This week in the War on Women

Let's try something new this week. Good news first:

• Guess who benefits from legalizing gay marriage? Other than gays, of course. Straight women:
  

  To paraphrase the great gay songwriter Stephen Sondheim: Straight women, rise! As same-sex couples marry, things get better for us, too. Remember the scary (and since-discredited) stories about how a woman is more likely to be killed by a terrorist than to find a husband after she turns 40? Or the one about how suitors are fleeing from Maureen Dowd because they're afraid of her Pulitzer Prize? The poll showing evangelical women in patriarchal marriages are happier than Sarah Jessica Parker? Well, same-sex marriage shows that people can make long-term, loving, sexual bonds with each other even where neither is naturally inclined to tell the other what to do. Or to be the natural homemaker or the hunter-gatherer. Same-sex marriage represents the possibility that marriage can be an equal deal after all—or at least one where inequality is not locked in at birth. The conservatives are right: Same-sex marriage will change opposite-sex marriage. And it's a good thing, too.

• While we're at it, how about some more good news for marriage equality?
  

  In a decision that could have far-reaching effects on immigration cases involving same-sex couples, federal officials have canceled the deportation of a Venezuelan man in New Jersey who is married to an American man, the couple’s lawyer said Wednesday.

  ...

  Immigration lawyers and gay rights advocates said the decision represented a significant shift in policy and could open the door to the cancellation of deportations for other immigrants in same-sex marriages.

  “This action shows that the government has not only the power but the inclination to do the right thing when it comes to protecting certain vulnerable populations from deportation,” said the couple’s lawyer, Lavi Soloway.

  The case has been closely watched across the country by lawyers and advocates who viewed it as a test of the federal government’s position on the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law that bars the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages.

• More of this please:

  Today, 12 jurors in Charlotte, N.C., found anti-abortion extremist leader Philip “Flip” Benham guilty of criminally stalking a Charlotte-area physician who provides abortions. This is the second time Benham, who is director of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue/Operation Save America, was convicted for conduct that caused persons to fear for their safety or the safety of their family.

  “For too long, Benham and his organization have been able to stalk and terrorize abortion providers and their families with impunity,” said duVergne Gaines, legal coordinator for the Feminist Majority Foundation, who attended the five-day trial. “They have distributed WANTED posters and engaged in other outrageous conduct in an attempt to intimidate doctors out of providing safe, legal abortions for women here in Charlotte.”

  See? Operation Rescue really is a terrorist organization. Now we'll have one less terrorist on the streets.

• Looks like it's a bad week to be an anti-choicer in North Carolina:
  

  North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue yesterday vetoed legislation that would have imposed a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, as well as require an ultrasound before the procedure. The law would have also required women to view and hear a description of the ultrasound, and it would require providers to give women printed information about risks associated with the procedure.

• Not much better for the antis in South Dakota either:

  Yesterday, the day before SD HB 1217 was slated to take effect, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Karen Schreier granted a preliminary injunction. In a 61-page statement that doesn't mince words, this judge, the daughter of a former SD legislator, found that Planned Parenthood is likely to prevail on its challenge to each of the requirements of the law, including the 72-hour mandatory delay and the “pregnancy help center” requirement.

  Judge Schreier wrote:

  Forcing a woman to divulge to a stranger at a pregnancy help center the fact that she has chosen to undergo an abortion humiliates and degrades her as a human being. The woman will feel degraded by the compulsive nature of the Pregnancy Help Center requirements, which suggest that she has made the ‘wrong’ decision, has not really ‘thought’ about her decision to undergo an abortion, or is ‘not intelligent enough’ to make the decision with the advice of a physician.  Furthermore, these women are forced into a hostile environment.

  (h/t meralda)

• And the antis in Kansas can also suck it:

  A federal judge temporarily blocked Kansas from enforcing new abortion regulations Friday that would have prevented two of the state's three abortion providers from continuing to terminate pregnancies.

