Week Recap: The Handmaid's Tale 2012 USA
Fresh off the birth control hearings earlier this month, our Republican Party escalates its War on Women deeper into the political landscape with the transvaginal abortion stuff introduced in Virginia last week.
The bill began muscling its way through a legislature that recently came under the rule of GOP conservatives. It moved ahead despite an outcry from women and Democrats, including a female lawmaker who called it “state-mandated rape” and another who made her point with a failed amendment requiring rectal prostate exams for men seeking Viagra prescriptions.
After a Republican senator wife or two refused to sleep with her husband if they voted in favor, the bill was shot down. Even the ever-eloquent and always-essential Megan McCain had something to say:
I’m just horrified by this bill. As a Republican woman, I’m horrified.
The Virginia bill resurfaces a few days later, but narrowly passes with a "no vaginal probe" clause (yes, that's a headline)
The Virginia Senate on Tuesday narrowly approved a version that still requires women to get an ultrasound, this time without the vaginal probe
Artist's rendering of a transvaginal probe (as suggested be enforced by your government)
Meanwhile, in Alabama, the same type of bill comes...and goes...
A lawmaker in Alabama is backing off a provision that would have required women in his state to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before getting an abortion — similar to a much-maligned measure in Virginia that was also eventually scrapped.
btw, Alabama's particular bill also has a nice corporate lobbying twist (!)
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
Also for the record, the bill is calling for the ultrasounds to be done vaginally to display the embryo or fetus more clearly. The doctor also would be required to describe the images to the woman. Because one thing a woman who has chosen to abort a pregnancy doesn’t realize is that she’s actually pregnant. (Because women are stupid, you see)
(ProTip: Just say no to inner-vaginal Republicans)
So, in the mist all this nonsense the past week (which is actually pretty terrifying nonsense, since these freaks make laws, and stuff)....Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the last of a few women holding office in the Republican Party (not to mention a rare dying breed of "moderate" Republicans) has announced she will not seek re-election, virtually guaranteeing a return of the seat to the Democrats and radically disrupting the political landscape (possibility of Senate control reverting back to the Democratic Party)
I do find it frustrating that an atmosphere of polarization and ‘my way or the highway’ ideologies has become pervasive in campaigns and in our governing institutions.
Translation: The Repuplican Party is insane. I'm out.
Meanwhile, Republicans ready themselves in Pennsylvania
Even as the transvaginal ultrasound bill in Virginia was causing national outrage, Pennsylvania conservatives were quietly pushing a even more restrictive abortion bill.
In addition to mandating the much-maligned transvaginal ultrasound requirements, Pennsylvania legislators proposed strongly encouraging women to view and listen to the ultrasounds, forcing technicians to give the women personalized copies of the results and mandating how long before any abortion the ultrasound much be preformed -- and that's just for starters.
There's never been a better time to consider becoming an American ex-pat in Europe!
