No that's not a typo in the title. Once again, friends, it's time to talk vagina. We've done it before here on this blog, when discussing sanctioned rape against women by contractors like KBR and Halliburton and rape of military women by contractors. We've discussed the names of senators who voted against stopping these acts of violence on women. These things are horrible enough on there own, but as Bob brought up in yesterdays blog, the GOP wants to take the act of rape and redefine it. As Representative Wasserman Schultz rightfully says It really is -- to suggest that there is some kind of rape that would be okay to force a woman to carry the resulting pregnancy to term, and abandon the principle that has been long held, an exception that has been settled for 30 years, is to me a violent act against women in and of itself," [ ] "Rape is when a woman is forced to have sex against her will, and that is whether she is conscious, unconscious, mentally stable, not mentally stable."

This is what the GOP has deemed a top priority now that they are in the majority. Denying women and teens access to a procedure that is legal in this country for there own political agenda is more important to them than a jobs package or funding government. So why this? why now?

It's to make the Hyde Amendment permanent, and it's to further deteriorate medicaid among other things. From Wiki: The Hyde Amendment is a legislative provision barring the use of certain federal funds to pay for abortions. It is not a permanent law, rather it is a "rider" that, in various forms, has been routinely attached to annual appropriations bills since 1976. The Hyde Amendment applies only to funds allocated by the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services. It primarily affects Medicaid.

This bill however doesn't only affect medicaid and the less fortunate. From Mother Jones: It also prevents employers from taking a tax deduction for offering an insurance plan that covered abortion.

It is an affront to me that the GOP would take 2 of the most difficult issues a woman should have to deal with and use it as political fodder. My body is not up for debate. No man in the world gets to define what I constitute as abuse. They can remove the word forcible from the bill, but it still doesn't change the spirit if what is happening here. This is no longer a wedge issue, it's reality. The GOP is once again proving they disdain woman and we can't be trusted with our own bodies. They really do believe they own our vaginas and are using them to prevent people from gaining access to a legal procedure here in America. The GOP has no shame.


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Raine