War on Women's Health

I am a woman and I have these human rights:


The right to life.

The right to privacy.

The right to freedom.

The right to bodily integrity.

The right to decide when and how I reproduce.

We had evolved into a society that supports family planning and birth control with laws intended to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and the state costs that go with them – through obstetrical care, pediatric care and welfare. In one state, a free birth control law for low income women was estimated to cost the state $1.36 million and save it $8.1 million. By driving down these medical costs, we also incent better financial circumstances for low income women and families.

Suddenly, mostly male legislatures all around this country are trying to take away these laws and our rights by passing new, absurd laws that truly speak to "big government" . Why?

Don't kid yourself. It's all about power.


Above is from a prior post..............

I look at what Wisconsin, Ohio and North Carolina have recently done to exact Big Government on women   (Big Government is only worthwhile when it is keeping a thumb down on women, especially poor women who are young or of color).  My favorite is in North Carolina where Health Teachers, under a new law, will be forced to tell kids in middle school that having an abortion may make it more difficult to conceive a baby later in life.   This, as far as I can tell, is a complete falsehood.

I would probably expound on it, but Helen Philpot of  the "Margaret and Helen Blog"   does so much better: 


http://margaretandhelen.com/    July 2 post or:

http://margaretandhelen.com/2013/07/02/if-my-vagina-shot-bullets-could-i-conceal-it-from-rick-perry-and-john-kasich/


Kasich's signing ceremony for his sneaky attack on women this week.   Note all the women who surround him in support while he signs.   Oh, they're all old white men?  Isn't that strange?

Arkansas, Arkansas, tsk, tsk

Arkansas overrode their governor's veto of a ban on all abortions after 12 weeks.  This is the most restrictive law in the nation.   Clearly, the new law is unconstitutional, or perhaps that's just my opinion, until the injunction.   The legislators were aware, and were aware that the ACLU will lead the suit to block the law.  The injunction should come at once, as soon as papers are signed, and the law will be in limbo until the court fight is over. 

Arkansas can join the state of Oklahoma (state court, State Supreme court, now going to the US Supremes),  Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, North Dakota, North Carolina in spending the state's money for lawsuits. 

Colorado, California, South Dakota, Oregon and Mississippi saved some money by passing their own restrictions and letting them be overturned by the voters.  It only cost the money for the elections (some of these states have voted "no" 2 or 3 times).  Still, better than a lawsuit.

Altho Florida has shied away, we are still waiting for the lawsuit tab on the state's law that was going to force welfare recipients to pee in a cup.  Florida does not understand the concept of "reasonable suspicion".   $46,000 was spent on the drug tests in the month and a half the law survived before a federal court declared it unconstitutional.   108 people (of 4,100 were caught).  So we spent about $450 per person to catch them.  Oh, wait.... without lawsuit expenses.  We have not gotten the info needed on how much the lawsuit cost us.   Several states are trying to enact this law right now.  Makes sense, no?

Life is good when we spend money on "laws" that are so invasive to privacy that the state legislators are either voted down by the voters or spend hundreds of thousands of dollars going to court to have the law overturned.

An example of "small government" efforts in some of our redder states.  We don't want to regulate corporations, but we feel it is our duty to overturn civil rights in a person's individual healthcare decisions or to take their bodily fluids.  :)

STAND UP... AGAINST TYRANNY

THIS

IS

A TRANSVAGINAL ULTRASOUND PROBE

What is it used for?

The test can be performed to evaluate women with infertility problems, abnormal bleeding, sources of unexplained pain, congenital malformations of the uterus and ovaries, and possible tumors and infection. The most prevalent use is in women who are not pregnant.

What is it not used for?

Examining the state of a fetus in utero is best done by a transducer, used over the abdomen. Most doctors recommend that the test be performed within the first 18-22 weeks of preganancy. A transvaginal probe is used only in very early pregnancy stages, when an ectopic or molar pregnancy is suspected.

So What Is Going On Now?

In inflicting politics and the law upon the relationship between a woman and her doctor, state legislatures in some states have decided that the perfect way to assist a woman to NOT make the decision to abort a pregnancy is to force her to get a transvaginal ultrasound. It does not matter that the test is medically not necessary. It doesn't matter that it will cause additional expense. It does not matter that the application of this particular instrument is humiliating for most women. It doesn't matter that the law will legislate that a doctor MUST perform this test on a woman who DOES NOT get a chance to consent to it.

Extremists have likened this to a form of legalized rape. Colorful language for a law and an unnecessary medical procedure that seems as though it is designed to inflict punishment on women. Why not just stone them?

The state of Virginia is such a state. They are on the cusp of making this the law of their particular land. Only the governor's signature remains. And then, the sometimes silent, incredibly vast anger of the women of the state of Virginia, and many of the men (55% of those polled are against this, ONLY 36% in favor) will begin the drumbeat of public outrage. The kind of outrage that Komen faced. The kind of outrage that OWS represents for another kind of situation. The enactment of this law will be the beginning of the end for Virginia governor Bob McDonnell, who can barely disguise his longing to be Vice President.

Because the kind of movement that is behind this bizarre legislation is the type of movement that has all along been thought to be anti-abortion. It had traction when it moved against procedures such as partial-birth abortion. It lost ground when madmen began to kill the doctors who performed abortions, which, I remind you, are lawful. It is now revealed to be "pro-family" (as defined in extreme), anti-contraception, anti-divorce, anti-homosexuality ... "the antis" go on and on. And as more of the extreme measures are revealed in states across the nation, the general public recoils at the thought that this type of social extremism not only exists in the 21st century, but that we have damn well made millionaires and political postulates out of some of the people who advocate it the strongest.

Check out McDonnell, with some of the text from his master's thesis:

he blasts... “the perverted notion of liberty that each individual should be able to live out his sexual life in any way he chooses without interference from the state”..... and refers to the family as: a “God-ordained government,” ... he is against all efforts to “redefine family by allowing special rights,” not just for “homosexuals,” but for “single-parent unwed mothers” . He touts leadership as: "Leadership, however, does not require giving voters what they want, for whimsical and capricious government would result. Republican legislators must exercise independent professional judgment as statesmen, the decisions that are objectively right, and proved effective. " He states that "the government must restrain, punish, and deter” not only drug abuse and pornography, but homosexuality.

I won't go into his restrictions on no-fault divorce and the existence of day care, which supports working women, which is ultimately detrimental to the family, in McDonnell land.

I recognize him. In 1920, he would have been against my right to vote. Now, he somewhat serendipitously wants to probe my uterus.

Will McDonnell sign the bill? Will it begin a chain of feminine protest (or just logical protest) the country has not yet seen? Tune in. It could happen in the next week. If he's foolish.

Get involved. There is a movement in this land to restrict our choice, strip our access to prenatal testing, contraception, in vitro fertilization... and make us pay for it. This is not the platform that most Republicans want or believe in, but they have ceded a lot of the stagescript to extremists that believe a woman's place is in the kitchen... or homeschooling a half dozen children while men make the decisions for this land of ours. It is a rollback in women's rights unprecedented in the modern world. Stand up and and change it.