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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Women's Rights / The War On Women / Further to My Point About the Arizona Bill Which Would Allow Employers To Fire Women for Using Birth Control

Further to My Point About the Arizona Bill Which Would Allow Employers To Fire Women for Using Birth Control

by Imani Gandy (ABL)|  March 14, 201210:29 pm| 99 Comments

This post is in: The War On Women, Vagina Outrage

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Having been accused of vagina “fauxrage” in response to my post yesterday about Arizona’s crazy-ass bill which would permit employers to fire women for being slutty birth control users, I feel compelled to make a counterargument.

Actually, I’ll let Susie Madrak at Crooks & Liars make that counterargument for me:

 When I was 18, I worked for a publishing company that was a little bit strange. The female department head was a fundamentalist Christian and a member of Jews for Jesus who used to hold Tuesday morning prayer meetings before work. It was well known that if you never did attend a prayer meeting, you could forget about ever getting a raise.

immediate supervisor was a young woman named Janice. One morning, while Janice was in the restroom, the department head went rummaging in her purse and found her birth control pills. Instead of talking to her, she called all the editorial clerks and assistants into her department and announced that we were no longer permitted to socialize with the editors, and that we were nothing more than “Jezebels, sluts and whores of Babylon”. (I found this particularly ironic since one of my co-workers graduated from a genteel and well-known Southern women’s Christian college. She’d confided in me that both her father and grandfather—church elders—had raped her. The father raped her shortly after she tearfully confided in him that she’d been raped by her grandfather. “The family that prays together”, etc. …)

The department head also announced that if it was discovered that anyone was using birth control pills, she would be fired immediately. And that if anyone didn’t like it, well, she could just resign.

So I went back to my desk and typed up a resignation letter. I also took another piece of paper, drew a swastika and taped it to the department head’s door. (What can I say? I was young.)

This was my introduction to the fact that there are these kinds of people in the world. And now the modern Republican party has adopted the untrammeled craziness that was my former department head.

Fauxrage? I don’t think so.  Is the bill unconstitutional? Yes.  Are there remedies available for women who get trapped by this craptastic bill?  Yes.  Is that the point? NO.

[via Crooks and Liars]

[cross-posted at ABLC]
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Reader Interactions

99Comments

  1. 1.

    cinesimon

    March 14, 2012 at 10:36 pm

    Too right, ABL.
    Excellent response.

  2. 2.

    Dimmic Rat

    March 14, 2012 at 10:37 pm

    vagina “fauxrage”?

    Wow that’s low even for the curmudgeon brigade here.

  3. 3.

    Shari

    March 14, 2012 at 10:38 pm

    I had a slightly uncomfortable discussion about this today with my father. When you’ve lost 75 year old Republican white men from Indiana, you’ve lost them all.

  4. 4.

    JoyfulA

    March 14, 2012 at 10:39 pm

    And when I was 19, I applied to work at a casualty insurance company and was offered a job. They said I didn’t type too well but they were sure I’d improve. The important point was that I lived at home with my parents, and they wanted to make sure they hired only nice girls.

    Fortunately, the unemployment rate was low, and I was able to reject their offer.

  5. 5.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    March 14, 2012 at 10:40 pm

    Hammer it home ABL. Anyone who dismisses this as fauxrage is full of shit.

    Or male and/or conservative.

    Same difference.

  6. 6.

    beltane

    March 14, 2012 at 10:44 pm

    The sponsor of this bill, sadly, is a woman. She only has three children which leads me to believe her husband has been negligent in sowing his annual crops.

  7. 7.

    gaz

    March 14, 2012 at 10:46 pm

    I’ve prepared an appointment with a Transvaginal Shaming Wand for the white male prick who accused you of fauxrage (or whatever).

    Should be fun…

    what a damned douchewhistle.

  8. 8.

    burnspbesq

    March 14, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    Well, since you concede (as you must) that no actual person’s actual life will ever be affected by this silly bit of legislative kabuki, what is the point?

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    March 14, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    tell it, ABL.

    TELL IT!!!

  10. 10.

    Gex

    March 14, 2012 at 10:50 pm

    Why won’t us wimmins listen to the men when they tell is there’s nothing to worry about?

  11. 11.

    gaz

    March 14, 2012 at 10:50 pm

    @burnspbesq: I could show you…

    Warning: It’ll hurt.

  12. 12.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    March 14, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    @burnspbesq: Because right now we don’t have the luxury of ignoring even these kinds of bills.

