Oklahoma Will Soon Start Publicly Shaming Women Who Have an Abortion
On November 1st, a new Oklahoma law will go into effect that will collect personal details about every abortion performed in the state and post the information collected on a public website for every person with an internet connection to access. The information that will be asked of women who have an abortion includes:
1. Date of abortion
2. County in which abortion was performed
3. Age of [woman] (the law’s wordage is ‘age of mother’ but I find this extremely offensive so I will not be spreading this offensive language)
4. Marital status of [woman] (married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5. Race of [woman]
6. Years of education of [woman] (specify highest year completed)
7. State or foreign country of residence of [woman]
8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the [woman] (live births, miscarriages, induced abortions)
While some (meaning the anti-choice) will undeniably argue that the questions asked of women who seek abortions does not identify any single one woman for public prosecution by her peers for having a completely legal procedure, as Feminists For Choice points out, the information collected could easily be used to identify any member of a smaller community, especially if that woman’s race is a minority in a specific county.
Information regarding any person who seeks medical attention for any reason falls under medical records and medical records are, under the law, to be kept confidential. This is nothing but an anti-choice extremist tactic to publicly shame women and put their medical history in the hands of potentially violent extremists; people who are to blame for not-so-peaceful protests, vandalism, death threats and murder. People who will stop at nothing to outlaw a woman’s law-given right to an abortion. People who have obviously pressured Oklahoman law to obtain information that frankly, is no one’s business other than the doctor who performs the abortion. What also troubles me about this law is the fact that women will be forced into divulging the total number of previous pregnancies she has had in the past. Anti-choicers and also those who technically classify themselves as pro-choice but think that women are only entitled to one abortion in their lifetime will undoubtedly begin passing judgment on women who have either had an abortion before, or, as people’s privilege has taught us, begin passing judgment on women who have several children at home. People will begin wondering if the abortion they are reading about online is the abortion had by the 24 year old woman who dropped out of high school living down the street with three children she’s already struggling to take care of; because they have narrowed down the “suspects” and she is the only 24 year old woman who dropped out of high school who has had three previous live births in the community. We know that anti-choicers believe that they have the right to publicly question the morals and principles of those who do not carry around the same belief system as they do and we know that they think nothing of publicly shaming that woman in a community atmosphere; so what’s to stop an angry anti-choicer who is taking stock in how many abortions were performed in their counties and going to pass their judgment and hatred on that woman living down the street from them?
This law is only the beginning of the “final product” anti-choice Oklahomans have in mind–to outlaw abortion and to publicly prosecute any woman who has one, plain and simple.
Luckily, the Center for Reproductive Rights is challenging the law on the grounds that it “covers more than one subject.” This argument has worked before to strike down an abortion ultrasound law and hopefully will work to the advantage of Oklahoma women again.
Warning: Health Care Reform Should Not Be the Circus Anti-Choice Extremists Are Trying to Turn it Into
During a health care rally at the University of Maryland, a man took it upon himself to interrupt the president while he was attempting to speak to the crowd about health care reform and shout “Obama you’re a liar. Obama, your health care kills children. Abortion is murder.”
Every day there are around five stories like this–People heckling politicians who are trying to facilitate real and genuine conversations about a topic that a lot of people still don’t know about or understand the specifics of and completely throwing the entire event off course and stealing the time away from people who go to these rallies to learn, to engage in respectful (to the facilitator as well as their fellow rally-goers) conversation and who support the right for every American citizen to obtain adequate health care. As I’ve already stated, the right has an agenda and that is to interject themselves into each and every health care reform discussion and spread the delusion that all health care reform will do is create “death panels” and set out to kill your grandmother and force every tax-paying citizen to pay for the abortions of every fertile woman in the country. These ideas, of course, as completely blown out of proportion, especially considering that in case anyone wasn’t adequately educated about the history of reproductive rights, abortion is legal. You know, just in case the people on the right who feel it is their duty to crash health care rallies didn’t know or forgot this fact.
Health care reform is not something to be taken lightly. It is not the circus that the right is determined to turn it into. Health care reform would save people’s lives and it would greatly improve the lives of those citizens who are currently plagued by illness and by pain every day of their lives. Health care reform is about people, not about your fucking political agenda or the twisted delusions that you’re being fed by those who see no need for health care reform because they already have access to health care.
