This is very heartening, and flies in the face of what Repug-led States are attempting with their regressive anti-women stances…I’m happy and relieved to see that the entire country hasn’t lost its mind…Will this make a blind bit of difference in the next round of elections?One can only hope that
Continue readingTag: reproductive rights
wmtc: what i’m reading / marxism 2012 program notes: "too many people?" population, immigration, and the environment
I’ve just finished reading Too Many People? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis by Ian Angus and Simon Butler. Co-author Angus spoke at the 2012 Marxism conference; I wasn’t able to attend his talk, but Allan did, and afterwards bought the book for me. The clarity of the authors’ arguments,
Continue readingwmtc: m312: harper gets our message
So the first hour of debate on the not-so-stealth abortion motion did not go well for Mr. Woodworth. The Opposition parties came out strongly in favour of the 21st century and rationality. And as you know, only one Conservative other than Woodworth spoke – Gordon O’Connor (Carleton-Mississippi Mills and Conservative
Continue readingwmtc: m312: it doesn’t matter when life begins. that’s not the issue.
When does life begin? Perhaps this is a question for philosophers, or theologians. Perhaps it is a question for scientists. It is not a question for Parliamentarians. It is not a question for government. There are many different kinds of life. There are non-human animals. Some of these are eaten
Continue readingwmtc: add your voice to voices against motion 312
More to come, much more, so much more that I haven’t been able to post coherently about this because I have so much to say. So while I struggle with my inarticulate rage, make sure your MP knows exactly how you feel about this and exactly what you will do
Continue readingwmtc: texas anti-choice sonogram law: doonesbury cartoon and very real life
If you haven’t seen the abortion-related Doonesbury cartoons that many US newspapers refused to run, you can read them here. Go Garry Go. More importantly, if you would like to see what the Texas sonogram law means in real life to real women, you can read one woman’s heartbreaking story
Continue readingWoodworth’s Wank Revisited
Like many progressives, fern hill is looking for a way to unite the opposition parties, and she may have found one. Regular readers will recall MP Stephen Woodworth’s bilious bleating on Twitter about “when life begins”, which unlike most Canadians, Woodworth contends is “in the petri dish”. His embryo-obsessed Twit-jaculations
Continue readingArt Threat: Doonesbury “Shaming Room” too much for sensitive newspapers
Last week several newspapers censored the first of a series of Doonesbury comics addressing the current climate and discussion about women’s reproductive rights (specifically, in this case, abortion). The Center for Reproductive Rights has compiled a list of more than 60 newspapers who chose not to publish the strip, as
Continue readingShakedown!
I guess Karen Handel has never heard about the First Rule of Holes — when you’re in one, stop digging: Karen Handel, the former senior vice president of public policy at Susan G. Komen for the Cure, accused Planned Parenthood of extortion during an appearance on the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Continue readingwmtc: celebrate international women’s day 2012
Today is International Women’s Day. We’ve come a long way. And we’ve still got a long way to go. Globally, the picture looks much worse. See the current issue of Socialist Worker for a collection of IWD stories, including one by yours truly. At today’s IWD March in Toronto, the
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Is That All There Is?
Comedian Rush Limbaugh – who is, it seems these days, the virtual leader of the increasingly deranged Republican Party – did the Democrats a huge favour the other day with his offensive remarks directed at “college co-ed” (i.e., third-year law student) Susan Fluke. Whether deliberate or not, Limbaugh’s deeply misogynistic
Continue readingRon Paul, Contraceptives & Abortion
Of the four(4) GOP primary candidates still standing, the only one I can even come close to listening to with a serious ear is libertarian Ron Paul. Now before everyone jumps all over the comments section with the “Ron Paul is no friend of progressives!!” stuff, yeah yeah, I get
Continue readingwmtc: get ready to fight: fetal rights debate coming soon to canada’s parliament
In case you missed it: Tory MP Stephen Woodworth wants human rights for unborn children A Conservative MP is defying his party’s leadership with a move to rewrite Canadian laws to extend human rights to unborn children. Kitchener MP Stephen Woodworth is taking aim at a section of the Criminal
Continue readingwmtc: pollitt: komen foundation pinkwashes anti-choicers, punks planned parenthood
The one and only Katha Pollitt: The anti-choice movement can be so clumsy, and so weird, we forget that it is also smart and strategic and busy busy busy. Because while you were shaking your head over pink Bibles and stem-cell futurology, Komen was hiring Karen Handel as senior vice
Continue readingwmtc: who is behind the susan g. komen foundation’s decision to cut ties with planned parenthood?
When a leading breast-cancer charity severs its relationship with the largest provider of reproductive health services in the US, we have to ask, who is behind this terrible decision? The Atlantic: The nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which has spent nearly $2 billion over the
Continue readingFor Two Saskatchewan Fetus Fetishist MPs
For Brad Trost and Maurice Vellacott, two MPs who are disgrace to Saskatchewan, Politics’n’Poetry gives you this:
Continue readingwmtc: occupy the u.s. election, part 1: "we can vote for romney or obama, but goldman sachs and exxonmobil and bank of america and the defense contractors always win."
Occasionally a bit of slime seeps from the sewer of the Republican primaries into my oxygen, and I feel the need to share the smell. When a public figure says that a pregnancy from rape is a silver lining sent from god, as Rick Santorum did, and that person is
Continue readingReproductive McCarthyism and a new nadir of authoritarian dumbness
Frankly, it didn’t surprise me a bit that SUZANNE would be All In with the idea of publishing a database of personal information and photos of gynecologists and other reproductive health professionals whose services include — but are not limited to — abortion. How awesome she must imagine it would
Continue readingHappy Birthday Roe v. Wade
Let the shrieeeeeeekfest begin. Yeah yeah yeah. Today America celebrates 39 years of the right to reproductive choice, a hard-fought battle that continues to this very day in spite of choice being the law of the land. But in a press release today Pres. Obama vowed to protect abortion rights:
Continue readingGive it up, Woodworth
When you’ve lost the National Post, it’s Game Over: Anyone paying attention over the past few weeks would have spotted the most unlikely of Canadian events: a debate over abortion. […] Mr. Woodworth’s quixotic campaign — and the P.E.I. activists’ failed attempts — prove that a broad debate in Canada
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