Writing a weekly round-up of the various battles in the War on Women is usually pretty depressing.
For every battle won, there are a dozen more we've lost, and even those victories feel like little reason to celebrate, given that they're usually defensive. Yea, we managed to keep some bugfuck crazy state legislator from turning his bugfuck crazy proposed bill into law. Woo hoo, kinda sorta, I guess.
There are exceptions, of course. The president's new health care policy requiring insurance companies to cover comprehensive, preventative health care for women—including birth control—was an absolute cause-for-celebration victory. The beauty of this policy is that it is offensive, not defensive. We need a lot more of that kind of offense if those who care about women—or sluts, as Rush Limbaugh calls them—are going to win this war. It isn't enough to stop Republicans from passing bad laws to hurt women; we need to pass good laws and enact good policies that expand women's equality.
Take, for example, the Reproductive Parity Act being debated in the state of Washington:
[L]awmakers in Washington state have introduced a rare, groundbreaking reproductive rights bill that would require every insurance policy in the state that covers maternity care to also cover abortions. [...]
"This bill is about ensuring that all Washington women have health insurance coverage that includes the full range of reproductive health care options, including abortion," said Rep. Eileen Cody (D), who sponsored the bill. "As we implement the federal health care reform law, we need to ensure that we have no erosion of our existing laws in Washington that protect women's reproductive rights."
California is also
debating a bill to protect and expand women's abortion access.
Meanwhile, in Congress, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would expand the Equal Pay Act of 1963 to better address the wage gap, languishes. As does the Equal Rights Amendment, which is reintroduced every congressional session and always goes absolutely nowhere. The Pro-Choice Caucus also has repeatedly introduced the Freedom of Choice Act to codify Roe v. Wade, and to make it the law of the land that:
[E]very woman has the fundamental right to choose to bear a child, to terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability, or to terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect the life or health of the woman.
Predictably, this too has gone nowhere. Republicans, of course, oppose any attempts to protect and expand women's rights. And Democrats have been unwilling to expend any energy at all for what they typically dismiss as unimportant "special interest" legislation.
But the times, they are a-changin'. And as Republicans (and some of their Democratic enablers) have become increasingly bold and blatant in their War on Women, Americans—and even usually tone-deaf Democrats in Congress—are waking up and fighting back and, most importantly, realizing that fighting for women isn't just the right thing to do; it's the politically smart thing to do too. For Democrats, it's electoral gold. For Republicans, it's a losing issue, driving women away from the Grand Ol' Party in droves. Maybe that's why Republican leadership is losing their appetite for the fight. Heck, even Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski knows this war is a bad idea. (Too bad she didn't come to Jesus before she voted with her party to try to write a galaxy-sized loophole into the president's new policy.)
Republicans' unwillingness to forcefully condemn Rush Limbaugh's slut crusade has further revealed just how deep their hatred of women goes—and it's blowing up in their faces. The backlash against Rush and his Republican defenders, including Bill O'Reilly and faux feminist Sarah Palin, has demonstrated that when people who care about women, aka sluts, fight back and go on the attack, they win.
So, sluts, here is what you can do this week to fight back:
These three actions won't take but a minute of your time. Getting misogynists like Limbaugh and O'Reilly off the air won't solve all our problems—we need legislative victories as well as rhetorical ones—but with each battle we fight and win, we're one step closer to winning the war.
This week’s good, bad and ugly below the fold.
- Not breaking: Feminists call out liberal misogyny too.
- Are women people?
All my adult life, I’ve been pretty sure I’m a sentient, even semi-competent human being. I have a job and an apartment; I know how to read and vote; I make regular, mostly autonomous decisions about what to eat for lunch and which cat videos I will watch whilst eating my lunch. But in the past couple of months, certain powerful figures in media and politics have cracked open that certitude.
You see, like most women, I was born with the chromosome abnormality known as “XX,” a deviation of the normative “XY” pattern. Symptoms of XX, which affects slightly more than half of the American population, include breasts, ovaries, a uterus, a menstrual cycle, and the potential to bear and nurse children.
- Michele Bachmann—remember her?—is still saying crazy shit.
- Your vagina is still making bishops sad:
At a recent meeting between staff of the bishops’ conference and the White House staff, our staff members asked directly whether the broader concerns of religious freedom—that is, revisiting the straight-jacketing mandates, or broadening the maligned exemption—are all off the table. They were informed that they are. So much for “working out the wrinkles.” Instead, they advised the bishops’ conference that we should listen to the “enlightened” voices of accommodation, such as the recent, hardly surprising yet terribly unfortunate editorial in America. The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so, taking a cue from its own definition of religious freedom, now has nominated its own handpicked official Catholic teachers.
- RoseWeaver's diary I'm a Slut; But as a Military Veteran, I've Known This for Decades is a must-read.
- A step in the right direction:
The Florida House passed a bill Wednesday that would set uniform and humane rules for the shackling and restraint of pregnant women who are incarcerated. The bill already passed in the state Senate and is now headed to Gov. Rick Scott’s desk.
The intent of the proposed legislation, which was sponsored by state Rep. Betty Reed, D-Tampa, would prohibit the shackling of a woman in labor and create uniform and humane standards for all jails, prisons, and detention centers in Florida. Advocates for the bill have said it would protect the health of pregnant women who are incarcerated across the board.
