Just sit back, my fellow conservatives, and watch the bodies fall into a piled heap.
BlancheSplanchnik (7,914 posts)
Multiple states have now passed laws that WILL kill women.
Not to mention all of the more nuanced sufferings that will result from restrictions and closing women's clinics (and giving us over to BirthRight et al).
This IS a LIFE OR DEATH issue for tens of MILLIONS of women. That is the reality here.
It is bigger than the sufferings imposed by DOMA. More dangerous to life, limb, and liberty than removal of voting rights, than doubling of student loan interest, than chained CPI.
The repercussions WILL be DEADLY. It is a firing squad aimed at women
It is IMMEDIATE and it is real. Not something to be argued in endless abstractions, as in the endless arguments over Snowden, how bad is the NSA, and how much we should hate Obama.
Progressive and Liberal organizations of all stripes should to be rallying to the cause, to protect women's LIVES!
I can't believe that this is showing as more of a corollary issue, as far as DU attention goes. As if it were "A Women's Issue", and therefore less urgent.
We should be pooling resources, coordinating activist groups, insisting that our media get LOUD and reality based about this.
Those aren't maternity wards!
They're Nazi death camps!!!!
PDJane (9,008 posts)
1. I am so tired of fighting for things we thought we'd won.
Where do these people, women and men, come from? I am so utterly fed up with the reich wing. It seems that nothing matters but a cluster of cells that has the potential for life. The quality of that life doesn't matter. Whether the mother is going to live and be healthy doesn't matter.
Just that cluster of potential. Jesus wept.
CrispyQ (16,280 posts)
4. I would like to know how many states.
Let's compile a list. In a thread about NC, a poster today, said OH was compromised. I'm not sure what happened with TX. I'm going to go searching.
Every day is a new outrage. State by state they are taking away our basic right to determine our own lives. I started seething last summer, with all the wretched comments coming from (mostly) republican men, legitimate rape, shut that whole thing down, all that filth. The anger simmers inside of me all of the time, but flares up badly on weeks like this.
I have a repub friend, who was so pissed off at the comments coming from the repubs last summer. "They're not taking my birth control away from me or my daughters!" & then three weeks later she 'liked' Romney & Ryan on her FB page. WTF? I haven't done anything with her since then. We chat on the phone now & then, but it changed how I feel about her.
Methinks you mistook a refutation of a trumped-up Proglodyte talking point for a declaration of defiance...but then, you are stupid.
I won't even go into how badly it felt when, several years ago, my mother told me, "I don't care about those (reproductive) issues anymore since I don't have to worry about that anymore." I could not believe that this was the same woman who talked to me about the significance of Roe v Wade when I was a teen.
CrispyQ (16,280 posts)
23. It was a defining moment in our relationship.
She'd been listening to Rush Limbaugh for a few years by then & had gone through a remarkable transformation in her outlook & views on life & politics, & not in a good way, as you can imagine. She just laughed it off with her standard, "Oh you liberals need to learn to take a joke." Our relationship was pretty strained for a long time. It got a little better before she passed, but I wonder how we would have survived 2008. I'm sure she would have loved Sarah Palin. When I was a kid, she loved JFK.
Meanwhile, MessNBC is cratering.
WorseBeforeBetter (7,809 posts)
8. (NC) Senate votes to restrict abortion as witnesses yell 'shame'
....
The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 29-12 as opponents filled the gallery above and hundreds more waited outside. The bill now goes to the House.
....
“This is an atrocious, shameful bill,†said Sen. Earline Parmon, a Winston-Salem Democrat. “It’s about dictating to women about very personal medical decisions that should be left to a woman and her doctor. This is going to cause more back-alley abortions whether you want to admit it or not.â€
....
An estimated 600 people showed up to protest new abortion restrictions, filling the gallery in the Senate chamber, and spilling outside the gallery onto the third floor. Many were wearing pink. At times during the debate they raised their arms and waved their hands in what they called “silent cheering.â€
....
Many of the women gathered outside said they were outraged by the surprise Senate vote Tuesday night to add more restrictions on surgical and medical abortions. The provisions, tacked onto an unrelated bill about Islamic law, requires abortion clinics to meet standards similar to those for outpatient surgery clinics. It also requires doctors to be present when women take pills that induce abortions. The bill’s supporters say it’s about safety, but opponents said the real reason is to restrict abortions. A legislative staff member said only one abortion clinic in the state would meet the new licensing standards. A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood said she knew of none.