  13. 13.

    freelancer

    March 14, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    I think Madrak is a hack who concern trolls the left and finds any excuse to pile purity hatred on this President, but she’s got the GOP dead to rights here.

  14. 14.

    gaz

    March 14, 2012 at 10:56 pm

    @freelancer: agreed 100%.

    and I don’t even like C&L

  15. 15.

    Percysowner

    March 14, 2012 at 10:57 pm

    Well as someone who was 12 when Griswold was decided and Eisenstadt which extended the right to contraception to unmarried people was decided when I was in college, I would prefer my daughter not have to rely on the kindness of Justice Kennedy to preserve the right to control her own body. I think Scalia would celebrate being able to overturn Griswold and say there is no right to privacy in the Constitution. So, unlike you, I am not so certain a law like this would be overturned in the courts.

    Yes, I may sound paranoid, but I do not trust the current Supreme Court to uphold the rights of women. This is not Fauxrage, but REAL, honest gut deep rage. I’m old enough to be safe. I want my daughter to be safe as well.

  16. 16.

    Spaghetti Lee

    March 14, 2012 at 10:58 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    People have been saying similar things about similar attacks, for a long time. Some got through, some didn’t. I don’t see the point in taking a chance.

  17. 17.

    moonbat

    March 14, 2012 at 10:59 pm

    This shit just boggles the mind. As J. Cole has said early and often, if we don’t start pushing back HARD on this idiocy we’ll all soon be wondering why we’re living in a Margaret Atwood novel.

    I don’t want to have to wait for constitutional remedies when there are right wing activists running the Supreme Court at the moment. I want to scare these people back under their rocks. Let them know in no uncertain terms that this WILL NOT FLY.

  18. 18.

    Spaghetti Lee

    March 14, 2012 at 10:59 pm

    Pffffffrrrrrt, you loopy feminazis are just gettin’ all emotional again. Is it “that time of the month?” (high five, bros!) Anyhoo, you’re all ignoring the real tragedy, which is that people are being mean to Rush Limbaugh! OH THE HORROR!

  19. 19.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:02 pm

    in fairness the Republicans did promise to focus like a lazer on the Vag.

    Or was that jobs.

    well, either way …

  20. 20.

    gaz

    March 14, 2012 at 11:04 pm

    @Little Boots: Hell yes.

    WHERE ARE THE JOBS BOEHNER?

    WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

    That vid should be played OVER OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER coming into the 2012 elections.

  21. 21.

    clayton

    March 14, 2012 at 11:05 pm

    If Kevin G. hasn’t commented, then this has been in vain.

    Love you ABL.

  22. 22.

    Linnaeus

    March 14, 2012 at 11:05 pm

    Just when I thought they couldn’t dial it up further.

    Oh, who am I kidding? They always can.

  23. 23.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:06 pm

    @gaz:

    I’m guessing they will.

    Obama took long enough (Jesus God, what the hell???!!!), but now, I think they are pissed and ready to pull out all the stops.

  24. 24.

    gnomedad

    March 14, 2012 at 11:07 pm

    @Shari:

    When you’ve lost 75 year old Republican white men from Indiana, you’ve lost them all.

    Only one way to address that — DOUBLE DOWN!!

  25. 25.

    freelancer

    March 14, 2012 at 11:08 pm

    @gaz:

    C&L was one of the first blogs I ever started reading. And I have respect for karoli, John Amato, and David Niewert. I’ve just run out of time to have that many other sites in my feed.

  26. 26.

    cinesimon

    March 14, 2012 at 11:08 pm

    @burnspbesq: The point is, that the right wing WANT & MEAN for their extremist ideology to be law, and to have a real affect on women. They’re not introducing these bills as political stunts.
    They actually believe that a certain type of ‘christian’ ought to be able to dictate to the rest of us how our lives are lives in private, outside the workplace.
    For anyone to think that this is not an important issue simply because this time around it may not happen, is merely leaving the door open for it to happen again, and again, and again – until a few do actually make it through and affect people’s lives dramatically.
    Certainly sometimes even fatally.
    This is about a very powerful political movement seeking to force their religion onto others, to the point of lives being destroyed. They’re looking for any angle to achieve that goal.
    And to be apathetic to that, amounts to standing aside and letting them do it.

  27. 27.

    Richard

    March 14, 2012 at 11:10 pm

    Well, If one were to take the employer “freedom of religion” argument to its logical conclusion, we’d be living in a country where businesses owned by Muslims could require all employees to pray to Mecca and to force all women on staff to wear hijabs. To refuse would be to deny the boss’s “religious freedom”.

