Michigan is getting some attention because they are requiring prospective sluts who were asking for it anyway buy a rape rider in case they are raped and need an abortion, because it would make baby Jesus use his personal handwritten copy of the Constitution as a crying towel if the Jesus-ordained government allowed private insurance to pay for their legal medical procedure. Of course, as Tara Culp-Ressler at ThinkProgress points out, this is nothing new:
Michigan has recently been thrust into the national spotlight, now that state lawmakers have approved a measure requiring women to buy a separate insurance rider for abortion coverage. That restriction has been widely decried as a cruel and misogynistic policy, particularly since it doesn’t include an exception for victims of rape. Opponents have referred to it as a “rape insurance” law, emphasizing the particular burden that it places on victims of sexual assault. Pro-choice groups are considering a petition drive to attempt to repeal it.
That’s certainly been an effective messaging strategy to rally opposition to the legislation. A lot of people are fired up about “rape insurance.” But Michigan is hardly the only state that bars women from using their insurance plans to cover abortion care. It’s not even the only one that doesn’t make any exceptions for rape victims. On the contrary, this is actually quite a common policy on the state level.
On yesterday’s Savage Love podcast, Dan had a caller who worked in an abortion clinic (I believe her title was “first assistant babykiller”), and she was wondering whether to come out to her rabidly anti-abortion parents and inlaws about it. Dan waffled around and basically said “No”, because there is just no reasoning with those people. Yet these maniacs, who are nowhere near a majority, are oppressing women in states that aren’t completely blue. It’s just goddam infuriating.
ThresherK
“First assistant babykiller”?
Heeheehee.
TV reporters refer offhandedly to any MD at a women’s clinic as “abortion doctor”. I’ve been known to mock that with the term “abortion receptionist”.
c u n d gulag
Are men being required to buy “Rapist Insurance?”
You know, a REAL ‘MURKIN manly-man can never tell when he might get his manly-man urge, seeing some skin somewhere on some slut parading about in public.
*Snark warning*
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
We should apologize about the French & Indian War and give Michigan back to France.
Patricia Kayden
“On the contrary, this is actually quite a common policy on the state level.” Stop voting for anti-choice politicians who don’t give a dang about women’s reproductive health. I don’t see how angry Michiganders are going to overcome this legislation — except for voting in pro-choice politicians to overturn it.
Tokyokie
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: I see you’ve changed your blog handle in light of Bobo’s lastest assault on the English language. Wish I could get me one of them thought leader jobs. It’d sure beat working.
Linnaeus
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
Point taken, though I do need to defend my ancestral state by saying that a lot of states have policies/politics that would tempt one to “give them back”.
bemused
Clinic employee must live across the country from her family & in-laws. I don’t know how she would be able to keep them from finding out eventually the type of clinic she works at if they lived in the same area. And I agree with Savage. I wouldn’t tell extremist family members or anyone else like them either.
Corner Stone
I saw the state Rep from Michigan on MSNBC last night and I had to mute it so I wouldn’t start speaking in non-stop expletives during the interview.
It was a struggle, but my son finally went to shower and I could sotto voce get it allll out.
pat
I wonder if all the guys who will be stuck with child care payments for 18 years are cool with this anti-choice madness.
AMinNC
“Rape insurance”, and, “you better hope your pregnancy goes well and neither you nor your fetus has serious issues” insurance.
Does anyone know if this religious law also prevents coverage of abortion procedures if the fetus is already dead? In other words, a D&E performed to evacuate a miscarriage is the same procedure as an abortion, and if they simply strip coverage of the the procedure, that’s going to remove insurance coverage for women who miscarried unless they buy the special rider. And really, when you’re pregnant or trying to become pregnant, buying separate abortion coverage isn’t really something you think about doing.
I really think that unless men start getting vocal about this issue of reproductive freedom and the fact the the God-bothering wingnuts are all up in women’s business, it is going to be slow to change. A bunch of women rally for reproductive rights – sluts wanting free birth-control. A bunch of men and women rallying for reproductive rights together – that’s actually valid pushback (because, unfortunately, male opinions are the only ones the right-wing seems to believe are valid, and because the MSM would pay attention).
