PREGNANCY

 

New Mexico Bill Would Criminalize Abortions After Rape As 'Tampering With Evidence' &Worst States For Pregnant Rape Victims (INFOGRAPHIC) & 24,25&26JAN13

NEW MEXICO repiglicans must not have gotten the memo from the rnc to stop saying and doing stupid things, especially concerning women. This is absolutely one of the most disgusting proposals  concerning rape, ever, and the gop in NM should condemn it and the ignorant woman who submitted the legislation. The second article documents the worst states for pregnant rape victims, showing just how little regard right wing fanatics have for the physical and mental health of the women who have been raped. Both compassion and justice are sorely lacking in these states. 

A Republican lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill on Wednesday that would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.

House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence."

“Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," the bill says.

Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.

Pat Davis of ProgressNow New Mexico, a progressive nonprofit opposing the bill, called it "blatantly unconstitutional" on Thursday.

“The bill turns victims of rape and incest into felons and forces them to become incubators of evidence for the state,” he said. “According to Republican philosophy, victims who are ‘legitimately raped’ will now have to carry the fetus to term in order to prove their case.“

The bill is unlikely to pass, as Democrats have a majority in both chambers of New Mexico's state legislature.

UPDATE: 12:25 p.m. -- Brown said in a statement Thursday that she introduced the bill with the goal of punishing the person who commits incest or rape and then procures or facilitates an abortion to destroy the evidence of the crime.

“New Mexico needs to strengthen its laws to deter sex offenders,” said Brown. “By adding this law in New Mexico, we can help to protect women across our state.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/24/new-mexico-abortion-bill_n_2541894.html?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%20Brief&utm_campaign=daily_brief

Worst States For Pregnant Rape Victims (INFOGRAPHIC)

A Republican state representative in New Mexico introduced a bill Wednesday that classified abortions for rape victims as "tampering with evidence," effectively requiring women to carry their pregnancies to term in order to prove their case in a sexual assault trial.

This bill will not pass, as Democrats control both chambers of New Mexico's state legislature, but there are plenty of other state laws that extend the nightmare for women who are impregnated through rape.

Of the 26 states that require a waiting period (usually 24 hours) for women seeking abortions, only Utah makes an exception for cases of rape or incest. Pregnant rape victims in some states must also undergo counseling about the negative effects of abortion before having the procedure.

If a woman who conceives through rape does go on to have the child, she can open herself up to being victimized by her rapist again and again. In 31 states, paternal rapists are allowed to sue for custody and visitation rights like any other father, as a Chicago woman who was served with custody papers from her rapist brought to the public's attention last summer after former Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) made his"legitimate rape" comments.

Even in the states that don't protect the parental rights of rapists, many rapes never lead to a conviction and certain provisions can make it difficult for a woman impregnated through sexual assault to keep her attacker out of her and her child's life.Mother Jones reports:

But of the 19 states that have laws addressing the custody of rape-conceived children, 13 require proof of conviction in order to waive the rapist's parental rights. Two more states have provisions on the issue that only apply if the victim is a minor or, in one of those cases, a stepchild or adopted child of the rapist. Another three states don't have laws that deal with custody of a rapist's child specifically, but do restrict the parental rights of a father or mother who sexually abused the other parent.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/pregnant-rape-abortion_n_2552183.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

Todd Akin In 2008: Doctors Give Abortions To Women Who Aren't Pregnant & Todd Akin On Abortion: 'Legitimate Rape' Victims Have 'Ways To Try To Shut That Whole Thing Down' (VIDEO) 2OKT12&19AUG12

more surfaces about the weird science of women and their bodies from rep todd akin R MO. It is amazing he still has a chance of beating Sen Claire McCaskill D MO in her bid to remain one of Missouri's Senators. One has to wonder what kind of people can continue to support akin after he has made so many ignorant statements about women and their bodies. Certainly nobody with any sort of education, nobody who respects women, nobody who is concerned about the future of women in Missouri and the country and nobody who has any concern about the health of their mother, grandmothers, daughters, aunts, and their other female relatives, friends and coworkers. The support of rep akin by repiglican and tea-bagger politicians and so many of the voters in Missouri is disgusting to many of us around the country and it is a warning to all of us because the agenda of rep akin and his supporters is to return women to their subservient roll not of the 1950's but of the 1850's. Just like the extremist in the Islamic world, these extremist right wing social engineers want to impose sharia (in this case "christian" sharia) on women. Once that is accomplished they will start on every other part of American society they don't like. From HuffPost...

Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin sparked national outrage in August when he justified his opposition to abortion by claiming that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." However, the Republican congressman's now-infamous remarks are not the first time he's made a scientifically questionable statement on abortion.
As Slate's Amanda Marcotte reported Tuesday, Akin gave a speech on the House floor in 2008 denouncing abortion providers as "terrorists," claiming that they sometimes perform abortions on women who "are not actually pregnant":

"It is no big surprise that we fight the terrorists because they are fundamentally un-American, and yet we have terrorists in our own culture called abortionists. One of the good pieces of news why we are winning this war is because there are not enough heartless doctors being graduated from medical schools. There is a real shortage of abortionists. Who wants to be at the very bottom of the food chain of medical profession? And what sort of places do these bottom-of-the-food-chain doctors work in? Places that are really a pit. You find that along with the culture of death go all kinds of other law-breaking: not following good sanitary procedure, giving abortions to women who are not actually pregnant, cheating on taxes, all these kinds of things, misuse of anesthetics so that people die or almost die."

Akin's allegation of doctors performing abortions on non-pregnant women is particularly puzzling, since, by definition, an abortion cannot be performed if there is no pregnancy to terminate.
Akin, a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, also gave a speech in 2005 on stem cell research, expressing his concern that a science-fiction story his daughter wrote about humans being harvested for body parts could become reality.
"Oppose public funding that destroys little yous and mes, and oppose this harvest of destruction," he urged his congressional colleagues considering a stem cell research bill.
Despite the overwhelming backlash to Akin's "legitimate rape" claim, the Republican has a good chance of beating incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) in next month's election. The latest polling shows Akin with a lead of one percentage point over McCaskill, and a number of Republicans, including Rick Santorum, Jim DeMint and Newt Gingrich, have come out in support of Akin in recent weeks.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/02/todd-akin-abortion-providers_n_1934305.html?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%20Brief&utm_campaign=daily_brief

Todd Akin On Abortion: 'Legitimate Rape' Victims Have 'Ways To Try To Shut That Whole Thing Down' (VIDEO) 19AUG12

Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) justified his extreme opposition to abortion by claiming that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant.
In an interview with KTVI-TV on Sunday, the GOP Senate nominee was asked if he supported abortion in the case of rape.
"From what I understand from doctors, that's really rare," said Akin said of pregnancy caused by rape. "If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let's assume maybe that didn't work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist."
Akin won a three-way primary on Aug. 7 for the rights to a November battle against incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). McCaskill was "stunned" by Akin's Sunday comments.

@clairecmc
Claire McCaskill

As a woman & former prosecutor who handled 100s of rape cases,I'm stunned by Rep Akin's comments about victims this AM http://t.co/n9SVOukJ

August 19, 2012 7:28 pm via Twitter for iPad Reply Retweet Favorite

"It is beyond comprehension that someone can be so ignorant about the emotional and physical trauma brought on by rape," McCaskill added in a statement. "The ideas that Todd Akin has expressed about the serious crime of rape and the impact on its victims are offensive."
After Akin's primary win, McCaskill wasted little time in pouncing on his conservative record, calling the congressman "out of touch."
"We're going to prove to Missourians that Todd Akin is out of touch with their problems, out of touch with the pain that they feel, and out of touch with the views that they hold dear," she said back on Aug. 8.
Akin's comments on abortion and rape come less than two weeks after he suggested banning the morning-after pill.
“As far as I’m concerned, the morning-after pill is a form of abortion, and I think we just shouldn’t have abortion in this country,” he said in an Aug.8 interview with KCMO radio.
UPDATE (5:25 p.m. ET): Akin's campaign released a statement Sunday on the issue, where the congressman admitted that he "misspoke" in the KTVI interview.

