the scary part is, they're *not joking*

Picked up from koimistress. I am the least politically interested of people. However, I object to anyone being interested in what my uterus does.

VA Legislative Sentry: Have a Miscarriage, Go to JAIL?

The thing is, there's a small number of things that really piss me off. The big one is the right to your own body. It took thousands of years of human history for me, as a woman, to own my own body, to own my life, and to have the right to what it does and what it doesn't do. I will be *damned* if I give up any of it to anyone.

I keep having to re-read it--the thing is, it's not that I don't believe this sort of thing is coming up. I do. It's scary that it doesn't surprise me at all.

Comments

[obsidian-rai.livejournal.com]

*boggles* I don't even know what to say to that. It's incredible that it even got written up. *shakes head* Damn. Thanks for sharing the link, hon.

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

You know, its only a step away from legislating how a woman behaves - what she eats, drinks, how much sleeps and works - while pregnant. Will choosing not to give up coffee and red wine while pregnant eventually be criminalised?

[fyrdrakken]

Given that in some instances court orders have been given forcing pregnant women to go along with their doctor's orders against their own wishes (generally specifically regarding submitting to C-sections that often turn out not to have been medically necessary at all despite what the doctors said) and given that case of the Utah woman being prosecuted for the death of one of her twins in utero, this is just another step along those lines.

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

Sad sad state of affairs.

[rachelmap.livejournal.com]

Jesus! How's this for getting us one step closer to a kind of Handmaid's Tale dystopia. Swell.

[xoverau.livejournal.com]

Skeery, ain't it? I wonder how often that's going to actually be enforced, though. I mean, a lot of states have stringent laws against suicide.

[fyrdrakken]

A lot of state's sodomy laws weren't highly enforced either -- the case that struck down Texas' law a few years ago was notable largely because the cops chose to prosecute in the first place, and certain sex toys illegal in this state are on the shelf in stores I've been in here in Dallas.

Doesn't mean it isn't offensive and nastily precedent-setting just having the law on the books, enforced or not.

[xoverau.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure. I bet there are loads of laws out there that, if we read the text, would make us wonder what kind of freaky police state they came from. Scary.

[fyrdrakken]

Mind you, I've seen e-mail forwards of amusingly insane laws actually on the books in various states that lead one to wonder, "What kind of people live there that this was something they needed to legislate against? Or what were the lawmakers on when they thought this up?" A lot of times it's just down to what things the folks down at the enforcement level are quietly ignoring because of A) insane laws or B) other factors. (Like my father was pointing out the other night about how the marijuana growers in northern California in certain areas are quietly ignored by local law enforcement because of what it's done to the local tax base.)

[xoverau.livejournal.com]

Among other things, at work I monitor health lines where women call in if they're having miscarriages, so I talk to probably five or six of them locally every couple days. Some people handle it pretty well and some people totally fall apart, and that's not something you want to slap a time limit on. So much of this shit just seems so petty and unfeeling.

[fyrdrakken]

In a thread elsewhere, annejumps pointed out a Metafilter discussion in which some potential consequences and ramifications are pointed out. And yeah, it's insensitive as hell in cases where a wanted (sometimes very wanted) pregnancy has ended, and unnecessary in cases of unwanted pregnancies since abortions are still technically legal.

[xoverau.livejournal.com]

And more creepily invasive for people who want pregnancy than people who didn't, from what I've heard--lots more information required.

I really really wish people would start putting their legislative efforts and cash into something non-worthless for a change.

[zosha2003.livejournal.com]

Is there something in the water in VA? How ridiculous can this march to the restrictive right wing religious zealot position so fondly embraced by the same idiots who voted for Shrub ... and for excluding Gay people from the rights all Americans enjoy.

It concerns me that VA is even contemplating this - it is far more disconcerting to think of how many right wing legislators in other states will think this is a peachy idea.

[fyrdrakken]

I'm trying to remember if it was Ashcroft who was trying to deny that abortions can ever be "medically necessary to protect the life/health of the mother." While I'd be generally in favor of that bill that would have made it an additional prosecutable crime to cause harm to a pregnant woman resulting in the death or miscarriage of her child were it not for the abortion rights implications, I can't say I'm at all happy with the current move towards suppressing women's rights in favor of protection of the unborn. Legislation protecting children from their mothers is very necessary in many cases once they've been born -- though I don't see the conservatives doing much along those lines, or making sure the already-born are well-fed and protected and have decent health care -- but oh boy, they're all over anything to reverse feminism and reduce women to walking uteri not legally fit to make their own decisions...

Not Just Misogynistic, But Dumb, Too

[trienne-hovus.livejournal.com]

Y'all are probably too young to remember when Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House, but when he was he said a lot of things that were so stick-stone-stupid you just had to shake your head and wonder what went on in his mind.

One memorable comment he made, while arguing against allowing women soldiers to fight in combat, was that women "got infections" every month, and therefore would be dangerous to share foxholes with.

The damn fool was talking about menstruation.

The reason I mention Newt is to show how ignorant the women-haters are about female biology.

And the reason I mention *that* is to suggest to everyone a way of monkeywrenching that horrible fascistic law if it passes.

To wit:

Every month, when we have our 'infections' - excuse me, our periods - we should call the Virginia police and tell them we think we might just have had a miscarriage, and we're reporting it to the cops, like we're supposed to. Even those of us who don't live in Virginia.

Believe me, the cops will not be happy if that law passes; and they will certainly not be happy if they're actually supposed to *enforce* it; and getting calls from post-menstrual women from all over the freaking country every freaking day will put the maraschino cherry on how not-happy they'll be about it.

Hell, I had a tubal ligation some years back, and I'll make those calls anyway :)