So, male BJ readers, do you ever volunteer for pro-choice/reproductive freedom causes? And if not, what do you think might make you take up this issue (in addition to everything else we’re battling the wingnuts on)?
Belafon
The problem is, these people are in a majority. They are the majority of voters that consistently turn out for elections. It does not matter if you are a minority in this country if your group over-represents at the ballot box.
Linnaeus
@Patricia Kayden:
It’s going to be hard. The state as a whole leans pro-choice, but that’s not reflected in the legislative and congressional districts because Michigan is heavily gerrymandered. That means the pro-choice legislators will come mainly from districts concentrated in southeastern Michigan.
shelly
\Since I haven’t clicked on anything lately to do with Utah Jesus, I wonder why this site is now blanketed with Mormon ads?
Tokyokie
@shelly: I also find that odd, but if the Mormulans want to waste their money, then I’m good with their giving it to Cole.
Mike in NC
Pretty much to be expected if the majority of your state legislature is made up of male Republicans in their 60s and 70s.
Corner Stone
@AMinNC:
I sometimes think I would like to do something like that, but then I remind myself that I am a dudebro. And as we all know, dudebro brogressives are not allowed make common cause with the poors, the dusky, nor the womens. Or, God forbid, any mix of those three.
So, sorry bout that, can’t help you there.
But I will fight to my last breath to make sure the NSA can not listen in or store your private phone call to the free clinic near you!
danielx
Oh FUCK no…depending on how bad a case of teh crazy they have, they might feel it necessary to do something drastic about her current place of employment, and/or her personally. To save her soul, you understand.
piratedan
i give money to planned parenthood and get furious whenever I read about these fucking morality salesmen attempting to blame women for all of the unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.
Corner Stone
Just as a lack of unemployment insurance will encourage you to not be lazy, a lack of rape insurance will encourage you to not have sex.
AMinNC
Thanks Corner Stone!
I assume you and the other Dudebros are also working to legalize the ganja so that we lady-types can at least be mellow during all of the rights-siezing, etc.
Corner Stone
@AMinNC: Indeed! And paid for with bitcoins!
slippy
@Tokyokie:
I personally prefer Amateur Philosopher, with heavy emphasis on amateur, as a description for Brooks.
Stand-up Philosopher is what I started with, but I realized Brooks wouldn’t stand for anything unless forced to at gunpoint. So just, amateur.
kindness
I don’t understand how a state can restrict one’s own private Health Care Insurance from covering anything at all. How is that remotely constitutional?
beth
@danielx: I worked with a woman whose sister was in charge of a woman’s health clinic. She didn’t even have anything in her house with her sister’s name, address or phone number on it and she sent her mail to a P.O. box. That’s how worried her sister was about her own safety. I would imagine it’s worse in the internet age.
beth
@kindness: How does it line up with their free market principles? How dare they tell a business how to run it’s own business? What does government know about that, right?
mai naem
I’m just wondering if these babeeez are so wanted and loved how come they’re so many foster care homes. We have a pretty big shortage of foster parents in AZ. They actually pay people here $1500-$3000/ month to be foster parents. The lower pay kids are regular kids. The higher ones have special needs. How come these pro life ass wipes don’t volunteer to adopt these kids?
Yatsuno
@kindness: Becuz FREEDUMB!!!
Actually I think it affects the insurance commissioner and how they enforce the laws or not.
aimai
@Patricia Kayden: This was passed in a very bizarre way, with some kind of “voter initiative” that passed with about 3 percent of Michigan voters actually signing it and then sailed through the legislature or bypassed the legislature entirely. Not that Michigan, the place that sent us that craptacular “Democrat” from the UP who held up the entire ACA over abortion, doesn’t have evil enough legislators. Its just that this piece of legislation was specially voter driven evil.
slippy
Oh, on topic I think that the counter to this rape insurance business should be mandatory fatherhood insurance PLUS mandatory submission of your DNA to a database, so when you spread your genes around you can be held financially accountable.
I’m a father of two and divorced, and I ain’t joking. I did my part, and what I see in these anti-choicers’ legal hysterics is a bunch of deadbeat dads trying to change the subject. Man up and own what you do, punkasses! Then we’ll see how you feel about having your diddling rights dictated to you by the government.
sparrow
I am not by any means an ideological purist. I’m a pragmatic kind of voter (you won’t ever see me skipping voting in “protest” for example).
