Just when you thought you had escaped the Dark Ages:
Virginia is on the brink of legislating a Personhood Bill, HB1, that effectively could outlaw hormonal birth control. It has gone to the Virginia Senate. Fertility specialists and OB/gyn specialists have expressed medical concerns over a bill this drastic. Of particular worry is treating ectopic pregnancy should this bill become law. Virginia is the laughing stock of the nation because of the spate of anti abortion laws.
Virginia isn’t the only hub of embarrassment. Now video had turned up from 2006 where presidential candidate Rick Santorum says that he feels birth control is harmful to society. He didn’t stop there, he elaborated that birth control really created a license where people could do anything they wanted. He seemed to equate contraception with premaritial sex. There was no mention of married couples.
Most people do not share his views. We live in a western society, not some banana republic or theocracy. People may believe what they want, for themselves. There has been an all out war for the past several years on Title X funding, in particular, Planned Parenthood has come under direct fire on the national and state leve and is in constant danger of defunding. l. Many of the same people who want to outlaw abortion also want to make contraception difficult to get hold of. This kind of thinking makes absolutely no sense.
Why are Americans obsessed with the sex habits of others? This week HBO presented Loving vs. Virginia, the story of the interracial couple who were arrested for cohabiting and for marrying and returning to Virginia as husband and wife. It was horribly disturbing to see that the couple was awakened, in their own home, in the middle of the night, with law enforcement officers standing over top of them. Mrs. Loving was black. Mr. Loving was white. That was their crime. The couple was freed under the condition that they left Virginia.
The horrifying part of this story is that the Loving case went to the Supreme Court and was decided in 1967. That was only 45 years ago! 45 years ago, law enforcement could come in to your bedroom to see who you were sleeping with! Griswold v. Connecticut was decided in 1965, 47 years ago. Married couples were then guaranteed the right to use contraception. Unmarried couples weren’t guaranteed that right until 1972 with Eisenstadt v. Baird. Same sex couples weren’t safe until 2003 with Lawrence v. Texas.
At what point to we get to just live and let live? Why is the nation consumed with sexual issues? Why do some people feel the need to control what other people who are harming no one do in private? Americans had better start thinking that these issues do pertain to them. One of the presidential candidates has spoken out strongly about the use of contraception. It is part of his religious belief system. At what point would he seek to follow his conscience where it pertains to you? On the other hand, Virginia will be forcing women to have ultra sound probes before an abortion and personhood will be defined at the moment of conception (whenever THAT is). HB1 could pretty much knock all hormonal birth control off the screen. At what point are Americans going to simply say ENOUGH and reject this kind of archaic thinking for others? They first need to send these proselytizing politicians packing.
If a politician like Rick Santorum says “Birth Control is not a healthy thing for our country,” take him at his word. He is showing you what he is. Believe him. He has a not-so-hidden agenda.
Those are questions you’ll have to ask our conservative, generally Republican, posters because most liberals or moderates aren’t voyeurs when it comes to their neighbors’ bedroom habits. The scolds are the ones railing against birth control, abortions, and stores which sell racy panties.
Santorum’s vision of America will be costly…
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. (uh oh, she’ll need section 8 housing)
She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do. (WIC & other programs)
She fed them some broth without any bread
And whipped them all soundly (uh oh, Child protective Services)
And sent them to bed.
Did you see Rachel Maddow last night? She is not done with this intrusion.
Now we have rape by vaginal probe. Thanks, Gentlemen of Virginia. NOT!
I heard a little of her show a couple days ago. Last night we went out to celebrate a belated Valentine’s Day (couldn’t go on the 14th. because of dog training). I imagine hers is a mild critique compared to what Bill Maher could do.
Its very funny, Censored.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/
I went back and listened to Maddow’s reports about Virginia. I think McDonnell’s chances of higher office are zero if either the personhood bill or the Republican backed vaginal rape bill pass. These are the same old white geezers who holler about being x-rayed at the airport but they demand that any woman exercising her right to have an abortion be raped. And I don’t think that’s not too strong a word to use and I think it should be shouted, shouted, shouted and plastered on bumper stickers!
RAPE – brought to you by the Republican Party of Virginia. Has an accurate ring to it.
Speaking of old Republican geezers ,Foster Freiss – Santorum’s Sugar Daddy – showed his a$$ and mouthed that old saw about the best form of birth control being for a woman to hold an aspirin firmly between her knees. (Shows that he isn’t very inventive when it comes to sex but that’s besides the point.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/foster-freiss-santorum-backer-jokes-about-using-aspirin-as-birth-control/2012/02/16/gIQA5yoAIR_blog.html?hpid=z3
And then there was Darryl Issa’s all-male panel pontificating about religion and government (IOW, prescription coverage for contraceptives)…
Censored! I almost wrecked my car when I heard him say that to Andrea Mitchell, who, by the way, was STUNNED by such an ignorant statement!
Elena, I guess I’m stunned that there are still dolts stupid enough to say the things they do publicly. i guess some think their money gives them some insulation from what they say.
I heard that one all the time as a girl. I thought it was stupid and chauvanistic at the time. We shouldn’t forget that the people making the rules are the very rat bastards who are trying to get between everyone’s legs. All the blame is on the female. Nothing has changed.
I hope Jon Stewart exoriates Santorium via the absolute disgusting nature of his “donors” comment.
G-d help us all if Santorum were elected.
But we have always known about him. He hasn’t always flown beneath the radar. Reproductive Rights groups had him under the microscope since he was in the in the House of Representatives in the early 90’s for his extremist behavior and rhetoric. He got booted from the Senate in 2006. There is lots on him. He can run but he can’t hide from himself and his slime trail of words.
Santorum, despite his cozy sweater vests, sneers too often and is generally unlikeable. And then you have his paper trail…
I agree. I like Romney better even. But the R’s are all falling all over each other, each trying to be more conservative than the next guy.
Since when does a woman’s right to contraception have a damn thing to do with being conservative. Richard Freaking Nixon signed off on Title X for God’s sake. That was one of the good things he did.
All I have heard about is criticism of the President about jobs etc. I have heard no Republican solutions. All I have heard from them are about the social issues.
My feelings is, you don’t like abortion, don’t have one. You don’t like contraception, don’t use it. You don’t like social security, don’t apply for it.
Most of all, those people need to mind their own effen business and leave everyone else alone.
They are a meddlesome bunch for people who claim they want less government. I feel as if the John Birchers have been let loose on society and the mainstream Republicans have been too embarrassed to admit that those are who their representatives are. Pretty soon it will be too late to view that party as anything other than extremist.
Even our local Council and BOCS, eager to get Tea Party cred, have to get in on the action by high-fiving the enactment of extra-special standards for abortion clinics, investigating shops which cater to women’s sexual interests, etc. And how many women or minorities are on either board in this damn age? Fewer than decades ago in PWC’s case.
Maureen Caddigan is the one and only. Mrs. Bass just got voted out of office. Lots of men making all the decisions. We women folks had better be afraid. Very afraid.
But never fear, Mighty Marshall is here.