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News & ArtsFriday, February 22, 2013
The Ladies Indiana Republicans Insist Women Seeking Abortions Need to Be Vaginally Probed *Twice* For Their Own Good
Posted by Cienna Madrid on Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 10:42 AM
As The Stranger's Traditional Rape Editor and newly-appointed Legislative Rape Editor, it is my duty to tell you that the Republicans in Indiana are hell-bent on mandating transvaginal rape as a way to deter and/or punish women seeking abortions.
This isn't a new concept—states like Virginia, Texas, and North Carolina already have such laws in place—but Indiana Republicans are taking a uniquely villainous approach. You see, a bill recently approved by an Indiana Senate committee would require women obtaining abortion-inducing drugs to undergo not one but two completely unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds:
What makes Indiana really stand out, though, is that this bill, SB 371, would require two ultrasounds—before and after the abortion. The bill would require physicians to "schedule a follow-up appointment" two weeks after RU-486 is administered. But that's not all. Under penalty of criminal and/or civil charges and fines, physicians must "make a reasonable effort to ensure that the pregnant woman returns for the follow-up appointment." And what constitutes a "reasonable effort"? The bill doesn't make that entirely clear, though it specifically mentions "recording in the pregnant woman's medical records the date, and time of the follow-up appointment, a brief description of the efforts by the physician and the physician's staff to ensure the woman's return, and the name of the individual who performed the efforts."
So what happens if a woman doesn't keep her scheduled post-abortion ultrasound appointment? Who decides whether her doctor has made sufficient enough effort to force her? Another doctor goes to jail? Loses his or her medical license? The clinic where the doctor practices is shut down? All because, according to state Sen. Travis Holdman, the bill's author, this will "ensure women's safety."
Transvaginal probes—aka sticking a lubed wand up the vagina to get a clearer picture of reproductive organs—have their medical uses: Identifying ectopic pregnancies and other abnormalities, and in the cases of early-stage abortions, locating the gestational sac.
But the procedure is uncomfortable-to-painful. And in the case of this bill and others proposed (and passed) throughout the country, transvaginal probes are being mandated when they aren't medically necessary as a way to shame, humiliate, and punish women for seeking a legal procedure.
Republicans argue that it's for women's own good. Our own good! Which we're too stupid to judge for ourselves because we're just silly little slut sacks bursting with eggs!
And because, as Daily Kos points out, Republicans know nothing makes women safer than being vaginally probed against their will by doctors whose careers are on the line to ensure those multiple probes are deep and thorough.
Thanks, Bill, for ruining my morning.
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And they still don't get the hint.
They're legislating themselves into oblivion.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/02/…
And don't take anyone's shit about your writeups, Cienna. 1 in 3 women in the world will be raped in their lifetime. Obviously we need as much reporting and awareness on the issue as possible, so lawmakers may someday start caring more about protecting women from sexual assault than about harassing them for exercising their reproductive rights.
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soon whether one can access abortion services will be entirely dependent on whether the state legislature is R or D. and if it's close, it's defacto R.
The morning after pill doesn't cause abortions, that's true, but there is a pill that causes abortion (RU486). Isn't that what this law is legislating? Or are the Republicans even stupider than I give them credit for?
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They're obviously being generated by evil-genius think tanks (or religious city-states). The wellsprings need to be identified and relentlessly publicized.
Moreover, when these constructs do become law, they're so obviously sick and twisted as to be vulnerable to legal challenge—but only with years of effort and lots of money. This is a win-win for the cons; they get to suck some of the lifeblood out of many other movements to protect peoples' civil rights and well-being, and they gain a lot of control over women in the meantime.
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-George Carlin
also,
"People say life begins at conception, I say life began about a billion years ago and it's a continuous process.
You can go back further than that- what about the carbon atoms, heh? Life could not exist without carbon. So is it just possible that maybe we shouldn't be burning all of this coal?"
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Until I read this, I assumed they'd both be done at once, DP-style.
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It has very little to do with their vaginae, and a whole lot to do with ensuring that women remain subservient to their patriarchal lords and masters, just like the Bible says they should.
I really don't see how it's a legislators job or right to force doctors to perform exams or procedures that they deem medically unnecessary. Next thing you know they're going to require women seeking abortion services to report to their Governor's office and submit to medically unnecessary breast exams performed by the Governor's staff.
I'd like to see them try to pass legislation requiring men seeking vasectomies to submit to before-and-after prostate exams and deep urethral swabbing (for their own good, of course).
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Also, they're going to get killed on the Latino vote. I actually heard a Republican in Congress explain out loud that he didn't want to give green cards to illegal aliens, because that would let them work anywhere, so then who would do all of the really shitty jobs?
can we just open fire, then, on the GOP and RC Church? They all love their guns and the 2nd Amendment so much, right?
CONGRETH THEATHON!!!
POPE THEATHON!!!!!
WEPUBLICAN THEATHON!!!!
Huh huh huh huh huh huh huhhhh.......
@21: Go back to your Pre-moronic cave and fossilize there.
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@33 Lissa: @21's post read to me like chauvinistic male-edited "because the bible says so" bullshit.
@24 & @26 are right: George Carlin does say "people", not "women"
in the clip about abortion.
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