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Jun
17
Pro-Lifers Say No to Habitat for Humanity
We all know that “pro-lifers” want to destroy everything relating to reproductive health care and limit the types of reproductive health care women seek and are given. We also know that pro-lifers hate hate hate Planned Parenthood because they are “baby killers” (even though not all Planned Parenthood clinics perform abortions) and they distribute that evil poison-in-pill form known as birth control! Another widely known fact is that pro-lifers also do not give a damn about life after a person is born; no, they’re more interested in what goes on in the womb and they only care that that fetus gets out of the womb so they have more people in the world to fight with about reproductive health care and more people to tell off about how wrong they are when it comes to personal freedom and choice.
Yeah, the people actually alive and breathing on Earth right now really aren’t a concern to them, which can obviously be proven since they recently got a project for Habitat for Humanity shut down.
“An anti-abortion group has broken up a deal between Planned Parenthood and Habitat for Humanity by blasting out 10,000 e-mails to Habitat supporters.
Planned Parenthood is building a 23,000-square-foot regional headquarters on Central Avenue, and planned to sell Habitat the land next door for a token $10 to build three below-market-cost houses. The deal benefited Planned Parenthood because the city required the clinic to put up buildings as a buffer between its parking lot and Cohen Way.
“We could have put up any building we wanted,” said Barbara Zdravecky, president of Planned Parenthood. “We wanted to donate the land so Habitat could build more attainable housing.”
The email blast to 10,000 Habitat supporters started with James Sedlak, vice president of the American Life League, (Wow, a man, what a surprise…) who said it showed a cozy relationship between Habitat and Planned Parenthood. This “cozy relationship” was then compared to pushing pornography onto children, among other things.
The bottom line is that Planned Parenthood is a fabulous place, a great resource to women and whom have helped several women, including myself so I am speaking from first hand, personal experience here. The clinic needed builds to put up as a buffer against this type of ridiculousness and instead of selling the land for an enormous price to someone else, they decided to practically give it to Habitat for Humanity because they are in the same field–The field of helping people.
These groups, while they hide behind their cloaks of “We want to help people!” actually wind up hurting more and more people and this time, they targeted Habitat for Humanity because they feel as if accepting a space to build and to help other people, that means that they have a cozy relationship with Planned Parenthood. It is because of the hatred that these people have against something they do not understand that Habitat will not be able to build in a space that was donated to them and will not be able to help the people who need it.
Go here to contact Habitat for Humanity and let them know that they shouldn’t be bullied by people who want to stop them from helping low income families.
May
12
The Anti-Choice Agenda Gets Even More Ridiculous
The anti-choice agenda is just getting even more ridiculous with every campaign that they introduce. The latest campaign The American Life League is pushing is The Pill Kills.
The message behind this campaign is that the pills kills babies and that by using birth control you are subjecting your body to chemical abortions. On June 7, the 43rd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Griswold v. Connecticut, which gave married people the right to use contraception, they will be gathering outside of reproductive health care facilities with what they are calling “peaceful protests,” but as we have all seen from pictures alone, their protests are hardly peaceful. This campaign is the starting point of the pro-life organizations pushing to make contraception illegal.
As usual with pro-life extremism, they are willing to do anything to push their agenda, including lying to women.
Take a look at their talking points section of the website, you can spot the bullshit immediately:
Q: Isn’t it better to be on the pill when you are sexually active?
A: Better for whom? The pill does not prevent you from getting a sexually transmitted disease, it is not 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and you could conceive a child who gets chemically aborted before the baby’s presence is even known to you. Moreover, sexual activity outside of marriage is seriously wrong.
Yep, if you are having sex outside of marriage, you’re just selfish thinking that you should be able to have sex without being shackled to a spouse. Don’t you know that you should be taking every child that god gives you? These people need to realize that pushing personal morals helps no one because not everyone thinks the same way you do. Imagine that.
Q: Is the pill dangerous to my health?
