maehemsez

The targeting of welfare recipients – under the false pretense of “saving tax dollars from supporting someone’ s drug addiction” orby “helping drug addicts become productive citizens” – is nothing more than the continual use of stereotypes and myths to criminalize the lives of poor women and their families through invasive and unconstitutional regulatory policies of economic violence.

This is a HUGELY powerful piece about how laws feed stereotypes and seek to control the behavior of poor women. 

I give up. I’ll just put on some tight clothes and hope to be carried away by the tide of sexism.

Mr Lynch says that sometimes waitresses are providing the best part of a guest’s day.

That’s lovely. Do you suppose the work the waitresses are doing is the best part of their day? Being groped and ogled?

As the law stands, medical doctors can be required to convey certain factual information to pregnant women to help them make informed choices. Under Judge Pauley’s ruling, crisis pregnancy centers pretending to be real medical facilities cannot be made to disclose essential facts about their real services. That makes no sense at all.

Medical facilities are strictly regulated, why the hell shouldn’t facilities pretending to be medical facilities be regulated also? The anger is epic.

She looked at me and said, “I don’t like that you do abortions, but if you didn’t, I would probably be dead and not celebrating this new life. My husband isn’t thrilled that I am seeing you. He just can’t wrap his head around the fact that women sometimes really need someone who can do what you do. But I don’t see how I could go to anyone else. You saved my life.”

Merida is the very first female lead character in the 25-year history of the acclaimed animated studio

About damn time, Pixar.

Trigger warning for the linked article for spanking and other violence.

Conversations around spanking, particularly in progressive spaces, take a very hard line around corporal punishment. Renee, of Womanist Musings, has written dozens of posts about why spanking is wrong. Some of the commenters on Jill’s post (somewhere back in the 100s) brought up differences in what is considered culturally acceptable. Most of Jill’s commenters came to an agreement dominating the thread – there is never, ever a reason to discipline your child physically. But most of these conversations assume certain things. That these are interactions solely between adult and child, and that generally, the household is in an atmosphere of peace. What isn’t raised is the reality of raising children in environments where random street violence or drug use is commonplace

This is a really, REALLY powerful piece. 

Oh, good. The Planned Parenthood in Virginia Beach wants to add 2 general GYN operating rooms to their existing facility, but because of Virginia’s possible new regulations, their application is being pended. 

Planned Parenthood wants to offer out-patient GYN services to low-income women. THAT certainly can’t be allowed to happen…

Also, why are there so many authoritative quotes coming from Victoria Cobb in this article? She’s the executive director of The Family Foundation, and anti-choice organization in VA. I don’t think she’s really qualified to comment on how she thinks clinics will be regulated under the new law…

In the case Harris v. McRae, the Court decided by a 5-4 vote that it did not violate women’s constitutional rights for Congress to eliminate federal funding for abortion under Medicaid.

In essence, the Supreme Court said that women’s problems accessing abortion care are a result of their poverty, not a result of the government’s policy to eliminate federal funding of abortion care.

“The Hyde Amendment is designed to deprive poor and minority women of the constitutional right to choose abortion.” - Justice Marshall

And still, the Hyde Amendment stands today….

Senior prosecutors met with lawyers for Mr. Strauss-Kahn on Thursday and provided details about their findings, and the parties are discussing whether to dismiss the felony charges. Among the discoveries, one of the officials said, are issues involving the asylum application of the 32-year-old housekeeper, who is Guinean, and possible links to people involved in criminal activities, including drug dealing and money laundering.

Let me be clear I understand this. If you are raped, or sexually assaulted and don’t tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about EVERYTHING to the police, you’re probably lying about being assaulted? Sounds like the same old “victim on trial” routine to me. 

From the New York Times:

Since Nebraska passed the first 20-week limit last year, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and, this month, Alabama have followed. A similar law has advanced in the Iowa legislature, and anti-abortion campaigners have vowed to promote such laws in more states next year.

Interesting how Roe v. Wade established that abortion is legally protected until the fetus becomes viable at 24 weeks. Oh wait:

The laws directly conflict with the key threshold set by the Supreme Court: that abortion cannot be banned until the fetus becomes viable. Viability, the ability to survive outside the womb, usually occurs at the 24th week of pregnancy or later, and is determined in individual cases by a doctor, said Elizabeth Nash, a policy analyst in Washington with theGuttmacher Institute, a research group.

So, it seems to me that by passing these laws the GOP is crafting a very calculated bid for a seat in front of SCOTUS. Where they are hoping to see Roe V. Wade overturned. It’s calculated because SCOTUS isn’t a prochoice slam-dunk these days, so these laws will hang around until there is an iron clad case for the prochoice movement to put in front of the Supreme Court. 

Independence Day, my ass.

Happy effing Friday y’all.

“It’s a joke and a sham,” Hodes told TIME. “The only purpose is to shut down access to abortions.” He noted he complies with rules from the Kansas Board of Healing Arts and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, since “they’re realistic regulations drawn up by doctors for doctors. We all know how much legislators know about health care for women - nothing,” Hodes said. 

Similar regulations may be looming for Virginia’s 22 providers come September.

So many levels of awesomeness here. 

When a woman finds herself in a situation where she is discouraged, harassed, or unwelcome to breastfeed her baby in public, she summons The Milk Truck. The truck arrives to the location of the woman in need and provides her with a shelter for feeding her baby. The woman feeds her child, the shopkeeper who harassed her feels like a dweeb, and the truck does what it does best - creates a spectacle. (Which is, incidently, the very thing that the shopkeeper thought he was trying to avoid. Alas, some people have to learn the hard way.)