Starting off with the name, "Womens' Right To Know":
"The Women's Right to Know Act provides basic information so women may be empowered with this knowledge to make decisions on a very important issue for themselves. In many times, this decision is made at a time of crisis and this is basic information that women should have," [Rep. Mary Liz Holberg, R-Lakeville] said.
The short version is, the bill mandates a 24-hour waiting period for a woman seeking an abortion, during which time she's meant to look over
information on health risks, fetal development, "fetal pain" and possible psychological problems linked to abortion.The bill also calls for the creation of a state Web site to display the information. And doctors would have to report their compliance to the state.
Above from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune piece on this.
Thoughtful of them to go empowering people (specifically, women-type people) with knowledge during National Women's History Month.
Ok, maybe "thoughtful" isn't the word I'm grasping for here.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Lincoln, Illinois House approves birth control coverage bill:
Illinois insurers would have to offer coverage for birth control for women under a proposal that the Illinois House passed Friday.The bill would require policies to cover the costs of contraception and of necessary visits to a doctor.
[. . .] "This is an issue of healthy women and healthy families," said state Rep. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago. "And this is also simply an issue of fairness."
Although the cynic in me says there's really no difference between the major parties, guess which state went Democratic in the last election, and which one went Republican, based on these pieces of legislation.
Three guesses, the first two don't count.
Hold on. Wait. It'll come to me in a moment. This is so difficult. Uh.
wait! sit down for a minute! you say you want an ab...ab...abortion??!! okay! well state law requires me to tell you...why don't you go home and think about it some more! oh, and it could hurt! and, watch this video in which we show what an abortion actually looks like...with scary music like in halloween part 3! oh, and you're going to hell too, because the cluster of partially developed human protein massing in your womb is beloved of god, even though the second it comes out it's going straight to hell because its momma's a whore! want a lollipop?
next on the agenda: a state law requiring doctors to prescribe prayer for illnesses instead of drugs. film at 11.
returning to real life: it is, in my mind, something for all people to be concerned about, that we live in a country in which some doctors actually have to go to work wearing bulletproof vests. [there's collateral damage in that war too, such as the receptionist from an abortion clinic who got shot to death on the east coast.]
got taliban?
Sorry for the unrelated comment, but I think this has to be posted. It concerns an example of the extremely ignorant attitudes towards war with Iraq:
http://web.syr.edu/~mgkemp/dailyupdate.html
No - "thoughtful" wouldn't be the word you're looking for...how about "cunning", "mendacious" or just plain 'ole "fascist"?
There was a good article in Salon (IIRC...maybe it was The Nation) a while back about the way anti-choice powers that be have shifted their rhetoric to these kinds of spurious 'woman-friendly' claims.
His veto of the last 'right to know' bill a few years ago, and the words he used in his announcement ('this decision is between a woman, her family, her doctor, and , if she so chooses, her spiritual advisor') is one of the few bright spots in "The Mind"'s gubernatorial stint.
In the mean time, all the little adoptable pink fetuses stay frozen in time on the billboards, no doubt destined for great things if only their white mommies had the Right to Know....
...however, if you do choose to go to term, we are required by law to tell you that your child, whether or not you choose to raise him or her, will not to a reasonable statistical certainty be adequately fed, educated, insured, housed or otherwise provided for by your increasingly high taxes, and that when and if he or she attains adulthood we retain the right to put him or her in jail if we don't like what (or for that matter who) he or she does with his or her reproductive equipment.
If, however, your child turns out to be female, she will have the right to extensive information about the repercussions of birth control and abortion if she ever has need for it.
Sometimes I want to scrub my frontal lobes with Brillo (TM) when I get home from work. Sometimes I can't wait and I do it on my lunch hour. Sign here if you understand the information we've given you. I have to go throw up.
I think I've found a way to protect the rights of Fetus-Americans without passing any new laws.
I write about it here.
Oh. My. Goddess.
You must be a writer of satire so elevated even I can't tell it from the serious offerings like-minded men have on the internet.
That, or I feel so sorry for you.
"Where are we, and why are we in this handbasket?"
That was addressed to the comment-writer above me, in case you couldn't guess.
Because y'all know I wouldn't say that about Aaron! *grin*