this is not a journal title

An open letter to my senators and representatives.

I am writing to you today regarding the health care reform bill currently before the house and senate.

The bill as it currently stands sets women's rights back decades. Not only does the bill currently not provide access to safe, legal abortions, but it also does not provide access to the hormonal birth control which would reduce the necessity for abortions. If women are not provided access to safe legal abortions, some women will be forced return to back alley hack-job abortions, coat hanger abortions, or chemical abortions. The greatest benefit of Roe vs. Wade was not that it allowed women to have abortions, women were already having them, but allowing women to have SAFE abortions. In addition, removing access to hormonal birth control will only increase the need for illegal unsafe abortions.

What's even worse is that the bill as it currently stands does not allow for pelvic exams, a necessary routine yearly medical examination for the physical health of women. This routine preventative exam helps catch the early stages of fertility and life threatening diseases such as ovarian cancer or cervical cancer. Removing access to such exams threatens the lives of every woman on such a health plan, and will increase health care costs in the long run through treating the full blown disease instead of preventing it. In addition only women are being denied access to routine exams, giving the message that only men should have the right to good health care.

I urge you to work towards a more equitable health care bill by supporting any amendments that would provide access to abortion, to hormonal birth control, and to pelvic exams.

Look up your Reps and send your letter here.

When it comes to rational feminist rants (i.e., women's rights, not feminazi), naamah_darling does the best job I've seen yet. Case in point.

Thanks to hrfan, more info at this link

( Full text here. )

So she *is* being tried for "procuring a miscarriage" - which is the same as an abortion, and therefore should be legal under Roe vs. Wade. Why the fsck is this happening in MA of all places? kadath, where are you and your outrage when we need it?

Edit: As mentioned elsewhere, this sounds like an activist DA with an agenda to overturn Roe v. Wade and willing to lie to a grand jury to do so. I agree w/ you meig, it's a witch hunt.

A third of the sextuplets has died. Maybe they really should've done the selective abortions in the womb, that way the remaining ones would've had a better chance of living, not to mention developing further.

A South Carolina abortion bill would force women (including victims of rape and incest) to view an ultrasound of their fetus before allowing the abortion to be performed.

czarina69 expresses her outrage here, but what I really want to know is what about blind women? There should be an exemption for them, otherwise as the bill appears worded right now they would be unable to have abortions at all, as they are unable to view anything, let alone ultrasounds.

I can think of two things that are biologically, anatomically wrong. What can you spot?

found by jethereal

ETA: Snopes has a rudimentary article on it, but no actual information is contained.

ETAA:Sending the following comment to Snopes.

My comment regards the below article about a purported photograph of a "fetal footprint".

http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/footprint.asp

I am surprised the article does not contain further information. For example, any fetus is located within the mother's womb, which is itself composed of many layers. It would be shocking if the fetus's foot could be made out through the placenta. And the mother also has abdominal muscles which are located between the surface of the skin and the placenta, which should further "blur" the appearance of any fetal appendages. Lastly, the positioning of fetuses in the womb usually places the feet facing upwards and towards the back of the mother.

Even though the history of the image is unknown, the probability of it being real is nil. If it were real, then the mother should be in the ER, not sitting around having her photograph taken for kitchy political statements.

This is a horrible story of attempting to find Emergency Contraception after a condom broke. In my state thankfully Plan B has been legal and over the counter for a while, so a doctor's approval is not needed, however at places like Wal-Mart and Target, the pharmacists who dispense it can still have "morality clauses." This is I continue to avoid both Wal-Mart and Target when possible.

On a happier topic, start using GoodSearch. They're a yahoo-powered search engine that brings in revenue thru ads, and for every time you perform a search one cent goes to the charity or educational institution of your choice. You can change charities as often as you like, and if your favorite isn't listed there's a form to fill out to get them on it. I added my school and I've since virtually donated some 6¢ - I keep changing to animal parrot rescues I read about, and other good causes. I'm now using GoodSearch for my default search engine, you can add them to your toolbar on any search engine but Safari, and only switching to Google when GoodSearch comes up dry. Pass it on!

The FDA decided that Plan B can be sold over-the-counter to adults aged 18 and over. This reminds me of a conversation I had with rosefox about how it's strange that while Plan B and The Pill (or maybe just the mini-pill, I forget) have the same chemicals in them, Plan B is now OTC approved and The Pill isn't. As far as I can tell, the distinction that Plan B is a lot higher a concentration, but the Pill is a much longer duration. I'm really not sure what I think of it all.

A study by Baruch College (CUNY) says that Texas parental notification laws have reduced the number of minors having abortions, however it increased the number of (riskier) second trimester abortions. The CNN/AP article doesn't say whether or how they controled for other factors such as increasing contraceptive use, nor whether the results are statistically significant (though one presumes they wouldn't've made the press release if it wasn't significant).

A recent CNN article about parental notification laws in New Hampshire got me thinking. As I understand it, the argument goes that parents are legally responsible for all that children do, so they should be notified if their minor child has an abortion. Furthermore, some states go on to say that the minor even needs parental consent to have the abortion, again presumably because the adults are older and wiser than the child (as evidenced by her unprotected sex, or her inability to prevent her rape). For me, this begs quite a few questions.

1. This one (set) is probably already written in each parental consent law, but I've never heard it mentioned. Does the minor need the consent of both parents/guardians? Or only one? What if they disagree? What if one parent has custody? What if the minor is a ward of the state?


2. If a minor is forced to have an unwanted child by her parents (or even if she wants the baby), who is legally responsible for the well-being of the baby?


3. If the parents are given the right to prevent an abortion, shouldn't they also have the right to force an abortion?

And with those happy thoughts, I bid you good night!