A: Absolutely! There are links between the birth control pill and breast cancer, cervical cancer, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), infertility, birth defects, blood clots, pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, shrinking of the womb, stroke, weight gain and much more.
These crazy people also claim that clinics such as Planned Parenthood make “big money” but last time I checked, Planned Parenthood gave low income women a place to go and receive safe and confidential health care at little to no cost whatsoever.
I am convinced that the pro-life agenda really doesn’t want to cut down on the number of abortions. With this campaign alone, they are pushing the thought that women shouldn’t use contraception and to those who are buying in to their agenda, they hear “Okay, no contraception.” and especially when it comes to teenagers, who are going to have sex anyway, they are actually making the numbers of abortions performed per year rise as well as the number of children parenting children rise.
If the anti-choice movement really cared about women, they wouldn’t be brainwashing them into thinking that birth control is bad for you, they wouldn’t be lying to people saying that birth control and abortion have harmful side effects that have been proven to be untrue and they wouldn’t be giving women more ways to become pregnant by using their personal morals as a weapon.
I plan on driving to my local Planned Parenthood on June 7 and seeing what the protest looks like there (even though the closest Planned Parenthood to me that I can even call local is about 40 miles away) and see if they’re really pushing the peaceful concept; I’m thinking no… I also plan on taking pictures and seeing how many of these people are willing to talk to me; could be a damn good time indeed.
Via Feministing.
May
2
A Lovely Example of Anti-Abortion Extremism
While reading some kick ass feminist news over at Feministing, a picture on their Flickr widget caught my attention.
The picture to your left is yet another lovely example of anti-abortion extremism. This picture was taken at the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC. By holding a sign that says something so incredibly hateful and ignorant you are doing nothing but putting more hate back into the world around you. By holding a sign that says “You killed the next president” first of all is grouping all women who walk in the March for Women’s Lives as women who have had an abortion, which is not true at all; it also goes to show you that anti-abortion extremists do not care what they have to say to you to make you think like they do.
When you look at this technically, a woman who has had an abortion less than 35 years ago certainly did not kill the next president, which was mentioned in the comments for this picture on Flickr. In all likelihood women probably just aborted fetuses that would have grown up to be the kind of people that pro-lifers hate anyway–You know, liberal, homosexual, atheists; the list can go on. Logically speaking in response to this sign, a woman may have also killed the next Hitler or the next Charles Manson; but no, pro-lifers can’t see it from that standpoint, they see it as “You killed an innocent baaaaaaaaaabyyyyyy!” and then whatever happens after that “innocent baby” is born is the mother’s problem…And welfare’s problem, because we can’t forget about welfare, another thing that pro-life people complain about.
Another point that must be brought up is that anti-abortion extremists must stop comparing abortion to the Holocaust. It is demeaning and frankly holds no weight at all in a debate. Are women having unwanted children and then sending them off to torture chambers and gassing them to death by the hundreds? Uhh, no. Aborting a cluster of cells is by no means comparable to millions of men, women and children being starved, overworked, tortured and gassed to death, sorry.
Apr
28
Anti-Choice Oklahoma
The Oklahoma House has recently voted 80-12 in support of the Freedom of Conscious Act, also known as SB 1878.
The Freedom of Conscious Act is basically an act that takes all of the previously brought up anti-choice laws and combines them into one. This bill allows health care workers to refuse to participate in actions that they feel are contrary to their religious beliefs and moral convictions. It also states that employers would not be able to “discriminate” against health care workers who exercise this right to refuse.
It may just be me, but if you are not able to you know, do your job, because of your religious beliefs and moral convictions, shouldn’t you find another line of work? Makes perfect, logical sense to me.
Under this bill, women are also required to have an ultrasound prior to getting an abortion. It also requires that wherever abortions are provided, there are large signs stating it is “against the law for anyone, regardless of his or her relationship to you, to force you to have an abortion.”
