A mass movement in Poland has succeeded in delaying the implementation of a court decision that would ban nearly every abortion.
Abortions are already virtually impossible to access in Poland—the procedure is criminalised in all cases except when the pregnancy results from rape or incest, when the life or health of the woman is in grave danger, or when the foetus risks severe illness or death. On 22 October, the country’s new Constitutional Tribunal ruled that allowing abortions in cases where the foetus risks severe illness or death—which is the provision on which the vast majority of legal abortions in Poland depend—is unconstitutional.
Abortion, whether it’s providing care or helping someone access care should not be criminalized under ANY circumstances.
Today, Polish activist Justyna Wydrzyńska, co-founder of Poland’s Aborcyjny Dream Team, goes on trial in Warsaw. She is accused of helping someone access abortion pills and faces up to 3 years in prison.
No one should be punished for helping someone access time-sensitive and essential abortion care.#IAmJustyna
Digital illustration of Polish abortion rights activist, Justyna Wydrzyńska. She has reddish brown hair, and is wearing a black pleather jacket, printed pink pants, and is holding a sign that reads, ‘I am Justyna’
Digital illustration of a brown fem with a purple bob. They are looking back, with the collar of their pink denim jacket lifted up. The jacket has two pins that depict a rainbow flag and trans flag and there’s stars and text that reads, ‘support abortion access.’
So I keep seeing “pro life feminist!” And in my opinion a real feminist wouldn’t try telling a woman what to do with HER body.. if you don’t like abortions, that’s why you can be a feminist, but to tell another woman what she CAN and CANNOT do with her body??? FUCK OUTTA HERE???
You aren’t a feminist. Sorry. You don’t get to fight for women’s rights only to turn your ass around and scream and cry “WAAAAH YOURE NOT ALLOWED TO ABORT!!!” Like… if you don’t like abortion don’t have one! It’s not that hard guys.
A woman that you don’t even know, her having an abortion will not affect your life so why do you care???
Becuse being pro life is about controlling a woman and her body! It’s NOT about saving children because most these people don’t give a shit after the baby is born.
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and obtained by POLITICO.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes.]
If I had been aborted, I wouldn’t exist, and I wouldn’t have any feelings to be hurt by it. Inexistence and death are not the same thing.
Abortion is a good thing. It is a human right, and if we are to properly defend it as such, we need to accept that fact. No more beating around the bush.
If you live in a state that is likely to repeal, are able to conceive, and especially if you are sexually active, you need to have a plan for avoiding pregnancy and a plan for if that plan fails, and the time to make it is now, not this summer when everyone around you is panicking.
Birth control access shouldn’t be affected by this decision, but look into longer acting and more effective methods, like IUDs (99.995% effectiveness typical and perfect use) and subdermal implants (99.995% typical and perfect) over things like the pill (99+% perfect, 91% typical) or condoms alone (98% perfect, 82% typical) that are less effective and easier to lose access to, and use both a barrier method like a condom and a hormonal method if you can. Planned Parenthood has a list of methods sorted by effectiveness here. Plan B lasts about a year, and is considered effective for 72 hours after sex but drops exponentially in effectiveness as time passes: if you don’t reliably have a spare $50 and access to a pharmacy that stocks Plan B or ellaOne, buy a back up Plan B when you’re able to to ensure you can take emergency contraceptives as soon as possible for the best results.
Start tracking your cycle now: medication abortions are the only ones that can be self managed and are only possible up to 11 weeks after the start of your last period. Not after conception, after the first day of your last period.The effectiveness of medication abortion drops after 8 weeks pregnant, and some sources will say it’s only effective up to week 10. If your next period is late and there’s even a miniscule possibility you could be pregnant, take a pregnancy test immediately (the dollar store ones are the same as the expensive pharmacy tests). Don’t wait to see if it shows up a couple weeks late or if next month’s comes: by the time you reach your first missed period, you’re already considered 4 weeks pregnant, and you need as much time as possible to coordinate an out of state abortion or a self managed abortion. Waiting for two missed periods puts you at 8 weeks pregnant, almost at the point where you need to start altering dosages for medication abortion to be effective. Don’t cut it that close: it’s better to waste a dollar on a test than have to seek out a second trimester abortion.
Have a plan for how you will get an abortion, both within the first 10 weeks and after. For early abortions, you will be able to self manage. Plan C,Aid Access,medicationabortion.com,Women on Web, and Women Help Women can all help you obtain the medications you need or information about how to use them, either by mailing them directly or by connecting you to resources: bookmark these.
