Democratic Diva

31 Jul 2012 10:52 pm
Posted by: Donna

Whoo! Hard to keep up with the attacks on ladies since they’re coming so fast and furious, pardon the pun.

Where to start: Well, let’s start with the New York Times. For some reason the New York Times found it necessary to acquire a person called Ross Douthat to act as the resident moral scold of the editorial section. Douthat’s oeuvre is generating columns full of pretentious drivel that mostly focus on how women not being in a constant state of pregnancy is very bad for society. In his latest column Douthat expands on that refrain to include gays, who are also ruining everything. Also, Ross would like all you mean liberals to please stop pointing out that people trying to impose their religion on other people are, in fact, trying to impose their religion on other people, because it’s so disrespectful.

Then there’s Arizona. Ah, Arizona. Last Thursday, Judge James Teilborg upheld the 20 week abortion ban considered the harshest in the nation. Women with pregnancy complications will have to be on the brink of death before an abortion can be performed to save their lives and no exception is made for rape or incest victims or women carrying severely deformed fetuses. The front page of yesterday’s Republic featured an article about how two nonprofit organizations that help women deal with tragic pregnancy situations are bracing for a huge uptick in women and families seeking their assistance. With no funding whatsoever from the state to help with that.

Yesterday’s Republic also ran a this horrid column by AZ Sen. Nancy Barto and former CO Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, who is now a well-paid honcho this thing called the Susan B. Anthony List, which purports to channel the spirit of that 19th century feminist pioneer into today’s anti-choice Republican politicians. Barto and Musgrave are ladies, you see, which means you should believe them when they say that the law they passed taking family funds away from Planned Parenthood was really done to give ladies “a health upgrade at no new cost to Arizona taxpayers”. They also peddled the discredited allegations against Planned Parenthood by those anti-choice frauds Live Action, which routinely doctors videos to make it seem like abortion providers have nefarious intentions.

Our next item involves Arizona too, via a company called Hercules Industries is an HVAC supplier with facilities in four Western states, including some manufacturing sites in Arizona. Starting tomorrow, health insurance plans begin covering contraception with no co-pay under the Obamacare mandate. Now, most normal people regard this development as a good idea to prevent unplanned pregnancy and establish more gender parity in health coverage. But Hercules Industries is owned by the Newland family, who are devoutly religious and deeply interested in (natch) their female employees’ private lives. The family is so aghast at the prospect of workers using their health insurance for *gasp* birth control, they are suing the Obama administration to stop this horrible Slut-pocalypse from happening. A federal judge in Colorado issued a preliminary injunction in their favor. Over at RH Reality Check Imani Gandy goes over the legal ramifications of the case and Amanda Marcotte concisely explains how this is a devastating blow to women’s personal and religious liberty (yeah, we’re entitled to it too, you know) and a slippery slope to employers having the complete right to foist their religion on every aspect of their employees’ lives, on and off the job.

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