Reproductive rights

7 posts

This Year in Anti-Choice Tomfoolery: The Northeast

Welcome to the third installment in this series on anti-choice politics in 2013. The northeastern states haven’t had as much success in passing most of the proposed anti-abortion legislation this session, though not for lack of trying. Highlights include the loss of the entire Women’s Equality Act in New York, a stalled bill that would require crisis pregnancy centers to tell the truth about their services, and Gov. Chris Christie’s refusal to include additional funds for family planning in the New Jersey state budget.

Let’s see what’s happening in your state! Continue reading →

This Year in Anti-Choice Tomfoolery: The Southeast

Prepare for the onslaught.

Highlights of anti-abortion absurdity in the southeastern region include a desperate attempt by Marco Rubio to pander to his base, a bundle of anti-choice amendments attached to a Sharia law ban (I know, right?) that was hidden from the public until the vote, and a bill so racist, five legislators just walked the hell out of the chambers during the debate.

Keep in mind, this is just some of the legislation proposed in 2013. There’s been plenty of anti-choice bullshit introduced and passed in past years, especially since 2011. You can find your state’s current laws on the Guttmacher Institute. Continue reading →

How To Identify Fake Abortion Clinics

Crisis pregnancy centers, or pregnancy resource centers, disguise themselves as medical facilities, but usually have no licensed doctors, nurses or counselors. They often appear under “Abortion Alternatives,” and may have names similar to abortion clinics nearby in order to confuse patients into entering their buildings instead of the real clinics. Crisis pregnancy centers greatly outnumber abortion clinics in the United States, and the poorer the area, the more centers (and fewer clinics) there are likely to be. Continue reading →

Not All Rapes Are Forcible

Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) has brought to light an important debate in the U.S. Senate rate by expressing his view that women who face “legitimate rape” cannot become pregnant.

He has clarified that to mean that he meant to say “forcible” rather than “legitimate”. Of course, that makes perfect sense. “Forcible” rape is completely different that the various kinds of optional rape that are so common.

You might be familiar with the following examples of optional rape:
Continue reading →

I’m the Product of Rape and I’m Pro-Choice

This post was written by a member of the Crasstalk community who wished to remain anonymous. It originally ran on July 18th, but due to recent events, we thought it deserved another look. 

Originally posted August 22, 2012

To get to the point, I am a product of a rape. I didn’t discover this juicy little factoid until I was well into my thirties. My mother, bless her heart, had spent her entire life telling me a lie, and she had been telling me this lie for so long I think she actually began to believe it. She began to have migraines when she got older and the doctors gave her a variety of medicines for relief. One of her medications acted like sort of a truth serum, and the ugly truth spilled out in a phone conversation that ended up with me being pretty freaked out. Continue reading →

Getting Raped is Exactly Like Getting a Flat Tire

Today’s outrage is courtesy of Kansas State Rep Pete DeGraf who has equated becoming pregnant from rape with having a flat tire. How so? Well, apparently women should ‘prepare’ for this eventuality by having a ‘rape-abortion’ fund so that the taxpayers are not burdened with the cost.

Rep. DeGraf is a first term (and hopefully last term – don’t let us down Kansas!) Republican who is also an Associate Pastor at his church. Could someone refresh me on the passage in the New Testament where Jesus tells the ladies to save up for an abortion in case they’re raped? Continue reading →