Arizona Congressman Trent Franks' attempt to push a 20-week "fetal pain" abortion ban in Washington, D.C. (despite the fact that there is no science showing a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks) is at best just another chance for the Republican to show off his anti-choice credentials and allow anti-choice House members to woo their supporters with their love of restrictions on women's reproductive health. At worst, it's an attempt to create a piece of legislation which, if it does become law, wouldprovide a direct track to the Supreme Court to challenge Roe V. Wade. There is no evidence for fetal pain in the second trimester of pregnancy, and fetuses are not viable at 20 weeks.
Either way, he's not intending to let his moment of glory be overshadowed, even if that means refusing to let D.C.'s actual Congressional representative speak on the bill.
The Tea Party tried to turn the group into the New Black Panther Party, and instead inspired an ongoing backlash
On Thursday I’ll be speaking at Planned Parenthood of Chicago’s annual gala, and I’m honored. (Tickets are available here.) I’ve always supported Planned Parenthood, but I think the group has helped change the political debate in this country in tangible ways over the last year or so, and I’m excited to talk about where we go from here.
We also have to thank the Tea Party, of course. My MSNBC colleague Chris Hayes joked on Monday that Tea Party extremists “thought they could turn Planned Parenthood into the New Black Panthers” – that Fox News boogeyman – but they were wrong. When they pushed to defund Planned Parenthood, they touched off a grass-roots uprising to defend not only the organization, but women’s health and freedom. It flared up again when Susan G. Komen defunded Planned Parenthood, and Komen had to reverse itself.
Stop Anti-Abortion Rights Teen Endangerment Act in Congress
TAKE ACTION NOW: A House floor vote is coming soon on the dangerous anti-abortion rights Teen Endangerment Act, which could criminalize helping a teenage woman access legal abortion care outside of her home state. Tell your representative to vote NO on the "Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act" (H.R. 2299). [MORE]
The ACLU won a round this week in its court challenge to a Kansas law passed during the 2011 legislative session. There are a few court challenges being waged in Kansas and the cost of these challenges continues to rise. ...
Rachel Maddow reviews recent headlines of violence and intimidation at Planned Parenthood clinics in Wisconsin and traces the extremist anti-abortion, anti-contraception roots of unpopular Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. ...
[One reason why I love Rachel Maddow; she talks about issues that most do not.]
President Obama knows how important women's health is, and he respects the right of every woman to make her own medical decisions. Watch the video to see his special message to Planned Parenthood Action Fund supporters -- and then sign our letter thanking him for standing strong for women's health: [MORE]
Defending her party after some of its members spent months going after contraception, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) said today that birth control isn’t very important to women. “Women don’t care about contraception,” she said on The View.
While not a new concept, creative activism does seem to be having a "moment" right now as activists look for ways to draw attention to the recent attacks on our rights.
The UN Commission on Population and Development is considering “sexual and reproductive health and rights” for children as young as ten. Even the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon agrees. In a statement recently released he said, “Young people, as much as all people, share the human right to health, including sexual and reproductive health.”
As Republicans shut down the vote on the proposal, Franson explained that she was “embarrassed” that contraception was even being talked about by the House. [MORE]
[Adults -- legislators, yet -- should be more embarrassed by being unable to discuss grown-up things.]
Todd Stave, the landlord of a Germantown abortion clinic, has been the target of harassing phone calls and ugly fliers handed out to his neighbors. But he’s come up with a novel way to fight back. [MORE]
While women still earn 77 cents for every dollar that men make in the United States, the gender wage gap has closed significantly over the past several decades. Now, for the first time ever, a new study has connected the narrowing of that pay gap to increased access to birth control pills.
The University of Michigan study, which analyzed the careers of 4,300 women, shows that the earlier a woman can start taking birth control pills, the more likely she is to earn higher wages later in life.
The fanatical fundamentalists are at it again. Not to be outdone by Catholic bishops clamoring for ever-increasing fetal protections, Flip Benham’s Operation Save America has teamed up with Go Stand Speak, LifeLink, Jeremiah Cry Ministries, Personhood USA, and Repent America to make five states—Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming—abortion “refuges.”
\The five were chosen because each has just one reproductive health clinic. What’s more, the campaign to make these states abortion-free will link grassroots activism—raucous picketing, complete with billboard-sized pictures of bloody body parts--with a media crusade geared to maligning those who support freedom of choice.
