Beyond Knee-Jerk Politics?

I'll admit, my knee has already jerked on Richard Honaker, the former Wyoming state legislator who GW Bush has nominated to Wyoming federal trial court. Senate confirmation hearings are currently underway. I've sent numerous emails to Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dianne Feinstein strongly opposing his nomination because, among other conservative moves, he tried to ban abortion here in the Equality State. (Oh, and Honaker is a board member of the Home School Legal Defense Association, "which along with defending home-schooling parents from child abuse and neglect charges, has lobbied against gay marriage, sex education, and multicultural classroom material," according to Mother Jones.)

Speaking of Mother Jones... the progressive magazine published an article on Feb. 8 saying that maybe Honaker wouldn't be so bad. The basic premise is that Honaker's record as a trial lawyer defending the little guy against big business may be more important to women in the end than his stance on abortion. WHAT!? I encourage you to take a moment to read it, dear reader. Personally, my knee still jerks against him, but the Mother Jones article made me think more deeply about what a conundrum we're in having to choose between anti-choice judges who might fight for at least some regular folk some of the time - as long as they're not regular women.

Right To Life Ad - Planet Jackson Hole 2/27/08

Courtesy of this week's Right to Life ad, we bring you this conversation in la-la land.

Woman: "I'd like to have an abortion."
Anti-Choice CPC counselor: "First, take a look at this picture."
Woman: "What's this?"
Counselor: "A picture of a twelve-week old fetus."
Woman: "Really? I thought that fetuses were blobs of tissue that instantaneously morphed into human form when they passed through a vagina."
Counselor: "That's a common misconception."
Woman: "Wow. All of sudden I now feel emotionally, financially, and physically capable of bringing this pregnancy to term. Thanks so much for enlightening me."

Race, gender, and elections

This made my day.

Your tampon is a graveyard

So, presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has endorsed a proposal to give fertilized eggs full protection under the law in Colorado. First, let's pause for a moment to marvel at the wingnuttiness that is our neighbor to the South. Ok, done.

Now, let's think for a moment about the ramifications of such a proposal. Fertilized eggs would be considered human beings. So, what do we do about the millions of fertilized eggs that never implant in the uterine lining and never proceed to the embryonic stage that are flushed out in the course of nature during a women's menstrual cycle without even her knowledge? Is the coroner going to go around collecting used tampons to search for "dead bodies" and determine the cause of death? Issue a death certificate? Call in the police to determine whether or not the women committed negligent homicide?

And Pam, of Pandagon, asks: "will a post-coitus woman be able to drive in a HOV lane because she may be carrying a fertilized egg?
* Will the highway patrol need to carry pregnancy testing kits to confirm the ability for them to use HOV lanes on the spot?"

How about we give equal rights to women before extending them to "the unborn"?

And another thing....

The Turning Point (aka Crisis Pregnancy Center aka Whatever Misleading Name They Want To Use This Week) website states that "Reputable studies suggests that women who abort face a 50% increase in breast cancer". This myth has been busted time and time again. The American Cancer Society, who I'll go ahead and call an authority on the subject, states that "the public is not well-served by false alarms and at the present time, the scientific evidence does not support a causal association between induced abortion and breast cancer." So, why does Turning Point continue to broadcast this fallacy? Because they want to scare women into carrying unplanned pregnancies to term with threats of disease. What a great way to celebrate life.

Moreover, 100 of the world’s leading experts on pregnancy and breast cancer risk concluded that "breast cancer risk is temporarily increased after a term pregnancy (that is, a pregnancy that results in the birth of a living child)" (National Cancer Institute. Summary Report: Early Reproductive Events and Breast Cancer Workshop). Why aren't "pro-life" advocates warning women about the health threats of giving birth? If Turning Point wants you to have all the facts, why don't they tell you about the risks of carrying a pregnancy to term, which significantly outweigh the risks of abortion?

Because the pro-life movement is not pro life.

Pro-Life = forcing women to carry pregnancies to term regardless of their wants, needs, health, financial situation, emotional state, readiness, etc., etc., etc.

Newsflash: anti-choice zealots are racist too!

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Turns out that American uterus Nazis (aka pro-lifers) are shipping their theology overseas trying to scare white European women into having more babies. They predict a "demographic winter" in which the population becomes dominated by brown and black people. Reading this Nation article by Kathryn Joyce was a bit like reading Sci-Fi. But the money and power behind this "we need more white babies" movement is frighteningly real.

It's sorta satisfying, though, to see the anti-choice faction lay bare their true intentions. Advocating for laws that control women's bodies is just one tiny, dare I say "baby" step away from legalizing racism. The so-called pro-life movement has never been about protecting just anyone's life, but rather making sure certain white Christian men have power over everyone's lives.

Turning Point

Ugh. It's the new name of Jackson's former "Crisis Pregnancy Center." Same old lies and coercion though. Do not be fooled that this is a woman friendly place. Their religiously-fueled raison d'etre is to "save" the "unborn." They don't really care what happens to the mother or whether she's ready for or capable of caring for a child.

Turning Point = Turning Down All Options Other Than Our Patriarchal Christian God's Way.

For more info on the menace of Crisis Pregnancy Centers visit these links:
National Abortion Federation
Representative Henry A. Waxman
Planned Parenthood