In the interest of bringing the country, or at least the state of South Carolina together, let me extend my admiration to some of our more persistent legislators. Regardless of how many of us are living below the minimum wage, how many children go hungry, how many pregnant women have inadequate heath care, how many of us are killed by guns and die on bad roads, these admirable politicians always have time to dig up another anti-abortion bill.
And it doesn't matter whether the words make sense, or not. They copy those bills right from the national playbook of organizations for which truth has no meaning, like the Life Education Council, that wants to keep facts from pregnant teens and women. Or the National Right to Life Committee, whose website provides "information" on partial-birth abortion and fetal development. Or the Pro-Life Action League, which "saves women" as well as "babies." Not a single one of which organizations promotes better health and education for pregnant women, only the words to prevent them from making their own well-informed decision.
So kudos to Wendy Nanney, whose mission in life has been to force women to carry pregnancies to term after 20-weeks, under the misinformation that fetuses feel pain at twenty weeks. The pain aspect doesn't seem to matter to Wendy when it comes to a woman having to give birth to a severely defective baby that dies minutes after birth, at enormous emotional cost. And financial cost as well, because Wendy Nanney voted against the Affordable Care Act and is against the federal expansion of Medicaid.
Lee Bright may be a dull reflection of his name, but he stays up nights thinking about women and girls having sex and then getting abortions. I'm not sure which of those images -- the sex or the abortion -- turns him on more, but we do know that he is obsessed with the topic. He, as well as fellow obsessives Larry Grooms and Kevin Bryant, can always be counted on to send in another bill, even if it is exactly the same bill as one he submitted weeks or months earlier. I imagine he gets so excited he forgets.
What we end up with is a stunning fifteen or more anti-abortion bills in our legislature for 2016. The absurdly titled "Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act" continues to take up space this year, but we have new bills with excruciating titles. There is the "dismemberment abortion" bill. And the blood-curdling "Defunding the Abortion Industry and Advancing Women's Health Act". The most recent insult is the "Women's Ultrasound Right to Know Act." This in a state with high rates of death by guns, including that of children shooting themselves and others. And in spite of a serious upswing in traffic fatalities as the price of gas goes down and people like Lee Bright refuse to raise the gas tax to repair roads and bridges. A state that in 2014 ranked 41 in teen pregnancy, despite the national trend of lowered teen pregnancy -- hey, somebody's got to hold down the bottom, right? And we can be sure that when Lee gets his way, the rate of infant mortality in South Carolina (currently the 14th highest in the nation), will go even higher.
But I would like to, again, look at the positive. Anti-abortion advocates are ignorant and small-minded, misogynistic and -- have I said ignorant? They may be all that, but they can focus. And I believe that the rest of us (the silent majority) should take our cue from that.
Mia McLeod has introduced an important new bill that speaks volumes to the issue, which is an overabundance of bills focusing on women's bodies. Her bill has caused some republicans to squeal, claiming that, unlike the thousands of bills that have invaded women's reproductive systems, it is a waste of time, "entertaining but kind of sad." I take umbrage at that. This is the legislature that has been investigating Planned Parenthood for a non-existent donor tissue program, and even though no state dollars fund Planned Parenthood. So we would have to go a long way to find a bill that wastes more time than our esteemed republican legislators are willing to waste.
Mia's bill makes a great deal of sense, and could lead to less of a need for all those anti-abortion bills, saving the state lots of time and dollars.
First of all, it is important to make sure that, before taking such drugs, erectile dysfunction is not a psychosomatic problem, so the bill requires a referral to a sex therapist. Just common sense. Along with this, though, it will be important for the therapist to provide information about how erectile dysfunction drugs might lead to unwanted pregnancy.
Also, in order to protect the patient, the bill would require a cardiac stress test, which is critical in light of serious possible side effects, and necessary if our legislators indeed want to protect us from sexually caused problems, like heart attacks, oh, and pregnancy. So it is obvious that along with the stress test, a physician would be required to notify the patient of all potential side effects. I would also add a waiting period so the patient will have time to think about his responsibility when agreeing to take ED drugs.
