Hey guyns, get this – Abortion is trending again! Zipidee-do-dah!

Ovarit’s comments on my post this week took a discouraging turn. Alongside a lively discussion of Mitt Romney’s Child Allowance Plan, an unexpected consensus emerged that abortion protections at the Federal level are basically gone.

This can’t be right!

The Sad State of Women’s Rights, US Edition

“It’s just a matter of time. It’ll be off the table soon, and it makes moderate Republicans a lot more appealing to me.“

This sounds reasonable until you remember that all Romney needs to look like a hero is a little integrity. 

‘Moderate’ Republicans are a mythical animal to me. Everyone I have ever met claiming this title still believed ‘I’ve got mine, fuck you,‘ just in a nonaggressive way. 

Not exactly my working definition of ‘moderate.’

What makes someone a Republican is about as nebulous as what makes a transwoman. “Spending less money and investing in big business? I feel like without the culture stuff it is the party of keeping rich people rich…” Without the culture stuff – you know, good ol’ sexism, racism, homo- and xenophobia – Republicans are Classical Liberal Capitalists??

Well, they’re certainly not fiscal conservatives. Republican administrations tend to spend just as much as Democrats (they do keep threatening to cut Medicare…) but with a kink for lowering taxes so the deficit shoots up. This is why I don’t have much patience for anyone claiming to be ‘socially liberal and fiscally conservative.’

How would you pay for liberal social programs? Oh, you just mean you’re not interested in ‘dictating other people’s lifestyles’… AKA getting involved… and like the idea of Small Government. Well, good on ya, but all that’s needed for evil people to win is for good people to stay silent.

Once Upon A Time, Republicans were known as Hawks, always ready for a good sabre-rattling. The new century has seen this distinction lose all meaning, too. 

Choosing between Democrats and Republicans looks increasingly like hopping between two sinking boats.

And no one is standing up for women. Abortion has existed forever, it’s only controversial when controversy drives someone’s agenda.

You mean, these aren’t the flowers you wanted?…

Women remain the sacrifice of choice on both sides – To the Market, to God, to election results, to our conscience. The lack of hope these young women have (Ovarit skews under-30) breaks my heart.

Women are not walking incubators.

Forcing a woman to carry her rapist’s baby

Or deliver a dead fetus

Or commit suicide-by-maternity

Or any of the other Lovecraftian horrors the ‘Miracle of Life‘ can become, is cruel and unusual punishment if I ever heard it.

But who gives a shit about women’s constitutional rights?

Misogyny Gone Global

…Meanwhile, Poland’s government has effectively banned abortion entirely. Never mind that all of the whopping 1,000 last year were performed because the fetus wasn’t gonna make it, anyway.

Polish women have made a viral hit out of a two-year-old video of Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks losing her mind on the subject.

I’ll let Ana bring it home for us:

“I don’t care that you’re a Christian. I don’t care what the Bible says. I feel like it’s a clown show, like, sitting here, trying to decipher what your little mythical book has to say about these VERY REAL, POLITICAL issues, right? I don’t CARE if you’re Christian. In fact, I will fight for you to have your religious liberty, and practice your Christianity! I believe in that. I don’t believe in Christianity, which means that you do not get to dictate the I live MY life, based on your religion!

“I don’t CARE what the Bible says! You have every right in the world – All those women who identify with your religion have every right in the world to not get an abortion! To not take birth control! But they do NOT have the right to dictate MY life, and what I decide to do with MY body. I don’t CARE about your GODDAM religion. I’m SO tired of having NONSTOP conversations about what the BIBLE says!

“You live your life in the way that you interpret the Bible. Again, I don’t care. But you don’t get to take the Bible and tell me, ‘Well the Bible says this, and this chapter and this verse’ – I DON’T CARE. I don’t care, I don’t believe in it, and I have the RIGHT, based on our constitution, to not believe in it.“

Other Stories

Casual Abuse: Mothers, What Are We Doing?

That’s right, Moms, I’m talking about you. About us.

 

Recently I argued that Radical Feminism can be compatible with being a mother, and I will be building on that again later. Childfree ladies out there, I love you and your life is yours to live as you like.

Why Do Men Run the World?

The film begins with a man in a kitchen. It’s the scene of a revolution, he says, where men and women are renegotiating the human power balance.

When you don’t get much time to sit and read, a good documentary can be the greatest thing.