  28. 28.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:11 pm

    @freelancer:

    they are awesome, still.

  29. 29.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    I love ABL is here.

  30. 30.

    Gex

    March 14, 2012 at 11:16 pm

    @cinesimon: And let’s just pretend that Roe v. Wade hasn’t been diluted over the last few decades, if we want to pretend there’s no real threat here.

  31. 31.

    ShadeTail

    March 14, 2012 at 11:17 pm

    @freelancer:

    This, definitely. There’s a lot of hackery at C&L and I’ve been pretty disappointed in them lately, but there’s also a lot of good stuff there. The trick is to find the signal in the noise.

  32. 32.

    Rafer Janders

    March 14, 2012 at 11:18 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    If a legislator introduced a bill mandating that all Catholic churches should be shuttered and sold off to the nearest developers, and the money raised be donated for the psychiatric bills of altar boys raped by priests and to put up billboards equating Catholic bishops with NAMBLA, I’m sure you’d raise not the slighest peep of outrage. After all, the bill could never actually become law, and no actual person’s life would be harmed, so what would there be to be upset about?

  33. 33.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:18 pm

    jesus god. I just actually read the post.

    jesus god.

    what the hell is with people?

  34. 34.

    mark

    March 14, 2012 at 11:18 pm

    @Richard:
    THIS.

    This is my biggest problem. Another 10 years, and it will be Jim Crow for religion. You work, buy, and depend on certain businesses by who is running them, we have ours. Muslims have theirs (yea right SHARIA LAW SAYS NO BIRTH CONTROL!), the yoga’s only work and shop for yogis, etc etc.

    ANYTHING the Christians say, point out that means the Muslims ALSO get the same rights to force their religion on everyone who works/shops/depends on their businesses too.

    What are we calling our overlords now? I don’t think Mullahs is quite the right term for the Christian ones. I know its Bishops for the damn catholics .

  35. 35.

    Lee

    March 14, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    Around Oct 25th publish as nice long detailed post on the current War on Women. I’ll FB it (as I am sure others will as well). Just to remind a lot of women that the GOP will wage total war on them given the chance.

  36. 36.

    Roger Moore

    March 14, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    @Richard:
    Exactly. This is Conservatism at its core; they’re petty tyrants at heart. They don’t care if it means putting up with somebody else ruling over them, as long as they get to rule their own petty fiefdom with an iron fist. The government tyranny they’re always bitching about is actually government power to stop their own petty tyranny. Fuck them with AsianGrlMN’s rusty pitchfork.

  37. 37.

    Cacti

    March 14, 2012 at 11:20 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Well, since you concede (as you must) that no actual person’s actual life will ever be affected by this silly bit of legislative kabuki

    You’re not from Arizona, burnsy.

    You don’t know who’s going to be affected by what here in sand land.

  38. 38.

    El Cid

    March 14, 2012 at 11:22 pm

    If your employer decides what medical care you get from your job-related health insurance, it’s not a part of the benefits-pay package, but scrip, or the company doctor, and you’re paid in kind.

  39. 39.

    Wag

    March 14, 2012 at 11:22 pm

    @Richard:

    require all employees to pray to Mecca and to force all women on staff to wear hijabs. To refuse would be to deny the boss’s “religious freedom”.

    Silly Richard. Everyone know that Muslims aren’t a real religion. Only Christians and orthodox Jews count.

  40. 40.

    Soonergrunt

    March 14, 2012 at 11:22 pm

    @burnspbesq: It’s entirely about their dignity. It doesn’t matter what the law will actually do. That’s not the point and it never has been. It’s about what these people want to do to women and the fact that they want to do it because they only value women as breeders who are possessed of neither dignity nor self direction, nor any other value that does not derive specifically from the men in their lives.

    In OK, it’s a violation of a state constitution for a law to be passed in this state that deals with more than one issue at a time. So the conservatives carefully craft their bills that demand ultrasounds and so forth to address multiple issues under the OK constitution in addition to whatever other constitutional infirmities they can load up. And they do this so that they can attack women’s personhood and not have to deal with the consequences of their actions. They use my daughter, and my wife as political punching bags because they can. They could be fixing the fucking roads, but instead they constantly do these stunts that deny my wife and my daughter their full value as human beings and as citizens of the US and the State of Oklahoma.
    That’s why ABL and these other women are outraged. That’s why you should be outraged, too.

