Any Fix for Sex-Selective Abortion Would Be Discriminatory, Unethical, and Futile

Well, now at least we seem to have some decent research on sex selective abortion in Canada.

Previous studies indicated that it might be happening in "some communities," but there were quibbles about methodology.

This seems solid.

It’s the clearest evidence yet that abortion is being used to help parents have a son. A study has found that some Indian-born immigrants to Canada are selectively aborting female fetuses if they have already had two daughters. The researchers say, however, that action may not be necessary as the incidence is low, and the practice is likely to go away on its own as immigrants become settled.

Link to full study.

Yes, it's happening in Canada, but as we've said many times before: So what?

There is still zero evidence that the practice is skewing the sex ratio in general.

And if it is skewing the ratio in "some communities," we say again: So what? Parents who prefer boys may get a comeuppance when their precious sons bring home girlfriends (or boyfriends [!]) from other ethnic backgrounds.

But look at the hand-wringing going on. The normally sane Toronto Star has an unusually sensational piece about it.

Even my fave Matt Galloway of CBC's MetroMorning got into the "abortion is terrible" meme, trying really hard to get one of the study's authors to call the results "troubling."

@metromorning Well, that was disappointing. Matt tried twice to get author of #SexSelection study to say he was "troubled" by findings.

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) April 12, 2016

@metromorning Why "troubled"? Why not "what are implications?" Guy is a researcher. You want community reaction, ask them.

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) April 12, 2016

@metromorning Good. It's a complicated issue and I find it "troubling" you fall so easily into stereotypical tropes.

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) April 12, 2016

And while We Need a Law Like a Hole in the Head was ready with his SHRIEK!!!! (Title: Government needs to end pre-natal discrimination against women) and because somebody had to do it, Amateur Statistician asks WHERE ARE THE FEMINISTS????, it is very disappointing that mainstream media would prefer to point fingers and tsk-tsk.

(Other fetus freak sites are no doubt still working up their dudgeon.)

Also, this issue conjures up a disgusting stew of misogyny and racism. DO NOT read comments.

As an antidote, read this piece from the eminently sensible André Picard (from 2012) about the complexities of the issue.

Here's the thing: any attempted "fix" will be discriminatory, unethical, and futile.

Refuse to reveal sex of fetus until it's too late to abort? How exactly? Refuse to disclose all pregnant patients' own information? Or just "some" patients?

What about sex-related genetic disorders? Will we force people to carry blighted pregnancies to term because we're up in arms over possible sex-selection?

And it will all be futile because there are home sex-test kits, highways and airplanes, and unethical ultrasound technicians.

The only way to "fix" this is to value girls and women as we do boys and men.

That's a helluva long-term project, but it's the only way.

From New Scientist again:

In India, male preference has led to a shortfall of millions of female children, so strict legislation was necessary. But in North America, the problem is small and likely to resolve itself as immigrant communities become more integrated. “My suspicion is that in the second generation you would not notice this phenomenon at all,” [Anil Deolalikar, economist at the University of California] says.

Past DJ! posts on sex selection.


ADDED: Dr Brian Goldman weighs in and comes to the attention of Dr Jen Gunter, newly dubbed "Twitter's OB/GYN."

Get ready for a response big time https://t.co/ts1TyM6qie

— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) April 12, 2016

This won't be pretty. :)


UPDATE April 13/16: Here is Dr Jen Gunter's response to Dr Goldman. Ouch!

Something Dr Gunter mentions that I -- and most other commenters on this subject -- have not is: multiple pregnancies in the quest for a male child. Since we know that pregnancy is 14 times more dangerous than abortion, why does no one consider the risk of multiple pregnancies for the "good" women who do not seek abortion?


UPDATE April 14/16: Yesterday, CBC's The Current ran an informative and hopeful segment on this issue, demonstrating how complex it is.

Heal the RCMP or replace it.

Necrotic festering is bubbling up within the RCMP.  Its foul stench wafts from every part of the force. The infection is spreading: surgery and excision will be required.

The affliction known as flesh-eating disease "..is a misnomer, as in truth, the bacteria do not 'eat' the tissue. They destroy the tissue that makes up the skin and muscle by releasing toxins.."

RCMP Commissioner Paulson has to be removed, as soon as possible. The man is worse than gangrene; he spouts insincere platitudes and clichés in lieu of genuine commitment to change the toxic culture and behaviours that contaminate every aspect of the organization.

Recently Paulson attended an event where he was invited 

"to discuss national security in the wake of the Brussels bombing, and also what progress he was making on curtailing harassment and weeding out members who have sullied the force's reputation. [..] he was asked by a member of the audience, when was the last time he had written a traffic ticket to anyone. Instead of answering the question, the commissioner went on a "bon mot" diversion. He talked about speeding down B.C.'s Coquihalla Highway with some family members last year and being pulled over by an RCMP officer. Paulson got some laughs when he mimicked the horrified reaction of the member who suddenly realized he had just pulled over the big boss; an officer who faced the unenviable decision of whether or not to lay a fine on him. The tell though, came when the moderator said he wouldn't ask about the dollar value of the ticket. Paulson's expression went from a broad grin to 'oh-oh' in a flash as he seemed to realize he had stepped in it. [..] Later, talking to reporters, he was clearly not pleased when the speeding incident came up. At first, he said, "Aw, it was just a story I made up." Pressed further he changed course, saying, "No, I don't want to talk about that. I do not want to talk about that."

Paulson's casual Catskills routine is offensive, in light of the most recent developments and disclosures in the matter of interminable sexual harassment within RCMP ranks.