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/03/3007643/opponents-of-nc-abortion-bill.html#storylink=cpy
Islamic Law? The stupidity and fear in this state is astounding. I'm ****ing pissed. Backlash over Obamacare(s) drove NC voters to the polls in 2010 and 2012 (along with high unemployment), leaving Republicans in control. NC isn't expanding Medicaid, AND we learn yesterday that implementation of the employer mandate is being delayed. Thanks a lot, Obama!
Interesting tirade.
Interesting pic too. I see:
A gay rights advocate, a bunch of dudes and nothing but a bunch of creepy ass crackers.
Not that queers or men need abortions and on a per capita basis blacks are being exterminated by abortion.
freshwest (32,945 posts)
11. Blanche, thanks for this thread. I have been working on one and don't usually post. Women's issues
sink like a stone here unless it's presented like some adrenaline pumping sports production, as if people want to see a riot.
Oh, they're a riot, alright.
This dehumanization is carried out out of sight of the public, like child porn and rape, and something many don't give a flying **** about.
Motherhood: it's like pedophilia and rape.
The war on women is 'Pfft! Wait, look, who can get a happy for crapping on today?' to many.
I don't even know that that means.
I had an interesting talk last night, it went on about five hours until after midnight. My friend is a Christian, but not a fundie at all. She was outraged about it when I showed her what has been going on, posted here at DU.
She'd been getting some kind of propaganda about abortion, as story of a women's testimony being presented at church, who was the survivor of a late term abortion that killed her male sibling. These are the horror stories that they use to fire people up. We discussed that the pregnancy should not have gone on that long and that it as terrifying.
Pregnancy is "terrifying."
Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't these the people who are supposed to be 1) scientifically grounded and 2) in harmony with nature?
Then I told what I learned of the myths many believe about the morning after pill. As revealed this year and admitted by some politicans, it is not an abortifacent when it is used as intended, since 'conception' has not yet occured.
The idea that conception occurs during the act of intercourse is false. Those little guys can swim fast, but it ain't that way.
She'd also been fed a line about what the sonagram law was. I told her how it was not allowed in VA, as being 'obect rape.' She didn't get it, said she knew what a sonagram was and it was common. I showed her the pictures I've posted here so many times, because I want people who are so bland about this to get the idea. It's not necessary, it's painful and being done to intimidate and humiliate women.
I went into the 'rape kit' nonsense and the fact that this is a war on the poor and middle class women. My friend is really big on the issue of the poor, abuse in the home, all of those things.
She got the point of what is being done right away, after she saw the stories and I brought up my idea. Which is Pro-life folks are worshippers of the flesh in the most direct terms, they demand that their version of biology should determine the entire life of a person.
That their employment solution is to remove half the population out of the workforce to give men the jobs they do. No need for education or childcare. No contraception, as a life of child bearing and rearing give meaning to their position outside the public realm.
Why vote, why drive? Just as Saudi Arabia has been, stay at home, or else. And thus no divorce let the man bring in the money, and if mentally and or physically abused, even to death, fine. I told her it sounds like what RWers say is why they don't want an Islamic state. Just giving it another name doesn't change the mind numbing effect of half the population kept without any rights.
'Her first response was that this is a war on men, too, they want to define their roles, they can't do anything but go to work and war.'
Her second was 'They want us to have nothing above our necks, denying our spiritiual nature and what God gave us to use!'
Anyway, she really had to go home and get ready for work today, so although we discussed more, we had to stop there.
God wants you to use abortion for spiritual reasons.
BlancheSplanchnik (7,914 posts)
32. hey fresh...that must have been an amazing conversation. Your point about
"pro-life" fundies being worshippers of the flesh...that's a fascinating statement. Makes me wish I had some knowledge of the fundie experience, just so I could really understand the meaning of that.
The picture you paint is terrifying.
It's terrifying when you think of the control they have over information.
I wonder if, in states where these Gynocide/Slavery laws are being implemented, if an Underground Railroad would eventually develop?
I had a shorter convo several years ago with a woman who was against abortion. She was a Nurse! I couldn't believe it! I didn't have the broad understanding that you have, but I did explain about the fact that women made pregnant by a rapist or their father/brother, uncle, etc. would be forced to have that child.....that was the info that seemed to pierce the through the fog, as she stopped at that and knew it was wrong.
It is evil, how they aim to manipulate women's bodies this way. And your point about the economic "benefits" of half the population living in forced slavery is spot on.