"As a member of Congress, I believe that working to protect the most vulnerable in our society is one of my most important responsibilities, and that includes protecting both the unborn and victims of sexual assault. In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it's clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year. Those who perpetrate these crimes are the lowest of the low in our society and their victims will have no stronger advocate in the Senate to help ensure they have the justice they deserve. "I recognize that abortion, and particularly in the case of rape, is a very emotionally charged issue. But I believe deeply in the protection of all life and I do not believe that harming another innocent victim is the right course of action. I also recognize that there are those who, like my opponent, support abortion and I understand I may not have their support in this election.
"But I also believe that this election is about a wide range of very important issues, starting with the economy and the type of country we will be leaving our children and grandchildren. We've had 42 straight months of unacceptably high unemployment, trillion-dollar deficits, and Democratic leaders in Washington who are focused on growing government, instead of jobs. That is my primary focus in this campaign and while there are those who want to distract from that, knowing they cannot defend the Democrats' failed economic record of the last four years, that will continue to be my focus in the months ahead."

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/19/todd-akin-abortion-legitimate-rape_n_1807381.html?utm_hp_ref=todd-akin

 

Tennessee Republican denies claiming rape can’t cause pregnancy 28AUG12

THE fact that these men can be so callous and ignorant about rape speaks volumes about their ignorance about women, their bodies, and the physical and psychological damage rape inflicts on victims. To even suggest that a woman's body reacts to being raped in a way that doesn't allow her to become pregnant is so outrageous it defies understanding. What kind of person thinks this is possible? How do they develop that kind of twisted logic? It can only be because they have a deep seated loathing of women, and attitude that suggest they see women as less than human, beneath men in human development, less intelligent. The people who hold these views, and their supporters, are not only despicable, they are twisted and disgusting and a disgrace. God help the women in these mens lives if they are ever raped and become pregnant as a result, no doubt they will experience a more intense hell than the violence of rape itself brings.

 

 

Tennessee state Rep. Joe Carr (R) has denied claiming in Tampa on Tuesday that women could not become pregnant in cases of violent rape.
According to the Memphis Flyer, Carr said that rape halted the normal biological processes that occur during conception.
Carr’s comment came during a speech by GOP strategist Frank Luntz. Luntz had asked the crowd of delegates whether Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) should drop his bid for Senate after claiming women couldn’t become pregnant from a “legitimate rape.” Carr reportedly said that Akin shouldn’t step aside and that his views were accurate.
“Rep. Joe Carr has shown today what many of the women in the General Assembly have known for a long time — he is completely and totally unfit for office,” House Minority Whip Rep. Sherry Jones said after the news of Carr’s statement broke. “Claiming that women’s bodies possess the ability to ‘close themselves off’ from pregnancy in cases of violent rape is not only biologically inaccurate, it is offensive to each and every Tennessee woman who has ever been the victim of rape.”
But Carr denies ever saying that he agreed with Akin’s views on rape and pregnancy. Carr claimed he only said Akin should not drop his bid for Senate.
Akin’s outrageous comment created a national uproar and many prominent Republicans called on Akin to abandon his bid for Senate in Missouri, but he refused to drop out of the race against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill.
Democrats have attempted to link other Republicans, including Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Mitt Romney, to Akin.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/28/tennessee-republican-denies-claiming-rape-cant-cause-pregnancy/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29

9 Lies Republicans Tell About Women's Bodies

IT is amazing how ignorant some people are, and frightening they have been elected to political office, that doesn't reflect well on those who elected them. Here are 9 extremely ignorant lies repiglicans and tea-baggers are telling about women's bodies.....

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) apologized Tuesday to Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) for accusing her of lying about the gender breakdown of a contraception hearing panel, but plenty of real lies remain in the debate over women's health. Some are promoted by Republican lawmakers as they push legislation that limits reproductive rights, and others come from GOP presidential candidates and their surrogates.
1. Birth Control Causes Prostate Cancer.
Last month a New Hampshire lawmaker came up with a new reason the government should not require health insurance companies to provide contraception.
"As a man, would it interest you to know that Dr. Brownstein just published an article that links the pill to prostate cancer?” state Rep. Jeanine Notter (R) asked a male representative at the hearing, the Merrimack Patch reports.
"In the children that are born from these women?" he asked. Notter could not clearly explain the study or how the pill results in prostate cancer.
The study described in the newsletter of Dr. David Brownstein, a physician and holistic practitioner in Michigan, suggests men may ingest estrogen through environmental contamination, not in utero from mothers taking birth control. An author of the study told ABC News, "This is just a hypothesis-generating idea. Women should not be throwing away the pill because of this."
2. Abortion Causes Breast Cancer.
The New Hampshire House recently passed a bill that would require doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure can cause breast cancer. Here is an excerpt from the bill, sponsored by Notter:

Materials that inform the pregnant woman that there is a direct link between abortion and breast cancer. It is scientifically undisputed that full-term pregnancy reduces a woman’s lifetime risk of breast cancer. It is also undisputed that the earlier a woman has a first full-term pregnancy, the lower her risk of breast cancer becomes, because following a full-term pregnancy the breast tissue exposed to estrogen through the menstrual cycle is more mature and cancer resistant. In fact, for each year that a woman’s first full-term pregnancy is delayed, her risk of breast cancer rises 3.5 percent. The theory that there is a direct link between abortion and breast cancer builds upon this undisputed foundation. During the first and second trimesters of pregnancy the breasts develop merely by duplicating immature tissues. Once a woman passes the thirty-second week of pregnancy (third trimester), the immature cells develop into mature cancer resistant cells. When an abortion ends a normal pregnancy, the woman is left with more immature breast tissue than she had before she was pregnant.

There is no link between abortions and breast cancer, according to the World Health Organization, the American Cancer Society and other major health organizations. Similar provisions requiring doctors to make the abortion-breast cancer connection remain on the books in other state laws. Alaska, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas all inaccurately assert a risk in written counseling materials, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based reproductive health research organization.
3. Birth Control Is A Sex Pill.
Rush Limbaugh showed he has no understanding of how birth control pills work when he attacked Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student barred from testifying as a Democratic witness at a congressional hearing about the Obama administration's contraception policy. Limbaugh called Fluke a “slut” for needing lots of birth control to manage her sex life.
“She wants to be paid to have sex,” Limbaugh said. “She's having so much sex she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex.”
Rick Santorum has also said that contraception encourages a bad kind of sex. Last year, in an interview with the Evangelical blog Caffeinated Thoughts, Santorum warned of the "dangers of contraception:"

"It’s not OK because it’s a license to do things in the sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. They’re supposed to be within marriage, they are supposed to be for purposes that are, yes, conjugal, but also [inaudible], but also procreative. That’s the perfect way that a sexual union should happen. We take any part of that out, we diminish the act."

Most women who have had sex have used contraception. Birth control pills -- which are taken daily, regardless of how frequently a woman has sex -- may also be taken to manage endometriosis, ovarian cysts, acne or other health problems. A recent bill in Arizona proposed penalizing women who use the pill for non-medical reasons.
4. Abortion Industry Is “Selling Abortions.”
A Republican state legislator in Arizona last week wrote in an email to a constituent that she wanted to force women seeking abortions to watch the procedure first.
"Personally I'd like to make a law that mandates a woman watch an abortion being performed prior to having a 'surgical procedure,'" state Rep. Terri Proud (R) wrote. The constituent responded by email that she was "speechless" and after a baffling exchange with Proud, released the emails to the media. Facing national outrage, Proud issued a statement:

For too long, Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry have placed selling abortions above the health and safety of women. My message to a constituent last week emphasized my concerns with how abortion providers have not been honest with women about the realities of abortion, and the short and long-term risks of this dangerous surgical procedure.

The notion that Planned Parenthood baits women into unwanted pregnancies by providing ineffective contraception then profits off the abortions is nothing new, but it's as outrageous as it sounds. Abortions constitute 3 percent of Planned Parenthood's services, and the organization estimates it prevents more than 220,000 abortions each year by providing contraception. Because Planned Parenthood is not allowed to use federal funds for abortions, defunding the program may limit contraception services and result in more abortions.
5. Women Can't Get Pregnant From Rape.
Just before Idaho's Senate passed a mandatory ultrasound bill last week, bill sponsor made some startling comments about abortion and rape.
"Rape and incest was used as a reason to oppose this," said state Sen. Chuck Winder (R). "I would hope that when a woman goes in to a physician with a rape issue, that physician will indeed ask her about perhaps her marriage, was this pregnancy caused by normal relations in a marriage or was it truly caused by a rape. I assume that's part of the counseling that goes on.”
It wasn't the first time a lawmaker has suggested that women seeking abortions may lie about rape. Some anti-abortion activists actually believe that rape cannot result in pregnancy. Buzzfeed dug up a series of bizarre statements Republicans have made about pregnancy, rape, juices not flowing and more. Here's one:

The odds that a woman who is raped will get pregnant are "one in millions and millions and millions," said state Rep. Stephen Freind, R-Delaware County, the Legislature's leading abortion foe.
The reason, Freind said, is that the traumatic experience of rape causes a woman to "secrete a certain secretion" that tends to kill sperm.
Two Philadelphia doctors specializing in human reproduction characterized Freind's contention as scientifically baseless.