The harassment, [Linda Davidson] alleges in court papers, took many forms: unwanted grabbing and kissing; crude jokes, including the placement of ketchup-stained tampons in her locker; and constant questioning about her sexual orientation and abilities. “I experienced this treatment irrespective of my detachment, posting, rank or seniority,” she wrote in an affidavit. “I never felt that I could rely on senior officers to protect me.“ The Bracebridge, Ont., mother, who now runs a security firm, is the lead plaintiff in a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging systemic gender-based harassment and discrimination in the RCMP — the second such lawsuit to hit the force in recent years.

Last, but not least, is the ongoing RCMP mindset of collusion with rape culture and racism, which enables abusive practices such as this one.

Last month, Cody Durocher was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl in Hay River, N.W.T. It was his third sexual assault conviction. RELATED | RCMP botched N.W.T. sex assault investigation, documents say At that trial N.W.T. Supreme Court Justice Louise Charbonneau had some harsh words for the way that girl was treated after disclosing the incident to police, noting that instead of being taken to hospital, she was put in a jail cell for violating her probation, where she remained until the following evening. Durocher, 31, was convicted of raping two women in different towns in northern Alberta in 2010. He pleaded guilty to the first after DNA evidence linked him to the attack. He was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Durocher was sentenced to three years for the second attack. In court, the 13-year-old Hay River victim said Durocher sexually assaulted her on January 11, 2014.

Here's an idea: appoint a royal commission to investigate the institutional roots of whatever pathology it is that maintains a "..nature of policing makes it ripe for behaviour that is _less than professional_" 

Name Marie Henein to chair that commission. She doesn't suffer fools gladly. Here's how she handled Peter Mansbridge's ham-handed attempt at interviewing her.

Buy popcorn.  Lots and lots of popcorn.

When femicide is justified by men who feel their "honour" has been soiled.

The first post of an informal series, illustrating how and when all the elements of the legal system do work and justice is served.

Dorothy Woods.

Police officers meticulously collected evidence to document a complicated investigation in a rigorous, professional manner.

Here's an interesting series of posts, following the release of her accused killer - presumed innocent as the legal system goes, and this feminist agrees - on bail after he was charged.

The Crown proceeded with skill, compassion and due diligence.

The defendant's lawyer attempted to impugn the integrity and the objectivity of the prosecutor.

Outside court, defense lawyer Michael Nolin took issue with how the texts presented to the jury portray David Woods as a racist. "I'm very disappointed that this is the line that the prosecution has chosen to draw in the sand," he said. "I find it interesting that the only prosecutor of colour in the Saskatoon provincial prosecution office has been drawn to try this case. And he's been on it from the beginning."

Nolin concluded his case for the defence by stating Dorothy engaged in a high-risk lifestyle with several strange (code for black) men*, and exhorted the jurors to "vote with their conscience".  Oddly that doesn't sound at all like a closing argument to me though it does seem to be a judgement.

The judge carefully presided over the trial and instructed the jury members.

The attentive jury reviewed the details of evidence that was gathered and presented.

After a finding of first degree murder, the prosecutor Michael Segu was able to offer observations to the media in his measured, thoughtful manner.

Oh. Was it racism, the "the elephant in the room" that Woods' lawyer Michael Nolin kept tripping over?

Nonetheless David Woods refused to take responsibility for the aggrieved male honour and patriarchal privilege that motivated him to plan and execute the vengeful murder of his wife.  He appealed his conviction.

*The testimony of Dorothy's friend was challenged by Woods' lawyer; the judge allowed it.

-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* 

ADDED: to provide a context for this post.  There have been many confrontations after the Ghomeshi decision, particularly with regard to those who seem compelled to police what can be properly criticized.  On both sides of the divide, many have descended into use of hyperbole.

These screen caps indicate how most criticism of Justice Horkins' judgement is met with hostile screeching of SO YOU WANT TO ABOLISH THE PRESUMPTION OF INNOCENCE! 

When those accused of being "anti-presumption of innocence" attempt to clarify - they're then accused of being in league with some RWNJ advocacy for victims, such as the useful con job Pierre-Hughes Boisvenu.  Err, no. 

Unconventional

Sunday I set the alarm for 6:30 am so I would make my way to the Lib14 convention, and arrive in time for the delegates' plenary session where a number of priority resolutions would be presented, possibly debated and then voted upon.

At the scheduled time, I was in the main hall, poised to follow the proceedings.

Resolutions 110:
A Resolution for Action for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
WHEREAS the effects of colonization, discrimination, stigmatization and remaining silent and inactive on the missing and murdered Indigenous women issue has contributed to the issue itself;
WHEREAS the missing and murdered Indigenous women issue has received international attention via United Nations, with a United nations Special Rapporteur spending nine days touring Canada and speaking with Indigenous individuals and organizations;
WHEREAS the Conservative Party of Canada has eliminated funding to the Sisters in Spirit Research Project and have dismissed calls from Premiers across Canada for a national inquiry on missing murdered and Indigenous women;
BE IT RESOLVED that the Liberal Party of Canada, within its first term as government, begin working with pertinent Indigenous advocacy organizations, Indigenous communities, and Indigenous families of those missing and murdered on the issue of the missing and murdered Indigenous women to allow the project to be relevant to the unique issues facing Indigenous women and girls;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Liberal Party of Canada reinstates research funding under the heading of Sisters in Spirit to allow appropriate documentation and analysis of this on-going human rights issue and support current Indigenous organizations research and documentation on missing and murdered Indigenous women;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Liberal Party of Canada support current Indigenous advocacy organizations to continue their work in advocating for the families and friends of the missing and murdered Indigenous women.

My friend Naomi Sayers applied her skills and her knowledge to the task of drafting a resolution that would include critical information, define the issue and provide specific redress.  The Yukon division of the LPC brought it forward.