It's all very very scary. I fervently hope that people will mobilize over this.
IOW she was too smart to fall for your bullshit.
BlancheSplanchnik (7,914 posts)
12. goddammit, I'm kicking this
Women's lives, here people.
Women's ****ING LIVES
Life or death, women forced into reproducing against their will, BY THE STATE
Where are DU's most outspoken? Most eloquent? Most activist?
Not DU's Feminists, but DU's EVERYONE?
State sanctioned forced insemination and parturition of human beings...many will lead directly to DEATH.
TARGETED FEMICIDE
And most of DU is silent?
I know you're tired...so are we.
WHERE THE **** ARE YOU????
Remember when feminists fought the stereotype of the emotionally overwrought and hysterical woman?
Man, I miss those days.
TBF (18,441 posts)
27. I am anti-capitalist but I made it to the polls based upon this issue alone -
Obama was clearly a better choice for women. Not that any of us have much freedom to speak of due to the economic inequality we are dealing with but I knew it could get very bad for all women very quickly if Romney were elected. Turns out they didn't even need him as they are pushing this through via tea partiers attaching these riders to random bills while everyone is thinking about vacation.
If you were anti-capitalist you'd be anti-abortion.
Ilsa (32,196 posts)
17. I am having a hard time understanding
how women fall for the manipulative lies generated by the GOP and anti-choice groups. no critical thinking about history, biology, comparing the US to Saudi Arabia because the Talibornigans are taking over our healthcare.
Wait.
What?
There is a war on poor women going on since women with enough money will always be able to go have an abortion.
I freak out because I know "Christian" women will turn on their healthcare provider after the fact if they do anything to skirt the technical rules about abortions, and that's after those women begged them for help ending pregnancies. They are hypocrites!
WTF is this stupid c*** talking about?
If I was a young woman, I'd try to get something like a few doses of RU-486 just in case. I'd come up with an emergency plan and save a few dollars at a time in case I needed to leave my state. I guess I'd plan on having an unplanned crisis pregnancy. Because these right-wing laws are hell-bent taking away my choices and abortion as onerous as possible.
You can make all those plans and save all that money...
...but motherhood with a lasting marriage would be too difficult.
This is why I do not respect them.
I don't understand why all women and most men aren't fighting for reproductive rights.
PDJane (9,008 posts)
30. The problem is that Republican women, in particular, feel that they are exceptions.
They are never going to get raped, if their daughters have a problem, they will have money enough to have a safe procedure, they will be above the fray.
Then, when they have to live in that world, they wonder what happened?
Yes, I've heard this from other women, and it leaves me open mouthed and furious.
Or they accept circumstances and love the child more than their personal conveniences...
And THIS is why the Palins infuriate Proglodytes: just like they hate Allen West and Herman Cain it debunks the liberal lie of "you can't live without us."
BlancheSplanchnik (7,914 posts)
34. yep. How many idiots do we all know
who genuflected at the altar of Bewsh, and now complain about everything that was set into motion by him?
That's a funny way of spelling OBAMA.
Some (many?) even realized at some later date, that DimSon had been a big mistake, but still will never admit they were wrong, were conned, and need to open their eyes. Most of all, they will never admit, never even realize, that they helped this happen.
Same with this Gynocidal attitude now, in the U.S. The conscienceless and the uncritical followers of authority and the useful idiots cause these outrages and never look two feet down the road at what the results might end up looking like.
And, as a culture, we're USED to seeing dead, mangled, maimed or just plain victimized women. It does not stir the National Consience, not like bashed gay people or murdered black kids does.
MadrasT (5,822 posts)
19. K&R and thank you
I have been watching these bills get passed one by and and I am gobsmacked at how threads about them on DU sink like a stone
I feel like I woke up in the prequel to the Handmaids Tale
Plot summary[edit]
The Handmaid's Tale is set in the near future in the Republic of Gilead, a country formed within the borders of what was formerly the United States of America. It was founded by a racist, homophobic, Christian nativist-derived, theocratic-organized cult's military coup as an ideologically-driven response to the country's ecological, physical and social degradation.
Beginning with a staged terrorist attack (blamed on Islamic extremist terrorists) that kills the President and most of Congress, a movement calling itself the "Sons of Jacob" launches a revolution and suspends the United States Constitution under the pretext of restoring order.
