fundiepharma, posts by tag: not woman friendly - LiveJournal

But some people are thinking that's not the whole story....

Amanda Marcotte from Pandagon discusses over at Double X (with a thread for commentary at Pandagon

Johnson's story fits way too neatly into a bunch of easily disproven anti-choice myths, the main one being that all it takes is one glance at an ultrasound to cause someone to "realize" that hey! abortion removes a fetus from your uterus. Pro-choicers already know that. Johnson seems to be selling a story that's a tad too pat, too close to what anti-choicers want to hear.

After all, your average person in the United States has seen probably hundreds of sonograms in their lives, and most of them show a fetus at gestational age well beyond the point that most women get elective abortions. If you compare the ultrasound taken prior to an elective abortion, the feeling is actually one of being underwhelmed, because there's not much there compared to the ones we're used to seeing. The anti-choice sentimental devices rely therefore on ignorance more than illumination—their own mistaken understanding of what goes on in an abortion clinic.

But as Amie Newman points out, there are even more holes than that in this story. Johnson worked at a clinic that provides abortion, amongst other things. Therefore, she's probably seen a whole lot of ultrasound-enabled abortions. Providing ultrasound is standard part of an abortion, because gestational age determines the exact procedure, and whether or not the clinic can even do it. Anyone who has worked in or even spoken to someone about working in a clinic knows that there's not a lot of mystery around the procedure, and so Johnson's story of a sudden revelation about the nature of abortion simply doesn't seem possible. Indeed, I should remind you that 99.9 percent of clinic workers who see ultrasounds and provide abortions don't have sudden, suspicious religious conversions. Most of them feel pretty damn good about giving women the freedom to choose.

Continue reading over at XX Factor.

But here's some more of the wonderful anti-choice shite that's going around in the U.S. lately:


North Dakota: Restricting the Right to Abortion One Ultrasound at a Time

New Ohio Bill would require men's permission before a woman could receive an abortion.

Obama on health care reform and funding abortions

As you know, I'm pro choice. But I think we also have a tradition of, in this town, historically, of not financing abortions as part of government funded health care. -- CBS: President Obama talks to Katie Couric

Good News!

Pence Amendment Fails!

The U.S. House voted down an amendment to the Labor, Health, and Human Services bill on Friday that sought to ban all public funding for Planned Parenthood. Authored by pro-life Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence, the amendment was rejected 247 votes to 183.

The Pence amendment received the strong support of pro-life activist groups, including the members of the Susan B. Anthony List, which this week has sent out repeated “urgent action” dispatches that hinge on lurid allegations that Planned Parenthood is under “multiple investigations in several states” for “allowing sexual abuse of children to go unreported, as well as encouraging young girls to lie about their age in order to obtain an abortion.”

But the “investigations” are not police investigations and don’t involve legal authorities. Instead, they have been conducted by Lila Rose, who poses as an underage woman and visits Planned Parenthood clinics with a hidden camera. Her tapes of alleged wrongdoing have spurred no investigation by law enforcement, which discount them essentially as entrapment.

That's all I can muster at the moment.



Post 'em if ya got 'em. (News, stories, info.) It's awfully quiet here lately.

Resolutions to change constitution language to create barriers to reproductive health

HJR61, submitted by Rep. Hank Fincher (D) Cookeville, reads:

"Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion, except in cases involving rape, incest or health of the mother."

HJR66, submitted by Rep. Debra Maggart (R) Hendersonville, reads:

"Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an aboriton. The people retain the right through their elected state representatives and state senators to enact, amend, or repeal statutes regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest or when necessary to save the life of the mother."

Many of you will recognize the language of these resolutions as being similar to SJR127, a resolution we have seen many times in the past. While the language maybe somewhat different, the purpose is the same: to remove any protection of the right to abortion from the Tennessee state Constitution!
Tell me more
Talking Points

* HJR61 & HJR66 are bad resolutions.

* Changing our State Constitution to take away the rights of Tennesseans is wrong.

*When "exceptions" are made that remove the rights of select individuals, the intent of our constitution is nullified and it sets a very dangerous precedent for the further erosion of the rights of people living in this state.

*Let's keep the Tennessee Constitution the way our founders wrote it.

Emphasis mine.

My uterus, the uteruses of other women, and any contents there-of are not up for a public vote.


If you're in Tennessee, please write and/or call your legislators. (Feel free to do so even if you're outside TN; non-constituents voices may not be as strong, but opposition is appreciated.)

But they're acting even more idiotic.

North Dakota House Passes Abortion Ban

Note the picture to the right. Interesting to see the makeup of those individuals making reproductive health care decisions for women.

North Dakota's House of Representatives has passed a bill effectively outlawing abortion.

The House voted 51-41 this afternoon to declare that a fertilized egg has all the rights of any person.

That means a fetus could not be legally aborted without the procedure being considered murder.

So, can a pregnant woman cast two votes, one for her and one for her fertilized egg? It has all the rights of a person, right? Is that a person at any age? What?

(Rep. Dan Ruby, -R- Minot) "This is the exact language that's required by Roe vs. Wade. It stipulated that before a challenge can be made, we have to identify when life begins, and that's what this does."

Life began in the primordial ooze and it's been a continuous process...


This bill is on to the Senate next.


You can contact North Dakota senators and express your outrage. Do it even if you're not a constituent (though there will likely be some who won't accept mail from non-constituents).

Make phone calls. Write snail mail letters. Contact your own senators and congresscritters and let them hear your opinion.


I haven't seen any action alerts come through the Planned Parenthood or NARAL mailing lists yet, but I'm sure they won't be far behind.

RH Reality Check: The Pro-Lie Movement Targets Hillary

The "Susan B. Anthony List" claims Clinton, as Obama's Secretary of State, will "promote abortion" around the world. According to their November 30 press release, "Clinton will join Obama in promoting taxpayer funding of international abortions through a revocation of the Mexico City Policy and restoring funding to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). The UNFPA has been implicated in supporting China's coercive one-child family planning policy that involves forced abortions and sterilizations."

Defamation is a tool of the anti-choice establishment. Its campaign against UNFPA was one of its most sinister. It was, in effect, a campaign against the most desperate women, babies and families of the world. Anti-contraception groups, like the "Susan B. Anthony List," with the help of the all-too-willing President Bush managed to freeze href="61 million of U.S. funds to UNFPA. This "pro-life" victory resulted in millions of infant deaths, over a hundred thousand mothers dying during childbirth, as well as millions more unintended pregnancies and abortions worldwide. With an Obama presidency, sadly for "pro-life" groups, this trend will end. But the pro-lie movement against UNFPA will continue.

[...]

This heckling of humanitarian relief efforts is coordinated by a group based in Front Royal, Virginia, the Population Research Institute (PRI). When Bush took office, PRI saw its opportunity. The staff of six was imaginative. In 2002, they amplified their slander campaign against UNFPAclaiming it was working with the Chinese government to enforce its coercive one-child policy.


So: Susan B. Anthony List and Population Research Institute = Anti Choice. Anti Woman.

Spread the word.