That resolution was adopted unanimously by the plenary.

Naomi has a twitter account and she blogs.  This post summarizes her experiences, and how she feels about the challenges of aligning oneself with a political party.

We met for the first time in real life at the convention, after a year of retweeting each other, and forging online alliances.  She is just as fierce, committed and kick-ass as one senses she might be, from reading her.  And she wasn't too disappointed that I'm not as blonde or as dissolute as my Patsy Stone avatar.... I trust.

During the four days (really...? it felt like two weeks!) I took notes about myriad events and glimpses that I caught or that caught me... There may be a concluding wrap-up.

Le théâtre politique, Québec-style.

What is currently unfolding in La belle province is a spectacle.  It's not Grand Guignol yet, but given the inflammatory issues involved, it may yet descend to that.

The knives are certainly being sharpened, and they will be used judiciously to silence critics and opponents.

MP Maria Mourani was expelled from the Bloc Québécois caucus following comments she made about the proposed Quebec charter of values: la charte des valeurs québécoises.

In an interview with Radio-Canada on Wednesday, Mourani said Quebec's charter of values was a political miscalculation on the part of Premier Pauline Marois.

Mourani was making the comments as a spokesperson of a pro-sovereignist group in favour of secularism which calls itself "les indépendantistes pour une laïcité inclusive."

Bloc Québécois Leader Daniel Paillé said Mourani's comments are "irreconcilable" with the party's position.

The Parti Québécois claims that this Charter will unify all Quebecers within a secular state, one that is devoid of all image and symbols of adherence to religious beliefs.

Crucifixes prominently displayed on provincially funded public institutions are to be exempt from the Charter.  Its continued presence is defended as a valid historical and cultural artifact for the majority of Quebecers, in patronizing rhetoric uttered by Bernard Drainville.

Last year, PQ candidate Djamila Benhabib had the temerity to suggest, as a follow-up to the recommendations of the Bouchard-Taylor Commission, that the MASSIVE crucifix hanging in the National Assembly be taken down.  She was attacked and

... forced by members of her own party to recant, she was castigated as a foreigner with alien values and an unpronounceable name by Saguenay mayor Jean Tremblay. Her crime? Not having enough cultural Catholicism to know that the principle of secularism only applies to other religions.

The crucifix is a reminder of the oppressive, authoritarian and violent power that the Catholic church wielded.  Many First Nations people and descendants of the survivors of La grande noirceur do not wax nostalgic about the crucifix.

...Charles Taylor, the well-known academic who co-chaired a provincial commission into reasonable accommodation in 2007, describes the proposal as an “absolutely terrible act of exclusion.” So the debate is on.

Former Quebec Premier Bernard Landry has lashed out at English Canadian media for “Quebec bashing” while covering the matter. Landry told CBC Radio’s As It Happens that Quebec welcomes immigrants but wants them to join society. “When you change country, you change country,” he said. “And you have to get first the language, then the culture and integrate.”

In the same interview, Landry even goes on to ridicule the idea of police wearing turbans, which harks back to the Reform Party’s 1989 convention resolution stating that Sikhs should be barred from wearing turbans in the RCMP.

Landry’s comments on religious accommodation obviously shift quickly to immigration policy although individuals barred from wearing religious symbols would likely include native-born Quebecers.

From here. 

I have been reading La Presse, Le Devoir, Le Droit and listening to Radio-Canada with regard to la Charte des valeurs québecoises almost non-stop since last Tuesday.  My head hurts from the intellectual dishonesty and contradictions advanced by those who support and vigorously defend la raison d'être of this project.

Yesterday I had a long chat with a neighbour who wears le hijab about faith, spiritual devotion and cultural adaptation, while we were waiting on OC Transpo.  On the bus, I noticed a young man of African ancestry who may have been an immigrant — or born in Canada as my neighbour was.  He wore un chapelet around his neck. This rosary was made of fluorescent green plastic.  It was quite ostentatious.

It reminded me of cab-drivers who prominently display cross or large medallions that feature Catholic saints.  These objects are usually dangling from rear-view mirrors.  I have asked a few of them:  Do you put these in your taxi so that customers will know that you are not a muslim?  The answer is always an embarrassed yes.

And why is there a photo of Tonto, as embodied by Johnny Depp at the beginning of this blog?

Publicity, even negative, is considered by public relations flaks to be a *good thing*.  Which is why the PQ leaked information about la Charte to engineer a "crisis" ahead of its release, and to provoke a negative reaction from the Rest of Canada.  A win/win situation for the PQ.

Like Depp's costume, la Charte is a shallow, histrionic contrivance designed to create a furor, and to disguise the inherent racism and white privilege oozing from this political tactic.

So. Islamophobia exists. Christian and white privilege exists in Canada.  Religious fundamentalists are using the same tactics as the PQ, framing the *problem* to suit their ideology as well as exploiting people's fear and anger.

Violence against women occurs all too frequently; it seems it's only when a crime is motivated by fundamentalist muslim patriarchal ideology that femicide is rigorously investigated and prosecuted according to existing laws.  When the killing of women is fuelled by christian fundamentalism, only feminists feel that the media should equally denounce it.

Fortunately Tabatha Southey rescued me from feeling as gloomy and grumpy as Depp seems — and I don't even have to choose to wear (or not) head-gear for business, cultural, religious or political reasons. 

“The state has no place interfering in the moral and religious beliefs of Quebecers,” Bernard Drainville, the minister responsible for the charter, said in a bid to explain its stated rationale.[...]

Mr. Drainville’s voice remained remarkably steady for a man who, we’re asked to believe, understood himself to be addressing the confused population of a province whose citizens have been soldiering on through what he called “a crisis.”

