Some time ago, Oklahoma attempted to pass a bill locally that would have made it legal for a doctor to withhold information from a woman, if that doctor *felt, that information might lead to the female patient having an abortion.
This strikes at the very heart of a woman's ability to make sound medical conditions, we know this as Informed Consent.
Cases in which doctors deliberately deceive their patients to stop them from getting abortions aren’t common, but they do happen. Abbott Brown, a lawyer who has been trying wrongful-birth cases for 34 years, says he had one case in which an anti-abortion family doctor overseeing a woman’s pregnancy never performed an ultrasound; the child was born without arms. Speaking to The Washington Post in 2009 after the murder of George Tiller, a doctor who performed late-term abortions, his colleague LeRoy Carhart described a case in which a woman learned, very late in her pregnancy, that her fetus had no brain. “Her doctor knew the problem all along but just never told her,” he said.The Daily Beast
You cannot consent to a treatment [even if that includes nontreatment] if you are never given all of the relevant information regarding your condition, and the condition of your pregnancy/fetus. But you know that only matters if you are considered a human being. A walking incubator on the other hand, doesn't need informed consent.
Informed consent is a phrase often used in law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. As a literal matter, in the absence of fraud, it is redundant. An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications, and future consequences of an action. In order to give informed consent, the individual concerned must have adequate reasoning faculties and be in possession of all relevant facts at the time consent is given...In cases where an individual is provided insufficient information to form a reasoned decision, serious ethical issues arise. Wikipedia Informed Consent.
But I think it's clear by now that no one female, could possibly be viewed as having "adequate reasoning faculties" in the eyes of the GOP. All of these attacks on women's rights, make it very clear that women are not valued adults in society--within that GOP worldview, but that also we are seen as mental-children. This is a headlong push, to shove us back 100 years or more into a medical dark age, worse than the heroic medical corporate age we inhabit now.
Just like the bill in Oklahoma, this is an attempt to protect GOP Medical Quackadoodles--otherwise claiming to be Doctors, from the dangers of being sued for withholding important information about the condition of a pregnancy or fetus. Is your fetus going to suffer from a serious, painful, genetic defect? Will you give birth a dead baby? Well sucks to be you. Anything you might have done to terminate that pregnancy and start over in the hopes of birthing a healthy child will be blown to smithereens by the actions of the Holy Do-Betterers. Meddlers that won't be there to pay the additional medical bills, to hold your hand or the hands of other family members when it comes time for pain and suffering, who won't be there to help you financially plan for a future life with a child who might never be able to support themselves as an adult.
If their god intended you to be happy, he wouldn't have burdened you with a defective fetus!
Yes, I blame religion for this onslought of arrogant ignorance. Religion being fueled by hate and dark, corporate money.
It's just more punitive bullshit from people who really need to get off the Cross, because we need the wood.
He's a Martyr, She's a Martyr--Wouldn't you like to be a Martyr too!
Meanwhile where are the jobs? Where are the living wages? I assure you they are not hiding under our skirts or in our vaginas. Which leads me to Todd Akin's bullshit apology.
It's clear to me that the only reason Akin is making sad noises, is because he got caught off guard. He thought there would be sufficient protection by the masses of his base--otherwise known as Teh Crazies, that the collective, explosive splitting of atoms by women all over the country would be unable to penetrate his solid bone head which is protected by his lead-lined ass.
Sorry Mr. Akin, your piss-poor, back-peddling wasn't enough to save you from our well justified wrath.
That and the attempt by his own party to throw him under the proverbial bus for saying out loud, what they have codified as a plank in their party platform must have surely baffled him. Another twist in the Rovian playbook?
I can safely say, that I ran out of "polite" responses to this bullshit about 20 years ago. I have absolutely zero tolerance for idiot meddlers who think they personally, have a built-in antenna that picks up the will of some god, and are convinced they are authorized to make me live their dream.
Trust me, when I see someone that unbelievably arrogant and stupid, I can predict that if a god has a message for him, it will involve public humiliation in an attempt to remind him of his mortal fallibility. But as we can see, all divine efforts to rein him in [as well as others] have failed miserably. Hence the inability to own the notion that as individuals, as a party, they do not in fact, have a direct line to the divine--any more than any other person out there, and that their legendary status as messengers for the almighty goes no further than the front of their empty brain pans.
