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As secretary of state, Clinton is supposed to stay out of domestic politics. But this was a moment pregnant with possibility, a titanic clash of the Inevitable (Hillary) and the Indefensible (Republican cavemen).

The attempt by Republican men to wrestle American women back into chastity belts has not only breathed life into President Obama, it has roused and riled Hillary. And that could turn out to be the most dangerous thing the wildly self-destructive G.O.P. leaders have done.

In some kind of insane bout of mass misogyny, Republicans are hounding out the women voters — including Republicans and independents — who helped them gain control of the House in 2010.

Senator Olympia Snowe, who’s fed up and leaving Congress, told The Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty that “it feels as if we are going back to another era,” warning that Republicans could drive women into Democratic arms.

reproductive_justice misogyny sexism patriarchy

reproductive_justice rape_culture video

The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday that it will cut off all Medicaid funding for family planning to the state of Texas, following Gov. Rick Perry's (R) decision to implement a new law that excludes Planned Parenthood from the state's Medicaid Women's Health Program.

Cindy Mann, director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations (CMSO), wrote Texas health officials a letter on Thursday explaining that the state broke federal Medicaid rules by discriminating against qualified family planning providers and thus would be losing the entire program, which provides cancer screenings, contraceptives and basic health care to 130,000 low-income women each year.

reproductive_justice why_we_can't_have_nice_things texas

Arizona legislators have advanced an unprecedented bill that would require women who wish to have their contraception covered by their health insurance plans to prove to their employers that they are taking it to treat medical conditions. The bill also makes it easier for Arizona employers to fire a woman for using birth control to prevent pregnancy despite the employer's moral objection.

reproductive_justice patriarchy why_we_can't_have_nice_things arizona

reproductive_justice misogyny rape_culture

This debate has reached critical mass, and leaves me uncertain of my legal and moral status. Am I a person? An object? A ward of the state? A “prostitute”? (And if I’m the last of these, where do I drop off my W-2?) ...




Case No. 1: U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes
The Recap: Following a 10-week maternity leave, a three-year employee of a Houston debt collection agency filed a sex discrimination suit, alleging she was fired for asking permission to bring a breast pump to work. Hughes sided with the company, but added that the truth of the plaintiff’s claim was irrelevant.

reproductive_justice sexism rape_culture misogyny

SB 438 would prohibit any state employee insurance plans from covering abortions. There is no exemption for the health of the mother’s life. So, if a woman nearly dies giving childbirth and a life-saving abortion has to be performed, the women will be stuck with the bill.

SB 434 also seeks to limit the choices of women in our state. It would prohibit any money to be spent on an insurance plan that covers abortion: ...

reproductive_justice

Note to Governor McDonnell: Arresting women’s-rights activists won’t make your little problem go away.

reproductive_justice rape_culture

The picture above shows how Virginia State Police greeted protesters for reproductive equality this weekend. On Saturday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, 31 people were arrested for marching to the Capitol and sitting down on the steps, where they were faced officers in riot gear.

reproductive_justice

"You see, my 16 year old daughter came home from school on Friday in tears and has been in a state of utter despair since. She was told, in no uncertain terms, that she is a slut..."

This is the consequence of the hate being peddled by Rush Limbaugh and his ilk. It's not just "entertainment" or "humor" as he and his defenders like to claim. The bullying these folks do on the airwaves trickles down to bullying in the workplace and in the schoolyard. It has very real, very negative consequences to people's lives--including to these "mean girls" bullies themselves, who are at significantly higher risk of teen pregnancy and doomed shotgun weddings due to a learned prejudice against basic birth control.

reproductive_justice misogyny

[He's sorry for his "choice of words", but not for spreading misinformation about a) how prescription birth control expenses work, b) what change exactly is being proposed for b.c. pill coverage, c) who uses the pill, d) why they use it, and e) who needs help paying for it.

Suck my left tit, Limbaugh.

-L]

reproductive_justice misogyny

I’m not quite sure what to say to this.

Do I point out that, for many women, access to contraception has nothing to do with trying to prevent pregnancy...? That many people wishing to use contraception are married people who simply want some control over whether, and when, to have children? That the most effective forms of contraception are expensive... regardless of whether you have sex once a month, once a week, or once a day? That, as a forthcoming paper from Harold Pollack and Adam Sonfield points out, studies show women will choose these forms of contraception if they are affordable? That contraception has all kinds of economic and health benefits, which is why a non-partisan commission of experts from the Institute of Medicine first recommended birth control be part of basic health insurance?

I could say any of those things. But to do so might seem to concede an argument that doesn’t deserve conceding: the suggestion that women who have premarital sex are “sluts.”

reproductive_justice misogyny

[Click through to sign a petition denouncing this slut-shaming. -L]

Sandra Fluke is the Georgetown college student who Democrats had asked to testify in the infamous Issa no-girls-allowed hearing about women's health. Democrats held their own hearing to get her testimony on the record, which led to Limbaugh's tirade, calling Ms. Fluke a "slut" and "prostitute" and saying "if we're going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch."

Republican leadership is too intimidated by Limbaugh to denounce him and so far the media hasn't done much of a job in pushing those Republicans to make public statements. Pressure is going to build, however, as Limbaugh is getting hurt where it counts: with his show's advertisers.

call_for_action reproductive_justice misogyny

The chairman of the Alabama Senate Health Committee said he doesn’t see a conflict of interest between his support for a bill that would require physicians to perform ultrasounds on women seeking abortions and his company, which sells the type of equipment the bill would require.

reproductive_justice shenanigans

[Because in this economy, that's no problem at all! -L]

reproductive_justice

Every part of you belongs to you.

reproductive_justice fiction

And now Georgia State Representative Yasmin Neal has a bill that would ban vasectomies.

reproductive_justice

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has issued this press release, backing down on the trans-vaginal ultrasound issue, and calling for amendments to Virginia’s proposed “informed consent” law stating that invasive procedures are not mandated. ...

Gov. McDonnell says, “No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure.”

But why does it matter whether the procedure is invasive or not? The state has absolutely no business mandating any kind of unnecessary medical procedure...

reproductive_justice

reproductive_justice

CNN only showed three women on the screen all night long: one screen shot of an older woman, one shot of Rick Perry's wife and the sole female questioner who asked about education policy. That's it. Three women on the screen during the entire debate.

...The word "woman" was never uttered, even once, despite long segments devoted to the subjects of birth control and healthcare. The word "mother" and the word "mom" came up one time each, when Mitt Romney talked about his opposition to gay adoptions. But every one of these important, middle aged and old, white men had strong opinions on contraception, the morning after pill, abortion and sexual morality for the other 50% of the human species that was rendered invisible.

reproductive_justice