For abortions past 10 or 11 weeks, things are more complicated, but they are not hopeless. You need to have a plan, though. Do you know where the nearest abortion clinic in a pro choice state is? Do you know how much that abortion will cost and how you will get that money, both for the clinic costs and the cost of travel, accommodations, and two to four days of lost wages? Do you know if they do in-clinic abortions (the only option after 10 weeks) or just medication abortions? What’s the latest they can go? Look into local abortion funds or access support organizations. More will emerge as need increases, but scoping them out now will save valuable time and give you peace of mind. Some of the resources linked in the last paragraph may be able to help connect you as well.
Again, I’m not trying to incite panic here, but things are not looking good when it comes to abortion access in the United States, and you need to be prepared. Time is of the essence when it comes to abortions, even without restrictive bans, and having information and a plan before you lose access and especially before you get pregnant buys you time.
A lot of people in the US are super worried about the Supreme Court axing Roe v. Wade, but what they might not know is that some states have laws in place that will protect the right to reproductive choice and abortion if that happens. One of these states is the state of Illinois. In 2019, a law was passed that protects abortion rights within the state even if the federal right to an abortion falls. This means that if Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortion will still be a protected right in Illinois. Even before Roe, Chicago was a haven for safe abortions- you just called and asked for Jane.
Now, safe abortion access is the law of the land in IL, and there are several groups who can help you. This post is long, but I think it’s worthwhile. Even if you don’t read all the way through it, maybe save it for later. You or someone you know might need it. If you want to stop now, the TL;DR is this:
f you’re a minor and you can’t tell your parents, get a waiver of notification from the IL Judicial Bypass program.
Schedule your appointment.
Contact abortion funds to get financial aid. Your home state might have s fund, and the Chicago Abortion Fund can help.
Secure housing for the procedure through the Midwest Access Coalition or by talking to the intake staff at the clinic of your choice.
I’d like to start by saying that the closer to home you get your abortion, should you need one, the easier it will be for you… probably. It depends on your individual situation AND your safety. If I still lived in Indiana and I needed an abortion, I’d probably leave to get it done, even though there are abortion providers in Indiana, because Indiana is super hostile and there’s lots of clinic protestors- for example, when I was taking my GRE my senior year at Notre Dame, the testing center was in this little strip mall in Mishawaka next to Planned Parenthood. Despite the fact that the PP in Mishawaka does not provide abortions, there were protestors who yelled at me for going in there. I wasn’t even going to PP. I’d like to say that I said something devastatingly cool but I just ran in flustered. Point being: It really, really would have sucked if I was there for healthcare instead of a standardized test for graduate school. And that’s a very tame, mild situation! Real abortion clinic protests are often much more devastating!
ANYWAYS. The less you have to travel, the easier things tend to be, if it’s safe to get an abortion where you are and if your state will have protected abortions if Roe is overturned. If you’re not sure what might happen in your state in that case, this map has a clear, succinct overview of the legal status of abortion in each state and all US territories. You will want to click through to that link, because this image isn’t interactive.
[ID: a map of the US with states and territories sorted by their legal protections for abortion into four categories: expanded access in the case of Roe v. Wade being overturned, protected, not protected, and hostile. IL is highlighted.]
So let’s say you live in any of those red states. (Yellow and blue are safe- abortion access is protected there.) Let’s say, worst case scenario, Roe gets overturned and you get pregnant and you want to terminate. You will be able to do that in IL, and it’s relatively easy to do that in Chicago for a relatively low cost and with the benefit of a robust support network of people who want to reaffirm your reproductive choices.
First, if you’re a minor and you don’t want to tell your parents because it’s not safe for you to do so, get a judicial waiver of parental notification. The IL ACLU has a judicial bypass hotline. This will come at no cost to you. Do this ASAP, because it takes time to get it set up! You can do this by calling the hotline at 877-442-9727, texting 312-560-6607, or emailing [email protected].
Next, you need to get an appointment set up. You could get a referral from someone local to you, but this can be tricky- 87% of counties in the US don’t have an abortion provider, and google can lead you to a crisis pregnancy center. They will not help you. If you have a local Planned Parenthood, call them. Even if they don’t provide abortions, they can refer you to someone who can. If you’re coming to Chicago, which this post… kind of assumes you are… you can call any of these groups to talk about your options and what clinics can help you. I recommend starting with FPA or PP; those are two actual clinics. MAC and CAF are funds- they can direct you but they can’t schedule an appointment for you.
