Deja Vu All Over Again

Marching for women's rights. Marching for women's rights. Marching for women's rights. Marching for women's rights. Marching for women's rights.

Marching for women's rights.

Mr. Woodworth, kindly take your pia fraus of Motion 312 and insert it into your own reproductive orifice, no one else's.

But Not One Drop of Blood

CBC reports that Canada will renew funding for Planned Parenthood programs, with a Shakespearean pound of flesh caveat.

It includes the ongoing farce that this 'enlightened' protocol comes through Status of Women and Bev Oda is 'in charge' of decisions.

Don't tell me the federal Conservatives are original and sublime in their thinking when they are pulling women-averse 'good girls' fantasy strategy and tactics wholesale from the steaming American Republican extremities.

With Canada being a better environment for women than most of the world, Harper's government has a tougher row to hoe, but they're undermining civility and civil rights out of the 'no really, we LIKE women...and kittens!' limelight, one root at a time, until the entire slippery slope collapses.

Restricting women's rights can't happen here? It did happen here until Canadian women took to the streets and said their lives were as important as men's. It's still happening here if you live outside the narrow margin of economic and cultural 'goodness' net the lawmakers respect.

It's all about the bay-beeez. Well, unless. . .

While legislatures in backwards US states are merrily passing infuriating picayune little laws to hinder women's access to LEGAL abortion -- mandatory wait times, mandatory ultrasounds, mandatory bullshit lectures on fetal development and pain awareness -- in Connecticut, the grown-ups are in charge. They just passed a law outlawing diagnostic medical tests for -- wait for it -- non-medical reasons. Specifically, ultrasounds done on pregnant women have to be ordered by a physician or done for a valid medical reason.

Why, you ask? Because back in 2004 those sciencey folks at the Food and Drug Administration warned against them, particularly the 'entertainment' variety
offered by commercial studios that can expose a fetus to up to 45 minutes of high energy in a 3D ultrasound.

Prenatal ultrasound videos called “keepsake videos” and taken by commercial studios may affect the fetus, warns the US Food and Drug Administration. The administration shut down such studios 10 years ago and is again considering regulatory action. Ultrasound is a form of energy and can't be considered harmless, even at low levels, it says.

The studios have been springing up in shopping centres in cities and towns across the United States. Typically they use the latest high powered ultrasound equipment, which can cost up to $100 000 (£54 000; €81 000), to produce videos of the moving fetus.

The studios offer expectant parents one or more sessions at different stages of the pregnancy for $125 to $250. The videos show the fetus's fingers and toes, hair, muscles, facial features, and genitals and show it sucking a thumb or moving about. Some of the studios' websites post testimonials from parents who say that they bonded with their forthcoming baby and recognised features, such as the father's nose. The studios say they are an optional service and do not replace prenatal care. The cost of the service is not reimbursed by health insurance.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' April newsletter to its members says that the studios typically offer “a 30- to 45-minute ultrasound session with as many as eight guests welcome; a video to take home, often set to music selected by the parents; a set of photos, both print and digital; gender determination if requested.”

In contrast, doctors use two-dimensional ultrasound at a low power level to check for size, location, number, and age of fetuses and to check for birth defects, breathing, and heartbeat. The result is a grainy black and white picture.

Well, that just makes sense, doesn't it? Willingly pregnant women go to great lengths to protect fetuses from exposure to all kinds of potentially dangerous stuff. If you don't need an ultrasound, why take a chance?

And you'd think the fetus fetishists would agree, wouldn't you?

And you'd be wrong.

The zygote zealots consider forcing women to look at ultrasounds of the contents of their uteruses a powerful tool in their relentless campaign to lie, manipulate and coerce unwillingly pregnant women out of considering abortion.

Many of the fake pregnancy centres set up adjacent to women's clinics offer such ultrasounds, often performed by poorly trained volunteers.
Here's the whinging at LifeShite:

Pro-life leaders around the country consider ultrasound to be a technological marvel that has saved countless unborn children from abortion. Other states such as New York have considered banning ultrasounds for non-medical reasons.

Weird, innit? They're all for the fetuses, unless exposing fetuses to potential harm furthers their Mission from Gord. They're all A-OK with that.

More from Bizarro World

Rightards are saying that the guy who shot up the Holocaust Museum is a lefty.

I thought that was terrifying and hilarious at the same time.

I just saw something funnier and Canadian to boot.

Over at Freak Dominion, someone put a link up to an article in the Notional Pest about the 'radical' (NattyPo's term) anti-abortion group, Signal Hill, formerly Pro-Life BC.

Some of the freaks are taking exception to the Signalers' 'new' approach -- stop trying to recriminalize abortion and work on 'hearts and minds' instead.

