Arizona Goes Rogue

Following the alarming trend of anti-choice legislation Arizona has taken it a step farther. A Judge has upheld the federal court decision upholding Arizona’s unconstitutional pre-viability ban on abortion to take effect.

U.S. District Judge James A. Teilborg today denied a request to temporarily block the law from taking effect on August 2. The Judge also issued a final ruling upholding the statute. The law bans all abortion procedures at 20 weeks from a woman’s last menstrual period (LMP) without any exceptions for a pregnant woman’s life or health unless she is experiencing a dire and possibly life-threatening emergency.

The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that states cannot ban abortion before viability(usually thought to be around 23 or 24 weeks) and only then as long as such restrictions have an exception for the health or life of the mother. The Supreme Court has not allowed bans prior to that point in pregnancy. In fact in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey (1992) the Supreme Court recognized viability as the point at which the state interest in the life of the fetus outweighs the rights of the woman and abortion may be banned entirely "except where it is necessary, in appropriate medical judgment, for the preservation of the life or health of the mother".

For more on this disturbing ruling head over to the the press release from the Center For Reproductive Rights.

Or to Mother Jones for more reactions.

Lying is okay in South Dakota

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals found on Tuesday (by a vote of 7 to 4) that South Dakota can require doctors to warn women that they face an increased risk of suicide if they have an abortion, even though they don't.

The majority opinion states: ""On its face, the suicide advisory presents neither an undue burden on abortion rights nor a violation of physicians' free speech rights," the court wrote in its majority opinion."

Kill this- Bikini Kill Record Label

In this otherwise awful stupid day, I just got some super punk rock news off the Bitch Magazine's Website.

Bikini Kill starts Bikini Kill Records


(Fist in the air, Rah Rah)

We Need to be Louder- Arizona and Embryonic Person

Arizona's latest anti-choice/anti-women law is being challenged in Court by Planned Parenthood.

Personhood legislation is not new and it is gaining momentum. Check out some of the people behind Personhood USA.

These are two startling examples of how realistic the threats against reproductive freedoms are. Rights are being written for the unborn over the alive. Think about that- a women will be out "righted" by a fetus- a non person will have rights that a person will not. That is what these people are proposing. It's horrifying.

Articles of Faith...again

When I was reading Cynthia Gorney's Articles of Faith, I said I would update along the way. I didn't. In part because life happens and I was happy enough to be reading the text for later discussion if not immediate critique. I finished the book months ago but for one reason or another did not make it back here to analyze nor share the profound effect that this book had on me.

This book is lauded by many- it's hailed for being a truly unbiased account of the build up to and immediate after affects of the Roe v Wade ruling in the Supreme Court. In a very abbreviated fashion here are two things

1. The abortion "wars" have been and and will continue to be fought by those who without a doubt believe in and or abhor the right for a women to abort a pregnancy in the United States.

2. This issue will never be decided 100% in favor of or against a women's right to choose.

Number two is a pill that was very difficult for me to swallow. Never? The abortion wars will never be decided in this country? What? How can that be? Either a women has the right to terminate a pregnancy or she doesn't...right?


In my idea of a perfect world the women who are already born will without a doubt own and control the outcome of their bodies- period.

Feminists Don't Laugh About Rape

I've written before that I don't have a sense of humor. When it comes to certain things, I can't laugh- regardless of how "funny" others may think something is.

Feminists already have a bad rap for taking things too seriously but I don't that's a bad thing. The problem lies with the rest of society not taking things seriously enough and then ostracizing those who speak out. How many times have you heard people refer to Feminists as too "uptight", or that they should just "lighten up"? Some of the most abhorrent rhetoric out there about Feminists is that they "need to get laid" or "stay in the kitchen". I'm not sorry that those things fail to amuse me.

Daniel Tosh- up until yesterday I knew of him very vaguely. The only thing I had heard about Tosh is that he doesn't discriminate against who he offends and that isn't rare when talking about stand up comedians. Recently a young women told her account about her experience while seeing Tosh at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood. A friend of the women posted the story on her blog. You can find the original post here.

"Tosh [started] making some very generalizing, declarative statements about rape jokes always being funny, how can a rape joke not be funny, rape is hilarious."

The women, feeling "provoked" stood up and shouted "Actually, rape jokes are never funny!"

 "After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. Then, he says, 'Wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her...' and I, completely stunned and finding it hard to process what was happening but knowing I needed to get out of there, immediately nudged my friend, who was also completely stunned, and we high-tailed it out of there ..."

Later in the post she says "I should probably add that having to basically flee while Tosh was enthusing about how hilarious it would be if I was gang-raped in that small, claustrophobic room was pretty viscerally terrifying..."

The situation in and of itself is disturbing and the young women prefaces her story by saying she was rather apprehensive about attending the show to begin. She also says didn't know who Daniel Tosh was when she decided to see the show

I acknowledge that going to a comedy club is in a way an invitation to be offended. This goes above and beyond being offended however. If Tosh wanted to continue his show after being shouted at he should have asked security to remove the "heckler" and go on with his show. You can blame her for heckling/speaking up- but for all of those who may think she deserved the comments that followed because she interrupted his "performance" should realize that it's the performer who has the power and control over the audience. Tosh instead proceeded to make a spectacle out of her and turn her comment around to make her the subject of a never funny joke about getting raped.

One thing is certain- Rape jokes aren't funny, ever- I would have gotten up and left. More over I may have shouted a certain word or two on my way out. 

Tosh doesn't get that it isn't about taking awful things and joking about them to make them less awful- his reasoning for where he was going with the words was,"the point i was making before i was heckled is there are awful things in the world but you can still make jokes about them."

Okay...that doesn't make them less awful at all. It trivializes violence against women and desensitizes us from reacting accordingly to gross violence. I also want to ask where the joke was in all of this- Tosh said what he said, it wasn't a waiting for the punchline but the punchline didn't come situation- he never even started a joke. He through out a scenario and stated that it would be funny if this girl was raped. You can't see a joke in there because there isn't one.

I don't understand how someone could think "wouldn't it be funny if that girl got raped by like, 5 guys right now? What kind of sick freak would sit there and laugh at a girl being gang raped in front of them? The people in that audience would not have been laughing if 5 guys stood up and attacked a women in front of them.

Here is the most frustrating part- I can hear the statement "it's a joke, it's not supposed to be taken seriously" coming from innumerable sources. I read the comments left by people after reading the story and they are repulsive. The scenario is repulsive. The comedian just isn't funny.

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

 

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

Never ceases to amaze me how someone could go to an edgy show, like Tosh's, and be offended. DONT GO. Please dont ruin life for the rest of us. I hope this lady doesnt have kids to infect the future with her stupidity

Mississippi

Today a judge blocked enforcement of a Law that put Mississippi on the path to becoming the only state in the country without an abortion clinic. The law, which required any physician doing abortions at the clinic to be an OB-GYN with privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. The two doctors who currently preform the abortions have requested permission at the local hospital but that has not been granted.

"The opponents of reproductive rights in the Mississippi legislature have made no secret of their intent to make legal abortion virtually disappear in the state of Mississippi", Says Nancy Northup CEO of the Center for Reproductive rights based in New York City."

The temporary restraining order was based on evidence that the act is solely about eliminating abortion in Mississippi.