Minnesota Moves On Anti-Choice Legislation
The battle over abortion rights and access spread to Minnesota where the House Health and Human Services Reform Committee met and approved two new restrictions.
The first is a ban on telemed abortions, also known as “webcam” abortions. Neighboring state Wisconsin has taken up a similar measure. These bans seek to prevent doctors from assisting women in using RU 486 after consultation via webcam. It’s a practice that has been medically proven safe and that has increased access to reproductive health care for women in rural areas where clinics may be inaccessible or non-existent.
The second bill working its way through the legislature is a TRAP law–a targeted regulation for clinics that perform abortions designed to essentially “zone” them out of existence. This version would force any facility that performs 10 or more abortions each month be licensed with the Department of Health and be subject to surprise inspections.
Anti-choice Republicans control both the House and the Senate in Minnesota, so both bills are expected to pass. Gov. Mark Dayton (D), however, is a supporter of reproductive choice and has vetoed anti-choice legislation in the past, though he has not yet said whether he will veto these particular bills.
+3 per bill to Minnesota.
*Pregnant people, not just cis women.
I can’t even with this nonsense. There’s nothing logical about this.
(Source: sarahlee310)
[general tw: discussion on cissexism and racism] I would really fucking love it if we stopped idolizing cis-feminists who think being trans-inclusive is bad for cis women.
I really fucking would. The latest in this line of cis-feminists I’ve noticed is Raven, aka unknowable woman. By asking for trans-inclusive language we’re being mean to women.
This is her response to people being upset with a poster that had a uterus on it and a slogan about women:
God fucking forbid women have one thing of their own in this world. We can’t write about ourselves, we can’t speak about ourselves, we can’t advocate for ourselves even within our own so-called “social justice” spheres without someone telling us to shut up about our own experiences.
That’s right folks, us mean ol’ trans folk are silencing women. How bout that! Even though trans folks like me are active and vocal in the pro-choice movement, which benefits cis women, we really should just shut up.
But, no, we have to love her because she got into a battle on twitter with Ryking. And I mentioned this to someone once, that I distrust cis-women in social justice, feminist, and pro-choice environments more than cis-men sometimes, because when cis women pull the ‘we’re being marginalized by you!’ card a lot more people listen. And I got called a misogynist. Which, incidentally, is apparently what we automatically are because we don’t want people telling us that a uterus makes you a woman.
This stuff, this is why Die Cis Scum is a phrase that exists. Because if we dare to talk, we’re silencing women. And when they say ‘women’, you bet your ass they only mean cis women.
Fuck cis people man, I am fucking done with your shit.
I love (and by love, I mean hate) how these cis feminists are always implying that anyone who isn’t a woman is oppressing them, because non-woman always equals male, apparently.
And the justification of this cissexist erasing shit is that cis-woman-specific language is “needed” to point out that these anti-choicers are motivated by their hatred of cis women. Or in other words, “They aren’t thinking about anyone else, so why should we?” Like because cis women are the targets, we shouldn’t acknowledge who else is affected. Their needs are more important.
The funny thing is, the vast majority of anti choice legislation is actually specifically targeting and affecting women of color. But these white cis feminists completely ignore that fact. The face of the pro choice movement is white, white, white. So their whole “it’s about hating and killing WOMEN, not just PEOPLE” logic falls fucking flat. They cling to that language not because it most accurately describes the target demographic, but because it makes the debate all about them and their white cis needs.
(And it really sickens me that people finally did something about Ryking when he went after a really well known white cis feminist blogger, despite all of his past harassment of women, especially women of color. But they deny, deny, deny this cuz whiteness has nothing to do with it, oh no.)
like i said yesterday, there’s a reason why “feminists” these days know Jessica Valenti more than Audre Lorde. it’s shit like this that caters to middle class white women. Andrea Smith calls this out in Conquest (which seriously has like, a laser eye on so many feminist issues). WoC didn’t get abortion rights after Roe v Wade, they were still too poor to afford it; the medicalization of abortion only exacerbated that problem. WoC care about contraception, being not-poor enough to feed their kids, and basic health care that is affordable. White woman feminism is about a capitalistic career track, not having to have kids, and getting into the white man’s world. Meanwhile, Women of Color are just trying to survive.