- Rush Limbaugh is just giving it away for free now. And what does that make him, boys and girls? Say it with me now: SLUT!
- About that mancession:
The past few years have seen a huge number of state and local government jobs cut, with continuing public sector job losses. That's bad for the economy, with those public sector job losses counteracting some of the private sector job creation happening each month and dragging down the economy. But it's worse for women, as the Economic Policy Institute's David Cooper explains.
- This is why we can't have nice things.
- As if 2011 wasn't bad enough:
Despite intense backlash to some of the provisions, states could be on track for another, record-breaking year of passing restrictions on reproductive health.
“We’re looking at about 430 abortion restrictions that have been introduced into state legislatures this year, which is pretty much in the same ballpark as 2011,” says Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group that focuses on health and reproductive rights. This year, Nash says, “is shaping up to be quite busy.”
Keep in mind, 2011 was already a watershed year for abortion restrictions: States passed 83 such laws, more than triple the 23 laws passed in 2010. And much of that had to do with the 2010 election, when Republicans gained control of many state legislatures. With the political makeup of state capitols unchanged, lawmakers are continuing to put more limits abortion.
- Kansas is doing its part to wage the war:
While other states are debating whether transvaginal probing will be required of abortion seekers, under the supposed banner of informed consent, Kansas is going in another direction. Uninformed non-consent will do nicely for them, thank you. [...]
Yes, the "right" of your doctor to lie outright to you about the state of your pregnancy is now going to be upheld by Kansas state law. Having an ectopic pregnancy? Your doctor doesn't have to tell you. Is your baby going to be born with some horrible condition that will all but assure death the moment it leaves the womb? Sucks to be you, because your doctor will be allowed by state law to tell you everything's fine. You'll find out in the delivery room.
- FlamingoGrrl wrote a great shout out to some remarkable women in politics who are getting pretty damned creative in fighting back against the war on women. Like this one:
Oklahoma Senator Constance Johnson (D) introduced an amendment (but later withdrew) to a "personhood" bill that would have given zygotes the same rights as adults. "However, any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman's vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child," reads the amendment.
- Anyone else detect a flaw in this logic?
Since 1971, the city has pushed aggressively for condom use, distributing more than 200 million free condoms, turning the NYC condom into an icon with its own tag line (NYC Condom: Get some!), even creating an iPhone application that helps users locate the nearest distribution site. In the same time frame, however, city police have destroyed or confiscated thousands of condoms found in the possession of suspected sex workers, using condom possession to justify arrest.
- Rick Santorum blames single mothers for the deterioration of the country. Which will be news to teh gays, since Rick's been telling them for years that they're the ones ruining America with all their being gay and everything. Sheesh, Rick, make up your mind.
- Lying liars coming to a bookstore near you:
An eagle-eyed reader spotted the above business card on a table at a Barnes & Noble in Annapolis, MD. It's for the Pregnancy Clinic, a crisis pregnancy center that claims condoms don't work and abortion can result in "delivery of a badly burned infant." [...]
The "education" about abortion on Pregnancy Clinic's website includes the warning that "relief may be experienced right after an abortion, but as days and months go by, a woman may become increasingly aware that the life that was once inside of her is no longer there," along with a list of "emotional risks" of abortion, including "Inability to forgive self," "Over-interest in babies," "Distance from God," and "Fear of inability to have children."
Yeah, because women are so dumb that it may take months for them to realize their abortion means "the life that was once insider of her is no longer there." Uh huh.
- Oh, about all those "emotional risks" of abortion? Yeah, here's yet more proof that the beloved "pro-life"
claim lie that abortion causes mental illness is a giant steaming pile of bullshit:
A leading psychiatry journal has distanced itself from a controversial study that it published in 2009 which suggested a link between abortion and mental illness, including such severe forms as post-traumatic stress disorder, panic attacks, and drug addiction.
In an unusual commentary, one of the Journal of Psychiatric Research's editors-in-chief and a co-author warned that the 2009 paper, which has been widely cited by legislators and advocates to argue that abortion raises a woman's risk of mental illness and to push for laws requiring providers to tell women that, in fact "does not support assertions that abortions led to psychopathology." [...]
Critics say the paper is flawed enough to be excised from the scientific literature. "This is not a scholarly difference of opinion; their facts were flatly wrong. This was an abuse of the scientific process to reach conclusions that are not supported by the data," said Steinberg.
However, I guaran-fucking-tee you this will not stop the anti-woman terrorists and legislators from continuing to repeat the lies.
- Denying health care to poor women is so pro-lifey!
A House bill aimed at cutting off taxpayer funding to hospitals, clinics, doctors and others who perform elective abortions could put New Hampshire’s $1.4 billion annual Medicaid program in jeopardy. [...]
But a bill the House passed in January could have much more far-reaching consequences because it could jeopardize New Hampshire’s Medicaid program, which provides not only care for women seeking abortions but also wide-ranging services for the state’s poor.
- Do not fuck with the Girl Scouts:
If there was a Girl Scout badge for being gutsy, two Texas Scouts would be first in line after they punched a thief for running off with their hard-earned cookie cash. And there’s a getaway car involved!
Now go forth, sluts, and raise hell.