Articles of Faith II

So I've progressed a great deal with Articles of Faith, A Frontline History on the Abortion Wars. Author Cynthia Gorney has a journalism background and her reporting reads like a novel at times. The term fair and balanced has nothing on Gorney- I am continually amazed at her ability to present the information without tilting her hand in either direction. She allows you to get inside of the heads of people who have very valid, honest and genuine feelings about abortion without passing judgement or coming to any conclusions of what the reader should be feeling.

Women were putting themselves into horrific situations to terminate an unwanted pregnancies. While nothing about that fact was new it was becoming clearer and clearer in the mid 1960's, early 1970's that the archaic laws making abortion a felony needed to be changed. The exception was that an abortion could be performed on a women only if her life depended on it. There were those physicians and "others" who would perform an abortion in other circumstances and those illegal abortions were considered felonies. The law did not only apply to those who performed the actual procedure but also to anyone involved in referring a women to someone who could provide the service. Doctors were not allowed to perform an abortion or direct women to anyone who would perform one.

Women were left with no where safe to go and as a result the risks of infection, hysterectomies and even death could not stop them from aborting. Self administered methods or unqualified unhygienic procedures led women to end up in emergency rooms where physicians and nurses saw the botched abortions that came about as a result of criminalizing abortion. Networks did exist in some circumstances to shuttle women along through physicians, volunteers and ministers that took it upon themselves to provide women with the safest possible abortions. Often this consisted of individuals coming together over the devastating reality of women being maimed and killed because they wanted to end their pregnancies. It is these same individuals that lead the charge in the push to go through the state and eventually the National government to get the laws criminalizing abortion changed.

Articles of Faith

Last week I posted the audio reel featured on NPR's shades of gray. Originally released by PRI in 2003, Jonathan Mitchell produces a truly balanced portrayal of Abortion in America.

It was from this program that I heard about the book Articles of Faith A Frontline History of the Abortion Wars by Cynthia Gorney.

I started reading the book this weekend and am finding it hard to put down. Part of what drew me to it was the reviews which all indicated that this is the most balanced and unbiased look at the two sides of the abortion wars.

The first chapter is largely geared towards illegal or "back alley" abortions. The criminalization of abortion did little to deter women from seeking them. Women with resources could find safe abortions in some cases but women without money had no choice but to attempt their own or seek out dangerous alternatives. Many women paid for those decisions with their lives. Chapter one describes the network of doctors, ministers and other volunteers who took the risks involved in providing women with options for a safe abortion. These individuals operate outside the law with the sole intent of preventing women from subjecting themselves to unsafe abortions.

More on this book as I progress though it.

Equal Pay and More Outrage

Today is Equal Pay Day. Hooray! and Boo that we still have to talk about something like people getting paid equally for doing the same thing. On the ongoing battle front I will share with you the following: Naral Pro-Choice has a yearly report card grading each state on their reproductive rights and it's very interesting/frigthening. Mild surprises to me? Massachusetts gets a B- (only a B-?), Idaho is the only state to lack a single Pro-Choice law (not even one?) and 20 states have unconstitutional and unenforceable bans that could outlaw abortion as early as the 12th week of pregnancy, with no exception to protect a woman’s health: AL, AK, FL,ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, MI, MS, NE, NJ, ND, OK, RI, SC, SD, TN, WV, WI. The top 3 states? California, Washington and Connecticut. The bottom 3? Louisiana, North Dakota and Mississippi. The scariest part of the whole report is that our national grade is a inexcusable D. Overall, 21 states receive F's. For the full report check this out.

Brilliant Audio Reel- Jonathan Mitchell

PRX Shades of Gray Pro-choice. Pro-life. Most people have already chosen sides in the ongoing debate, so why revisit the issue? Shades of Gray shares a range of stories told by people young and old who have been directly affected by abortion, instead of the polemics of irreconcilable extremes. It's a carefully crafted audio mosaic and a stark portrayal of the intensely personal nature of our relationship with abortion. Originally distributed nationally by PRI in January, 2003 Winner of the 2004 Golden Reel for National Documentary

A day in the life

It's been a little while since my last update. I was spending a lot of energy applying for a job that didn't pan out and my family was in town for the Easter holiday. Now I'm bed ridden with a frustrating cold/flu/sickness which is not so much getting better as getting different. So while I have a few moments before playoff hockey officially begins, I thought I would note a few things going on in the life of a feminist. I'm participating in a bowling fundraiser this Sunday for The Western Mass Abortion Fund. Signed my name to a letter telling one women's heart breaking story about the negative effects of Nebraska's 20-week abortion ban, read and sign here. Stumbled upon Anita Sarkeesian's fabulous website about feminism and pop culture Bookmark this site people. That's all my feverish self has in me right now-

Doonesbury

The Republican newspaper published my LOE on Gary Trudeaus comic strip Doonesbury. Trudeau walked the reader through what a young women would go through to obtain an abortion under the Texas law requiring a trans vaginal ultrasound.

Enjoy!

Doonesbury and Trudeau

The Texas sonogram law passed by Governor Rick Perry is one that does indeed "rape" women. Understand this, women who choose to terminate a pregnancy will undergo a trans vaginal ultrasound almost 100% of the time. The requirement in Texas stands that any woman who wants an abortion has to first undergo an ultrasound using a 10 inch sonogram wand to obtain fetal information. In this way the law is absolutley forcing itself upon women i.e. raping them.