TW: CISSEXISM
[Catholic Girl Problem #40: Having our dignity and femininity under attack for almost 40 years under Roe v Wade. Screenshot from: mycatholicgirlproblems.tumblr.com]
“Many feminists insist that abortion is necessary for women to participate freely and equally in society. Anyone who disagrees, they argue, has merely adopted patriarchal standards and accepted women’s ‘place’ in society. Yet this argument demonstrates how deeply the roots of sexism run in our culture. Its premise is a sexist one—that women are inferior to men and that in order to be equal, we have to change our biology to become like men—wombless and unpregnant at will. What other oppressed group in history has had to undergo surgery in order to be equal?” Marilyn Dickstein Kopp
Hey, cissexist prochoice “feminists.” I bet you don’t like it when antis conflate femininity and reproduction like this. It’s kind of gross right? Well, guess what? You don’t get to complain because this is precisely what you advocate for when you actively refuse to be inclusive. Which, you know, would weaken every outdated stereotype they peddle [and would meet the bare minimum for being a decent human being!]. They use gender essentialism against you and you’ve chosen to “fight” it by…fighting for the “right” to be gender essentialist and cissexist towards us. Funny how that works.
Oh and, “What other oppressed group in history has had to undergo surgery in order to be equal?” That’s cute.
(Source: raging-liberal-hard-on)
People need help with this. It’s okay, I got you.
Things That Make You Pro-Choice:
- Being of the belief that, regardless of whether or not you’d get an abortion, that is a choice that is up for the individual to make.
- Being of the belief that every pregnancy should be a wanted pregnancy.
- Being against forced pregnancy.
- Being against forced abortion.
- Supporting reproductive rights; widespread availability to contraception (including the revoking of conscience clauses); widespread comprehensive sex education
- Wanting the Hyde Amendment removed
- State something as fact; cite reliable, up-to-date sources
Things That Do Not Make You Pro-Choice:
- Being against abortion FOR ALL because: God
- Being against abortion FOR ALL because: Sluts and whores killing their babies[sic]
- Being against abortion FOR ALL because: [any reason I missed]
- Only okay with “circumstantial abortion” (e.g. in cases of rape, incest)
- Ever offering adoption as an alternative
- “Don’t have sex if you don’t want children.”
- “Abstinence works!”
- Mentioning god at any time in a secular political discussion (unless it’s something like “shut up about religion, this is a political debate”)
- State something as fact; cite Bible and/or cite disproved old study and/or cite nothing.
Reblog and add as you please.
I would add to the pro-choice section:
- Being against forced adoption.
- Supporting adoption reform (to make it less classist, ableist, racist; also less heterosexist towards adoptive parents).
- Wanting the Helms Amendment repealed.
- Wanting the Global Gag Rule to stay repealed.
- Supporting birthing choices (VBACs, home births, midwifery, c-section refusal, etc).
I would add to the not pro-choice section:
- Believing for even a moment that consent to sex=consent to pregnancy.
- Misappropriating tragic events or liberal causes (Troy Davis, environmentalism, the Holocaust, genocide, slavery, 9/11, MLK, Casey Anthony, Dr. Seuss, etc).
- Spewing libel against abortion providers, their patients, and prochoicers in general.
- Committing acts of terrorism.
- Defunding Planned Parenthood.
- Supporting abstinence-only programs.
Fake “Clinic” Cons 17-Year-Old Girl
An Indiana mother recently accompanied her daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend to one of Indiana’s Planned Parenthood clinics, but they unwittingly walked into a so-called “crisis pregnancy center” run by an anti-abortion group, one that shared a parking lot with the real Planned Parenthood clinic and was designed expressly to lure Planned Parenthood patients and deceive them.
The group took down the girl’s confidential personal information and told her to come back for her appointment, which they said would be in their “other office” (the real Planned Parenthood office nearby). When she arrived for her appointment, not only did the Planned Parenthood staff have no record of her, but the police were there. The “crisis pregnancy center” had called them, claiming that a minor was being forced to have an abortion against her will.
The “crisis pregnancy center” staff then proceeded to wage a campaign of intimidation and harassment over the following days, showing up at the girl’s home and calling her father’s workplace. Planned Parenthood’s clinic director reports that the girl was “scared to death to leave her house.” They even went to her school and urged classmates to pressure her not to have an abortion.