It's officially over. The Idaho House has announced that it will not be holding a hearing on the forced ultrasound bill before the session ends this week, meaning that the bill is officially dead for 2012.
[This article has been updated to add a response from Hannah Brass, Legislative Director of Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest.]
Conscious Contraceptives Kicks off College Fundraising Competition to Improve ...SBWire (press release)“SIC is a collaboration of motivated students and alumni from several colleges across the country driven to advance global sexual health.
President Barack Obama's re-election campaign has released a new video featuring Gloria Steinem, in which the feminist icon argues that this election is a "turning point" and that women should grant Obama a second term if they want to see their rights protected.
As the only Republican Congressman at a rally for the Equal Rights Amendment on Thursday, Rep. Richard Hanna (R-N.Y.) gave women an unexpected piece of advice: Give your money to Democrats.
"I think these are very precarious times for women, it seems. So many of your rights are under assault," he told the crowd of mostly women. "I'll tell you this: Contribute your money to people who speak out on your behalf, because the other side -- my side -- has a lot of it. And you need to send your own message. You need to remind people that you vote, you matter, and that they can't succeed without your help." [MORE]
Based on the Nobel Peace Prize winner Leymah Gbowee’s nonviolent protest for women’s rights in Liberia , I started this protest as a single woman in New York, a woman who is horrified at watching my rights being stripped away in this country that I love so much. I can no longer sit back and do nothing. I am beginning this grass roots movement to stand up for my rights, your rights, human rights. Will you stand with me?
Lawmakers today seem to have forgotten who those laws are being made for; seem to have forgotten how many of us there are who vote to keep them in office, or to take them out. How about a friendly reminder?
I stand by and for women’s rights.
By wearing all white, or a white shirt with pink "I support women's rights" on this day, April 2, 2012, I am reminding those who write and pass bills:
that women deserve honesty from their doctors - 100% of the time that a fetus’s life is not more important that the mother's that state sanctioned rape is still rape and not ok that it is not ok to charge a mother with attempted murder for a miscarriage that it is not ok to force women to carry a stillborn baby to term that it is not ok to take away the funding of women to receive medical treatment to make a political point that it is not ok to fire a woman because she is taking a medicine you disagree with
For these and many other things currently being debated about in legislature, I stand by and for women’s rights.
Leymah Gbowee said “It’s time for women to stop being politely angry.”
Here is a way to start:
Commit to wearing all white on Monday April 2. Send this invite to people you know. Find a way to gather with others who are weraing white, the more people in one place, the greater the impact. Call your senators and congressmen and let them know you do not approve of what’s happening right now. Stay informed. Talk about it. Shout about it. Do not stop until they have listened. Start visual protests of your own. Vote. Vote. Vote. Do research on what candidates actually believe and look at their voting history. Stay informed. Vote. Be the change.
Thousands ofGgreater Clevelanders came together this afternoon to protest the state of Ohio's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Rally-goers said it's about time things become equal when it comes to the opportunity for marriage.
There were more than 200 same sex couples at that rally today, who were ready to enter into the next level of commitment. But the law, as it is, prevents them from doing that. Those who attended the rally say it's a matter of civil rights.
Activists took their message to the streets of downtown Cleveland, for a peaceful protest. They used the steps of City Hall to educate passersby's and advocate for marriage equality. Same-sex couples weren't the only participants in Saturday's rally. [MORE including video]
Susan Santos is a 55-year-old Colorado blogger and housewife, but these days, she’s doubling as a uterus-knitting machine.
Yes, you read that right.
The mom and knitting fanatic is an organizer of a campaign called the “Government Free VJJ Project.”
The goal of the initiative: to knit or crochet a vagina or uterus and send it to every male lawmaker in Congress.
...
Government Free VJJ’s website, which comes complete with patterns such as “Happy Uterus,” claims the initiative is aimed at telling America’s men in government: “Hands off my uterus! Here’s one of your own!”
In Palo Alto, California, members of the Raging Grannies Action League said that men who want drugs such as Viagra to treat impotence should be required to have strict testing before receiving said drugs.
An opinionated woman obsessed with objects, entertained by ephemera, intrigued by researching, fascinated by culture & addicted to writing. The wind says my name; doesn't put an @ in front of it, so maybe you don't notice. http://www.kitsch-slapped.com
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