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I'm not a doctor, but...
Author: BobR    Date: 08/22/2012 12:56:53

A right of passage as a child is an activity known as "playing doctor". It is a non-sexual and quite innocent exploration, and borne of the curious nature of humans in general and children in particular. They want to know exactly what it is that makes boys and girls different from each other. Years later as hormones start flowing, it turns into an exploration of an entirely different kind. This is all an expected part of life, and has been for centuries.

What is NOT expected is that elected politicians with no medical background suddenly decide they want to play doctor when it comes to women's health issues. These men (mostly, anyways) have been spouting some medical "facts" that don't even pass the "truthiness" test.

Rooted in the never-ending abortion debate, the current explosion of medical "experts" began with the comments by Missouri GOP candidate Todd Akin who said "'legitimate rape' rarely causes pregnancy". Naturally this caused an uproar. What is NOT "legitimate rape"? Sides were quickly drawn in Republicanville - either you piled on with more craziness or you washed your hands of it.

Representative Steve King (R-IA) joined the chorus. In his worldly experience, he claims he's never heard of a girl getting pregnant from statutory rape or incest. Well then - that settles THAT. Perhaps King should look beyond his tightly-knit inner circle. Idaho Republican state senator Chuck Winder wonders if women even know what rape is. I am fairly certain that yes - every woman on the planet knows what rape is and I'm certain every man in prison knows too. Once again - step outside your bubble, and try living where the abused live.

One has to wonder: Where do these men get the notion that women have magic vaginas, and if they REALLY TRULY ABSOLUTELY are getting raped, they can reject the sperm and avoid pregnancy? It's quite likely that the source of this myth is a quack by the name of Dr. John C. Wilke. He has proposed the "angry cervix"™ theory, as well as endorsing Mitt Romney:
"This is a traumatic thing -- she's, shall we say, she's uptight," Dr. Willke said of a woman being raped, adding, "She is frightened, tight, and so on. And sperm, if deposited in her vagina, are less likely to be able to fertilize. The tubes are spastic."

How would you like THIS guy as your OB/GYN?

This whole bruhaha has brought all the experts out of the woodwork. Republican TN state senator Stacey Campfield makes the claim (debunked years ago) that it's virtually impossible to get AIDS via heterosexual sex. Missouri Republican party official Sharon Barnes decided to go the route of life counselor instead, referring to a pregnancy from rape as a blessing from God. Nothing like a daily reminder in a child's eyes of that horrible event in your life. Drew Weston (liberal counterpart to Frank Luntz) refers to any law that does not allow abortion for a woman who gets pregnant via rape as a rapist's Bill of Rights. It's certainly apt.

But that's exactly what the Republican party has put into their platform for this year's election. In their eyes, the rapist has more rights than the victim. This has been veep candidate Paul Ryan's position throughout his career. As previously noted, Romney has welcomed the endorsement of a doctor who believes rape prevents pregnancies. He has gone back and forth on the abortion issue, so it's impossible to know what he really believes. Considering how his veep candidate has voted, though, and the party's platform, it's not that difficult to imagine the draconian measures that he would be willing to sign, were they to make it out of Congress. Considering that the next president will likely be picking 2-3 Supreme Court justices, it's likely they would withstand scrutiny as well.

It's scary as hell.

Republicans have screamed loudly about the ACA, and the government coming between people and their doctors. When it comes to women's health (and pregnancy in particular) they seem to think they know better, and see nothing wrong with Big Government forcing itself into a woman's uterus. It's a rape of a different kind.

Enough! - It's time for politicians to stop pretending to be doctors and start pretending to be politicians. That's a role they might be able to fake successfully.

UPDATE (11:30 AM EDT): Here is a summation of outrageous things said by Republicans with regards to women and rape. Some of them were covered in the blog and some were not.
 

95 comments (Latest Comment: 08/23/2012 10:37:18 by BobR)
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Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 12:59:39
Raine, check your phone. I sent you a picture of the Storage Room B sign. Which is now being proudly displayed by the door to said work space.

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 13:02:29
BTW morning.

Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 13:04:36
From the blog, and this should be DRIVEN HOME:
Mitt Romney sought and won the endorsement of the man who has since the mid-1980s promoted the scientifically baseless idea that rape doesn't lead to pregnancy, Dr. John C. Willke.


Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 13:05:03
Quote by Mondobubba:
Raine, check your phone. I sent you a picture of the Storage Room B sign. Which is now being proudly displayed by the door to said work space.
Excellent!


Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 13:05:21
Good Morning!

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 13:13:58
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Raine, check your phone. I sent you a picture of the Storage Room B sign. Which is now being proudly displayed by the door to said work space.
Excellent!



Yeaaaah. When I gave it to my co-worker he broke out laughing.

Comment by wickedpam on 08/22/2012 13:19:15
Morning



Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 13:19:46
Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 13:20:21
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Good morning! Were you affected by the accident on Route 7 this morning?

Comment by wickedpam on 08/22/2012 13:22:34
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Morning


Good morning! Were you affected by the accident on Route 7 this morning?


nope, but I bet my cousin was


Comment by BobR on 08/22/2012 13:30:04

Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "family jewels"

Comment by TriSec on 08/22/2012 14:04:16
Morning, comrades.

Anybody using Microsoft Lync? We've just got it here at work, but you'll need my office email to pester me.

I am loathe to wish for vengeance upon such misguided persons writing female policy, but if you focus on my thought bubble, you will eventually deduce what I hope happens to persons near and dear to them.

Legislate that asshats. But then again, they are so debased that I don't think hitting that close to home would even make a difference.


Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 14:21:39
I've been reading Slept With Joey Ramone by his brother Micky Leigh. Wowzer, Johnny Ramone was a 'uge dick. Not just a paleo-conservative, but he stole Joey's girlfriend and had a history of domestic violence. Joey hated him. They didn't speak to each other.

Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 14:23:53
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 14:26:51
Quote by Raine:
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.



The National Review is not to be confused with The National Review online. NRO is much, much worse.

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 14:28:43
Quote by Raine:
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.



Wow...so nasty I couldn't finish it.

Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 14:33:32
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.



Wow...so nasty I couldn't finish it.
Oh, btw...

George W. Bush: 2 daughters.
Nixon had two daughters as well.


Comment by wickedpam on 08/22/2012 14:34:35
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.



Wow...so nasty I couldn't finish it.


ya, I couldn't make it off the 1st page, it was stomach churn in its - how manly is Mitt - crap


Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 14:37:10
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.



Wow...so nasty I couldn't finish it.
Oh, btw...

George W. Bush: 2 daughters.
Nixon had two daughters as well.



Uhuh.

Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 14:37:39
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.



The National Review is not to be confused with The National Review online. NRO is much, much worse.
It, to me, is still an extension of the National Review. Did you see the comments? Thiswas particularly nasty:
Well, I guess this explains my less-than-happy love-life. Thanks, Kevin.


Hey! let abort female babies so we can perpetuate our paternalistic society.


Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 14:39:47
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.



Wow...so nasty I couldn't finish it.


ya, I couldn't make it off the 1st page, it was stomach churn in its - how manly is Mitt - crap

/well let me help you...
There are lots of children of rich and powerful men who do not turn out to be 0.01 percent as successful as Mitt Romney has. Meghan McCain’s father is a rich guy and a failed presidential candidate, just like Mitt’s. Anybody think Meghan McCain’s life is going to turn out like Mitt Romney’s?


Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 14:42:27
And this:
Reassuring arch-patriarch — maybe one with enough sons and grandsons to form a pillaging band of marauders? Hillary Rodham Clinton told us that it takes a village, and Mitt Romney showed us how to populate a village with thriving offspring.
bold face mine.

Comment by wickedpam on 08/22/2012 14:43:51
Quote by Raine:
Quote by wickedpam:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Quote by Raine:
I know it's the National REview... but this is still one of the most completely sexist things I have ever seen by a so-called legitimate conservative publication I have ever seen.

They aren't even trying anymore. The GOP hates women.



Wow...so nasty I couldn't finish it.


ya, I couldn't make it off the 1st page, it was stomach churn in its - how manly is Mitt - crap

/well let me help you...
There are lots of children of rich and powerful men who do not turn out to be 0.01 percent as successful as Mitt Romney has. Meghan McCain’s father is a rich guy and a failed presidential candidate, just like Mitt’s. Anybody think Meghan McCain’s life is going to turn out like Mitt Romney’s?



sshhesh - I'm not a fan of Meghan McCain but I've always thought she has held her own and in fact come out ahead of her father.

