Takes Two To Tango

This week Michigan became the 9th state where a woman would need private and separate health insurance to have an abortion. It is known as “Abortion Insurance Rider.”

A Rider is an extra expense weighing on women and women only. But even though a woman pays an additional premium for this coverage, if she is not ready to have a family or if the fetus has no chance of surviving outside the womb, she still is not allowed to have an abortion unless the State gives her the thumbs up.

These laws are being forced on women by the religious right who cares not for the rights of anyone, who doesn’t believe in the democratic system of voting – mostly because they know that if these bills are placed on the ballot, they will be rejected by the minority - so they sneak their opinion and believes into other bills, sometimes not even related to health or reproduction.

In most red states, only if the mother’s life is at risk can a woman have an abortion. This means, that even when she pays more for her insurance plan than her partner and more than a woman from another, she still doesn’t have the right to end a pregnancy… it is not her choice, it is the choice of the State, the religious right and the doctor, but never the woman.

In Idaho [R] women must get a Rider to cover the possibility of an elective abortion. The only acceptable reasons to have an abortion in Idaho is if the woman’s life is at risk and if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. No other reason is accepted, even with a Rider.

In Kansas [R], Kentucky [D], Michigan [R], Missouri [D], Nebraska [R], North Dakota [R] and Oklahoma [R] a woman can have an abortion only to “preserve the life of the female.” Rape, incest, a deformed fetus or intrauterine death (fetus dead in the womb) any of these possibilities are not good enough reasons to have an abortion, not even with a Rider.

Oddly enough, out of the nine states that have passed legislation to control a woman’s womb, Utah legislation on Riders is not as strict. Utah’s legislation is the only one that allows an abortion for fetal impairment.

Every one of these nine States prohibits health insurance plans in the Healthcare Exchanges to provide elective abortion coverage in their plans.

According to The Guttmacher Institute, the percentage of abortions in each of these states (latest data collected is from 2008) is very low and the study doesn’t specify the reason for these abortions, only the number of abortions that occurred that year. Given the figures, I truly cannot understand the obsession by the Right to interfere with a woman’s right to choose.

FIGURES ARE BASED ON THE GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE AND 2008 DATA

Most of the Red States, if not all, have been very busy passing legislature to prohibit women control over their own genitalia and reproductive system. These are the same governors and legislators that claim they want smaller government, but they do not mind to expand that government as much as they can if by doing so they can keep women under their control.

It’s worth mentioning that many of the States prohibiting abortions even in the case of incest or rape, gives parental and visitation rights to rapists. If this is not absurd and an openly war on women, then nothing is!

We are slowly going back to the times where women were sub-citizens, at the mercy of the men in her family, church, neighborhood and the state. When a country needs to create laws to subjugate and control one section of its citizens, then that government cannot call itself a Democracy.

I am yet to see any legislation regulating men’s genitalia... the only one was to have Viagra deemed a necessary drug covered by all insurance plans… You see, most legislators at State and Federal levels are old enough for their penises not to work properly; it is in their interest to have that blue pill covered by insurance.

If we can’t reverse these horrific laws, then I think it’s way overdue that we start getting into men’s prostate, testicles and penises. If we want to preserve our Democracy, the government should get into every citizen’s genitalia. We might have to consider mandatory vasectomies and Riders for men between the ages of 14 to 90 that will cover supporting a child until adulthood, in case they impregnate a woman by mistake... After all, when it comes to sex, it needs two to tango.

Jesus or Herod, Who Do They Really Follow?

Today precious hours were wasted on the House floor debating, and passing, bill H.R. 1797; a bill that surely will be killed at the Senate.

Republican Representatives expressed their believe in saving all lives, particularly that of a zygote. Michele Bachmann who rarely speaks a coherent word gave a lecture about when a fetus feels pain as if she or anyone in her Party knows what the heck they’re talking about.

H.R. 1797 requires for a physician to conduct tests against the woman’s will to a woman that is seeking an abortion. If a physician fails to conduct these tests and performs the abortion, he or she will be disbarred and will be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison. This bill goes against Roe v. Wade and it is unconstitutional, but that has never stopped Republicans – they are doing this all over the nation where they hold a majority of the State Congress and where the governor is a Republican.

Republicans claim that fetuses feel pain as early as 20 weeks after gestation. It matters very little that JAMA (Journal of American Medical Association) has determined that there is no proof of this and what’s more, they believe that fetuses do not have the necessary physical components to feel pain until about the 30^th gestational week (28^th developmental week).  An article published by JAMA - Fetal Pain - states: "Although this legislation would not affect most US abortions because only 1.4% are performed at or after 21 weeks’ gestational age,this legislation raises important scientific, clinical, ethical, and policy issues."  Only 1.4% of abortions are performed on pregnancies over 21 weeks, and I am inclined to believe that these pregnancies were ended for greater reasons than not wanting to carry the pregnancy to term.  You can read the study by subscribing to JAMA and searching for Fetal Pain or by clicking the following link after you have subscribed. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=201429

What I find so amazing and hypocritical is that all these Republicans claim to be defenders of life, shouting that ALL life is sacred and the usual rhetoric used by the fanatical Christians that are part of the GOP. I respect their views but how do they justify their actions towards the living?

These Christians are against helping the needy, against the well-being of the poor fighting with nails and teeth for all Americans to have health insurance because it is their belief that if we have Universal insurance then insurance companies will hurt and disappear and for them, that’s a greater sin than a human being not being able to go to a doctor because lack of funds or insurance. The fact that a living, breathing child can’t go to a pediatrician because the parents can’t afford one is not their problem and they won’t lose any sleep over it – after all, that child is not a fetus.

These Christians for whom ALL life is precious, advocate for the death penalty even when it has been proven that many of the men sitting on death row are innocent and if executed, an innocent man would have been basically murdered by the system. That is a price these Christians are willing to pay, who cares if an innocent man is killed if they get to kill ten guilty ones?

According to Gallup, 75% of Conservatives, 80% of Republicans, 47% of Liberals, 45% of Democrats, 60% of Moderates and 65% of Independents support the death penalty. Please notice that Liberals and Democrats are the ones where the majority is against this barbaric practice. How can Republicans “love” life so much for the unborn and hate the one living? This is because they wholeheartedly believe in the scriptures. Matthew 5:38-39 says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” As usual, they pick and choose what they accept from the Bible and they picked ‘an eye for an eye’ and ignored the part they don’t like: ‘turning the other cheek.’

The bottom line for Republicans is the mighty buck, not the almighty. They oppose universal health care because it will financially hurt insurance companies. They oppose helping the needy because the government is spending too much on the indigent. They oppose immigrants because they are poor and they approve of the death penalty because the faster you kill them the less money we spend on them – they do not know that it is far more expensive to put someone to death than to keep them alive.

I will never understand how the Conservative/Republican mind works. They claim to be Christians and want the word “God” everywhere yet they do not practice what Jesus preached, actually if Jesus were alive today they would think of him as a Communist, Socialist, Liberal scum; they follow more closely Herod than they do Jesus.