What this bill is doing is simply using more scare tactics against women when they seek an abortion. It talks down to women saying that it is “against the law for anyone, regardless or his or her relationship to you, to force you to have an abortion” and saying that that is simply the only reason why a woman would choose to have an abortion in the first place. By forcing a woman to get an ultrasound done before getting an abortion, you are using emotional trauma in order to get the upper hand against women seeking abortions. If they feel bad, then maybe they will go through with the pregnancy, right? That’s the “logic” behind this bill. However, people are simply not understanding that women do not walk into abortion clinics with smiles on their faces. They are not waking up in the morning and saying to themselves “Wow, what a beautiful day to get an abortion.” These women have already thought about their options, they have weighed them and have made a decision that the government is simply doing their damnedest to tell them they have no right to make.
This bill also regulates the use of Mifepristone, or RU-486, medications used in performing chemical abortions. This is perhaps the most ridiculous point on this bill.
Why does the use of these medications need to be regulated? The bottom line is that your doctor should be the only person aiding in how you get your abortion performed; not the government. When the government starts regulating the use of a medication they begin to strip away the rights of women when it comes to reproductive health and they are putting more women in harm’s way by regulating the use of these medications by making them resort to other options in order to obtain an abortion. By regulating these medications a woman who is desperate for an abortion is not going to say “Oh shit, I guess I’ll just wait 9 months and have the baby since that is the only logical way out of this.” No, they are going to go to other measures in order to abort the fetus that they do not want. End of story.
With this bill receiving the vote, it is now on its way to the Senate for consideration. This bill has already went to Senate and passed. This is a shame for all women, especially those in Oklahoma. This is a violation of women’s rights and I simply cannot express the amount of disappointment I feel right now.
Apr
15
The Frightening Truth About Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Sadly, very few women know what the term “crisis pregnancy center” really means and that is exactly what crisis pregnancy centers prey upon.
There is a personal story from Allyson Kirk published on AlterNet of a woman who got caught in the trap of these centers, thinking it was a regular reproductive rights clinic, as these centers have tried their best to look like to lure women in and intimidate them into carrying their pregnancies to term.
After calling the National Abortion Federation Hotline seeking an abortion, she got a number for a health care clinic, but a crisis pregnancy center located themselves a mere two doors down from the clinic, where the woman ended up walking into thinking it was the clinic she was in search for. What these people put her through is sick, twisted and no woman should have to be put through this when making a personal decision regarding her body.
“She asked me about my religious beliefs. I was immediately defensive at this point. I asked her why this was a relevant question to ask in a medical facility. “Because I can’t properly counsel you on the issue of abortion unless I know your moral standing,” she said. I decided that this was not the kind of place I felt comfortable seeking medical care so I asked her to complete the free pregnancy test and then I would be on my way. I gave her a urine sample and she agreed to run the test, but only if I watched an educational video while the results were processing.”
First of all, the woman felt the need to ask about the religious beliefs of the patient just to feel around and see if she had to intimidate her to stay there so she could “counsel” (ie: push her moral standing onto her patient and make her believe what she wanted) and the woman of this clinic, after seeing the hesitancy, started bartering with the woman over getting a pregnancy test done at their clinic. “You can have your pregnancy test if you watch this video.” That is not the way to treat the women who walk into your clinic, but they knew that this woman was hesitant and was starting to realize what was going on and knew that she should not be there, so I guess bartering is the only other viable option since these people are completely unprofessional and exist only to terminate a woman’s right to choose.
“The video I was forced to watch made false claims including: doctors who provide abortions graduate at the bottom of their classes and can’t get real jobs; abortion is dangerous and often results in serious injury, even death, to women, and abortion causes severe psychological and emotional damage to women. The woman on the video said many women who have abortions have nightmares of babies crying and have guilt about their decision so intense that it sends them into depression.
The second portion of the video showed an illustrated enactment of a surgical abortion procedure. A picture of a uterus with a fully formed fetus inside filled the TV screen as illustrated metal instruments appeared. The instruments were shown probing inside the uterus and dismembering the fetus. Then a suction device entered the screen, pulling the fetus out of the illustrated uterus for disposal.”
