We've Got Some Bad News On Our Hands.

[ladyofleithian]

Warning for potentially inflammatory content involving abortion/mentioned double standards, and triggering content involving miscarriage and rape/sexual assault. If these things upset you, it's best you turn back. I don't want to trigger/upset anyone by mistake.




Got this from valarltd (thank you, valarltd, for allowing me to repost this):

http://valarltd.livejournal.com/1508353.html#comments

To paraphrase, both Virginia and Oklahoma have passed Personhood Amendments -- remember the Mississippi Personhood Amendment that I posted about last year? Though the people of Mississippi rejected it, it didn't stop it from passing in Virginia and Oklahoma -- basically, they say that life technically begins at conception, so they not only passed laws that basically made miscarriages and abortion illegal (and on the miscarriages front, this isn't just something that's happening now, it happened last year), but they also made contraception illegal.

In addition, should a woman choose to have an abortion, Virginia has made it mandatory to have her undergo a transvaginal ultrasound, never mind if she wants it or not. It doesn't help that apparently, conservative commentators are also petitioning to repeal the 19th Amendment -- apparently blaming it for government growth as well as the double standards that are apparently abounding today. The petition I linked you to currently has one hundred signatures -- it is currently striving for one hundred thousand signatures.

*Sighs*

Our government's turning into a dictatorship with every passing moment. If anything, I fear for the future.

Comments

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

That petition to repeal the 19th Amendment has 11 signatures so I doubt we have to worry but ... it's mind blowing there are people like this in this day and age.

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

P.S. Reading that 'essay' you linked "Women's Right to Vote, the Beginning of the End for America?"is rage inducing. Ugh.

Icon for the person who wrote that "essay", as well as the idiots who started that petition.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Right?! Seriously!

[pwalkeri.livejournal.com]

So... what? You have a miscarriage and get charged with involuntary manslaughter???? WTF PEOPLE.

[ronofthedead.livejournal.com]

I consider myself to be right of center and this is just nuts. These dudes are chauvanist buttheads who are using conservative principals to wage a war on women.

As for the laws in Virginia and Oklahoma, they go way too far. I always thought that part of conservatism was wanting limits on the amount goverment can intrude into people's private lives. These laws give goverment more power to butt their nose inro the lives of its citizens. Nothing conservative about that.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting perspective. I will confess, I've never really thought of that one.

And yeah, that's definitely the best explanation.

[sarisynn.livejournal.com]

I don't understand how miscarriages can even be considered illegal. It's not like a thing you have any control over (...most of the time.) Sometimes your body, through absolutely no fault of your own, goes "Hey, you know what, nope, this isn't happening right now."

It's like having to pay a fine every time you sneeze or something... it's completely ridiculous.

AND THAT IS TO SAY ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ELSE ABOUT THE REST OF THIS BATSHITTERY.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

This. Seriously.

[treenahasthaal.livejournal.com]

Wow... the US right get's worse and worse. However, I have a feeling that our Conservative Party is going to try and follow suit. They are destroying aspects of the UK that made us unique, like our National Health Service....

But, the US.... wow.... scary place to be a woman just now.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry. :( That sucks. *Hugs closely*

[treenahasthaal.livejournal.com]

Thankfully.... I'm Scottish and our Law, Education and Health Service are separate from the the rest of the UK nations (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and governed by our devolved parliment. So, hopefully, our health service won't be changed.

However, the current UK Government worries me a lot and I'm becoming more and more pro-independence and in favour of Scotland divorcing itself from the Union and going it alone. It would mean the United Kingdom would no longer exist - but hey ho.... : )

ps: I love your icon!

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

I say they should do whatever they can to preserve their rights.

And thanks. :) Duncatra is made of awesome. :3

[lk737.livejournal.com]

Yeah, all this backslide with the faulty economy has me worried for our future too. I suspected we might see more conservative plans and things enacted with the years following the crash of the stock market. I think things like this happened after the Great Depression too. Fear increases and people who are conservative tend to be able to sway those who are independant or on the fence. I'm still hoping it will all pass when the economy and job market get back to normal someday.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

This. Seriously.

Although between things like OWS and so on, I'm wondering if the economy will *ever* recover...

[lk737.livejournal.com]

Do I ever understand. Makes me wonder too, so I got fed up and looked into my Grandma's life during the Great Depression. Their hard times lasted over 10 years, easily. My dad couldn't remember just exactly how long they saw such horrible policies and such loss around the world. But he thought the worst of it was 10 to 12 years. I know they only officially called this a recession, but let's get real. We had tent cities again.