Comment by wickedpam on 08/22/2012 14:45:19
Quote by Raine:
And this:
Reassuring arch-patriarch — maybe one with enough sons and grandsons to form a pillaging band of marauders? Hillary Rodham Clinton told us that it takes a village, and Mitt Romney showed us how to populate a village with thriving offspring.
bold face mine.



never mind the society's that have been Matriarchal

Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 14:45:51
Quote by wickedpam:
sshhesh - I'm not a fan of Meghan McCain but I've always thought she has held her own and in fact come out ahead of her father.
Same here. It was a total swipe when none was needed.


Comment by TriSec on 08/22/2012 14:55:48
"I'm taking an awful risk, Vader.....this had better work."

TriSec is cautiously sipping at a half-cup of black coffee. I suspect chemo-related lactose intolerance, instead of previously reported coffee intolerance. Black tea never gave me any trouble, so it's on to the hi-test.

No ill effects to report yet.

Comment by BobR on 08/22/2012 14:57:51
Apropos of today's blog, let's set the wayback machine to June 2010...

Sharon Angle says that abortion in cases of rape would interfere with God's plan

Comment by wickedpam on 08/22/2012 14:58:13
Quote by TriSec:
"I'm taking an awful risk, Vader.....this had better work."

TriSec is cautiously sipping at a half-cup of black coffee. I suspect chemo-related lactose intolerance, instead of previously reported coffee intolerance. Black tea never gave me any trouble, so it's on to the hi-test.

No ill effects to report yet.


have you tried any green tea?


Comment by TriSec on 08/22/2012 14:58:21
BTW, *non-sequitir*. Isn't what the GOP doing straight out of the Nazi playbook?

I read "Rise and Fall" during the Bush years, and the parallels are shocking. But instead of the Jews, we've got them targeting and demonizing Gays, Muslims, Women, basically anybody who is outside the extreme right-wing of the party.

This is not a viable electoral model. It is my fervent hope that they go the way of the Whigs after this cycle. There is a place for conservatives in American politics, but not under this banner anymore.


Comment by BobR on 08/22/2012 14:58:41
Quote by TriSec:
"I'm taking an awful risk, Vader.....this had better work."

TriSec is cautiously sipping at a half-cup of black coffee. I suspect chemo-related lactose intolerance, instead of previously reported coffee intolerance. Black tea never gave me any trouble, so it's on to the hi-test.

No ill effects to report yet.




Comment by TriSec on 08/22/2012 14:59:58
Quote by wickedpam:


have you tried any green tea?


I have, but I'm not a huge fan of the stuff.

Comment by wickedpam on 08/22/2012 15:02:13
Quote by TriSec:
Quote by wickedpam:


have you tried any green tea?


I have, but I'm not a huge fan of the stuff.


I let mine steep a little longer, sometimes that help give it a little more body


Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 15:03:57
Quote by TriSec:
BTW, *non-sequitir*. Isn't what the GOP doing straight out of the Nazi playbook?

I read "Rise and Fall" during the Bush years, and the parallels are shocking. But instead of the Jews, we've got them targeting and demonizing Gays, Muslims, Women, basically anybody who is outside the extreme right-wing of the party.

This is not a viable electoral model. It is my fervent hope that they go the way of the Whigs after this cycle. There is a place for conservatives in American politics, but not under this banner anymore.
You know, what makes me nervous isn't the godwin, (You have not done so) is the fact that mostly underreported Hitler went after homosexuals.

This party is terribly, terribly dangerous. They care about power. They care about THIER power.

They don't govern, they dictate.


Comment by Will in Chicago on 08/22/2012 15:10:27
Quote by Raine:
Quote by TriSec:
BTW, *non-sequitir*. Isn't what the GOP doing straight out of the Nazi playbook?

I read "Rise and Fall" during the Bush years, and the parallels are shocking. But instead of the Jews, we've got them targeting and demonizing Gays, Muslims, Women, basically anybody who is outside the extreme right-wing of the party.

This is not a viable electoral model. It is my fervent hope that they go the way of the Whigs after this cycle. There is a place for conservatives in American politics, but not under this banner anymore.
You know, what makes me nervous isn't the godwin, (You have not done so) is the fact that mostly underreported Hitler went after homosexuals.

This party is terribly, terribly dangerous. They care about power. They care about THIER power.

They don't govern, they dictate.



This Republican party has a platform that has little room for moderation or compromise. It's rhetoric is even worse.

TriSec, if the GOP goes the way of the Whigs, it will be fitting. The Whigs became unable to adjust to changes in the country and offered no solutions. Also, why do I feel that some people want to refight the Civil War?