So what drives this insanity? The same GOP-wide, mentality behind Todd Akin's rape-theory.
"Public policy should reflect in Arizona that no child's life is a wrongful life," Herrod said MOJO
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In Oklahoma it was all about claiming that wrongful life suits were immoral. That all pregnancies are a blessing. ALL PREGNANCIES!
So if we allow crap like this to pass, this will justify Todd Akin and others who feel as he does. Because if you get pregnant after consenting sex, or through rape--well all pregnancies are a blessing, regardless of outcome or circumstance. And they ought know--after all their god put a stem on their apple!
Granted none of these would-be-street preachers seem to pick up on the fact, that the notion of a blessing is subjective, and in the context of these bills and this speech, this entire position rests on a specific notion of being religious, specifically Christian. So it escapes their notice that by their very speech, they reveal their naked desire to make us all comply with their religious beliefs--even those beliefs that are not in the canon.
The GOP has made it very clear for the last 20 years that:
Women are not equal to men and are not deserving of the same rights and protections or pay as men.
*Women are not capable of informed consent due to their inferior status as mental children, and as breeding chattel, so this justifies abridging our rights by any means necessary, whether that is through legislation, intimidation or acts of domestic terrorism.
*Rape is always a segue for discussing the things that matter to the GOP about a woman: Was she good looking, is she clean or rich, or white? Was she drunk or stoned? Did the bitch have it coming? How long was her skirt? Did she hold a job correct for her gender? Did she know her place?
Men cannot be expected to control themselves, therefore Women must be controlled.
The hatred of women, especially women who do not properly comply with expected gender roles should be raped. But if you get pregnant from that corrective rape--It's a blessing!
*Women should be cut out of the discussion by any means necessary as well.
*All Pregnancies Are a Blessing. ALL! No Exceptions! Tubal pregnancies, rape, or those through trickery, coercion, lies, etc.,
*And the only way to suppress the Woman Vote is to tie them down with unwanted pregnancies. Pregnant women are vulnerable, and tire easily. Women with small children are exhausted and if you scare then enough--might go all security mom on your ass at the polls, if they can get out to vote at all. Already, being a woman is a pre-existing condition when buying insurance, but did it also occur to you, that being a mom is a pre-existing condition when looking for a job?
We assume these assholes are ignorant. But no more. I am going to operate on the notion that they are just twisted individuals who know the truth about rape, pregnancy, and reproduction, but just don't give a shit because the truth doesn't fit into their playbook. Sure their kids might be ignoramuses, because of Abstinence Only programs in the last 20 years, but Akin? Santorum? Romney? Palin, and all them--they went to school during a period of time when actual sex education was taught in schools.
Everything in the behavior of these Angry White Men and their brain Washed female compatriots indicates to me, that they are abusers, and enablers of abusers, and nothing more. Their legislation reflects an abusive mentality toward women, especially women who do not comply with the GOP's expected Gender Roles.
For example:
Women don't just deal with rape [as if that weren't enough], women often deal with domestic abuse, that takes a form not usually addressed. Abused women often deal with coercion, trickery and force in order to tie them down with a pregnancy by their abuser, in much the same manner that the GOP is trying to tie all of us down through coerced or forced pregnancy through bullying, lies and deceit.
Hence the *fake crisis pregnancy centers, meant to trick and coerce women into pregnancy instead of giving them *all the information. The attack on informed consent is just an extension of that.
In this video, one young woman reports that one center in Pennsylvania lied and told her friend that she was not pregnant, when in reality she was. Sound familiar? At the end of the video, the hope is expressed that funding be cut from these crisis pregnancy centers, federal funding that comes through abstinence only programs, but that was 2009. We are now in 2012, and the only thing being defunded are Planned Parenthoods across the nation.
Why misinform women about birth control, abortion and sex? Why to scare them into using nothing, or less effective means to prevent unwanted pregnancy. To shame them into doing the same. To build bars inside their heads based on fear and shame planted by these hateful, arrogant fools.
