In Defense of Jon Kyl

The big news this past weekend was the looming government shutdown that never was. While defending these riders, which were basically ideologically driven strips of funding for seriously controversial things like school lunch and NPR*, Jon Kyl proclaimed that more than 90% of what Planned Parenthood does is abortion.

Everybody goes to clinics, to doctors, to hospitals, so on. Some people go to Planned Parenthood. But you don't have to go to Planned Parenthood to get your cholesterol or your blood pressure checked**. If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that's well over 90% of what Planned Parenthood does.

Except not. If I wanted an abortion and walked into any of the 6 Planned Parenthoods in my area, they'd send me somewhere else. Which is why I personally wouldn't go to Planned Parenthood for an abortion. See, well over 90% -- a full 97% -- of what Planned Parenthood does is not abortion-related. Abortion accounts for 3%. Jon Kyl explained that his statements were "not meant to be factual."

I don't think Jon Kyl has to explain himself at all. It's SO HARD to find information in this information age of ours. I mean, how many spare seconds do you think Senator Kyl has to do the following:

1. Google "Planned Parenthood."

2. Click on the first link.

3. Click the "About Us" drop-down menu.

4. Click "Annual Report."

5. Click on the picture in the middle of the page.

6. Scroll down to page 6.

7. Admire the colorful pie chart showing the percentage of services that Planned Parenthood provides.

That was a workout. Cancel your gym memberships, people! Looking for facts is seriously sweat-inducing exercise.

* This is a list of the riders in lay terms and in an easy-to-read chart. Here is the full H.R. 1 bill.

** Unless you're poor and have no health insurance. It's a good thing Planned Parenthood provides these services.

EXCLUSIVE: Interview with an Embryo

Big news, people. An actual 9-week old embryo will "testify" in an Ohio court during hearings for a bill that would ban all abortions after a heartbeat can be detected.

“For the first time in a committee hearing, legislators will be able to see and hear the beating heart of a baby in the womb–just like the ones the Heartbeat Bill will protect,” said Janet (Folger) Porter, President of Faith2Action, and former Legislative Director of Ohio Right to Life, where she helped pass the nation’s first ban on Partial Birth Abortion.

Two in-utero babies will appear live before the committee by an ultrasound projector which is able to not only show that baby’s moving arms and legs, but also display–in color–the baby’s beating heart. “When passed, the Heartbeat Bill will insure that once that heartbeat is detected, the baby is protected,” added Porter.

Pretty big scoop, right? WRONG! Only I have the exclusive interview with an 8-week old embryo. And yes, I got permission from the pregnant lady that the embryo is inside of. Don't know if I can say the same for Ms. Porter.

Me: Hey, embryo. How's it going.

Embryo: Meh. Mommy threw up like 5 times today. Sometimes I understand how much physical pain I cause her, but that's my food too that she's puking.

Me: Yeah, it's hard out there for an embryo.

Embryo: You mean IN there.

Me: Sure. I wanted to ask you about this Heartbeat Bill in Ohio.

Embryo: Huh?

Me: You know, the one that could ban abortion once a heartbeat of the embryo is detected.

Embryo: Didn't hear about that one. Does it matter that the pregnant woman has a heartbeat?

Me: No, her heartbeat doesn't matter. She'd be forced to continue the pregnancy and give birth.

Embryo: It kind of seems unfair that my heartbeat counts so much more than my mother's.

Me: Tell me more.

Embryo: I mean, if the people for this Heartbeat Bill would treat my mommy like that, you know, give her no significance at all, how would they treat me once I'm born?

Me: I have some experience being outside the womb, and anti-choicers don't treat women very nicely. They call them sluts and whores and put guilt trips on them when they're raped. And they don't just hate pregnant women. They hate women who choose not to get pregnant or can't get pregnant, whether they're straight, lesbian, or transgender. What do you think about that?

Embryo: That's a terrible world. I don't know what kind of person I'd be. But it seems like I have a great chance of becoming the kind of person that these pro-lifers would care about at all. They seem to like me now, but once I'm born, they'd rather me be dead, unless I become their perfect vision of a person.

Me: Is that possible?

Embryo: My mommy's an Atheist. And my daddy's a gay sperm donor majoring in Africana Studies.