According to Planned Parenthood, about 5 percent of rapes result in pregnancy, and providing all rape victims with emergency contraception could prevent more than 22,000 unwanted pregnancies a year.
6. Prenatal Testing Leads To Abortion.
Rick Santorum made prenatal testing a campaign issue last month when he declared the tests are designed to "cull the ranks of the disabled in our society" by encouraging abortions.
“Amniocentesis does, in fact, result more often than not in this country in abortions,” Santorum, who has a severely disabled daughter, said on Face the Nation. “That is a fact.”
In fact, more than 90 percent of amniocenteses tests result in normal diagnoses, and half of fetuses diagnosed with severe abnormalities -- about 5 percent of those tested -- are aborted, according to PolitiFact.
A campaign spokeswoman for Obama condemned Santorum's comments as "misinformed and dangerous" and pointed out that the tests help women have safer deliveries and healthier babies.
7. HPV Vaccine Causes Retardation.
Back when Rick Perry was campaigning for president, his rivals attacked him for signing an executive order mandating the human papillomavirus vaccine for young girls, and misinformation quickly spread. Michele Bachmann insinuated that the vaccine causes mental retardation, while Santorum spoke out against "having little girls inoculated at the force and compulsion of the government."
The vaccine is safe and effective in preventing cervical cancer caused by certain strains of HPV, and Perry's 2007 executive order, which was overturned by the state legislature, would have allowed parents to opt out of having their daughters vaccinated. Dr. Renata Arrington-Sanders, a professor at Johns Hopkins University medical school, told HuffPost's Laura Bassett:

"The HPV vaccine has been shown to be safe and well-tolerated based on multiple medical reports that have been submitted through government databases. It's unfortunate that this particular vaccine is surrounded by a lot of controversy just because it's been labeled as an STD-prevention vaccine. We have similar vaccines, such as one for hepatitis B, that are also used in a mandated approach and have shown very successful rates with prevention."

8. Plan B Causes Abortions.
The debate over the Obama administration's contraception policy has yielded some puzzling claims about birth control and Plan B. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) addressed the House in February, urging his colleagues to reverse Obama's mandate for health insurance coverage of "abortion-inducing drugs:"

In recent days, Americans of every faith and political persuasion have mobilized in objection to a rule put forward by the Obama administration that constitutes an unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country. This rule would require faith-based employers –- including Catholic charities, schools, universities, and hospitals -– to provide services they believe are immoral. Those services include sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and devices, and contraception.

Michele Bachmann called Plan B an abortion pill when she incorrectly criticized Obama for making the drug available over-the-counter -- an FDA recommendation the administration and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius rejected last year. "The president can put abortion pills for girls 8 years of age, 11 years of age, on the bubblegum aisle," Bachmann said at a "pro-life" town hall in December.
Contraceptives, emergency or not, prevent pregnancy. They don't cause abortions. Plan B works in the same way and with the same ingredients as birth control pills, just at a higher dosage, and does nothing to stop the development of a fetus.
9. Your Fetus Is Just Fine.
The Arizona Senate passed a bill this month to protect doctors from "wrongful birth" lawsuits -- effectively allowing them to withhold information that may lead a patient to get an abortion. HuffPost's John Celock reports:

Sen. Nancy Barto (R-Phoenix) told the Claims Journal that she sponsored the law because she did not want claimants to blame a doctor for a baby born with disabilities. Under the provisions of her bill, a doctor could not be sued for medical malpractice if the doctor withholds information from a mother about a child's potential health issues that could influence her decision to have an abortion. In addition, a lawsuit could not be filed on the child's behalf regarding a disability.

Kansas lawmakers have considered similar legislation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/republican-lies-womens-bodies_n_1374027.html?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Daily%20Brief&utm_campaign=daily_brief