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The state legislatures of Virginia and Oklahoma have continued to embarrass their reasonable constituents this week by passing legislation that defines fertilized eggs as "persons" eligible for the same rights as normal humans that aren't multicelled, consciousless globs. Framers of Personhood bills believe that their new laws would outlaw abortion, and they're right— but I don't think they realize just how complicated it would be if all constitutional rights were granted to prepeople. How messy could it get? Let's take a look at the Bill of Rights and find out. More »
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There's no better way for lawmakers to impress constituents nowadays than to pass draconian abortion restrictions, and no states are trying harder to enforce pregnancy than Kansas and Oklahoma. But which terrible, totalitarian abortion law is worse? Let's find out. More »
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At a campaign appearance in Missouri, frontrunner for Miss American Bigot 2012 Rick Santorum waxed nostalgic about the days when abortion was shameful and in the shadows. You know, back alley. What lovely times, those. More »
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Oh, good. Just what the world of women's health needed: Presidential candidate and cyborg Mittens Romney has inserted his large, square head into the middle of the Planned Parenthood/Susan G.Komen debate. And, of course, he thinks Komen did the right thing. More »
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Sweatervest militia extremist Rick Santorum has a message for America: Susan G. Komen for the Cure should not be providing any sort of support to Planned Parenthood, because abortion causes breast cancer. Good grief. Does he also think that eating orange M&M's will kick his tits up a cup size? Or that stepping on a crack will break his mother's back? Please, please, please shut up, Rick Santorum. More »
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Great news, rape victims! Ron Paul is willing to make an exception in his strict "no abortions ever!" rule for you, but only if you have one of those "honest rapes." In fact, he's got some great ideas on how rape victims should behave. More »
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Susan G. Komen for the Cure is trying its very hardest to prove to its supporters that it didn't decide to stop giving grants to Planned Parenthood because of an internal or external right wing political agenda, which is steaming, obvious bullshit. Now, it turns out that people from inside Komen confirm that the decision was a political one, and the politics of Komen are swinging wildly to the right thanks to the metastasized ideology of Karen Handel, former Mama Grizzly, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, and longtime anti-Planned Parenthood crusader. More »
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Susan G. Komen For the Cure has announced that it will stop funneling money to Planned Parenthood, ending a years-long partnership between the two organizations that provided mammograms and related services to low income women. But what accounts for the Komen Foundation's sudden change of heart? Surprisingly, it seems that the pressure may not have come from external sources, but from within the Foundation itself. More »
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The campaign in South Carolina is heating up, says everyone. That's apparently code for "the candidates are gathered in the roughly same geographic area, and they're emitting high pitched shrieks at each other." Yesterday, they were shrieking about Bain Capital. Today, they're still hollering about Bain, but they're also yelling about fetuses— specifically, which Republican Presidential hopeful deserves the title of Fetus's #1 fan. Let the anti-abortion rights pissing contest begin. More »
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The story of a Texas teenager who's suing her family to stop them pressuring her into an abortion is all over the anti-abortion media. But their coverage of it shows how poorly they understand what it means to be pro-choice. More »
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Who do you think is going to win the Super Bowl this year? The Green Bay Packers? The Patriots? Tim Tebow cloned a bunch of times playing against an entire other team of Tim Tebows? Wrong, wrong and wrong. The winner of the Super Bowl this year is Randall Terry. The pro-life zealot has won the right to air graphic anti-abortion ads featuring images of fetal remains during this year's Big Game, and there's nothing you or I can do about it. More »
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This year, rather than fix the economy or create jobs, American lawmakers have opted to focus their attention instead on working their evangelical butts off to make sure that there are as many obstacles between a woman and reproductive control as possible, using esoteric imaginary justification to introduce legislation that would be disastrous if enacted. The impact of restrictive abortion laws is not a mystery; dozens of countries around the world already severely restrict women's access to reproductive health services, and, to put it lightly, life for women in those countries is hardly a picnic. In fact, from what we can glean, an America without legal abortions would be pretty terrible for everyone. More »