Finally, the bill requires a notarized affidavit from at least one sexual partner stating that the patient has experienced erectile dysfunction in the last ninety days. I believe, however, that the affidavit should also require that the partner state that having sex with the patient is agreeable to her. After all, how many unwanted sex acts as well as unwanted pregnancies have been caused by men using erectile dysfunction drugs?
Our SC legislators know that, as important as the will of God is to us, it is a no-no for them to bring that up as a reason to pass a bill. So what they do is bring in witnesses to testify that the bill is the will of God; for example, when the mother-and-daughter team testified that God had intervened to prevent mom from having that 20-week abortion, making it obvious that no other woman should have the right to one.
So let me take it upon myself to state the obvious. Men should know that if God wanted them to have erections, He would have given them erections. Erectile dysfunction is a message from God, just as our legislators contend is true of pregnancy. We have no right to mess with God's intention to keep men from having sex by allowing them to have boner drugs.
The most important thing about this bill is that it should open an until-now closed floodgate. Not only should all reasonable legislators in the House run to co-sponsor that bill, but there should be a version of that bill in the Senate. With co-sponsors.
There should be dozens of bills in both House and Senate that truly protect women. I'm talking about bills called the "Women's Medical Privacy Bill," and "Preventing Government Surveillance of Women Act." The "Doctor-Patient Privacy Bill." "Equal Rights for Medicaid Patients." The "Keeping Government Out of the Doctor's Office Act." "Government Interference in Medical Procedures Ban."
You get the idea. So, legislators, we women are fighting for the right to the best medical treatment available, and for privacy in that treatment. It is up to you to step up with Mia McLeod and get some bills introduced.
If it were Lee Bright, that's what he would do.
Showing posts with label Anti-Abortion Bills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-Abortion Bills. Show all posts
Monday, January 18, 2016
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
To Legislators: If You Won't Stop the Assault, Then Pay for It
The twenty-week abortion ban, H 3114, which we have all heard far too much about, is making its way back to the House to approve the bill with the Senate amendment which would make exceptions for rape, incest, fetal abnormality or the health of the woman. Some few are expected to vote no because they balk at the exceptions -- women should carry a pregnancy to term under any circumstances, the more gruesome the better. But it is very possible that this bill will pass, making the rare 20-week abortion illegal in South Carolina, and imposing hardship on the pregnant woman. It will also impose draconian regulations, reporting, and burdensome proof upon the physician, with exorbitant penalties for non-compliance.
I wonder who in our government is going to be responsible for this surveillance. It will entail data collection and monitoring, as well as law enforcement.
This is a bunch that continually repels background checks on gun purchases as a violation of our liberty. They promoted an anti-Obamacare campaign based on the myth that the ACA would invade our privacy:
I wonder who in our government is going to be responsible for this surveillance. It will entail data collection and monitoring, as well as law enforcement.
This is a bunch that continually repels background checks on gun purchases as a violation of our liberty. They promoted an anti-Obamacare campaign based on the myth that the ACA would invade our privacy:
These are the people who continue to waste the state's time and money to push through bills that would do exactly what those false Obamacare ads claimed.
So this is my proposal.
If you are going to vote for bills that will add both emotional cost and financial cost to a woman and her family, than let's insist on amendments to that bill that would require the government to pay all costs. Costs for additional health care for the pregnant woman, and guarantee health care costs for mother and child after the baby is born. Costs for any emotional hardship to the woman and her family, as well as any financial losses she must endure because she has been forced to remain pregnant. It goes without saying that any costs to maintain a healthy pregnancy, including nutrition, should be borne by the government.
And don't forget the burden on the physician, requiring extensive paperwork to justify their recommendations, and by-the-way, requiring them to give up medical data that has up to now been considered a private trust between woman and doctor. The state, with its strong beliefs about protecting small business owners, should certainly be willing to give tax breaks to any doctor who is forced to comply with these onerous new regulations.
