*blink*
Apparently, once vaginally-penetrated, always vaginally-penetrated:
During the floor debate on Tuesday, Del. C. Todd Gilbert announced that “in the vast majority of these cases, these [abortions] are matters of lifestyle convenience.” (He has since apologized.) Virginia Democrat Rep. David Englin, who opposes the bill, has said Gilbert’s statement “is in line with previous Republican comments on the issue,” recalling one conversation with a GOP lawmaker who told him that women had already made the decision to be “vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant.” (I confirmed with Englin that this quote was accurate.)
So ladies, if you’ve ever had sex, used a sex toy, or even used a fucking tampon, then you’ve given up the right not to have the government shove a foreign object into your vagina.
Welcome to the 18th 21st century.
[via Slate; Feministe; RH Reality Check]
RELATED POST: Happy Valentine’s Day, Ladies of Virginia! Your GOP Hates You and Your Uteri (by asiangrrlMN)
[cross-posted at ABLC]
EL
It reminds of the old stupid idea that if a woman had had sex ever before, then rape didn’t matter. Unless of course, she was married, religious, and vocal about her religion. Otherwise it didn’t count.
Scott
So ladies, if you’ve ever had sex, used a sex toy, or even used a fucking tampon, then you’ve given up the right not to have the government shove a foreign object into your vagina.
Oh, it’s not just that. The clear implication is women who have ever had sex can now be raped, because they gave consent once upon a time.
I swear, I think we’re mere months away from a Republican politician eating a baby and declaring it all okay because the baby asked for it.
Omnes Omnibus
Okay, I slept poorly last night and then had a long, busy, and stressful day so my reading comprehension may not be at its peak, but does that really say what I think it says? Really? WTF?
jrg
Guess this asshole won’t care when he catches the pool boy fucking his wife.
Yutsano
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s not just you. It pretty much says what you think it does.
EL
Bad joke of the week (my apologies to those who, because of personal experience, will not find this at all funny):
Q. Why do priests have sexual relations with children?
A. That way they don’t have to violate the Catholic prohibition on contraception.
dmsilev
As the linked article points out, forcing a woman to have this probe stuck into her is, under Virginia law, legally rape.
So, among a whole host of issues, does that mean that every jackass who voted for this atrocity is criminally liable for conspiracy to commit mass rape?
beltane
I suppose this means that the female legislators who voted for this law would not object to having a pelvic exam conducted by a panel of experts on the statehouse floor.
This law is no better than the Egyptian military’s notorious “virginity tests”. The scum who voted for this are not worthy of their species classification.
gbear
LGF covered this a couple days ago and included a more accurate graphic.
As an old guy I’m just speechless as to how a governing body could pass something this dickish. It’s just beyond words.
General Stuck
There really aren’t words for this stuff. Even by GOP standards, they have entered a new realm of mean and crazy. Not to mention stupid, since more the half the voting population is female and the fact it is 2012, not 1812. Panty sniffing gives way to uteri sniffing. Next it’ll be swamp gases causes promiscuity and gaiety.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus:
This is another one of these cases where you go “WTF? Did this idiot actually say that?” and then you go back and look at it and you can’t imagine anyone possibly believing that this moran actually said that, it’s just too fucking cartoonish to be true.
But it is.
As Mark Twain once said, “truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense!”
Omnes Omnibus
@Villago Delenda Est: Well, the assholes have thrown caution to the wind this year. I hope people are noticing.
beltane
@General Stuck: Next it’ll be demands for female circumcision because society would be so much better if sexual intercourse for women was as painful and devoid of pleasure as possible.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
VA may just move ahead of ME as the state where politics are the most fucking bewildering to me. Electing a rightwing gov barely a year after voting for Obama, just a little weird, that’s why they call ’em swing states. But this fucking caveman Bob Jones U freaky fuck has near 60% approval in a state with two Democratic Senators (okay, they’re both a very reddish purple, but still). Is there outrage among all those sensible centrists of the DC suburbs I’m always reading about?
General Stuck
Heck of a job, GOP!
fixed link http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/is-birth-control-fight-a-terry-schiavo-moment/2012/02/16/gIQAmYbFIR_blog.html
Richard
When I see horrors like this, I think of the Green Party pieces of shit who claim “there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Republicans and Democrats”.
