Stfu Hypocrites

Undecided Women, Don’t be Fooled: Your Control of Birth IS ABOUT Jobs

Women, especially young childless undecided women voters, are talking about jobs,  not abortion rights, right? What women really care about is not contraception, not access to family planning resources, not social issues like gay marriage, abstinence-only sex “ed” or Mitt Romney’s 50 year old bullying. Nope – it’s the economy. Women, “like everyone else,”– that would the norm – men, just want to be able to go to work, earn a fair wage and support their families. These “social” things are a “distraction” leading Americans to avert their gaze from what’s really important: the economy. Polls are clear:  jobs and the economy are their number one concerns.

This oft-repeated juxtaposition, superficial and  irresponsible, between The Economy and Social Issues (especially, in polls, “jobs” and  “contraception”) is like a political media Greek chorus.  People believe it, especially women who are disinclined to think about themselves as discriminated against by virtue of their sex.  Young women answer these questions and pollsters ask them the way they do based on the assumption that women, armed with education and “girl power,” have equal access to newly created jobs and will be paid fairly for their work.  Those are false assumptions that women, especially young childless ones, need to consider before they vote, because this year’s elections, both state and presidential, will affect their ability to do both for years to come.

We’re engaged in a mass delusion that misleadingly pits The Economy against what are at their core,  Reproductive Rights.  Don’t be fooled when considering who to vote for – women can’t participate equally in the first until they have the second.  The very phrasing of the questions and the reporting of the answers hide the complex and interdependent relationship between the two. Contraception, reproductive rights, gay marriage (defined as it is by conservatives as a threat to male/female hierarchies) – all have critical implications for women’s economic well-being and for the economy at large.

Insistence on splitting these two concerns is particularly useful to Republicans, because it allows them toblame women’s economic woes on their “choices,”  a specific irony.  If a woman gets paid less or doesn’t have a “seat at the table” it’s because she chose a lower paying job, or because she chose to have children and works part-time, or she chose to not complete her education. If women make “bad choices” it’s their own fault, their decisions and they have to pay the consequences. Which gets us to the second half of this equation. Simultaneously, for the “less important” Social Issues, the word “choice” is completely anathema to Republican legislators and presidential hopefuls. Girls and women cannot possibly be trusted with “choices” when it comes to their own bodies, sex ed, birth control, health care, sexuality, domestic violence and marriage.

Most importantly, however, in terms of the economy, is that what all of these secondary-in-importance social issues boil down to is that women especially cannot be allowed to “choose” for themselves when to become mothers – arguably the single most important contributing factor to their, and our economies, long-term well-being.

What single factor arguably has the greatest impact on a woman’s work life? In other words, what enables women to participate in the economy and become productive workers and engines of economic growth and expansion?

That would be motherhood.

So, even single, childless, undecided women who may one day get pregnant, should consider what happens to a woman when she gives birth:

• She is 44% less likely to be hired
• She makes 11% less than her non-mother female counterpart (who is already just making 78cents to the male dollar)
• She is less likely to go to school or complete her education.
• She works part-time with more frequency, so that she can provide child care for which she is uncompensated and can derive no benefits as child care is invisible labor.
• She is less able to work overtime.
• She is unable to get maternal health care coverage as part of a basic insurance policy. Already discriminated against by gender rating in insurance prices, she is now doubly financially harmed by the fact of her parenthood.
• She is more likely to have to limit herself to lower paying job sectors where she thinks she will have more “flexibility” even though this has been proven not to be the case.
• She is more likely to be impoverished and become state dependent.

And, what is motherhood? In it’s simplest terms, it is reproduction.

Control of reproduction is an economic issue. This isn’t an academic abstraction, it is a practical reality for any human endowed with a uterus.

This is why instead of The Economy and Social Issues being unrelated as people keep suggesting, they are integrally related.  The very nexus of The Economy and Social Issues then, from a policy perspective,  is the question “Do you believe women should work, for (fair) pay and outside of the home?”  Republicans do not.  That’s why their dedication to controlling female sex and reproduction is an economic policy choice – it affects women’s abilities to pursue education, get hired, be paid, stay in the workforce.

If you believe yes women should be able to work and be paid fairly outside of the home, then you do everything possible to create family friendly work structures, fair pay regulations, health care access, planned parenting provisions, that enable women to do just that. If no, then you don’t. You do the opposite. You create a disabling “social issue” legislative scaffold on which to build a “it’s your own fault” Temple to Patriarchy. This is precisely what the Republic party is doing.  If you are an undecided woman voter you should pause to consider the impact of these intersections on your own life and the lives of other, often far less privileged, women.

