November 07, 2009
So should this pass the government will be blocking private companies who want to participate in the exchanges from offering coverage for legal medical procedures. Somehow, much like the vast sums spent on the "military-industrial complex", I don't think the...
October 24, 2008
Oy, so she's soft on people bombing American homes and buildings (guess those aren't part of "real" America)....
September 02, 2008
She is so against it, she even believes that a fourteen year old who was raped shouldn't be able to get an abortion. That makes her the fringiest of the fringe. p.s. Fringity fringe fringe!...
July 04, 2008
On the one hand I find this remark quite troubling, partially because it suggest limitations over women's health care rights, and partially because it seems to take mental health less seriously than physical health. On the other hand I really...
May 02, 2008
Well, at least according to the Oklahoma Statutes on forcible sodomy, and forcible sodomy being what they have legislated. And given that they have just proposed to "[force] another person to engage in the detestable and abominable crime against nature"...
January 25, 2008
Long term Health benefits. ICE? Not so much....
November 16, 2007
STFU already: The placenta acts like a parasite to avoid attack by a mother's immune system, researchers have discovered. A University of Reading team found it employs a cloaking device very similar to that used by parasitic worms. HT...
October 17, 2007
This has always been one of those head slappers for me: if pregnancy occurs when the sperm meets the egg, who is it that's pregnant during the in vitro process before implantation? the Petri dish?...
August 30, 2007
Nicaragua's restrictive abortion laws are again in the news, this time with regard to a case of a nine year old girl who was raped and impregnated by an older cousin (article in Spanish). At this point, the judicial authorities...
June 16, 2007
With rape an ongoing threat to women serving the United States in uniform, the Bush administration has shown its indifference to truly supporting the troops, demanding that EC be taken off the list of medicines required at military facilities. Apparently...
April 20, 2007
The Well-Timed Period: Shameful and Incomprehensible Balkinization: The Big News about Gonzales vs. Carhart BitchPhD: Abortion Stories Republic of T: Intentionally Choosing BitchPhD: Carhart's legacy (with link to the dissent) Pandagon: Do Women Have Live Talk Left: Highlighting the Language...
March 09, 2007
Of course, it would be nicer if they would just make the pharmacists do their job, since their objections aren't based on facts, but "make accommodations to have that prescription filled" is good too....
February 13, 2007
So now both Shakes and Amanda have resigned their positions. Shakes has been less public about the details of the harassment she has received, but this has gone into the realm of witch hunt. There will be some who clamor...
January 25, 2007
Feministing: My favorite State of the Union moment From last night's State of the Union address: "In all we do, we must remember that the best health care decisions are made not by government and insurance companies, but by patients...
January 23, 2007
That's what this article should have been titled. It's a terrible shame that this woman has suffered a life of misery starting with sexual abuse by a sibling and being raped at the age of 14, if that was truly...
October 24, 2006
GAO report critical of abstinence only sex education. Some addition tidbits: According to Columbia University researchers, virginity pledge programs increase pledge-takers' risk for STIs and pregnancy. The study concluded that 88 percent of pledge-takers initiated sex prior to marriage even...
October 14, 2006
An on-target post from Amanda: In terms of actual use, hormonal contraception reminds me most of insulin. Insulin was invented to deal with an inborn medical issue that could, in theory, be controlled through abstemious behavior. But in real world...
September 24, 2006
It really depresses me sometimes, that with shit like this , I'm really glad that every day brings me closer to menopause. If my mom is any guide to the timeline, unfortunately, I've got about 20 more years of menstruation...
September 18, 2006
Pandagon links to a real eye-opener from Biting Beaver about ignorance, discrimination and the old saw that men who hate women become ObGyns. Soooo, I phoned my doctors office which informed me that the office was closed and that I...
August 25, 2006
Digby posts the "comment of the day" in response to the stupidity lies flowing from the mouths of pro-lifers now that Plan B has limited approval. Yesterday, they said life begins with conception. Today, they say life begins with intercourse....
August 24, 2006
Sounds kind of scary, huh? Not as scary as the thought that pro-lifers, eager to whisk abortion susceptible women into their clinics for unnecessary (and sometimes repeated) ultrasounds administered by non-medical personnel, might be irreparable harm to the fetuses they...
Hey, what do you know:The Food and Drug Administration today approved over-the-counter sales of the "morning-after" contraceptive pill to women 18 and older, resolving one of the most contentious issues in the agency's 100-year history. I'm still not sure why...
July 31, 2006
FDA "considering" Plan B over the counter again. Via Pharyngula....
