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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Wrathful Women: The Saving Grace of Idaho

Posted by on Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 5:03 PM

If you've been fuming over the Idaho debacle (land o' my loins!) involving state Senator Chuck Winder—who suggested that doctors ask pregnant rape victims if their pregnancy could've been "caused by normal relations in a marriage" before subjecting them to unnecessary ultrasounds—then reading his Facebook wall will be a soothing experience. It reads like a waterfall of fury. Idaho ladies are pissed as fuck at Winder. Here are my favorite recent comments:

·You are a butthead! Too bad they can't do an ultrasound up yours to see if you have a heart and then on up to see if you have a brain! You're just another perverted republican who should have been castrated before puberty.

·Chuck Winder Just Eminent Domained My Vag And All I Got Was This Lousy Fetus

·Politicians like you are the reason people laugh at Idaho. I hope you find solace in your rhetoric because you're a joke to the rest of the world.

·Wow. You were quick to take out my post stating that you are a MONSTER. But you are and God will punish you as you deserve.

·Champion of a bill created by a sick, dirty old man who gets off thinking about humiliating women and young girls via State Mandated Forcible Rape by physicians...awesome! So if they weren't raped before the unnecessary ultrasound, they will certainly be raped by the end of the appointment.

Speaking to that last comment, faithful Slog commenter MacCrocodile directed me to this amazing, outraged post written by a physician pissed at state requirements for transvaginal ultrasounds—and his/her fellow physicians' silence on the issue: "Fellow physicians, once again we are being used as tools to screw people over..."

I do not feel that it is reactionary or even inaccurate to describe an unwanted, non-indicated transvaginal ultrasound as “rape”. If I insert ANY object into ANY orifice without informed consent, it is rape. And coercion of any kind negates consent, informed or otherwise.

In all of the discussion and all of the outrage and all of the Doonesbury comics, I find it interesting that we physicians are relatively silent.

After all, it’s our hands that will supposedly be used to insert medical equipment (tools of HEALING, for the sake of all that is good and holy) into the vaginas of coerced women.

...Fellow physicians, once again we are being used as tools to screw people over. This time, it’s the politicians who want to use us to implement their morally reprehensible legislation. They want to use our ultrasound machines to invade women’s bodies, and they want our hands to be at the controls. Coerced and invaded women, you have a problem with that? Blame us evil doctors. We are such deliciously silent scapegoats...

Go read the whole thing. Truly, it'll make your day.

 

Comments (14) RSS

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balderdash 1
I'm glad to see that Whatever post is making the rounds. I follow Scalzi on the twitters because I love his books, but I was worried a great post wouldn't have legs just because it was on a sci-fi writer's blog.
Posted by balderdash http://introverse.blogspot.com on March 21, 2012 at 5:28 PM
Fnarf 2
"Normal relations" no longer includes anything whatever to do with Republican males.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on March 21, 2012 at 5:34 PM
balderdash 3
@2, should we just go ahead and include "Sex while/with a Republican" on the long list of recognized BDSM-subtype kinks?

Or maybe it should go in the DSM-V instead?
Posted by balderdash http://introverse.blogspot.com on March 21, 2012 at 5:55 PM
4
I'd put it in the DSM-V, myself. Clearly an indication of serious mental disturbance.
Posted by Calpete on March 21, 2012 at 6:00 PM
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn 5
Angry women can stop saying "wow" any time now. And they never should have been saying "wow, just wow" in the first place. Bookmark thesaurus.com, OK?
Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn http://youtu.be/zu-akdyxpUc on March 21, 2012 at 6:42 PM
Lissa 6
@5: Don't be a jackass.
Posted by Lissa on March 21, 2012 at 8:03 PM
7
If only all GOP males had to undergo catheterization before they could propose or vote on any legislation that has to do with women's health and/or reproduction.... Having a tube inserted into their penis might make those women-hating weenies think again.
Posted by StuckInUtah on March 21, 2012 at 9:05 PM
Christampa 8
@7 That would never work. Any form of mild to severe pain or humiliation given en masse to Republicans in an effort to give them a sense of perspective would fall into fetish territory for at least half of them. Even kicking every Republican governor square in the balls would probably result in about ten requests for another.
Posted by Christampa on March 21, 2012 at 9:26 PM
9
All GOP males should undergo catheterization every day, period. After a few weeks of that maybe they'd go hide in a closet where they wouldn't bother anyone.
Posted by sarah70 on March 21, 2012 at 11:14 PM
10
The funny thing is these guys who came in on the Tea Party wave in 2010 found that fixing the economic problems they were elected to address is pretty dang hard! So they've fallen back on the social issues that most of us have considered settled for decades 'cause that's all they've got.

There's going to be a lot of "one-term conservatives" now that the voters really get what these troglodytes believe "freedom" means.
Posted by Westside forever on March 22, 2012 at 10:08 AM
beelzebufo 11
Chuck Winder was the more progressive candidate that election.
Posted by beelzebufo on March 22, 2012 at 10:17 AM
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn 12
@6

Don't you mean "Wow. Just wow. Don't be a jackass"?
Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn http://youtu.be/zu-akdyxpUc on March 22, 2012 at 11:51 AM
13
I have been wondering where the doctors stood on this issue, especially after reading that hilarious Doonesbury strip last week. I hope more of them join this doctor's lead and speak up. Maybe they can refuse to comply to rules they deem unethical, harmful or unnecessarily invasive? They are supposed to do no harm, right? At the very least I'd love to see doctors testifying in droves in defense of women's rights.
Posted by mitten on March 22, 2012 at 12:31 PM
Lissa 14
@12: if I weren't a humorless feminist that would have made me laugh.
Posted by Lissa on March 22, 2012 at 3:26 PM

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