As it is now, even for a woman who has access to birth control, health care, safe and legal abortion, becoming a mother in this country, planned or unplanned, is the single worst economic decision a woman can make.  She is still cobbled by inadequate health care, higher gender-rated insurance premiums, discriminatory pay, poor return on her educational investment, greater responsibility for child care and an inability to save effectively for security in her old age.

Republicans have shown repeatedly and without remorse that they want to keep women vulnerable, dependent and at home:

• Lilly Ledbetter? What’s that? “Money is more important for men.”  I finally support it, but (wink, wink) my surrogates will make sure it never happens.  Fair Pay in Wisconsin? Don’t want to force employers to prove they are paying women fairly. Definitely don’t want to “clog up the legal system” unless, of course, it’s to send black boys and men to jail.
• Domestic Violence? Let’s make sure the Abuser Lobby  is happy, given the mail order bride business and more, and ensure that women most vulnerable to violent abuse are isolated and left even more at the mercy of mostly men who will rape and beat them without recourse to the law.
• Reproductive Freedom? Let’s pursue husbandry-informed blunt force trauma legislation ensuring that women’s bodies and reproduction stay in the control of men.  Eliminating Planned Parenthood, making it hard to find birth control and abortion services, mandating transvaginal ultrasounds that women themselves have to pay for, requiring waiting periods that require expensive travel – all of these things impede women’s freedom and ability to compete fairly in the job market.
• Health Care: What, you mean the stuff that keeps people healthy and able to go to work? Hell, no. We’ll not only fight against affordable health care (the opposite of which is unaffordable health care) but we will also stop federal funding for Planned Parenthood, even including monies dedicated to non-abortion services like…family planning – often the only services that poor women have access to. Title IX?  The only federal program devoted to family planning,  you almost cannot make this up it’s so ridiculous: Romney will eliminate it entirely, to save money for The Economy.
• And yes, even Mitt Romney’s 50 year old bullying of a gay boy. Why? Because the exact same attitudes that informed that incident inform his support of abstinence-only education, gendered societal roles, fair pay provisions, reproductive freedom – namely, there are rules, boxes which people are supposed to fit into – and when they don’t conform to his world view they should be punished and forced to. The roots of his high-school bullying escapades and his “Social Issue” policies both reside in an inability to empathize with people who don’t look like and sound like him. It’s why he saw nothing wrong in explaining that Ann Romney was responsible for translating females.  Empathizing with women is just not a possibility if you’re a man.

All of these issues profoundly affect women’s ABILITY TO ENGAGE FULLY AND EQUALLY IN THE ECONOMY WITHOUT PENALIZATION.  If Republicans were serious about their commitment to women’s unimpeded equality in the workplace, then they would not insist that “social” policies are unrelated to “the economy” and they would not be pursuing broad legislation that affirmatively harms women’s ability to participate in the economy on multiple levels. Basic control over her own body, that would be reproductive freedom and health care that is affordable, non-discriminatorily priced, and relevant to her body and not men’s, affects whether a woman can seek and complete her education. The type of job she can get. How many hours she can work. If she can afford to start a business. Whether or not she can work full time or has to work part time. Whether she can afford childcare and health care, if she works. Whether she can safely leave an abusive spouse without fear for her children and seek work to support herself.

That’s why Social Issues, like contraception, are ABOUT The Economy not separate from it.

Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate drops by 36.9 per cent

Better access to contraception, higher quality sex education and shifting social norms have contributed to a 36.9 per cent decline in Canada’s teen birth and abortion rate between 1996 and 2006, according to a report released today by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada.

• I’ve finally forgiven myself for my abortions

“This is a good news story,” said Alexander McKay, lead author and research co-ordinator at the council.

“It’s important to look at teen pregnancy rates because they’re a basic fundamental indicator of young women’s sexual and reproductive health. While not all teen pregnancies are a bad thing, when we see [rates] dropping, it’s a fairly clear indicator that young women are doing increasingly well in terms of controlling and protecting their reproductive health.”

The report, which appears in the current issue of The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, compares Statistics Canada figures with numbers from three other countries. The United States experienced a 25 per cent drop while England and Wales showed a more modest decline of 4.75 per cent. Sweden’s numbers, meanwhile, jumped by 19.1 per cent.