July 22, 2006
In the Is Sam Brownback an odious liar? thread, the discussion turned to the realities of IVF, and the survival rate of embryos necessary to a successful pregnancy. Bioethicist Arthur Caplan describes why adopting the surplus is a bad idea,...
July 21, 2006
The War on Terrorble Diseases....
July 12, 2006
Fetal protectionism is what they're calling it, eh? Here's a hint: if it doesn't really protect fetuses by helping women be healthy, emphasizes punishing women, and has nothing to do with the consequences of male behavior too, it's more likely...
June 29, 2006
Emphasis mine: Warren Buffett's new philanthropic alliance with fellow billionaire Bill Gates won widespread praise this week, but anti-abortion activists did not join in, instead assailing the two donors for their longtime support of Planned Parenthood and international birth-control programs....
June 26, 2006
Anyone ever listen to Five Stop Mother Superior Rain? I started hearing it in my head while reading this article about the timing of motherhood. It seems that no matter what women do, they incur criticism. In a country where...
This (PDF) letter has been making the rounds (Feministing, Feministe, Pandagon): This Administration supports the availability of safe and effective products and services to assist responsible adults in making decisions about preventing or delaying conception. The Department of Health and...
June 19, 2006
If the Supreme Court strikes down Roe (this is of course the BIG way in which this law differs from the South Dakota law), most abortions will be illegal in Louisiana. The measure, sponsored by Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, includes...
June 04, 2006
The conservative politics of the Bush administration forced me to have an abortion I didn't want. Well, not literally, but let me explain. If more women told these experiences I'd have to think that the idiotic zealotry that curtails their...
May 07, 2006
No, I am not "shitting you." "I cannot imagine any development in human history, after the Fall, that has had a greater impact on human beings than the pill," Mohler continued. " So, remember when I was telling you about...
Republican representative forces scientific panel on the failure of abstinence programs to include pro-abstinence speakers and bumps a panelist who was to present on how abstinence campaigns cause STDs to increase: Researchers organizing a federal panel on sexually transmitted diseases...
May 04, 2006
Unintended pregnancies and abortions are up among poor women, probably a consequence of cutbacks in family planning funding to throw money away on abstinence only programs. Based on nationwide data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics and other...
April 26, 2006
Regular readers might remember my essay about the good work done by Planned Parenthood, and how when I was young, married and without insurance, those nice ladies did a wonderful job caring for my health. Azpazia has a guest post...
March 26, 2006
Bitch PhD reminds us (emphasis mine): NOT ONE "PRO-LIFE" ORGANIZATION IS ALSO PRO-BIRTH CONTROL. NOT ONE. Also check out Amp's table of side-by-side comparisons of the policy implications of "pro-life" policies. As he concludes: Almost none of their policies make...
March 19, 2006
Our neighboring state - I'm talking to you Ohio - harbors extremists who would prevent the free movement of citizens of the United States, and would give property rights over women's reproductive organs to third parties. No, I am not...
March 18, 2006
Angry Black Bitch talks about the work she does volunteering with teenage mothers. For any who have ever uttered - or allowed to flit through their minds - the thought "how can someone be so dumb as to get pregnant...
...for the backers of the anti-contraception legislation rearing its ugly head around the country these days: Are you now or have you ever been a contraceptor? I wonder what the hypocrisy factor would be? The question arose while pondering this...
March 17, 2006
To protect women's lives, of course. This can be the only conclusion, based on the concern shown about two deaths which may be related to RU 486. It is unclear if they were, and if so, if they were caused...
March 16, 2006
Via this Lawyers, Guns, and Money post, I found the comments by the Missouri Republican Party interesting: An attempt to resume state spending on birth control got shot down Wednesday by House members who argued it would have amounted to...
March 13, 2006
From Feministing, the story of a Fargo ND man who, though barred from getting close to a women's health clinic by a restraining order, decided to get close anyway. With close-ups of people entering and exiting the clinic, that he...
March 07, 2006
And other legal follies. South Dakota, like many other states, has adopted numerous laws that seek to establish the unborn as full legal persons. For example, South Dakota has a feticide statute that makes the killing of an "unborn child"...
March 06, 2006
Regarding both my earlier joke about reciprocal control of men's bodies as well as the current discussion in the comments about empathy for another's position, I thought these quotes might be interesting to the fellahs. We've been talking about how...
However given the current consideration of legislation in West Virginia: For all the passions they generate, laws that require minors to notify their parents or get permission to have an abortion do not appear to have produced the sharp drop...
March 05, 2006
No, I don't think I'm better than you. However, I also don't think you are better than me....
