Eye On Modesto

Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County

Archive for the tag “abortion”

15 Jun 2012

The Censorship of American Women – Brought To You By The GOP

By Gaetana Drake

Two female Michigan representatives (both Democrats) were recently censored for speaking out for women’s rights.  Michigan is attempting to pass some of the most abortion-restricting laws in the country.

Representative Lisa Brown (D) was expressing her opposition to a series of bills regulating abortion, when she said “Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no means no’.”  House Republicans claim her remark violated the decorum of the chamber and barred her from speaking during a subsequent debate on education.  I guess if you’re pro-choice in Michigan, your opinion on education is worthless.

Representative Mike Callton (R) said, “what she said was offensive.  It was so offensive I don’t even want to say it in front of women.  I would not say that in mixed company.”  Believe me, Mr. Callton, women are used to hearing much worse when it comes to our lady parts.  “Vagina” is a welcome improvement.

Ms. Brown quickly expressed her amazement at being censored during a press conference.  “If I can’t say the word vagina, why are we legislating vaginas?  What language should I use?”  She also noted that it is the medically correct word, and that everyone in the chambers was an adult.

The House also denied Barb Byrum (D) the ability to introduce an amendment that would ban men from having vasectomies unless the procedure was needed to save their lives.  “If we truly want to make sure children are born, we would regulate vasectomies”, she told reporters.

Many anti-abortion (and anti-birth control) legislatures claim they are opposed to abortion and birth control because of  “all the children waiting to be born.”

Apparently, the Republicans in Michigan have forgotten about the right to free speech – especially if it’s speech from women promoting women’s rights.  There is nothing vulgar about the word “vagina”, and using it was no reason to censor Lisa Brown.  Barb Byrum didn’t even use the word “vagina”.  She just suggested that if we’re going to legislate the reproductive rights of women, we should legislate those same rights of men. 

We all remember the Congressional panel that was formed to hear testimony about birth control.  Five men….talking about birth control.  And not one woman was allowed to give input to the discussion.  And now we can’t say the word “vagina”. 

What restrictions will be placed on American women next?

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09 Jun 2012
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Why Won’t They Stand Up For Women?

By EOM Staff

House Republicans recently presented a watered down version of the Violence Against Women Act for approval.  Remember, this act was approved in 1994 for the purpose of providing criminal justice to female victims of violence (we are the majority of victims of violent crimes), and to provide education and better prepared responses to domestic violence.  It has been overwhelmingly approved each time it has come up for renewal.  That is, until this year.

Republicans didn’t like the expanded version of the act, which would have provided protection for LGBT victims, Native American victims, illegal immigrant victims and even mail order brides who become victims.  Apparently, these women don’t deserve any kind of justice or protection.

I wonder how many men have hurried through a dark parking lot, nervous and looking over their shoulder, trying to get to their car as quickly as possible.  Do many men check the back seats of their cars before getting in?  How many men quickly lock the doors as soon as they are in their car?  These are things that are habits for women.  I wonder how many men wait for an abusive wife to come home and beat them up?  Not many, I don’t suppose.  1 of 7 American women will be the victim of a rape or attempted rape during her life.  1 of 3 American women will be the victim of a violent attack during her life.  Can’t say the same for men.

If violence against women is ever going to be curtailed, we need the force of law to help us defend ourselves. Don’t these Republicans know that they are denying protection to their own wives, daughters, sisters and mothers?

Then there’s the matter of contraception.  While most women think it’s nobody’s business but theirs, there are many laws being passed that restrict birth control.  The most bizarre one is the proposal that would allow an employer to deny women contraception coverage even if the employer has no moral or religious objection to it.   These male politicians (83% of Congress is male), should not be deciding what is best for women.  Do they believe we are not intelligent enough to make our own decisions?  Do they think we have no moral compass?  We are adults, and we know better than men what it means to bear and raise children.  Women spend an average of 30 years of their lives trying to prevent pregnancy.  Consider the financial burden of that if your insurance doesn’t cover it.