The Personification of a Cell

Bill HR 23 is short and by no means difficult to understand. It’s straightforward, and unless you have absolutely no knowledge of basic biology, it leaves no room for doubt as to what it entails.

This bill is extremely dangerous because it makes no mention about any exceptions. For these Representatives, a fertilized egg is far more valuable than the life a woman.

These are the people that claim to be pro-life. They are the same people that are willing to destroy the planet that sustains life for the mighty dollar; they are pro-war, sacrificing thousands of young men and women that gave their lives to satisfy their thirst of power and; these are the same people that are advocating for the tar sand pipeline that will contaminate our water supply and the same people that are in favor of every American to be armed with whatever weapon they choose without any restrictions, they are even against a simple background check. Republicans are against universal healthcare, against any help for the poor and they are even advocating for the privatization of schools, all of which are detrimental for the well being of children.  Don’t be fooled by the pro-life label, they are pro-fetus not pro-life, which is not the same thing.

In their quest to be “holier than thou,” these people are against science and obstruct the possibility for scientists to obtain any federal funding for stem cell research because they are very fearful that scientists might be cloning human beings in the future. However, in a rare display of futuristic vision, these representatives made sure to include in this bill that not even a cloned cell could be destroyed. This ensures that scientists will not be able to produce in a lab or use a human fertilized cell for stem cell research, ever.

This or any other Bill that have been incessantly introduced in Congress, both at the state and federal level, by obsessed Republicans have failed to specify why a cell without a nervous or circulatory system (a zygote), void of a brain or any other of the functions needed to be alive, should legally be considered a human with all the rights of a living, breathing person. They claim it’s the constitutional right of the fertilized cell, even writing this sounds preposterous! As I mentioned in my previous article “Legislative Rape,” nowhere in the Constitution of the United States of America you will find the right to life, the fact that the death sentence is permitted and at times even abused in this country should be proof enough.

The Republicans in Congress – both at the State and Federal level – pushing for “a one-celled human embryo” to become a full person under the law have been extremely careful not to reveal the real reason or as a minimum, the legal basis as to why, constitutionally or scientifically, we should grant a blood clot the status of personhood. The only reason why these obtuse and regressive people want to make a cell into a person is because of their religious views, nothing else; but they cannot say it because that will render their argument unconstitutional and therefore, not valid.

The Republicans succeeded at granting an entity that doesn’t breathe, doesn’t have a heart or heartbeat, a brain, blood, bones, eyes, limbs etc. the status of personhood. That was a first step, now they want to do the same to what’s basically a blood clot.

The Republican Party is persistently working at taking the country back to the dark ages; their symbol shouldn’t be an Elephant – a gentle and intelligent animal, that’s an insult to such lovely creatures. Rather, the symbol of the Republican Party should be a Mammoth, an ancient and extinct creature from the Ice Ages, which is more suitable for the intellectual level of that Party.

Legislative Rape

“Legislative findings regarding abortion.—

(1) The Legislature acknowledges that all persons are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that first among these is their right to life.

(2) The Legislature finds that all human life comes from the Creator, has an inherent value that cannot be quantified by man, and begins at conception.

(3) The Legislature finds that the United States Constitution expresses no qualification for, or limitation on, the protection of human life by laws passed by state legislatures which regard human life as the most fundamental gift from God and deserving of paramount importance among all other unalienable rights expressed or implied in the United States Constitution.

(4) The Legislature finds that personal liberty is not a license to kill an innocent human life under any provision of the United States Constitution.

(5) The Legislature finds that once human life begins, there is a compelling state interest in protecting the natural course of its development from that moment through birth. Any act of a person detrimental to an unborn human life, when not necessary in defense of the life of the mother bearing such unborn life, which unnaturally terminates that unborn life, is a deprivation of that unborn child's unalienable right to life.”

The above is part of the text of Bill HB 395 introduced by Florida Representative Van Zant and co-sponsored by Ahern; Baxley; Broxson; Gaetz; Grant; Ingram; La Rosa; Mayfield; Patronis; Perry; Pigman; Raburn; Stone in Florida's State Congress in an effort to ban abortion.

When Van Zant claims that “The Legislature acknowledges that all persons are endowed by their Creator,” he is assuming that every single legislator believes in God, this might or might not be true but since only 14 legislators, including Van Zant, are sponsoring this bill and there are 160 legislators in Florida State Congress we don't really know. He also assumes that all Legislators believe that life begins at conception, and we don’t know that either. On that same sentence, he mentions that life is amongst the first “unalienable rights” but makes no mention whatsoever about the pursue of happiness or liberty. It seems that we don’t have the freedom (liberty) to pursuit happiness if our happiness interferes with the Right Wingers’ point of view.

Van Zant claims that the Constitution of the United States “express no qualification for, or limitation on, the protection of human life by laws passes by state legislature which regard human life as the most fundamental gift from God and deserving of paramount importance among all other unalienable rights expressed or implied in the United States Constitution.” If such statement is true, why do we have the death penalty in the State of Florida and in many other States in the Union? Are we allowed to pick and choose who can die and who can’t? Is that life, if unwanted by society, a gift from "God" that we can get rid of but, if unwanted by the carrier (mother) then is a gift that must be kept? Who anointed these legislators with a direct line to Nature’s God?

There is only one instance where the word “LIFE” is mentioned in the Bill of Rights, and that’s on Amendment V and in the Constitution you will find it on the last paragraph of Article III, Section 3, that’s the one and only instance.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

The above text, which is engraved in all of our memories and which moves us because of its conviction, it’s not and it has never been part of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or any other document other than the Declaration of Independence. I’m really surprised of how many legislators – who think they are so smart as to know exactly when life begins – do not know this and if they do, they are purposely misconstruing the sentence to confuse the ignorant people that cannot differentiate between The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.

The Declaration of Independence is a document that was written by the Founding Fathers enumerating the reasons why the colonies were severing their ties with England. The documents that gave the citizens of the new independent nation their unalienable rights were the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Neither one of these documents grants anyone the right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness; those are rights that we all want to have, but must be obtained by each individual and not provided by the government. In other words, it’s a right that we must earn and fight for. Government must not obstruct, deny, interfere or prohibit a person from obtaining them but it is not up to the government to dictate what life, liberty or happiness means for each and every individual of this or any other country. Government must not impose on each individual their perception of liberty or happiness as each and every person on this planet has a different vision of what this might be. And government should not impose their religious views on the people.

Van Zant persists in claiming that personal liberty is part of the Constitution and decided to add that such personal liberty does not gives anyone license to kill an innocent human life under any provision of the Constitution. He is right, because nowhere in the Constitution are any of these words mentioned, neither is the distinction of “innocent” mentioned in any of the historical documents mentioned above. If such words were part of any of these documents, then the government of the United States and some of the States of this great nation of ours have been ignoring it when they, to this very day, continue to sentence people to death – and we all know that not every human being that has been killed by the States were guilty of any crime… DNA has proven this repeatedly.