[We laugh -- hard]

Embryo: Seriously, though. I thought it was hard being an embryo. It's a lot harder to be a person, especially if you're not male, cis, Christian, heterosexual, White, able-bodied, and rich.

Me: Would you rather be aborted?

Embryo: That's all up to my intelligent, responsible, autonomous mommy.

Please Welcome the New Republican Congressman from South Dakota

It's Borat! He ran a really great campaign, going door to door talking about his policies. When explaining the role women should play in society, Borat claims the social order should be "God, man, horse, dog, then woman." Of course, he ran as a Republican. God and men are pretty much all they care about, except if they're poor, non-Christian, or part of the TLGB community. Plus, at least as far as access to birth control goes, horses have more of a right to it than women. The only state where poor old Borat would even stand a chance is South Dakota. They subjugate women to the status of baby-making slave more than any other state. In fact, they tried twice to push abortion bans in the state, while still allowing people to shoot someone to death for steal or vandalize their property. I'm sure Borat thinks your wheel barrow lands somewhere before women on his social ladder. And now that South Dakota is considering a law that could justify the murder of abortion doctors, perhaps Borat would fit right in this state that has reckless disregard for everyone but zygotes. Congratulations on your win, Borat! I'm sure you'll do great work!

Kristen Schaal on Redefining Rape Law

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If you follow me on Twitter, you would have noticed that I've spent the better part of a week tweeting about the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," a law that seeks to deny abortion rights to any woman with a health insurance policy in which any amount of the premiums can be written off on a tax return, unless that woman can pay for the procedure out of pocket. Right now, the vast majority of health insurance policies cover abortion, and a percentage of those premiums can be written off by the individual or business who purchases the policy. House Republicans and conservative Democrats who have signed on to this bill equate the tax write-off with abortion being federally subsidized. Of course, tax breaks for the wealthy aren't considered federal spending, but tax breaks for Americans with health insurance that covers abortion is. Basically, this law further screws over low and middle income women who wish to use the perfectly legal medical service called abortion. Essentially, such women must pay a tax on their policy (in that their policy is taxable income), even if they never have an abortion. The law would also deny abortion coverage on any private policy that is included in the health insurance exchanges in the new healthcare law.

Most egregious of all, the law also redefined rape as "forcible rape." The qualifier "forcible" implied that some rape isn't forced, but merely coerced or maybe implied. Women who were unconscious, drugged, or mentally handicapped were excluded from the definition. The language was then taken out, thanks to Sady Doyle's #DearJohn campaign on Twitter and the above video from The Daily Show. The combination of anger and satire woke the anti-choice morons who cosigned this disgusting bill to the fact that ALL rape is forcible. Duh.

Although it's nice that they stripped the word "forcible" from the bill, this bill is still terrible and needs to be defeated. This law will deny millions of women abortion coverage. Incest is also redefined, in that it excludes women who became pregnant by a family member after they turned 18. It allows the government to interfere in personal decisions and private business, and it increases taxes. The new Republican party, everyone!

Blog for Choice: Am I Concerned About Choice in 2011?

Despite my home state electing a governor who didn't quite campaign on defunding Planned Parenthood (although, I knew that just from looking at his campaign website for 3 seconds), but did exactly that like on Day One, I think we New Jerseyans can fist-pump our way out of this. Having a pro-choice legislature really helps, and they are currently working their damnedest to override Chris Christie's veto of funding women's healthcare. I think New Jersey realizes that defunding Planned Parenthood doesn't do anything but drastically reduce the capacity with which healthcare professionals can serve jobless, impoverished, and working poor women. That's because only 3 Planned Parenthoods out of 29 in New Jersey actually provide abortion services in their facilities (which didn't stop conservative websites from proclaiming "Chris Christie closes abortion clinics!" Really, just Google "Chris Christie defunding Planned Parenthood"). The rest provide preventative care. Defunding them defunds thousands of women's only access to affordable treatment. Pro-life indeed.

To answer the question posed by NARAL Pro-Choice America on this 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, yes, I am concerned about choice in 2011, because attacking reproductive freedom goes FAR beyond controlling women's reproductive capacities. It also controls where poor women get their primary healthcare. It is unfathomable that a so-called pro-life governor (one with "Christ" in both his first and last name, at that!), legislature, or constituency would sacrifice the basic healthcare of thousands of women to not even prevent a single abortion. Then again, misogyny tends to cloud judgment, so it's not all that unbelievable.