They were quickly able to take away all of the women's rights, largely attributed to the financial records being stored electronically and labelled by gender. The new theocratic military dictatorship-styled "The Republic of Gilead", moved quickly to consolidate its power and reorganize society along a new militarized, hierarchical, compulsorily cult-Christian regime of selectively skewed Old Testament-inspired social and religious ultra-conservatism among its newly created social classes. In this society, almost all women are forbidden to read.
The story is presented from the point of view of a woman called Offred (literally Of-Fred, however not a patronymic as some critics claim). The character is one of a class of individuals kept as concubines ("handmaids") for reproductive purposes by the ruling class in an era of declining births. The book is told in the first person by Offred, who describes her life during her third assignment as a handmaid, in this case to Fred (referred to as "The Commander"). Interspersed in flashbacks are portions of her life from before and during the beginning of the revolution, when she finds she has lost all autonomy to her husband, through her failed attempt to escape with her husband and daughter to Canada, to her indoctrination into life as a handmaid. Through her eyes, the structure of Gilead's society is described, including the several different categories of women and their circumscribed lives in the new theocracy.
The Commander is a high-ranking official in Gilead. Although he is only supposed to have sex with Offred during "the Ceremony", a ritual at which his wife is present, he begins an illegal and ambiguous relationship with her, exposing Offred to hidden or contraband aspects of the new society, such as fashion magazines and cosmetics. He takes her to a secret brothel run by the government, and he furtively meets with her in his study, where he allows her the proscribed activity of reading. The Commander's wife also has secret interactions with Offred, arranging for her to secretly have sex with her driver Nick in an effort to get Offred pregnant. In exchange for Offred's cooperation, the Commander's wife gives her news of her daughter, whom Offred has not seen since she and her family were captured trying to escape Gilead.
After Offred's initial meeting with Nick, they begin to rendezvous more frequently. Offred finds herself enjoying sex with Nick despite her indoctrination and her memories of her husband, and even goes as far as to divulge potentially dangerous information about her past. Through another handmaid, Ofglen, Offred learns of the Mayday resistance, an underground network with the intent of overthrowing Gilead. Shortly after Ofglen's disappearance (later discovered to be a suicide), the Commander's wife finds evidence of the relationship between Offred and the Commander, and Offred contemplates suicide. As the novel concludes, she is being taken away by men from the secret police, known as the Eyes, in a large black van under orders from Nick. Before she is taken away, Nick tells her that the men are part of the Mayday resistance and that Offred must trust him. Offred does not know if Nick is truly a member of the Mayday resistance or if he is a government agent posing as one, and she does not know if going with the men will result in her escape or her capture. She enters the van with a final thought on her uncertain future.
The novel concludes with a metafictional epilogue that explains that the events of the novel occurred shortly after the beginning of what is called "the Gilead Period". The epilogue itself is a "transcription of a Symposium on Gileadean Studies written some time in the distant future (2195)", and according to the symposium's "keynote speaker" Professor Pieixoto, he and "a colleague", Professor Knotly Wade, discovered Offred's story recorded onto cassette tapes. They created an order for these tapes and transcribed them, calling them collectively "the handmaid's tale". Through the tone and actions of the professionals in this final section of the book, the world of academia is highlighted and critiqued.[5][6][7][8] The epilogue implies that, following the collapse of the theocratic Republic of Gilead, a more equal society re-emerged with a return of the legal rights of women. It is further suggested that freedom of religion was also re-established.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_TaleBecause blood libels are just so-o-o-o 15th century.
siligut (11,710 posts)
22. Death would be preferable to this cruel subjugation by morons
Oppressive control of women is the goal. These control freaks have been blaming women for their failings since recorded history.
Le Taz Hot (14,747 posts)
25. Ms Blanche,
if you think about it, we've ALWAYS been on our own. Personally, I think that's when women are at their best.
Well, the ugly ones, anyway.
BlancheSplanchnik (7,914 posts)
41. I look at the front page and I'm stunned...
hard to know what to say, what to do....
I've read some essays about El Salvador, where abortion is illegal. Period. It is both heartbreaking AND terrifying.
But it seems that if something is only terrifying FOR WOMEN, there is not much interest among the general population. It stuns me how so many men cannot practice enough empathy to appreciate what women experience.
I do not know what to do....but I don't want this country to turn into El Salvador.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023159844EXIT QUESTION: How many of these idiots screaming "It's rape/gynocide/slavery!" are also opposed to women keeping guns for self-defense?