  41. 41.

    El Cid

    March 14, 2012 at 11:23 pm

    @Richard: Well, duh — but that would be wrong, because they’re Muslim, which is the wrong religion.

  42. 42.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    March 14, 2012 at 11:24 pm

    @Richard: I’m sure companies can get a lower health insurance rate by requiring all of their employees be sterilized.

    The repugnitards pushing this crap need to be given some impromptu non-anesthetized vasectomies, I think.

  43. 43.

    LT

    March 14, 2012 at 11:26 pm

    Is the bill unconstitutional? Yes. … Is that the point? NO.

    Fucking hell. Yes it is, or it’s at the very least an important one.

  44. 44.

    Suzanne Holland

    March 14, 2012 at 11:27 pm

    I am 68 & a Catholic, tell it ABL…please please tell it!!!! Help my grandchildren!!

  45. 45.

    gnomedad

    March 14, 2012 at 11:27 pm

    @mark:

    (yea right SHARIA LAW SAYS NO BIRTH CONTROL!)

    Hmm — does Arizona have anti-Sharia law legislation?

  46. 46.

    BonnyAnne

    March 14, 2012 at 11:28 pm

    thank you, a thousand times. I can hardly even read about this sort of thing, it makes me so sick. I know it will never become law but the fact that anyone would even dream of proposing it… almost makes my throat close up. It really feels like one more personal attack, every single day, just because I’ve got ladybits.

    Keep it up, ABL. You were dearly missed when you were gone, and now I want to send you internet kisses. *smooch*

  47. 47.

    Scamp Dog

    March 14, 2012 at 11:29 pm

    @moonbat: I remember reading about Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale”, when it first came out and deciding that was a really stupid thing to write a novel about. I mean, what body politic in the world would be stupid and crazy enough to want, never mind push through and enforce, such legislation? Probably not much fun to read, too, I thought, so I never tried.

    Boy was I wrong about the wanting part. I hope there’s enough backlash that the enacting never happens.

  48. 48.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:29 pm

    El Cid, haven’t you been around forever? aren’t you awesome?

    just asking.

  49. 49.

    Egg Berry

    March 14, 2012 at 11:30 pm

    @Soonergrunt: well said.

  50. 50.

    Elisabeth

    March 14, 2012 at 11:31 pm

    @Soonergrunt:

    They use my daughter, and my wife as political punching bags because they can. They could be fixing the fucking roads, but instead they constantly do these stunts that deny my wife and my daughter their full value as human beings and as citizens of the US and the State of Oklahoma.
    That’s why ABL and these other women are outraged. That’s why you should be outraged, too.

    This.

  51. 51.

    FoxinSocks

    March 14, 2012 at 11:33 pm

    To guys who don’t have to live with this crap, the Arizona bill must sound ridiculous. “Surely, women couldn’t be fired for using birth control.” But I think most women understand the threat.

    At my friend’s old job, a woman was told she’d go to hell for using birth control. My friend, who wasn’t Christian, was soon after fired because it was discovered she liked to read Harry Potter. Not on the job, in her free time. All her work had to do was come up with some BS excuse to get rid of her and there was no way she could sue.

  52. 52.

    shortstop

    March 14, 2012 at 11:33 pm

    It’s apparently worth pointing out one more time that Burns is completely and utterly unable to care about any issue that he doesn’t see as affecting himself. Attacks — legal, verbal, physical or otherwise — on women? Oh, calm down, ladies. On minorities? Yawn. On the low-income? Wake me when there’s something real going on. On the LGBT community? All very unfortunate, but not really a big deal.

    Every fucking time.

    But the second someone around here makes a crack (genuine or, more often, perceived as such by Burns, who is not known for controlling his temper or for expressing it in other than seventh-graders’ terms) at Catholics, white guys, old dudes, wealthy people or clinically boring people, Burns explodes in a foam of quivering outrage.

    Every fucking time.

    If one definition of a liberal is someone who cares about justice, fairness and dignity for people who don’t fit any of his or her demographics, Burns fails utterly at liberality. He excels at arrogant and condescending self-absorption — and not much else.

  53. 53.

    lacp

    March 14, 2012 at 11:34 pm

    Does entropy apply to evolution? ‘Cause it sure seems like the human race is regressing.

  54. 54.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:34 pm

    ya know, this kinda thing makes people get sick of men, but could women please, maybe, stop voting Republican ever. that would pretty much put a stop to all this crap.