Another extremely deadly consequence of restricting abortion access is evidenced in the recent indictment of "Doctor" Gosnell, who performed countless illegal late-term abortions on mostly poor immigrant women in a filthy clinic. And when I say "illegal," I mean pretty much every thing that took place in his facility was illegal. Consider this.

1. Mr. Gosnell isn't an OB/GYN, so he should not have been performing any abortions at all.

2. Abortion after 23 weeks is illegal in Pennsylvania.

3. Mr. Gosnell induced birth of live infants and split their spinal cords with scissors, which is no more an abortion than if someone did that to me.

4. Like I said before, his clinic was unsanitary, with cat urine, body parts, and dirty medical tools scattered all over the place.

Basically, Mr. Gosnell performs back alley abortions, the kind that caused the deaths and serious injuries of countless women in pre-Roe days. And as you saw in my last post, people can't set aside their woman-hate for a second to consider that maybe women dying isn't a good thing. In fact, some were downright gleeful. The deaths of the woman and infants that Mr. Gosnell have been charged with (and any others we don't know about) make me wonder if this would have been allowed in a society that a) respected poor women, b) respected immigrants, and c) respected pregnant women, and trusted the decisions of such women to the point where the only restriction to a woman's access to a late-term abortion was her own judgment. Instead, we live in a society that restricts abortion based on socioeconomic status and gestation of the fetus, even if the woman's health is at risk or if the fetus is dead inside of her. Certainly, the women's health was at risk the second they entered Mr. Gosnell's clinic. Perhaps if they had somewhere else to go, they would have. There's a reason pro-choicers want abortion to be safe and legal. Again, I'm concerned about choice in 2011, since if anti-choicers have their way, we'll have over a million women seeking abortions from greedy predators like Gosnell.

10 Things Anti-Choice Protesters Can Do to Help a Child Live a Happy Life

I just finished watching (and re-watching some of) the HBO documentary 12th and Delaware. It's about an intersection in Florida where there is an abortion clinic and a crisis pregnancy center (CPC). Unfortunately, most of the documentary follows CPC workers and anti-choice protesters. I guess that's where all the juiciness is. But I saw the anti-choice protesters in a different way. Don't get me wrong. I did not see past their ignorance and downright hatred for women. It was abundant. But what got me the angriest was that they were wasting some of their redeeming qualities, like tenacity, dedication, and passion, on harassing and hurting women. They spend their days, and make their living, harassing, lying to, and insulting the intelligence of women and teen girls. The "counselor" of the CPC and an anti-choice protester in the film admitted that their tactics may be harmful and/or illegal (e.g., stalking doctors and locking pregnant women in a room for 6 hours to convince them not to have an abortion), but it was worth it, because they thought they were helping.

Imagine if they engaged in activities that helped children, instead of denigrating women?

So I had the idea to do some convincing myself. I don't know if I will convince anybody to change their routine, but I'll just get it out there. I would like anybody who spends their days protesting outside of abortion clinics and other women's health centers to take one hour, just ONE HOUR, out of their protesting schedule to help real sentient children live fulfilling lives. Here are some ideas.

1. Spend an hour reading to one or more children at the local library or hospital. In an hour, you can read a couple of really good picture books, and it's a great excuse to talk in funny character voices.

2. Join an organization like Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and spend an hour with a child playing an awesome board game like Chutes and Ladders. There's no chute for the girl who had an abortion, but I'm sure pro-lifers can still appreciate the lessons learned.

3. Volunteer at the library or an after-school program, and spend an hour helping children with their homework.

4. Get together with neighborhood parents and organize a carpool to transport children to and from school. It helps kids and the environment!

5. Spend an hour at the local recreation center and teach music, dancing, art, baking, or first aid to children.

6. I highly doubt that most anti-choicers would do this, but I'll give it a shot. Spend an hour a day being a crisis intervention counselor for The Trevor Project, a hotline for suicidal LGBTQ youth. Help save the life of a transgender, genderqueer, gay, bisexual, or questioning kid in need.