I think Lee Bright is onto something when he and his fellow cretins flood the Statehouse with variations on the same bill, and insist that time and money be spent to address these bills. Proponents of healthy families and the rights of doctors to practice unimpeded should have no trouble coming up with amendments to all these bills, as well as new bills that guarantee a woman each individual right that is being threatened by the anti-abortion gang.
Seriously. Isn't it time our pro-choice, pro-women, pro-family legislators became pro-active rather than continue to try to play whack-a-mole with each piece of outrageous anti-abortion legislation that are thrown at them?
We need to adopt for our own the tagline of those creepy Obamacare ads:
Don't let government play doctor.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Big Anti-Abortion Rally in the SC Senate
On Wednesday, April 1, the South Carolina Senate is going to hear not one, not two, but four anti-abortion bills. This will be the Medical Affairs Subcommittee, at 9 a.m. in 207 Gressette. The bills are: H 3114, S 25, S 28, and S 130. These are all basically the same bill, the 20-week ban that pretends to be science by claiming that fetuses at 20 weeks can feel pain.
Is this a last ditch effort to pass one of these god-awful bills before recess? It has the feel of a back-room plot, with old white men smoking big smelly cigars, doesn't it? Just determined, before the break for the big religious holiday, to do something to get a wink and a back-slap from their Guy in Heaven.
I would like to understand why there are four of the same bills floating around, some with the same sponsors. It makes no sense, which is at least consistent with the content of the bills. Maybe it's a case of dueling egos, but if there is a rationale for flooding the Senate with copies of the same bill, I sure would like to be on top of it.
Let's just hope that a couple of the sane members of this subcommittee are planning some evasive action.
Here's one thing, though. We can't expect our guys to fight this ugly fight without our support. And we need those nasty women-haters to know we aren't going to sit by while they plan to keep us barefoot and pregnant.
So we need to call and email. Every one of them. Once, twice, as often as possible.
You know those anti-abortion wackos that block the Charleston Women's Medical Center? The ones who show up at ACLU meetings, Planned Parenthood events, and pretty much any other place where people might gather to talk about preserving individual freedom? They are tireless. There aren't all that many of them, but the way they show up, Zelig-like, they seem to be everywhere.
That is the presence -- and the passion -- that we need to project. Politicians may be bought, and they may have their own pet projects that disregard the needs of their constituents, but if you make enough noise, they will worry about their futures. And those guys in the Senate who do support women's reproductive freedom and privacy need to know there are gazillions of us behind them, cheering them on.
So here's the thing.
Women of reproductive age, and the men who are also affected by these attempts to control their lives, need to shout the loudest, because they have the most to lose. Be sure to tell these young women and men exactly what is going on this Wednesday. The 20-week abortion ban seeks to prevent women from making critical medical decisions about their welfare and that of their families. After the anti-abortion gang was able to get 24-week abortions banned with their "partial birth" false science, the 20-week abortion ban was next on their checklist. And be assured that if this becomes law, they will be energized and will pursue ever more restrictive measures. The goal is not just total ban on abortion, but a ban on contraception as well.
If you can be there on Wednesday, do it. Your presence at the statehouse will be noticed.
Whether you are there or not, call and / or email the members of the Medical Affairs Committee. You can do that from scstatehouse.gov by going to the Senate link, and then to the email link. You can send individual emails, or an email to all Senate members. I don't think it's possible to overdo your voice or your message.
You can also go to this ACLU link:
https://ssl.capwiz.com/aclu/issues/alert/?alertid=64213171&type=CU&ms=fb_150316_aff_SC_reproductive_rights
Feel free to add your own words to the prepared text. And don't worry about how well you write; it is the message that matters.
If there is enough noise, it is possible that some committee members will be less eager to push these bills through.
Finally, spread this message through Facebook, Twitter, and your email lists. The sad truth is that when these terrible bills do pass, it is a surprise to far too many of us. Let's not let that happen.
