I became aware, during the most recent podcast of Bill Maher's show, that the Republican line on the whole War on Women thing is that Obama is forcing the issue, inventing Republican opposition to women by talking about birth control, etc. and purposely making it a wedge issue. Expect to hear that a lot, soon. I know politicians can generally rely on voters having short memories, but holy hell, what a bunch of bullshit, right? Long before Obama highlighted the GOP's hatred of women by purposefully fucking with the Church over birth control (such an ace move, Mr. President) the GOP was passing draconian legislation across the country. And it has only gotten worse. In Arizona, Republicans have decided that declaring life to begin at conception was not anti-science enough. Effective in July of this year, in Arizona life will begin two weeks before you even have sex. I am not kidding. They are incredibly close to making menstrual cycles illegal over there. Again: not even a joke.
And I know that some of you are offended by the harsh way I talk about abortion, but understand that I am doing whatever I can to be the equal and opposite force against these motherfuckers. Nobody WANTS a lot of babies to be aborted. But if I could, I would literally pass a "mandatory abortions for everyone" law in my state right now.
ANYWAY, just to prove that the GOP is full of shit when they act like Barack Obama is imagining their issues with Women's Issues, here's a recent history of Republican-Vaginal hostilities, courtesy of Rock and Sock and Robot and other videos I have made. Let me know if I have missed any. I feel like I've been talking about this forever.
So, there are definitely a lot of problems with that Arizona law, but I feel like what people are saying about the two weeks isn't entirely accurate or helpful. Arizona didn't make that time period up like so many are claiming. That is a typical way of calculating gestational age. The definition of gestational age is that it starts 14 days before conception, which is around the time she has her last period in a woman with a normal cycle. The problem isn't that they're "redefining" it, it's that they're making it a legal term when it's too ambiguous to be one and when it's never been used as one for abortion laws before. Most that have the 20 week ban do calculate the weeks from fertilization (so gestational age minus the two weeks) rather than gestational age. I know that's a pretty small distinction to be making in the grand scheme of batshit women hating laws, but it is an important one to make when trying to argue against it. People shouldn't be arguing that it's wrong to calculate it that way (in which case a lot of pregnant women and doctors would be wrong), they should be arguing that it's wrong to make it a legal definition. In this argument, the other horrifying aspects of the law also seem to be getting lost like how women are forced to look at a medically inaccurate and super disturbing state-ran anti-choice website before they can get an abortion or that they're forced to receive an unneeded, expensive, and often violating ultrasound 24 hours in advance.
But, yeah, being a American woman (especially one of childbearing age who doesn't want kids) is terrifying right now.
1 comment:
So, there are definitely a lot of problems with that Arizona law, but I feel like what people are saying about the two weeks isn't entirely accurate or helpful. Arizona didn't make that time period up like so many are claiming. That is a typical way of calculating gestational age. The definition of gestational age is that it starts 14 days before conception, which is around the time she has her last period in a woman with a normal cycle. The problem isn't that they're "redefining" it, it's that they're making it a legal term when it's too ambiguous to be one and when it's never been used as one for abortion laws before. Most that have the 20 week ban do calculate the weeks from fertilization (so gestational age minus the two weeks) rather than gestational age. I know that's a pretty small distinction to be making in the grand scheme of batshit women hating laws, but it is an important one to make when trying to argue against it. People shouldn't be arguing that it's wrong to calculate it that way (in which case a lot of pregnant women and doctors would be wrong), they should be arguing that it's wrong to make it a legal definition. In this argument, the other horrifying aspects of the law also seem to be getting lost like how women are forced to look at a medically inaccurate and super disturbing state-ran anti-choice website before they can get an abortion or that they're forced to receive an unneeded, expensive, and often violating ultrasound 24 hours in advance.
But, yeah, being a American woman (especially one of childbearing age who doesn't want kids) is terrifying right now.
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