MzNicky at Tennesee Guerilla Women has joined the call to have the pro-lifers motto changed to “The War on Women”. I’m joining up today in this war to keep my reproductive rights. It’s a good thing too because it looks like we’re in for a helluva fight, especially in Ohio.
I have known 4 women who have had abortions and 3 of those women did so because they didn’t like the men who impregnated them (the other had three children under 4 and was single). This has soured my personal view on abortion- especially as a means to birth control[1]. I have said “there are other forms of prevention for educated women”, etc and blah, blah. However, it seems that even those are coming under attack in this War on Women. And Ohio is leading the way in putting women back in kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.
Among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Ohio ranked
* 39th in service availability; * 48th in laws and policies; * 44th in public funding; and * 48th overall.
Recognizing the personal, social, economic and medical toll associated with unintended pregnancies, the federal government has established a national public health goal to reduce by 40% the proportion of pregnancies that are unintended by 2010. It also has identified family planning as the key to achieving this objective.
States can play a major role in helping women to avoid unintended pregnancy-particularly low-income women, who are more likely than those who are better-off to experience an unintended pregnancy and to rely on publicly supported services for their contraceptive care. Accordingly, the Guttmacher Institute assessed the states (and the District of Columbia) on their efforts to help women obtain contraceptive services and supplies, and to use them consistently and correctly over time. States were scored and ranked on three indicators:
* service availability-how well the states meet existing need for subsidized contraceptive services and supplies; * laws and policies-whether their laws and policies are likely to facilitate access to contraceptive services and information; and * public funding-the extent to which they devote their own revenues, and leverage potential federal dollars, to support the delivery of publicly supported contraceptive services and supplies.
(Ohio’s Title X)
Sex education policy Worst Requires contraceptive education statewide NO Requires abstinence education statewide YES Requires contraceptive education in school districts with sex education NO Requires abstinence education in school districts with sex education NO Rejects federal abstinence-only education funds NO
If you want to know where your own state ranks go here. Maybe you’re lucky enough to live in one of the 47 states that does better than Ohio in preventing unwanted pregnancies (and/or childbirths).
Thanks to CorrenteWire for bringing to light (for me anyway) this story in the Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA)
SUFFOLK “ A Suffolk woman who lost her unborn baby after suffering a bullet wound to the abdomen was arrested yesterday and charged with shooting herself to “illegally induce an abortion.”
Tammy W. Skinner, 22, originally called police Thursday at 4:11 a.m. on her cell phone from the parking lot of an auto dealership on North Main Street. She reported someone had shot her, said Lt. Debbie George, a Suffolk police spokeswoman.
Skinner was rushed by ambulance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where doctors listed her in good condition but her fetus was pronounced dead. Doctors had planned to induce labor for Skinner, who police said was seven to nine month’s pregnant, that day.[2]
Suffolk police immediately became suspicious of Skinner’s story: She professed not to recall who had shot her, and investigators discovered her car in the parking lot of the dealership. George would release no further details of the investigation.
Skinner turned herself in to police yesterday afternoon. She is charged with illegally inducing an abortion, a Class 4 felony punishable by two to 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
I’m not really sure what constitutes “illegally inducing abortion” (other than the obvious) but if this girl did shoot herself then maybe different charges were in order. But they want to get her on felony charges so they could also charge her with using a firearm in commission of one. Looks like trumping up the charges when something a lot more simple would have done just as well. However, I’m suspicious that maybe she didn’t do this to herself. That’s for another post though.
I’m a mother of a 14 year old girl and am trying to instill in her how important it is for her to be sexually responsible. This includes knowing about and how to use birth control and condoms. I know that preaching “just don’t do it” doesn’t work with teenagers the majority of the time. I know that young girls and boys will do it if they get a chance and I don’t want my child to be a mom for many years. I have never told her not to have an abortion, but have let her know it’s best not to get pregnant to begin with. Now we have activist pharmacists that don’t want to dispense birth control pills (aka don’t want to do their job), state legislatures banning abortion outright and women getting charged with deaths they may have not had anything to do with. Should my daughter forever abstain from sex? Or maybe she should just have 15 children, like that chick down in Arkansas?
You may not want to hold sex from your partner, but you can spread the word on W.O.W., don’t let them call themselves soft, fuzzy names anymore. Call “em like we see “em.
[1] I in no way advocate legislating anyone’s reproductive rights or morality, believing the government should stay the hell out of women’s bodies.
[2] Now why would she shoot herself to “illegally induce an abortion” on the same day that she was due to have the baby? Are they all stupid?
The War on Women (W.O.W.)
MzNicky at Tennesee Guerilla Women has joined the call to have the pro-lifers motto changed to “The War on Women”. I’m joining up today in this war to keep my reproductive rights. It’s a good thing too because it looks like we’re in for a helluva fight, especially in Ohio.
I have known 4 women who have had abortions and 3 of those women did so because they didn’t like the men who impregnated them (the other had three children under 4 and was single). This has soured my personal view on abortion- especially as a means to birth control[1]. I have said “there are other forms of prevention for educated women”, etc and blah, blah. However, it seems that even those are coming under attack in this War on Women. And Ohio is leading the way in putting women back in kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.
According to Guttmacher Institute
If you want to know where your own state ranks go here. Maybe you’re lucky enough to live in one of the 47 states that does better than Ohio in preventing unwanted pregnancies (and/or childbirths).
Thanks to CorrenteWire for bringing to light (for me anyway) this story in the Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA)
I’m not really sure what constitutes “illegally inducing abortion” (other than the obvious) but if this girl did shoot herself then maybe different charges were in order. But they want to get her on felony charges so they could also charge her with using a firearm in commission of one. Looks like trumping up the charges when something a lot more simple would have done just as well. However, I’m suspicious that maybe she didn’t do this to herself. That’s for another post though.
I’m a mother of a 14 year old girl and am trying to instill in her how important it is for her to be sexually responsible. This includes knowing about and how to use birth control and condoms. I know that preaching “just don’t do it” doesn’t work with teenagers the majority of the time. I know that young girls and boys will do it if they get a chance and I don’t want my child to be a mom for many years. I have never told her not to have an abortion, but have let her know it’s best not to get pregnant to begin with. Now we have activist pharmacists that don’t want to dispense birth control pills (aka don’t want to do their job), state legislatures banning abortion outright and women getting charged with deaths they may have not had anything to do with. Should my daughter forever abstain from sex? Or maybe she should just have 15 children, like that chick down in Arkansas?
You may not want to hold sex from your partner, but you can spread the word on W.O.W., don’t let them call themselves soft, fuzzy names anymore. Call “em like we see “em.
[1] I in no way advocate legislating anyone’s reproductive rights or morality, believing the government should stay the hell out of women’s bodies.
[2] Now why would she shoot herself to “illegally induce an abortion” on the same day that she was due to have the baby? Are they all stupid?
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