Van Zant fails to accept and recognize that there is a separation of Church and State; if he wants to preach… I suggest he does that at his church and leave the rest of us alone.

“The Legislature finds that once human life begins, there is a compelling state interest in protecting the natural course of its development from that moment through birth. Any act of a person detrimental to an unborn human life, when not necessary in defense of the life of the mother bearing such unborn life, which unnaturally terminates that unborn life, is a deprivation of that unborn child's unalienable right to life.”

That sentence is the most truthful sentence throughout the bill. It clearly says and mentions what is sacred for people like Van Zant: The Embryo. It says clearly that their interest is protecting the natural course of “its development from that moment (fertilization/conception) through birth,” the Right Wing stops caring once the fetus is born. Their focus of interest is the fetus while it’s in the womb, because it is that fetus that allows these sexually obsessed men to feel superior by imposing, controlling and subjugating women to their power. It’s legislative rape, the ONLY rape where there will never be a risk of getting pregnant by the rapist, but where a woman gets raped by a mob hiding behind the safety of Congress; a rape perpetrated in the name of god.

A Person In the Process of Being

Florida and many other States governed by Republicans, are diligently trying to reverse “Roe vs. Wade” because according to the Religious Right – who are the ones funding their own campaigns – an embryo is a baby. With this in mind, they are systematically submitting bills granting a fetus personhood and this will make it more difficult, not to say impossible, for a woman to get an abortion.

They began by referring to a zygote, embryo or fetus by the incorrect term of “baby” or “child”. By doing this, anyone who is against it will be labeled as a baby-killer. Pro-Choice people have never wanted to “kill babies”, actually many Pro-Choicers will not have an abortion themselves, but they do not want to force on a woman their personal opinion or beliefs thus allowing women to make a decision about having or extending her family, after all it will be her and no one else the person responsible for that child until the ripe age of 18.

There are many reasons why a woman decides to have an abortion – but whatever the reasons might be, a woman has the right to decide to have a family or not. It is not the government’s choice (a government that is constantly trying to place obstacles for a family to survive), it is not up to the legislators, representatives, senators, neighbors or a church. It is a woman’s personal choice, period.

Some governors are suggesting inserting probes into a woman’s vagina to make sure she is not pregnant before undergoing certain procedures, to make sure an abortion is really needed, etc. Amendment IV clearly states this to be against the law. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures…” For me, introducing an object inside a person against his or her will is an unreasonable search and violates the right of the people to be secure in their persons, and therefore breaches the Fifth Amendment.

The Religious Right arguments to overturn Roe vs. Wade are not based on science; they’re solely based on their religious point of view. The Religious Right fails to recognize and accept Amendment I of the Constitution that clearly defines that Government shall not make decisions or impose on We, the People a religious agenda. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” but for them all that means is that no one can tell them their God is not the ultimate God or their religion is not the only path to that God… but of course, the opposite doesn’t apply.

There are bills being submitted in Florida that, at first glance, look reasonable and we tend to agree with it, but we must be very careful and pay attention to the wording. Bill HR 579 called “Offenses Against Unborn Children” introduced by Rep. Larry Ahern might sound great but it is not. Bill HR 759 states:

“Amending s. 775.021, F.S.; providing a rule of construction that a person who engages in conduct that violates any provision of the Florida Criminal Code or of a criminal offense defined by another statute and causes the death of, or bodily injury to, an unborn child commits a separate offense if such an offense is not otherwise specifically provided for; providing for criminal penalties for such an offense;”

This particular bill is changing an already existing Bill that already brought a fetus closer to personhood by calling it a “quick child” but since that wasn’t enough the Floridian Legislature want to get rid of the “quick” and change it to unborn and, if it's unborn then by definition it is not a child but a fetus. If we accept this bill, then we are accepting the term “unborn children” and there is no such thing, according to The American Heritage Medical Dictionary the definition of child is:

Child
n.

1. A person who has not yet reached puberty.
2. A son or daughter; an offspring.
3. A person not of legal age; a minor. 

And these are the medical definitions for an “unborn child”: 

Fetus (L.) the developing young in the uterus, specifically the unborn offspring in the postembryonic period, in humans from nine weeks after fertilization until birth. 

Zygote
n.

1. The cell that is formed by the union of two gametes, especially a fertilized ovum before cleavage.
2. The organism that develops from a zygote. 

Embryo

n. pl. embryos

1. An organism in its early stages of development, especially before it has reached a distinctively recognizable form.
2. An organism at any time before full development, birth, or hatching.
3. The fertilized egg of a vertebrate animal following cleavage.
4. In humans, the prefetal product of conception from implantation through the eighth week of development.

The legal definition of a child, according to Gerald N. Hill and Kathleen T. Hill is: 

Child 
n.

1. a person's natural offspring.
2. a person 14 years and under.  A "child" should be distinguished from a "minor" who is anyone under 18 in almost all states.

We all have said at one time or another some absurdities such as the moon is made of cheese, there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, etc. but just because the populace says it, it doesn’t mean it’s true. We are all guilty of referring to a fetus as a baby when talking to a pregnant woman, it’s natural and at that moment we are not medically or legally consulting the pregnant woman or drafting a legislative bill. But using the incorrect medical and legal term in a bill it’s inexcusable and we should not allow it. The only reason why these Governors and Legislators are using the terms “baby” or “child” when referring to an embryo or a fetus is to impose on others their twisted religious views. It is to grant personhood to a future person… I guess that they do not have eggs and bacon, what they have for breakfast is unborn chickens and bacon!

Republicans and Teabaggers keep shouting that they want a smaller government, but are willing to create a whole department to interfere with a woman’s right to her body and finances. Finances because bringing up a child is not free by any means, it is not free to raise a child, to provide them an education and a secure environment. But the Religious Right couldn’t care less, they keep putting pressure to reduce or close the programs that help women with children survive. They are against Medicaid; they’re against public education, against food stamps and against all “entitlements” designed to help the poor. I’ve said it many times and I’ll repeat it again, the Right loves “children” while there are inside the woman’s uterus but once those “children” pass through the birth canal and take their first breath of air, that’s the exact moment when that child becomes an enemy of the state and a parasite for society who should be punished, restricted and not allowed to have a decent life.

If these extremists get their way, a woman who has a miscarriage will be a suspect of murder. If a woman needs an abortion to save her life, she will have to die because an abortion will mean murder and no doctor would perform the life-saving procedure.

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I've received many complains that this article is not showing, if you can't see it visit the mirror blog:  http://90degrees2theleft.com/2013/03/07/a-person-in-the-process-of-being/

The Congressional Assault On Women’s Rights

The 113th Congress of the United States began on January 3rd, 2013; they’ve been in session for less than two calendar months. I make it clear that it’s two calendar months because Congress is not in chambers everyday. No, according to their calendars Congress (House and Senate) was in Chamber a total of 8 times in January and in February and up to the 17h (today’s date) for 7 days; that’s a total of 15 working days in 46 days.