The crisis, he clarified in a follow-up interview, stems from the “tensions” and “much frustration” caused by the “clearly unreasonable religious accommodations” that minorities in the province have been granted on occasion.

By “tensions,” was he referring, for example, to a case this summer when a newspaper reported that Muslim and Jewish groups were allowed to bring their own food into the La Ronde amusement park – which offers no kosher or halal dining option? The outrage caused the park to forbid the practice.[...]

Last year, my mum lost her hair to chemotherapy. She found wearing a wig too uncomfortable to bear and so played around with a scarf for a while but was unhappy with the results.

“I was trying to achieve the graceful look I’d seen on Muslim women,” she told me, “but instead I looked like Princess Anne at the races.”

Eventually, she called the Islamic Society of Guelph and asked if someone could help her. “I’ll give you my wife’s cell number,” the man she spoke to said. “She’s awesome.” The two women met at the rec centre it turned out that they both frequent and my mother was scarf-schooled.

 

Just a reminder: the head covering worn by La Piéta is a *traditional* garment. 

It seems quaint now, just as the babushka certainly was when hundreds of Ukrainian Catholic women immigrated to Canada, their scarves firmly knotted under their chins.

A much earlier DJ! post about women being solidaires with women who choose to wear the hijab, here.

Cross-border Right Wing Nut Job Gathering ...

to be held in Niagara Falls, Ontario in early September.

This. Warning: mute sound on your laptop or device unless glurge-y music and a sermon about the Virgin Mary is your thing.

It appears that Roméo Dallaire's staff didn't bother to google "Fatima: the path to peace" when the invitation for the senator to speak came into the office.

Had someone done that, they would have discovered the deeply gynophobic, racist, homophobic and anti-semitic ideology this organization promotes.

From here:

Beyond the obvious, what do a far-right Italian politician, the president of the John Birch Society and former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul have in common?

In early September, the men are all scheduled to speak – along with a lengthy list of archconservative clergy, lawyers and academics – at a conference in Canada sponsored by the Fatima Center, part of the “radical traditionalist Catholic” movement, perhaps the single largest group of hard-core anti-Semites in North America. 

Senator Dallaire has withdrawn from the conference.  I'm ambivalent about that.  He should have gone ahead and spoken to the religious RWNJ audience before him, and excoriated their medieval asses.

It's just temporary genocide

After years of denial that Israeli health officials were practising blatant racism in the small matter of injecting Ethiopian immigrant women with a long-acting and controversial contraceptive, they have now admitted to it.

A government official has for the first time acknowledged the practice of injecting women of Ethiopian origin with the long-acting contraceptive Depo-Provera.

Health Ministry Director General Prof. Ron Gamzu has instructed the four health maintenance organizations to stop the practice as a matter of course.

The ministry and other state agencies had previously denied knowledge or responsibility for the practice, which was first reported five years ago.

But it has worked well over the time the 'policy' was in effect.

The birthrate among Ethiopians in Israel decreased by a dramatic 50% in the last decade, and Israeli journalist Gal Gabai [the documentary maker who stirred things up again last December] wanted to know why. She investigated the issue for “Vacuum,” her documentary series on Israeli Educational Television, and she discovered some things that left her very uncomfortable — and will surely leave others equally so.

Fifty per cent. That's a helluva lot fewer black babies, innit?

What's this called then? 'Temporary genocide until we get caught and/or get the black birth rate halved'?

Despicable action by anyone. But Israel. . .

On necessary forensics and foraging for survival

*Guilt* is a Eurocentric concept, as is rapacious greed - though officially denounced by christian missionaries who cajoled and coerced Indigenous folks into subjugation to the "Great White Father".

Former Crown attorney Rupert Ross developed insightful perspectives for understanding, and helpful analytical instruments for navigating the profound differences between the First Nations peoples' beliefs system and that which our ancestors bequeathed us.

He illuminates, in a coherent and easily understandable fashion, the complex set of values, principles, goals, and practices of an aboriginal justice system. Citing the efforts of Ontario’s Hollow Water community to deal with sexual abuse, Ross concludes that such a system can be practical and effective. Ross’s work gives insight into the skillful blending of aboriginal and Western thought that is guiding the development of contemporary native institutions, pointing out, along the way, native precedents for many issues the Canadian justice system is currently grappling with. Ross’s work can be interpreted as an illustration of the results that can be achieved through thoughtful interpretation of traditional aboriginal teachings, and as a critique of the European legal system as a major contributor to the continued social disorder of Western society [my emphasis].

On Friday evening I had the privilege of attending a gathering in honour of a group of Innu who traveled to Ottawa to meet with Chief Theresa. It was an amazing opportunity for hearing about the significance of Idle No More from the folks stoking, in the best possible way, a powerful and pacific surge of activist fervour. 

As I stood in line to welcome this group of weary travelers from Sept-Îles, I looked into the eyes, and held the hands of the descendants of people whose great kindness had allowed my ancestors to survive.

During the evening I sat with women from Uashat/Maliotenam who generously explained their views and posed difficult questions to me. 

Evelyne St-Onge and her sister Marcelle observed that in the past, many companies had exploited the raw resources found on Uasha/Maliotenam lands, then claimed they had lost money, and thus refused to give the people their legal share of the profits. 

Devious corporate accounting practices may have diverted and/or hidden evidence of revenues. Thorough forensics accounting investigation would allow a determination of how the Innu were cheated of their rightful share.

The Globe and Mail** Jeffrey Simpson's smug, High-Church morality - the typically self-righteous and abused standard for judging and condemning First Nations peoples actions - is very much on display here.  Imagining it read aloud, I can hear the scornful, yet plummy tones of the Entitled Class:

Much of the rhetoric surrounding Chief Spence is of the usual dreamy, flamboyant variety, a mixture of anti-capitalism and anti-colonialism, blended with the mythology (blasted by the reality of what one actually sees on too many reserves) about environmental protection and the aboriginals’ sacred link to their lands.

