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Anti-abortionists may have some compelling arguments to support their views,but I haven't heard one yet and Republicans can’t seem to find one. As the House prepares to debate outlawing all abortions after 20 weeks, Texas Republican Michael Burgess has come out with possibly the most bizarre case for fetal sentience yet.

“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” he said. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”

Before joining Congress, Burgess was...an OB-GYN.

Adele M. Stan writes:

The rationale for the Republican bill, which advanced through the House Judiciary last week on a near-total party-line vote, is one scientifically disputed study, touted by Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) in his opening remarks at today’s Rules Committee hearing, that asserts fetuses can feel pain as early as 20 weeks after sperm meets egg.

“Well, I think all the members are cognizant of the fact that this is not a Congress that cares much about science,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), the Rules Committee’s ranking member, in her questioning of Goodlatte, who refuted that claim by saying that since 1973, the year when the Supreme Court legalized abortion, much more had been learned about fetal development.

Major medical bodies in the United States and the United Kingdom have refuted the claim of fetal pain before the third trimester.

The 20-week abortion ban, if passed into law, would set up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, which allows abortion up to the point of fetal viability outside the womb, and mandates exceptions for abortions in the case of pregnancies that threaten the life or health of the woman.

Now before anyone thinks the Republicans have been generous with these mandates, there's an "exception" for victims of rape and incest as long as the victim has previously reported the crime and doesn't mind having a third party notify law enforcement that she is going to have an abortion.

“So, the authors of this bill apparently believe that women are too dishonest to be believed when they say they were raped or the victims of incest,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) said. “It is Congress siding with her abuser…”.

Continue reading »

Arizona’s abortion law is unconstitutional, according to a federal appeals court. About a year ago, the state banned abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy except in medical emergencies. But a circuit court now ruled that the government has no right to ban an abortion before a fetus “is viable.” The judge said the state “may not proscribe a woman from electing abortion, nor may it impose an undue burden on her choice through regulation.” Time will tell what this ruling means—particularly in other states with tough abortion restrictions such as North Dakota, which has banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

The Hill:

“Today’s decision is a huge victory in the fight to protect women’s fundamental reproductive rights, and it should send a clear message to anti-choice politicians that their attempts to deprive pregnant women of critical health care are clearly unconstitutional and will not hold up in court," said Sally Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Current TV’s John Fugelsang, Salon.com staff writer Irin Carmon, and comedians Elayne Boosler and Lizz Winstead consider a spate of extremely restrictive abortion laws that have passed or are being considered in states across the country. Some, like a proposed law in Arkansas and another in North Dakota, directly violate Roe v. Wade by banning abortions before viability.

“The majority of Americans want abortion to be safe and legal,” says Carmon. But the restrictions that are being passed are not medically necessary, so why do people support them? “If you ask people why they’re passing (these restrictions), their particular end is to ban abortion, not make women safer.”

On Liberty Counsel’s “Faith and Freedom” radio show Sunday, host Mat Staver honored the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by likening federal funding for Planned Parenthood to “enriching Hitler.” Funding abortion, he said, is no different from funding a “Hitler kind of killing machine, or Pol Pot, or some of these other genocide tyrants.”

Staver's views fall in line with other extremists who have issues with women's rights to privately consult with a doctor to make their own health care choices without some nutjob executing their physician in the middle of a crowded Sunday church service, or being assaulted with "holy water" while entering their medical clinic.

Or this at another women's health center in Alabama recently:

"Pro-choice marchers recalled a particularly painful event last month when a woman whose baby had died en utero was coming to the clinic to have it removed. In an awful coincidence, that was the day, Watters said, when the pro-life demonstrators collected a children’s choir on the sidewalk to sing “Happy Birthday, Dead Baby” to anyone driving in."

Staver and other anti-women's rights extremists do nothing to further their views with such expressions or actions, as a new poll makes clear.

For the first time since the groundbreaking Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, a majority of Americans want abortion to stay legal—and seven in 10 respondents oppose overturning the case. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday, the intense rhetoric about abortion and rape by Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock and the debate over contraception have caused attitudes to shift toward abortion. Fifty-four percent of adults said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and a combined 44 percent said it should be illegal with no exceptions. And 70 percent said Roe v. Wade should not be overturned—with 57 percent backing that sentiment strongly.

A New Delhi gang-rape victim passed away Friday after suffering a brain injury and organ failure during the horrific attack, which has sparked protests throughout the country. The Indian medical student was brutally raped, beaten, and thrown from a moving bus on December 16. Her injuries were so severe that she spent several days in intensive care before being airlifted for treatment to Singapore.

Via:

The 23-year-old medical student, who was severely beaten, raped for almost an hour and thrown out of a moving bus in New Delhi on Dec 16, was airlifted to Singapore on December 26 for specialist treatment.

The attack had sparked demonstrations across India, culminating last weekend in pitched battles between police and protesters outraged over the lack of safety for women in the capital.

"Despite all efforts by a team of eight specialists in Mount Elizabeth Hospital to keep her stable, her condition continued to deteriorate over these two days. She had suffered from severe organ failure following serious injuries to her body and brain."

"She was courageous in fighting for her life for so long against the odds but the trauma to her body was too severe for her to overcome," he added.

Another gang-rape victim, a 17-year-old Indian girl, has committed suicide after police pressured her to drop the case and marry one of her attackers.

Via:

"The police started pressuring her to either reach a financial settlement with her attackers or marry one of them," her sister told the NDTV network.