Republicans in Congress have been busy during these 15 days, unfortunately they don’t care about the message the American people sent them this past elections. Once more, Republicans are doing all they can to force women to have children they don’t want – for whatever reason they don’t want them. Once again, they are pushing their religious agenda upon every single woman in this country. There’s even a bill to protect doctors that refuse to perform abortions, but not one single bill to protect physicians that do and those are the ones that are being murdered by the Religious Right these Republicans in Congress represent. I guess that for them it’s OK to murder a physician for performing a legal abortion but no one can even criticize a doctor for not assisting a woman in obtaining information about a legal abortion.

There’s a bill that is founded on a study called “Son Preference and the Role of Culture: Evidence from Asian Immigrants to Canada” (to read the original, click here).  The study was written by three ECONOMISTS: Douglas Almond (Dept. of Economics, Columbia University); Lena Edlund (Dept. of Economics, Columbia University) and Kevin Milligan (Dept. of Economics, University of British Columbia); these individuals are not doctors and they have never claimed to be. This study was done using data from the Census in Canada, not the United States. The Canadian Census suggests that among the Asian communities in Canada there are more male children being born than females, especially if the parents had already two previous children and these children were female. From this information, these economists concluded that these Asian immigrants were selecting the sex of their fetus and having an abortion if the tests resulted in a female fetus. The same it’s not true in the States but that doesn’t matter. This prompted Republicans to create a bill using the Canadian data and a study that was created on population figures, but not one medical study, because they had none and in the study not one medical data was used.

These Republicans that are so obsessed with vaginas and fetuses are the same that are doing all they can to cut funding for Medicaid, Food Stamps and Educational programs. These are the programs that will provide medical assistance to poor families to care for their children and that rely on food stamps to feed those children. But these Republicans don’t care about a child that has passed through the birth canal, for all they care they can go without a doctor’s visit, food or a decent education. Their main concern is that sacred zygote.

It is my opinion – and I am entitled to have one – that the Republican Party wants women to be barefooted and pregnant, so she will not have the time to be involved in politics and moving this country forward. Most women oppose wars – because it is our children the ones that will die in those wars, and Republicans are ballistic, their second obsession is wars. Republicans are pro-corporations, by forcing all women to be giving birth continuously they will ensure these corporations a certain form of slavery, when there will be so many uneducated workers in a short period of time (18 years is not a long time), that they will work for pennies – just like China does.

Another thing to take into consideration is their fear that the White Race is becoming the minority in this country because the majority of the educated white women in this country are being responsible and abstaining from having a large family. What these Republicans don’t stop to think is that by prohibiting abortions and trying to obstruct access to prescribed contraceptives the other races will continue to reproduce at a faster rate, and this country is destined to be a multi-racial country where whites will end up in the minority no matter what they do to prevent it.

Republicans hate it that the left calls their actions a “War Against Women” but, what other name could we give it when it is obvious that they don’t care about women? There are those in Congress that want to ban abortions even in cases of rape, incest and even if the mother’s life is in danger. Women for them are things to be used and not valued. What else can we call it when those Republicans in Congress have abstained voting to pass the Violence Against Women’s Act (VAWA)? What else can we call it when these Republicans are drafting bills to protect the rights of a rapist to visit the child he procreated through rape? The congressional assault on women’s rights goes on and on.

I will not stop until I see these retrograde, male chauvinists pigs removed from Congress. Draft a bill making men responsible. Draft a bill to control men’s procreation abilities (no more insurance coverage for vasectomies or vasectomy reversals; for Viagra or anything remotely related to male’s reproductive systems). Let’s get into those dusty pants and start probing into those penises. No more turning the other cheek, that has never worked. It’s time to give them a taste of their own medicine, it takes two to tango and that applies in relationships, sex and legislation.

We’ve come a long way, baby to let these dinosaurs take us back to the dark ages.

When Women are Second Class Citizens

Most of the comments and posters I am seeing in Facebook are related to the GOP actions and comments about rape.

For almost three years now, the Republicans in Congress have practically done nothing else but quietly pass laws that are methodically stripping women of their reproductive rights. Currently there are 67 Abortion bills in Congress vs. 0 Job bills, it is clear what their priorities are.

These Republicans in office know perfectly well that if they challenge Roe vs. Wade they will lose, so they’ve stopped attempting to change it, instead they opted for blocking women from any other mean of protection and funds to have an abortion if necessary or if she doesn’t want to have a child. In their obsession with protecting the life of an embryo they are obstructing every venue women may have to avoid an unwanted pregnancy. How can they be against contraceptives? Now they are not only pro-life but pro-cell, since an unfertilized egg is nothing more but a cell with an expiration date and taking that damn pill will only make that egg infertile. After all, as Todd Akin said if a woman is being raped her body will fight those sperms and she “magically” will not get pregnant. With contraceptives no babies would be harmed in the process, but the GOP is against that too.

While they are all for men taking that blue pill that will maintain their virile member erect (if for more than 4 hours, please contact your doctor) long after nature has asked for its resignation, they are doing everything possible for women to be just incubators with legs, with no voice as to whether or not she is ready to be a mother but healthy enough to enjoy sex. Nope, for the GOP women are not supposed to enjoy sex as the opposite sex does, which is the only reason why they take Viagra. How dare women to have sex for any other reason but to get pregnant? For the GOP only men are entitled to enjoy a night of passion for the simple reason that you like sex.

Most of the Republicans Representatives, Senators and Governors are slowly but surely changing the laws to an extreme position to satisfy their religious base and their own personal moral beliefs. Some years ago, the majority of them were against abortion except in cases of Rape, Incest or to save the mother’s life. Not anymore. The majority of them have gone as far as to remove from the list of acceptable abortions cases of rape and incest and even some have indicated no exceptions whatsoever. Some have gone as far as to insinuate that rape or incest cannot be legally proven for a woman to use that “excuse” to get an abortion; and the Left gets outraged. Posters with quotes from people like Todd Akin, Paul Ryan, Foster Friess and others begin to pop up everywhere. Some posters are asking women to vote Democrat; others are just simply mocking the ignorance of the person who made the statements. There are posters denouncing the whole thing as a War on Women but no one seems to get what is going on and what the Republican agenda is on this issue. I think I have deciphered it. By removing rape and incest as a valid reason for a woman to have an abortion, they are removing any guilt from the victimizer and placing it completely on the woman, by insinuating that there is no proof of forcible rape then it must have been consensual and therefore no there was no rape.

There have been signs proving that's exactly what the Right Wing thinks, for years they have blamed women for getting raped because they “ask for it” if they looked good and dressed provocatively, if they were walking at night alone, if they didn't say a resounding NO when a man forced himself on her… after all, they all know a NO could be a yes…

This whole obsession with women’s reproductive rights is nothing more than shifting the victim role from the woman – that bitch that with her beauty seduced and provoked the male – to the “poor and innocent” man that fell for her tricks.

The GOP has never cared for those that they think are inferior to them, this is just a serious effort to keep women as they like them best: barefoot and pregnant.  