Stay at home or vote Green on election night at your and our peril.
beltane
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Those sensible centrists are well-to-do and happen to live in the northern part of the state. They can have their gynaecological needs taken care of in Maryland so this is not an issue for them.
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t think liberal Democrats pay very much attention to statehouse elections, either here in VA or in a lot of other states besides. Even NH elected a cavalcade of loons when too few people were paying attention.
pk
I have had a vaginal ultrasound for a life threatening pregnancy. I would not subject any woman to it unless it was absolutely necessary. Do these men have any idea what they are doing? It is literally a stick like probe inserted into the vagina which the tech twists around to get a better view. Forcing a vaginal ultrasound before an abortion is some sick pervert’s idea of punishment. There’s no other reason for this law.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@FlipYrWhig: Yeah, that’s the problem with so much of our politics. Wingers fight for every seat from their local library board of governors to the WH. “Independents” don’t know who their Congresscritter is and think politicians just need to stop “playing politics” and “get things done”, and liberals withdraw to the sidelines with a worldweary pose of Disappointment when Obama doesn’t make their rightwing brother-in-law as mad as Bush made them. I also hate people who speak in sweeping generalizations.
ExurbanMom
I’ve been subjected to a transvaginal ultrasound multiple times, for a medical condition related to my ovaries.
It was extremely uncomfortable, in lots of ways. You have a tech taking pictures of your insides, manipulating the wand to get the best angle/shot. The wand is not super skinny, either.
I hated the whole procedure each time. It was important and medically necessary for me, however, so I put up with the discomfort and weirdness. To force the procedure on women who don’t medically require it? Horrifying.
Villago Delenda Est
@pk:
Time for a few Virginia legislators to undego a prostate exam ultrasound.
Biscuits
I’ve had one of these too, to look at fibroids. I also had to drink what seemed like gallons of water before hand. This helps for visualization. My bladder was FULL and it was not very comfortable. But I should not go on. Don’t want to give these “people” ideas.
DanielX
This is so….disgusting. Appalling. It’s quite literally tyranny, is what it is. I don’t ever again want to hear one fuckin’ word about how Republican are opposed to intrusive government; how could a law possibly be any more intrusive? This is political insanity at its most virulent; the Beast actually breaking free in broad daylight. It does make you wonder if C. Todd has really thought this through, because if it does actually become law there are going some – a lot – of doctors who will refuse to comply with the law. I believe it is still a violation of medical ethics to perform an unwanted, unnecessary and invasive medical procedure on a non-consenting competent adult…though that may be an obsolete concept at this point.
Yeah, yeah, I know it may all be a ploy to try to get the Supremes to overthrow Roe v. Wade and for that matter Griswold v. Connecticut. If that is the case, I don’t even want to contemplate the thought processes of someone who could come up with this as a political ploy.
beltane
@efgoldman: There is nothing hilarious about it. Vulnerable women will be physically violated and stuck with a big bill for their sufferings. You can say the intention is to rape and rob. The vermin who voted for this deserve to be shunned as sex offenders and given a Fred Phelps style reception wherever they go.
AxelFoley
Oh, yeah, there’s no doubt this is the GOP’s game plan this election season. Shit just got real.
Question is, will Republican women put up with this?
Mark S.
Jesus, how on earth could this be constitutional?
clayton
That’s it exactly. As someone stated here or elsewhere today, the culture wars are never over. There is nothing more dangerous than a wounded animal, and that’s what the GOP is right now on every political level. They are hoping it will take years to undo all they have. done.
DanielX
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Virginia is actually two states; Northern Virginia and the rest of Virginia. Northern Virginia is kinda sorta cosmopolitan; people are from everywhere. But – you gotta realize that a whole lot of those supposed centrists work for defense contractors and they’re not all that centered, so to speak. Then there’s the rest of Virginia, which is the Old Dominion where people pretend they’re the most southern people anywhere. I lived outside Manassas for a while, right on the borderline between No. Va and the rest of the state. Generally, people in Northern Virginia figured the people in the rest of Virginia were redneck brutes and shitkickers, while folks in the rest of the state figured people in Northern Virginia were Yankee carpetbaggers and third world scum who should all be shot. It’s a strange place…just like everywhere else in the former Confederacy, they lost and they’re still pissed about it.