7. Spend a half hour standing outside of the grocery store and collect money for UNICEF, the March of Dimes, or Abandoned Babies and Children. Spend the other half hour buying groceries to donate to the local food bank, since millions of kids go hungry every day in the United States.

8. Spend an hour at a group home for foster children, teen moms, runaways, or juvenile offenders and talk or play with them.

9. Volunteer at the local park and motivate children to exercise and eat healthy.

10. Spend an extra hour a day enjoying the company of your own children, grandchildren, and the other adorable little kids in your lives. They might be jealous that you're giving so much attention to other women's embryos.

This isn't about changing the views of anti-choicers. I'm not even telling them to stop protesting outside of clinics (although I wish they would, since they're doing more harm than good [that was a rhyme]). All I'm saying is that the above 10 things (and many others) are at least as rewarding as protesting outside of a clinic, and way more effective at helping children live happy lives. So take an hour each day and help children in need who can at least smile in appreciation. Some might even say thank you!

P.S. Although I say "volunteer" throughout the post, you can get a paying job to do some of those things. But you'd have to do it for more than an hour, of course.

Take Action Today

I missed my blog's 2nd birthday, which I believe was on the 9th. Am I entering the terrible twos?

Tell President Obama to reinstate abortion coverage in high risk pools.

Urge your Senators to pass a clean energy bill.

Support the DREAM Act.

Tell your Representative to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Take Action Monday on Tuesday

Last Monday, I played New York City tour guide to a family from Arizona. All I have to say is, Bill Maher was right.

Support clean energy legislation.

Tell BP to provide respirators to clean-up workers.

Tell BP to stop burning endangered sea turtles alive.

Help to repeal the ban on privately-funded abortion in the military.

Tell Congress to make ending violence against women a priority.

Protect whales from hunting.

Support full funding for public media.

Keep important reproductive decisions between patients and doctors, not legislators.

Pledge to be an advocate for immigrants.

Support healthcare coverage of immunosuppressive drugs.

Take Action Monday on Tuesday

So healthcare reform finally passed. I wouldn't call it a good or a bad bill. If I assigned a student an essay on how to reform the healthcare system and they gave me the major reforms in this bill, I would give them an Incomplete or Needs Improvement. We are not done, but we do not need to start over. We need to add more protections. We need to make sure that Medicaid and Medicare recipients aren't denied care because doctors don't get reimbursed enough. We need to make sure that people aren't denied treatment because it's experimental. The Representatives should be thanked for passing this legislation, but we must demand that they fight for more reform.

Say no to Jewish settlements in Palestine.

Urge Republican leadership to condemn the bigotry in their supporters.

Tell the Democratic Party to stop supporting anti-choice Democrats' campaigns.

Support the Fair Elections Now Act.

End the crack/cocaine sentencing disparity.

Castle Doctrine vs. Body Temple

Late last year, I learned about Castle Doctrine laws on an episode of Dan Rather Reports. Coming from the saying "A man's home is his castle," Castle Doctrine laws give people the right to use deadly force against trespassers. Needless to say, these laws are quite controversial. Even the former president of the National Rifle Association, Marion Hammer, who started the Castle Doctrine effort in the state of Florida, believes that the law might go too far in some cases. According to the NRA, there are 24 states with Castle Doctrine Laws (as of February 2010). Many of the states with these laws are conservative states that really love their guns, and it seems to be seen as more of a gun rights issue than a property, privacy, or human rights issue (I believe it's a bit of all of these).

I'm with Marion Hammer on the Castle Doctrine laws, in that using deadly force should be legal when protecting one's life and body, but not to protect one's property. There are gray areas in such situations, like when someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night; you don't know if someone is there to hurt you or steal your stuff, and no one wants to take any chances there. But the Castle Doctrine laws got me thinking about abortion laws, which I will call Body Temple laws, from the saying "My body is a temple." Like I said before, a lot of the states that have Castle Doctrine laws are red states, and I was curious to find out about their abortion legislation. So I headed over to NARAL's site to check it out.

Texas: Gets an F from NARAL for requiring biased counseling and parental consent laws. Their Castle Doctrine law doesn't specifically mention property, but deadly force can be used against a trespasser without the owner's life being threatened.