  …

  In blocking the law, Murguia said evidence presented in court documents showed the providers would "suffer irreparable harm" through the loss of business and patients, and that at least two women currently seeking abortions would be harmed by not being able to go to the provider of their choice.
  

Now brace yourselves. It wasn't all good news this week:

• James O'Keefe pal and wannabe, Lila Rose—she of the doctored "sting" videos of Planned Parenthood—is at it again. And this time she has "proof" that President Obama, not the rabidly anti-woman legislature or Gov. Mitch "I'm shoring up my anti-woman street cred, just in case I ever run for president" Daniels, is to blame for denying health care to women.

  Live Action, Lila Rose’s anti-abortion rights group, recently released a video that features “undercover phone calls” aimed at displaying how Indiana’s law defunding Planned Parenthood has no effect on Medicaid beneficiaries. The group is claiming that the Obama administration is exercising an “abuse of power” by threatening to withhold federal Medicaid funds from the state.

  The video features recorded phone calls of women asking Planned Parenthood employees whether they (as Medicaid beneficiaries) can obtain the services they would otherwise get at Planned Parenthood elsewhere. Because the clinic lets the women know that they can get the same services at other clinics, Live Action dismisses the need for Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider in the state.
  

  Right. So, in other words, it's totally fair for Indiana to defund the state's primary medical provider for low-income women, so long as somewhere out there, women might be able to track down another provider. And somehow, Obama's the bad guy for not allowing Indiana to violate the law and human decency by discriminating against poor women. That's "pro-life" logic for you.

• This map will piss you off.
• Louisiana legislators won't be deterred, just because most of their bullshit anti-woman bills didn't pass this year; they'll just try again next year:
  

  Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, is one of the Legislature's hardline abortion opponents. He is vowing to bring back his proposal to ban almost all abortions, even in pregnancies stemming from incest, and says the debate this year helped shape the bill into one that more anti-abortion groups can support.

  "Overall it will be easier and better (next year) because I'm expecting more Republicans to be elected," he said.

• In case you missed Magnifico's diary this week, go read it now to see how Republicans "compromise." Short version? They're willing to address budget concerns, but only if they get to throw in some good old fashioned anti-woman, anti-voting, anti-science legislation.
• Aw, poor dads. Now they're the ones struggling with how to have it all:
  

  Though it may come as a surprise to stressed-out working moms, a new report says American men now experience more work-life conflict than women. The Families and Work Institute tries to explain why in a study, The New Male Mystique, that takes its cue from Betty Friedan.

  Much like the conflict women felt when they first entered the workforce in large numbers, the institute says men today feel "the pressure to do it all in order to have it all." That is, be the breadwinner, spend more time with the kids, and wash the dishes after dinner, thank you very much.

  Maybe I could muster a little more sympathy if I hadn't read and reported this little factoid just last week:
  

  Working moms pick up more child care and household duties than working dads—about 80 minutes more every day. Meanwhile, dads enjoy nearly 50 more minutes of watching TV and other leisure activities on a daily basis.

  Gosh, fellas, sorry that pitching in around the house and helping with the kids is cutting into your TV time and stressing you out, but your wives are still doing most of the work.

And just because I always like to end on a good note, or at least a good laugh:

• Ohio GOP Lawmaker Celebrates Being Pro-Life By Driving Drunk:
  

  Republican “moral math” alert! Ohio state representative Robert Mecklenborg was arrested for driving around drunk on an Indiana state highway, which is sort of an “anti-life” thing to do, you might say. But just a few days ago, he also voted for the Fetal Heartbeat Bill, one of those fake “pro-life” thingies that Republicans love. Do they cancel each other out? Mecklenborg thought so, as he failed to tell anyone at the Ohio Statehouse about his arrest.  Mecklenborg was also – hey hey! – full of Viagra and accompanied by a lady, presumably on a little super-sanctified sexytime trip to make their own angry fetus. That’s worth a few very literal “pro-life” points! So whatever, Mecklenborg is still against death on balance, why should anyone care?

  Thanks, Wonkette!