Can anyone tell the difference between the Republican laws and the Shariah law?  They're both against women and are founded on religion, no difference.  

Quotable Quotes

“Rape is like the weather. If it's inevitable, relax and enjoy it." - Clayton Williams, 1990 Texas Gubernatorial Hopeful

“This contraceptive thing, my gosh is such inexpensive, back in my days we used Bayer aspirin for contraception, the gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly.” - Foster Friess, billionaire conservative and main supporter of Rick Santorum’s Super PAC, 2012

“Rape and incest was used as a reason to oppose this. I would hope that when a woman goes into a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape.”- Idaho State Senator Chuck Winder, 2012

"They had no problem having similar to a trans-vaginal procedure when they engaged in the act that resulted in their pregnancy." - Dana Loesch, syndicated conservative talk radio host, 2012

“The odds are one in millions and millions and millions, and there is a physical reason for that. Rape, obviously, is a traumatic experience. When that traumatic experience is undergone, a woman secretes a certain secretion, which has a tendency to kill sperm.” – Pennsylvania State Representative Stephen Friend, 1980

Flop, Flop, Flip, Flip… Oh What A Big Twit He Is!

Mitt Romney is the most inconsistent person that has ever ran for any governmental position during my lifetime, certainly a man with little or no convictions, who is willing to do and say anything in order to get what he wants, on this occasion getting elected.

Following is just a few of the issues where Mitt disagrees with himself:

Flip: 1994. Agriculture. When he was running for Senator of Massachusetts Romney said he wanted to eliminate the Department of Agriculture and called for reducing farm subsidiaries.

Flop: 2007. When he was trying to be the GOP contender for the Presidency, he changed his tune. In 2007 he loved agriculture and firmly believed that agriculture was “key to the economy and the American people.” By 2012, I guess agriculture is no longer the “key to the economy or the American people” since the subject is not even mentioned on his website.

Flip: 2003. Environment. While Governor of Massachusetts he was a big supporter of regulating coal power plants and implementing tough emissions standards. He believed in global warming, in the greenhouse effects and he went as far as issuing a 72-point Climate Protection Plan. Surprisingly and unusual coming from him, he maintained his position for eight years and on June 2011 during an interview he said that he believed in global warming and also that humans contributed to it. 

 

Flop: 2011. A month later, in July during a town hall meeting in Derry, NH he is against regulating coal power plants and now believes that carbon emissions do not harm our bodies. Three months later, in October he completely abandons what he had fought for and believed for so long and publicly states that there is no such thing as global warming. Eloquently he said these words of wisdom: “By the way, they do not call it America warming, they call it global warming it loses jobs for Americans and ultimately it won’t be successful, because industries that are energy intensive will just get up and go somewhere else.”

Flip: 2006. Health Care. As Governor of Massachusetts, Romney created the blueprint on which “Obamacare” was later built. In 2009, Romney publicly suggested to Obama to use tax penalties or credits to induce people to acquire insurance.

Flop: 2007. A year later, in the midst of the Tea Party and the GOP outrage for “Obamacare” Mitt changed his mind and sided with the Right calling Obamacare “an unconstitutional abuse of power.” By 2011 Romney was a full pledge supporter of the Ryan plan “The Path to Prosperity.” Today, Obamacare is one of the thousand things he is going to repeal on “his first day in office.”

Flip: 2002. Campaign Funding. During his Senate Campaign Romney proposed spending limits on congressional campaigns and abolishing political action committees (PAC). 

Flop: 2007.  In 2007, a few months after leaving the Governorship, Mitt Romney was against the McCain-Feingold Law claiming that it was unconstitutional. Back then, Mitt Romney said “We step into dangerous territory when politicians start eviscerating our fundamental freedoms in the name of amorphous principles, like campaign finance reform.” Today he is more than happy to receive and accept unlimited funds from PAC, Citizen’s United and the Koch Brothers.

Flip: 2008. Auto Industry. When the American Automobile Industry was desperately trying to keep their heads above water and avoiding bankruptcy, Mitt said on national television “Let Detroit go bankrupt.” The modern version of “Let them eat cake.”

Flop: 2012. Romney has the audacity to say that President Obama followed his advice!

Flip: 2009. Stimulus. On January Mitt Romney gave his opinion about the stimulus by saying “I think there is a need for an economic stimulus. Americans have lost about $11 trillion in net worth. That translates into about $400 billion a year less sending that they’ll be doing, and that’s net of additional government programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance. And government can help make that up in a very difficult time. And that’s one of the reasons why I think a stimulus program is needed.”

Flop: 2012. Romney openly criticized Obama saying “[Obama] wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

Flip: 1994. Abortion. Mitt Romney believed that abortion should be legal and during his Senatorial campaign he said: “regardless of one's beliefs about choice, you would hope it would be safe and legal.” Further, when accused by Ted Kennedy of his position being a “multiple choice” he stressed his position by stating “On the accusation of being 'multiple-choice', I have to respond. I have my own beliefs, and those beliefs are very dear to me. One of them is that I do not impose my beliefs on other people. Many, many years ago, I had a dear, close family relative that was very close to me who passed away from an illegal abortion. It is since that time my mother and my family have been committed to the belief that we can believe as we want, but we will not force our beliefs on others on that matter. And you will not see me wavering on that, or being multiple-choice, thank you very much.”

Flop: 2005. No longer running for Governor or in office, Mitt Romney changed his believes and erased from his mind that "dear, close family relative" that passed away from an illegal abortion. He said in an interview for the Boston Globe on July “I am pro-life. I believe that abortion is the wrong choice except in cases of incest, rape, and to save the life of the mother. I wish the people of America agreed, and that the laws of our nation could reflect that view. But while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate." However, Mitt Romney is the only Republican presidential candidate that refused to sign the Pro-Life Pledge sponsored by Susan B. Anthony.

Flip: 2002. Stem Cell. Mitt Romney was an advocate for stem cell research and promised to lobby George W. Bush to accept steam cell research.

Flop: 2008. By this time, Romney advocates banning stem cell research because “it cheapens the sanctity of life.”

Flip: 1994. Gun Control. Romney supported the Brady Bill and some gun regulations. He acknowledged that probably that decision wasn’t going to make him any friends at the NRA. He said back then “That's not going to make me the hero of the NRA. I don't line up with the NRA.”

Flop: 2008. Romney joined the NRA.

Flip: 1994. Gay Rights. Romney supported gay rights and proposed a policy for domestic partnerships. In 2002, he said: “All citizens deserve equal rights, regardless of their sexual orientation." Romney said that domestic partnership status should be recognized in a way that includes the potential for health benefits and rights of survivorship.

Flop: 2011. Romney opposes gay marriage however; he still supports policies to grant rights to domestic partnerships. It must be said that on the same year, Romney refused to sign a pledge opposing gay marriage but by October he had signed the 2012 Presidential Pledge sponsored by the National Organization for Marriage.