And let's not let Lee Bright and Wendy Nanney dictate what happens in our doctors' offices.
Is this a last ditch effort to pass one of these god-awful bills before recess? It has the feel of a back-room plot, with old white men smoking big smelly cigars, doesn't it? Just determined, before the break for the big religious holiday, to do something to get a wink and a back-slap from their Guy in Heaven.
I would like to understand why there are four of the same bills floating around, some with the same sponsors. It makes no sense, which is at least consistent with the content of the bills. Maybe it's a case of dueling egos, but if there is a rationale for flooding the Senate with copies of the same bill, I sure would like to be on top of it.
Let's just hope that a couple of the sane members of this subcommittee are planning some evasive action.
Here's one thing, though. We can't expect our guys to fight this ugly fight without our support. And we need those nasty women-haters to know we aren't going to sit by while they plan to keep us barefoot and pregnant.
So we need to call and email. Every one of them. Once, twice, as often as possible.
You know those anti-abortion wackos that block the Charleston Women's Medical Center? The ones who show up at ACLU meetings, Planned Parenthood events, and pretty much any other place where people might gather to talk about preserving individual freedom? They are tireless. There aren't all that many of them, but the way they show up, Zelig-like, they seem to be everywhere.
That is the presence -- and the passion -- that we need to project. Politicians may be bought, and they may have their own pet projects that disregard the needs of their constituents, but if you make enough noise, they will worry about their futures. And those guys in the Senate who do support women's reproductive freedom and privacy need to know there are gazillions of us behind them, cheering them on.
So here's the thing.
Women of reproductive age, and the men who are also affected by these attempts to control their lives, need to shout the loudest, because they have the most to lose. Be sure to tell these young women and men exactly what is going on this Wednesday. The 20-week abortion ban seeks to prevent women from making critical medical decisions about their welfare and that of their families. After the anti-abortion gang was able to get 24-week abortions banned with their "partial birth" false science, the 20-week abortion ban was next on their checklist. And be assured that if this becomes law, they will be energized and will pursue ever more restrictive measures. The goal is not just total ban on abortion, but a ban on contraception as well.
If you can be there on Wednesday, do it. Your presence at the statehouse will be noticed.
Whether you are there or not, call and / or email the members of the Medical Affairs Committee. You can do that from scstatehouse.gov by going to the Senate link, and then to the email link. You can send individual emails, or an email to all Senate members. I don't think it's possible to overdo your voice or your message.
You can also go to this ACLU link:
https://ssl.capwiz.com/aclu/issues/alert/?alertid=64213171&type=CU&ms=fb_150316_aff_SC_reproductive_rights
Feel free to add your own words to the prepared text. And don't worry about how well you write; it is the message that matters.
If there is enough noise, it is possible that some committee members will be less eager to push these bills through.
Finally, spread this message through Facebook, Twitter, and your email lists. The sad truth is that when these terrible bills do pass, it is a surprise to far too many of us. Let's not let that happen.
And let's not let Lee Bright and Wendy Nanney dictate what happens in our doctors' offices.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Not Too Bright, But Busy
Arlo Guthrie once said about Ronald Reagan that he doesn't mind our President nodding off because, "The more he sleeps, the safer we are."
These days I am wishing that folks like South Carolina state senator Lee Bright would take a few naps. He has been using his pent-up anger and frustration at being passed over for Congress (in favor of the ultra-liberal Lindsey Graham) by redoubling his efforts to fill the state dockets with the same worthless bills he failed to get through in the last legislative session. In fact, he has thus far already sponsored some forty bills.
Why this self-aggrandizing good Christian can't take a break for the Christmas holiday just defeats me. He sure could stand to say a few prayers for guidance.
The bills he has sponsored (and co-sponsored with fellow idiot Larry Grooms) are mostly anti-abortion and pro-gun bills, with a smattering of anti-Obama. Not too bright, and no new ideas, but enough vitriol to keep all his right-wingnut supporters happy -- well, actually, to keep them angry. Maybe if he can raise the level of ugly just a little tiny bit more he'll be able to oust Graham in six more years.