You might want to shop around and see which clinic costs the least, and is the most practical for you to get to. FPA has a lot of patient resources, as does PP. Don’t be afraid to ask for financial assistance. The people staffing those organizations have extensive networks and deep compassion for their patients- if the clinic can’t help, they might know who can.
Once you’ve made an appointment, now’s the time to start gathering financial aid. Some insurance, including IL Medicaid, covers it. If yours does not, or if the copay is still too much, this is where abortion funds come into play. Many states have their own abortion funds for state residents, so you might have to look around to see who can help you. I’d start with the National Network of Abortion Funds.
You also need to figure out transportation and housing while you’re in the city to get your abortion. This isn’t super necessary if you’re just coming for the pill abortion, but if you’re coming for a d and c or other surgical procedure, you will be staying for a couple of days. THIS is why I’m writing this up, because abortion funds typically only are able to help cover the financial cost of the procedure. It’s expensive to stay somewhere and it can be absolutely terrifying if you’re on your own! Navigating while you’re in pain from the procedure can be an absolute devil of a time, too! However, Chicago has MAC (contact info above), which is a practicalaccess fund, which means that they help pay for transportation to the city (bus tickets and train tickets) and around the city (volunteer drivers or volunteers who take rideshares with clients), food, aftercare medicine (painkillers, etc.), and housing, and there’s also free access to emotional support staff throughout your stay. This is not just open to IL residents; it’s open to anyone coming to the city for an abortion. ALSO if you go through FPA, they have a partnership with the Hampton Inn a block away from their location where their patients get a discount. If you go that route, just talk to FPA about housing and they’ll hook you up. This can be super helpful if you need some evidence that you’re on a “business trip” or something like that- if you are in a position where you need an excuse for your safety, that might work well.
Hopefully you won’t need this post- but if you do, I hope it helps. Feel free to share it around. If you have anti-choice opinions and you feel the need to share, don’t. This isn’t the space for it; you will be blocked and your comments removed. And then remember that criminalizing abortion won’t stop abortion. It’ll just stop safe abortions. Also, increased access to abortion, funnily enough, tends to be the thing that lowers abortion rates, because increased access to abortion comes part and parcel with increased access to birth control and general health and sex education.
Reblogging this because it’s always relevant… and because an administrative decision by MAC’s incredible leadership means they don’t just do bus and train tickets anymore. They will also help pay for airline tickets if you need to fly. If you are in the US and need to come to Chicago for an abortion, MAC’s got your back.
Also, if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t travel, and you catch it early, you can do a medication abortion at home. This can either be clinician supported through telehealth or it can be a self-managed abortion (SMA). Either way, you can do this entirely online without ever having to go into a doctor’s office or clinic.
Now, this only works early in a pregnancy (up to 11-12 weeks), so if you’re in a situation where you suspect you may become pregnant and you don’t want to be, test early and often if you can. The various help lines can also help you figure out how far along you are.
More resources: https://www.reprolegalhelpline.org/- this link is a good resource for talking about your legal options. If you’re a pregnant person of color, immigrant, or low-income (and using Medicaid) in an abortion-hostile state, I HIGHLY recommend talking through your legal options because you are absolutely targeted by politicians and the US legal system.
You can print these on sticker paper at home if you have it. It’s a good way to get the word out.
As of… thirty minutes ago on Monday, 2 May 2022, Politico got hold of Justice Alito’s draft statement on Roe. It’s not good. We’re probably gonna lose Roe vs. Wade in two months, and that means if you live in a red state, you’re VERY probably going to lose the right to a safe abortion.
I know this is a long post, but if Roe is overturned, it’s not going to stop abortions. It’s just going to stop safe abortions. Abortion access is reproductive healthcare, and a lot of states are going to get really restrictive. Indiana, my home state, has already put a woman in jail for having a miscarriage. Oklahoma lawmakers would rather let women with ectopic pregnancies die than allow lifesaving medical procedures. This is bad, but! Underground abortion networks did exist before Roe vs. Wade, and now we have the internet. We have robust networks in place to help people that the government would rather see dead or imprisoned. Even if Roe is overturned, some states will be safe havens for abortion. Travel to these states can be difficult, but not impossible– that’s what abortion networks and abortion funds are for.