  55. 55.

    Chris

    March 14, 2012 at 11:37 pm

    @Richard:
    @mark:

    This is my biggest problem. Another 10 years, and it will be Jim Crow for religion. You work, buy, and depend on certain businesses by who is running them, we have ours. Muslims have theirs (yea right SHARIA LAW SAYS NO BIRTH CONTROL!), the yoga’s only work and shop for yogis, etc etc.

    Like I’ve said before – it’s a real irony that these guys are the ones whining about how multiculturalism is going to make us all ghettoized and fragmented with every ethnic group doing its own thing and setting its own rules rather than everyone playing by the same ones.

    Because if they get their way, that’s exactly what’ll happen. But I suspect they’ve got Big Plans for the ethnicities they don’t like, beyond just ghettoization.

  56. 56.

    ShadeTail

    March 14, 2012 at 11:37 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Troll, troll, troll your post
    Gently cross the thread
    Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
    Proof of empty head

  57. 57.

    g

    March 14, 2012 at 11:38 pm

    I’m curious about one thing – I see everywhere people describing this bill as allowing employers to query their employees about birth control use, and fire those whose use of it they don’t approve – even in the case that those users pay for it themselves.

    Was the bill written with this intent? Or was it just so shittily written that it has this unintended result? Does anyone know?

    And doesn’t HIPAA supercede this?

  58. 58.

    gnomedad

    March 14, 2012 at 11:38 pm

    @Soonergrunt:

    In OK, it’s a violation of a state constitution for a law to be passed in this state that deals with more than one issue at a time. So the conservatives carefully craft their bills that demand ultrasounds and so forth to address multiple issues under the OK constitution in addition to whatever other constitutional infirmities they can load up.

    This is an eye-opener to me. I always assumed this stuff was massive overreach, but you’re saying they really don’t even want this stuff enacted. Not just constitutionally clueless, but designed to fail.

  59. 59.

    Cassidy

    March 14, 2012 at 11:39 pm

    vagina “fauxrage” Blogging while Black

    Fixed.

  60. 60.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:40 pm

    everything that pisses me off lately, about women, and the war on women, which is totally real, could be actually stopped BY WOMEN. Stop letting assholes get into office. stop it.

  61. 61.

    FoxinSocks

    March 14, 2012 at 11:42 pm

    BTW-Can you imagine a bill like this for men? What if there was a ‘conscience clause’ for coverage of Vi*gra? An employer could deny coverage if a man was not married. However, if the man could provide his employer with a doctor’s note saying the drug was medically necessary, then the employer might allow it to be covered.

  62. 62.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:43 pm

    @FoxinSocks:

    NO, I can’t. I can’t imagine men allowing it. stop allowing it.

  63. 63.

    Donut

    March 14, 2012 at 11:45 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    Dude. Do you share living space with any women, particularly those of child-bearing age? Have you actually talked to a woman about this? I have never heard my wife get so bent out of shape. And the five year old little girl asleep in the next room from me? I would like that daughter of mine to have some fucking control over her life, and controlling when, how and whether she ever has children is pretty god damn fucking important to her future. Fuck. This is a full on assault and it’s not being done because these assholes think this shit will turn into enforceable, constitutionally sound law. WTF is wrong with you? I call fucking bullshit on your deliberate, or rather, disingenuous obtuseness on this issue. You are full of shit. Full stop. Quit it. First rule of what you do when you find you are in a hole: stop digging.

  64. 64.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:47 pm

    freki, did anyone ever tell you you’re awesome.

    I mean outside everyone at Eschaton?

  65. 65.

    Cassidy

    March 14, 2012 at 11:47 pm

    First rule of what you do when you find you are in a hole: stop digging.

    I don’t know. This topic makes me think some holes need to be dug.

  66. 66.

    Little Boots

    March 14, 2012 at 11:47 pm

    oops.

  67. 67.

    Phoenician in a time of Romans

    March 14, 2012 at 11:58 pm

    I’m willing to live with a law that states that employers can choose not to cover contraception.

    Provided, of course, that it also requires that employers who make that choice are required to support the woman for 18 years at her current salary as a stay-at-home mother should she become pregnant, along with full child support and medical costs. Or requires them to pay for an abortion (and associated expenses) should she so desire.

  68. 68.

    El Cid

    March 15, 2012 at 12:03 am

    @Little Boots: I have been around forever, and I am awesome, and it’s clear that you have awesomeness for having noticed.