Now we have politicians trying (and succeeding, I’m afraid) to limit access to safe and legal abortions.  Apparently, we need to be punished for making the difficult decision to end a pregnancy.  I can’t imagine anything more humiliating that a trans-vaginal ultrasound being required prior to undergoing a legal procedure.  Their mind-set seems to be “you have sinned, now we must humiliate you.”  As usual, it is the woman who has “sinned”, with no burden placed on the man who sinned with her.  Makes me wonder if Mr. Limbaugh would have us all wear a scarlet “S” (he thinks we’re sluts, you know) on our clothes.

And just a few days ago, the Republicans voted down the Fair Pay Act.  Men are supposedly better at math than women.  Why don’t they understand that getting paid .77 to every 1.00 they earn for the same work isn’t fair?  With this kind of wage gap, how can women support all the babies they’ll be having if these male politicians have their way? 

And the battle over President Obama’s health care plan is still to be resolved.  Maybe these politicians don’t realize that in some states it’s legal to charge a woman up to 80% more for insurance than a man.  Mind you, women in these states are paying more for insurance, while making less for the same work.  Doesn’t make sense, does it?  The responsibility for birth control falls to women 99% of the time.  Thirty years of birth control costs, while earning less for the same work. I guess having ovaries is a “pre-existing” condition that makes this practice acceptable.

A hundred plus years ago, men ruled over women.  They owned the property, we couldn’t.  They served on juries, we couldn’t.  They could vote, we couldn’t.  Women needed to be “guided” by a firm masculine hand.  Our mothers’ and grandmothers’ generations tolerated that.  This is a new generation of women.  The party is over, boys.  You’ve started a war.  If you want peace in your lives again, it’s time to draw up a truce.  One where women control their own lives, not you and not the politicians.

To quote from Madeleine Kunin, first and only female Governor of Vermont, “if you persist in fighting women on these fronts, it shouldn’t surprise you to learn that, especially in an election year, you end up looking and sounding stupid.”

Pay attention, guys.  More women than men voted in the 2008 presidential election.  And there will be even more this year.  Get your act together and start fighting for the rights of the women in your lives.  We won’t go back to the way it used to be.

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08 Jun 2012

The War Being Fought FOR Women

In 1994, the Cairo International Conference on Population and Development set goals to improve access to reproductive and sexual health services including family planning, and infant, child and maternal mortality.  They hope to meet their goals by 2015.

The conference participants envisioned rich countries helping poor countries to meet these goals, but no one was given a free ride.  Developing countries agreed to provide 2/3 of the money needed.  For every $1.00 spent in these countries to meet these goals, they save $1.40 in maternal and newborn health care costs.  It’s a win-win for the health of women and their babies, and a win-win for the financial well-being of the developing countries.

But as noted, this isn’t just about saving money.  This is about saving the lives of women and children.  The International Planned Parenthood Foundation works in 153 countries around the world.  Their Director-General, Tewondros Melesse reports that while maternal deaths have fallen by 47 percent since 1990, women in sub-saharan Africa still have a 1 in 39 lifetime risk of dying due to pregnancy related causes.  If the goals set in Cairo are met, it would result in global unintended pregnancies dropping from 75 million to 22 million.  There would be approximately 25 million fewer abortions (a goal we should all get behind), 22 million fewer unplanned pregnancies, and almost 1 million fewer deaths among women and newborns.  Right here in America, we have the highest maternal death rate of all industrialized countries due to lack of pre-natal care for low-income and uninsured women.

The world’s population hit 7 billion last year.  Half of the world’s citizens are under the age of 25.  It is imperative that these young people are educated about reproductive rights and have access to necessary reproductive health care.

While countries around the world are trying to provide better access to reproductive health care, right here in America we are trying to curb that access.  In 2011, states enacted 135 new reproductive healthcare laws ranging from personhood amendments, to trans-vaginal ultrasounds as a pre-requisite to receiving an abortion, to attacks on contraception, including allowing employers to decline to cover contraception, even when they hold no moral or religious objection to it.  In some states it is legal to charge a woman up to 80% more for insurance coverage than a man of the same age and health status.

But the truth is clear now.  Opponents of abortion have often said they simply want to end abortion.  We can see now that their ultimate goal is to end access to contraception.

We won that battle almost 50 years ago with a Supreme Court Decision (Griswold vs. Connecticut).  Yet here we are again, fighting once more to have control over our reproductive lives.

So there is a world wide war being fought FOR women.  It’s just not happening here in America.  Right here, we have a war AGAINST women.  If you don’t see that, you haven’t been paying attention.

