Sex selective abortions?

The Hill: House to vote on bill penalizing abortion based on sex of child

The legislation looks to ensure there are no gender-based abortions by authorizing fines and prison terms of up to five years against doctors who perform these abortions, and requires health professionals to report suspected violations of the law.

I remember a time not so long ago when the Republicans championed themselves as job creators. Heroes of main street! Saviors of the middle class! I mean, don't they have better shit to do than to worry about a nonexistent problem?

Okay, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe women are having sex-selective abortions to the extent that boys are beginning to vastly outnumber girls. I mean, that's what the Republicans want to do, isn't it? They want to be the knight in shining armor, protecting all of those female fetuses from the scary, evil abortion doctors.

Let's go look at some Census Bureau charts [pdf]! In 2008 there were 2,173,000 live births of male babies. 2,074,000 were female. Also note that the sex ratio of 105 males per 100 females is consistent from 1980-2008. Huh. That doesn't sound like a terribly big difference, does it? I'm going to go ahead and hazard a guess that virtually no women in the US are using abortion to select the sex of their children. *gasp!*

Another problem with this legislation is that the sex of a fetus is determined in the 19th-20th week of pregnancy. In essence, we're being told that women are waiting through five months of nausea, back pain, abdominal cramps, water retention & swollen ankles, headaches, weight gain, and fatigue (and I'm only talking about the fun stuff!) before they decide to abort because girls are just that icky.

I'm calling bullshit.

This is just another salvo in the ongoing war on women. Every doubt, no matter how small, about the "purity" of a woman's intentions throws a roadblock in her way to getting appropriate abortion care. How long are doctors and health care clinics going to put up with this shit before they simply give up? They could face five years in prison for simply doing their jobs-- believe me, if I was an abortion provider, I'd think long and hard about changing careers if legislation like this ever managed to get passed.

Lunch

Proof that I am easily amused: I bought a fruit cup to have with my lunch today. It came with a tiny, collapsible spork and now I can't stop smiling about it.

(Gatorade bottle included for comparison purposes.)

Abortion news: Parts 2 & 3

And to continue with the depressing news, here's a couple of stories from this past Friday:
Americans United for Life: The group behind a dramatic state-level anti-abortion legislation push

In effect, it is the legal arm of the anti-abortion movement, with an orchestrated campaign to undo on a state-by-state basis the legal rights to abortion enshrined in the historic Roe v. Wade supreme court decision in 1973.

Last year was a record-breaker in terms of the number of bills restricting abortion access: according to the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit body that seeks to advance reproductive rights, there were 92 such provisions enacted in 24 states. Almost a third of them, 28, came via AUL.

The Washington-based group drafts “model legislation” including gestational limits on abortions, additional regulation on abortion clinics, and bans on insurance cover for abortion and ultrasound requirements. In addition, it is pursuing efforts at both the federal and state level to defund Planned Parenthood.

Why am I not surprised? The legislative anti-abortion push has seemed a little too organized for the likes of the protesters outside of PP clinics or those miserable little fuckers that are committing thefts and arson (more below). The similarities of legislation that has been proposed has been bothering the hell out of me, too, but at least I know who to blame.

I would love to know who is funding AUL, but (here's another surprise) they keep their donor list private. Keeping a woman's medical choices confidential kills babies! Making sure that a doctor has professional and personal privacy kills babies! But millionaire conservatives? Idiot pro-lifers? We can't let the general public know who they are, that could be dangerous!

Money quote:

“AUL believes that all human life should be defined from conception to natural death. There’s a host of issues in that and we are committed to our efforts as long as it takes.”

 Natural death. So these people are against the death penalty, CPR, hooking brain dead patients up to life-support, etc etc? Nice try, asshholes.

FBI steps in as attacks on Georgia women’s clinics escalate

On Sunday, March 4, the North Atlanta Women’s Specialists’ offices were burglarized by a thief who stole two laptop computers that contained employees’ names and personal information. A second break-in took place on Saturday, March 17, when a suspect broke into the offices of The Georgia Obstetrical & Gynecological Society, again stealing laptop computers with staff members’ personal information.

...

The first fire took place at around 4:30 a.m. Sunday at the offices of Atlanta Gynecology and Obstetrics. A front window of the clinic was broken and police dogs indicated the presence of an “incendiary substance.”

Witnesses to Wednesday’s fire at Alpha Group GYN say that two men entered the building and went upstairs, then left just before the fire was discovered. The fire started on the offices’ fourth floor, damaging records and equipment, but no one was hurt.

I can't say it enough: this shit is escalating. While I'm happy that law enforcement continues to take these threats and attacks seriously, this kind of behavior will not stop until it is unacceptable to attack women's rights in the national political discourse. Until politicians learn that attacking women is wrong wrong wrong, we're going to see more and more of the nut jobs take the rhetoric a step too far.

Abortion news, Part 1

I've been following the fight over abortion on Raw Story (amongst other places) because apparently I haven't been feeling crappy enough lately. And, whoo boy is shit getting scary out there:

May 23
Pennsylvania Rep. Metcalfe seeks to defund Planned Parenthood based on claim that it ‘performs an abortion every 95 seconds’
Money quote:

“Regardless of their position on abortion, Pennsylvania taxpayers must no longer be forced to subsidize the loss of innocent lives,” said Metcalfe. “In reality, women in Pennsylvania will be healthier and the children safer when we permanently defund Planned Parenthood and its anti-family agenda. I encourage every taxpaying Pennsylvanian to contact his or her respective state lawmakers and demand an end to all state funding for Planned Parenthood through final passage of the Whole Woman’s Health Funding Priorities Act.”

*headdesk!*

Okay, let's diagram the wrongness of this bullshit.

• subsidize the loss of innocent lives Yes, because those women who want &/or need an abortion aren't innocent enough to care about, are they? We're going to ignore the fact that a real, breathing, thinking, emotional being will have her life turned completely upside down if she has a child, that's just punishment for being a dirty, whoring, slut.
• women will be healthier Because government decided to come between a patient and her doctor? Hey wait a minute... wasn't that the entire reason that Republicans fought against healthcare reform? FREEDOM! Also, let's not ignore the fact that pregnancy is really fucking dangerous-- not only is the threat of medical complications extremely likely, but having a child also impacts a woman's emotional and financial well-being, too.
• and the children safer I didn't realize it was legal in PA to abort children after they've been delivered. Huh. If that's the case, remind me to stay the hell out of that state. (Or, more likely, Metcalfe is confusing "child" and "fetus". Idiot.)
• Planned Parenthood and it's anti-family agenda Because it's not a family unless Mommy's squeezing out a kid once a year! Or dying of cancer!
• Whole Woman's Health Funding Priorities Act "Whole Woman" except those nasty reproductive parts. And those icky bits that need cancer screenings. Or anything that might need some healthcare, really. Why don't we just rename the whole thing Those Gross Broads Get No Healthcare Act?

And that's not even mentioning the ridiculous "95 seconds" claim-- I think that's a bit of a strawman, anyway. It wouldn't matter if PP's services were 100% abortions or .001% abortions, that's not the point to these fuckers. Organizations like Planned Parenthood empower women by educating them and giving them real choices when it comes to family planning and medical decisions. Something that the Republican party cannot have if they are to remain in power.

Blarg.

Okay, here's the deal. I'm pregnant and feel like shit 100% of the time, which is why I haven't been updating this blog at all lately. I have a few things in mind that have been bothering me for a while which I intend to write about; until then, enjoy my titties.