“It’s not necessarily that sex education in Canada is at such a high standard,” said Mr. McKay, who co-authored the report with SIECCAN’s Michael Barrett.

“In comparison to the United States, we tend to have a more balanced, sensible approach to adolescent sexual health. Generally speaking what you find is that the more a society has an accepting attitude toward the reality of adolescent sexuality, the lower the teen pregnancy rate is. Canadians tend to have a more relaxed attitude towards adolescent sexuality than people in the United States.”

Mr. McKay said America’s emphasis on abstinence-only sex ed “tends to result in a higher percentage of teens becoming pregnant,” as does the country’s lack of universal health care. Poverty is another factor.

“The United States has large, well-entrenched pockets of inner city poverty and that clearly is linked to higher teen pregnancy rates,” he said.

“In those communities where young women feel optimistic about their educational and employment opportunities, the [rates] tends to be lower.”

Among the four countries compared for 2006, Canada boasted the lowest teen birth and abortion rate per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19 (27.9), followed by Sweden (31.4), England/Wales (60.3), and the United States (61.2).

“Sweden is a low teen pregnancy rate country so even with an increase in its [rate], it still remains far below countries like England and the United States.”

Swedish researchers have attributed the increases to two factors, Mr. McKay said: “a notable drop in the extent of sex education in Swedish schools,” and more abortions.

“It’s not that young women are viewing abortion as a form of birth control. Rather they do view it as an acceptable – although regrettable – way of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy when it occurs.”

Although declines were evident across the country, they varied widely by the province. The drop was greatest in Ontario (51.5 per cent) and the Yukon (51.8 per cent), and lowest in Saskatchewan (25.5 per cent) and Quebec (10 per cent).

The lesser decline in Quebec “was somewhat of a surprise,” Mr. McKay said, because “Quebec has historically had comparatively low [rates] compared to the rest of the country.”

Also a surprise was the Yukon’s drop, the highest in the country.

“Generally speaking, it’s been the case that the Yukon and the Territories and northern communities have had higher teen pregnancy rates,” said Mr. McKay, noting that the Yukon has ramped up its sex ed programs and reached out to youth in recent years.

He stressed that the birth and abortion declines should not be confused with judgments about teen sexuality.

“Teenage women in Canada are not more or less likely to be sexually active than they were 10 or 15 years ago. The difference is that we have seen a steady increase in the percentage of sexually active young women who are using contraception. That comes mainly in increases in condom use but also increases in birth control.”

Standard Right Wing Propaganda

I try not to pay attention to these things but sometimes the stupid is so thick I just can’t resist.

What you have here is the usual deliberate distortion from the right. And it IS deliberate. It’s possible that the person who made this picture is actually so profoundly ignorant that they think this is accurate but I seriously doubt it. After months of the phrase “trans-vaginal ultrasound” being tossed around and the magical power of the internet that can show what that is as quickly as you can type it, I can only conclude that the point is to mislead gullible idiots. How else would a person confuse a regular ultrasound for a T-V ultrasound?

Just so you know, this particular picture was posted on April 21, long after the controversy started.

A further deliberate distortion is that liberals think abortion is “non-invasive.” This insinuates that we think it is no big deal. Nobody thinks this. We think it’s a traumatic and heart-wrenching decision to make but absolutely private and no one else’s business. Our goal is to make them safe and as rare as possible. Conservatives think pregnancy is a divine punishment for women having sex and want to do everything they can to ensure as many “punishment pregnancies” possible. Why else do you think they oppose contraception and sex ed so bitterly?

This is how the right debases political and moral debates in this country. Liberals says, “We want to keep violent criminals from buying guns” and a conservative will claim we said, “Ban all guns.” Liberals say, “We want everyone to have access to healthcare” and a conservative will claim we said, “Kill the sick and elderly.” Liberals say, “America is open to all religions, not just Christianity” and a conservative will claim we said, “Ban Christianity and the Bible.”

This is how people who are afraid to confront their own failings respond. Rather than simply admit their greed or fear or prejudice, they mischaracterize our positions to make it easier on their conscience when they oppose us. If conservatives would only be honest about their motivations, we could have an honest conversation but that will never happen as long as the political platform of the right is built on hate and anger.