The teen pregnancy rate in the US is at the lowest in four decades.  This is a direct result of two things:  sex education in public schools and access to birth control.  Many states are banning sex education and many more are trying to limit access to birth control.  This will only result in an increase in teen pregnancy.

Talk to your wives, your mothers, your sisters and daughters.  Ask them what they think about birth control.  Ask them what they think about the possibility of NOT having birth control.   And please register to vote.  This presidential election will be one of the most important elections for women in the last 50 years.

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19 May 2012

The Slow But Steady Erosion of Women’s Rights

By EOM Staff

We all thought this battle was over.  In 1965, women were granted the right to use birth control.  In 1973, we were granted the right to terminate a pregnancy.  In 2012, we are extremely close to losing these rights.

State by state, legislatures are taking away our rights, or making them extremely difficult to exercise.  Consider this:

Nine states (AL, GA, ID, MI, NE, OH, SC, UT, WV) mandate (that word that Republicans hate so much, except when they use it) physicians to perform ultrasound exams on women seeking an abortion and encourage them to view the images.  Alabama Senator Clay Scofield (R) said, “this bill just allows them to see the child inside of them, so it’s not just out of sight, out of mind.”  How insulting is that comment?  He believes that when a woman is agonizing over whether to end a pregnancy, that pregnancy is “out of sight, out of mind?”

Thirty-five states have mandated (there’s that word again) that a woman seeking an abortion is counseled and the counselor must try to dissuade her from ending her pregnancy.

Six states mandate (yes, once again) physicians to tell a woman that a link exists between abortions and breast cancer.  There have been many studies and none have shown such a link.  What they have shown is that a pregnancy carried to term in a woman’s younger years results in a lower risk of breast cancer.  But that does not equate to having an abortion increasing the risk of cancer.  The risk would be the same as having never been pregnant.  These states are mandating that physicians lie to their patients.

Eight states mandate physicians to tell women that having an abortion could cause psychological problems.  There is no evidence to back that up.  The vast majority of women who have an abortion, have no psychological side effects.  The ones who tend to have problems later on are those with previous mental health issues, or who abuse alcohol or drugs.

Arizona protects a physician from a lawsuit if the physician chooses NOT to tell a pregnant woman that her fetus has major fetal abnormalities (including fatal ones), because that information might cause her to have an abortion.

So, here’s what we have:  State by state laws are being passed that interfere with the private patient/doctor relationship.  Requiring physicians to lie to their patients.  Protecting physicians who don’t tell their patients the truth.

How do you think men would feel if laws were being passed that did those things concerning their health?  Do you believe they would find it acceptable for their physician to lie to them, or to withhold the truth from them?

What’s most insulting of all is that in the past few months we’ve seen “panels” formed to discuss issues that effect women:  birth control coverage and abortion rights.  These are ALL-MALE PANELS!  And they are refusing to allow testimony from WOMEN!

Is this really the kind of health-care we want in America?  Or are we now living in Ameristan…I wonder if Sears carries burkas.

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19 Apr 2012

How Republicans Are Redefining the Lives of American Women

By EOM Staff

As we all know, many states are attempting to restrict access to abortions.  Most people agree that a woman needs to have access to a safe and legal abortion when she is pregnant as the result of rape.  However, the far right disagrees and their efforts to ban abortion in cases of rape have led them to “redefine” rape.  Their favorite phrase is now “forcible rape”.  If a man slips a couple of roofies into a woman’s drink at a bar and she is unconscious and unable to say “no”, that is NOT a forcible rape.  If a man holds a gun to a woman’s head while raping her and she doesn’t fight back, that is NOT a forcible rape.  Forcible rape means that the woman was injured during the rape.  So, if a man is attempting to rape you, be sure to get beat up so you can prove you were raped.