American Life League Uses the Death of Senator Ted Kennedy to Take Down Health Care Reform
[Photo source Lauren Miller]
The photo above was taken during the much talked about 9/12 rally in DC this past weekend. We have seen a great deal of hatred coming from those opposed to health care reform Barack Obama and the 9/12 rally just wouldn’t be everything we thought it would be without some gravely distasteful and downright hateful signage. Like the one above.
But this isn’t just your average homemade sign-o-hate (like the sign being held by the man standing behind him,) this is a special sign that does its best to hit us health care reform activists where it is still mourning and specially made and paid for by the anti-choice group American Life League. I, for one, have come to expect nothing more from these people who have proven again and again that they merely cannot have an opinion or work to spread the word about that opinion; no, they must have their opinion backed by often racist, sexist, misogynist, nonfactual, purposely hurtful, shameful and harmful images and/or wordage. We know that the American Life League knows no better, but to use the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, a man who dedicated his career to helping each and every person in this country obtain the health care that they deserve as citizens of a civilized country, to try to defeat health care reform is despicable. It blatantly disrespects the late Senator as well as his family, loved ones, as well as every American citizen who had worked with Senator Ted Kennedy and continues to work towards a universal health care or public option to be made available for citizens unable to obtain adequate health care.
But the American Life League did not just make these signs available for people to carry during the 9/12 rally; no, they are also selling the signs on their website.
Anti-choice extremism has interjected itself into the health care reform debate and you would think that Sarah Palin herself wrote the bullet points that the anti-choice extremists are attempting to capitalize on; according to anti-choicers against health care reform, health care reform is broken down into two points–death panels and taxpayer-funded abortion; both of which have been brought up to state legislatures as well as to the president himself and both of which have been said would not be part of health care reform. However, we also know that these are the only two points that anti-choicers have to pull out of their back pockets at a moment’s notice.
Don’t let the American Life League and its lemmings be the only voice of health care reform. Contact your members in Congress today, tell them that it’s about time that anti-choice extremism does not intimidate such important legislature that could save lives.
Update:
Here is a clip of the sign on Rachel Maddow (starts at 3:20)
Who else isn’t surprised that the American Life League refuses to defend their own sign?
h/t Blog for Choice
The Feminist Majority Foundation Works to Expose Crisis Pregnancy Centers
This Spring, the Feminist Majority Foundation has worked to expose fake clinics, which are known publicly as “crisis pregnancy centers.” The campaign has two goals: to warn women, especially students, about the fake clinics in their communities and to let the government know that deception on the public dime has got to stop.
I used to live in a large city whose downtown area is an entire college campus. Because I grew up and lived in this city next door to a college campus, I have seen the billboards these clinics put up specifically to lure students to their facilities–Billboards that read “Scared and pregnant? We can help, call us now for a free pregnancy test!” and then end with a 1-800 number. While these clinics may offer free pregnancy tests, going to their facility will cost you quite a bit.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers are known to report false negatives in order to make a woman wait until it is too late to have an abortion. They use scare tactics and blatant lies about abortion procedures and “health risks.” They are known to shame women who have premarital sex and counsel against birth control. While they may paint a pretty picture for themselves on billboards, fliers, and newspaper ads, the work they do is deceiving and very harmful to women. They mislead women into going to their clinic, thinking that they are able to discuss their real, viable options, and instead are counseled about how horrible their life choices have been and how they need to give birth and thereafter, remain abstinent so they won’t have to give birth again. Basically, if you are looking to speak with someone who will give you the same counseling as a person at a crisis pregnancy center, you’re better off going to church because those are the same ideologies that will be past to you if you enter one thinking you are actually going to be able to speak to someone in a nonjudgmental space.
These clinics are hurting women and while it is so widely known that they are deceiving those they claim to want to help, these clinics continue to receive federal funding across the country which needs to stop immediately.
Here is a great video of young women and men discussing their findings about Crisis Pregnancy Centers. To say the least, their findings echo what many feminists, womanists, and humanists have been warning for years. This video also shows Kathy Spillar and Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation calling for these clinics to be de-funded.
