Dahlia Lithwick:
This week, the Virginia state Legislature passed a bill that would require women to have an ultrasound before they may have an abortion. Because the great majority of abortions occur during the first 12 weeks, that means most women will be forced to have a transvaginal procedure, in which a probe is inserted into the vagina, and then moved around until an ultrasound image is produced. Since a proposed amendment to the bill—a provision that would have had the patient consent to this bodily intrusion or allowed the physician to opt not to do the vaginal ultrasound—failed on 64-34 vote, the law provides that women seeking an abortion in Virginia will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason. I am not the first person to note that under any other set of facts, that would constitute rape under state law. [more inside]
posted by gerryblog
on Feb 16, 2012 -
331 comments
The Life Zone is an anti-abortion suspense thriller about three women who are kidnapped and forced to carry their pregnancies to term.
posted by EarBucket
on Jun 5, 2011 -
86 comments
Abortion has always been a
hotspot in the
culture wars. But of late, the anti-abortion movement has had some huge wins, often sliding in under the radar of pro-choice supporters. Idaho bans abortions after the 20th week, claiming that mother's
shouldn't have the right to make a fetus uncomfortable. Nebraska also banned abortion after the
20th week, so did
Oklahoma.
Oregon,
Minnesota,
Georgia,
Indiana,
Iowa,
Florida,
Missouri, and
Ohio are also considering joining the
31 states that currently have such a ban.
Virginia passed a law that will
shut the doors of almost every abortion clinic in the state. And various areas are now enacting laws that suggest a fetus is
significantly more important than the
carrier of said fetus. One judge ruled that a girl couldn't have an abortion because she had
bad grammar.
It is quite possible that women who are in their 40s right now may be the only generation of American women that possessed full reproductive rights for their entire child bearing years.
posted by dejah420
on Mar 18, 2011 -
213 comments
In a five part series he wrote a few years ago, blogger J. Brad Hicks breaks down how, in the mid-1960s, the Republican party made a conscious decision to rebrand themselves as the party of Christians, and in doing so, how they had to shift the ideology of the churches to what he calls a "
false gospel".
[more inside]
posted by quin
on Sep 15, 2010 -
208 comments
Spin, exposed live and wriggling. In 1995, Brian Springer released an hour-long documentary film comprised of incredibly revealing moments caught from raw satellite feeds. Not only do we get to hear the spin-doctor coaching candidates received during various commercial breaks, there are also some amazing moments such as Larry King suggesting to Clinton that Ted Turner could "serve him," an anchor suggesting to her expert that during the L.A. riots his frank diagnosis of inner-city hope is "too obtuse," and the exclusion and exclusion of Larry Agran from the 1992 Democratic primaries — and, really, there's much more.
posted by WCityMike
on Jul 4, 2006 -
23 comments
Economist Steven Levitt, author of
Freakonomics, has long
posited a controversial thesis that legalized abortion help reduced crime, by reducing unwanted children, prone to crime. However, a new paper
argues that Levitt (& Donohue) made serious errors in their research. Properly analysed, abortion has no significant effect on crime. Levitt
disagrees, of course.
posted by daksya
on Dec 4, 2005 -
46 comments
Turning Pickets Into Pledges Planned Parenthood has launched a new program that "creates a no-win situation for anti-choice protesters — the more picketers who demonstrate outside a
Planned Parenthood clinic, the more donations that clinic receives." This campaign allows supporters to pledge between 25 cents and one dollar per protester -- not a lot of money, but it adds up to thousands over time.
posted by zarq
on Dec 23, 2004 -
29 comments
While you were re-electing a president:
Senator-elect
Jim DeMint: Thinks that unwed pregnant women and gays are unfit to be schoolteachers.
Senator-elect
Tom Coburn: Wants the death penalty for abortion doctors.
Senator-elect
John Thune: Mr. School Prayer Amendment.
Voters in 11 states
voted to ban same-sex marriage. The
lowest margin was 57%-43%. The highest (Mississippi) was 86%-14%. Kentucky's also bans
civil unions. That one was 75%-25%.
The Senate will likely be split
55-45 in favor of Republicans, creeping closer to a filibuster-proof supermajority. Meanwhile, 89% of
these guys are older than 65.
Enjoy your tax cut, America. You're going to need it.
posted by PrinceValium
on Nov 3, 2004 -
73 comments
Legal abortion tips the voter balance from Democrat to Republican. That's Larry Eastland's theory.
Abortion has caused missing Democrats--and missing liberals. For advocates so fundamentally committed to changing the face of conservative America, liberals have been remarkably blind to the fact that every day the abortions they advocate dramatically decrease their power to do so.
posted by aeschenkarnos
on Jun 28, 2004 -
43 comments
How will Democrats respond to a left-wing, pro-life, presidential candidate? Congressman Dennis Kucinich is being loudly promoted as the left-wing dream candidate for 2004 -- someone who can bring the Naderites back in the fold and send a message, that mainstream / moderate Democrats won't or can't, about being for the "people, not the powerful." Yet he has always and continues to oppose legal abortion. Can he be nominated? Would most progressives prefer a conservative Democrat who is right (in their opinion) on abortion, to a progressive who they see as wrong in that issue?
posted by MattD
on Aug 13, 2002 -
68 comments
We interrupt your war on terror to attack abortion rights...
The Bush administration has declared that
a fetus is an unborn child. And why not? Everyone believes in prenatal care. And of course, if the government wanted to extend medical coverage to poor pregnant women under the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIPS), it could have done so directly. But then, what fun is that?
posted by jellybuzz
on Jan 31, 2002 -
84 comments
Anti-abortion site wins appeal. In a ringing defense of the First Amendment, Judge Alex Kozinski wrote that "political speech may not be punished just because it makes it more likely that someone will be harmed at some unknown time in the future by an unrelated third party.
Courtney Love can sue when her cell phone # is released on a website, and yet doctors have their personal information posted online specifically so they can be tracked and killed. Scary.
posted by jragon
on Mar 29, 2001 -
35 comments
Is media bias real? MRC has an interesting collection of quotes by the big 3 news anchors comparing how they treated Clinton & GW Bush on the same issue - abortion. It sure looks like bias to me, but then again, I'm biased.
posted by schlyer
on Feb 5, 2001 -
36 comments
Asshole of the year? G.W. Bush, who is expected to use opposition to Roe v Wade as a litmus test for new Supremes... got a 15 year old girl preggers in the 70s and paid for the abortion? Ethel seems convinced... make up your own mind.
posted by baylink
on Nov 1, 2000 -
15 comments