  69. 69.

    Karen

    March 15, 2012 at 12:05 am

    IOKWTABP = It’s OK When There’s A Black President

    It’s as if that fact made all the roaches surface in the light and because of a Black President, suddenly misogyny is OK.

    Suddenly sabotaging the economy and holding the country (and basically the world) hostage is OK.

    Suddenly judges and senators and officials can do everything short of using the N word directly and it’s OK.

    They always played with vote suppression but now being blatant about it is OK. Suddenly making voting a privilege and not a RIGHT AS A CITIZEN!!

    I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the bills they pass is that a doctor can claim women have “estrogen derangement syndrome” and because of that they don’t have the capacity to make informed voting decisions. Why not? If a doctor can lie or not tell you about medical conditions with your pregnancy then why can’t they take the vote away from women? They’re already telling us that we’re children who don’t know any better about our own bodies.

    It’s as if when there was a Black President, for them it’s the Apocalypse and they’re now going nuclear.

  70. 70.

    gocart mozart

    March 15, 2012 at 12:10 am

    And the beat goes on . . .

    MORE CONSERVATIVE OUTREACH TO WOMEN. Today Ole Perfesser Instapundit made fun of a homeless guy raping someone at Occupy New Haven, then claimed she was raped because an Obama speechwriter felt up a cardboard cutout of Hillary Clinton in 2008. These days it doesn’t even feel like blogging anymore — it feels like taking field notes for some giant abnormal psychology study.

    http://alicublog.blogspot.com/

  71. 71.

    Michael57

    March 15, 2012 at 12:14 am

    Sheesh, anyone who thinks there aren’t some crazy-ass employers out there who would take advantage of this law to reinforce their craziness doesn’t have a very long employment history, it seems to me. People are nuts. Don’t encourage more nuttiness. That is all.

  72. 72.

    Soonergrunt

    March 15, 2012 at 12:32 am

    @gnomedad: Of course. You don’t think they want their daughters to actually have to deal with this shit, do you? And besides, if they actually were successful, they’d lose the next election in a landslide.

    Think about it. From 2002 to 2006, they had the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the White House. Do you really think that if they really wanted abortion to be illegal in the US, that they wouldn’t have tried to do it?

  73. 73.

    IrishGirl

    March 15, 2012 at 12:36 am

    ABL, I’m getting pretty pissed off at all the male supposedly liberal commenters who say “well you have remedies…you can always sue and eventually it will be proven unconstitutional…” WTF, so women in AZ have to suffer in the meantime?! Fer crying out loud, it could take a decade before something like this is completely outlawed…why not nip this kind of thing in the bud? Why let women suffer in the first place? Why even allow the curtailing of a woman’s privacy and her right to be treated no differently than her male colleagues? It’s just flat out, friggin wrong…that’s why!!!! And for women living in AZ like myself, it’s actually pretty frightening to contemplate. Moreover, I have a little girl just a couple of years away from puberty. I don’t want her to grow up in a culture that treats her as “less than” and curtails her from reaching her full potential in any way. I simply will not stand for it.

    Here’s my petition regarding the “its okay for doctors to lie to their pregnant patients AND you’re not allowed to sue the doctor”. Here’s the petition being circulated by the AZ Dem Party for this craptastic bill to allow employers to root through your purse and fire you for being “slutty”
    And here’s one of my snarky blog posts about “fire the sluts bill”.

  74. 74.

    Baron Jrod of Keeblershire

    March 15, 2012 at 12:40 am

    @burnspbesq: Were you born such a worthless piece of shit, or did you have to practice?

    You’d make a perfect Republican SC Justice. Not a fucking speck of empathy in you.

    “Why are you silly ladies getting worked up over something Rush Limbaugh said? It’s not like he can write the law.

    What’s that? Somebody said that Catholics should stop funding the massive child-rape conspiracy with their tithes? I AM SO OUTRAGED!”

  75. 75.

    Little Boots

    March 15, 2012 at 12:49 am

    @Phoenician in a time of Romans:

    KNEW IT.

  76. 76.