Meanwhile, the Press Trust of India reported that a police officer has been suspended for allegedly refusing to register a rape complaint in the northern state of Chhattisgar.

The woman and her husband later brought the case to the attention of a more senior officer and a hunt has now been launched for her attacker, an auto rickshaw driver.

Official figures show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year in India were against women.

The real figure is thought to be much higher as so many women are reluctant to report attacks to the police.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pledged to bring in new laws to cover attacks on women.

Detroit Occupiers left Grand Circus Park nearly a year ago in the week preceding the city's Thanksgiving Day parade.

A new "mini-documentary" released on YouTube recently provides a glimpse of what it was like during those chilly days when the Detroit Occupy movement took root in October until the group left the park encampment in November 2011. "Occupy Detroit" depicts life in the encampment, from the medical tent to food preparation and the rallies it held in the streets of Detroit.

Although Occupy Detroit protestors are no longer visible on a daily basis in the public square, the movement continues to make its presence known. Members have taken an active role in supporting homeowners during bank foreclosures, occupied a school for the deaf and support other numerous causes, such as a women's rights march scheduled in Lansing later this week.

After leaving the park, a supporter donated Occupy Detroit use of a rent free building for one year. It now serves as the Occupy Detroit Activist Center at 5900 Michigan and many Occupy Detroit members have begun renting apartments above the center.

GOP Congressman-wannbe-senatorTodd Akin was asked why he voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act at a town hall on Thursday. Akin's response suggests that a) he doesn't understand what federal law was prior to the Ledbetter Act, b)he doesn't understand what's in the Ledbetter Act, c) he's a misogynistic cretin who thinks it should be legal for employers to discriminate against women and d)that he will say he believes anything the GOP backer Koch brothers tell him to.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: You voted against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Why do you think it is okay for a woman to be paid less for doing the same work as a man?

AKIN: Well, first of all, the premise of your question is that I'm making that particular distinction. I believe in free enterprise. I don't think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don't pay. I think it's about freedom. If somebody wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that's fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble.

It's been illegal to discriminate against women by paying them less since 1960s. The Ledbetter Act just made it easier for women to sue if they find out they're being discriminated against. Because, see, where Akin says that "If somebody wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that's fine, however it wants to work," the reality is that employers don't generally say to women, "Hey, I'm going to pay you less than I'm paying men doing the same job as you." They just pay less, and keep quiet about it, because they're breaking the law. Which means it would be bad for them if the women they were discriminating against found out about it because there are consequences for breaking the law.

The only "freedom" Akin is talking about here is the freedom of businesses to break the law. Which he thinks is fine, because he doesn't think that equal pay should be the law, even in largely unenforceable theory. Just like he doesn't think there should be a minimum wage for anyone.

Note also how in this case "the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things" is not a good thing, according to Akin, but when it comes to women's vaginas more intrusive government is just fine.

A new video from the Gates Foundation...

Giving women and girls access to family planning tools and information is the easiest way to empower them to determine their own futures.

Raise your voice and pledge to support family planning for the millions who need and want it: http://no-controversy.com.

Dogs Against Romney gather in Tampa, Florida for the Republican National Convention.

The Code Pink "Vaginas" chant "Hey, Hey GOP! Women want equality!" at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Sunday.

Part One: Fences, Fences, and More Fences from photographer Robert L. Beukema as he explores the sights and sounds of Tampa during the Republican National Convention.

Part Two: Photographer Robert L. Beukema exploring the sights and sounds of downtown Tampa during the Republican National Convention. Businesses boarded up in anticipation of protests, large heave metal fencing everywhere, and armed National Guard troops on patrol. Even the harbor is heavily patrolled by coast guard and sheriff's deputies on water patrol. It all looks like something out of a nightmare.

Part Three of Sights and Sounds from photographer Robert L. Beukema. Ho boy, wait until you get an eye and earful of a tiff between the Dogs Against Romney members, and a Romney supporter who talks the ears off of anyone who will listen to her. The mainstream media gives her time, and plenty of it, to ramble on about everything from Obama ate dog meat as a child (once), the Constitution, and something about how many slaves did you need to make one vote? She wraps her her diatribe telling people to "Look it up!" so, hopefully they will, but somewhere other than on Fox News.

This is the last video for this post, much more to come later. This is a new this morning ad from Moveon.org, showing Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan literally stepping on the middle class as they walk to the podium to accept their nomination as President and Vice President of the 1%. Ouch!

The Obama campaign, trying to shore up the president’s support among female voters in crucial swing states, is hitting Mitt Romney and Representative Paul D. Ryan in a new ad that targets their positions on a number of issues important to voters who support abortion rights.

Being broadcast in Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Ohio and Nevada, the ad, called “The Same,” tries to draw a contrast between Mr. Obama and the Republican ticket on social issues -- women’s health in particular -- which Democrats believe will be critical in November.

The ad tells how Romney promised to get rid of Planned Parenthood, a family-planning group, and of backing proposals that would take away a woman’s right to choose. It touts Obama's efforts to fight Republican attempts to defund Planned Parenthood.

It also highlights the Romney-Ryan extremist view on abortion, that opposes it even in cases of rape or incest.

The anti-abortion stance will no doubt receive extra scrutiny this week after the death of a pregnant leukemia patient who died after her chemotherapy was delayed over anti- abortion laws in the Dominican Republic. She then suffered a miscarriage early Friday, followed by cardiac arrest, and doctors were unable to revive her.