#lpjleague

[brookeolin]

May the fetus you save turn out to be a gay abortion provider

[thedoulaprojectnyc-blog]

Come see @thedoulaproject at the Lady Parts Justice League Activist Fair! @ladypjustice #LPJLeague #LPJLMarch #riseup2017 #doulaproject #insolidaritywestand #womensmarch

[ladypartsjusticeleague]

Daenerys knows justice. So do we. Follow Lady Parts Justice League, and join us in fighting for access to abortion.

Reproductive rights are not a game.

[ladypartsjusticeleague]

Happy Earth Day! #FullBush

Earth Day is a good reminder to protect Mother Nature’s Bush as well as every other bush around the world. #FullBush #EarthDay #MotherNature

[ladypartsjusticeleague]

Time to End Menstrual Shaming. Period.      

By LPJL Blogger on April 20, 2016

If it bleeds, it leads. And bleeding is an integral part of womanhood.

We here at Lady Parts Justice are dedicated to removing the stigma attached to abortion. But that’s only part of the shaming routinely involved with lady parts. As any person who has ever menstruated knows, “that time of month” is fraught with societal shaming that expresses itself in dopey euphemisms like “that time of the month.” Ads for sanitary pads and tampons use images of iridescent blue liquid, as though menstrual cycles were something that only Smurfs experienced.

But as a new in-depth Newsweek article points out, periods are really happening right now, in terms of pop culture attention and even legislative progress. NPR called 2015 “the year of the period,” and it looks like we’ll be having more in 2016. Phrases like menstrual equity and period feminism are the vogue instead of tired euphemisms.

Americans spent $3.1 billion on tampons, pads and sanitary products last year. They are a basic and necessary product, yet the stigma around menstruation means that they are often difficult and unnecessarily expensive to obtain.

Tampons and pads are taxed in all but 10 states (5 of which don’t have any sales tax at all.) But the tide is changing. New York state is in the process of eliminating the tampon tax. In all, tampon tax legislation has been introduced in 14 states this year alone, and is still alive in 12.

If tampons are getting more affordable, it’s been an uphill battle to make them more safe, going back to the day of toxic shock syndrome (TSS). The FDA doesn’t require tampon manufacturers to list their ingredients–even though the average woman will have 12,000 of them inserted into her for over 100,000 hours of her life. It’s hard to imagine a product being so loosely regulated if men had to stick their penises into it for 100,000 hours.

Introduced by US Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), the Robin Danielson Feminine Hygiene Product Safety Act (named after a woman who died of TSS) would ask the FDA to require that tampon ingredients be listed. It also would mandate that the National Institutes of Health assess the health risks associated with menstrual hygiene products. The Act has been batted around Congress in one form or another since 1997. It’s currently languishing in the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, where it has been given just a 2% chance of passing.

Let’s continue to fight to repeal tampon taxes in every state, and pressure Congress to finally pass the Robin Danielson Act. Act now! Momentum is building, people are becoming aware… in short, it’s “that time.”

[ladypartsjusticeleague]

Making Irish Eyes Smile      

By LPJL Blogger on April 19, 2016

Reverend Dr. Lesley Carroll, who has been a Presbyterian Minister in Northern Belfast for over 30 years, is passing on the pulpit to run in the Assembly election as a member of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Rev Dr Carroll recently told the Belfast Feminist Network that she was not in favor for continuing on with the ‘no aborsh for you’ law that’s currently in place in Ireland but rather, wait for it, that it needs to be DISCUSSED and “…is a matter of choice…”

CAN YOU IMAGINE.

“So this for me is a matter of compassion, to allow mothers, in particular, to make that decision for themselves.” -Rev. Dr. Lesley Carroll

COMPASSION.

Thank you Rev Doc Carroll for reminding us all about the importance of empathy and remembering that we need not judge unless we’ve walked in the shoes of others!

[ladypartsjusticeleague]

Jackals and Hyde      

By LPJL Blogger on April 18, 2016

Tax day is a good time to reflect on where your tax dollars go… or don’t go. They most definitely don’t go to paying for abortion care, despite the fact that access to it is a Constitutional right. That’s because anti-choice nutbags insist they don’t want any of their precious tax dollars going to fund something they they think comes directly from the bowels of Satan… like reproductive care for women.

Since 1976, the squeamish sensitivities of those who don’t want their moral purity sullied by even the most remote connection to the hellishness of abortion has been given the force of law by something called the Hyde Amendment. The Hyde Amendment states that federal funds cannot be used to pay for abortion (except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother… at least for now.) Its biggest impact is on Medicaid, which of course is the lifeline for many poor, minority, and working class women–the ones who always first feel the brunt of restrictions on their rights.

The Hyde Amendment is named for its main sponsor, former Congressman Henry Hyde of Illinois. Besides inserting himself into the uteri of countless women with the Hyde Amendment, the Hydester is best remembered for his leading role in the impeachment of Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair. Speaking of affairs, it turns out that the sanctimonious Hyde had one of his own that broke up his mistress’s marriage. Hyde said the affair was a “youthful indiscretion.” He was 41 at the time. Kids! The point is that the Hyde Amendment has a name appropriately steeped in hypocrisy.

Nobody wants to pay taxes to support policies they disagree with. And everybody does. Your tax dollars go to drones, domestic spying, mass incarceration, and countless other things that go along with being part of a nation of 300 million people, the vast majority of whom are not you. There will be some expenses you disagree with. That’s part of life, unless you’re one of the Sanctified Few who can impose their morals on the rest of us.  

Hyde isn’t a law per se. It’s a rider attached to appropriation bills that needs to be renewed periodically. For a long time now, that renewal has been pretty much taken for granted as a political victory that the anti-abortion movement now considers its due. Hyde was the first major victory for anti-choice forces after Roe v Wade. It is the beachhead from which further assaults on reproductive freedoms are made.

It’s time to stop accepting the Hyde Amendment as an inevitable concession to the forces of repression. It won’t be easy to undo. But we need to begin the process of rolling it back. Let’s roll.

[ladypartsjusticeleague]

T-GIF: Uterus’ Of The World Unite!

It’s T-GIF time and today LPJL is using it as a call to arms – Uterus’ Of The World Unite!

The assault on abortion access is happening all over the globe and women everywhere are fighting back.

This week we’ve seen so many people rise up – literally – the inspiring actions in England outside the embassies and in Northern  Ireland – and did you see those women storm out of that church in Poland?

The scarf toss is the new “Bye Felicia”.

Let’s join them in support but also, let’s follow their lead, get loud and show OUR creepy politicians and oppressive religious zealots that we won’t stop until abortion access is safe, legal, and without completely unnecessary roadblocks!

Share this and show that no matter where in the world we are, women and all uterus having people deserve and demand control of our bodies.