Please save as much of this information as may be relevant to you. And if you’re “pro-life” and feel the need to comment on this post? Don’t. Your opinions and input are neither valued nor wanted. Abortion access is a vital, necessary part of reproductive healthcare.
the supreme court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is not official yet. someone leaked a draft of the opinion that the members of the court have been circulating and revising (the draft was created by justice samuel alito).
which is insane by the way. it’s the first time that a draft of a supreme court decision has ever been leaked in the entire history of this country.
it makes perfect sense to feel grief or panic or dread or sadness or anger or whatever you’re feeling right now. this is fucking terrible and scary. just for the sake of avoiding misinformation, i wanted to clarify this because i think a lot of the headlines have been misleading, and the info gets even more misconstrued when it’s rephrased on social media and stuff
I mean the fact that the draft was even there to begin with is crazy even of itself
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and obtained by POLITICO.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes.]
Not so friendly reminder that abortion bans violate Jewish women and Jewish families’ religious freedom.
Jewish law does not reconize a fetus as a fully autonomous person nor does it legally consider the fetus to be a full person deserving of protections equal those accorded to human beings by G-d.
The Talmud states that the fetus as part of its mother throughout the pregnancy, dependent fully on her for its life — merely an extension of the mother.
And one of our most important values is the principle of Pikuach Nefesh - the preservation of human life. If the life of a pregnant person is in danger, abortion is not only allowed but is treated as a right, and abortion is considered an act of self defense.
[Image description: a series of tweets. The first is from Victoria Holmes, @spyturtle96, timestamped 3:06 PM, 04 May 22, with text as follows:
“Adoptees have been saying non-stop for months if not years they’re getting ready for another baby scoop era and no one listened to us. And now "domestic supply of infants” is in a draft and people still won’t listen to us.“
It is tagged ”#adopteevoices".
The next two are from Kim Penn, @kim_penn The first is timestamped 10:08 PM, 02 May 22 and contains the following text:
“I’m a very small Twitter voice, but I am begging my non-adoptee followers to educate yourself about what adoption is, what it does, and how evil and corrupt the adoption industry was and is. Listen to #adopteevoices. And then get your asses in the fight with us to end the system.”
The second is timestamped 9:58 AM, 03 May 22, and contains the following text:
“I promise you, adoption is absolutely NOT the win/win, fucking fairy tale, happy ending you’ve been led to believe. For every #adoptee, our story begins with loss. That’s our baseline. Any "happy ending” without acknowledging that is empty and an illusion.“
It is tagged ”#adopteevoices".
The final three are a Twitter thread from Laney (followed by three Chinese characters), @Lane_Xue, timestamped 8:55 PM, 03 May 22. The first contains text as follows:
“My parents faced reproductive, economic, social, & political injustice. I was relinquished because they could not keep me & I’m an adoptee. I am not a fucking (chess pawn emoji). Do not use my family separation to justify your desire to control others reproductive health care.”
The second contains text as follows:
“Abortion is a reproductive decision.
Adoption is a parenting decision often made by poor, young, economically disenfranchised people not given the resources or support to raise their children.
Do not conflate the 2 to justify feeding the adoption industries demand for (baby’s face emoji).”
The third contains text as follows:
“Do not fucking ask adoptees if they’d rather have been aborted. Adoptees are already 4x more likely to attempt suicide than non-adopted people.
The reason someone needs an abortion is none of your business.”
All three are tagged “#adopteevoices”.
After the final tweet there is a link to ncbi.nlm.nih.gov with the beginning of a title, “Risk of Suicide Attemptin Adopted and Nonadpoted Off…”
The Supreme Court has voted to strike down Roe v. Wade, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito and obtained by POLITICO.
“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” Alito writes.]
The FDA’s May 9, 1960 approval of oral contraception, aka “the pill”, transformed reproductive health. Women’s health advocate Margaret Sanger spearheaded and activist/philanthropist Katherine McCormick funded the R&D needed for this medical research breakthrough to improve women’s lives through “birth control.”
Margaret Sanger, a nurse, coined the term “birth control” and dedicated herself to educating women. Her own mother had 18 pregnancies in 22 years and died from ovarian cancer. In 1914, she started a newsletter, The Woman Rebel, to “advocate the prevention of conception.”
Sanger was indicted repeatedly and even arrested on obscenity charges under the Comstock Laws (1873) which defined birth control as obscene and made it illegal to send contraceptive devices or even info about it through the mail.
