| "Stomach-churning" link/thoughts/quotes to start the day . . . |
[May. 4th, 2008|10:24 am] |
I'm eventually going to post other things today, but this needs to stand all on its on.
Quoting hopefully-not-too-liberally from this Shaker Chingona at this link:
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2008/05/horrifying-new-law-forced-ultrasounds.html
"Last week, the Oklahoma Legislature overrode the governor's veto and enacted a law that . . . requires that the woman have either an abdominal or a vaginal ultrasound, whichever offers the clearer picture, as a condition of having an abortion. For almost all women having first trimester abortions, the transvaginal ultrasound will offer a clearer picture.
Dr. Dana Stone, a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, wrote on Alternet:
Neither the patient nor the doctor can decide which type of ultrasound to use, and the patient cannot opt out of the ultrasound and still have the procedure. In effect, then, the legislature has mandated that a woman have an instrument placed in her vagina for no medical benefit. The law makes no exception for victims of rape and incest.
. . . one of the most stomach-churning requirements I have ever seen. They are willing to physically violate and humiliate women who are determined to have an abortion and willing to use the threat of that humiliation to try to dissuade women from having a legal medical procedure. Even the normally distressing commenters at Salon's Broadsheet understood that this is just wrong. As one so aptly said, isn't there a word for sticking something in a woman's vagina against her free and uncoerced will?
Yes, there is. Thank you, Oklahoma Legislature, for mandating medical rape.
I would like to believe this law would be found unconstitutional. I know of no other situation in which a patient would be refused the ability to turn down a medically unnecessary procedure. But with our current Supreme Court, I fear we soon will be told this is a necessary measure to protect women from themselves."
Sorry to quote so much from someone else, but s/he said it so well . . .
From the comments to this, apparently this was the first override of this governor's veto in his five years in office, and it was done w/help of some democrats in the state legislature. This is why I will never say "any democrat is better than any republican", because some of them aren't. |
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| Hillary & the wage gap |
[Apr. 20th, 2008|10:55 am] |
& saving the best, more substantive, less political politics for last, an article about Hillary and her efforts to combat the wage gap:
http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/04/16/action-seventy-seven-cents/
Senate Bill 841 (S. 841) - the Fair Pay Restoration Act was introduced in the Senate by Hillary on April 19, 2005, and currently has 18 co-sponsors.
Senate Bill 766 (S. 766) - the Paycheck Fairness Act was introduced in the Senate by Hillary on March 6, 2007 and currently has 22 co-sponsors.
For those wondering what the wage gap is . . .
In 2007, white women earned 77 cents for every dollar a white man makes. For women of color, the wage disparity is even worse; African American women earned 68 cents and Latinas earned 57 cents. |
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