And now Arizona has redefined when a woman becomes pregnant.  Typically, a doctor will find out what was the woman’s first day of her last period, then add two weeks to determine when she became pregnant.  It’s not exact, but it has worked well for many, many years.  But in Arizona, Governor Jan Brewer (R) just signed a bill that states that a woman IS already pregnant on the first day of her period.  So, even though the woman may not have had sex recently, she is still considered to be pregnant.  I wonder if a virgin is considered to be pregnant on the first day of her period.  There is a reason Arizona is ignoring medical science and biology….and that is to restrict a woman’s right to end a pregnancy.  Arizona does not allow abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy, except in extreme cases.  They have not defined “extreme cases”.   The vast majority of abortions are performed within the first 12 weeks.  The few that take place around the 20th week are to save the life of the mother or in cases where the fetus has severe abnormalities.  By redefining when a pregnancy begins, Arizona is now limiting abortions performed after the 18th week, instead of the 20th week.  Here’s the problem….a lot of genetic testing can’t be done until the 16th to 20th weeks of pregnancy.  Testing for conditions like Tay-Sachs.  A child born with Tay-Sachs lives only 4 to 5 years, in pain their entire lives.  They become blind, deaf, unable to swallow and paralytic.  The ONLY treatment is to “make them as comfortable as possible”.  This means to attempt to lessen their constant pain.  Now in the past in Arizona, if a woman’s fetus is tested for a genetic condition like Tay-Sachs in the actual 18th week of her pregnancy, gets the results in two weeks and finds out her fetus has Tay-Sachs, she would be able to end the pregnancy at 20 weeks.  But with the redefinition of when pregnancy begins, Arizona would consider her to be 20 weeks pregnant when she had the test, 22 weeks when she gets the results, and prohibited from ending the pregnancy.

It’s a very under-handed way of limiting a woman’s right to choose what is best for her and her family and even for the fetus inside her.  These are heart-rending decisions women in these positions make.  But no longer….Arizona has made the decision for them.  They will be forced to give birth to a child who will suffer it’s entire, short life.  Because obviously, Arizona knows what is best for women in that state.  Not the women.  Not their physicians.  Just the state.

If you don’t believe there is a war on women, you haven’t been paying attention.

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23 Mar 2012

The Shaming of American Women

By EOM Staff

Several states are proposing severe restrictions on abortion rights and even access to birth control.  Birth control became legal in 1965.  Abortions became legal in 1973.  In an attempt to restrict both of these things, the conservative right has proposed the following in some states:

A mandatory, medically unnecessary trans-vaginal probe ultrasound.  If the woman is insured, this procedure won’t be covered because it is medically unnecessary.  If she is uninsured and low-income, how will she pay for this?

Requiring a physician to describe in detail the fetus, and force the woman to listen to the fetal heartbeat.

Requiring a physician to tell his patient that abortions cause breast cancer, which is not true.  Carrying a pregnancy to term and breast-feeding reduce the risk of breast cancer,  but that is certainly not the same as saying abortions cause breast cancer.

Requiring a physician to read a government prepared pro-life script to their patients, even if the physician supports abortion rights.

Mandatory 24 – 72 hour waiting periods after seeing a physician, but prior to terminating the pregnancy.  This can be financially difficult for women who have to travel across a state (many states have only one abortion provider), then spend 3 nights in a hotel prior to ending the pregnancy.  She would also be forced to miss work for those 3 days, which only adds to the financial burden.

Making demographic information available on-line regarding every woman that has an abortion, including: county of residence, age, marital status, educational level, number of children she has, and how many pregnancies she has had.  They also want to require that the physicians’ name be made public. 

Requiring a woman who uses birth control for reasons other than contraception to prove to her employer that she is using it for medical reasons in order to be reimbursed by her employer-sponsored insurance.  Women often use the pill to treat endometriosis, regulate periods, relieve pain from heavy periods, control the growth of ovarian cysts or to treat severe acne.  Requiring her to show her medical records to her employer would be a violation of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).  This is a federal law, which among other things, protects the privacy of medical records.

Texas recently lost Medicaid funding for family planning due to Governor Rick Perry signing a law that takes Planned Parenthood off the list of agencies that a woman can choose for her health care services.  Medicaid law prohibits states from limiting a woman’s choice of providers, simply because that provider offers separate services (such as abortions), even though abortions are not paid by taxpayer funds.  Because of this, Medicaid has removed their funding from Texas and now low-income women will have birth control restricted.