I am sure that the flip-flopping will continue. Mitt Romney can’t help himself, he wants to win and will say whatever is necessary to win... Except going against his sugar daddies, that is when he draws the line after all, the one thing he firmly believes in is that money talks and bullshit walks!

Some information obtained through Wikipedia

Of Values and Vaginas… or is it the Value of Vaginas?

As I have been doing, I am continuing reviewing Mitt Romney’s “issues” as cited in his website, I will give my opinion of his comments about “Values.” This section is extensive and I will break it in three sections, today I will review the first section of those values: “Abortion”

We all know that there is not one single Republican candidate that is openly pro-choice; even if personally they might sympathize or agree with the pro-choice movement they will never say this publicly because that would represent the end of their political career. I do believe that Romney is truthful when he says he is pro-life and I applaud him for it. However, Romney claims that “almost all Americans recognize that abortion is a problem.” I do not agree, at least not completely. I agree abortion is a problem but I think that when he refers to “all Americans” he means his base, since this issue has been a constant battle between the parties and groups. Romney believes that people of “both political parties” know that more than a million abortions a year cannot “be squared with a good heart” and perhaps he is right but, are those “all Americans” ready to offer and approve an economical and financial support to the millions of babies that would be born if the mothers wouldn’t end an unwanted pregnancy? I seriously doubt it. There is nothing more sacred to a Republican than a fetus but a child that is alive should never be a burden to society. They believe that the mother should deal with it after all no one told her to open her legs, “she should have held an aspirin between her knees” instead of being so irresponsible, they would say.

On the same subject, Romney says that he believes life begins at conception and that he wants the laws of this country to reflect his views. He proposes that the next step to right what he believes is wrong is to overturn Roe v. Wade because that law was the result of “judicial activism” and the decision to decide if an abortion should or should not be legal should be left to the people and not unelected judges. The problem I find with his opinion and that of pro-lifers is that they want the law to change based on their own opinion and views in complete disregard to the opinions, views and rights of the opposition. Abortions have been performed since the beginning of time when a woman decided not to have a child and did everything possible to end that unwanted pregnancy. Terminating a pregnancy in a safe environment by a professional will only serve to prevent losing two lives instead of only one. The only reason pro-lifers are against a woman having an abortion is because it is against their religious believes, nothing else. These same people have no problem enforcing and supporting the death penalty and some of them couldn’t care less about human life; we have seen too often in the news how they are willing to kill practicing abortion doctors, their staff and the women who go to their offices seeking professional help to end a pregnancy. Making abortions legal and accessible to any woman that needs one should not be based on religious views; if your religion and beliefs prevent you from having an abortion then don’t have one. Is your religious belief that by having an abortion a person is committing a capital sin? Let them burn in hell. If you don’t agree or approve of terminating a pregnancy, no one will force you to have one however, if Roe vs. Wade is overturned, then you are imposing your personal and religious beliefs upon the rest of the nation. The law should never be based on religious beliefs and personal views; that is what churches are there for.

If elected, Mitt Romney will also promote health care workers to “follow their conscience” instead of the Hippocratic Oath; allowing them to refuse performing an abortion if they personally don’t agree with this practice. I don’t really have a problem with this; after all, I think that if you are a neurosurgeon you will never have to perform an abortion. If you, on the other hand, are an OBGYN you probably can perform abortions but I doubt you will be forced to perform an abortion. If there is such a probability, I believe we have enough religious hospitals in this country where these doctors can work at and of course, most OBGYNs have their own private practice. 

Mitt will also revoke funding for abortion advocates such as Planned Parenthood. I truly hope that means that he will support increasing the funds for Medicaid, Food stamps, HUD and Welfare so the millions of children that will be born into impoverished homes can at least go to a doctor and have decent nutrients as they grow up. But we know that will never happen, republicans are against abortions but they are also against supporting what in their opinion are social “parasites” living off the system.

But he is not content with controlling the vaginas of American women, oh no! He proposes that America should expand their vaginal obsession to China. Who on earth does the Chinese government think they are restricting women from having another 20 million babies in an already over-populated country? How dare China impose any control over their population? They should be like us, imposing control over the American vaginas to force them to keep popping kids as if raising children and providing them with a decent life was free! I must ask you… what is Romney’s obsession with China? Is this a tactic he would use if (may the Spaghetti Monster have mercy on us!) he becomes President to evade paying our debt to China?

Romney closes the “Abortion Value” (didn’t know abortion was a “Value”) by saying: “Americans have the moral duty to uphold the sanctity of life and protect the weakest, most vulnerable and most innocent among us. As president, Mitt will ensure that American laws reflect American’s values of preserving life at home and abroad.” I have to laugh at this because they are NOT protecting the weakest “among us” since an embryo is not among us and those same ideals and sanctity do not extend to the fetus once it has passed (alive) through the birth canal. Mitt is a vagina freak, who probably would love to have many vaginas at his service.

Vaginas of America, Unite in defeating the Republican Party that wishes to control you since they can’t have you! Tightly close those legs, open your mind wide and move those facial lips… Give them a piece of your mind the next time you hear them deciding what you can do with your own vagina!

Jesus, Christianity and the Spaghetti Monster

Has anyone ever wondered why there is so much hatred in a nation where the majority of the citizens are so-called Christians? You know the kind, those that are constantly quoting the Bible and have the name of Jesus, God or Amen in almost all their sentences. The nuttier they are, the more Christian they turn out to be and usually, the most hateful.

They hate almost everything: health care for all, equal rights, women’s rights, lesbian and gay rights and almost everything that has a right in it except, of course, their political party (Republican) which is typically called the Right and, their religious rights; theirs not everyone else. These people that are always with Jesus on their lips are the first ones to trash and bash a guy named Jesus because he is an immigrant. They are the first ones to cry that the rest of the people that do not share their faith or people of no faith, are imposing their beliefs or opinions on them. However, they see nothing wrong with forcing kids in a public school, a school that is funded by the taxes of all Americans regardless of their religious, sexual orientation, gender or race, to have prayers as part of their education. These are the ones that reject science and would prefer not to have evolution taught in schools and have demanded, on several occasions, to have creationism taught as well if they are to accept evolution to be imparted. The same people that today are trying, and in many States succeeding, to reverse Roe vs. Wade and forcing their opinion regarding what a woman can do with her uterus. This group is attacking all the advances women have acquired through years of fighting against a male chauvinistic society that has obstructed them every step of the way. Now, these people want to go back to the dark ages and take every one of us with them!