Our Reality: A Look at Crisis Pregnancy Centers from RH Reality Check on Vimeo.
Warning: Anti-Choicers Hijack the Internet
I know I haven’t been blogging very much this past week, which is due to the fact that I’ve been working pretty much every chance I get and I have also been experiencing flareups with a medical condition that I have that has caused me to sleep more than 15 hours every day, which I will address in an upcoming post. So because I haven’t been around that often, that also means that I have not had the chance to moderate comments and I swear the anti-choice population waits until Menstrual Poetry has not been updated in a few days and then go on the attack, leaving mindless, vile, and vicious comments on any and all posts addressing reproductive rights and more specifically, my last post about Dr. LeRoy Carhart to begin performing late-term abortions in Kansas to fill the shoes of the late Dr. Tiller due to Dr. Tiller’s family decided to keep the doors of the his clinic closed.
I received a comment on that post (now deleted) about Dr. LeRoy Carhart, informing me to visit LeRoyCarhart.com (I’m not linking this on purpose.) Knowing full well I would most likely not be pleased with what I was about to see, I typed the web address in anyway and confirming my suspicions, I was redirected to thewaytoheaven.com (again, I am not linking this on purpose.)
The Way to Heaven is a site that looks very much like it was made with ‘how to make a scam website to sell products like penile enhancements, weight loss products, and the like’ and of course, includes the quote “Jesus is the only way to Heaven! John 14:6″ Because I love dissecting religious jargon I read the ‘About’ section and wanted to highlight one little portion of the text:
“I felt that the Lord Jesus Christ, through His Holy Spirit, gave me the desire to win souls through a variety of ministries; through tract distribution, street witnessing and through the Internet.”
So here’s the breakdown: Jesus seeks out the uber religious folks and only those who he knows are truly devoted to him and then tells them that they must do whatever possible to convert others to the cause and in the exact words used above, “win souls” also known as brainwashing “through a variety of ministries” also known as any place you can, and “street witnessing” also known as harassment because as someone who has been stopped on the street, in malls, backed into a corner in my place of employment, and so on, I can tell you that when you politely tell these people that you’re not interested in joining them on whatever religious crusade they are trying to get you to join, they refuse to take no for an answer and just keep badgering you until you either tell them what they want to hear so they will leave you alone or until you get very angry and tell them to go fuck themselves, which they then have the nerve to get mad at you about because “you don’t have to be disrespectful/angry/whatever.”
Lastly in the highlighted text above, Jesus is also telling these people that they must take their action the internet and they have taken action in forms that I’m willing to bet their higher power wouldn’t be so proud of… like buying the web addresses of people they dislike for political and religious reasons and redirecting the addresses to religious propaganda websites.
Chances are that if someone is looking for information on Dr. LeRoy Carhart and try to go to LeRoyCarhart.com for information, they’re probably not looking for “the way to heaven.”
But just this one instance of the religious right buying up the web address of a reproductive health provider is not the end of the story. Out of curiosity, I went to georgetiller.com and again had my suspicions confirmed when I was redirected to Operation Rescue’s website.
I find it quite ironic how the original founder of Operation Rescue, Randall Terry felt the need to come out and explicitly state that the anti-choice movement is not responsible for the domestic terrorism and assassination of Dr. George Tiller, along with other horrendously biased and untrue statements that are most likely the reason why Operation Rescue’s website contains an entire section stating that Randall Terry does not speak for Operation Rescue. However, the statements made by Terry and the information currently being displayed on Operation Rescue’s website are not too far off since Operation Rescue currently has a picture of Dr. LeRoy Carhart’s reproductive health care clinic which is obviously a way to support domestic terrorists who take the lives of reproductive health care providers into their own hands.
I for one will not believe the anti-choicers when they state that they are in no way responsible for domestic terrorism, vandalism, murder, and other malicious practices because they are still trying to control anything they can get their hands on, including the web addresses of reproductive health care providers alive and murdered by their own coercion in order to attempt to spread their lies and blatant, dripping hate.