Mike in NC
Lived in the DC suburbs of Virginia for about 20 years and it generally seemed like a reasonable place. WTF is this crazy shit?
OK, DanielX above nailed it.
Mnemosyne
As I mentioned on a previous thread about this, I was supposed to get a transvaginal ultrasound once to figure out if my appendix needed to come out (it didn’t). They handed me the probe and I said to the tech, “That’s not a probe, that’s a new boyfriend!”
So, no, we’re not talking about something tiny and uninvasive here.
Villago Delenda Est
@clayton:
It’s always been about punishment. The sluts must pay for their wantonness…through hormonal changes, through the dangers of childbirth, and the care of infants and children.
They must pay for their wantonness. They must.
It’s the will of a vengeful asshole God.
Midnight Marauder
@Omnes Omnibus:
Without question, people are noticing. We just need to plunge the dagger deep into the heart of these assholes’ political relevance.
BigSouthern
@Jim:
I don’t know if there’s some weird contrarian protozoa in the water down here, but since 1977 Virginians have always voted in a governor of the opposite party from the one that took the White House. It’s insane.
Our current legislative situation is the worst sort of power grab. For the past 11 years leading up to this session of the General Assembly, Democrats have ruled Senate and constructed committees that represented the ratio of Dems to Reps in the GA, but following last year’s election there was a 20-20 split. The lieutenant governor has tie-breaking powers over certain bills and legislative processes, although it was never properly set in stone as to whether the LG could split a tie on procedural stuff like organizing committees and such. Well, when time came to re-organize the Republicans gave themselves majority seating – sometimes CLEAR majority – on every single committee except one. As a result, we’ve seen the floodgates open on every ALEC-sponsored, wingnut-wet dream legislation you can name.
The assault on women is abhorrent, and sadly doesn’t even stop here – there was also a personhood amendment that passed. Legislation on gun control has rolled back the state’s former “one a month” handgun policy set in place when runners were moving product up to NYC in the 80s and 90s. There’s a project around Dulles currently under construction that a representative tried to halt funding to because it has a PLA in place. I can’t remember now if it passed, but there was legislation to prohibit PLAs at all ever again in state contracts. There’s a bill to put our right-to-work laws in the state constitution. They tried to put teachers on yearly contracts. The boilerplate voter ID laws, drug testing TANF recipients, and about a dozen other laws that I’m too tired to recall right now.
It’s basically been a race back to 1890.
What terrifies me as a resident is that in 2013, McDonnell’s time is up – in VA you can’t serve consecutive gubernatorial terms. So that means the next in line is Ken Cuccinell, who is about the single most vile pol I’ve ever seen in my life. The man makes Eric Cantor seem modest and principled. Since he’s taken over as VA AG he has:
– Issued a letter to the state colleges letting them know that sexual orientation and gender identification are not protected classes for non-discrimination and to say otherwise was to be in non-conformance with Virginia law.
– Sued the EPA.
– Served a civil investigation demand on UVA re: Michael E. Mann and his climate change worked.
– Covered up the exposed breast on our most awesome state seal.
I graduate with a CE degree in May and have to stay at least a year in the state as part of a scholarship program I was in. My lady and I planned to stay at least four while I work toward my PE. Now, I just don’t know.
PIGL
I don’t blame the assholes who enacted this. I blame the assholes who elected them and who will elect them next time, too.
In a functioning, rational society, the state national guard would be federalised, the legislators who voted for this would be arrested and exiled, the state Republican Party structure would be outlawed at every level, it’s assets seized and the ground sewn with salt. The state, municipal and country governments would be dissolved into federal trusteeship for 25 years, until the motherfuckers who voted these people into power were all dead of natural causes or else drowned in their own spite. And I am not exxagerating even a little tiny bit.
I have no interest in sharing a planet with these people, and I lack a large nuclear arsenal…well, a large enough one arsenal. All that remains is the apocalypse. Bring it.
kay
I’m going to trust women on this.
I don’t know about other women, but I feel stalked by conservative lawmakers and religious leaders.
It really is akin to that feeling. It’s just day in, day out, for going on two years, and none of this attention from them is welcome or was initiated by me.
It’s not a good feeling.
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow has done a yoeman’s job breaking this violation of a woman down into the disgusting act that it is.
