Republican priorities, in chart form.
(Guttmacher Institute)
I'm not even sure what the Republicans are going for at this point. All I know is that if it relates to women,
they're against it:
The sweeping anti-abortion bill working its way through the Kansas Legislature would levy a sales tax on women seeking abortions, including rape victims.
Buried in the 69-page bill being considered by the House Federal and State Affairs Committee are several provisions, in fact, that opponents say would increase taxes on those who seek abortions. The tax sections do not include exemptions for women who want an abortion after a sexual assault or to end a life-threatening pregnancy.
That's great, that's just great. Are you going to die because of complications of your pregnancy? Well, now there's a tax for that. Raped? Yeah, we have a
Rape Tax now. Not for the perpetrators of rape, of course—only for the victims.
You would think that the anti-any-tax-for-any-reason leveling a new (Rush-Limbaugh-Approved-Word) Tax, or Rape Tax, or Save Your Damn Life Tax would maybe be the most offensive thing they could come up with. But this is Kansas, where murdering abortion-providing doctors is fine with some measurable slice of the Republican population, so there's really no lower bound on how low the state legislature is allowed to go. 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:
Among other provisions in the proposed legislation are measures allowing doctors to withhold from patients medical information that might encourage them to seek an abortion and prohibiting malpractice suits if the woman or the child suffers a health complication as a result of information being withheld. A wrongful death lawsuit could be filed if the mother dies. The bill also would require doctors to tell women that abortion causes breast cancer and would prohibit state employees from performing abortions on the job.
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.
Your doctor isn't just allowed to lie to you, either—they're required to. The abortion-causes-breast-cancer bit has been debunked for a very long time now, but a bunch of political blowhards require your doctor to spout it to you anyway.
In any event, we now have a new leader in the fiercely-pitched battle for Worst State Republicans. You have to really, really make an effort nowadays to even compete in that contest, but Sam Brownback's Kansas is always up for a challenge.
I've been trying to think of any other case where your doctor is legally protected if he gives you dangerously false information. On purpose. Because of his religion. I can't. At this point all I can suggest to the female half of our population is that they vote in droves, run for office in droves, and once they have gained enough power they ban Viagra (if ever there was a product abused by American man-sluts, that would be it) and put every last American male in a burka for the next 20 years. I could live with that.