Comment by TriSec on 08/22/2012 15:11:52
My best friend and Best Man is gay. I'm married to a Hispanic woman. My son is dark-skinned.

These things aren't abstract; the GOP has targeted every single one of those things.

I just don't get this anymore. But I don't know what the answer is anymore, either.

Fox - Citizens United - Rush....I think these things all bear responsibility for what has happened.




Comment by Will in Chicago on 08/22/2012 15:12:12
BobR, a great blog but let's say that the GOP now seems to be going for a smaller and smaller base. I wonder what will happen if they gain power and what will happen if they lose. Somehow, I don't think the Republican Party is going to return to the party it was some 40 years ago.

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 15:13:29
Quote by TriSec:
"I'm taking an awful risk, Vader.....this had better work."

TriSec is cautiously sipping at a half-cup of black coffee. I suspect chemo-related lactose intolerance, instead of previously reported coffee intolerance. Black tea never gave me any trouble, so it's on to the hi-test.

No ill effects to report yet.



What? No coffee regulah? :crawls to fainting couch: :vapors: Ah do delcah, what is this world comin' to? A New Englander who can't have milk in his coffee? Damn cancer!

Comment by TriSec on 08/22/2012 15:16:51
Actually, I've been quite ironic in my tea consumption. While I did not buy the brand we dumped in the harbour, I do have imported English tea and I'm brewing it in the traditional method, teapot and all.

Or is that sartorial?


Comment by TriSec on 08/22/2012 15:19:49
Actually, I think the word I was looking for is sardonic, and that wasn't it.



Comment by TriSec on 08/22/2012 15:21:12
Oh, and I just heard something on TRMS that made me sit up.

Ectopic Pregnancy.

The treatment for this is abortion. If the GOP gets their wish, women will die. Period.



Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 15:21:59
I think it is fair to shine some light on where this party is headed. They are not Nazi's-- but you will recall what Will posted in my afternoon blog yesterday.
Raine, it looks like the source of Akins claim leads to a dark chapter in human history. From Raw Story:

Akin rape theory rooted in Nazi death camp experiments

By David Edwards
Tuesday, August 21, 2012 16:33 EDT

The theory behind Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) assertion earlier this week that women who are victims of “legitimate” rape would not get pregnant appears to be based on 1972 research that cites experiments done in Nazi concentration camps, a Missouri newspaper reported on Monday.

During an interview with KTVI over the weekend, Akin had claimed that women were not likely to get pregnant because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

This reasoning, based on 1972 article by a University of Minnesota Medical School assistant professor, has been used for decades by anti-abortion activists to argue that no exceptions to abortion bans are necessary, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.




Later medical studies rejected the study that Akins and his allies cite.


Couple that with what happened in Rwanda and how media played a role in propagating propaganda


I worry about this party. I don't think they will go the way of the whigs -- That party only lasted 2 decades. This is Ironic:
In its two decades of existence, the Whig Party had two of its candidates, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, elected president. Both died in office. John Tyler succeeded to the presidency after Harrison's death but was expelled from the party. Millard Fillmore, who became president after Taylor's death, was the last Whig to hold the nation's highest office.

The party was ultimately destroyed by the question of whether to allow the expansion of slavery to the territories. With deep fissures in the party on this question, the anti-slavery faction prevented the re-nomination of its own incumbent President Fillmore in the 1852 presidential election; instead, the party nominated General Winfield Scott. Most Whig party leaders thereupon quit politics (as Lincoln did temporarily) or changed parties. The northern voter base mostly joined the new Republican Party. By the 1856 presidential election, the party was virtually defunct. In the South, the party vanished, but as Thomas Alexander has shown, Whiggery as a policy orientation persisted for decades and played a major role in shaping the modernizing policies of the state governments during Reconstruction after 1865.



The GOP will fight like a rabid dog until it's death. Much like Hitler and what would become the Nazi party after the Reichstag.







Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 15:27:35
Quote by Raine:
I think it is fair to shine some light on where this party is headed. They are not Nazi's-- but you will recall what Will posted in my afternoon blog yesterday.
Raine, it looks like the source of Akins claim leads to a dark chapter in human history. From Raw Story:

Akin rape theory rooted in Nazi death camp experiments

By David Edwards
Tuesday, August 21, 2012 16:33 EDT

The theory behind Rep. Todd Akin’s (R-MO) assertion earlier this week that women who are victims of “legitimate” rape would not get pregnant appears to be based on 1972 research that cites experiments done in Nazi concentration camps, a Missouri newspaper reported on Monday.