Lee Bright's dream for South Carolina is a state where the fed'ral gub-mint keeps its hands off our weapons, and the state is free to stick its business in women's private parts, if you know what I mean. Don't need the feds to help make sure the women -- and the girls -- stay pregnant and stay home; South Carolina has been fighting hard to maintain that status quo all by its own self.
Here is what I want to know: why do our reasonable legislators (and we really do have some) always seem to be in the position of chasing after the nutcases? People like Lee Bright clog our legislature with destructive bills, bills that attack freedom of religion, right to privacy, the right of licensed medical professionals to provide the best care without government interference, the right to be safe from people of poor judgment carrying weapons, the right to vote. We could wallpaper the State House with bills that seek to prevent the state of South Carolina from having to follow federal laws.
I would like to see our reasonable legislators (have I mentioned that we do have some?) pre-filing bills that would enforce federal health care laws and force the governor to accept Medicaid funding, assure voting rights to all, bills that would require that the government not invade the privacy of women in their doctors' offices, and that medical professionals are allowed to practice freely and without fear of government intervention. How about bills that keep guns out of public places? And bills that require additional police training in use of physical force and weapons so that citizens no longer risk getting shot by a panicked officer as they reach for their license and registration.
We don't need to always be finding ourselves on the defensive. Our legislators need to be as passionate about protecting the rights of South Carolinians as are idiots like Lee Bright about taking away those rights.
So sharpen your pencils and get out the paperwork. Maybe while Lee Bright is at Christmas mass schmoozing with the holy rollers we can get some good bills filed, and give him and his buddies something to keep him so busy he won't have time to file another stupid bill.
These days I am wishing that folks like South Carolina state senator Lee Bright would take a few naps. He has been using his pent-up anger and frustration at being passed over for Congress (in favor of the ultra-liberal Lindsey Graham) by redoubling his efforts to fill the state dockets with the same worthless bills he failed to get through in the last legislative session. In fact, he has thus far already sponsored some forty bills.
Why this self-aggrandizing good Christian can't take a break for the Christmas holiday just defeats me. He sure could stand to say a few prayers for guidance.
The bills he has sponsored (and co-sponsored with fellow idiot Larry Grooms) are mostly anti-abortion and pro-gun bills, with a smattering of anti-Obama. Not too bright, and no new ideas, but enough vitriol to keep all his right-wingnut supporters happy -- well, actually, to keep them angry. Maybe if he can raise the level of ugly just a little tiny bit more he'll be able to oust Graham in six more years.
Lee Bright's dream for South Carolina is a state where the fed'ral gub-mint keeps its hands off our weapons, and the state is free to stick its business in women's private parts, if you know what I mean. Don't need the feds to help make sure the women -- and the girls -- stay pregnant and stay home; South Carolina has been fighting hard to maintain that status quo all by its own self.
 |
| No new ideas from Lee Bright |
I would like to see our reasonable legislators (have I mentioned that we do have some?) pre-filing bills that would enforce federal health care laws and force the governor to accept Medicaid funding, assure voting rights to all, bills that would require that the government not invade the privacy of women in their doctors' offices, and that medical professionals are allowed to practice freely and without fear of government intervention. How about bills that keep guns out of public places? And bills that require additional police training in use of physical force and weapons so that citizens no longer risk getting shot by a panicked officer as they reach for their license and registration.
We don't need to always be finding ourselves on the defensive. Our legislators need to be as passionate about protecting the rights of South Carolinians as are idiots like Lee Bright about taking away those rights.
So sharpen your pencils and get out the paperwork. Maybe while Lee Bright is at Christmas mass schmoozing with the holy rollers we can get some good bills filed, and give him and his buddies something to keep him so busy he won't have time to file another stupid bill.
 |
| Praying for a good idea |
Thursday, April 17, 2014
The Real Perverts
Some twenty years ago, I was with my family in New York City. It was Christmas season, and we annually celebrated my daughter's December 2 birthday by going to the city for a play, dinner, and of course to see the holiday sights. She was somewhere around five years old.