Alabama: Also gets an F from NARAL for the same reasons Texas does. Alabama also has an unconstitutional ban on abortion that cannot be enforced. Their Castle Doctrine law has been changed to scrap a "duty to retreat" measure, meaning the person doesn't have to try to get away before using deadly force. It is assumed that the person's life and body are in danger if someone intrudes their home, workplace, vehicle, or anywhere else they have a right to be.

Florida: Gets a D from NARAL for having an unconstitutional ban on abortion, biased pre-abortion counseling, and parental consent laws. Furthermore, a Florida legislator was "led by the Lord" to file a bill that would make abortion a felony punishable by a life sentence in prison. Florida's Castle Doctrine law is quite strong. Victims of intrusion on one's property are given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to using deadly force against trespassers, meaning the law assumes that every intruder on a person's property is there to cause bodily harm or death. There is no duty to retreat, and the person who uses deadly force against an intruder cannot be prosecuted.

Idaho: Another F from NARAL for having the same restrictions on abortion as Alabama. Additionally, Idaho prohibits private health insurance companies from covering abortion. I think they should get an F- for that one. Their Castle Doctrine law allows the use of deadly force to defend one's body and life.

Nebraska: Also gets an F from NARAL for parental consent laws, health insurance restrictions, and refusal to provide reproductive health services. Their Castle Doctrine law is being held up in committee, but if passed, it would allow the use of firearms and deadly force against intruders to protect oneself and others.

South Dakota: Not surprisingly at all, South Dakota gets an F from NARAL for having probably every anti-abortion measure on the books. South Dakota also tried twice, unsuccessfully, to ban abortion in almost all cases. State Senator Bill Napoli went so far as to redefine rape to take into consideration the woman's sexual history, religion, and in which body part she was penetrated. The same Mike Rounds who signed the eventually overturned abortion bans signed into law Castle Doctrine legislation that permits people to use deadly force against someone to protect their property from theft and injury. Property injury? Didn't think there was such a thing.

I think you get the point I'm making here. I'm not about to go through all 24 states Castle Doctrine and Body Temple laws here, but you certainly can check them all out. You might even want to perform a statistical analysis to see the correlation. But it seems pretty clear to me that there are a lot of states that allow you to kill someone for trespassing on your property or when you believe your bodily integrity, life, or even the prettiness of your property is at stake. In some states, people are trusted that they were truly in danger when they kill an intruder. They are given immunity and don't have to prove that they were in danger. In essence, they can get away with murder as long as they say the trespasser was trying to hurt them, as long as there's no compelling evidence disputing that claim. They don't even have to run away, or try everything they can to avoid getting hurt, before using deadly force. They are given the benefit of the doubt, because these laws place petty thieves on the same level as cold-blooded murderers.

So why does a woman have to go through a counseling session or "think about it" for 24 hours before having an abortion? Why are there so many restrictions on a woman using -- and I'll use some inflated anti-choice rhetoric here to make my point -- deadly force against an embryo or fetus who is using her body without her permission? If a young woman in South Dakota can kill a trespasser who's on her property to spray paint "Murdering whore" on her car, why does that same young woman have to get permission from her parents or receive biased counseling or wait 24 hours before having an abortion, to get rid of an embryo that's using her body against her will? Why aren't these women given that same benefit of the doubt, that they seriously considered all other options before making the final decision to have an abortion? Seems like property has more rights in some parts of the country than women, and it's extremely disturbing.

Take Action Monday

So CBS ended up airing the Focus on the Family ads during the Super Bowl anyway. When I saw one of them on YouTube, I commented that Focus on the Family is an extreme right-wing hate group that works to roll back the rights of women and LBGTs, meager as they already are. A loser then replied saying this: "Focus on the Family is not an extreme right-wing hate group. They believe in the love of family - every member of the family - the pregnant and the preborn. 64% of all abortions are coerced making abortion the ultimate exploitation of women. Focus on the Family is there for the family, the pregnant, and the preborn. There is no hateful propaganda on their website only love and compassion." Anti-choicers say that darndest things, don't they?

Demand maternal healthcare in Burkina Faso. Five women died of pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths in Burikna Faso ALONE on the day CBS aired ads for Focus on a Family, an organization that supports women dying as long as it aligns with their political beliefs.