These centers should not be able to give women completely fabricated information. “Abortion providers can’t get real jobs?” Sorry, I believe that abortion providers have one of the most important jobs–Giving a woman power over her own body and giving her the respect to know that she can make her own decision. I would think that the people who “can’t get real jobs” would be the ones who make a living off of scaring the hell out of women who walk into their trumped up office. I would think that these people can only get jobs in which they must lie to scared and impressionable women in order to push their personal beliefs onto other people–whether they’re willing to listen or not because if they don’t, they’ll just barter with them–”We’ll let you out of this room as long as you agree to pray with us.” This makes me sick.
I am willing to bet that their claim that abortion results in serious injury and even death are taken from statistics published before the early 70’s, since they would be right–Back alley and illegal abortions that women are going to have to resort back to if abortion is ever outlawed, do cause serious injury and in a lot of cases, even death.
That, my friends, is why the option of a safe and legal abortion is a hell of a lot better than an abortion done with a wire coat hanger either in your home or in unsanitary surroundings because I, for one, would rather an already living and breathing woman be able to continue with her life before I would put the life of a cluster of cells before her.
Mar
3
Vote Pro-Choice and Go to Hell
Oh, the Catholic church is at it again with their preposterous shenanigans. Catholic bishops, being the men who form the delusions of speaking directly with god and informing others of his word, are going down their list of damnation and letting us all know that the latest memo says that reproductive rights trump everything.
Bishops have not only taken a poll, saying that all politicians who believe in a woman’s right to choose are going to hell, but if you vote for them, you have a seat reserved right next to them.
“It is important to be clear,” the bishops said in a 44-page statement titled “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” “that the political choices faced by citizens not only have an impact on general peace and prosperity but also may affect the individual’s salvation.” Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, chairman of the committee that drafted the statement, put those high-minded sentiments into plain English earlier this month. Support for a candidate who “espouses policies that are gravely immoral” is possible “only under exceptional circumstances that are hard to imagine,” he told the Cathedral Club of Brooklyn.”
But that isn’t all! Not only do these bishops condemn you to hell if you vote for a politician who upholds women’s rights, but you are also helping us follow in the footsteps of the Nazis:
“In our country we have, for the most part, allowed the party of death and the court system it has produced to eliminate, since 1973, upwards of 40 million of our fellow citizens without allowing them to see the light of day,” wrote Rockford, Ill., Bishop Thomas Doran in 2006. “No doubt, we shall soon outstrip the Nazis in doing human beings to death.” He continued, “We know…that adherents of one political party would place us squarely on the road to suicide as a people.”
Note: “The party of death” sure is clever and ranks up there on my list of “Funny things Catholics say for kicks while in the process of using scare tactics for conversion.”
I cannot even imagine how those who have family who had been tortured and killed during the Holocaust feel about now being compared to those who performed the torture and killing of their ancestors by a group of people who protect pedophiles and actually aided the Nazis. I suppose we have come a long way, however, since the Catholic church is now actually admitting that the Holocaust even happened; but the hypocrisy that spews from the mouths of these people every time they deem something immoral is becoming a bit more than I can handle.
The moral of this story, and the new law that god told the bishops to relay to all of us peons who do not get to speak with him directly, is that now to gain entry into heaven, even if we do everything else so-called “correctly,” if we vote pro-choice, we’re spending eternity in hell. Nice. I wonder what else god has in store for us in the coming years.
“This just in: All people who are interested in spending eternity in heaven with the pedophile priests all must wear clown noses and hop on one foot for an entire year.”
Mar
1
The Fine Line Between Free Speech and Harassment
Anti-abortion extremists in Massachusetts filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s health clinic buffer zone laws.
