2015 Began with 332 Anti-Choice Provisions in Just Three Months

The Guttmacher Institute gave us the bad news early on that 2015 was not going to be a better year for women than 2014 :

By the end of the first quarter of the year [April 1], legislators had introduced 791 provisions related to sexual and reproductive health and rights. Nearly 42% of these provisions (332 provisions) seek to restrict ac cess to abortion services; abortion restrictions have been introduced in 43 states…53 abortion restrictions had been approved by a legislative chamber, and nine had been enacted.

The Republican Party, regardless of what it says about the economy – taxes, jobs, trade, manufacturing – is still focused primarily on attacking women’s reproductive health. The Republican War on Women is far from a myth. It is alive and well. The numbers prove it, and it is only getting worse from year to year:

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As you can see, much as the Republican Party likes to talk about a war on Christianity – or even the criminalization of Christianity – it is in fact people calling themselves Christians who are criminalizing women.

According to the yokels at the inappropriately-named Liberty Council, abortion is Baal worship, (so, apparently, is gayness) echoing Ben Carson’s claim last year that abortion is human sacrifice:

This is the left’s sacred cow. It’s like a religious ritual, a religious rite. They worship at the altar of death, of child dismemberment. It’s like Baal worship of old, worshiping Moloch, where they would sacrifice innocent human beings. There’s no difference. They’re just not putting them in a furnace and worshiping an idol, but they really are worshiping an idol, the idol of abortion, and they’re killing the babies in this clinical setting. It’s no different from child sacrifice of old.

Increasingly, however, Baal the Cloud Rider, the weather god, seems then to be the champion of women who are raped at the behest of YHWH, his old Bronze Age persecutor. I am beginning to think the only thing the Religious Right’s god loves more than money is rape.

Recently, Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser told conservative critics that Lindsey Graham’s 20-week abortion ban’s “rape exception is abominable” – “regrettable,” “just wrong” and “completely intellectually dishonest.”

She didn’t have anything bad to say about rape. Or rapists. Just about letting raped women have access to abortions. Needless to say, the Hobby Lobby ruling ensures they won’t necessarily have access to contraception either.

Wisconsin’s “medical emergency” exemption is under similar attack from so-called pro-life groups. These pro-rape, anti-victim attitudes characterize the GOP today.

Guttmacher Institute tells us that this year started badly and we have already seen that it is not getting any better.

Sure, we have just seen the Supreme Court reject an appeal by North Carolina to restore an ultrasound law, but Scott Walker has unsavory plans for Wisconsin women – banning abortion after 20 weeks – and Kansas has proven that no matter how broke it is, it can always find money to ban abortions after only 14 weeks.

Women should flee Red States today to places where they can breathe the free air. Such havens do still exist. Though that won’t be true if the House has its way.

If states are attacking women’s reproductive choices, the Republican-led House of Representatives, if it can’t create a single job, is more than willing to ban abortion.

Just don’t expect any of those babies born to grow up to jobs waiting for them if the GOP has anything to say about it. Assuming they can get food and medical care to survive that long – or an education to qualify them for the job.

The picture is not a pretty one as women in 43 states are potential victims of legislation introduced by their elected officials, and that was just up to April 1. According to Guttmacher, “More than half of U.S. women of reproductive age live in states that are hostile or extremely hostile to abortion rights”:

Guttmacher points out that, “legislators in 16 states have introduced state versions of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA),” and while attention has focused on these laws as an anti-gay measure, “the potential impact on contraceptive coverage—and reproductive health more broadly—has received little, if any, attention.”

Communism? Bah! The Red Menace has taken on new meaning for American women.

If you think women are being represented by their legislators, you are wrong: the legislators seem to think they have been elected to regulate, or even put a stop to, female sexuality.

It is a wonder at this point that any woman at all votes Republican. Because for a woman to vote Republican is to enter into sexual slavery. With this man:

And Cruz opposes abortion for victims of rape and incest. He calls contraception “abortion-inducing drugs.”

If nothing else moves you, think about it this way:

Do you want to be a sex slave to people like Lindsey Graham, Scott Walker, Sam Brownback, Greg Abbot, and Ted Cruz – and Bryan Fischer?

Think about that.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.