Ever since the first Mega-church was erected back in the 1980s we have seen an increasing number of fanatics. I am beginning to think that all the “wild and crazy” stuff that took place in the ‘60s and ‘70s yielded as a result a bunch of fried-brained, morally depleted, spiritually empty group of people that, once the hippie communes were dismantled, had no place to go for guidance. Having always followed the herd, they flocked like turkeys to churches in search of solace, sort of a spiritual dry-cleaning. These people fell prey of some group of men that saw the opportunity and grabbed it. These ministries created shows where they fooled the followers by arranging for people to be healed by the “minister” and if paraplegic, they walked for the first time in front of the congregation; or by having people tell stories of how a terminally ill family member or themselves were miraculously cured by the “minister.” With these tricks-of-the-trade, these congregations amassed millions of dollars and with the power that money generates, they grew bigger by venturing into radio, television, building bigger churches, building schools and Universities, hospitals and almost every other type of institution where they had the upper hand to indoctrinate the people… especially when they were very young and therefore, more moldable. Oral Roberts and Bill Graham were the pioneers of this new religious trend; it is them we should thank for converting this country into the religious craze we are witnessing now. These two men claimed to have a direct connection with God; God would speak directly to them and instructed them on what needed to be done, it seems that God changed the gospels for them so that being filthy rich was a good thing and not a sin. Out the window went the famous teachings: “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:23-24.

Conveniently, God told these two men and others that followed that it was OK to be rich and being as pious as they are, they followed God’s instructions. Billy Graham lives in his own private mountain, behind huge gates and has a huge fortune. No one knows for certain because Graham has never made his income tax public, I guess it is a source of embarrassment to have so much wealth and still be asking the congregation for money. Oral Roberts also amassed great wealth; he even had his own private jet. It pays to preach!

It was men such as Oral Roberts and Billy Graham that during a span of over 50 years they indoctrinated the masses through radio, television, Universities and at the Mega Churches to hate everything and anything that it was not in accordance to their Ministries. This country went from austerity to liberalism and now is back to austerity in less than 50 years. These opposed and contradicting views, one after the other, is not a common occurrence and it can only happen with indoctrination.

It is sad that today these people hate everything that not long ago they defended and fought for: civil rights, women rights and freedom. The same people that in the 60s proudly carried signs claiming “Make Love not War” or “Peace and Love” are now the same that proudly display their guns, bomb a clinic or kill a doctor, of course, they claim they are doing God’s work. These people want to see Jesus, the poor Mexican farmer, be deported to Mexico. They are very humane and loving!

Which brings me to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. That is a God I can believe in. He is not judgmental and you can have him anyway you like: al dente, soft and even raw, white, green, red or pink. Can have Him cold or hot, spicy or not. Does not cost much to have it in your pantry and it will feed the masses for almost nothing and He will accept you regardless of race, gender, age or financial status. He serves to the rich and the poor and belongs to the world. He doesn’t judge you, you judge him. That is my kind of God… Hail to the FSM!

Coat-Hangers belong in the Closet, not a Vagina!

Before you proceed to read this article, be aware that it is graphic, it depicts the different type of ‘home-made’ abortions and back-alley abortions women had to endure before Roe vs. Wade (410 U.S. 113, 1973). I will not try to make it suitable for the weak at heart because if I did, it would not be showing the horrors of those practices; if abortion gets banned again, not only will we be going backwards to the previous century undoing what so many women fought so hard and died for but the practice will be used once more by desperate American women.

Prior to 1973, abortion was illegal in the United States that is, unless a doctor would deem it necessary in order to save the woman’s life and in order for that to happen her life had to be in danger or, for her to be lucky enough to come across a doctor that would falsify the information to help her; but doctors that were willing to do that were not abound and even if they were, women did not dare ask a doctor to lie for her since this was illegal and it could have cost them their license to practice medicine.

At that time when women were confronted with an unwanted pregnancy they did not have a safe place to go to such as Planned Parenthood; most of the times they waited (trying to find a solution to their problem) until the end of the first trimester or even worse, the second trimester. Many times, they had experimented with concoctions suggested by other women, these concoctions consisted of brews they would prepare in their kitchens and that they would drink – some of them were even poisonous – in an effort to induce an abortion… but when all failed, they resorted to the infamous ‘coat hanger’.

In desperation and as I said, after trying everything imaginable – from riding horses and falling from high places, drinking all type of potions, hitting themselves in their abdomen etc. – women would take their attempts a bit further. Some had the courage and attempted to perform the abortions in the privacy of their home, without any anesthesia or help. Alone in their bathrooms these women would insert into their cervix any object long enough to break the placenta which would induce an abortion: bottles, knitting needles, crochet needles, scissors and the well-known coat-hanger. Most times they succeeded in aborting, the problem was, they also killed themselves; many mothers left their children orphaned because by performing the abortions themselves, they punctured their uterus, their intestines or both. There were many cases where women had to be rushed to a hospital with the coat hanger still stuck to her uterus, I even read of a woman that was taken to the hospital with part of her intestine hanging from her vagina… in an attempt to pull out the coat-hanger that had perforated and was stuck in her intestines she pulled the hanger and by doing so, she pulled her intestines out. Now, whoever says that this is not an act committed out of sheer desperation doesn’t know what desperation really is. Those that performed abortions on themselves without any help were not only desperate, but brave. The pain these women must have endured I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.



Instruments of the Trade

 Of course, there were those that decided to go to an abortionist who performed these procedures out of a kitchen in a rented home or apartment, usually in the worst area in town; often, these places were a roach infested and filthy kitchen where a man or woman who probably had never studied medicine would perform the abortion. The instruments used were a little more sophisticated than a coat-hanger but still rudimentary and often times unhygienic – as there was a line of women waiting to have the procedure done from what it was probably the only abortionist in the area. But this ‘doctor’ would provide you with anesthetics, which even today, if administered at the wrong dosage, can kill you and used a long instrument to break the placenta, another one to force the embryo or fetus out and yet another instrument to ‘clean’ the walls of the uterus by scrapping it, all of this was done by an unprofessional and unethical person, with little or no hygiene and you were sent home. You were sent home without a prescription for antibiotics, without painkillers and without a follow-up visit since this was an illegal practice done by an underground practitioner to a woman that wanted no one to know what she had gone through. Most women developed a fever after a self-induced abortion or a back-alley abortion, the price these women paid was extremely high, many of them died in the process, others damaged their uterus to the point that they could never have children again, for a woman that perhaps was trying to end a pregnancy because she was unmarried and the man that impregnated her left (which at the time made the woman a whore to society) but that didn’t mean she didn’t dream of getting married and having children; too often women didn’t abort the whole fetus and pieces of it rot inside her, causing an infection that would later kill her… but not before a long and prolonged illness and a painful death.

The coat-hanger has become a symbol of Roe vs. Wade and the pro-choice movement. We must never return to those times, those were dark times for women. Banning abortions will not stop abortions, banning abortions will only make them illegal and women would have to resort to the same barbaric methods – except the rich women of society who have always been able to do it but in a nice setting, whether here by paying enough money to hospitals and doctors to falsify the procedure or, as most did, by traveling to Europe and having it done there… telling everyone at home they were vacationing in, let’s say, Switzerland. Banning abortion will only be a problem for those who can’t afford to have any more children: the poor. Banning abortions will only kill poor women, not the wealthy. Banning abortions will not stop the killing of "babies" (embryos and fetuses to be exact), banning abortions will produce more deaths, that of the fetus and that of the woman. Bravo pro-lifers, if you continue in your puritanical ways you would have succeeded in sending more people to heaven! No wonder pro-lifers care so much about the fetus and embryos (not the babies), after all … they do believe in life after death, for the first time I understand what “Life” they’re talking about… it’s the after-LIFE, not life as we know it.