The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik
@Midnight Marauder:
The worst thought I keep having is that it might not matter that people are waking up. This shit is already codified, and unless the courts do smack it down (and god help me, it feels like we can never trust the courts reliably anymore, and that it should never be leaned on as our backstops), it’s gonna be on the books for years, possibly decades. Especially since it seems like the GOP fucking owns everything on the state level now and still seem in position to stone wall any attempts to overturn their odious bullshit at all costs. Even if it kills their electoral chances nationally, they fucking own this fucking country state level and we can’t seem to fucking stop them anymore
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Like Kay, I’m feeling stalked by the GOP. It’s quite creepy, and it’s getting the attention of some women who aren’t politically inclined. This could be a big mistake for the GOP. Of course, it’s best not to interrupt an enemy who’s making a mistake.
lovable liberal
Hey, ABL, you inspired me to pile on.
BigSouthern
Also, Bob McDonnell should scare the shit out of everyone when 2016 rolls around. I’m not sure if he aspires to the presidency, but if he does he’s going to be formidable unless a lot changes in this country between now and then.
He’s the perfect fucking sleeper agent Republican. He’s telegenic, has a beautiful family, and comes across as a nice guy. He tends not to say stupid, awful things all the time and presents himself to the people as a pragmatist.
Case in point…in 2010, McDonnell declared April Confederate History Month, and in his proclamation completely left out slavery. When the dust up occurred, he automatically apologized and the next year changed it to Civil War History Month. Now, to most people this is still insane, but it’s the kind of thing that makes him appear moderate – his ability to throw meat to his base and then sort of appear shocked when it backfires.
Meanwhile, he’s done everything he can to sell the state bit by bit: push for offshore oil drilling, proposed putting tolls up on I-95, selling off the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control, and trying to put teachers on yearly contracts, just to name a few.
He’s played budget games TWICE to make it appear balanced. Last go ’round he took something like $620M from the Virginia Retirement System to produce a $311M “surplus,” promised the state would pay it back within 10 years starting in 2013, and then turned around this year and said localities were going to have to put in $1B for teacher retirements over the next five years. It’s crippling local school districts.
But he hasn’t raised taxes. And he hasn’t come out and directly asked for most of the bills the GA asked for, so he’ll sign them, and when asked he’ll say he was executing the will of the electorate.
scav
remember those quaint old days when overt feminists were mocked because everything had been solved and tidied up and all that remained to be done was to reclaim pole-dancing as an act of empowerment?
kay
All over the country today, women were going along, doing what they do, meanwhile, conservative men were debating whether they required state-mandated vaginal penetration in
Virginia, while the DC group seated a panel of clerics to discuss their birth control issues.
One wonders what’s on tap tomorrow.
They’re not going to follow us home, are they?
Yutsano
@kay:
Waitaminute…you leave your house unaccompanied by a male relative? WHAT KIND OF A CHEAP HUSSY ARE YOU??
(If we’re gonna go full Sharia law, might as well get in all the subtleties. Religious policing has to be next. Gotta enforce the Sky Daddy’s codes dontchaknow.)
BigSouthern
@DanielX:
Maybe I’m just sentimental because the Commonwealth is my home, but I think your analysis misses the mark a little bit. The electorate voted in Doug Wilder as the first black governor, and a Democrat to boot, and while I know that’s not the be-all-end-all, even in ’89 there was still more of the rest of the state than NoVA.
I think more than anything you have NoVA, the Suburbs (basically all of Southside Hampton Roads), the Urban South (Richmond, Norfolk, Newport News, Hampton), the Rural Flatland South, and the Rural Mountain South down here. The only one I’ve not got much experience with is the mountains, but from what I can tell they’re pissed at the conditions of their roads and care about little else.
For many of the White Rurals, the Civil War is alive and well, but more than the former Confederacy, I’d say religion is the big hurdle down here. It seems like the biggest cultural line in the state, especially when you have two major centers at either end (Falwell with Liberty U. out in the mountains and Robertson with Regent U. and CBN at the Beach). There are a fair amount of rednecks and brutes to be sure, but there’s also a lot of quiet Christians who just don’t know what to make of these social issues. And more and more there an increasing amount of yuppie suburbanites who just want lower taxes, lower gas prices, and a house that isn’t worth less than what it was when they bought it.