But I’m not really comfortable with focusing so much on rape. It implicitly cedes the argument “yeah those women that weren’t raped, it’s totally their fault and they deserve to be punished with a child, but what about these totally innocent victims of rape?
Sorry If I’m not phrasing it well, but it seems to imply that this is an outrage only because “innocent” women will be punished, versus the sluts, when really it’s an outrage because it is plainly restricting a woman’s legal right to bodily autonomy regardless of how she came to be pregnant.
J R in WV
My Mom was an artist (watercolor mostly) and newspaperwoman starting back in the 1940s when being a woman in the workplace was really hard. She was all her life a Rockefeller Republican, just like her parents and siblings and husband.
Until the Rs started on their anti-abortion track.
She eventually had major trouble with COPD caused by a lifelong PallMall habit, started by PallMall, Inc distributing free cigs to college students at the football games.
I’m convinced that she stayed alive through sheer force of will to vote against Republican presidential candidates, because of their anti-abortion stance. She believed (as so many of us do) that abortion is a woman’s issue, and men should keep their distance if they know what’s good for them!
She confessed to me that she had split her ticket to vote against President George H. W. Bush in 1992 and again in 1996 voting to re-elect President Clinton running against Senator Bob Dole. This was strictly a single-issue situation for her. I am totally convinced that she lived into 1997 solely as a result of her determination to vote against any Republican who intended to interfere with abortion rights.
I’m also convinced that the reason for her determination was that she had a close friend, perhaps a cousin, who died as a result of a forbidden illegal abortion bungled by a underworld doctor. She wouldn’t have told me about that, as in her world, it was a dark secret – even a historical event involving people who were nearly all dead by 1997 when she died.
So I thank Bob Dole and his party for providing my Mom with a reason to fight her COPD as hard as she could, to vote one more time. The doctors gave her 6 to 9 months when she first suffered a low blood oxygen level event that put her in the hospital, but Dad took great care of her, fed her fresh fruit every day, etc, and she did have will power to do anything, except stop smoking soon enough, of course.
She lived several years past that 6-9 months deadline.
So she could vote!
Steeplejack
@Tokyokie:
He’s had “Thought Leader” in his nym for months now. Ahead of the curve!
Corner Stone
I apologize as I may have missed it, but any chance for a thread discussing how incredibly bad the budget deal is?
Linnaeus
@aimai:
It’s an “indirect initiative”. How it works in Michigan is that you collect signatures of at least 8% of the electorate eligible to vote in the previous gubernatorial election. Then your proposed statute gets sent to the legislature. The legislature can pass it and it becomes law; it can reject it or do nothing, in which case the proposed statue goes on the ballot in the next election; or it can propose an alternative statue that goes on the ballot along with the original proposal.
If the legislature passes the initiative, it becomes law without the governor’s signature. It’s telling that two Republican governors (Rick Snyder and John Engler) both vetoed similar laws when the state legislature passed them previously. But this process goes around the governor and she/he can’t do anything to stop the law if the lege wants to pass it.
C.V. Danes
I don’t think this can be stressed enough: elections have consequences.
If you don’t want to live in the 1800s, don’t vote for the people who want to regress us there. That message should be posted everywhere for everyone to see.
Botsplainer
@Corner Stone:
Speaking of, I decided to take a glance at bitcoins. They’re the culmination of the fondest dreams of goldbugs – a finite currency, so that after the mining is done, the economy becomes a zero sum game.
jayboat
As if we needed any reminding about how evil ALL these jackalopes are…
Lizzy Cheney has opened fire on the ‘washington establishment’.
And by that I mean, … oh hell. they aren’t worth the keystrokes.
but, my point- we do need reminding. constantly.
these people are relentless in their quest for power.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@mai naem:
They do. And then they kill the kids by trying to beat the “rebellion” out of them. Google Hannah Carroll or Sean Paddock or Hana Williams or Lydia Schatz if you want some nightmares.
Betsy
@sparrow: quit apologizing! you make perfect sense.
scav
Need to update all National Hazard Maps. Flood Zone! — Buy Flood Insurance! Hurricane Zone! — Supplemental Hurricane Insurance suggested! Earthquake Prone — Earthquake Policies de rigeure. State Full of Evil Men With No Self-Control — Buy Rape Insurance!