Mississippi Rep. Says He Has No Problem With Women Dying From Coat Hanger Abortions (VIDEO)

Mississippi recently passed a law in an effort to force the last remaining abortion clinic in the state to close, which could force women to sometimes critically dangerous alternatives if they are desperate to end a pregnancy. Back ally or coat hanger abortions are life threatening self-induced abortions that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of women. But one Mississippi Republican doesn’t care about those lives.

Mississippi state Rep. Bubba Carpenter voted for the restrictive abortion law signed by the governor earlier this year and he says it doesn’t matter if women die by attempting coat hanger abortions because it’s all about maintaining what he calls “moral values.” Carpenter says he’s proud that his state basically banned abortion and that he’s proud that his party is forcing desperate poor women to either give birth or die by self-induced abortion.

⁠”It’s going to be challenged, of course, in the Supreme Court and all — but literally, we stopped abortion in the state of Mississippi, legally, without having to– Roe vs. Wade. So we’ve done that. I was proud of it. The governor signed it into law. And of course, there you have the other side. They’re like, ‘Well, the poor pitiful women that can’t afford to go out of state are just going to start doing them at home with a coat hanger. That’s what we’ve learned over and over and over.’ But hey, you have to have moral values. You have to start somewhere, and that’s what we’ve decided to do. This became law and the governor signed it, and I think for one time, we were first in the nation in the state of Mississippi.”

Here’s the video: [CLICK LINK TO WATCH VIDEO]

According to the National Abortion Federation,

“In the years before Roe v. Wade, the estimates of illegal abortions ranged as high as 1.2 million per year [Figure according to the Guttmacher Institute]. Although accurate records could not be kept, it is known that between the 1880s and 1973, many thousands of women were harmed as a result of illegal abortion. Many women died or suffered serious medical problems after attempting to self-induce their abortions or going to untrained practitioners who performed abortions with primitive methods or in unsanitary conditions. During this time, hospital emergency room staff treated thousands of women who either died or were suffering terrible effects of abortions provided without adequate skill and care.”

What Republicans like Bubba Carpenter are seeking to do is roll back abortion rights so that America can return to the days when women were so desperate to obtain an abortion that they would literally put their health and lives at risk to perform the procedure themselves or have an untrained individual do it for them. According to Carpenter, it’s perfectly moral to put women in that position. It’s perfectly moral to allow women to die trying to self-induce their own abortions. This is how sick and twisted the Republican Party has become. They are literally willing to allow women to die if it means forcing some pregnant women to give birth against their will. Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision for a reason. The Supreme Court made this ruling because it isn’t right for anyone to tell a woman what she can and can’t do with her body. No one can force a woman to carry a pregnancy against her will. By ending legal abortion, Republicans are banning women access to a safe and viable medical procedure that prevents the need for dangerous back ally abortions. And Republicans have the gall to wonder why they’re being accused of waging a war against women.

The Powerful Bernie Sanders Quote That Has Been Shared Thousands Of Times

This guy actually gets what the war on women is all about.

*of course, not all people with a uterus are women.

Males make pregnant horses abort

By Victoria Gill 
Science and nature reporter, BBC News

Do pregnant mares disguise the paternity of their foals?

Pregnant mares are likely to lose their foals if they are kept close to stallions, researchers have discovered.

Horse breeders, including thoroughbred breeders in the UK, often send mares to stables to be mated with stallions.

But a study reveals that, when they return, the pregnant mares engage in “promiscuous sex” with males in their home stables, in an attempt to disguise the paternity of the foal.

When this is not possible, the mares often abort the pregnancy.

 Mares were more likely to have disrupted pregnancies when home males were in adjacent enclosures 

The strange sexual behaviour may have evolved because of the risk of infanticide - seen in many species that live in male-dominated social groups, where a male will kill offspring of other males in a struggle for dominance.

The team says the findings could explain the high rate of pregnancy disruption in domestic horses.

Ludek Bartos from the Institute of Animal Science in the Czech Republic led the study, published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.

He and his colleagues distributed a questionnaire to horse breeders via an online magazine. Their responses revealed that mares mated with “foreign stallions” aborted in almost a third of cases.

“None of the mares mated within the home stable aborted,” Dr Bartos told BBC News.

“And mares were more likely to have disrupted pregnancies when home males were in adjacent enclosures.”

Survival increases after foals reach one month

Mares that were separated from males, and therefore physically unable to disguise the paternity of their foal, were more likely to abort. This, the researchers say, prevented “the waste of energy in producing offspring likely to be lost” to infanticide.