Now during the procedure we know that the wand is inserted to visually display the fetus. What the horrible wretched law requires next is just disgusting- the pregnant women is then forced to look at the image of her fetus and listen to the heartbeat. Then the woman goes home to spend 24 hours considering her decision to abort.

IF and only IF you decide to have an abortion and willingly put yourself in the care of the doctors and nurses who perform these screenings can you refrain from calling the insertion portion of this procedure rape. The remainder of the procedure, in my opinion, is more damaging to women then the actual abortion surgery or process.

Imagine the scariest scenario you can think and put a person with their eyes pried open (science fiction-Orwellian, whatever) and then add the beating of Poe's Tell Tale Heart. Do I exaggerate? Only by making these comments especially visceral and slightly dramatic- but even then I'm holding back from saying what a cruel unnecessary mind fuck law this is.

This weeks Doonesbury comic by Gary Trudeau has been pulled from some newspapers who aren't kosher with his take on the Texas law. This is the second time in his career that Trudeau has been pulled from certain papers. The strip begins with a Texas woman going to a clinic seeking an abortion. The nurse tells her- “The male Republicans who run Texas require that all abortion seekers be examined with a 10” shaming wand.”

There it is-

Another strip has a nurse ask the young lady if it is her first pregnancy termination and when the young women replies with yes she says "Then you'll need to fill out this form. Please take a seat in the shaming room."

Shame, shame, shame. If abortion is legal, which it is, the proverbial waging tsk tsk scolding finger is at least publicly removed. Before abortion was legalized you could literally be shamed to death for seeking one but now it's left up to the states and their governments to humiliate any women who allows herself (because there isn't anyone else involved of course) to get knocked up. Those who have the least invested in women's health spend time and resources on reversing the progress made in the field of reproductive rights.

Gary Trudeau has done something really important with Doonesbury this week. One, he has brilliantly captured the absurdities of the bill in Texas in a way that couldn't be easier to understand. Secondly, he has done so in a way that brings attention to the law regardless of an individuals stand point. Perhaps most importantly of all, Trudeau offers a rare (albeit satirical) view of the experience that so many feel they have the right to offer insight into- being a young women who seeks to hold herself first and exercise her legal rights to have an abortion.

International Women's Day

Happy International Women's Day!

Women's eNew has a wonderfully written and comprehensive Arab Women in Revolution Report.

Here is an article written by Kevin Powell as an open letter to Men and Boys

This is a list of the 100 top achieving women from Women's eNews

Here is the letter written by Abigal Adams in which she tells John Adams to Remember the Ladies

And lastly, the Christian Science Monitor reports on how International Women's Day is celebrated around the world

Birth Control Debate Requirement-Know what Birth Control is and How it Works

One thing that Rush Limbaugh made painfully obvious during his disgusting tirade against Sandra Fluke last week is that he has know idea what birth control is.

That's the most dangerous aspect of this entire situation. His language and edict in general is horrendous- he's a very popular sad shock jock and that's nothing new. I want to point out why his tirade against birth control goes above and beyond a base, rude, gross and obnoxious take on a serious situation.

To revisit-

"What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex -- what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex." -Rush Limbaugh,

The next day:

"A Georgetown coed told Nancy Pelosi's hearing that the women in her law school program are having so much sex they're going broke, so you and I should have to pay for their birth control. So what would you call that? I called it what it is. So, I'm offering a compromise today: I will buy all of the women at Georgetown University as much aspirin to put between their knees as they want. ... So Miss Fluke and the rest of you feminazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

So what does Rush get right about birth control pills?
Sure, he knows that it's a pill that women take and that it costs money and he doesn't want to pay for it. But with that logic the pill isn't any different from the aspirin he volunteers to spring for except that men don't need it.

Rush makes a fool out of himself with lines like "she's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception."

You need a new condom for every time you have sex but you don't need more birth control. You don't take less or more of the pill as you increase or decrease your sexual activity. In fact Women don't only take oral contraceptives to prevent pregnancies.

I am not so naive to think that this spells the end for Rush Limbaugh- though many of his advertisers have jumped ships and two radio stations (one in Pittsfield Ma. and the other in Hawaii) banned his show. I think he's brought to light one of the key factors in the birth control equation. Educating the public about what contraception is and what it actually does negates at least part of Limbaugh's gaffe because it would expose the fact that you can't criticize what you can't or choose not to understand.

The problem for women is that he does and he does it in the most disgustingly ignorant way as he possibly could.

Uhhh....Rush

I can't think of a single phrase, statement, sentiment or expression that can convey the utter disgust I feel towards Rush Limbaugh. That being said, I don't find his latest tasteless dribble surprising BUT I do think that this time it is impossible to ignore.

“Can you imagine if you were her parents how proud … you would be? Your daughter … testifies she’s having so much sex she can’t afford her own birth control pills and she wants President Obama to provide them, or the Pope. … What does it say about the college co-ed Susan Fluke [sic] who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex — what does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? It makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.” … If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you post the videos online so we can all watch.”

Here is one of the petitions circling the internet to get this monster off the air.

Another petition here

And a list of his sponsors

And because she is AWESOME, a great video to finish off with.

Virtual Anti-Hate High-five!!