Some states would like to ban abortion, even in the case of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life.  In discussing the possibility of allowing abortion in the case of rape Bob Winder (R-Idaho) said that he wonders if women truly know when they’ve been raped.  He also said that when a woman sees her physician about the issue of rape and pregnancy, he hopes the physician would question her about her marriage and ask if the pregnancy were really the result of a rape or of  “normal marital relations”.    This is as offensive as the statement of some male legislatures who question whether a woman truly understands what she’s doing when she terminates a pregnancy.

Fortunately, as of March 22, many of these proposals were being reviewed by the legislatures who wrote them.  I believe this is a result of the outpouring of anger from American women who do not want to lose their reproductive rights.  Ironically, the reason many of the men who wrote these proposals are giving as the purpose for reviewing them, is “I didn’t understand what that would mean.”  Apparently, it’s the men who don’t understand the reasons for birth control and the right to a safe, legal abortion.  Women understand all too well.

I can’t help but believe that many of these efforts are an attempt to “shame” American women into giving up their reproductive rights.  The creator of Doonesbury recently ran a series of comic strips about these issues.  He referred to the waiting room as the “shaming room” and the trans-vaginal probe as the “10 inch wand of shame”. 

What will be next?  We are barely past the stage of blaming a woman for being raped.  Do we want to be like Pakistan or other countries, where the woman’s family is shamed if she is raped?  And the only way for her to bring honor back to her family is to marry her rapist?  It sounds far-fetched for America…but it’s a slippery slope when you start taking away the rights of half of America’s citizens.

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07 Mar 2012

Is This A War On Women? What Do You Think?

By EOM Staff

The Republicans keep denying that they are waging a war on women.  Let’s review the facts:

17 Republican led  states have passed or are attempting to pass stringent anti-abortion laws, including forcing the woman to have a trans-vaginal ultrasound and listen to her doctor read from a government mandated statement prior to proceeding with an abortion.  Do you want the government to control what your doctor tells you?

They claim that women “don’t understand” what they are doing when they terminate a pregnancy.  We are the ones who get pregnant.  I think we know better than men what a pregnancy means. A recent survey by the California State University, San Francisco, followed 467 women who had abortions.  They were all offered (not required) to view an ultrasound image of the fetus.  60% chose to do so.  After viewing the image, all 60% went through with their decision to terminate the pregnancy.  Once a woman has decided to have an abortion, she usually doesn’t change her mind no matter what hoops the government might make her jump through.

Republican Senator Roy Blunt (Missouri) attempted to pass a bill allowing employers to opt out of insurance coverage for “any treatment to which they have a moral objection.”  This could include birth control, pre-natal care for an unmarried woman, even treatment for cervical cancer which is caused by a virus that is transmitted sexually.  How does this make health care more accessible and affordable for anyone?  Do you want your employer to get between you and your doctor?

Republicans would like to defund Planned Parenthood, which provides millions of women and children (and some men) with general health care (cancer screenings, immunizations and vaccinations and birth control.) They want it to close because they think that Planned Parenthood is using federal funds for abortions, which is illegal.  Planned Parenthood has opened their books for inspection and no evidence has ever been found that federal funds are used for abortions.  Planned Parenthood provides, in many cases, the only health care that some women and children receive.

The state of Texas has greatly reduced its funding of sex education and is one of the states that requires women to jump through hoops prior to terminating a pregnancy.  Young women will be much better prepared to avoid an unwanted pregnancy if they are provided with more information on how to prevent one (sex education.)

Now the great state of Wisconsin is proposing SB 507 which is aimed at penalizing single mothers by calling their unmarried status “a contributing factor in child abuse and neglect”.  This bill criticizes social workers for not agreeing that children “should ONLY be raised by two married biological parents.”  It would also amend existing state law by “requiring the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board to emphasize non-marital parenthood as a contributing factor to child abuse and neglect”.  So instead of congratulating these women for choosing not to abort, they are accusing them of being guilty of child abuse.  And they seem to forget for every unmarried mother there is an unmarried father out there somewhere.  I’m sure that some of these women chose to be unmarried.  I believe some of these children live in a home with both biological parents, who just aren’t married. I’m also sure that a much greater percentage are unmarried because the fathers of their children chose to bail out of the relationship.  And some of these women are unwed mothers because they left an abusive relationship.  Would the children benefit by living in an abusive household?