    Frankensteinbeck

    March 15, 2012 at 12:50 am

    @Karen:
    I’m starting to combine something my father (of the Tea Party generation but decidedly not one of them) and Stuck said. The GOP base, the ones controlling the primaries and most of the elected officials right now, are boomers. Civil Rights turned their world on its head. It scared and angered them, but they couldn’t do anything about it. Now they’re old and mortality is looming and a black man has been elected president. They not only didn’t expect to live to see it, they considered it impossible, hard to imagine. Their nose has been shoved in all the changes they couldn’t stop in their life. The crazy ass shit Fox tells them is not crazier than a black man being president. It’s downright likely they won’t live to vote for President again. Every rational pin has come loose in their head, and they’ve become a berzerker mob trying to kill everything that isn’t the 1950s they think they remember.

  77. 77.

    Little Boots

    March 15, 2012 at 12:55 am

    @El Cid:

    goddammit, could I stop with the booze.

    what I meant was, this:

    you’re truly awesome El Cid.

  78. 78.

    Little Boots

    March 15, 2012 at 12:58 am

    @IrishGirl:

    women can change this country. they actually have that power.

    do it.

    now.

  79. 79.

    El Cid

    March 15, 2012 at 1:06 am

    @Little Boots: Thank you. And please, don’t stop with the booze — I accept any beer goggling effects happily.

  80. 80.

    kuvasz

    March 15, 2012 at 1:07 am

    So we’ve moved from BigBrother.gov to BigBrother.com?

    If progressives want to pick local/state political fights they might want to go after the Republican penchant for privatizing government services; from prisons to bridges to child placement in foster homes. “We the People” are ceding our collective power by privatizing government services.

    The issue is clear “privatizing” things removes them the democratic process, since all private businesses are run on the top-down hierarchical command and control structure.

  81. 81.

    Triassic Sands

    March 15, 2012 at 1:11 am

    The most important constitutional right every American enjoys is the right to be a total Nazi. Is this a great country or what?

  82. 82.

    gocart mozart

    March 15, 2012 at 1:43 am

    Preach it brother Pierce.

    “The dangers of carbon dioxide? Tell that to a plant, how dangerous carbon dioxide is,” he said.
    (I asked a tree in my front yard, Rick. It said it thought you were a colossal dick.)

    “As for Gingrich, well, I wouldn’t want to be the person tasked to go tell him it’s time to stop being The Emperor Of Ideas and go back to being the CEO of Keeping Callista Happy Industries, LLC. The man is the sole occupant of his own universe. Nobody can reach him to tell him of the other universes that exist within the same space as his. Santorum has positioned himself as an anti-intellectual. Gingrich has positioned himself nearly from birth as a pseudo-intellectual. In current Republican politics, guess which is more popular. (Ask a plant if you don’t believe me.) But how do you get him to leave? He believes himself to be the savior of western civilization. He’s got a big-money casino operator to bankroll his pipedreams and, if things slog along the way they’ve been going, Romney’s going to have to promise to create the Cabinet post of Secretary Of Genius for him just as payment for Gingrich’s staying in the race. The delicious spectacle of Willard Romney in the debt of Newt Gingrich is almost worth watching this mess roll on for the next three months.”
    Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/rick-santorum-alabama-mississippi-7333851#ixzz1p9t42DZW

  83. 83.

    Origuy

    March 15, 2012 at 2:00 am

    @IrishGirl:

    I’m getting pretty pissed off at all the male supposedly liberal commenters who say “well you have remedies…you can always sue and eventually it will be proven unconstitutional…”

    I count exactly one such commentator in this thread and he’s getting pretty beat up by other men as well as women.

  84. 84.

    ABL

    March 15, 2012 at 2:04 am

    @IrishGirl: awesome. just added those petitions to the arizona uterati wiki page.

  85. 85.

    ABL

    March 15, 2012 at 2:05 am

    @Little Boots: fuck yeah, we do.

  86. 86.

    slightly-peeved

    March 15, 2012 at 3:15 am

    @67: there is a law like that, except far less onerous. It’s the ACA. If an employer doesn’t want to cover any particular treatment, they can just not offer any insurance and pay more in tax. That way, they don’t have to worry their beautiful minds about whether their employees are making sexytimes.

    The reason I don’t get Mr Burns’ view on this: this is a weapon. Considering how much fear and anger Republicans harness by lying about Democrats, it’s stupid for Democrats to not get people angry about things the Republicans are actually trying to accomplish. Tie stupid unconstitutional shit like this round the Republican’s necks. Make Santoromney defend it.

  87. 87.

    Uriel

    March 15, 2012 at 3:26 am

    @shortstop:

    Awesome.

  88. 88.