It should also be noted that the Republicans didn’t sweep into the GA with a huge majority. The Senate is tied 20-20, and the Lieutenant Gov. made an unprecedented move when he voted as tie breaker to reorganize it and put Republican majorities on all but one committee. It was a huge power grab, and it fucking sucks.
kay
You laugh, Yutsanto, but the stalker-vibe is real.
My daughter has it.
She’s been saying for months, “why are they always TALKING about us?”
She’s not even political, and she’s picking it up.
Mouse Tolliver
Here’s a reminder of who Bob McDonnell is. He’s a graduate of Pat Robertson U.
This is a particularly creepy brand of totalitarianism. Imagine Big Brother, but with his eye cast downward, toward your crotch.
clayton
@kay: Your comment makes me wonder what is an honest day’s work — or what counts as one.
More than half of the population is women. What would all of them do if women just went on strike? I know, I know, it will never happen.
Women are the least appreciated in anything — work, home, politics.
Midnight Marauder
@The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
@BigSouthern:
I am so fucking sick of constantly reading about how afraid of these clowns we should be. You know what? I don’t fear Bob McDonnell. I don’t fear any of these petulant Republican bullies in Congress. I don’t fear a single one of their presidential candidates. I don’t fear any of the cowardly buffoons waiting on their bench for a shot at glory in 2016. I don’t fear a single fucking thing these assholes have left in their playbook.
They know they have nothing left except bullying the rest of the population. THEY KNOW THIS. Why are people so afraid of these incompetent jackasses?
We have the better arguments. We have the demographics. We have the full weight of the moral arc of the universe. And yet, it’s constantly, “Oh, but just wait until this Republican comes up to bat…”
FUCK.ALL.THESE.CLOWNS.
2012 is the year their annihilation begins.
Sherman may not have finished the job, but I swear on everything good and decent in this world, we will crush their entire infrastructure before The Long War is finished.
There is no other option.
Yutsano
@kay: I’m only half-joking. The only reason they can’t call it actual Sharia law is because of skeery brown folks. The ideas of the religious are more or less identical.
jenn
@Midnight Marauder: Amen
AxelFoley
@Midnight Marauder: @ post #51
Fuckin’ A, bro. Fuckin’ A.
Dee Loralei
@Midnight Marauder: I think I love you!
Ruckus
@pk:
I don’t know how close this is to the same thing but I’ve had an ultrasound probe in my colon to see if I indeed had prostate cancer as the non invasive tests indicated. It was not the worst procedure I’ve endured but it was not all that much fun either. To have been forced to have this test for no good reason, of course what the discussion is about here, would have been unbelievable. I may have been inclined to hurt someone. Badly. I sure as hell would have been willing to find a better place for that probe.
Bago
Fun question to ask at a town hall.
Do you believe the government has the power to hold down a pregnant woman and probe her vagina?
Ruckus
@Midnight Marauder:
I like your style.
Canuckistani Tom
Knowing these fucktards and their history of recognizing satire and hating women, I’m wondering if the fastest way to get rid of this piece of crap is the following:
Get the Onion to publish an article stating that ‘when switched on, the probe’s EM field stimulates all the nerves in the vaginal area simultaneously, causing such mind-blowing orgasms that women are fighting to get in line for abortions’
Knowing these morons, they’ll believe it and put a stop to it.
I’m going to bed. If I think up any more mean tricks, I’ll let you know.
James E. Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
I am frankly amazed that there is not more outrage from women. And I don’t mean from the official, Beltway-approved spokeswomen. I mean ordinary, average women who are being politically kicked back into a previous century.
scav
I’m trying to think of something that would be as much of a violation to men’s self-esteem as a competent decision-maker in charge of his own sexual health, and all I can come up with is making all purchases of the little blue pills be made in a large home-ZIPcode pharmacy during peak shopping hours and available for pick-up only after the male is called by his full name to retrieve the explicitly named drug at the desk. And it still falls short — haven’t even attempted to work up a physical equivalent. Maybe making them have to get a specified woman to co-sign on their purchase of the drug?
My gob is basically broken it’s been so smacked about recently, and then there’s the repetitive jaw-dropping injuries on top of that. If there are others of my ilk, there may be silent outrage that is nonetheless deadly and sustained.
YellowJournalism
With one of my pregnancies, I had to have this done. I had a kind technician doing it. I was giving my full consent. It still felt uncomfortable, embarressing, and scary. Now put that situation in the one of the many emotionally and physically painful contexts of abortion, add in not really consenting to it, and I don’t know how anyone with a human heart could support this.
