By Cristina Gutierrez-Boswell
It is Labor Day weekend around America today. The news, however, never stops and takes a break. Here is this week’s roundup of events.
Well I had not a clue that an abuse conviction of husband could be considered a “one-up” for the wife for, like, EVER! And she would use that as an excuse to not have to “get it on” with her husband. A Georgia judge decided to throw out a serious case of abuse…
“Domingo Santiago plead guilty to ‘gagging his wife, binding her wrists together, and beating her with a cord.’” Yet a Georgia judge tossed out the state’s prosecution of Santiago"
Because…wait for it…
“After a series of questions that seemed much more concerned with whether Santiago’s wife would gain some advantage from her abusive husband’s conviction than with enforcing the law of his state.”
Literally, this makes me want to expel any contents from my stomach and projectile vomit them onto my computer screen. If we cannot trust our lawmakers to help women in their time of need than who? Especially when it is they who need to be able to cut through the bullshit and help women see a situation that is clearly dangerous. This says a lot about this judge’s mental state and I would be curious to find out what his home-life was like!
This is rather clever here…
A Texas abortion doctor has “doctored”her own consent form in order to inform her patients just exactly what she thinks of meddling lawmakers with their, more common than not, ZERO degrees from medical school.
Drop. The. Mic.
Here’s a situation that could have gone continuously bad, but instead is making a turn for the better…
Girls kidnapped by the Boko Haram are now continuing and completing their studies in this country:
http://america.aljazeera.com/...
In RH Reality News, check out these interesting articles:
I am all for sex education because, oh, I don’t know, it just seems to me informed people have, well, more fully informed decisions. Read this: http://rhrealitycheck.org/...
And THIS is an interesting read: http://rhrealitycheck.org/...
It seems that every time marginalized groups speak up and say “trust me, I know what I am talking about,” the dominant group turns the discussion to more generalized conversations. For instance, if all lives matter, then why do we have the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments in the Constitution? And why is the 14th amendment suddenly a buzzword among the idiots in the party of fat-ass elephants? Can anyone say "anchor babies?" So please, spare me the generalizations. If we don't get to the heart of the matter, how are we going to ever have any solutions? Everyone is different and we all are capable of hearing and listening.
In real Catholic News:
A group of nuns still think the Pope doesn’t quite get it when it comes to abortion and female autonomy (they told him off…in their own pious way). This is AWESOME! I wish I had nuns this enlightened in Catholic school (I would not have tripped one of them coming into the classroom, but instead pulled a chair out and bombarded her with questions about the meaning of life). Read this: http://www.independent.co.uk/...
And from the early days of abortion, way before it was legal…watch this…
https://www.facebook.com/...
Action items:
Sign this and stop the war on Planned Parenthood: http://pac.petitions.moveon.org/...
Defend Planned Parenthood against attacks: http://act.credoaction.com/...
Tell our lawmakers to pass legislation against Child Sex trafficking:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/...
From Medscape:
Here’s one I would never call a “blast from the past” because it is exactly what still in the mindset of our lawmakers to this day, except in reverse…forced birth. This is an enlightened piece of what indigenous women had to go through in the 70s in Canada:
TORONTO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The coercive sterilization of indigenous women in Canadian health centers during the 1970s was more widespread than previously believed, with impoverished communities in the north disproportionately targeted, a researcher has found.
The Canadian government was often aware of the problem, but did not act to stop it, said Karen Stote, a women's studies professor at Waterloo, Ontario-based Wilfrid Laurier University who conducted archival research for a book released in May.
Historical documents do not say how many of the nearly 1,200 sterilization cases - including more than 550 at federally operated "Indian" hospitals between 1971 and 1974 - were undertaken by force or fraud, but evidence suggests coercion was widespread, Stote said.
"Consent forms (for sterilizations) were not translated into indigenous languages, people weren't necessarily understanding what was happening in the doctor's office," Stote told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"In some areas, they (doctors working for the government) were promoting birth control to reduce the size of indigenous communities," she said, calling the sterilizations a symptom of broader colonialism.
Stote's book, "An Act of Genocide: Colonialism and Sterilization of Aboriginal Women," is not the first to document the practice, but her research suggests the problem was more widespread than previously thought.
Canada's Department of Aboriginal Affairs did not respond to interview requests.
Officials in the province of Alberta have apologized and paid compensation for past sterilization campaigns on people considered mentally challenged and other disadvantaged groups, including indigenous people.
The practice in most provinces was supposed to have ended in 1972, according to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
Stote's research indicates that coerced sterilizations of indigenous people in parts of Canada continued until at least 1974.
Other sterilization campaigns in Canada were linked to eugenics, the idea of racial superiority and the need to reduce certain traits from the population.
Indigenous people were targeted under that framework, Stote said, but the government also wanted to reduce their population to lessen the state's responsibilities under treaties it had signed with indigenous groups.
Forced or coercive sterilization has been deemed a form of discrimination, violence against women, and a violation of basic human rights by the United Nations.”
http://www.medscape.com/... (This link will take you to the Medscape website where you will need to login to view the article, hence why I posted it in full, here.)
And….
“Two in Five Military Women Endure Sexual Trauma During Service” (sign up with Medscape to read this article. (http://www.medscape.com/... ).
Special Thanks to my fellow “laborers” in this group: Tara the Antisocial Worker, ramara, elenacarlena and mettle fatigue for your help and contributions to this week’s diary… have a safe weekend all!
FIN