Scott Roeder and Terrorism Buzzword Hypocrisy
Scott Roeder, the man convicted of assassinating Dr. George Tiller for political and religious reasons, thus making his crime an act of domestic terrorism, and he a domestic terrorist, released a statement to the Associated Press on June 7, saying:
“I know there are many other similar events planned around the country as long as abortion remains legal.”
So to get this straight, A terrorist has publicly stated that additional acts of terrorism are scheduled to be perpetrated against American people. The silence from the right is deafening. As Keith Olbermann pointed out yesterday, why are the right not demanding that swift action be taken against this convicted terrorist? Why are we, as a government and as a people, not treating Roeder like the terrorist he is?
Because as Jesse Ventura pointed out not too long ago while on his book tour to all of the FOX News channel programming, we only waterboard Muslims.
Tiller’s family attorney, Dan Monnat stated:
“I am hopeful that state and federal authorities, including Homeland Security, will give Mr. Roeder and his information a deserving response.”
But will we see the government take action against Roeder? Will we see them do their jobs? I’m going to remain unhopeful because the government has yet to come forward and call the actions perpetrated by Roeder an act of terrorism. They have yet to come forward and call Roeder a terrorist, although by definition, he is.
As Keith Olbermann also pointed out on The Countdown last night, if Scott Roeder had an Islamic name then the American government would have already come out and called this what it is–Terrorism. You cannot pick and choose what cases your American Government-created buzzword applies. It must be understood that American people are capable of committing terrorist acts and that in these cases, it is what we call domestic terrorism.
So why is it that the government remains silent? That they remain complacent? Because we are still fighting the war on reproductive rights and services and as long as the war on reproductive rights remains eminent, we will continue to be forced to settle for less than the action the government would take in any other circumstance.
Keith Olbermann on How FOX News Incited the Assassinated of Dr. George Tiller
Keith Olbermann always seems to hit the nail on the head. I’m a little late in posting this, but I just saw it and had to share.
Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, I have stated that anti-choice organizations and anti-choice media outlets are indeed to blame for the murder of Dr. Tiller and no matter how many times these organizations, media outlets, spokespeople, and news commentators make public statements to the contrary, we have seen them in action and we have seen the damage they have caused.
We have seen them repeatedly distorting facts for their own personal and political agendas. We have seen them provoke people who disagree with them on their shows in order to show anger and thus exploit those people for their own benefit to drive home the mangled, half-truth version of the story they are reporting on. We have seen them use scare tactics to incite fear into those who may have an objective point of view on whatever they are reporting about and we have seen them search for legitimacy when their viewpoints are questioned.
As Keith Olbermann states in the video below, we must separate television from terrorism.
h/t Muckmakers
There is No Excuse for this Shit (or, Fuck You Anti-Choice Extremists)
Here is a segment from a press conference given by Randall Terry, founder of the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue, from June 1, 2009.
First of all, I do not buy into what the right wing, anti-choicers have been proclaiming repeatedly since Sunday morning. I do not believe that they get out of at least part of the blame for this assassination scott free. I do not believe that with the amount of right wing, anti-choice population among several different media outlets coming out in basically support of Scott Roeder for the murder that he committed that they have the right to say that there is no reason to look to them with question marks all over our faces.
Second of all, for someone to declare that a man who had dedicated his career and had given his life for the rights and reproductive freedoms of women and who had literally saved the lives of many women had “reaped what he sowed” is heinous, disgusting, and unforgivable. I find it absolutely ludicrous that in a 49 second period, Terry first made excuses for the people and organizations of the anti-choice population and the fact that they were not the people to look at because of the death of Dr. Tiller and then sings praises of support for his death. There is no excuse for the words that Randall Terry mindlessly threw around. It is sentiments like these that come from anti-choicers and anti-choice organizations that lead us to look at them when a murder is committed.
Congratulations Randall Terry, you have proven anti-choice extremism is more of a circus than we had thought.
Abortion Provider Dr. George Tiller Assassinated
Dr. George Tiller, a man who dedicated his life to women’s rights and reproductive freedoms, was murdered in the foyer of his church while handing out the church bulletin.