We were approaching the line to see the famous window displays at Lord & Taylor. As we approached I saw there was a commotion; some yelling on the sidewalk at what looked to be a street vendor. As I got closer my mouth fell open in horror. It was a woman standing by a table with a huge poster depicting a woman in full hideous, heart-wrenching bondage. As I attempted to get my small child away from this scene I did yell something to the effect that she should be ashamed of herself, which of course, was the kind of attention she was seeking.
The purpose of this display was to point out to the public the abuses of pornography. I would have been fine with that intent and her first amendment right to such a protest. But it was abhorrent that she chose to do this where children were passing. To my mind, she was as much a part of the pornographic culture as what she claimed she was protesting, but in a more deceitful and emotionally disturbed way.
This is what I see happening with all the nation's focus on abortion. It has nothing at all to do with protecting life. There is in fact an inverse relationship of concern about life before birth to life after birth. Those who most loudly support abortion bans are the least likely to want to care for the pregnant woman herself, much less the newly born infant. Proof of this is the lack of support for health and nutrition programs, and our pathetic infant mortality rate, the shame of civilized nations.
If it is not about protecting life, what is the anti-abortion movement about? For one thing, it is control. It is forcing women who have unprotected sex to lose control over their bodies and their lives. And the anti-contraception movement is about forcing women to not have protected sex, further losing control of their lives.
And the reason for the vehemence of the supporters of this cruel and ignorant cause has more to do with voyeurism and exhibitionism than just about anything else. Imagine spending as much time obsessing about sex and a woman's body as our legislators have done. It would be a diagnosable condition if the false moral imperatives were not celebrated as "Christian values." The combination of the positive and negative attention that this crusade engenders is no less than thrilling to these self-appointed arbiters of a woman's morality. And the ironic cherry atop this disgusting sundae (if you will...) is the legitimacy that it gives to the prurience of the crusader.
So, much as the woman who masqueraded her fascination for pornography as a protest, our anti-abortion protesters focus their lives, and their political campaigns, around matters of a woman's body. Creepy? You bet. And isn't it time we saw these really dysfunctional people for what they are?
We were approaching the line to see the famous window displays at Lord & Taylor. As we approached I saw there was a commotion; some yelling on the sidewalk at what looked to be a street vendor. As I got closer my mouth fell open in horror. It was a woman standing by a table with a huge poster depicting a woman in full hideous, heart-wrenching bondage. As I attempted to get my small child away from this scene I did yell something to the effect that she should be ashamed of herself, which of course, was the kind of attention she was seeking.
The purpose of this display was to point out to the public the abuses of pornography. I would have been fine with that intent and her first amendment right to such a protest. But it was abhorrent that she chose to do this where children were passing. To my mind, she was as much a part of the pornographic culture as what she claimed she was protesting, but in a more deceitful and emotionally disturbed way.
This is what I see happening with all the nation's focus on abortion. It has nothing at all to do with protecting life. There is in fact an inverse relationship of concern about life before birth to life after birth. Those who most loudly support abortion bans are the least likely to want to care for the pregnant woman herself, much less the newly born infant. Proof of this is the lack of support for health and nutrition programs, and our pathetic infant mortality rate, the shame of civilized nations.
If it is not about protecting life, what is the anti-abortion movement about? For one thing, it is control. It is forcing women who have unprotected sex to lose control over their bodies and their lives. And the anti-contraception movement is about forcing women to not have protected sex, further losing control of their lives.
And the reason for the vehemence of the supporters of this cruel and ignorant cause has more to do with voyeurism and exhibitionism than just about anything else. Imagine spending as much time obsessing about sex and a woman's body as our legislators have done. It would be a diagnosable condition if the false moral imperatives were not celebrated as "Christian values." The combination of the positive and negative attention that this crusade engenders is no less than thrilling to these self-appointed arbiters of a woman's morality. And the ironic cherry atop this disgusting sundae (if you will...) is the legitimacy that it gives to the prurience of the crusader.