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It's already illegal for taxpayer money to be used to fund abortions in Texas, but that's not enough for one anti-choice group. In a telecast on Monday, they announced that this spring, they're going to throw their efforts behind eliminating all funding from Planned Parenthood, by attacking local sources of funding. Even private donations. More »
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The horrifying debate around Mississippi's Personhood Amendment has yielded up an interesting rhetorical tidbit: some anti-choicers apparently see abortion rights as castrating America's masculine spirit. That's a viewpoint with some disturbing connotations. More »
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Today, Mississippi's voters weigh in on Initiative 26, the "Personhood" Amendment. If enacted, it will declare that a zygote is a "person" from the moment of fertilization and that all forms of abortion are illegal. In addition, some birth control and IVF practices will be outlawed. As unfathomably dimwitted as it sounds, a recent poll shows a deadlock among the electorate — 45% of Mississippians say they support Personhood with 44% opposing and 11% undecided (Mississippi: The Science State). We kind of like this whole idea of making it illegal to mess with things by virtue of the fact that we have amended the constitution to declare them "persons." What else, besides featureless clusters of cells, deserves the same protection as grown ass humans? More »
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Not to be overshadowed once again by its taller, skinnier sister Mississippi or its more popular cousin Ohio, Tennessee is reminding the rest of America that it, too, can suck with the best of them. State lawmakers have successfully introduced a provision to the 2014 ballot that would amend the state's constitution to allow legislators to restrict or outlaw abortion. I guess when they say "The Volunteer State," they don't mean the type of volunteer who escorts patients to Planned Parenthood; they mean the type of volunteer who helpfully offers to vote for other people's rights to be taken away. More »
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Mississippi's jaw droppingly absurd Personhood Amendment is drumming up a lot of press, but theirs isn't the only kooky pro-life law poised to pass this fall; Ohio's got a bit of overreaching anti-choice legislation of its own: a fetal heartbeat bill. And supporters are about to to take to the TV airwaves to urge politicians to pass the damn thing, for the children and such. Ohioans, I hope you're ready to get the shit annoyed out of you. More »
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Mississippi's "personhood" push combined with a wave of abortion restricting laws across the country seems to have emboldened anti-choice protesters. Let's take a quick, awful peek at how the other half thinks. Not surprisingly, their tactics are nuttier than a squirrel orgy. More »
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The presidential race scheduled to take place in Ireland next week is almost as much of a circus as our own in the US. But one candidate, Dana Scallon, stands out for her anti-choice views, her odd career as a pop singer and sponsor of "pro-life art", and her connection to a man accused of child sexual abuse. More »
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On November 8, Mississippians will vote on Initiative 26, an amendment to their state's constitution declares that life begins at the moment of conception. If enacted, the measure will effectively outlaw all abortion, IVF, embryonic stem cell research, and many forms of birth control. The driving force behind this and other such initiatives is an extreme fringe ideology known as the "Personhood USA" movement, and one of the loudest voices in that movement is Rebecca Kiessling. Here's hoping your rage levels have been kept at a manageable "middling" today; they're about to skyrocket. More »
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I was sure all the men in suits in the lobby knew what I was doing. I hadn't expected it to be in an office building, or to have to choose from a list of what felt like a million names to find it. One of those men in suits followed me into the elevator. Still, I took a deep breath and pushed the button that would take me to the floor where I would have an abortion. Or so I thought. More »
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The coalition of extremists pushing a bill that would ban abortion at the detection of the first heartbeat has announced that Rick Perry is on their team. He personally informed a group of 250 activists that he would support the bill, which is in intentional violation of Roe v. Wade's viability standard. More »
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This year, at the Bronner Brothers International Hair Show in Atlanta, a group of women tried something different. Just let Christina Martin tell you about her new plan for black hair salons: More »
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One of Rick Perry's legislative victories as governor of Texas was a law that fined doctors unless they offered to show sonograms to women seeking abortions, described fetal development in detail, and offered up audio of a heartbeat. Now a judge says that's unconstitutional. More »