Flyer from benefit held on eve of Sanger’s trial for opening Brownsville Clinic. (Courtesy of Sanger Project).
Katherine McCormick heard Sanger speak in 1917 and grew convinced that women could only fully control their lives if they could control ifandwhenthey chose to bear children. She redirected her advocacy to the cause of birth control, even smuggling in diaphragms from Europe to New York at Sanger’s request.
When her husband Stanley died in 1947, Katherine inherited an estate estimated worth almost $40 million (more than $500 million today). Margaret Sanger introduced her to Gregory Pincus who was doing pioneering research on fertilization and hormones.
Katharine funneled to Dr. Pincus more than $2 million ($25 million today), nearly all of the money used to support his lab’s research and development of the contraceptive pill.
Read the National Archives Prologue Magazine storyRich, Famous, and Questionably Sane to learn how McCormick, who was blamed her husband’s inability to consummate his own marriage, became the catalyst for the sexual revolution.
Women Hold Banner at National Women’s Conference, November 1977. NARA ID 7452290.
Not so friendly reminder that abortion bans violate Jewish women and Jewish families’ religious freedom.
Jewish law does not reconize a fetus as a fully autonomous person nor does it legally consider the fetus to be a full person deserving of protections equal those accorded to human beings by G-d.
The Talmud states that the fetus as part of its mother throughout the pregnancy, dependent fully on her for its life — merely an extension of the mother.
And one of our most important values is the principle of Pikuach Nefesh - the preservation of human life. If the life of a pregnant person is in danger, abortion is not only allowed but is treated as a right, and abortion is considered an act of self defense.
Freedom of religion is both freedom to practice your religion and freedom from others’ religions. Abortion bans are predicated on a Christian understanding of life.
TOM COTTON, PHYLLIS SCHAFLEY, AND WOMAN HATIN’: TOMMY AIMS TO PLEASE
By Jane X
Tom Cotton has recently pushed a group called “Women for Cotton.” Talk about an oxymoron. Truly baffled, I wonder how and why any woman who actually knows the truth about Tom Cotton and his views about women would vote for him. Anyone … Anyone … I say in my retrofitted Ferris Bueller voice. He has repeatedly voted against us at every turn and has earned a big fat zero concerning everything that affects us women folk and just as important, our families. Honestly, let’s look at his voting record: he voted against the Violence Against Women Act, not once, but twice, he voted against the farm bill which included food assistance for us single moms who need help to feed our kids, he voted against the student loan bill that would help those sisters who are trying to educate themselves, he was against changing the form of military justice that allows twenty six thousand rapes a year in the military to go unchecked with only 238 convictions, he voted against immigration reform which helps keep families intact, and he voted for a government shutdown which had a detrimental effect on female government employees and of course those “stay at home moms” who are married to said employees, costing American taxpayers 26 billion dollars, and to top it all off, he voted against equal pay for women cause you know, we should be pleasing our husbands and frying chicken barefoot and pregnant to put it nicely.
If that isn’t enough, we can look to his patronizing comments about women in the military and his writings at Harvard which are just beyond all explanation. How any honorable man can blame women’s equality for the fall and great demise of modern society is just … bizarre. Mind you, Tom Cotton wants to force every woman in America to give birth to children no matter the circumstance including rape, incest, fetal anomalies, and even when the mother’s health is in jeopardy as he supports “personhood.” For those of you who don’t know what that means, let me explain. Personhood would give a zygote more rights than a living breathing woman and would be disastrous for women’s health and to be more accurate, endangers the very lives of pregnant women. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU2BZN_GRhI
It would also stop stem cell research for those suffering from diseases with no cure and in-vitro for those women who have trouble conceiving. It would even lead to a ban on any type of hormonal contraception. Think about that. Ninety-nine percent of all American women have used birth control during their lives, yet Tom Cotton either doesn’t realize this or doesn’t care. I vote for the latter. Even more disturbing is his connection to Phyllis Schlafly’s doctrine of thought. Both Schlafly and Cotton even used the same phrasing, “perverse incentives” to describe women who have used food stamps to feed their children. Remember, she believes that if women just got married, they would not be at risk of being raped. It is Mind boggling, ancient, and quite frankly, a disgusting belief system. To begin the comparisons between Schlalfly and Cotton, let’s start with the similarities in their comments on women in the military.
