June 19, 2008

McCain has been very firm about his pro-life standing. By throwing in his “pro-life” stance into the mix and from what we have learned through the past few months about this stance, we know that McCain does not believe women should be entitled to the right to choose and to have control over their own bodies. What some might now know, however, is that McCain is also against a woman’s right to obtain birth control, (although it is about time he actually made a decision about where he stands on birth control–although someone else probably told him where he should stand on the issue) which 99% of women in the United States will be on at one point or another throughout their lives; to add, McCain is also against the right to emergency contraception.

So what would a John McCain women’s clinic be like?

Yeah, something like that.

Sadly, McCain’s pro-life record couldn’t be worse. He voted to permit federally funded Title X family planning clinics (like Planned Parenthood) to decline to counsel women on abortion services. He has repeatedly voted to deny low-income women access to abortion care except in cases of rape, incest or life endangerment. He voted in favor of four anti-choice US Supreme Court nominees, putting a woman’s right to choose under direct attack. He supports and voted in favor of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act and has also voted in support of “almost every important pro-life law proposed in the last decade.” He had also released a statement on the Federal Abortion Ban on April 18, 2007, saying:

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for those who cherish the sanctity of life and integrity of the judiciary. The ruling ensures that an unacceptable and unjustifiable practice will not be carried out on our innocent children. It also clearly speaks to the importance of nominating and confirming strict constructionist judges who interpret the law as it is written, and do not usurp the authority of Congress and state legislatures. As we move forward, it is critically important that our party continues to stand on the side of life.”

Taking a look at just these few issues regarding women’s rights and issues that John McCain has voted on, it’s obvious to say that the video above isn’t an exaggeration at all. The truly unfortunate fact of the matter is that according to a recent Planned Parenthood Action Fund poll [PDF] half of female voters in 16 battleground states don’t know enough about McCain’s views on reproductive health. This is due to the fact that the mass media will not cover McCain’s horrendous anti-choice record because they will not admit that there is currently a presidential candidate so anti-woman. What’s even more appalling is that 1 in 4 pro-choice McCain supporters would be less likely to vote for McCain after knowing he opposes Roe v. Wade and backs abstinence-only education.

This is the time to truly educate yourself on the candidates and the issues they stand firm on. McCain is a true misogynist who will do what is in his power to take the rights women have fought hard for since the early 70’s away and moreover, he will stand firm on his belief that teenagers should only have access to abstinence-only education.

June 17, 2008

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 22, 2008

There has been a lot of news on reproductive rights lately and sadly, I have not covered any of it. So here is all of the happy reproductive rights news I missed!

Canada has approved emergency contraception pill, Plan B, for over-the-counter sale. Emergency contraception sale in Canada was available over-the-counter in 2005, but only partially, as it was only available to women who had a medical consultation with a pharmacist.

If you’re curious as to what the status of emergency contraception sale in the US is, EC is available over-the-counter, however, women have had a hard time trying to actually obtain the pill due to pharmacists who should go and find a job that they can actually do, instead of punishing women because of their personal morals. Other things women have had to put up with trying to get Plan B are scare tactics, age limitations and conscience clause laws.

In other news:

- The UK has ruled 332 to 190 that they will not lower the abortion limit from 24 weeks to 20 weeks. A ruling trying to lower the abortion limit from 24 weeks to 22 weeks was opposed 304 votes to 233. Yay, UK!

- A law that would essentially criminalize all second trimester abortions in Virginia was struck down by a federal appeals court panel.

In a 2-to-1 decision, a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the law was more restrictive than the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which the United States Supreme Court upheld last year in Gonzales v. Carhart.

…”Unlike the federal act,” Judge Michael wrote, “the Virginia act subjects all doctors who perform” the more common procedure “to potential criminal liability, thereby imposing an unconstitutional burden on a woman’s right to choose.”

And lastly, here’s some reproductive rights activism via Feministing.

Susan Wicklund, an abortion provider living in Montana has recently written a memoir about her life as an abortion provider entitled This Common Secret. (Also note: I need this book!)

Dr. Wicklund is currently trying to open a new clinic in Montana where there are very few reproductive rights resources for women. However, like most of these cases, pressure from the anti-choice population is hindering her from being able to open the new clinic and building owners will not lease to her due to the pressure the anti-choicers are putting on them. So, to help Dr. Wicklund, a PayPal account has been opened in her name so she can most likely build a new building and open the new clinic.

If you would like to donate, please send an email to supportsuewicklund@gmail.com and ask for information on how to donate.

May 21, 2008

I have written a ton of articles on John McCain and as soon as every single one of these posts have went up, I have had at least one comment or direct email telling me that either I was wrong and that McCain is a moderate or I have been told that they thought he was a moderate. This is because McCain is using the tactic that has been seen to be the most effective and successful in his campaign thus far–He is targeting swing voters and making them believe that indeed, he is the right candidate to vote for since he is what we’re used to–Some woman-hating, old wrinkly white dude.

Every candidate in this election so far has their own niche–Obama says that this country needs change, Hillary spouts bullshit on whatever she thinks Obama is doing wrong while reinforcing the fact that he happens to be black and McCain just wants to give this country more of the same. When you can get through his haphazard mumbling and stating the wrong facts about this so-called War on Terror McCain is using the political agenda that worked so well for Bush–Twice.

But alas, McCain’s mailings are helping those of us who have been trying to inform the voting public that McCain is by no means, not even a little, a moderate candidate.

The flier above is a recent mailing that McCain has recently put out. While most of the public has viewed McCain as a moderate, he is finally coming out and setting people straight; letting everyone know that he is an anti-woman, anti-choice, anti-reproductive rights conservative. It’s about time that he let everyone know where he really stands on this issue, but after seeing and reading so much about McCain, I wonder if he came to this decision on his own or if someone who works for him had to explain his standing to him; or maybe he is just following suit with Bush, it worked so well for him, right?

There are a lot of things wrong with this flier, but of course I would find several things that tick me off about it, were you really expecting anything less from me?

The word pro-life really rubs me the wrong way; in fact, the term pro-life in general does nothing but help out the anti-choice agenda. I mean, who isn’t pro-life? I like life, the people I know like life, life is really a top notch thing; but people who are already alive just tend to hold more weight in my mind than a cluster of cells. By coining the term “pro-life” those who are anti-choice get a veil of defense surrounding them automatically. It does not reveal their true agenda to those who may not be educated about reproductive rights and freedoms to begin with; those people are seeing the word life and thinking “Okay, life is good, therefore this organization must be good, too!” And that is simply just not the case.

I really hate the fact that his wife is in this flier with him. By the same woman he called a cunt being in a flier with him for his anti-choice agenda, he is giving those who don’t know the real McCain the illusion that he is pro-woman, which is completely the opposite of what he is publicizing.

I also think that just maybe, McCain forgot how long he has been in congress, which is 26 years, not 24 as it says on that flier. Like Amanda Marcotte said:

“What was he doing those other two years? Dicking around and paying for abortions that he was the original cause of? Foolishly allowing his second wife to use contraception? Wishing that his first wife had just aborted the pregnancies that led to the children who wouldn’t speak to him after he left her for a richer, younger, more politically viable wife that had been his mistress during the first marriage? It really undermines his claims to be always anti-choice and never wavering about that.

If you still think McCain is a moderate, this flier really sets the record straight; McCain is and has always been a voice for the anti-choice agenda. A voice to speak out about how wrong reproductive rights are. A voice of a misogynist.

May 12, 2008

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.