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I have never fundamentally disagreed with anyone I like more than Sarina Duvall. More »
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We know Mitt Romney was nebulously pro-choice back when he was simply a Massachusetts politician, and that he has been far less so as a presidential primary candidate — though possibly not enough to satisfy the ever-extreme Republican base. Now, via Salon, we know a bit more about the tragic death of his cousin from an illegal abortion, which he has said motivated his position. More »
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Don't let the repetitive coverage of Michele Bachmann as an increasingly mainstream, or at least ubiquitous, candidate fool you. She's a telegenic opportunist, yes, but there's no evidence that she is still anything but an extremist, strongly motivated by what's benignly known as "social issues." More »
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San Francisco is stepping up its actions against anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers" whose advertisements mislead the public. The national anti-choice response is officially, "The other side does it too." Not quite. More »
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A judge is allowing former Ohio congressman Steve Driehaus to sue the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List for defamation, because as he sensibly pointed out, they were lying about whether abortion is "taxpayer-funded" under the Affordable Care Act. More »
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LeRoy Carhart takes on abortion patients that would have gone to his friend, Dr. George Tiller, except that Tiller was murdered two years ago. He practices in Nebraska, except when he has to go to Maryland almost weekly because Nebraska passed restrictions aimed pretty directly at him. He used to have a farm, but it was burned down, killing a dog, cat, and 17 horses, and anti-abortion opponents claimed responsibility. More »
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Anti-choice groups have won the first round of a legal battle over New York City's law requiring that crisis pregnancy centers prominently disclose that they do not provide referrals abortion or contraceptive services, and that there is no medical provider on staff. More »
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Last week, TOMS shoes founder Blake Mycoskie was a headliner at an event hosted by Focus On The Family. According to Christianity Today, Focus On The Family is "working to become a TOMS international distributor in Africa." Will canvas-footed progressives balk? More »
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Here's a rare spot of good news in the state-by-state abortion battle: A U.S. district court judge has temporarily blocked South Dakota's new abortion law, which would have gone into effect today with a 72-hour waiting period and a forced visit to a crisis pregnancy center. More »
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Lila Rose, last seen trying to trap Planned Parenthood into providing care to fake teenage prostitutes, is back. This time, the target is a little less sexy: Indiana defunding Planned Parenthood. More »
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The Ohio House has just passed 54-43 a bill that, if enacted into law, would be the most restrictive abortion law in the country. It's a deliberate challenge to Roe that would ban abortion after the detection of the first heartbeat. More »
]]> http://jezebel.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5816347&view=rss&microfeed=true Detroit is the latest front in the nationwide battle to secure space for abortion clinics. In this case, the owner of an adjacent hotel fears the "political stigma." Planned Parenthood is suing. More »
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The three remaining abortion clinics in Kansas — which is to say, the ones not already closed by the murder of an abortion provider in that state — are under threat of closing thanks to new, intentionally-unachievable regulations, Mother Jones reports. It's not just Kansas. More »
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Just when you think anti-choice activists have been as racist as you could imagine, they go and make this amped-up movie, Gates Of Hell, about crazy black men shooting abortion doctors as retaliation for "genocide." They're like Black Panthers, only right-wing white guys like them! More »
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Recently, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz called out Republicans for their "war on women." House Republican women have a response to that, which boils down to, "Nuh-uh!" Or to be precise, "We are not attacking women. We are women." More »
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Anti-choice bluster has given way to actual legislation, and guess who's paying the price? Low-income women, and any woman who would have sought care at the fourteen Planned Parenthood clinics that are closed or have been furloughed in Indiana and Minnesota. And more states are likely to follow. More »
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