The epidemic of rape and domestic abuse doesn’t seem to faze Ms. Schlafly, but apparently, even a fictitious military flick is hard for her to stomach: “G.I. Jane proves that women can take a beating as well as a man, but so what? The movie shows that she lacks the upper body strength to pull herself out of the water into a boat, a rather elementary test for anyone seeking to be a Navy Seal. The pretense that G.I. Jane could do everything the Seals do is a Hollywood fiction created with trick photography, make-up, and a stand-in for the star. It’s all as make-believe as the scene where her Seal commander talks to her in the shower and somehow doesn’t notice that she’s nude,”
Now, let’s look at Tom Cotton’s statement about women serving in the military which he made on the Laura Ingram show: “To have women serving in infantry, though, could impair the mission-essential tasks of those units [showering in the nude]. And that’s been proven in study after study, it’s nature, upper body strength, and physical movements, and speed, and endurance, and so forth.” And what exactly does he mean by our “nature?” Obviously he has never seen a woman give birth, or witnessed a woman protect her children. Would not these same traits be beneficial in the arena we call war? Fierce and deadly protection of the “family” unconsciously or willingly without a second thought of sacrificing life and limb, and the ability to endure extreme pain might prove beneficial. No? It’s astounding when you compare the two statements between Cotton and Schlafly: nature, upper body strength, and apparently the belief that male soldiers should not be held accountable for their innate “manly desires.” In my humble opinion, men that rape their own comrades are the ones who are detrimental to the mission and the men who allow that to occur and protect the criminality of soldiers and allow them to remain in the military are the threats. Not women. “That be” you Tom Cotton. And who does he sound like? Do their words sound similar? It should. You can read more about that interview here: http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/01/08/1418451/gop-congressman-womens-nature-means-they-should-be-banned-from-infantry/
If belittling female soldiers isn’t enough, let’s move on to the Violence Against Women Act. One of the aspects of this act is to help quell help domestic abuse and help rape victims. Interestingly enough, Schlafly and Cotton want to change divorce laws. They both think no fault divorce laws destroyed the institution of marriage. Let’s compare the comments made by Cotton and Schlafly. She says, “The recent PBS program called “Breaking the Silence” is an example of feminist propaganda that men are batterers and women are victims. Among the falsehoods in the film was the assertion that ‘one-third of mothers lose custody [of their children] to abusive husbands’ and that if a divorcing father seeks any form of child custody, he’s most likely a wife-beater.“ Shaking my head. Yeah, she said that. http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2005/nov05/05-11-09.html
She goes on to say that, “Because of perverse incentives a so called "no fault divorce” is often followed by a bitter child custody dispute with bogus allegations of domestic violence or child abuse, and the winner can get a huge child support windfall. Usually the family court judge cannot tell who is telling the truth.“ Now read what Tom Cotton wrote in his Harvard Crimson article, “Promises and Covenants.” "For example, liberals wanted to help the poor, especially poor children, so they created a welfare system with perverse incentives that encouraged the birth of children into poverty.” He also stated that feminists should hail the covenant marriages as it doesn’t allow men to dump their old hag wives for new bustier prettier versions. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/10/3/promises-and-covenants-pmen-are-simple/
On his the “truth” about Cotton website, he had this to say about the VAWA: “This law spends $660 million, much of which goes to fund liberal organizations to carry out an ideological agenda without effective results in reducing violence against women. This law is poorly and too broadly written. It unconstitutionally surrenders the rights of Americans who are not Native Americans to racially exclusive tribal courts, potentially violating the 4th Amendment Constitutional rights of American citizens to due process.”
Unfortunately, he is serious folks, but again, I wonder who he holds dear to his heart when espousing such nonsense about the “liberal agenda” and what not. Oh look what Phyllis Schlafly had to say on the subject in 2011: “The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), now up for reauthorization, is in major need of revision. Its billion-dollar-a-year price tag spent by the radical feminists to pursue their ideology and goals (known as feminist pork) … VAWA should be subject to rigorous auditing procedures in order to curb waste and fraud and to establish accountability.” http://townhall.com/columnists/phyllisschlafly/2011/07/12/violence_against_women_act_must_be_rewritten/page/full
I’ll give you a hint—feminism and liberal are interchangeable in Tommy’s book of games. Just ask him and watch him run like a “little girl” cause’ he knows I am right. I dare say, my five year old “female” child has more kahunas than him.
