Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Ultrasound Bill’

IWD

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , on March 8, 2012| 1 Comment »

We women were thinking globally long before computers and airplanes flattened the world. But excuse American women for not knowing much about International Women’s Day. The holiday actually started as part of the Socialist labor movement in Russia in the early 1900’s (probably why it was played down over here) and quickly spread to encompass voting and other civil rights. I love this picture – kind of ironic, the sign about the power of reproduction, isn’t it?
“Our employers have wealth, we have the power of reproduction”

The strange thing is, I’d never even heard about an international holiday for women until I was abroad, and going out to dinner. I was hand delivered a rose with a bow by the maitre’d. It seems that most men on the planet earth give the women in their lives flowers on this day. It’s like Mother’s Day in the states, only for daughters, sisters, grandmothers, aunties, cousins and unsuspecting female American tourists.
http://www.internationalwomensday.com/about.asp

As a proud, bra-burning 70s American feminist, I was slightly dismayed. Really, what started out as a fight for civil rights has ended up as a hallmark holiday – with all of the floral swagger and none of the good sales. I’m heading out to my card shop now, I’d like to see if they have any IWD cards next to the St Patrick’s Day greenery.

Yesterday our Governor signed into law a bill that will require a hateful, misogynistic, humiliating procedure be carried out by a doctor, nurse or tech at an extremely fragile time in a woman’s life. Maybe this woman is just too young, maybe she was raped, maybe she learned that the zygote she is carrying has no chance of survival due to some genetic anomaly. Well, the transvaginal part of the ultrasound before an abortion has been removed. But the transducer must still, by order of our government, be scanned across her belly and she must be asked if she’d like to watch and listen to the heartbeat. Then think about it for a few days and come back for the procedure, all on her nickel.

When will you get it through your heads. We are smart, we women, and we know what we are choosing and wouldn’t it be lovely if we didn’t have to do this, but ultimately it’s a decision for the woman to make with her doctor. Let me repeat, woman plus doctor equals reproductive rights. I honestly thought religion had no place in our public policy decisions, but ladies , march on. Let’s send our governor some dead roses, shall we?
http://soundcloud.com/carcon/09-dead-flowers

Read Full Post »

Bowling Alone

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on February 23, 2012| 1 Comment »

It would seem that what happened in the Lone Star State without much of a whimper, is going to blow up in the Old Dominion. I first started writing about this repugnant piece of legislation called the “ultrasound bill” awhile ago, highlighting a woman delegate’s idea for a man to submit to a rectal exam should he seek medical care. Then Jon Stewart did a brilliant skit and VA became a national laughingstock. Now Gov Bob McDonnell is backing down. I guess his greater ambitions got the best of him. All it took was thousands of women standing mute outside the Capitol this week, and millions of signatures on petitions; and probably more lucid members of his own party. Today is a Day of Outrage for women and the men who love them in VA – if you would like to write to the Gov, please feel free, just ask him to “Please veto mandatory ultrasound and two-trip requirements for women seeking abortion care in Virginia.”
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/AboutTheGovernor/contactGovernor.cfm
I did and his site was so busy it took a full 10 minutes for the email to sail off.

It got me thinking of Greta Garbo, the Flapper’s favorite actress. “I vant to be alone.” Then Bob looked up Justice Brandeis’ 1928 quote on his iPad. Speaking in Olmstead vs US about wiretapping, he said that one of a citizen’s most important rights is “The right to be left alone.” Now here was a man ahead of his time, he even envisioned a future where papers may not have to be taken from a drawer, but ‘by another means’ produced in court. Technology wasn’t a word yet, so he imagined a ‘psychic method.’ Imagine that before the Great Depression, he could envision computer hacking! Which led me to think about a landmark book, Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam. This gifted Harvard Public Policy Prof has often said that with great social changes comes great controversy. Once we bowled in leagues after work, and now our social capital is diminishing – we bowl alone, we sit in cubicles in front of computers alone while ostensibly connecting with others. Here are some of his ideas for becoming more invested in a democracy:http://www.bettertogether.org/150ways. Hey Bob, check out #119…

Thank you women of VA, for telling the Gov we are watching, we want government to leave us alone! This religious attack on contraception and women’s health is unconscionable, outdated and immoral. Our bodies, our choice, our doctors! We knit together, and we vote – red, blue and purple.

Read Full Post »

Semantics in the Air

Posted in Books, Journaling, Wedding, Country, tagged , , on February 2, 2012| 3 Comments »

Thank you VA State Senator Janet Howell (D-Fairfax Co) for introducing an amendment to require a digital rectal exam and a cardiac stress test to men seeking an RX for erectile dysfunction. Her reasoning? Simple; “The Virginia senate is about to pass a bill that will require a woman to have a totally unnecessary medical procedure at their cost and inconvenience. If we’re going to do that to women, why not do that to men?” She was making the point that a little gender equity might go a long way; Howell’s amendment was defeated 21-18. The GOP Bill that requires an ultrasound before an abortion was passed in the Senate and now comes to R-Gov Bob McDonnell’s desk.

Now besides my firm opinion that our government has no more need of sticking its rules and regs between the sheets in our collective bedrooms or the stirrups in our OB-GYN office, I rise today in opposition of the right’s tendency to hijack our language…we Democratic women are “Pro-Choice” and you, Republican led legislators are “Anti-Choice.” Who gave you the right to call yourself “Pro-Lifers?” Many of you are for the death penalty. Isn’t that a contradiction in terms? This VA bill also instructs a provider (insert Doctor or NP or Planned Parenthood) to ask the woman seeking an abortion if she would like to see the ultrasound!!?? It also requires that the medical professional performing the ultrasound “…obtain written certification from the woman that she was offered the chance to see the image….(and)…to record whether the woman chose to see the ultrasound image or hear the fetal heartbeat.” Oh and then wait some number of days to actually have the abortion.

If I am not hearing a collective gasp from blue and red women everywhere…really? Margaret Atwood help us please! Thank you Sen Janet Howell for pointing out the folly of this horrendous attack against women. Why not play by their rules and submit the old pay to play amendment – if you mandate such a procedure VA, then you get to pay for it! Whoops, the government paying for an abortion procedure?
I think not. Hold onto your pen Gov Bob, bend over and cough!

Read Full Post »