Paternity test

The idea that domestic horses might adopt such a strategy came from the study of infanticide in horses’ wild cousins, the zebras.

To avoid inbreeding in captive zebras, zoos occasionally introduce a new male into their herd. But Dr Bartos found that this practice increased the likelihood of foals being lost.

A previous study by him and his colleagues revealed that most zebra foals, rather than being killed by the new male, were lost during pregnancy.

Pairing mares with foreign stallions may not be the best strategy

“If a new male was brought into the herd just after a female became pregnant, the chance of a foal surviving was less than 5%,” Dr Bartos explained.

“Survival increased to more than 60% after the foal reached one month of age.”

He believes that zebras and domestic horses have both evolved similar “abortion strategies”. He thinks it is possible that horses “make the decision” to terminate their own pregnancy.

Natural chemically triggered abortion is a well-known phenomenon in biology. It is known as the Bruce effect, and has been observed mainly in rodents, where the scent of male urine causes a pregnant female to abort.

Although the mechanism behind this high rate of abortion in horses is not yet known, Dr Bartos says the research has a very practical message for horse breeders.

“The practice of transporting the mare for mating or artificial insemination with a foreign stallion and then bringing her back to an environment with home males is wrong,” he said.

“It is very likely it is one of the main causes of such high percentages of pregnancy disruption in domestic horses.”

A State-By-State Guide to 2012’s Anti-Choice Laws (So Far)

No matter what you call this golden era in American legislating — the War on Women, the Imaginary War on Caterpillars, Tamponaroo — 2012 is, for better or worse, an exciting/harrowing time to have female anatomy, or to be a guy who enjoys having sexual relations with or cares about people who have female anatomy. But with so much bullshit swirling around, how do we keep it all straight? Here’s a handy state-by-state rundown of most major headache-inducing laws designed to make it more difficult for you to stay unpregnant.

For the sake of brevity (and due to the depressing enormity of this list), I’ve condensed explanations down as much as I possibly can. I’ve also limited the list to laws that have actually passed or that are still under consideration, and so laws like Idaho’s so-called “double ultrasound” bill, which died without ever being enacted, is not on the list. Since this stuff changes on the daily, this list is far from exhaustive, but if you want more information, you can find it here or here.

Alabama

Anti-choice advocates here are working to closing down individual abortion clinics, most recently succeeding in launching a bullshit investigation against New Women All Women in Birmingham that resulted in the clinic’s ordered May 18th closure. NWAW’s offense, according to the Daily Kos? Having doctors with difficult-to-read handwriting.

Alaska

In March, Republican Governor Sean Parnell signed a law that will begin production of“Choose Life” license plates (uh, at least the plates advocate the act of choosing? Maybe?). During the same month, the House passed a budget that would limit use of public funds for low-income women’s abortion to situations involving rape, incest, or threats to the life of the mother.

Arizona

Arizona’s been rife with fuckery this year. Most noteworthy is the nation’s most extreme 20-week ban on abortion, signed into law last month by Republican governor Jan Brewer. It’s the only law of its kind in the country that measures pregnancy from a woman’s last missed period — in layman’s terms, other 20-week bans measure fetal age based on when the pregnancy was conceived, not a woman’s LMP. Since most doctors measure pregnancy by LMP, and since the 20-week scan is usually the point in a woman’s pregnancy when doctors are first able to detect many serious birth defects, Arizona’s law basically gives women facing serious fetal abnormalities zero time to decide whether or not to make the difficult decision to terminate their pregnancies. Other 20-week bans are written in such a way that a woman facing serious abnormalities in a wanted pregnancy has about 2 weeks to decide what to do before her options disappear. Arizona’s is a completely heartless law.

The state’s enacted a bill preventing “wrongful birth” lawsuits, which means that a doctor can lie to parents about the health of the fetus if s/he thinks the parents will abort due to a birth defect and theoretically be immune to lawsuits.

The state also enacted a bill enforcing “outdated FDA protocol” and limiting doctors’ freedom to utilize newer methods of medicinal abortion that are safer and produce fewer side effects.

And! A bill’s been enacted that will require that abortion providers have admitting privileges at hospitals 30 miles or less from their clinics.

Opposite high five, Arizona. (What’s the opposite of a high five? A nutsack punch?)