JCT
Remember folks — this is being subjected to a completely medically unnecessary invasive procedure against your will.
I have no clue whatsoever as to why the outcry isn’t larger.
This one needs to be shouted from rooftops.
Suffern ACE
@JCT:
1) Because men don’t have vaginas
2) Because people probably think this kind of ultra sound is like the one like they had when they were pregnant or DVT.
You can bet when this gets discussed on the serious shows, certain adjectives modifying the type of ultra sound it is are going to be dropped. It will just be an ultra sound.
Focus on 2 and I think the opposition will appear.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Oooooh! Ladybits on the FP, man have we ever arrived! One question; do they come with a user manual? I’ve been looking for one but nobody has ever seen one. ;)
I told my wife and daughter about this and their jaws hit the floor. They prefer to avoid politics so I keep them updated with the crazy shit that the GOP is delivering daily. My wife used to sometimes say “You’ve got to be kidding!” but she quit doing that a long time ago. Now she just shakes her head in wonder at how fucking off the rails they have gone.
One thing for sure is that the GOP is alienating everyone they can so they can WIN IT ALL! I hope the purity progressives on the left are looking at this mess and learning something from it.
Ok, that’s too much to hope for.
Mike S.
“in the vast majority of these cases, these [abortions] are matters of lifestyle convenience.”
It’s true, isn’t it? Failure to use a contraceptive is the number one reason for unwanted pregnancy, is it not?
Why should anyone be offended by this, and for that matter, why should anyone apologize for saying it?
It’s time for (many on) the left to simply admit that they have no moral qualm at all with abortion. Pretending otherwise is a bow to political correctness enforced by the religious right, and nothing more. I’ll say it without reservation: there’s nothing morally wrong with abortion. If you don’t want the child or can’t care for it properly, then all parties are better off if the pregnancy is not carried to term.
The other part of his remarks was ridiculous indeed. The notion that ‘well you went there already so you’ll be fine with the gov’t going there’ is illogical and offensive in the extreme, but for goodness sake, drop the pretense already.
Mike S.
@Midnight Marauder
I concur that there should be no cowering in fear of the troglodyte GOP candidates, and that (currently) demographics and (always) reason favor the left on these matters.
OTOH, it is very dangerous to assume that the sweep of history is inevitably headed toward egalitarian, progressive society. One cannot know the future and surely one is familiar with the genocidal demagogues of the previous century.
One knows that the agents of regression wage the long war, that the tribal and authoritarian streaks are deeply embedded in the psyche of mankind, and that the soldiers of the former readily exploit those with attributes like the latter.
Think this game is won? Think it’s just a matter of time?
Let’s talk after ‘peak oil’ has indisputably come and gone… paradigm shift is waiting in the wings.
taylormattd
ABL, keep preaching it. These people are fucking psychopaths, period.
Another Halocene Human
@Richard: Apropos of nothing, every Green party member I ever met was a guy.
(I keed–almost. I never met her, but Jill Stein ran on the Green ticket in the 2002 MA gubernatorial election. If you just look at the numbers, she looks like a spoiler, but in fact she helped Romney win by DESTROYING idiot machine candidate Shannon O’Brien in the debate. The Dems downticket did fine (including a bunch of scummy machine candidates–you suck, MA GOP!) but O’Brien was toast after that.)
Another Halocene Human
@Mike S.: I’m going to be kind and assume you’re simply tone deaf but what part of “pregnant due to rape or coercion” don’t you understand?
And this is ON TOP OF how awful this procedure is at any time. Did you not read the accounts by women and men who related their sexytimes with the intravaginal or intra-anal probe for medically necessary reasons?