I work for a small employer in Modesto.  There are 13 employees there.  Among those 13 employees, I am aware of 5 young children whose fathers have chosen not to be involved in their lives and make no financial contribution to the care of their children.  Yet Wisconsin would say that these mothers are guilty of child abuse.  What about the fathers?  Don’t they bear some responsibility for these children?

Nobody believes abortions are a good thing.  But they will occur whether they are legal or not.  The goal of both liberals and conservatives is to reduce the number of abortions performed.  How can banning birth control possibly do this?  How can prohibiting sex education prevent unplanned pregnancies?

When you consider all this information, this can only be seen as an attempt to control women by preventing them from being in charge of their own health care and their reproductive lives.

I’d call it a war on women.  What would you call it?

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04 Mar 2012

BIRTH CONTROL, CHARITABLE GIVING, SNOBBERY AND FAITH

By EOM Staff

Chris Wallace, of Fox News, questioned Rick Santorum on Sunday about his position on birth control, his charitable giving and his comment that President Obama is a “snob” for encouraging young people to go to college.  Apparently, Mr. Santorum has forgotten that he went to college and I’m sure his children have or will.

When questioned about his beliefs on birth control, he tried to steer the discussion away from contraception and toward the issue of religious liberty.  Remember, President Obama has already allowed religious institutions to have an exemption to providing birth control coverage in their insurance plans. This is no longer a religious freedom issue, this is a women’s rights and women’s health issue.  Mr. Santorum believes birth control is harmful to woman.  He ignores the fact that 99% of sexually active women use birth control at some point in their lives.  He is certainly free to have his beliefs which are based upon his religion, but he is certainly NOT free to force the effect of those beliefs onto all American women.

President Obama and Mitt Romney both gave 14% of their 2010 earnings to charity.  Mr. Santorum gave 1.76% of his earnings to charity.  When questioned about his low charitable contributions, he contributed it to the expense of caring for a disabled child.  He explained that providing care for her is very expensive and his insurance doesn’t cover it.  His daughter Bella is very fortunate that her parents can provide the best possible care for her, however, Mr. Santorum fails to understand that there are very few families who could provide for a disabled child as well as he can.  For most families, the cost of caring for such a child would result in limited educational opportunities for other children in the family and reduced funds available for basic needs such as food and clothing.  For most of us, this financial burden would drive our families into abject poverty.  How do you care for a disabled child when your water, electricity and gas have been turned off because you couldn’t pay the bill?  Very few women have an abortion without given serious thought to the consequences for themselves and their families.  For many families, terminating a pregnancy involving a disabled fetus may be the only realistic option.  But remember, Mr. Santorum is against pre-natal testing because he feels it leads to abortions involving abnormal fetuses.  Again, he forgets that we can’t all care for a disabled child like he can.  And, Mr. Santorum has said that birth control shouldn’t be allowed.  So he would condemn many, many families to poverty to pay for disabled children, when the pregnancy could have been not just terminated, but prevented.  Very few women terminate a pregnancy without giving serious thought to the consequences for themselves and their families.  This is a decision best left to the mother, the father and her doctor.  Not to Rick Santorum or our government.

Chris Wallace also asked Mr. Santorum about his recent comment calling President Obama a snob for saying that “everybody in American should go to college.”  Mr. Santorum had to acknowledge that he “might have made a mistake” when Chris Wallace pointed out that what President Obama actually said was to encourage “all Americans to have at least one year of higher education or some kind of vocational training or apprenticeship”.

Part of Mr. Santorum’s problem with higher education seems to be his belief that people who start college with a strong faith seem to come out of it with a lesser faith.  But then, he seems to equate true faith with regular church attendance.  I believe you can have a strong faith and never step inside a church.  The church is just a building.  Your faith is shown in how you live your daily life.  And frankly, some of the comments I’ve seen on blog sites by people who claim to be Christians and have a strong faith, are the most hateful things you can imagine.

But, Mr. Santorum, the bottom line is that we are all free to follow any faith we choose, or no faith at all.  But you are trying to force your faith and your religious beliefs into our government.  Remember when John Kennedy was running for President, people were afraid that if he won, the Vatican would control our government.  And that’s exactly what would happen if Mr. Santorum were president.  It would not matter what faith individual Americans have or if they have no faith.  We would all have to live by the rules of the Catholic Church.  How un-American is that?

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