50-75% of all miscarriages. This occurs when a pregnancy is lost shortly after implantation, resulting in bleeding that occurs around the time of her expected period. The woman may not realize that she conceived when she experiences a chemical pregnancy.
Sources
Washington Monthly (Political Animal)
Mike S., That was an excellent post. I totally agree.
Hypocrisy is right! They sexualize little girls by putting make-up on them, teasing and spraying their hair, etc., so they look years older…and nubile. It’s disgusting.
Buddha,
One lives service to be of………..Er or something like that. 😉
Don’t get me started on the stupidity of beauty pageants.
Mike, you have been in A++ form lately too.
Just giving a nod where a nod is due.
Mike S.,
I really like your comment about the Bible Belt and beauty pageants! It is a very telling example of religious hypocrisy and how they value women on the Right.
SL,
I must admit that sometimes I have to stave off despair when faced by the sheer stupidity of the anti-abortion movement. The use of “fetus testimony” at a legislative hearing shows the depths of stupidity these people indulge themselves in. That it is taken seriously at all by any in that legislature, wich it is, shows the quality
(lack of same)of our political whores.
The reality is simple to me which is stay the hell out of women’s personal choices when it comes to abortion. The only conclusion to be made by the continuing schreeching of the anti-sexual loonies is that they hate women. This is true of both male and female anti-abortion
activists, though perhaps for different reasons. This explanation is reinforced when these same people also seek to discontinue birth control availability and information.
The hypocrisy of this whole movement of fools positively
astounds when one looks at the fact that these same people, for the most part, see Sara Palin as a heroine.
This woman’s daughter became pregnant, no doubt because her parents emphacized abstinence over birth control.
Today Bristol is a demi-celebrity, with a memoir soon to be published and a baby which is dragged around by her mother to show off their family’s morality in not aborting the fetus.
My parents, who were quite open about sexuality and taught me that people of both sexes had normal desires and pleasures, continually gave me the caveat of not having sex without protection, so as not to cause unwanted pregnancy. While they were dead before I became sexually active, their lessons stayed with me as an adult and there was never an unwanted pregnancy in my single life, even in situations when my partner of the
time tried to tempt me.
Even though this was a lesson I took to heart, I can’t view those who have unwanted pregnancies harshly. Rather than fully explaining sexuality, its’ pleasures and its’ responsibilities most adolescents are faced with silent,
embarrassed parents, or those who preach abstinence which
is unrealistic for teens and young adults.
As the father of daughters, now women, I never had any great interest in my children’s sex lives. We had imbued them with a sense of ethics and responsibility, besides providing them with any needed information. My wife and I knew them well enough to trust their judgments.They’ve done very well both personally and careerwise. I never “interviewed” their boyfriends, nor concerned myself with their romantic lives as teens (if any)because
I always thought that fathers obsessed with their daughter’s sexuality, or lack of same, were “icky” and suspect.
The great male hypocrisy of worldwide horror at a daughter’s sexuality, is to me a reflection of old prejudice, patriarchal beliefs and inappropriate thought.
One sees this is hypocrisy in the mid-life male slavering
over women half their age and more. The Trophy wives of the privileged and the diminishment of women over age forty as being no longer attractive. While my sex drive
hasn’t faltered (but it sure ain’t what it used to be),
and were I single (God forbid)I find many women my age to be perfectly fine and appropriate as to beauty.
Isn’t it curious that the “Bible Belt” sexualizes pre-teens and teens in beauty contests, dresses the in overtly wsexual outfits to compet and at the same time preaches abstinence? Perhaps, this resembles the ideals of Morman plural marraige types, who want to reserve the pretty, young girls for the seniors of the cult.
Mike S. said, “But then I love woman for a hell of a lot more than their different genitalia. They are smarter, stronger and much more fun to talk with.”
Yep. That about sums it up. That whole “they smell nice” thing is just gravy.
Thank you sir, can I have another! Well done Bdaman! Great movie!
Sigh …
Testifying Fetus Refuses To Cooperate
by Jack Stuef
by Jack Stuef
1:21 pm March 3, 2011
Because this is the United States of America, two fetuses supposedly “testified” before an Ohio legislative committee yesterday via projector from the womb for a bill that would make abortion illegal if the fetus in question has a heartbeat. Things were going just fine for the wingnuts until the nine-week-old fetus’ heartbeat failed to show up on the monitor or the speakers. “When we did this earlier the baby cooperated very nicely,” the pro-life activist said as she struggled to find the fetus’ heart with her laser pointer. Not cooperating? That’s contempt! That fetus should be thrown in jail! We totally called it. At the very least, this fetus’ crazy pro-life parents are going to immediately put it in a time-out when it’s born.
OR it could be that it’s not always clear when a fetus does or doesn’t have a specific organ in the works. If this law passed and a woman needed to abort this fetus, would her doctor have to rush her over to a judge to get his opinion on whether or not there was a heart? Exactly.
At the beginning of this video, the pro-life woman explains it would be easier to see the beating heart if they did a trans-vaginal ultrasound, but they didn’t want to do that sort of thing in front of everyone. The committee found this hilarious.
“Yes, it certainly would be weird if everyone on this committee saw my mother’s vagina,” replied the half-inch fetus, forced to testify in the nude and against its will, unable to think or speak, and yet more intelligent than everyone else there.
By the way, the pro-life woman also says they don’t know the sex of this fetus. So these wingnuts just assisted a witness dealing with some very personal gender issues. LGTB pride! [YouTube]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GzR2S41LOk&w=640&h=390]
It is said of S & M types that they often switch roles.
while repeating thank you sir may I have another.