To this is then added a desire to protect “traditional” ways, which in some cases means hunting, fishing and trapping, noble ventures that can lead economically to something only slightly better than subsistence. Without a wage economy beyond these “traditional” ways, the path lies clear to dependence on money from somewhere else, namely government, which, in turn, leads to the lassitude and pathologies that plague too many aboriginal communities.

Of course, there are some communities that offer the antithesis of dependency. They benefit from participating directly in the exploitation of natural resources near their communities, which should be the driving thrust of all public policy.

Ah yes, the "the driving thrust of all public policy" which, in the crudest and also the most *refined* manner, has always ensured that those with religious and political power were those who controlled deadly weapons and the biological equipment necessary for compliance and punishment - in brutal economical, political and physical ways.  Rape and plunder in all its manifestations.

One-percenters didn't earn their wealth through ethical means, nor was it divinely bestowed upon them - though various theological constructs seemingly support their familial corporate mythology - and their unrelenting opportunism.

They got rich the old-fashioned way: by lying, cheating, grifting, stealing and exploiting.  Just as "old money" was founded on the labour of people forced into slavery, systemic genocide and ethnocide enabled the robber barons of the "New World" to establish their empires and maintain it.

It takes political and legal collusion - supported by religious ideology - to create and perpetuate systems that deprive human beings of rights the wealthy flaunt so very freely, and that deplete the material resources which would justly be theirs to enjoy.  

To paraphrase Mark Steyn, it must be CONvenient to have an ideological imperative that obliges all your greed and ill-gotten gains.

More about Innu traditions, here.

Excellent additional reading resources; The treaty relationship must evolve, What is the Idle No More Movement ... Really?, First Nations: The Long Shadow of Assimilation.

Photograph of Evelyne St-Onge from here. 

**corrected earlier version said NatPo. Funny how rightwing Globe has become... merci for spotting that, AZ! 

In Israel: Stringent Contraception for *Some*

A story that broke nearly three years ago is back in the news in Israel.

The birthrate among Ethiopians in Israel decreased by a dramatic 50% in the last decade, and Israeli journalist Gal Gabai wanted to know why. She investigated the issue for “Vacuum,” her documentary series on Israeli Educational Television, and she discovered some things that left her very uncomfortable — and will surely leave others equally so.

Let's go back to January 2010.

Health officials in Israel are subjecting many female Ethiopian immigrants to a controversial long-term birth control drug in what Israeli women's groups allege is a racist policy to reduce the number of black babies. The contraceptive, known as Depo Provera, which is given by injection every three months, is considered by many doctors as a birth control method of last resort because of problems treating its side effects.

Look how it came to light.

Women's groups were alerted to the widespread use of Depo Provera in the Ethiopian community in 2008 when Rachel Mangoli, who runs a day care centre for 120 Ethiopian children in Bnei Braq, a suburb of Tel Aviv, observed that she had received only one new child in the previous three years. "I started to think about how strange the situation was after I had to send back donated baby clothes because there was no one in the community to give them to," she said.

She approached a local health clinic serving the 55 Ethiopian families in Bnei Braq and was told by the clinic manager that they had been instructed to administer Depo Provera injections to the women of child-bearing age, though he refused to say who had issued the order. Ms Mangoli, who interviewed the women, said: "They had not been told about alternative forms of contraception or about the side effects or given medical follow-ups." The women complained of a wide range of side effects associated with the drug, including headaches, abdominal pain, fatigue, nausea, loss of libido and general burning sensations.

Depo Provera is controversial? Boy howdy. It causes, among other nastinesses, osteoporosis.

On the plus side, one doesn't need to remember to take it.

Back to the new documentary:

Some of the women interviewed said they were told that birth control pills were not suitable for them because they were not capable of remembering to take them daily. Video shot with a hidden camera during an Israeli health clinic visit by an Ethiopian immigrant, during which she gets a Depo-Provera shot, indeed documents healthcare providers expressing this exact opinion of Ethiopian women.

From the 2010 story:

Figures show that 57 per cent of Depo Provera users in Israel are Ethiopian, even though the community accounts for less than two per cent of the total population. About 90,000 Ethiopians have been brought to Israel under the Law of Return since the 1980s, but their Jewishness has subsequently been questioned by some rabbis and is doubted by many ordinary Israelis.

That percentage is kind of amazing, isn't it?

Health care providers were told that injectable b.c. was preferred by Ethiopian women, but a survey in Ethiopia reported that of women using b.c. there, 75% of them used oral contraception. The Pill.

Moreover, isn't Israel worried about population decline? Yes, it is.

This policy appears to conflict with the stated goals of the country's Demography Council, a group of experts charged with devising ways to persuade Jewish women to have more babies. The council was established in response to what is widely seen in Israel as a "demographic war" with Palestinians, or the need to maintain a Jewish majority in the region despite high Palestinian birth rates. In a speech marking the council's reconvening in 2002, the then social welfare minister, Shlomo Benizri, referred to "the beauty of the Jewish family that is blessed with many children".

We've blogged about Israeli pro-natalism and its desire to encourage some marriages over others.

And, it seems, there is some history to this sort of thing. From the 2010 article again:

Yali Hashash, a researcher at Haifa University, said attempts to restrict Ethiopian women's fertility echoed practices used against Jewish women who immigrated to Israel from such Arab countries as Iraq, Yemen and Morocco in the state's early years, in the 1950s and 1960s. Many, she said, had been encouraged to fit IUDs when the device was still experimental because Israel's leading gynecologists regarded Arab Jews as "primitive" and incapable of acting "responsibly".