Stop the lying teabaggers.

Tell the CDC and NIH to include children in their HIV vaccine studies.

Sign to take genetically modified corn off the shelves.

Tell Congress to stop wasteful defense spending.

Call on President Obama to end nuclear weapon proliferation.

Support investing in women and families.

Tell Glenn Beck that you have a weird name, and you're an American.

Speak out against offshore oil drilling.

Urge the Census Bureau to count LBGT families too.

Protect our drinking water.

Take Action Monday on Tuesday

I was sick yesterday, so I didn't get the chance to post any petitions. This may be the first time I've had two colds in a year since I was a little kid.

Demand that CBS pull an anti-choice Super Bowl ad.

Don't let Citizens United v. FEC happen again. The Supreme Court will hear a case that may allow billionaires to donate an unlimited amount of money to campaigns.

Support common-sense healthcare reform for women and families.

Make sure health insurance is made affordable to older Americans.

Demand quality early childhood education in your state.

Tell President Obama to close Guantanamo Bay prison.

End world hunger.

Help free a Tibetan filmmaker.

Demand an exit strategy in Afghanistan.

Help stop Uganda's anti-gay bill.

What Does "Trust Women" Mean to A Funny Feminist?

I really love this year's Blog for Choice subject: What does "Trust Women" mean you? Meaning me. I love it because, in two little words, the entire foundation of reproductive rights, and feminism itself, is explained. "Trust Women" has more to do with more than just abortion rights; it has to do with all sexual health and rights to our own bodies.

I believe that all sexism is predicated on a distrust of women, and there's a long history of women's voices about their own bodies being dismissed. There was a time when women who complained to their doctors of menstrual cramps weren't believed. It wouldn't surprise me at all if some doctors still belittled the cramps that some women experience during their periods. And I can tell you from personal experience that there are men out there who don't see menstrual cramps as all that serious, even when they hurt like a bitch. That's because the patriarchy allows men to claim that women are emotional and overreacting, lest they actually care about women.

Women also aren't trusted when it comes to having sex. Whether women are saying they want to have sex or they don't want to have sex, it's all hogwash. The only one who really knows what the woman wants is the man who is intent on controlling her. We know this when men are told that "no means yes," and that women like rape. AskMen.com just listed rape as the third most common sexual fantasy of women. Except they describe the "rape" fantasy thusly:

Most psychologists believe this top 10 female sex fantasy allows a woman to have the wild, dirty sex she craves, without having to suffer the guilt that often follows. These female sex fantasies usually involve a gorgeous man carrying her off to his bedroom and quickly getting down to business. She’ll protest as he tears her clothing off and expertly arouses her body, but on the inside, she’ll love every minute of it. This continues to the point of penetration, and leads her to an incredible orgasm despite her earlier protests. This female sex fantasy allows a woman to be wanton and enjoy sex -- something society rarely permits.

Which means that some women like taboo sex, not rape. See how men turned that around to pretend that when women say no, you don't have to trust them, and men can just claim that he thought she liked being forced upon and assaulted? I mean, why ask if she'd actually like that -- it'll kill the fantasy! A similar phenomenon is the idea that women actually don't like sex. So when they say they do, they just have to learn that they're really just being conned by our crazy culture into thinking they want sex. Enter abstinence-only education. One goal for abstinence-only education is to deny young women knowledge about sexuality and validation to their own biological sexual urges. From a critique of the abstinence-only curriculum Sex Respect:

“[A] young man’s natural desire for sex is already strong due to testosterone, the powerful male growth hormone. Females are becoming culturally conditioned to fantasize about sex as well.” (Sex Respect, Student Workbook, p. 11) In a section dedicated to possible questions from students, the curriculum asks “but aren’t there many girls who really want to have sex, and so they pressure the guys?” The answer, “yes, there are. This is happening in larger numbers now than in years past, since the pop culture has removed the stigma from non-virgins and displays many role models of provocative women.” (Sex Respect, Student Workbook, p. 12)