The anti-choice movement is setting up these “crisis pregnancy centers” across the country. Some of them have neutral-sounding names and run ads that falsely promise the full range of reproductive health services, but they dispense anti-choice propaganda and intimidation instead. And according to a recent article in The New York Times, there are currently more of these centers in the U.S. than there are actual abortion providers. What’s more, these centers have received $60 million in government grants. They’re being funded by our tax dollars.
http://www.ppaction.org/
Planned Parenthood Action Fund, 24 April 2006
[Emphasis mine. Hear that folks? We are funding terrorists with our tax dollars. The fact that this is legal is absolutely mind-blowing. And when we dare complain, they cry about how they’re being persecuted and censored unfairly, and we’re infringing on their freedom of speech. No, just no. This should not be fucking allowed.]
ETA: Some people in the notes were wondering about the veracity of this story so I found the original source (the citation above was all that was given at the website I got this from). Here’s some more quotes from the original story:
We [Planned Parenthood] have obtained permission to share some of the remarks the patient and her family wrote soon after their encounter with the CPC.
“I have been getting phone calls [from the CPC volunteer] at home and on my cell phone, and they came to my work… saying ‘we will come get you and throw you in a car and take you to a place that is safe.’ I made my decision [to have an abortion]. Even though I had talked to [the CPC person] before, she has no right to be giving out information about me [and my family]. They need to quit harassing me and my family and loved ones. They have come to my home banging on my door and non-stop calling me. I have heard racial comments about my boyfriend [and me]. They keep yelling my name, my mother’s, and my boyfriend’s. They have no right giving out my information, and they need to respect my and my boyfriend’s decision. … They are trying to trap me but this is my decision and no person has forced me and I would like them to stop harassing me, my family, my boyfriend, and my work.”
Her mother added:
“These people have given [our personal contact] information to someone at [my daughter’s] school. Now it seems even the students know certain things and are giving my daughter and her boyfriend a hard time as well. Also, the faculty has heard things, too. These people [the CPC personnel] have been standing outside Planned Parenthood yelling obscenities at all who enter. My daughter’s, her boyfriend’s, and my name have been yelled out for all to hear.”
ETA #2: You might also be interested in this post I did awhile ago on more recent investigations of CPCs and their deceptive tactics.
The Morality of Abortion Rights: Why I Am Pro-Choice
[Emphasis mine. This is an incredible, albeit long, essay on why the author is prochoice. I especially like how they cite primary documents, statistics, and stories to prove their points. The personhood section is incredibly relevant tonight on the eve of the vote of Initiative 26 in Mississippi. Even if you don’t read the whole essay, I recommend reading that section. SOURCE]
Many people on the anti-abortion side clearly have deep convictions. It may not be as clear to some that the convictions of pro-choice people are just as strong and as deeply rooted in moral principles. We, too, are motivated by anguish. A basic difference lies in where we find the anguish.
Anti-abortion people generally start with the belief that inviolable human life begins at conception. They are anguished when other people do not abide by this principle.
Pro-choice people acknowledge that beliefs about the question of life’s beginning come from spiritual beliefs, and different spiritual beliefs lead to different conclusions about this question.
We are anguished when women die and children suffer.
We see unassailable evidence that making abortion illegal or unavailable results in women dying — by the thousands. And when women do not have control over their own reproduction, their children are less likely to survive and less likely to be healthy.
My purpose here is not to try to change your feelings about abortion but to help you to understand what I and many other pro-choice people think and feel.
Contents
1. Labels: pro-choice, pro-life, etc.
2. When does personhood begin?
3. Rights and responsibilities
As for the question of whether abortion was murder, murder was a legal term applying to human beings, and a fetus, in their view, was not a human being. To give it the same or greater value than a living woman was an indication if how little women were valued, as if their only worth was the children they produced.
—
The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service
I know it’s focused primarily on cisgendered women but this book is dropping truth bombs everywhere.
(via daskannnichtsein)
In the public discourse the fetus has been elevated to an equal status with a living, breathing human being. More and more, women are viewed as the enemy of children, requiring the State’s intervention to protect their developing children from them. But, in reality, women still concieve, nurture, give birth to and, in most cases, are the primary caregivers of children. Women are being reduced, once again, to the incubators of future generations with total responsibility but no power.
— The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service (via daskannnichtsein)