The Invasion of Privacy

This is an attempt to clarify, scientifically not religiously, the subject of contraceptives and abortion. 

First we must understand the difference between an embryo, a fetus and a baby. It really bothers me to hear people calling an embryo or a fetus by the term baby, probably that is the reason why we are still debating this subject up to this day.

When a woman’s ovum (egg) drops from the fallopian tubes and, if she is lucky enough to have a man and enjoyed intercourse (or not) at the correct moment without protection or, as in many cases, the protection fails to do its job, that ovum will get fertilized by the man’s spermatozoa if they are not lazy or if the men is not, as commonly known, “shooting blanks”. I hope that up to this point everyone reading this will agree or at least have some concept of this stage of fertilization/conception.

If the ovum gets fertilized, it will drop to the uterus (located inside the woman and as of now that we are debating this issue, an uterus that belongs only to that woman) and attach itself to the walls of the uterus to start developing into an EMBRYO. At this time, basically, is a single cell that has been invaded by another single cell, isn’t it funny how even then, men are invading women? Anyway, not always a fertilized ovum will attach itself to the walls of the uterus or, even if attached will develop into an embryo, resulting in a miscarriage without the woman ever knowing that she was pregnant.

This is how the ovum looks like after the lucky spermatozoan got its way, it is at this moment that it is scientifically called an embryo and it shall remain with that name until the end of the 8th week from fertilization.

It almost looks like a black and white fried egg… doesn’t it? The human embryo differs little from the embryos of almost every other species. At the end of this article I will provide you with a link to various pictures of embryos and early stage fetuses for you to decide to which species the pictures belong to. Kind of a quiz to test your knowledge on the subject, it would be fun to see how many of you that believe that it is a baby since the moment of conception will be able to recognize the human embryo or fetus. 

The ovum, once fertilized, will begin splitting into multiple cells, at the second split we can start to recognize some features. As you can see, even at this early stage we can begin to find a resemblance to the procreator… At this stage, they look just like their "daddy"! Don’t they? So sweet!!! If you can’t see the resemblance, ask your husband to bend and look as his testicles, they look very similar!

During the first 4 weeks, the embryo is the size of a sesame seed (approximately 1/8 of an inch) or smaller, it doesn’t have a heartbeat, it doesn’t have limbs, it doesn't have a brain or even a spinal cord. This is the way the embryo looks towards the end of that stage, can you tell what sex is it, what the color of the hair or eyes will be? Can you tell if it will be a normal child or if it will have some anomalies at this point? I seriously doubt it, because at this stage you couldn’t differentiate between a human embryo and that of a dog, a cat, a horse, an elephant or a rat, among others. At this stage, having no brain or spinal cord, the embryo can’t have sensory nerves, in other words, it can’t feel pain. Alright, it is noticeable that it looks almost like a shrimp but not nearly that size, not even half the size of a small shrimp.

After the end of the 8th week is when the embryo starts developing into a FETUS. It still doesn’t look human, but you can begin to see the limbs, it has a heartbeat, a brain and a spinal cord. Having already a brain we can assume that at this stage the fetus might feel pain. The picture on the right is how it will look, more or less, by the 9th week. Now we can perceive limbs, eyes, and is quickly changing into a recognizable human… but its not there yet, at this point there are other species that still resembles ours, but there is no denying that at this point we can recognize a life.

From the end of the 8th week until the fetus passes through the birth canal, it will assume and retain the name of fetus. It is not a baby, just like an egg is not a chicken or a chick… it is an egg until the shell breaks and the chick breathes and in humans, it is a fetus until the water breaks and that fetus takes its first breath of air, not a millisecond before, it is then and only then it  can be called a baby. So, to all those people that are pro-life and keep saying that an abortion kills babies are not saying the truth, just twisting the words to inflict pity, guilt and rage among people, after all, no one but a sick person would ever want to kill a baby!

This brings me to the subject of abortion and contraceptives. Every woman, absolutely every single one of them is pro-life; no one gets pregnant because they think "so what? if I do get pregnant I’ll simply have an abortion!" – That is not what happens. It is an extremely difficult decision that every woman, God fearing or atheist, doesn’t make lightly and a decision she wishes she would never have to make. There are different reasons, all valid, and which I am not going to enumerate, for a woman to come to that conclusion. After seriously thinking and debating with herself about the choices to make, agonizing about it, when a woman makes the decision to terminate a pregnancy – that by no stretch of the imagination is ‘killing a baby’, especially during the first trimester – that woman has seriously thought about it and felt guilty about it and decided that it was her only choice. There is no need to make her "listen to the heartbeat", see pictures of gorgeous and happy 4 month old babies in the doctor’s office,  no need to make her wait 24 hours and no need to make her feel worse than she already feels! 

This is not a religious matter, it is not a moral matter, it is not a civil matter, it is not a government matter, this is not a men's matter… it is a woman’s personal matter! 

All these fierce religious far right extremists that today are calling for the elimination of abortions and contraceptives for every single woman across in this country, because it goes against their religious beliefs but, that at the same time they also oppose for women to be on welfare; these same religious men and women who do not go and adopt all the children that are loveless in orphanages or going from foster home to foster home until they reach the age of 18 and are on their own or children that will never know what love is because they were born with deformities or HIV and abandoned by their mothers… Unless these people that are blocking every effort to provide women the alternative of not getting pregnant or, in some cases blocking the access to terminate a pregnancy, until these people pick up the tab for the children that are born and were unwanted, from the embryonic stage to the ripe age of 18, unless they’re willing to do that, they have absolutely no right to tell a woman what to do with her uterus or the embryo that she is carrying. It is up to that woman, her conscience and her physician to determine if there is a need to end a pregnancy or, preferably, take the precautions in the form of contraceptives to avoid getting pregnant and therefore, preventing the so hated abortion. 

To all the pro-life women: Get pregnant all you want, do with YOUR uterus whatever you please, but who gave you the right to invade other women’s uterus? Do the other women have the right to force you to take contraceptives or have an abortion? If they don’t have the right to inflict upon you their opinions and religious beliefs, how dare you force yours onto them? If you think you do have the right because of your religious beliefs, you don’t. If you believe in God, then you believe He gave mankind  free-will to make his/her own decisions, whether the decisions are good or bad it doesn’t matter, it is an individual’s decision, not yours... not even God’s.

I might understand (not accept) your opposition to abortion, but give me a break! Opposing contraceptives means that you are protecting a single cell… After all, an ovum that hasn’t been fertilized by a sperm because it was protected by a contraceptive it is not a baby, it is not an embryo, and it is not a fetus… It is a damn cell that will come out in the next menstrual cycle and which will be tossed away, whether in a tampon, a sanitary napkin or in the toilet!