Today marks the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision that may not be around much longer if things keep going the the way they have.
There are plenty of ways to get involved and celebrate today, so get to it!
But before you run to your nearest pro-choice group to help out, here’s a look back at the year in U.S. reproductive rights:
Terrible (but not shocking) fact: Last year’s legislative season marked a record high in anti-choice maneuvers.
Most annoying contradiction: Young women are said to take choice for granted, young women create zine on reproductive rights.
Strangest anti-choice moves (there are a bunch):
Gym erects a fetus tree in their lobby to celebrate the holiday season.
Group tries to fly pics of aborted fetuses over Hawaii beaches.
A teacher is fired for pro-choice volunteer work.
The Christian Right attempts to block HPV vaccine for fear it will make women slutty.
Anti-choice group claims Hurricane Katrina is punishment for abortion.
Racist group pays women to be sterilized.
A Virginia school fines women who have abortions. ($500 for abortion, only $250 for racial or sexual harassment)
Arizona pharmacist recommends lying to women about EC availability.
University of Wisconsin tries to ban EC and birth control from campuses.
Wackiest anti-choice legislation:
Texas docs who perform abortions could face the death penalty.
Indiana and Virginia try to make marriage a requirement for motherhood.
NY Governor Pataki vetoes over-the-counter EC for fear teens will obtain it. But teens can get abortions without parental consent or notification in NY.
Virginia delegate proposes a bill that would jail women for not reporting their miscarriages.
Interesting/telling Bush fact: The President still won’t say if he’s against contraception.
Fetus-love only: Pregnant women across the country get fired, denied divorces.
Most anti-choice states: Ohio, Indiana and South Dakota all try to outlaw abortion.
Most thorough anti-choicers: Groups in Mississippi try to shut down the last abortion clinic.
Emergency contraception goes through hell:
Pharmacists deny women prescriptions. Everywhere.
Hospitals are encouraged to break laws requiring informing rape victims about EC.
Federal guidelines for treating sexual assault conveniently leave out any mention of EC.
Despite research that shows EC availability has nothing to do with promiscuity and that most doctors support it, legislators insist it’s a Girls Gone Wild situation.
Smack in the face to young women: Parental notification is everywhere; in Texas you need a written note from your parents.
Right to privacy? What’s that?: Ohio, Indiana and Kansas all seek women’s private medical records.
Supreme Court: After three anti-choice nominees, we’re just plain scared.
FDAssholes:
The FDA continues to trump politics over science.
Even the government says so.
Smart folks leave.
FDA puts veterinarian in charge of Office of Women’s Health. Then they deny it.
Scary fact: American women having more babies they don’t want.
Persistence doesn’t pay off (yet): Bushie keeps trying on the “partial birth” abortion ban.
Pipe down little ladies: Boy blogs tell women to stop worrying about choice.
Cause clearly we're in great shape.
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great job rounding up all the info for this post.
U see there is a real systematic effort going on here! yet if u are not paying attention you don't see it.
THe only thing i disagree with is the pay to be fixed idea. to me that makes alot of sense, I don't think it is racist. Crackheads should not be having children. SO long as it is voluntary i am all for it.
Wow. It was really scary to see all of those items from just last year compiled into the big picture.
I just read a quote that I think the rabid, crazy bitches who run this site should reflect on:
"A foetus is the ultimate hostage. A woman can have one and demand anything with moral authority, and then dispose of it with complete impunity."
Right on brother...
After drugs and arms trading, the £4 billion global sex trade business comes in third in illegal trade. An estimated 600,000–800,000 people are trafficked in this way per annum, according to the US State Department. I witnessed for myself several instances in Iasi in Romania on the Moldavian border and then in Moldova’s capital Kishinev: burly, blurry-eyed men in their 40s shacked up in hotels with waif-like 18-year-olds waiting to be transported on. The contrasts in Kishinev are stark. The main thoroughfares have some faded class and a mix of garish bars, cult clubs and shrill advertising. In the evening, you see hoards of scantily dressed young women, the target of the traffickers.
Immediately off the main roads there is no street lighting and you are enveloped in gloom. The European Parliament estimates that around 4000 women a year are trafficked to Denmark and over 10,000 to the UK. Many come from Eastern Europe but others increasingly from places like Thailand, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
Often they are sold on to work as prostitutes who can make several thousand pounds a week for their pimps and are effectively imprisoned in our major cities.