Dufus du jour, Mike Huckabee, has publicly aired his belief that women are poor, vulnerable souls who can’t think for themselves and are slaves to their libidos for accessing preventive reproductive health care. (WaPo)- He’s also a total hypocrite on the issue of the birth control mandate. (Politics USA)
- If you thought the state of Arizona could usher in the new year without trying to further hinder the reproductive rights of women — you, my friend, were mistaken. (Tucson Weekly)
- Oh, and now “conscience clauses” are becoming a thing. You know, having someone use their religious beliefs to trample upon your civil and, at times, human rights. This means that perhaps you’ll walk into a pharmacy one day, only to discover that the person doling out prescriptions doesn’t agree with you taking birth control, and thus can refuse to fulfill your PHYSICIAN-ORDERED PRESCRIPTION. As much as I hate being a pessimist, I could see this going in an even worse direction. How about if one’s life is at stake? Is it not entirely impossible that a gay man, suffering from HIV or AIDS, could attempt to fill a prescription related to his condition and be turned away by a pharmacist whose religious beliefs state that homosexuality is a “sin”? It would be assumed that your illness is related to your engaging in an activity regarded as “sinful” to some pill-dispensing bigot, and he or she could very well turn you away on that basis. What would prevent this from happening if such an asinine law were enacted? This trend of allowing the religious beliefs of a third party to dictate what one can or cannot have in their personal life is one of the most oppressively un-American things we’ve seen in this country during the last 50 years. It’s rich that the perpetrators of such oppression are those who proclaim to care the most about personal freedom and liberties. (Sierra Vista Herald)
- Are we being fear-mongered over the safety of our birth control? (Slate)
- Missouri is trying to become the third state to implement a three-day waiting period for women seeking abortion. You see, the female brain is not capable of making sound decisions before approximately 72 hours have passed (and even then, it’s iffy ’cause, ya know, we have vaginas). This is all science, folks. Not medical science. Republican, anti-choice science. (Think Progress)
- Girl Scout cookies. The choice new dessert of abortion lovers everywhere. Yum. (Mother Jones)
- “Miscarriage manager” will likely be the new title for more and more doctors seeking to help women terminate unwanted pregnancies. (New Republic)