All pregnancies are a blessing to the GOP because they don't have to pay for them, they don't have to do anything, but sit back and watch us struggle.
If a woman were to be pregnant, and she decided [consented] to carry that pregnancy to term despite the fact that there was something horribly wrong, I will support her decision. It's her life and her body. She has that power to make that call.
And if a woman with a similar diagnosis were to be pregnant and decide that she didn't want to carry that pregnancy to term, regardless of the reason, I support that as well. It's her body, her life, her power to make that call as well.
I am not here to tell Christians that they must get an abortion or use birth control. I don't tell anyone what to do. I don't think it's too much to ask that they return the favor.
But I will ask this question: WHY DO I HAVE TO BE RAPED TO HAVE A CHOICE? You do realize that part of this attack is to get us to accept something that still violates our rights, by making it seem better than the alternative.
And if a woman tells me about the awful things, so many of us have survived, I listen and I do everything I can to offer compassion and to avoid judging. No means no. Whether she was forced from the beginning or found herself in a bad situation and unable to exit safely. Or if she changed her mind when clothes had come off--no means no. The same is extended to men as well. Like the President Obama stated, *Rape is Rape.
We as women deserve better than this from our fellow citizens. I am thoroughly sick of the false argument, that giving people access to comprehensive reproductive services is somehow violating the civil rights of a FACTION of the US population. It's crap, especially when we know so many of them have, or will use these services, legally or in a back alley.
I mean do you really think that only "bad girls" died from Back Alley Abortions? That no Christians went down with sepsis?
Access to these services isn't between me and my neighbor. It isn't between me and *Your Pastor. It's between me and me. If you imagine that there is some religious charge attached to these actions, that's on you. But even if that could be proven true, it would still be between me and that invisible, divine entity. You don't get a say in my bodily processes.
Notice that there is nothing blocking my way to claim an abortion is a god's will or desire just as much as someone else might *claim otherwise. Both are equally invalid claims, because proof of the divine does not exist in any capacity recognized by Science or the Courts.
Respecting your faith in the unseen, isn't the same as agreeing that this power exists. Humoring each other on such matters are simply a way to keep the peace. It is an admission to nothing.
How many times do we have to tell these people? Spectral Evidence is not admissible in a court of law. And that includes *CLAIMS of unverifiable, paranormal exchanges indicating divine favor for specific kinds of medical models.
Why we let this insanity get this far, is beyond me. It's a huge, historical DUH moment.
It's bad enough I have to deal with the Invisible Hand of the Market, but now I have to deal with the Invisible hand of an alleged god up my birth canal? The invisible hand of your pastor, pretending to be a god, in my pharmacy? On my speculum? In the exam room? In my bedroom?
The WAR on Women is really just a theater in the broader, multi-fronted, Culture War. This all rests on the absolutely FALSE premise that Christians are being oppressed in this country by the "evil" forces of secularism--you know, Feminists, Teh Gay, Atheists and Non-Christians! The loudest voices not being paid off directly, seem to have completely missed the point that we are all being oppressed by the same power,and it comes from Wall*Street, and not philosophical or religious minorities.
That just by being visibly, their equal and not being of their faith and living our own lives, we offer them temptation to live another way, and become the scapegoats, who to blame for complex societal ills that predate the written word.
Whether it's to have premarital sex, or use birth control, or go to another church, or become Agnostics or Atheists--this notion that we [everyone else] define the perils of Free Will and Freedom of Conscience is just too much for them to bear.
Oh I just get tired thinking about this pile of crap.
It never occurs to them, how ridiculous their own versions of magical thinking look, especially when mixed with religious arrogance, bigotry, and ignorance.
If *Teh Crazy were as oppressed as they had claimed over the years, their churches would have been closed by now, their bibles would have been confiscated by now, and they would really be in camps. But notice that none of that has happened. How many times do we read chatter on the intertubz that repeats Obama is going to close down all the Churches and confiscate bibles and force men to grow beards and become Mooslims!