Your comment is as idiotic as when the state dropped criminal charges against Kobe Bryant because the victim had had consensual sex with her boyfriend only a few hours earlier. Clearly, it couldn’t be rape rape!
harlana
if you are planning to have an abortion, you are already emotionally prepared to having something shoved up your hoo-ha and have the contents of your uterus sucked out. it’s sorta painful. a vaginal ultrasound, prior to that is, physically, a walk in the park. let’s just say i know what i’m talking about.
the personal outrage, or rather horror, i feel about this is not so much the wand being shoved up my hoo-ha (and i’m not talking about patient rights, this is purely my gut reaction whenever i here about this thing) , it’s the drawing out of the whole process, in order to make it as emotionally agonizing, terrifying, and shameful as possible. it’s about breaking the woman down by forcing her to look at that little blob on the screen and change her mind. to me. it is a cruel psychological manipulation of the most malevolent, merciless nature.
anyway, thank God my bf has a vasectomy. maybe they will get to work on that someday after they’ve made sure they are able to extract the maximum humiliation and fear out of women who want to have an abortion.
harlana
but i don’t think so, since it is, after all, about punishing the sluts
Ralph Wiggum
Republican women simply give their Republican husbands a stick of gum before they go to bed.
electricgrendel
The truly vile aspect of this nonsense is that it pretty much states that contraception is the responsibility of women, yet the wingers want to remove access to one of the most effective means women have to control contraception. Notice how back in his day women had to hold pills between their knees, how it was the responsibility of the woman to keep her legs shut. It wasn’t the responsibility of the man to keep his dick in his pants, or the responsibility of the man to make sure he had access to a condom.
No- it’s the woman’s responsibility to make sure that she doesn’t get pregnant, and if she does then it’s her fault for being a slut. Nowhere in this notion of birth control does the man have any responsibility.
And his walk back of being “blessed by contraceptives?” Sounds like he was dipping his todge into the secretarial pool during the sexually liberated seventies.
WereBear
This is where their “moral justification” crap is revealed to be just that. Contraception prevents abortions. But they are against it!
Just sick death cult junkies, the lot of them.
gelfling545
@Yutsano: The joke is this crap isn’t even Biblical. They made it all up in their own little “minds”.
gocart mozart
What if this happened in CT? Let’s see what the Connecticut Penal code says about this.
Sec. 53a-65. Definitions. As used in this part, except section 53a-70b, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Actor” means a person accused of sexual assault.
(2) “Sexual intercourse” means vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse, fellatio or cunnilingus between persons regardless of sex. Its meaning is limited to persons not married to each other. Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete vaginal intercourse, anal intercourse or fellatio and does not require emission of semen. Penetration may be committed by an object manipulated by the actor into the genital or anal opening of the victim’s body.
Sec. 53a-71. Sexual assault in the second degree: Class C or B felony. (a) A person is guilty of sexual assault in the second degree when such person engages in sexual intercourse with another person and: . . .
(7) the actor accomplishes the sexual intercourse by means of false representation that the sexual intercourse is for a bona fide medical purpose by a health care professional;
. . .
b) Sexual assault in the second degree is a class C felony or, if the victim of the offense is under sixteen years of age, a class B felony, and any person found guilty under this section shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of which nine months of the sentence imposed may not be suspended or reduced by the court.
gocart mozart
Link
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/pub/chap952.htm#Sec53a-71.htm
Lee
The only explanation I can come up with is that the Republicans give the Democrats so many targets that the Democrats can’t decide on ONE and therefore the attacks are less effective.
Or something.
Do they want to lose the House and not regain the Senate?(obviously the White House is now out of play)
DanielX
@harlana:
And, of course, none of these honorable men have wives or daughters who would ever, ever put themselves in a position where they would be faced with this procedure. I say “put themselves” because it appears that they want to make the whole issue of unwanted pregnancy a female responsibility…and then take away any means of preventing it. I can’t think of a phrase that’s obscene enough to describe these people, and I’ve got a healthy examination.
Let’s hear it for less intrusive government! (Unless you’re a woman, in which case the government may get in your goodies without your consent.)
WereBear
I don’t believe they care enough. “Not quite people” is a real disease of the right wing.
Patricia Kayden
Fight this in the courts. There is no way this can withstand judicial scrutiny.
Paul in KY
@scav: I think using one of those thingees (a bigger one) to perform mandated prostrate checks would do the trick.
elftx
So, since it is a “god given right” to own a gun, maybe they are implying wormens shud just use them on “so called” perpetrators.
pk
@Ruckus:
I would like to beat the brains out of these scums with a vaginal ultrasound stick.
harlana
i think besides punishing the sluts, it’s about making it harder to stop producing more debt slaves
Constance Reader
All this outrage is really pissing me off. Because I don’t remember hearing or seeing any of it when my home state of Texas passed the exact same law last year.