During an interview with KTVI over the weekend, Akin had claimed that women were not likely to get pregnant because “if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

This reasoning, based on 1972 article by a University of Minnesota Medical School assistant professor, has been used for decades by anti-abortion activists to argue that no exceptions to abortion bans are necessary, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.




Later medical studies rejected the study that Akins and his allies cite.


Couple that with what happened in Rwanda and how media played a role in propagating propaganda


I worry about this party. I don't think they will go the way of the whigs -- That party only lasted 2 decades. This is Ironic:
In its two decades of existence, the Whig Party had two of its candidates, William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor, elected president. Both died in office. John Tyler succeeded to the presidency after Harrison's death but was expelled from the party. Millard Fillmore, who became president after Taylor's death, was the last Whig to hold the nation's highest office.

The party was ultimately destroyed by the question of whether to allow the expansion of slavery to the territories. With deep fissures in the party on this question, the anti-slavery faction prevented the re-nomination of its own incumbent President Fillmore in the 1852 presidential election; instead, the party nominated General Winfield Scott. Most Whig party leaders thereupon quit politics (as Lincoln did temporarily) or changed parties. The northern voter base mostly joined the new Republican Party. By the 1856 presidential election, the party was virtually defunct. In the South, the party vanished, but as Thomas Alexander has shown, Whiggery as a policy orientation persisted for decades and played a major role in shaping the modernizing policies of the state governments during Reconstruction after 1865.



The GOP will fight like a rabid dog until it's death. Much like Hitler and what would become the Nazi party after the Reichstag.







Does this mean will have the spectical of say, Mitch McConnell in a ditch, covered in petrol on fire?

Comment by Will in Chicago on 08/22/2012 15:27:38
So, Raine, will the GOP -- assuming that they do not win -- just seek to block any agenda but their own. If so, I wonder what their rhetoric will inspire. Remember the Unitarian Universalist Church Shooting in Knoxville back in 2008?

Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 15:27:59
Quote by TriSec:
Oh, and I just heard something on TRMS that made me sit up.

Ectopic Pregnancy.

The treatment for this is abortion. If the GOP gets their wish, women will die. Period.




:TING!:

Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 15:30:04
Quote by TriSec:
Oh, and I just heard something on TRMS that made me sit up.

Ectopic Pregnancy.

The treatment for this is abortion. If the GOP gets their wish, women will die. Period.

You weren't aware of this?

I am very glad you are now.

Let me give you something else to think about. This is REALLY important, Tri. I'm going to post it all here, in case you are blocked from work. Link.

Pregnant Teen Dies Because Doctors Prescribed Ultrasound Viewings Instead of Abortion and Chemotherapy


In the Dominican Republic, a nine-week pregnant girl was diagnosed with leukemia. The girl’s mother pleaded with doctors to “allow” her daughter to get an abortion so the girl she could begin chemotherapy immediately. “I know abortion is a sin, but my daughter’s health comes first,” she cried.

The doctors responded by forcing her and her daughter to view ultrasounds so the two women could see that the baby was healthy.

If you like ABL then why not help her keep the lights on? Even if you don't like her like her, and you've told her so many times that you just want to be friends and to please stop showing up at your house with an upraised boom-box blaring "In Your Eyes," you should do yourself a favor and hit the donate button. (Because you're really sick of hearing that Peter Gabriel song.)

Three weeks after the girl was diagnosed, the doctors finally began chemotherapy, but still would not end the pregnancy. Ultimately, the young woman miscarried the pregnancy, hemorrhaged, and died. She was 16 years old.

From RH Reality Check:

A pregnant 16-year-old in the Dominican Republic died from complications of leukemia, according to CNN. The young woman was forced to wait nearly three weeks to begin chemotherapy to treat her disease as hospital officials initially refused to treat her fearing it could terminate her pregnancy. In the end she lost her life and the pregnancy, and may have died because of the delay in her treatment.

Under an amendment to the Dominican Republic’s constitution which declares that “life begins at conception,” abortion is banned, effectively for any reason. The girl’s leukemia was diagnosed when she was just nine weeks pregnant.

Dominican women’s health advocates told RH Reality Check this afternoon that while the doctors and the state refused to allow the girl treatment for leukemia, they made her undergo “ultrasounds to show that the baby was healthy and for her to see it moving.”