So, much as the woman who masqueraded her fascination for pornography as a protest, our anti-abortion protesters focus their lives, and their political campaigns, around matters of a woman's body. Creepy? You bet. And isn't it time we saw these really dysfunctional people for what they are?
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Forced Pregnancy
Here in the state where our legislators are working with the NRA to put a gun in every home, bar and school, this land where individual rights are supposedly sacred (literally, as in "God-given"), the battle continues to be fierce over controlling those among us least able to fight back.
While our governor is hard at work cutting health benefits for the poor and making sure that a woman of limited means can't buy a birthday cake with her food stamps, we have a whole slew of bills in both houses of the legislature which aim to make sure that if we get pregnant, we are forced to carry that pregnancy to term.
Lee Bright, Senator from Spartanburg, has been called sanctimonious and "not that bright." Which is a deadly combination for women, children and the poor in general. And he has set his mind on sending Lindsey Graham the dreaded "challenge from the right."
Graham, bless his heart, has determined he will out-crazy Bright, and particularly in the area of arming every one of our citizens. To protect them from our government. Which he represents.
Senator Graham has filled the void left by the moronic Jim DeMint this year, with a memorable quote on gun rights always at the ready. You just can't out right-wingnut someone who argues against banning high capacity magazines this way:
So God apparently told Senator Bright to stay away from gun rights and take on that other enemy of the people of South Carolina -- women.
He has right out of the starting gate sponsored the Personhood Act (S 83), and just in case we didn't get it, the Life Begins at Conception Act (S 87), along with a lot of other batshit paranoid bills involving Sharia law (S 81) and funding of prisoners wanting sexual reassignment therapy (S 80).
But then he was quiet. Too quiet.
Because this week he was back at it with three new forced pregnancy bills:
S 618 seeks to insure that if you work for the state of South Carolina, your health insurance will not cover abortions. So only state employees of means -- for instance someone like Lee Bright -- would be able to afford to pay for a family member to terminate a pregnancy. Assuming you work in a lesser capacity for the state of South Carolina, and don't have the financial wherewithal of Senator Bright, you not only will not be able to afford an abortion, but you likely won't be able to afford the baby you have been forced to have.
If not having insurance coverage doesn't work, there are two other bills brought to you by Senator Bright:
S 623 is lovingly called the Human Heartbeat Protection Act (sigh), and its companion forced pregnancy bill is S 626, the incredibly named Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. What they really do is prohibit abortions at 12-weeks and 20-weeks.
Make no mistake. Lee Bright is not much different than the Taliban who have radicalized the concept of Shariah law to control Muslim women. He seeks the power and notoriety of fellow wackos Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham. One would hope that on the national stage he would become as neutralized as Todd Akin after his "legitimate rape" pronouncement.
But meanwhile, we have to deal with him here, in South Carolina, as he attempts to make his name by decimating the rights of women.
I believe the very first thing we should do is more appropriately name this fight. By calling it abortion, we have allowed ourselves to be focused on the fetus, and whatever aspect of "life" the religious radicals want to speculate upon.
What we really have here is forced pregnancy. What is being legislated is the right of the lawmaker to control a woman's body, and her trained medical doctor's treatment of her.
We don't have here anything like a concern for infants and children, and surely no concern for the welfare of a pregnant woman. These laws come from ignorance and seek to coerce. Whether a woman is being forced to wear a veil so as not to enflame the desires of men who cannot be expected to control themselves, or to carry to term a pregnancy that is not of her choice, the purpose is the same.
We need to loudly oppose these bills, and Senator Lee Bright. We need to tell our legislators to stop forced pregnancy legislation. We need to inform the people of South Carolina that this is going on, else we become the next state to fall victim to these most un-Christianlike religious freaks. Our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, our friends and neighbors, are at the edge of the precipice, where their bodies and their lives will be under the control of the State.