Mike S,
“Moar attempts to be a “top,’ but eventually winds up a “bottom.””
Lol – so true!!
“Well said, but I think many of these right wing men are just the American version of the Taliban”
I think that they lack the “cojones” to be like the Taliban, who are smart and tough in their way. The people in the Conservative Movement are greedy, crazy and/or stupid, or any amalgam of same. As evil as they are, the Taliban at least risk themselve in an albeit evil cause. I truly believe that the faux Conservatives bluff well, but falter under attack.
Now at times there are other motivations, Moar’s perhaps which seems masochistic to me. It is said of S & M types that they often switch roles. Moar attempts to be a “top,’ but eventually winds up a “bottom.”
rafflaw,
You got that right!
Mike,
Well said, but I think many of these right wing men are just the American version of the Taliban.
Elaine,
I could only hope my wife feels the same about me. You do your husband great honor.
Mike S.,
I’m fortunate to be married to a man who is smart, strong, a great conversationalist, ethical, open-minded, and fun to to spend time with. He has a terrific sense of humor and great respect for women. He has been a wonderful husband and father. I hit the jackpot!
As I’ve said before, but I think bears repeating, this whole thing is about insecure men who hate women and couldn’t get one were it not for their wealth and/or religion. They’re like the married guys who still have more fun with their buddies and want to huddle in their “Man Caves.” Sexual, or not, I’ll take a woman’s company, over a man’s anytime. But then I love woman for a hell of a lot more than their different genitalia. They are smarter, stronger and much more fun to talk with.
Here’s more from The Nation’s Katha Pollitt:
In Its Crusade Against Choice, Has the GOP Gone Too Far? (3/3/2011)
http://www.thenation.com/article/158986/its-crusade-against-choice-has-gop-gone-too-far
Excerpt:
Has the GOP finally gone too far? I’ve long been skeptical of the argument that Republicans, once in power, would back away from restricting abortion for fear of waking the famous prochoice sleeping giant. That prediction assumed a monolith of single-issue prochoice voters and overlooked the way restrictions tend to work. With a few exceptions, like South Dakota’s proposed abortion bans in 2006 and ‘08, the antichoicers have become rather clever at geography and whittling: focusing on state legislatures in the most antichoice states, on aspects of abortion that don’t have a lot of popular support (so-called “partial birth abortion,” teenagers’ right to privacy), on driving clinics out of business one by one through targeted regulations and passing laws that seem reasonable on their face (why not punish the murder of a pregnant woman as a double killing?) but when taken together would build up the legal case for overturning Roe. Not many people are going to get active because there is now only one clinic in Mississippi when fifteen years ago there were six. Unless you’re deeply versed in abortion realities, a twenty-four-hour waiting period may not seem like much of a burden.
But you know what the Bible says about pride. Puffed up with their triumph in the 2010 elections—and worried about keeping their ever more reactionary base on board—Republicans at the state and federal level are letting their misogyny, their fundamentalism and their sheer nuttiness show. When Congress gets rid of federal funds for birth control for low-income women and antichoice activist Janet Porter gets two fetuses to “testify” at a hearing on the Ohio “Heartbeat Bill” by projecting their ultrasound images on a screen in living color, a shark has been seriously jumped. What’s next—a vial of talking sperm? (Porter is not some marginal loony by the way; she was a co-chair of Mike Huckabee’s Faith and Family Values coalition during his 2008 campaign.) And maybe—just maybe—the sleeping giant is opening its eyes.
On Saturday, February 26, demonstrations were held all around the nation in support of Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights. I went to the one at Foley Square in Manhattan. It was a lively gathering, and a pretty packed one too—according to the Gothamist website, 6,000 people were there. Lots of young people, belying the stereotype that twentysomethings take reproductive rights for granted. Lots of men. A stellar lineup of speakers, including Chuck Schumer, Kathleen Turner, Amanda Marcotte and the fiery Anthony Weiner. Lots of funny signs: Sex Happens. More Weiner Less Boehner and (on a giant pink penis) Why Are the Republicans Such Dicks??
Yes, why? Not content with depriving women of reproductive healthcare, House Republicans want to starve them and their children too. Their budget cuts the Women, Infants and Children Health and Nutrition program by $750 million and Head Start by $1 billion. It cuts $50 million from a block grant that pays for prenatal healthcare for 2.5 million low-income women and healthcare for 31 million children each year. As Charles Blow writes in the New York Times, proposed cuts to medical research strike directly at efforts to roll back the US infant mortality rate, now the highest among advanced economies. The Republicans seem bent on proving the truth of the bitter joke that “prolifers” care about children only before they are born. As for caring about women? Even as fetal vessels, the ladies just don’t count. After all, one in five women has visited a Planned Parenthood clinic—often for routine gynecological care. Is the GOP going to set up a replacement network of clinics to provide Pap smears and breast exams and STD testing and such? Or is Jesus now the national gynecologist? What on earth is the matter with these people?
Of course, it’s possible that the real point is to throw buckets of spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Even if most of these bills fail and the worst cuts don’t happen, the terms of debate will have shifted away from reproductive care as a social good. At the Los Angeles Times, Patt Morrison urges prochoicers to send a donation to Planned Parenthood in honor of Mike Pence and Joe Pitts—and drop them a note to let them know. It’s a great idea. The way things are going, Planned Parenthood will need every cent.
rafflaw,
Thanks. One would need to be deaf, dumb and blind to not see what the party of old, rich white men are doing.
It’s disgusting.
Stamford,
Great Truth-out story. It really lays out what the Right is trying to do and how they are doing it. All of these skirmishes are part of one big war on the Left, women and the middle class.