It hasn't happened. It isn't going to happen. Just like nothing like that, didn't happen 10 years ago, or 20 years ago. Because this apocalyptic paradigm about forced denial of the faith is readily embraced and has been floating around for a long, long time. Social Security Numbers are the Mark of the Beast! Kids Today and all that bunk! Every time something happens that they don't like, "It's the Trials and Tribulations! The Birth Pangs are Upon Us!" How these people don't give themselves a goddamn heart attack living so wound up every day, is beyond me.
Churches are numerous--every kind of church, sect and denomination. Bibles are printed in numerous languages, everything from Bibles for scholars with Aramaic and Greek text, to tiny New Testaments that fit in your pocket. And they are ubiquitous in our culture, and in our markets.
In fact when I buy basic cable I get a lot of Christian religious channels--whether I want them or not. 24-7 Bible beating for your fast-food-religious convenience. If you have your own channels [note plural] included in basic cable, you are not oppressed. Not everyone can afford to buy their own channel.
All these years have passed, women have used birth control, decided their own time and season, they have had abortions, babies, or their tubes tied--and look-There are still churches. There are still bibles. The planet has not been smited. Massive tsunamis do not devastate coastal communities whenever bared breasts are displayed on pay per view.
And yet they fear women, and our personal power--as if we are going to destroy them and the world with our knowledge and freedom. Oh the horror! The are more offended by free, independent women, than they are the commodification of their own faith. Go figure.
The War that has been declared on women and backed by religion will stop some day. Maybe not right now, but it will. And the fanatics will loose. Even if they win for a short period of time, there simply isn't the kind of energy available to keep this intensity and hate going indefinitely, and they will eventually loose. Besides, we outnumber them.
That is something we shouldn't forget. Many of us raise children, we have the power to shape the world through our roles as the first teachers. We have the power to Vote, we have the numbers to vote all these opportunists right out of office! We have the power to protect the institutions that ensure we have access to choice--whatever that choice may be.
If I had my way, I would wish that these fanatical people would simply endeavor to live their own lives and stop trying to live mine. Being a Busybody is not a religion. It is not even listed as a spiritual gift.
Can you imagine how different this world would be, if they devoted all that energy being used right, now to hate and oppress women, and turned that energy to social justice? Affordable healthcare for all, food for the hungry, job training, environmental sustainability, and affordable housing?
Wow what would that look like? It's time to vote these people out. Don't stop with Akin, after all he is just a symptom of their disease. He simply said out loud, what they all want, what they have codified in their own party. We need to send a powerful message with our ballots about just what we will put up with as adults. Because this isn't going to stop, this election cycle unless we make it stop:
Tampa, Florida (CNN) - The Republican Party is once again set to enshrine into its official platform support for "a human life amendment" to the Constitution that would outlaw abortion without making explicit exemptions for rape or incest, according to draft language of the platform obtained exclusively by CNN late Monday.
Paul Ryan sponsored a personhood bill for zygotes.
Ahead of Thursday's House vote on the so-called "Protect Life Act," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Cali.) called the bill a "savage" attack on women's health. If passed, H.R. 358 would free anti-abortion hospitals from the legal responsibility of providing a life-saving abortion procedure to a pregnant woman who is dying. HuffPo
What else do we need to see, before all women realize that these people do not see us as humans and do not care about our welfare? Women are less than nothing to these clowns. We need to vote them out of office and marginalize their politics until they are nothing but scratchy voices in the dark, on AM radio.
8:05 AM PT: Akin's Legitimate Rape story goes Global.
http://www.cnn.com/...
"The standard news story has been syndicated worldwide, stating the bare facts; that a Missouri congressman referred to "legitimate rape" when trying to explain, incorrectly, a woman's biological response to being raped."
11:33 AM PT: Today on NPR's Political Junky, I heard a first. Making the GOPers talk about Todd Akin and the Party Position on Abortion is pushing *THEM off message.
That's rich!
This is the same kind of bs they themselves pull up whenever scrutiny gets too hot on their fucked up ideals regarding Tax the Crap out of the poor so the Rich can buy that 10th mansion in the Hamptons!
Or whenever we scrutinize their military spending habits, their pork barrel politics, their notions of National Security --whenever it gets too hot to handle, they throw Abortion or Gays, or Mooslims! up in the air to distract us from their schemes.