Arkansas

It’s not on the ballot yet, but “personhood” advocates are working to include a constitutional provision that defines life as beginning at the moment of conception up to a popular vote. A similar measure was roundly defeated in Mississippi last fall, and earlier this year, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court ruled that Oklahoma’s proposed personhood amendment was blatantly unconstitutional.

California

Sorry, laid back liberals — the stupid force is still strong here. Personhood advocates are trying to get a “life begins at conception” proposition on the ballot this fall, and anti-abortion rights activists are trying to obtain enough signatures for a ballot initiative that would require teens to get their parents involved and wait for 48 hours before having abortions, even in the case of rape an incest. Bypassing the legislative branch entirely is a great way to get shit done, I guess.

Colorado

Undaunted by sound, decisive defeats in the state in both 2008 and 2010, by Mississippi’s overwhelming rejection of the idea of personhood, and by Oklahoma’s State Supreme Court dismissal of personhood laws, personhood advocates are pressing ahead with yet another personhood measure on Colorado’s ballot this November. They’re nothing if not tenacious; but then again, so are cockroaches.

Florida

Oh, Florida. The home of carnival accidents, two of my ex boyfriends, Casey Anthony, Ozzie Guillen, and gator-toy dog tragedies is also home to a host of shitty new and pending abortion restrictions. Voters in the state are actually going to vote on a provision that would eliminate women’s right to privacy, presumably in an attempt to undo the underlying reasoning behindRoe. Voters in the state will also likely be asked to determine whether or not employers should be able to determine what sort of health insurance coverage is provided to their female employees. In other words: The Blunt Amendment: Miami. (David Caruso would say, “Looks like the only people getting fucked in Florida…. are women.” Yeeeoooow.”)

Legislators considered at least seven bills designed to limit abortion rights this session, but none of them were carried to term — erm, passed.

Georgia

This fall, Georgia may offer its voters the chance to vote on a “personhood” measure that would grant full human rights to fertilized eggs. It’s gone over so well everywhere else, there’s no way this could possibly go wrong!

Additionally, Georgia’s Republican Governor Nathan Deal signed a “fetal pain” law, which bans abortions on fetuses that are more than 20 weeks old on the nonfactual grounds that at that point, a fetus can feel pain. Georgia scientists are working tirelessly to ignore the fact that women can feel pain at all points of a pregnancy.

Kansas

Laws granting additional funding to so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” expanding “conscience rights” of medical professionals (in Kansas, they’re calling it a “refusal clause,” and it applies mainly to abortion and contraceptive services), and another measure that at one point threatened the University of Kansas’ OB-GYN program are making their way through the state’s legislature, having passed at least one chamber. The “refusal clause” bill will allow doctors to lie to women about birth defects and withhold cancer treatment in the interest of saving the fetus. This week, the bill was stalled in the Senate.

Kentucky

A mandatory ultrasound law and a law restricting “telebortions” (that’s where a doctor Skypes in an prescribes RU-486 without being in the room with the patient) are both making their way through the state’s legislature.

Michigan

The full Senate is set to consider a bill that would make it a crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion. No word on whether or not similar standards apply to coercing a woman into a pregnancy she doesn’t want!

Minnesota

There’s a reason the loon is the official state bird of the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Lawmakers there are busy trying to add a personhood amendment to the state’s ballot this fall, and to restrict the use of public funds for abortion services for poor women and state employees. Update: The Land of 10,000 Lakes has adjourned its legislative session with no new anti-choice bills signed into law.

Mississippi

The following measures have been considered in Mississippi in the last year: a heartbeat bill, which would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat could be detected, a personhood amendment, which would outlaw abortion because zygotes are totally people if the people say they are, and a bill banning “telemedicine” abortions, a bill criminalizing assisting a minor in having an abortion without her parents’ consent. Recently, Governor Bryant signed into law new regulations that threaten the existence of the state’s only remaining abortion clinic.

Missouri

The following two bills may be up for public consideration in November: a bill that would only fund abortions for low-income women on public assistance if the woman’s life was in danger and force women pregnant due to rape or incest to pay for their own abortions themselves or carry the pregnancy to term, and a bill that mirrors the failed Blunt Amendment, which will allow a woman’s boss to determine whether or not contraception or abortion is covered by insurance.

The legislature also considered a bill that would have funneled $1.6 million to “crisis pregnancy centers,” which don’t provide abortion referrals but do provide proclamations that women who want abortions are hellbound and another measure that would have strengthened “conscience clauses.”