March 03, 2006
At least, that's what I expect next given the outcome of this case. A federal jury using an anti-terrorism law for the first time convicted six animal rights activists on Thursday for a campaign to drive a company out of...
There is a lot of talk about whether or not blogs matter in politics. The efforts of Glenn Greenwald and Jane Hamsher, among others, to use the net to mobilize calls and letters to media outlets and elected representatives is...
March 02, 2006
She calls it a modest proposal. Actually I think it's a little too modest. I've been trying to come up with pithy slogans. Maybe I should start a contest: Since every sperm is sacred, we'll be monitoring male masturbation from...
February 27, 2006
Women on Accutane will be required to have their uteruses monitored in case they accidentally get pregnant, because the drug is associated with severe birth defects. Adult women, in consultation with their doctors, taking a medicine to prevent pain and...
My recent blogging has not been about South Dakota. Then, as I got to thinking about it, I decided, yeah, it is about South Dakota. Not about actual South Dakota, but lurking around the edges of what South Dakota symbolizes,...
February 26, 2006
Right to life activists are claiming that clinics encourage pedopiles, and put up audio to "prove" it. Unfortunately, taping a receptionist telling a caller that her birth control is "strictly confidential" doesn't prove anything except that Planned Parenthood is obeying...
February 23, 2006
It's about time to start tracking statistics on tubal ligations. An interesting chart from the UN shows contraception rates. Something many readers might not know is that female sterilization is considered as contraception in most population data. So why did...
February 14, 2006
The Inimitable Twisty Faster. Joan Jett she might not be, but damn she deserves the tribute of a black heart on v-day....
February 09, 2006
The Happy Feminist ON TURNING INTO A PUMPKIN AT DUSK explores why "the cultural assumptions regarding women's need for male protection often do a disservice to both women and men." Scott Lemieux describes Phylis Schlafly's love for spousal rapists and...
February 05, 2006
Liz has a musing on religion, science and trolls. She links to this story about Susan Wood, who quit the FDA in protest over the anti-science shutdown of Plan B. I'm not going to say much, because I know Baltar...
February 01, 2006
Lawmakers in Indiana are trying to pass a bill establishing that life begins at conception. I wonder if the sponsor, a political science major, has ever heard of ectopic pregnancy? Appreciative nod to Pandagon....
January 29, 2006
As efforts to reduce women's access to basic reproductive healthcare, contraception, and abortion continue, it pays to remember the consequences. The efforts of those who think they and their god have more to say about your body than you do...
January 28, 2006
Moiv's post for the Blogging for Choice Day reminds us what happens when abortion is illegal, and why those who call themselves "pro-life" while campaigning against education and contraception are the worst kind of liars. Moiv has a long section...
January 26, 2006
Won't it? A la Pandagon....
January 24, 2006
...they threw in "kitchen" too. Still have any doubts about the rest of the agenda? Finder's fee to Pandagon....
January 23, 2006
On the Declaration of Independence: "You believe, as I do, that every human life has value, that the strong have a duty to protect the weak, and that the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence apply to everyone, not...
January 22, 2006
A quick on-the-road post... As I've been traveling the last few days, I mulled over what to write about for today's blogging for choice commitment. So many things to say, so many that have already been said, by me, and...
January 18, 2006
Because if he is, I'm gonna' send him some money. CNN: Sen. Max Baucus, D-Montana, said after a morning meeting with Alito that he would vote against President Bush's Supreme Court nominee as too far outside the mainstream of judicial...
January 16, 2006
From BlondeSense: Oh Supremest Court, please save us from our own minds and bodies that we can do your bidding. Keep us from the burden of being our own fully realized person? Make me safe from the wicked world and...
January 09, 2006
It's January 22nd. In the mean time, read more Lemieux on Alito, and contact your senators to register your opinion....
One of four pieces of draft egislation (PDF, see p. 19) to be considered in the 2006 session of the West Virginia State House proposes to expand the definition of child abuse to include prenatal abuse related to drugs and...
January 07, 2006
Just like cows. Word got out that a South Dakota politician compared pregnant women to cows, saying that they were more valuable when pregnant. No one got good notes, so some ex post facto questions were asked: Gordon also apologized...
January 06, 2006
"It's only those crunchy nutbars in Indiana" they said. "It's only an isolated incident" they said, "not a legislative agenda." And then I said, "Bullshit!" Guess what? There are crunchy nutbars in Virginia too! And somehow they've developed the notion...
December 18, 2005
"Rampant malicious scoundrels are in charge". Sen. Stan Adelstein, R-Rapid City, said he was upset that the report is filled with dishonest statements and is biased toward one religion.... "The report is theologically based, has patent untruths and misrepresentations, and...