Here's what one genius said (I'll save you a click and quote it in its entirety):

These "pro-life" groups are leftist trojan horses. Prolifers who support their agenda are $&%(*# heads.

Maybe she or he was kidding. You think?

Nah, me either.

March for Forced Pregnancy Day

Well, today's the Big Day! The day hundreds of Catlick school kids get the day off to be bussed to Parliament Hill* to the annual wank-fest known as March for Forced Pregnancy.

Afterwards, they'll bitch about how the mainstream media totally ignores them. Oh. Wait. Michael Coren is already bitching about how the mainstream media is totally ignoring them.

Oh.

Wait.

A headline writer at the Globe must not have got the memo. The headline reads: 'Forty Years Later, Debate Rages On'.

So. Is there a debate or not? One commenter there thinks not. Quoting numbers from the article:

shoshana berman from Canada writes: So 92% of Canadians SUPPORT abortion with 2% having no oppinion, so lets call that 94% ok with abortion and you think, "Debate Rages On?" 5% is a wimper or a tiny moan from the lunatic fringe, not a raging debate. There is no debate.

I'm with shoshana. But I'd put it a little more strongly.

Meanwhile, there are pro-choice rallies today in Montreal and Winnipeg. Fittingly, the Winnipeg rally will be held outside a fake pregnancy clinic, aka lying liars lying for baybees a Crisis Pregnancy Centre.

*Heh. I just checked the weather for Ottawa. I hope the Catlick kids bring their brollies. And somebody should check and make sure that pesky Canada wordmark doesn't sneak back onto their banners.

Fun with Fundy Spam!

Harass your MP with just two clicks of the mouse! Hell, harass all of them!

At the moment the fundies are frothing over May 14, the 40th anniversary of decriminalization of abortion in Canada.

So some genius has come up with a new e-tool (emphasis on tool) that will send an email on a subject of their choosing to every MP.

Here's how it works:

This website is designed to promote wholesome family values in Canada.

It gives Canadians who care about morals and decency a simple, effective, and convenient opportunity to contact Canadian Members of Parliament regarding Bills that have been or are about to be introduced into the House of Commons.

We continually monitor Bills and focus on those that, if made into laws, would have significant moral consequences for Canadians and impact Family values.

We provide an overview of each Bill on the site, and indicate whether Members of Parliament should be urged to vote for or against the Bill.

After selecting a Bill from the drop-down menu of the main page, you will go to the email form.

A drop-down list on the email form page allows you to select one Member of Parliament; if you do not select a Member of Parliament from the drop-down list, your email will automatically be emailed to every Member of Parliament (by default), which we encourage you to do.

You may elect to modify the letter. Shorter letters are typically more convincing and effective.

You may also change the subject line of the email you are sending.However, all emails will be monitored. If your position goes against our position regarding a Bill, your email will not be sent!

Hmmmm. All emails will be monitored. Like, by a real person, with not much of a real life to attend to? It would be a terrible shame to waste that person's time with a bunch of emails 'against their position', wouldn't it?

Well. Wouldn't it?

Going for the record

Guinness World Records needs a new category: Most panty-sniffing abortion-related bills proposed by a state legislature. The current leader would be West Virginia with 35.

There are 35 abortion-related bills pending in the West Virginia Legislature, according to the Legislature's Web site, the Charleston Daily Mail reports. Lawmakers said that the number of bills is not atypical compared with other years and that many of the measures have been introduced before. One bill (H.B. 2302) would prohibit abortions performed solely on the basis of the fetus' gender although neither the co-sponsor of the bill in the House nor the sponsor of the bill's counterpart in the Senate(S.B. 138)could identify any case of a gender-based abortion performed in West Virginia or the U.S. Barnes said, "I can't really say that it happens, but what we're saying is it's not supposed to happen."

Other bills that include restrictions and requirements regarding abortion include: S.B. 76, which would prohibit state funding of abortions, except in cases of rape, incest or a threat to a woman's life; S.B. 135, which would require some medical facilities to administer anesthesia to fetuses beginning at seven weeks' gestation; H.B. 2035, which would require medical facilities to give a pregnancy test and confirm results of the test before performing an abortion; S.B. 33 and H.B. 2073, which would require parental notification for an abortion performed on a minor; H.B. 2094, which would prohibit a higher education employee from assisting or counseling a student to obtain an abortion; and S.B. 38 and H.B. 2303, which would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions used to induce abortions.

Not atypical, eh? At least they're not going for the 'personhood' insanity.

Don't they have other stuff on their plate? Like a major recession? Infuckingcredible.

