There, there, little lady. These lies are for your own good:
- Louisiana's legislature voted unanimously to pass the misleadingly titled "Forced Abortion Prevention Sign Act," which, among other things, reinforces the already existing 24-hour waiting period before obtaining an abortion, as well as the requirement that abortion providers give their patients a state published pamphlet filled with the blatantly untrue "facts" about abortion, including the repeatedly debunked myth that it might cause cancer. But don't get hysterical, ladies, because the good legislators of Louisiana are only doing this so you can make "informed decisions" about your health care.
- And Maine is poised to do the same thing.
- So is Minnesota.
- Anti-choice organizations don't like teh Google:
A Texas-based pro-life group has a serious problem with the way search engines work. Their problem, it seems, is that when a woman searches for “abortion” in Google, she is generally directed to ways in which she can obtain an abortion.
Online For Life, a self-described “non-profit outreach group,” has found a way to change that. The group is buying Google ad space in the hopes of misdirecting women looking for information on abortions.
- And now they want to make movies about their lies.
- Kansas legislators have passed a bill to take funding away from Planned Parenthood, which provides health care to low-income women, and give it to "crisis pregnancy centers," which don't provide health care, but do try to persuade women not to have abortions by lying to them about the so-called (but actually non-existent) risks of abortion. Because taxpayers shouldn't have to fund health care, but they should have to fund activists who lie to women.
- Anti-choice groups are all giddy about yet another bogus study that purports to prove the already debunked myth that abortion is dangerous to women.
Punishing women and doctors:
- Hey, moms, don't get cancer, or you might lose your kids:
Ms. Giordano, a freelance writer and editor, has been fighting Stage 4 breast cancer for four and a half years now, and while it has metastasized to her bones, court records show that her monthly treatments have kept her condition “stable and not progressing.” Mr. Snyder, who was divorced from Ms. Giordano after her diagnosis, recently moved away from his family to take a job as an executive at Sears Holding, Inc. He asked the court to grant him sole custody, arguing that he was the parent with a paycheck, and that his ex was too sick — and her future too uncertain — for the children to stay with her. She accused him of being abusive and unfaithful during their marriage, and says that sending the children to Chicago would deprive her of her kids when she most needs them, would separate her children from her at a time when they most need her, and would discriminate against her because she has cancer.
Two weeks ago, Judge Gordon ruled in favor of Mr. Snyder.
- Jane Corwin, the Republican candidate in the NY-26 race, thinks pregnant inmates should be shackled during childbirth.
- Missouri's legislature voted this week to ban abortions after 20 weeks. Doctors who perform such abortions will face a "minimum one-year prison sentence and a fine of as much as $50,000." Because locking up women's doctors is the best way to take care of women, right?
- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels signed into law a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Because taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for women's health care.
- North Carolina is going whole hog on attacking women's health care: waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds, parental consent, defunding women's health care, and "Choose Life" license plates.
- The Concerned
Women Trolls of America is fighting against ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, "which works to end political, economic and healthcare gender disparities, sex trafficking, and violence and discrimination against women." Because these so-called feminists believe equal rights for women means "rebelling against God and His law."
- In case you missed it, Rachel Maddow explained how South Dakota appears to have found a sneaky way to basically ban abortions. All in the name of protecting women.
Women and the economy:
- The wage gap—where women earn, on average, $0.77 on the male dollar—doesn't just mean women have less disposable income. It also means they'll have half as much saved as men when they retire.
- Sure, the "mancession" is over. But for women? Not so much:
The ‘mancession’ is behind us. Men suffered 69 percent of the job losses between the onset of the recession in December of 2007 and last February, when the labor market hit bottom. Job growth in the 14 months since has been anemic, though men have fared noticeably better than women. While men have regained only a fifth of the jobs they lost, women have done even worse, recovering less than a tenth.
The job situation for women is poised to deteriorate further.
And finally, some silver linings:
- The Delaware House voted against great restrictions on access to women's health care.
- Gov. Brian Schweitzer vetoed a similar bill in Montana.
- A new study from UNESCO finds that real sex education is effective in reducing "health events" like HIV infections. And it's cost-effective too:
According to Mark Richmond, UNESCO’s Global Coordinator for HIV and AIDS, the landmark study gives an economic basis to the argument that sexuality education provides a key platform for HIV prevention amongst young people.
“We now have the data and analysis to make a stronger and better informed case for investing in school-based sexuality education programmes, particularly in those countries most affected by the epidemic and prioritized for attention in the new UNAIDS Strategy 2011-2015.”
- SlutWalks are still sweeping the globe:
The idea behind the Slutwalks is simple, yet so often fails to get through: rape is rape, no matter what the victim is wearing. The Slutwalks--after the original one in Toronto was successful and showed up on YouTube and on Internet pictures--have sprung up organically. They tend not to have a vastly unifying principle beyond this: if the law, and society, treat women who are raped as sluts who deserved it, than we are all sluts, because we can all be raped at any time, no matter what we are wearing.
To simplify it even further, a Boston marcher carried a sign reading, “Sluts Don’t Cause Rape. Rapists Do.”
