By Alisha Mims
February 13th, 2013
It seems that Republicans are continuing to wage war on women. This month, Republicans in Michigan are pushing a bill that would force women to have an invasive ultrasound at least two hours before an abortion is performed. Rep. Joel Johnson (R) introduced the bill, and said that “a state is permitted to enact ‘persuasive’ measures that favor childbirth over abortion, even if those measures do not further a health interest.”
Meanwhile in Alabama, state Senator Shadrack McGill made some interesting remarks about his upcoming personhood bill, including comparing abortion to destroying an eagle’s egg, and proclaiming that he believes life begins at fertilization, whether that occurs normally or “creatively outside the mother’s womb.”
Last Thursday, Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey (who previously ran a pro-life OB/GYN clinic) resurrected the topic of “legitimate rape” by stating that Todd Akin was “partly right” when he asserted that in cases of “legitimate rape” a woman’s body has a way of shutting down in order to prevent pregnancy.
Yesterday, the Senate voted to reauthorize the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, again. The expansion of the bill initially included protections for immigrants, Native Americans and the gay community. The legislation was narrowed to address House Republicans’ concerns over gay and immigrant victims. Many Republicans also felt that the proposed expansion would deprive non-Native Americans of their their constitutional rights. The bill has been in limbo since April of last year, when it cleared the Senate but was blocked by the Republican-majority House.
And we mustn’t forget the recent contraception scandal that began the public war on women, in which Rush Limbaugh called law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” for talking about the need for birth control coverage, and said the reason she couldn’t afford her birth control was because she was having so much sex.
Though it is difficult to even formulate a coherent response to his mind-blowingly ignorant and sexist tirade against a young woman (and women in general), the fact that Limbaugh thinks there is a correlation between sexual activity and the amount of birth control pills that a woman takes shows that a basic sex-ed class would have greatly benefited the conservative talker, who has gone through wives almost as fast as a bottle of Oxycontin.
It seems glaringly obvious that Republicans are continuing to wage war on women, whether it’s over abortion, contraception, rape, equality, health care, or domestic violence. This seems puzzling considering the fact that they lost the last election, probably due in large part to their anti-woman statements and policies. Perhaps, in their haste to insult our integrity and take away our rights, the GOP has forgotten that women are still allowed to vote…
Alisha Mims is a Content Management Specialist for Levin, Papantonio law firm, a writer, and contributor to Ring of Fire.