One man in Australia welcomes the fire

and brimstone too, no doubt. When facts, reason and compassion reside in the pro-choice camp, religious fundamentalists will resort to threats, opportunism, and literal interpretation of selected scripture from the bible.

Pastor's abortion dream inflames bushfire tragedy - The Catch the Fire Ministries has tried to blame the bushfires disaster on laws decriminalising abortion in Victoria. The Pentecostal church's leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah, claimed he had a dream about raging fires on October 21 last year and that he woke with "a flash from the Spirit of God: that His conditional protection has been removed from the nation of Australia ... Asked if he believed in a God who would take vengeance by killing so many people indiscriminately - even those who opposed abortion, Mr Nalliah referred to 2 Chronicles 7:14 to vouch for his assertion that God could withdraw his protection from a nation.

"The Bible is very clear," he said. "If you walk out of God's protection and turn your back on Him, you are an open target for the devil to destroy."

In news reports, officials have declared that some of the fires may have been deliberately set by arsonists. One has to wonder if any of them were disciples of Mr Nalliah?

One former supporter of Mr Nalliah's fundamentalist sect is recoiling from his words.

A furious Peter Costello has rounded on a Christian cult for suggesting the Victorian bushfires were divine retribution for the state's abortion laws, describing it as "beyond the bounds of decency". Just three weeks ago, the former federal treasurer sent a video message to a special Australia Day prayer meeting organised by Catch the Fire Ministries leader Danny Nalliah.

But he reacted angrily to a statement by Mr Nalliah yesterday recalling a dream concerning the consequences of Victorian abortion legislation that became law last year. ... "To link the death and the suffering of bushfire victims to other political events is appalling, heartless and wrong," he said. "Those who have suffered deserve every support and sympathy. It is beyond the bounds of decency to try to make moral or political points out of such a tragedy."

Last month we wrote about the decriminalization of abortion in Australia and a recent study that was done regarding women who faced unintended pregnancies.

Grand merci à lagatta!

More abortion recriminalizers' propaganda, Down Under

Over at unrepentant old hippie, JJ reminds us of the zygote zealots' rightwingnutz mob mentality, complete with an eloquent photograph. Hyperbole + overwrought visuals = fanaticism.

In the southern hemisphere, a study from Australia - a country that recently decriminalized abortion services - presents a complex portrait of the reasons why women choose to terminate a pregnancy.

Prior to the law's introduction into Parliament, the Victorian Law Reform Commission (VLRC) carried out an investigation, which presented three options to Parliament. The first was codification of the existing law, which made it a criminal offence to destroy the life of an unborn child "capable of being born alive," which was said to be any time after 28 weeks gestation. The second option was allowing an abortion to be performed at any stage of a pregnancy, if a woman gives her consent and the medical practitioner considers it ethically appropriate. The third option was the two-tier system which was finally accepted, using 24 weeks as the defining point. According to figures from the VLRC investigation, about 94.6% of abortions in Victoria are carried out before 13 weeks of gestation, 4.7% between 13 and 20 weeks, and less than 1% after 20 weeks. Yet, although only a small number of women need late-term abortions, the ones who do are the most vulnerable: teenagers, victims of sexual assault including incest, sufferers of mental illness, women who have experienced a sudden tragic life circumstance or have discovered a fetal abnormality. .... An all-women task force of leaders from central Victoria's Anglican Church diocese submitted their comments during the VLRC investigation: "In our view, public acceptance of the reality of abortion, including acceptance of the practice among women of diverse religious communities, indicates that a change in the law is timely."

The study audited data recorded over a 12 month period of phone calls from women facing unintended pregnancies and who wanted an abortion. The 5400 calls were received by the Royal Women's Hospital's Pregnancy Advisory Service from women seeking advice between October 2006 and September 2007.

Of about 3000 women who gave a primary reason for wanting an abortion, 23 per cent said they did not want children now, 11 per cent said they were too young, and .4 per cent said their partner was violent or they had been raped. But 16 per cent of callers mentioned violence as a contributing factor in their decision to seek advice, a statistic Dr Rowe said was disturbing. "It does suggest that 'exposure to violence' needs to be included in all health services for women, because it is a common occurrence in the community and it's only just been acknowledged," she said.

Predictably, no-choice abortion recriminalizers gave the findings their own spin, proclaiming that the women were using abortion as a form of birth control. In fact, 29 per cent of the callers in the study had used contraception to prevent pregnancy. Just another day in the no-choice fetus fetishists propaganda factory, cranking out more lies and more shrieeekkks!!!

The Conservative Conspiracy

We at Birth Pangs had not read this blogger before. He's a card-carrying Conservative, he says. This week he took a look at Ken Epp's now defunct private member's bill, C-484, or The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill.

And by gadfry, he gets it.