It is being enforced as we speak. Because it as already survived its first court challenge. That was brought by physicians.
Interrobang
@gocart mozart: If I’m reading that statute right, Virginia doesn’t recognise marital rape either. Considering that one of the things abusive men love to do to their female partners is sabotage their birth control, there’s some poor married woman in Virginia who’s going to be in a world of hurt because of this confluence of bad law…
ksmiami
@Midnight Marauder: Agreed – there is no meeting them half way. I relish their hatred and the fight. SMASH THEM INTO THE GROUND!!!!!!!!!!!
Lee
@Constance Reader: I think that is because the Texas one just mandates an ultrasound.
This mandates a VAGINAL ultrasound (two different things).
Midnight Marauder
@Mike S.:
It’s not about thinking the game is won or that it’s a matter of time. It’s not about knowing the future or the obvious reality that these know nothings used to be pretty good at exploiting the frailties of human nature to their advantage.
It’s about the fact that we have the better case and we should be advancing on their position every day. We should be working to drive them out of power every day.
We need to put as much work into that as we do fretting over the Next Great Republican Threat.
harlana
@Constance Reader: i’m with you, neither should be tolerated – while one is invasive, both are psychologically cruel; i know i’m beating this to death, but the emotionally devastating impact of trying to force a woman to look at her fetus which she has decided to abort (contrary to conservative belief, it is NOT some sort of “lifestyle choice,” it is a gut-wrenching decision for most women), imo, cannot be overstated. i’m about ready to label it “psychological terrorism”
Constance Reader
@Lee, the Texas law also requires a transvaginal ultrasound, it’s the exact same thing. In fact, one of the women legislators brought the wand onto the floor during the debate and held it up to make sure the men in the lege knew what they were voting on. It made no difference.
A.J.
“…women had already made the decision to be “vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant.”
I see.
“Penetration, however slight, is sufficient to complete either of these offenses.” – Article 120, part C, Uniform Code of Military Justice
dporpentine
The eighteenth century was considerably better than this. You’re thinking of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. That’s the closest analog for today’s epoch-marking shittiness.
celiadexter
OK, ladies, since the religious patriarchy seems to have taken control of many legislatures and the media, and since they so obviously hate and fear women and sex and are desperate to punish women who have sex with men, our response should be obvious. No more sex with men. Particularly the Christianists. Particularly Santorum, Newtie, etc. Wonder how long it’ll take them to learn we’re in the 21st century when they stop getting any? The good guys may have to be martyrs for the cause for a while, and I’m sorry about that, but I think this is the only way to educate these men.
Bullsmith
@Richard:
The thing is at election time, both parties focus on the issues where there are indeed massive differences between the parties. Soon as the elections over, however, they bail out the banks with public money despite massive majorities of both electoral bases wanting perp walks.
It’s not that the two parties are identical, it’s that they are identical in some very, very harmful ways. That’s really not a ludicrous observation. But to be fair, when you go all in as the party of forced mechanical rape, you really have drawn a distinction that is so grotesquely out of bounds that it is indeed fundamental. Both parties may dance to the tune of big money, but this is downright fucking evil.
Ruckus
@celiadexter:
I think I have to agree with this. And I’m a guy.
Women are right, at our very base level we only think with the tiny brain. Most? Many of us have learned to think with the normal one and interact with the rest of the humans in a reasonable manner, respecting each others rights and needs. Conservatives? The only thing they learned is how to be the biggest douche bags. And how to go about proving it daily.
Sloegin
I’m thinking the only way to really stop this is by getting legislators who vote for this stuff charged with statutory rape.
Legislating a criminal act should be a criminal act.
Kay Shawn
Someone needs to point out that this procedure, which I had very recently to check my ovaries, is like being ramroded with a broomstick.
I suggest women start wearing burkas in demonstration of what is really happening in this country.
Kay Shawn
I’m sorry if “ram-rodded” isn’t spelled right; I’ve never had to write it before, and I’m upset….sigh…
Ruckus
@Kay Shawn:
You should be upset. We should all be upset. At the minimum.
Tone In DC
@Midnight Marauder:
Damn straight.
PIGL
@Sloegin: Absolutely. What I said. But in order to do that, the entire state would have to be federalised. Sort of a second Reconstruction, as it were. Only this time, for serious.