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill to put a 35-foot buffer zone between reproductive health and family planning clinics and anti-choice protesters last November. The reason behind this law is to ensure the safety of the clinic patients, as well as their staff as they enter and exit the clinics. There have been many cases of anti-abortion extremists protesting outside of these clinics across the country and by doing so, they are clutching their free speech cards and claiming that they are doing nothing wrong. This is true since the people of this country are able to voice their personal opinions and beliefs and there is, of course, nothing wrong with that. However, blatant harassment is not free speech.
You are not practicing free speech when you are screaming in the faces of the staff and patients of these clinics. You are not practicing free speech when you are screaming at the women walking into these health clinics and calling them murderers when you simply assume that is the reason why they must pay a visit to the clinic. You are not practicing free speech when you are telling women that their fetuses have a right to life when they may be visiting the clinic simply to get birth control or for their annual pap smears.
“For too long, patients and staff had to endure in-your-face screaming and harassment just to get to doctor’s appointments,” Angus McQuilken, vice president of public affairs for the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, told the Boston Globe. “This 35-foot zone is more than reasonable.”
Between the hostility, billboard-sized pictures of fetuses, flyers that tell women that they are murderers and attempting to invoke guilt and the process of attempting to criminalize women for seeking a medical procedure that is legal, not only do I feel that the 35-foot buffer zone is “more than reasonable,” I feel as if there should be a much greater distance that these people must keep away from the Planned Parenthood health clinics. How dare they attempt to file a lawsuit saying that they are being denied the right to free speech. Women are being denied the right to safely and securely enter a health clinic based on other people’s moral opinions.
Feb
18
McCain on Choice: Title X and Counseling on Abortion
After a little break, we’re back to John McCain’s anti-choice record.
John McCain, an uber-conservative (for those who still think he’s in any way pro-choice) voted to permit federally funded Title X family planning clinics to decline to counsel women on abortion services.
Title X family planning clinics have served as health care facilities for typically young and low-income women for 30 years; one of the most-recognizable Title X clinics is Planned Parenthood, which makes up 14 percent of Title X projects. Their goal, as health care providers, is to educate women in this country on how to be safe when it comes to sex, avoid unintended pregnancies, and make education and services readily available to the women who need them.
These clinics offer a wide range of information and health care to women who need their services. They offer birth control, emergency contraception, literature and testing for sexually transmitted infections and diseases, education on how to prevent unintended pregnancies, pregnancy tests and screenings for breast and cervical cancer. The best thing about these clinics, in my opinion, is that absolutely no one is turned away from receiving the health care and/or education they need because of inability to pay.
Since Title X is federally funded, a law has been placed in Section 1008 of the law saying that Title X funds cannot be used “in programs where abortion is a method of family planning.” In other words, Title X funds cannot be used to provide abortions. However, Title X projects must offer women neutral and factual information, non-directive counseling and referrals upon request for all of their pregnancy options, including prenatal care and delivery, infant care, foster care or adoption and abortion.
Senator John McCain voted in favor of Title X projects not even counseling women on abortion, as if the option didn’t even exist anymore. If you are pregnant and go into Planned Parenthood, a reproductive health care facility located in a hospital, which make up six percent of Title X projects or health department, 57 percent, and are seeking information about your options as far as pregnancy or not going through with your pregnancy, John McCain voted to make Title X projects refuse to even bring up the option of abortion. In his eyes you have two choices–you are either delivering and raising the child or delivering and giving the child up for adoption.
It’s no secret that McCain wants to abolish reproductive freedom for women, but to insist of closing the door on even the thought of terminating pregnancy is ridiculous. It is saying that McCain, along with the rest of the anti-choice brigade do not believe in women. They do not support or even like women unless they are in their place and doing what the conservative agenda believes is right. They do not trust women to make informed decisions about their own bodies but would love to force them into delivering and raising a child that they are either not ready for, in a matter of financial stability or mentality, or simply do not want. But we went over the reasons for this in the last McCain on Choice post. The more low-income children born to low-income mothers or families, the more future troops we have to carry out our world domination agenda.
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