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

*face/palm* To your left, the future of Socialism. To your right, the return to the freakin' Dark Ages. I'm really having a tough time figuring out the difference.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you got that nailed. :/ Although you're thinking the Dark Ages; I'm thinking more like Gilead from the HANDMAID'S TALE meets the Norsefire Government. (Yeah, the Margaret Atwood references were pretty much a given here. :/) *sighs* I just wish our country would return to sanity already. I wish George Bush had never been elected. I wish none of this had happened. /LOTR reference.

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

Your Atwood refs are dead on. But this has been going on far longer than Bush. Far longer.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :)

Longer before Bush, huh? #Curious.

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

Our rights have been picked off systematically since the Civil War. Slow enough not to be of real concern until it's too late.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

How, exactly? (Not accusing you, merely curious)

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

During the war, Lincoln enacted martial law to do what he had to. He was assassinated before that was lifted. Every President since has claimed more executive power. The country as envisioned by the Founders ended when the Union first split. We've been a corporate empire ever since.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

And nobody's even noticed? Damn... 0.0.

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

Many have noticed. Heck, I'm nobody and I see it. Most people don't care or get killed off. Bush Sr. is the biggest threat of our generation. He wasn't the first; he won't be the last. We're living the Clone Wars.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Good analogy, I say.

And yeah... *sighs* What are we going to do?

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

Educate youself, then educate others. Or do nothing. Either way it's a hard, lonely road with crackpots all around. Either way, know your rights and exercise them.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Yeah. *sighs* Good idea. :)

I guess it's just hard, feeling so helpless. (And yeah, Virginia's fairly conservative, but still...) But yeah -- you're definitely right, man. You're definitely right.

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

We're never helpless. They just want us to think we are. This country was founded by the pissed off. Remember what I always say about those who don't learn from history being doomed to repeat it. It works both ways.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) *hugs* ^^

And that's definitely true. :)

[forcewatcher.livejournal.com]

Anytime. *hugs*

[flamingo-bandit.livejournal.com]

I read the 19th amendment essay and . . . the fuck? It reads like a parody, except he seems to be serious.

Why else would California have a law on the books that requires all persons under 18 years of age to wear a helmet while operating a non motorized scooter or skateboard. Or while wearing in-line or roller skates, or while riding upon a non motorized scooter or skateboard as a passenger? Then there are the Federal laws that restrict the use of children under 18 from doing any of a number of non dangerous tasks for an employer. Laws which only limits the employers desire to even hire minors. These are just two examples of laws that only an overprotective mother would support.

. . . The fuck?

And the other bullshit . . . Jesus Horatio Christ. No women considered "qualified" to talk about birth control? Jail time for miscarriages? And "conservative pundit Melissa Clouthier called outfits that made the college-age women at CPAC look either “frumpish” or “like two-bit whores.”"? The aspirin between the knees joke?

Hey, GOP:

[flamingo-bandit.livejournal.com]

Hoookay, failed embed was: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2YK7pADmWU

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Well, that explains it. The people calling for the repeal of the 19th Amendment are...spoiled, entitled idiots who have no conception of reality. *sighs* Still pretty terrifying, though.

And DAILY SHOW FTW. ^^

[caffeinatedkate.livejournal.com]

You know, in general, I like Americans but sometimes it astounds me just how backward America is. Or bits of it, anyway.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

I think "mind-bogglingly stupid" is a better word for this current state of America, really.

[lariren-shadow.livejournal.com]

I...um...this is why I stopped following politics because it just makes me angry. Not to mention the whole miscarriage being a crime. That's not something women can control and making them go to jail because of it is horrible. I watched my mother deal with a miscarriage and it was horrible.

Politics is turning more and more into bullying and I just want to go to some rally and ask why, if we have such a bullying problem in schools, do you perpetuate it in politics.

*sigh*

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Your Eowyn icon could not be more appropriate. :( *Hugs*

And I'm so sorry about your mother. I...no words. :( *hugs her as well*

And this, regarding politics, so very much. It doesn't help that both radical ends of the spectrum seem to feel the need to play "who's the bad guy" at times. *Sighs* It's just...it's just awful.

[lariren-shadow.livejournal.com]

What's worse about politics is that the main person who brought back all of this partisan shit is Newt Gingrich and he's still in the running for the Republican nomination.

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

Yeah. *Sighs* Unfortunately. :(