If you asked Lee Bright, what he stands for is freedom from state control. But what he means is the freedom to control.
While our governor is hard at work cutting health benefits for the poor and making sure that a woman of limited means can't buy a birthday cake with her food stamps, we have a whole slew of bills in both houses of the legislature which aim to make sure that if we get pregnant, we are forced to carry that pregnancy to term.
Lee Bright, Senator from Spartanburg, has been called sanctimonious and "not that bright." Which is a deadly combination for women, children and the poor in general. And he has set his mind on sending Lindsey Graham the dreaded "challenge from the right."
Graham, bless his heart, has determined he will out-crazy Bright, and particularly in the area of arming every one of our citizens. To protect them from our government. Which he represents.
Senator Graham has filled the void left by the moronic Jim DeMint this year, with a memorable quote on gun rights always at the ready. You just can't out right-wingnut someone who argues against banning high capacity magazines this way:
"Would I be a reasonable American to want my family to have the 15-round magazine in a semi-automatic weapon, to make sure, if there's two intruders, she doesn't run out of bullets?" he asked. "Am I an unreasonable person for saying that in that situation, the 15-round magazine makes sense?"
So God apparently told Senator Bright to stay away from gun rights and take on that other enemy of the people of South Carolina -- women.
He has right out of the starting gate sponsored the Personhood Act (S 83), and just in case we didn't get it, the Life Begins at Conception Act (S 87), along with a lot of other batshit paranoid bills involving Sharia law (S 81) and funding of prisoners wanting sexual reassignment therapy (S 80).
But then he was quiet. Too quiet.
Because this week he was back at it with three new forced pregnancy bills:
S 618 seeks to insure that if you work for the state of South Carolina, your health insurance will not cover abortions. So only state employees of means -- for instance someone like Lee Bright -- would be able to afford to pay for a family member to terminate a pregnancy. Assuming you work in a lesser capacity for the state of South Carolina, and don't have the financial wherewithal of Senator Bright, you not only will not be able to afford an abortion, but you likely won't be able to afford the baby you have been forced to have.
If not having insurance coverage doesn't work, there are two other bills brought to you by Senator Bright:
S 623 is lovingly called the Human Heartbeat Protection Act (sigh), and its companion forced pregnancy bill is S 626, the incredibly named Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. What they really do is prohibit abortions at 12-weeks and 20-weeks.
Make no mistake. Lee Bright is not much different than the Taliban who have radicalized the concept of Shariah law to control Muslim women. He seeks the power and notoriety of fellow wackos Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham. One would hope that on the national stage he would become as neutralized as Todd Akin after his "legitimate rape" pronouncement.
But meanwhile, we have to deal with him here, in South Carolina, as he attempts to make his name by decimating the rights of women.
I believe the very first thing we should do is more appropriately name this fight. By calling it abortion, we have allowed ourselves to be focused on the fetus, and whatever aspect of "life" the religious radicals want to speculate upon.
What we really have here is forced pregnancy. What is being legislated is the right of the lawmaker to control a woman's body, and her trained medical doctor's treatment of her.
We don't have here anything like a concern for infants and children, and surely no concern for the welfare of a pregnant woman. These laws come from ignorance and seek to coerce. Whether a woman is being forced to wear a veil so as not to enflame the desires of men who cannot be expected to control themselves, or to carry to term a pregnancy that is not of her choice, the purpose is the same.
We need to loudly oppose these bills, and Senator Lee Bright. We need to tell our legislators to stop forced pregnancy legislation. We need to inform the people of South Carolina that this is going on, else we become the next state to fall victim to these most un-Christianlike religious freaks. Our daughters, our sisters, our mothers, our friends and neighbors, are at the edge of the precipice, where their bodies and their lives will be under the control of the State.
If you asked Lee Bright, what he stands for is freedom from state control. But what he means is the freedom to control.
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