Montana

Same shit, different state. Anti-abortion rights advocates want to strengthen parental consent laws for minors and introduce a “personhood” ballot measure to voters.

Nevada

Personhood advocates are working tirelessly to get another “zygotes are people, too” on the ballot here.

New Hampshire

Live free or die… unless you’re a lady. The legislature there has considered a fetal pain law similar to Georgia’s, a ban on “partial birth” abortions (which aren’t even A Thing), a 24 hour waiting period and mandatory counseling, and a strengthening of “conscience clauses” that would allow medical professionals to refuse to assist women in abortions, among other crap.

New Jersey

In New Jersey, conservatives in the legislature are attempting to include on the ballot a measure that would limit the circumstances under which low-income women could use public funds to pay for abortion care. The Garden State’s constitution currently contains a provision that bars laws that mandate parental involvement in abortion, and anti-abortion rights politicians are trying to get those pesky rights removed.

North Dakota

North Dakotans, on June 12, you’ll have the chance to vote on Measure 3. What will happen if it passes? Your boss will be able to deny birth control coverage, just because. So vote.

Ohio

What’s round at both ends and WTF in the middle? The state of Ohio. Personhood advocates there are scrambling to get enough signatures in order to get a personhood measure on this fall’s ballot. Their deadline is July 4. And lest we forget: last year, state legislatures attempted to get a fetus to testify in favor of a “heartbeat bill,” which. I can’t even.

Oklahoma

An effort to add a “personhood” initiative to this fall’s ballot was unanimously deemed unconstitutional by the State Supreme Court back in April. In March, a state district judge ruled that the state’s mandatory ultrasound law was unconstitutional because it singled out abortion from other medical procedures, but the State of Oklahoma will likely appeal this to the State Supreme Court. Other legislative attempts to control Oklahoma’s ovaries have stalled, or fallen flat.

Oregon

Hey, you west coast outdoorsy types! Did you know that your state may be considering a personhood amendment this fall? Vote, please.

South Carolina

There’s a 20-week abortion ban on the table here, and legislators are currently considering a bill that would make it illegal for insurance plans offered on Affordable Care Act “exchanges” to offer any sort of abortion coverage. The state Senate has also passed a bill barring private insurers from covering abortion. Woo! Small government!

South Dakota

A newly enacted law here mandates that women receiving pre-abortion counseling be told that they’re at higher risk for future mental health issues, even though the study that linked abortion and mental health issues has been proven false. Gov. Dennis Daugaard has also signed a bill that will bar insurance available on the state’s exchanges from covering abortion care. South Dakota women seeking abortion care are also required to visit a “crisis pregnancy center” before receiving care. CPCs are often linked to religious and anti-abortion groups.

Tennessee

As of July 1, women in Tennessee will no longer be able to receive prescriptions fro RU-486 via teleconference, thanks to a new law that bars the practice.

Texas

In February, a conservative judge allowed a law requiring a 24-hour waiting period and a mandatory ultrasound to go into effect. A doctor is also required to describe to the woman the image on the ultrasound screen. Because ladies are too stupid to know what a pregnancy is!

Utah

This week, 72 hour waiting period law went into effect. Previously, Utah women seeking abortions had to wait 24 hours between having an ultrasound and having a medical procedure.

Virginia

The state’s “personhood” law was defeated in February, but Republican Governor Bob McDonnell, who is not a doctor or a woman, signed into law a measure requiring a 24-hour waiting period and mandating that a woman receive an ultrasound before having an abortion. Silver lining, though, ladies — she can choose not to have one of those “trans-v” wands shoved into her vagina, if she wants.

Wisconsin

The state’s Koch puppet Governor Scott Walker signed a law limiting insurance coverage for abortion and outlawing the use of telemedicine in prescribing abortion drugs. The new law also requires health professionals to double check to make extra sure women aren’t being coerced into abortion. Again, no word on whether or not OB-GYNs will be required to check to make sure women aren’t being coerced into pregnancy or motherhood.

If you live in Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, West Virginia, Washington, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, North Carolina, or Vermont, you’re off the hook — kind of. According to Guttmacher, those legislatures haven’t passed any terrible bills yet this session, but their session hasn’t adjourned, either, so there’s still time.

Indiana, Wyoming, Idaho, West Virginia have adjourned.

Doesn’t this just make you want to buy a box of America tampons?

Moths can die.

Abortionists - aka: Murderers of Unborn Persons (facebook group)

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