Here are a few examples of the VAWA really does:
VAWA has improved the criminal justice response to violence against women by:
• holding rapists accountable for their crimes by strengthening federal penalties for repeat sex offenders and creating a federal “rape shield law,” which is intended to prevent offenders from using victims’ past sexual conduct against them during a rape trial; • mandating that victims, no matter their income levels, are not forced to bear the expense of their own rape exams or for service of a protection order; • keeping victims safe by requiring that a victim’s protection order will be recognized and enforced in all state, tribal, and territorial jurisdictions within the United States; • increasing rates of prosecution, conviction, and sentencing of offenders by helping communities develop dedicated law enforcement and prosecution units and domestic violence dockets; (Factsheet: The Violence Against Women Act)
I have to ask. Does any of that sound like a “liberal” agenda to you? How about feminist pork?
Tom Cotton and Phyllis Schlafly are so similar in their thinking, writing, and actions, I suggest we play a little game. Can the reader tell who wrote what? Was it Cotton? Was it Schlafly? Who knows! They sound the same don’t ya think? “Feminists who allegedly speak for women should attack divorce, not its effects. If men have easy access to divorce, many will choose it thoughtlessly. Being married makes a man care more about his family’s expectations and future because he sees his family as enduring. It also makes him more faithful and committed to his partner. It’s true that women who have found men who are already better partners are more likely to marry them, but it’s also true that marriage settles men down.They may not gain true happiness with their new trophy wives, but they certainly will not slide into the material indigence and emotional misery that awaits most divorced women. If restrained, however, men can fulfill women’s deepest hopes.” (Ms. Tommy Schlafly)
Oh shucks, I would tell you, but I’ll just let this stew for a bit, while I await my knight and shining armor to arrive, so he can fulfill all my hope and dreams while beating me to a bloody pulp because there is now a ban on no fault divorce laws. Likewise, Ms. Schlafly most recently enlightened us all in regards on how not to get raped: GET MARRIED. But wouldn’t you know. Cotton suggests the same. If only women would stay in bad marriages enduring psychological and physical abuse they could avoid the pitfalls of poverty because divorce is the root of our money shortage. Not that women are paid less, not that some men do not pay their child support, not that high paying, truly, family friendly employment doesn’t exist, not that our country is the only industrialized nation not to offer maternity leave, not that women lack quality access to affordable childcare, not that women lack access to affordable birth control so they can control their reproductive lives, not that they are burdened with tremendous student loan debt, not that rape, domestic abuse and patriarchal hammers beat women down, and not that the top one percent is robbing our country and our sisters blind. Nope. None of that has anything to do with the poverty level of single women.
And much to my chagrin, Cotton’s voting record does not reflect a solution for any of the aforementioned problems. Instead, he recommends that women “defend these men against feminism, but also demand that all other men accept the lifelong nature of marriage.” The audacity is overpowering isn’t it, and the uncanny similarity to Ms. Schlafly is in fact, nauseating, although Tommy “know nothin’ bout’ women” creates the same symptoms for me—frequently.
Further, and on a different note, if one wants to get technical about plagiarism, I must explain that if a writer uses more than three words in a row, the author must put quotes around it and give credit to the writer, but there is also another rule. When one bases their entire article around the premise of another person’s intellectual property, the writer must credit that author. When reading “Promises and Covenants,” it is quite clear where Cotton got his material, so not only does he not respect women, but he steals from them while telling them to stay at home, make babies, and clean house. How is that for gallantry? Please take the time to read this tom-foolery, not pun intended. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/10/3/promises-and-covenants-pmen-are-simple/
Now, besides the intellectual theft issue, there is that sick notion that Tom Cotton actually believes that women have babies in order to receive SNAP benefits. Single mothers everywhere understand what an utter joke this is, but it isn’t funny. Not. One. Bit. And quite frankly, Tom Cotton should be ashamed of himself for ever writing such a monstrous and untrue statement, yet he is eerily quiet on the subject and when a columnist at the Democratic Gazette asked for a comment regarding all these “brilliant” essays, his communications manager brushed him off with a shameful but joking tone. “Like,” what Cotton wrote in college was irrelevant, but actually it isn’t. In fact, it reflects his voting record of today. Therefore, it would be nice, if Justin Brasell would answer the question. Why does Cotton vote the same way today as what he wrote of yesteryear? And just how much money did Ms. Schlafly’s organization donate to Tommy’s campaign or does she “just” endorse him? I wonder if he has the ovaries to answer, but somehow, I doubt it.