Michigan — The Hand You See Is Up Your Skirt.
handsmile
@Corner Stone:
Do you do sotto voce? Unpossible, I’d have thunk. And should your comment #33 wish be granted, I suspect rather difficult to demonstrate here.
Villago Delenda Est
@sparrow:
What this shows is just how far the forced birthers are willing to go to punish the sluts. Which by their definition, includes rape victims who obviously were asking for it because, well, they have ho-has.
Corner Stone
@handsmile: Sure do. We watch football together too, and with the Texans this season I have become a master of restraint.
Difficult to demonstrate because it was, in fact, a good deal? Or difficult to demonstrate here because, “Hostages! Adults in the room!, etc” ?
Villago Delenda Est
@Corner Stone:
Well, it’s bad, but it could have been worse. Until the Dems regain control of the House, it won’t get better.
wenchacha
So must all genders purchase rape insurance in MI if they want coverage for any/all injuries, etc. incurred during said rape? If a man gets beaten and gang-raped, must he pay for the surgery to correct his prolapsed rectum? Must a woman do the same?
Rape isn’t just about babies, although they are one hazard. There’s also the issue of STDs, AIDS, Hep C, any and all internal injuries, loss of employment due to hospitalization and recovery time, all sort of things.
What about when your kids are raped? Do parents need to buy extra insurance to protect their children from the attentions of pedophiles?
handsmile
@Corner Stone:
The latter.
Though, with the Village choristers breaking out into joyful carols of “O Little Town of Bipartisanship” over the bill, an airing of grievances – and grievances with those grievances – hereabouts with its provisions might be worthwhile.
Chyron HR
@Corner Stone:
So says Mister “Obotomized Obots! Thrown under the bus!”
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Tokyokie: I was a Thought Leader before Bobo began fetishizing about it. He’s playing catchup with me – because I am Leading With Thought.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Corner Stone:
It will encourage one not to be raped, if one is so inclined at any given moment.
Corner Stone
@Chyron HR: That kind of nonsense reply is like a slap in the face!
Corner Stone
@handsmile: The Republicans had no cards to play. They showed their hand during the last fight.
Their only alternative was to inflict more damage on the nation as a whole. Which would have continued harming them as a party.
Now, they’ve gotten the D party to not only own hurting military pensions but also doing absolutely nothing for revenue and not getting any relief for those most in need!
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@AMinNC:
I sometimes act like I am going to drive my truck into a crowd of anti-abortion protesters in front of the clinic. They all scatter and then yell at me indignantly. Then I stop and slowly roll down the passengers side window and throw a naked and “bloody” baby doll out on the street.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Corner Stone: Any way we can get Senate Democrats signed up for some rape insurance?
fuckwit
It is always good to see the left finally get their shit together on framing, and the proper use of words. Now let’s see the Rethugs try to defend “rape insurance”. Brilliant and truly vile phrase– hold on to it at all costs, and don’t let the pearl-clutching corporate media and totebaggers try to wipe it out with a euphemism.
James E Powell
@Belafon:
The problem is, these people are in a majority. They are the majority of voters that consistently turn out for elections.
This is the point I have been trying to make with people of the leftier persuasions for the last 30 years. The responses are always that I am wrong, that I my candidates are not lefty enough, that I am an asshole, that I am the real problem.
I don’t know what the answer is; I don’t think anyone does. But unless and until a super-majority of American women consider abortion restrictions as oppression, and vote as if that were the only issue that mattered, then we are going to be reading about new abortion restrictions until Roe v. Wade is overruled.
The current supreme court completely ignored the fifteenth amendment in order to gut the Voting Rights Act. The majority didn’t care what the people who don’t vote think about their opinion. They won; that’s all that matters to them. Do you think they will hesitate to invalidate Roe v. Wade?
Corner Stone
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: It looks like we have a different interpretation on the act of consent.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@James E Powell:
Doesn’t that depend on what Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court Anthony Kennedy feels about the matter?
ruemara
@James E Powell: Fact don’t matter half as much as purity of essence does.
Villago Delenda Est
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
There’s a reason that they don’t press for an outright nullification of Roe v. Wade. It would dry up the revenue stream.