Dr. Tiller had become subject to much scrutiny from anti-choicers not only in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, but across the country due to the fact that he was only one of less than a handful of abortion providers in the country to provide late-term abortion services. Throughout the past few decades, Dr. Tiller as well as his clinic, Women’s Health Care Services, had been victims of domestic terrorist attacks.
In 1986, a bomb exploded on the roof of the Women’s Health Care Services clinic. In 1991, approximately 2,000 protesters were arrested outside of his clinic during summer-long protests. In 2003, Dr. Tiller was shot in both arms by an anti-choice activist while driving away from the clinic. After a long, six year investigation of his practice, Dr. Tiller was recently acquitted of charges that claimed he had performed 19 illegal late-term abortions in 2003. And on May 31, 2009, Dr. Tiller was assassinated.
Do not let the spin of anti-choice extremists shield you from the truth–As Cara over at Feministe stated yesterday, the murder of Dr. George Tiller is indeed an act of terrorism.
I, along with all people who believe in the rights and reproductive freedoms of women everywhere and continue to fight to keep access to abortion safe, legal, and rare are saddened and horrified by the death of Dr. Tiller.
The death of Dr. Tiller is the first death of an abortion provider since the 1998 murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian who was shot by a sniper in his home in the Buffalo area.
A suspect in the murder of Dr. Tiller has been arrested and identified publicly as Scott P. Roeder, who was a member of an anti-government group in the 1990’s and a staunch abortion opponent. Roeder was arrested without incident on I-35 in Johnson County, three hours after shooting Dr. Tiller dead. He is said to have acted alone and will be charged with murder and two counts of aggravated assault.
I will be posting more information as I receive it, but what we must keep in mind is that abortion providers not only in this country, but all across the world have dedicated their lives to the reproductive and emotional health of the women in their communities. This is an unfortunate and devastating moment where we must remember that these people are performing services that are needed, that are legal, and that in some cases, they give their lives for.
Missouri State Senate Passes Additional, Traumatizing Anti-Choice Legislation
Just three days ago, the Missouri state Senate passed a bill in a 25 to 7 vote to expand restrictions currently on access to abortion in the state.
The additional restrictions would include requiring women who are seeking an abortion to be informed of certain information–in person–24 hours prior to the abortion procedure. The “certain information” the bill speaks of includes a description of the procedure and associated health risks (which I am guessing includes all of those anti-choice lies such as abortion causing breast cancer, the oh so popular post-abortion syndrome buzzword anti-choicers are so fond of, and equally as ridiculous propaganda.) Women seeking abortion services are currently being informed of the so-called health risks that are associated with an abortion, but they are currently being allowed to receive this information over the phone. With this new bill, women will have to be told about so-called health risks in person; it bodes well for the woman shaming and anti-choice intimidation aspect of seeking a safe and legal medical procedure. Women will also be given a description of fetal development, information on possible fetal pain after 22 weeks gestation, information on options other than abortions (such as keeping your unwanted child and adoption, although I’m betting they will leave out the information about children aging out of the foster care system and leading a life of poverty or finding a foster care family that neglects and beats the child while collecting a monthly check), and an offer to show the patient ultrasound images and make the heartbeat audible.
This is yet another series of abortion bans to scare women out of the fundamental right of having control over their reproductive organs and freedoms. Access to abortion should always be safe, legal, and rare for all women living all around the world and while there are so many women around this world dying every year because of the lack of abortion access and the laws that prohibit the pro-choice population from offering reproductive health services to women, society is too busy condemning women for their reproductive health choices.
The entire 24 hour waiting period legislation is completely lost on me. In most, if not all cases, women have already thought about their options and have made the educated decision to seek abortion services. Just because the anti-choice population doesn’t like that decision does not mean that that woman has not put thought into her decision.
To force a woman to hear about fetal development, possible fetal pain, and see an ultrasound is traumatizing to that woman, especially considering that she has already given thought to the options regarding her pregnancy. It is regulations like this that would lead to a woman becoming depressed or regretting her decision to have that abortion. It is the anti-choice legislation that claims it is enforcing regulations for the safety of women that is actually hurting and traumatizing women.
Get Social
Flickr
Out Campaign
The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.