    Emerald

    March 15, 2012 at 3:43 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: No, they’re not Boomers. They’re the generation just prior to the Boomers–somebody called them the “Silent Generation” in a comment here. I’m a Boomer. These people are older than me. They’re the folks born in the 30s to 1945 or so.

    And yeah, they’re dying out. We just have to make sure they don’t destroy the country while they’re having their death throes.

    ‘Cause it’s gonna be divorce and women’s suffrage next.

  89. 89.

    Ruckus

    March 15, 2012 at 3:51 am

    As someone said in the previous thread burns will not be affected by this. And lawyers will make money hopefully getting it over turned if it does pass. But how long will that take? In lawyer time or real time? And once again how many people will suffer while all that overturning happens?
    Wouldn’t it just be easier to not have crap laws in the first place that have to be overturned? It sure as hell would be better for all affected.

  90. 90.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 15, 2012 at 4:56 am

    @Richard:

    Again, I have to point out that Islam is not an “actual” religion in this country.

    Therefore nothing like this would ever, ever, happen.

    Now, if the same thing were done in the name of “Christianity”, well, of course, that would be a totally different and justifiable, righteous, manner. As “Christianity” is an ACTUAL, legitimate religion, unlike foul Islam.

    Do you see the difference?

    No?

    The “Christians” certainly do. It makes perfect sense to THEM.

    Which is why ABL’s “fauxrage” is anything but faux. It’s absolutely legitimate. She sees, very clearly, what this is about.

    These stupid motherfuckers have never figured out (unlike their distant ancestors) what actual religious oppression is. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison came to the rescue of Baptists who were being pushed around by Anglicans.

  91. 91.

    WereBear

    March 15, 2012 at 6:16 am

    @shortstop: But the second someone around here makes a crack (genuine or, more often, perceived as such by Burns, who is not known for controlling his temper or for expressing it in other than seventh-graders’ terms) at Catholics, white guys, old dudes, wealthy people or clinically boring people, Burns explodes in a foam of quivering outrage.

    True. I think we have enough of a description to put out an APB.

    And yes, this Arizona bill is certainly worth getting incredibly upset about, and I am. Because they are not kidding. As Maya Angelou once put it, “People tell you who they are.” And this is Today’s Republicans.

  92. 92.

    lou

    March 15, 2012 at 6:30 am

    I mused on my Facebook page on whether this law would force MALE employees to reveal if their wives are taking birth control (because, for instance, I’m covered by my husband’s much superior insurance and yeah I take BC) or if it’s only really only meant for single women, aka strumpets. It does seem to assume that only those sluts who dare to have sex while not married take birth control.

    And that does seem to discriminate against a class of women, ie single.

    Another thing: employers who want to attract college-educated (well-compensated) talent aren’t going to dare impose their religious views on their employees. Several Catholic universities have already admitted that. It’s the ones with lower-paying jobs that will reign in terror. So poorer women once again get screwed.

  93. 93.

    JoyfulA

    March 15, 2012 at 7:02 am

    @Lee: And let’s make that October 25 detailed post about the War on Women “unrantish” enough for everyone to submit to their local newspapers.

    Or maybe have two versions? I do love me a virtuous fiery rant that raises my blood pressure to an unhealthy extent.

  94. 94.

    brantl

    March 15, 2012 at 7:37 am

    @burnspbesq:If they pass it, it certainly has a chance to affect all the people it can, until it is challenged. Once a law is on the books, someone has to go the expense to challenge it, you nitwit.

  95. 95.

    Lojasmo

    March 15, 2012 at 7:42 am

    @burnspbesq:

    By “actual person” you mean men, right?

  96. 96.

    brantl

    March 15, 2012 at 7:45 am

    @ShadeTail:

    Troll, troll, troll your post
    Gently cross the thread
    Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
    Proof of empty head

    for Burnspesq was FREAKING PERFECT!!!

  97. 97.

    Lee

    March 15, 2012 at 10:31 am

    @JoyfulA:

    My local paper wants the number of words to be between 200-500 for publishing (although they will go over).

    At the current rate of attacks by the GOP, just listing the attacks will take longer than that :)

  98. 98.

    celticdragonchick

    March 15, 2012 at 11:36 am

    @Soonergrunt:

    Thank you.

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. Further to My Point About the Arizona Bill Which Would Allow Employers To Fire Women for Using Birth Control | Angry Black Lady Chronicles says:
    March 15, 2012 at 12:06 am

    […] at Balloon Juice] Tweet This entry was posted in Balloon Juice Cross-Posts, War on Women and tagged Arizona, […]

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