Kay
@sparrow:
I’m with you. It’s what I hated about Sandra Fluke’s argument, that we need contraception because we have medical conditions.
I’m not explaining it with elaborate personal details and pleas. I shouldn’t have to. It’s none of their business.
My daughter feels the same way you do, and she’s not “political”. Her response was “why are they always talking about us?” during the fake-debate on contraception. She doesn’t see why she has to explain.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes and no. The stupid ones who have taken over the Republican party recently don’t understand that. They just assume the pro-life leaders and legislators over the last 30 years were secret liberals.
Shortstop
@James E Powell: As was pointed out above, we’d get to the goal faster if we got a few more men on board along with that “supermajority of women.”
@shelly: I assumed it was because I was watching and hooting at the trailer for “Mitt” earlier today.
Corner Stone
@Kay:
Exactly. It’s what made me so angry to see Sen Whitmer feel like her story had to be shared to make personal inroads against this disgusting action.
Whether she chooses to share her story in any situation is of course her choice, but that it’s come down to this level of base anti-logic just infuriates me.
How is it anyone’s business when, why, or how many? (I mean re: birth control, not people who have been assaulted)
Corner Stone
Not that it has anything to do with this specific issue, but in the larger sense of “men need to stop being stupid” category, recently I was treated to Rush Limbaugh decrying the “feminization” of the NFL. Not Rush, himself of course, but my wingnut friend who apparently can’t do anything but repeat what he’s been told. He was making a fuss about Breast Cancer Awareness the the NFL does every year, where they promote awareness and, incidentally, wear pink to display that.
I told him, (aside from actual lives saved), “You’re a guy, right? Don’t you like breasts? Don’t you think we should have lots of healthy boobies running around? What could be more “manly” than enjoying healthy women with healthy boobs? Why would wearing pink make you enjoy the naked female body less?”
The answer was something virile men being forced to supplicate themselves to some hidden agenda. I never quite got it, but that’s not an unusual outcome when I talk to him.
Ms. D. Ranged in AZ
@pat:
Which brings up the point that if fewer women are able to get abortions after rape and are then forced to carry the baby to term, then the rapist will have custodial rights for which they can take the mother to court. The thought that a woman could be put into this position makes me so angry that I’m at a loss for words. Mostly what comes to mind is growling with my hackles raised.
bago
http://youtu.be/Pu0BVGVSd4Y
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Corner Stone: Tell your stupid friend Rush Limbaugh has boobs and Rush is very masculine.
millekat
Do parents need to buy extra insurance to protect their children from the attentions of pedophiles?
With special group rates for Catholics?
I can’t stop thinking about the actuarial questions (which,I realize, they’re not allowed to ask anymore.)
Is this rape a pre-existing condition?
Does your rapist have continued access to you?(a boss or family member(sic)….)
Do you ever use alcohol? Accept rides from strangers? Pass out in mixed company?
Cheerlead for certain sports known to have high rape rate?
Enclose exact measurements of your bra size/ height of necklines/ skirt length.
Desire separate rider for certain family members? Football team?Priest?
Well, I suspect Stephen Sondheim could make something of this…..
millekat
Do parents need to buy extra insurance to protect their children from the attentions of pedophiles?
With special group rates for Catholics?
I can’t stop thinking about the actuarial questions (which,I realize, they’re not allowed to ask anymore.)
Is this rape a pre-existing condition?
Does your rapist have continued access to you?(a boss or family member(sic)….)
Do you ever use alcohol? Accept rides from strangers? Pass out in mixed company?
Cheerlead for certain sports known to have high rape rate?
Enclose exact measurements of your bra size/ height of necklines/ skirt length.
Desire separate rider for certain family members? Football team?Priest?
Well, I suspect Stephen Sondheim could make something of this…..
burnspbesq
@Corner Stone:
Compared to what other actually obtainable alternative?
Corner Stone
@burnspbesq: Why would we bargain to this deal? It’s a garbage fucking deal. Why, and in what universe, did we *have* to say Yes to this deal?
Bill Arnold
@Botsplainer:
For anybody interested, here’s a tutorial-style description of bitcoins. It’s pretty long and somewhat technical. (I have not finished it yet; link was sent to me today.)