What an ugly stew. Vulnerable women, not particularly welcomed, pressured into a dangerous regime of stringent birth control that contradicts stated population policy.

One's gotta ask: why?

Not very many credible answers, are there?

And this is Canada's great friend. You know, the one we'd apparently go to war over.

“Canada and Israel share a bond of friendship and are allies in the democratic family of countries,” International Development Minister Julian Fantino said in a statement released by Israel’s embassy in Ottawa.

Wonder if Canada also supports coerced contraception for *some* Israelis?

h/t myaguarnieri

Are we in the 21st century?

Everything *old* is new again.

In a political climate where the ideological dogma & lies of christian Sharia influence public policy and legislation, this casual display of racism should come as no surprise.

Who would believe that items on the menu from Toronto's Holy Chuck Burgers called "The Half-breed" and "The Dirty Drunken Half-Breed" are appetizing?

What, no "Lard Black Beef Pucky" dusted with gold flakes?

via a tweet from Lynda Kitchikeesic.

ADDED by fh: Check out twitter timeline. Seems Holy Chuck Burger got larned a lesson.

UPDATE, August 28/12: Confirmed by enterprising tweep. Lesson learned.

@fernhilldammit @ladysnarksalot @holychuckburger and items are removed from menu now. Thank you.

— LeCorbusier (@DavisvilleHabit) August 28, 2012

More racism in your misogyny?

When I originally started drafting this post, my topic was the skinny on skinny or why do you still have too much fat on your body? Faithful readers of DJ! have read my screeds on that topic here, here and here.

So. There's a young actress in a blockbuster film that has become the target of the slash-and-burn media.

NY Times critic Manohla Dargis calls her "a new female warrior" [...] then in the next sentence says that she doesn't look hungry enough and that her "womanly figure makes a bad fit for a dystopian fantasy about a people starved into submission." [...]

This is beyond disgusting. Lawrence looks normal. Her male co-stars look even healthier (and have some seriously big muscles) yet no one thinks they are too healthy or big boned or big boobed or just plain old fat. Look at her. She's not fat. She's even thin and she is also totally normal about her food intake. She likes to eat and won't diet. Power to her.

Sometimes I think that we are so used to seeing such skinny women in the movies that when we see a normal looking girl we think she is big.

"... when we see a normal looking girl we think she is big." Yeah, about that normal-looking thing ...

A blogger at Jezebel goes to town on this product, the latest installment in the never-ending creation of new markets for self-loathing - a business model that requires self-loathing to ensure the consumer target is receptive to its newest crap.

Needless to say, certain citizens are troubled by this product—which, in addition to just being fucking insane, brings up painful issues about the hierarchy of skin tone within the Indian community. As if it isn't bad enough that darker-skinned people are encouraged to stay out of the sun and invest in skin-bleaching products like 'Fair & Lovely', and that white actresses are being imported to play Indian people in Bollywood movies, now everyone has to be insecure about the fact that their vaginas happen to be the color that vaginas are??? Splendid! God, I was just saying the other day that my misogyny didn't have enough racism in it.

The meticulous parsing of the advert was a tad absurd, though the purpose of the product is too sadly evident. Bleach your punany, cos it has to be lily-white, virginal and pure!

Yes. The Georgia O'Keefe plate, from The Dinner Party, Judy Chicago, 1979.

Aileen Wuornos is My Homie.

It's a no-brainer, right?

If christian rightwing nutjobs like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Coren can justify George Zimmerman's killing of a black adolescent in Florida, then Aileen Wuornos deserves a posthumous pardon - using the same logic they've deployed to exonerate Trayvon Martin's execution.

Imagine the following scenario: Long-gun-toting (thanks for C-19, CONs!) feminists patrol the highways and streets of the state of Florida in the hope of encountering slobbering pigs like Coren and Limbaugh so they can blow their heads off.

Stand by your ground defense: "Officer, I was checking the outside of the motel to make sure it was safe for the families staying here and I saw this pervert prowling around, looking for a little girl or a little boy to molest. He said bad cuss words and made rude, threatening sexual gestures at me so I had to protect myself."

A credible source once told me that Coren owns an impressive collection of porn that features nubile girls, so it shouldn't be difficult after the fact to prove one's claim.

Even Michelle *Howler Monkey* Malkin can join in the fun! C'mon down, Michelle - you can bury your anchor baby embarassment by blowing away those drooling, racist, fat white men who keep you down. Use the Feminazi Panic Defense©™!

Viva Thelma and Louise!!!

Okay, all kidding aside, go read this, this and this.

The Fetus Lobby's Sanger Obsession

Speaking of Margaret Sanger, there's a twit-spat going on over this photo.

Will AUL's CEO @charmaineyoest scrub the fake Sanger pic from her website, or apologize for it?bit.ly/AEOx1G#prolife #prochoice

— Realtin Connor (@RealtinConnor) February 12, 2012

But this is the photo I found on the site.



Charmaine Yoest is a major fetus fetishist in the US, president and CEO of Americans United for Life.

Both photos look fake to me, but why? It was news to me, but not news in Sanger's well-documented life that yes, indeed, she did meet with the KKK.

In 1926, Sanger gave a lecture on birth control to the women's auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan in Silver Lake, New Jersey. She described it as "one of the weirdest experiences I had in lecturing," and added that she had to use only "the most elementary terms, as though I were trying to make children understand." Sanger's talk was well-received by the group, and as a result, "a dozen invitations to similar groups were proffered."

The forced birth gang's obsession with Sanger is peculiar to say the least. They yammer on and on about her (nearly century-old) eugenist and racist views.

