femme feminist

this is a great piece, and very difficult to read. here in mississippi we are one step closer to voting on fetal personhood. even the most widely-read newspaper in central MS, the Clarion Ledger, called personhood simply an “anti-abortion” issue. the truth is fetal personhood goes far beyond abortion and infringes on the right of a woman to control her own body, even when wanting to carry a pregnancy to term.

i urge you to read this whole article, but here are some excerpts:

The argument that eggs and fetuses may be treated as if they are legally independent of the women who carry them has been used to deprive pregnant women of their status as full constitutional persons. Angela Carder was forced to have cesarean surgery to advance the rights of the fetus inside of her. Shortly after the surgery both the baby and Ms. Carder died. Ms. Carder was deprived of her right to life. Recently, a pregnant woman was kept prisoner in a Florida hospital because doctors believed that doing so would advance the rights and health of her fetus. She nevertheless suffered a stillbirth. Ms. Burton was deprived of her right to liberty. Although courts in both cases eventually held that these deprivations of life and liberty were wrong, adopting fetal separatist measures would allow outsiders to take similar actions whenever they disagreed with the pregnant woman.

this scares the CRAP out of me. it’s like something out of a sci-fi film:

When doctors at a hospital learned that Laura Pemeberton was attempting to have a home birth, fetal separatist arguments became the basis for sending a sheriff to her home. She was taken into custody, forcibly restrained while in active labor, judged without representation and forced to undergo cesarean surgery, depriving her of her right to liberty, privacy, bodily integrity, medical decision-making, and due process of law.

(Via Deirdra Harris-Glover)

Very disappointing, to say the least. It’s also disappointing that the CL calls “personhood” simply “anti-abortion” because it goes so far beyond that one issue.

A Hinds County judge has ruled in favor of allowing an anti-abortion initiative on Mississippi’s 2011 ballot.

“(The initiative) has received more than the required amount of signatures to be placed on the ballot and the Constitution recognizes the right of citizens to amend their Constitution,” Judge Malcolm Harrison ruled in an order signed today.

The ballot initiative would allow voters to decide whether Mississippi’s Constitution should be amended to define life as beginning at conception.

Supporters of the “personhood” amendment gathered more than 106,000 signatures to get it on the ballot in 2011.

The lawsuit, filed by two Oxford women, had argued that the initiative process cannot be used to rewrite the state Bill of Rights — which they said the personhood amendment would do.

The case is expected to be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Via the Clarion Ledger

Via: moreapologies: femblr:

British women who want to terminate a pregnancy are being confronted by Christian protesters picketing abortion clinics, in a copy of tactics used by hardcore anti-abortionists in the US.

A Texas-based religious group, which has support and funding from hundreds of American churches, has been holding protests outside Marie Stopes House in central London, one of Britain’s first modern abortion clinics.

It is the first time that the group – called 40 Days for Life – has targeted an abortion clinic in mainland Britain.

This really, really upsets me. CHOICE!

this is just horrific. what are we coming to in this country?

As you can see from the below video, shot at a different angle from the original footage, the victim’s head gets pressed against the pavement as the boot comes down on her head, neck and shoulder. Photos at this website show that one of the men holding Lauren Valle down was wearing a “Don’t Tread On Me” button.

follow the link for the full story/video. (Via Pam Spaulding)

I have not had a chance to watch this yet but i’ve been hearing about it on twitter all night so i wanted to go ahead and post the link for anyone who wants to watch it online. more after i watch it.

Follow the link for video/full story.

Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips refused to stay her decision to end “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the longtime ban on openly gay men and women serving in the armed forces. By the end of the day, military recruiters were accepting gay and lesbian candidates. And Lt. Dan Choi, the Iraq veteran, West Point grad, and gay rights activist, went down to Times Square to reenlist. His request is being processed. (Choi first attempted to enlist in the Marines, he said on Twitter, but he was told he is too old.)

Great blog over at Ms.

Via moreapologies:Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Sign the petition at Planned Parenthood’s website:

I support making prescription birth control available at no cost. The new health care reform law should make prescription birth control available to every woman without co-pays or other out-of-pocket costs to ensure that every woman has access to the birth control that works best for her. This will reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and help keep women and children healthy.

this is a very powerful and very correct.

“America’s children are under attack. But what difference is there between the schoolyard tormentor who literally bullies to death a gay or questioning youth, and their adult counterparts — like the National Organization for Marriage, or Focus on the Family — shrouded in Orwellian nomenclature, who provide them with the ammunition?
…

what organizations like FOF don’t come right out and say (like westboro baptist church does) is that they don’t care if gay teens commit suicide. to them, the tragedy is not the death of a human being, a young person in pain, but that the young person was gay. at least the “god hates fags” people have the decency to tell the truth - they’d rather see their children dead than gay.

great piece!

When I ask Matson how we can start to fix this, she suggests what she calls a radical act. And that might be…? “Decide,” she says (and this is genius), “to love yourself as you are.”

apparently you get what you pay for with “God”:

Last month, firefighters in Obion County, Tennessee watched a home burn to the ground because the homeowner had failed to pay a $75 fee to receive fire protection from the city of South Fulton.

And, of course, Bryan Fischer says letting the house burn down was not only the right thing to do, it was the Christian thing to do:

The fire department did the right and Christian thing. The right thing, by the way, is also the Christian thing, because there can be no difference between the two. The right thing to do will always be the Christian thing to do, and the Christian thing to do will always be the right thing to do…

sadly, sometimes freedom of speech means that people will conduct themselves without dignity or even sanity. God hates idiots…

“It is a case that pits the right to Free Speech against the right to privacy. The Supreme Court of the United States has begun hearing arguments in the case that has pitted Albert Snyder of York, PA against the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. The members of Westboro Baptist have protested at the funerals of slain service members claiming that their deaths were punishment for America’s immorality…”

“It stems from a lawsuit that Snyder undertook after members of Westboro Baptist picketed the funeral of Snyder’s son Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder in March 2006…”