There's nothing natural about a young woman's desire to have sex! It's all television's fault, which is why no one existed until a few decades ago. But abstinence-only education doesn't just tell young women that the tingly feelings they've felt in their nethers shouldn't be trusted. The Miss The Mess program teaches teens that certain young women who say they've been raped shouldn't be trusted either. In the part of the website that I linked to, there is a scenario where four friends are at a party together. A boy named Jason gets drunk after breaking up with his girlfriend, Monica. He meets a friend of his, Rochelle, to talk about it. After the sex act, Rochelle tells the police she's been raped. At the end of the story, students are asked if rape occurred:

“Unfortunately, we are left judging (Rochelle’s) honesty by her character and her actions"... “Monica implied Rochelle had a promiscuous reputation and the whole school seemed to know it.” (cite, I also have the original transcript in my e-mail for any who want it).

Because Rochelle might not have been a virgin (after all, the only evidence of this is a "friend's" rumor-mongering), she couldn't be trusted when she said she was raped. Of course, anyone who comes forward to report a rape must be trusted; they are also extremely brave. Only after a huge effort by the online feminist community did the website change the discussion portion.

But this day, which is almost over, is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that gave women their bodies back. Since then, a ton of legislation has been passed or proposed to limit this legal procedure that 1 in 3 women will have done in their lifetime. Thirty-three states require women to go through counseling, and 20 states require a woman wait 24-hour before having an abortion. Some are told misinformation or outright lies about pregnancy and abortion before they can consent to the procedure. And still some states have the patronizing ultrasound law that requires women undergo an unnecessary ultrasound and be told "Thar's a baby on thar!" before going through the procedure. This is all because people believe that women don't know what they're doing when they seek an abortion. They also believe that women somehow floated to the clinic by some invisible force, rather than make a conscious decision after a great deal of thinking. They just plain don't trust women.

So for me, trusting women means taking what we say at face value. Women don't speak a foreign language that needs to be translated by men before we get to do anything. Well, maybe we say things nicer to you as to not to offend:

Because when we say "No," we mean, "HELL no!"

And when we say "Yes," we mean, "FUCK yeah!"

And when we say "I have cramps," we mean, "Uterus, get the FUCK out of my body!"

And when we say "I've been raped," we mean, "Some DICK just fucking raped me, and if you don't believe me, direct me to someone who gives a shit, pig."

And when we say "I'm calling to make an appointment for an abortion, " we mean, "Goddamn, I wish it was easier to raise a kid in this country/That fucking deadbeat/Do anti-choice protesters, like, have jobs? Or do they just harass women all day? Maybe they should take care of their kids instead of policing my pussy."

And when we say we like sex, we mean we do it best to ourselves. You don't know what a clitoris is, do you, dude?

Take Action Monday on Tuesday

Urge the IMF to forgive Haiti's $800+ million debt.

Thank President Obama for giving Temporary Protected Status to Haitians in America, and ask him to protect Haitians fleeing to America to escape the hurricane's devastating effects.

Tell credit card companies to stop taking a cut out of charged charitable donations.

Stop Ticketmaster's monopoly.

Tell financial institutions that you want your money back.

Ensure that healthcare insurance reform covers abortion.

Take Action Monday

Support legislation to enact legislation that trains childcare workers.

Keep Texas from erasing Hispanics in textbooks.

Support real healthcare reform.

Protect the Caribou from extinction.

Send a message of support to Iranian activists.

Support early education.

Stop the Stupak Amendment from making it into healthcare reform.

Ponder on this for a Moment

If anyone needs evidence that sexism exists, just look at the abortion compromise in the Senate healthcare bill. Basically, women who want abortion coverage will have to write two separate checks, one for their regular health insurance premium and another for their abortion coverage. I don't know how cumbersome writing the separate checks will be, but the fact that women have to go through that is ridiculous just on principle. No other healthcare coverage requires a rider like this. Furthermore, states will be allowed to keep insurance companies from covering abortion. This isn't new, but it's new to national healthcare legislation.

Okay, quiz time. Here are a couple of scenarios where someone would need healthcare.

Scenario 1: One day, someone drinks several alcoholic beverages, enough to be legally "under the influence." They get into a car and drive. They're speeding, going 60 mph in a 35 mph zone. They're not wearing a seat belt, and they're talking on their cell phone, both of which are illegal in their state. Then, they drive into a tree. Since they weren't wearing a seat belt, they sustained many injuries. The drinking, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, and talking on the cell phone all contributed to this accident.