These views are a cornerstone on which they've built their racist, disgusting campaign claiming that Planned Parenthood targets African Americans for abortion, while conveniently omitting the fact that Sanger herself was opposed to it.

To get back to the photos: the only point of using them -- whether fake or real -- is the shock value because we know Sanger addressed the Ladies Auxiliary of the so-called Second KKK, which was, shockingly now, fairly mainstream.

The second Klan was a formal fraternal organization, with a national and state structure. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the organization claimed to include about 15% of the nation's eligible population, approximately 4–5 million men.

In a way though, the Fetus Lobby's pathetic Sanger obsession is emblematic of the poverty of their arguments. They are forced to lie about and distort events of 85 years ago.

Last word (for now) goes to Bernadette Wagner:

@fernhilldammit Antichoicers, locked in past, desperate to take us back to dark ages, ain't gonna win this one.Promise!#prochoice

— Bernadette Wagner (@thereginamom) February 11, 2012

ADDED from the fact-checkers in the Department of Duh: fern hill, you ijit, it's Black History Month! This comes up every fucking year. Every. Fucking. Year.

ADDED 2: Looks like the disputed photo is Photoshopped.

Racist stunts: ignorance is not a defence.

[...] a group of white students was filmed wearing blackface during a frosh activity [... at l'Université de Montréal].

Anthony Morgan, who filmed the incident, told the Montreal Gazette the activity was meant to raise awareness of activities on campus and that the students in blackface were encouraging people to join a track and field club. They can be seen waving Jamaican flags, chanting: "Smoke some weed! Yeah mon! Yeah mon!" in the footage Morgan posted on YouTube.

"It was never something I expected to see in Montreal, much less on a university campus," Morgan told the Gazette. "Being black and of Jamaican descent myself it was just completely jarring. It was humiliating [...]

From here.

Université de Montréal says the incident is being investigated. It took place at l'École des hautes études commerciales; an official says the stunt was unacceptable and added there were *no ill intentions*.

Well, perhaps it was fine with Black students at HEC who didn't have to slather on blackface to participate in this frosh activity?

Oh. Wait. Racist language is not acceptable, but ... what about events that racialize prejudice and stereotypes?

via The Mark, on twitter.

"Blame the mother" brigade strikes again.

In April 2010, [Raquel] Nelson, her son A.J., and her two other children, got off a bus in metro Atlanta and—with several other passengers—attempted to cross a 5-lane highway to get to her apartment across the way. The nearest crosswalk was nearly a half a mile in either direction. Most anyone would take the shortcut. Standing at the median in the middle, little A.J. reportedly saw someone else jaywalk and ran out into the street to follow. Raquel ran out after him to stop him. But it was too late. Both Raquel and A.J. were hit by a vehicle, and A.J. died in the hospital a few hours later.

The accident was tragic, and Nelson put her life at risk to try to save him, as any mother would. So how is it possible she may serve more time in jail than the driver who hit and killed her son—a man who admitted to having a few beers and some medication that afternoon?

The driver was released in October after serving a six-month sentence, but Raquel Nelson now faces up to 36 months in prison for vehicular homicide [...].

From here.

I've been in US cities where multi-lane highways bisect residential neighbourhoods, without regard or concern for the lives of people who live in those communities. Urban planning favours the all-mighty imperatives of automobiles, their traffic and their operators.

Of course Raquel Nelson is African American. The racist double standard of the US legal system strikes again.

Grand merci to VK on twitter.

Slavery Bad. No. Slavery Good. Wait. I'm Confused.

In the Excited States, they really like to punch those hot buttons, but really you gotta hand it to the odious Tea Baggers for rolling so many of them into one gigantic nookular flustercluck.

Again, today, we present the malignant confluence of racism, abortion, and homophobia.

Fetus fetishists have used race to present the case for fetal 'personhood' and to assert that the abortion 'industry' is perpetrating a racist genocide on duskier hued USians.

They have a history of such shenanigans.

For example, in 1976, journalist William F. Buckley wrote, “One hundred years from now Americans will look back in horror at our abortion clinics, even as we look back now in horror at the slave markets.” That same year, Dr. Jack Willke, founder of the National Right to Life Committee, compared Roe v. Wade to the 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford in his book Slavery and Abortion: History Repeats. This argument continues to resurface even as recently as January of this year, when Rick Santorum argued on Fox News that Roe denies fetuses “personhood” the same way Dred Scott denied African Americans “personhood.”

But Ms. Magazine goes on to point out that they have it bassackwards.

The slavery analogy makes much more sense as an argument for choice, not against it. Slavery is about losing one’s freedom and personal autonomy over one’s body and life. As Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, so eloquently put it: “No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. No woman can call herself free until she can choose consciously whether she will or will not be a mother.”

In addition, laws prohibiting or restricting access to abortion treat women as chattel, enslaving them physically by controlling their bodies and ideologically by subjecting them to the tyranny of an imposed morality.
. . .
We must turn the anti-abortion movement’s use of the slavery analogy on its head. Let’s remind the world that even though we may never agree about the personhood or rights of the “unborn,” the personhood and rights of living women are indisputable.

OK, got that? Slavery bad. Abortion = slavery of fetuses. Or something.

But wait. No. Slavery good.

Recently, there was the spectacle of the Fetus Fetishist Pledge to be signed by all ReThuglican presidential candidates.

Now, there's a new one: The Marriage Vow: A Declaration of Dependence upon MARRIAGE and FAMILY, also to be signed by ReThug hopefuls (link to PDF of whole nauseating thing there).

A quote from the document:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

Take your time blinking at that.

