North Dakota lawmakers just passed a so-called "personhood" amendment -- basically saying that life begins at conception, effectively banning abortion and potentially banning some forms of birth control.
Right-wingers have been pushing their anti-choice agenda at the state level for years, and this fall, voters will have the final word on this amendment -- North Dakota could be the first state to enact a personhood abortion ban.
Anti-choice, anti-woman activists have been pushing for legislation like this all across the country. Now that they've scored a victory, they'll be embolded to push extreme measures like this everywhere.
This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. We need to stop these radical measures from taking hold in other states.
In the state of North Dakota there is only ONE abortion clinic. They hold the prize for the state rated worst in the country for women. These bills passed yesterday will make it even more difficult for women to access abortion care—when it’s already practically impossible in this state.
The Personhood Constitutional Amendment initiative gives LEGAL RIGHTS and protections to human embryos. The Republican’s bill shamelessly goes against Roe V. Wade, as Sen. Maragaret Sitte stated: "We are intending that it be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, since Scalia said that the Supreme Court is waiting for states to raise a case."
The State's Senate also passed a bill that would SHUT DOWN North Dakota's ONLY abortion clinic, the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo, by requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.
Yesterday, in “For Womens Rights ” DFA called on our supporters to take action in response to the legislation in Michigan that would require women seeking an abortion to undergo an invasive ultrasound. Today, we continue to fight for Women's Rights and hope to shed a serious light on this legislation that the Tea Party supported State Senates are passing.
DFA is calling on our members to stand up for Womens Rights. Please donate today . Enough is enough.
"On Tuesday, twenty-two House Republicans in Michigan introduced legislation requiring women seeking an abortion to undergo an invasive ultrasound -- the same type of legislation passed in Virginia last year.
Republicans are getting more creative. Unlike Virginia's bill, this one doesn't explicitly mandate transvaginal ultrasounds, just "providing the most visibly clear image."
But don't be fooled: the only way to get the clearest image is by forcing women to undergo invasive procedures. They know that, we know that, and we can't let it happen. If we don't stand up for our fundamental rights now, we're going to see more and more attacks like these across the country."
Just because the election is over doesn’t mean the Tea Party Republican Congress’ War on Women is. Newly elected Arkansas Tea Partier Tom Cotton appeared this week on the conservative Laura Ingraham radio show to discuss women and the military. As we know from the Mitt Romney’s 47% comments, you never know what a Republican will say when amongst their own. In this case Cotton claims that women should be barred from infantry work because their “nature” makes them inferior soldiers.
Tom Cotton’s Harvard education obviously has had no impact on his views of gender capabilities. According to Think Progress Cotton stated “To have women serving in infantry, through, could impair the mission-essential tasks of those units. 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.”
Obviously Rep Cotton is sticking to the outdated-biologically driven gender research that validated women staying at home, taking care of children and not voting. Why doesn’t the congressman look at some other studies? Like perhaps the study that states that women in NATO’s frontlines caused “no significant problems” and performed better than their male peers. Oh right, because The Tea Party Congress chooses its facts, it doesn’t find them.
What Cotton also completely ignores is that the current standard of the military prevents women from rising as quickly in the ranks as their male counterparts. If women aren’t even given the opportunity to participate fully, we may never have a truly equal military.
However, this isn’t the first outrageous comment coming from Freshman Congressman Cotton. Recently Cotton claimed that the 9/11 attacks could have been orchestrated by Iraq. Looks like we’ve found our replacement for Tea Party front man Allen West. Join us to help make sure Cotton suffers the same fate as West, and stay up to date on our efforts to oust the Tea Party majority in 2014.
In closing, lets all take a moment to be pleased that Rick Santorum is not our president:
We all can agree that women's issues were a focal point of this past election and the American people spoke loud and clear. Voters rejected the backwards ideas of Todd Akin, Richard Mourdock, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney. The American people voted for the most sitting female Senators at any point in our nations history and the most diverse Congress ever. Yet, when the Republicans announced their committee chairs, this is what it looked like: 19 white men.
The contrast could not be more clear about which party represents America. Today, Nancy Pelosi announced the Democratic Committee Leadership. Here's what it looks like:
The result? Seven women, and eight minorities. A portrait that is a much clearer reflection of our country.
It just seems as though the GOP does not get it. Just as they continue to leave women and minorities out of their party, they also continue to persue policies that the American people have rejected time and time again. Their fiscal cliff proposal:
To extend all the Bush Tax Cuts and cut programs Americans rely on like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A platform they ran on in and where handed a sound defeat. The American people don't want more of the same GOP and neither do we.
Join us in standing up to this out of touch GOP, and tell Democrats in Congress that no deal is better than a bad deal. Add your name here: http://bit.ly/TJFVsI