Scenario 2: One day, a woman has consensual sex with her boyfriend. Two weeks later, she finds out she is pregnant. She decides to have an abortion, for reasons that are none of your business.

Who's covered by health insurance? The person who became seriously injured because they engaged in four illegal behaviors at once? Or the woman who did absolutely nothing illegal, two of those things being biological phenomena (sex and pregnancy), one of which she really has no conscious control over (pregnancy)?

In the first scenario, the person who engaged in all of those illegal behaviors is covered by insurance. Furthermore, they do not have to purchase a rider to cover injuries sustained in the event that they drive drunk, speed, don't wear a seat belt, or drive while talking on the cell phone. (Keep in mind, the fines leveed on the person for doing all of that are probably more than your average first-trimester abortion would be). The fact that they've broken four laws in the process is not held against them. Nobody really cares that such people exist. Nobody is debating their rights on the floors of the House and Senate, in the media, or at the kitchen table. Nobody is worried that they're tax dollars will fund the treatment of such reckless and illegal behavior. They're given the benefit of the doubt, in addition to their treatment.

In the second scenario, the fact that she's a woman is held against her. The fact that she had sex with a man who is not her husband is held against her. The fact that she had sex without wanting a child is held against her. The fact that she is pregnant is held against her. The fact that she wants an abortion is held against her. Her rights are constantly being attacked by the people who are supposed to represent her, as well as people who care about her, and people who don't know her and are judged by them anyway. People are complaining that their tax dollars might go to providing her an abortion, because they think abortion is wrong, even though it's a completely made-up concern. Nobody gives her the benefit of the doubt, and nobody gives her treatment.

So to say that the Senate healthcare bill will treat women like criminals isn't exactly accurate. The coverage of criminals isn't being debated. Criminals will still get their healthcare.

Take Action Tuesday

I am slowly but surely getting back to more normal schedule. I cannot wait for this semester to be over!

Today is World AIDS Day. Please have open and frank conversations with the people you care about regarding who is most affected by HIV/AIDS. Recognize that people considered disposable -- women, the poor, LGBTs, people with mental illness, people of color -- are the ones being killed by AIDS. Once the oppression stops, so will the spread of HIV.

Ensure that women's health is covered in healthcare reform.

Act now to stop the Stupak Amendment.

Support paid sick leave for workers sick with H1N1.

Take Action Friday

Quick Take Action update before I celebrate my friends birthday.

Tell the House and Senate that abortion is healthcare.

Help protect seniors during these harsh economic times.

End the illegal dog meat trade.

Join the campaign to end preventable blindness.

Support 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.

Tell the FDA to ban BPA.

Show your support for Medicare.

Urge the US to ban land mines.

Help ratify the Treaty for the Rights of Women

Take Action Finally

Practicum teaching, school projects, work, oh my. I've been a busy, busy bee. And I've been getting a lot of comments on the old blog, but they've been from the same Anonymous Russian, so I can't read them . . . .

Today is International Transgender Day of Remembrance. Attend an event, e-mail your representatives, write a newspaper editorial. Make sure they're not forgotten.

Stop the Stupak Amendment from entering the Senate health reform bill. And send a coat hanger to the so-called "pro-choice" Democrats who voted for the amendment in the House. Virtual coat hangers, of course. Real ones wouldn't get past security.

Block attempts by the Chamber of Commerce to block healthcare reform.

Support early childhood education.

Tell the CEO of Goldman Sachs to help the workers of Stella D'Oro (or just do it for the cookies).

Urge President Obama to make fighting HIV in women and children a priority.

Take Action Monday on Wednesday

I've been a real sucky blogger for at least the last week or so. My schedule has changed and I need to get used to the new routine. I have at least one thing I want to post about body image during the weekend, so you can at least look forward to that.

Urge your Representatives to reject any anti-choice amendments to health care reform.

Support legislation that provides nutritious meals for America's children.

Demand stronger car emissions standards from the EPA.

Tell Republicans to stop lying about health care reform.

Support a public health insurance option.

Tell the CDC that circumcision is not the answer to preventing STDs.