Now to commentary from Jack & Jill Politics, which bills itself as 'A black bourgeoisie perspective on U.S. politics':

Given that families were broken up regularly for sales during slavery and that rape by masters was pretty common, this could not be more offensive. I mean, putting aside the statistics on this, which are likely off-base, I could not be more angry. When will Republicans inquire with actual Black people whether or not we’re ok with invoking slavery to score cheap political points? It has to stop. It is the opposite of persuasive and is another reason Republicans repel us. It’s hard to believe that Michele Bachmann would be foolish enough to sigh this pledge.

Oh yeah, Crazy Eyes is the first -- no doubt of many -- to sign it.

I read the whole thing. It's really really difficult to pinpoint the MOST offensive and/or stupid bit of it. Go read and consider yourself.

But hands down, this is the creepiest bit (italic in original).

Recognition that robust childbearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security.

Robust? 'Robust' seems to be a dog whistle to Christianists. Indicating just what, I'm not sure. But I am pretty sure that these opportunistic ignoramuses would not approve of 'robust' reproduction among the OTHERS: non-Christians, Blacks, gays, Latinos, progressives. You get the idea.

Or as commenter The Mound of Sound put it here on another post about Crazy Eyes: 'Three words: crazy - shit - bat. Rearrange and repeat and repeat.'

ADDED: Go read Anthea Butler. Seems this 'slavery good' gonna bite ReThugs BIG TIME.

Fetus Fetishists Sink to New Low

Well, it seems the lying liars in the Forced Pregnancy Brigade have reached a new low. And that's saying something.

Here at DJ! we've reported on their various scams and schemes ranging from fake abortion clinic escorts and fake pregnancy clinics to claims of murderously unsafe abortion clinics, or, more commonly, 'abortuaries'.

We've reported on their persecution/martyr mania and their ludicrous hyperbole equating abortion to the Holocaust. And, of course, they're always ready to drag out those hoary old standbys, the inevitable -- and totally false -- links between abortion and breast cancer and/or instant insanity.

Now they've sunk to race-baiting. (It's Black History Month, you see.)

Here's how Tana Ganeva at AlterNet sees it:

Creepy Billboards Accuse African-American Women of “Endangering” Black Kids

A new anti-choice campaign seeks to lower the rates of abortion in Georgia’s African-American community by lobbying for affordable health care and access to contraception accusing black women of being inadequate vessels for the propagation of the race.

The billboard campaign, created by the Radiance Foundation and Georgia’s Operation Outrage, features a really cute, unaborted child staring accusingly at female passersby thinking about contributing to the destruction of the African-American community. ”Black Children Are an Endangered Species,” it reads.

My first take was 'whaaaaaa? Black kids are a "species"???!?!!'

By the way, as a commenter there points out, the claim is utter bullshit:

Endangered? The total number of African Americans in the U.S. has risen steadily since the 1930s when the total was 11,891,143 making up 9.8% of the total U.S. population. That number has increased every single decade not only as a total (over 41 million in 2008), but also as a percentage of the population to 13.5%.

To make a claim that African Americans are “endangered” seems ridiculous on the surface, but when you look at the actual numbers it reveals itself to be a flat-out lie.

Today, a website billing itself as Black America's Daily News Source weighs in:

A controversial new anti-abortion campaign is targeting black women, but not all black women are happy about it. The ad campaign, which got started in Georgia billboards recently, depicts a picture of a black baby with the words "Black Children Are An Endangered Species."

. . .

An accompanying video on YouTube (shown below) argues that black women are more likely to have an abortion than other women. "Abortion isn't a me issue. It's not a you issue. It's not just a woman's issue," according to the text attached to the video. It adds: "It's a human issue."

The video contends that black women abort their children at more than three times the rate of white women and twice the rate of all other races combined. "And all, the while," the video creators argue, "Planned Parenthood profits from the destruction."

Although blacks make up a third of the Georgia state population, black women accounted for the majority of abortions performed in Georgia in 2006, the Washington Post reported from data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Some black women are outraged by the ad campaign. Spelman College professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall told the Washington Post that the strategy was a gimmick. "To use racist arguments to try to bait black people to get them to be anti-abortion is just disgusting," she said.

Mary Mitchell, a columnist in Chicago, says:

Honestly, black women can't catch a break.

Black children are gunned down disproportionately in the streets, and now anti-abortion advocates are suggesting that black women are committing genocide.

And she goes on to wonder:

How often are men urged, from the pulpit, to practice safe and responsible sex?"

Where are the billboards that urge black men to marry their baby's mamas so these women see their children as blessings and not mistakes?

I went to the website so you don't have to. One of its pages is called (no shit) The Negro Project for which they get in the Waaay Back Machine to dredge up the shocking -- SHOCKING I TELL YOU -- news that Margaret Sanger, founder of the outfit that morphed into the baby-murdering Planned Parenthood, held eugenicist ideas. In the 1930s!! (Pssst, so did The Greatest Canadian, Tommy Douglas.)

Oddly, the site fails to mention that the über-evil Sanger was actually opposed to abortion.

Sanger wrote, "While there are cases where even the law recognizes an abortion as justifiable if recommended by a physician, I assert that the hundreds of thousands of abortions performed in America each year are a disgrace to civilization."

...

She wrote further, "No one can doubt that there are times when an abortion is justifiable but they will become unnecessary when care is taken to prevent conception. This is the only cure for abortions."

(Yes. I realize. Logic has no attractions for the lying liars.)

Ooh, I'm running out of fingers and toes. How many lies, misrepresentations, twisty-logic-pretzels, guilt-trips, and insults are we up to now?

And, of course, the sly and creepy racism of the whole thing.

Congratulations, Fetus Fetishists. I really didn't think you could disgust me further.

This takes the cake.