Chemotherapy was begun after the end of the first trimester of pregnancy, at which time the girl began to bleed, yet still the doctors refused to interrupt the pregnancy. Advocates report that she subsequently miscarried the pregnancy and began to hemorrhage; the medical team was unable to contain the bleeding and she died.

The girl’s mother had pleaded with both doctors and authorities to give her daughter an abortion so she could begin chemotherapy immediately.

Lest you think “That would never happen in America,” IT IS ALREADY THE LAW IN KANSAS. I wrote about this back in May:

The Kansas Senate has approved anti-choice legislation that literally prioritizes a doctor’s personal beliefs over women — currently alive, breathing women — by permitting doctors and other healthcare providers to refuse medical care to a pregnant woman if such care might end her pregnancy. And here’s the kicker: the healthcare provider would not be under any obligation to refer the patient elsewhere.

*blank stare*

So, if a woman develops breast cancer while pregnant, or if a woman with breast cancer becomes pregnant, her doctor could refuse to provide chemotherapy treatment to her, and the doctor would not have to tell her why she was being refused to treatment and would not have to refer the patient to another doctor who would provide chemo.

We’re familiar with abortion laws that prioritize the lives of the unborn over the lives of women. This bill now prioritizes a doctor’s personal beliefs over the life of a human.
Make no mistake about it: This is what a Romney/Ryan administration holds for American women.

The law that caused this young woman’s death in the Dominican Republic is a law that Romney and Ryan both outwardly support:


Paul Ryan supports federal personhood legislation. (No matter what the fuckwits at Politifact tell you.)


Mitt Romney “absolutely” supports a personhood amendment to the Constitution.


Republicans in red states are furiously trying to pass personhood amendments:


Oklahoma succeeded, but the personhood measure was struck down by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.


Virginia’s personhood bill died in the Senate.


Mississippi voters said no way.


Ohio voters declined, too.


Florida is giving the personhood amendment another go in 2014.


Colorado Republicans are going for Personhood Round 3 and trying to put it on the ballot in 2012, even though they lost by double-digits both in 2008 and 2010. If they get the measure on he ballot in 2012 and lose, they will try to get it back on the ballot in 2014.


The Forced Birthers are working just as hard at the national level — Rand Paul tried to attach a personhood amendment to a Flood Insurance bill, for fuck’s sake.


I apologize for the shouty font (no I don’t), but this is not something that is going to go away. We need people to believe in a woman’s right to choose as much if not more than the other side believes in Jesus. I know that sounds flip, but I have people questioning why I am doing what I am doing and I find it irritating.

Why do I do what I do? Because I fucking believe in a woman’s right to choose the way that a religious zealot like Michele Bachmann would believe I’m going to hell for believing so. I believe in a woman’s right to access contraception the way that Pat Robertson believes that lesbians caused 9/11.

And I believe that President Obama is what stands between my personal freedom and the personal freedom of the majority of the population in this country, on the one hand, and being treated like an empty baby vessel, on the other.

That’s just the state of things.

Now go to Team Uterati and hit up the tip jar (Working for free is noble and all, but come on, son.) Buy a bitchfork. Get angry.

And then get offa my lawn.







Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 15:30:26
I, Mondo, am about to completely lose my composure. Customer can't figure out Firefox because it is so different than IE

Comment by BobR on 08/22/2012 15:30:42
yet another link apropos of today's blog: Eight Staggering GOP Comments on Rape and Women

Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 15:31:52
Quote by Will in Chicago:
So, Raine, will the GOP -- assuming that they do not win -- just seek to block any agenda but their own. If so, I wonder what their rhetoric will inspire. Remember the Unitarian Universalist Church Shooting in Knoxville back in 2008?
I have not forgotten that will.

That was a direct hate crime against liberals. DIRECT. I have read that man's suicide letter -- it was a direct attack on people who were not conservative.


Comment by Raine on 08/22/2012 15:33:11
Quote by Mondobubba:
Does this mean will have the spectical of say, Mitch McConnell in a ditch, covered in petrol on fire?
I just want him to retire in peace.




Comment by Mondobubba on 08/22/2012 15:37:28
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Mondobubba:
Does this mean will have the spectical of say, Mitch McConnell in a ditch, covered in petrol on fire?
I just want him to retire in peace.





I'm going with the whole Nazi/3rd Riech Collapsing/ Quoting Eddie Izzard thing