Help, Help! There’s an Elephant in My Uterus!
Alaska has become the latest state to fall victim to the Republican War on Women.
It’s difficult to imagine today that Alaska was once at the forefront of women’s rights, and reproductive choice, but in 1913, the Alaska Territorial Legislature gave women the right to vote as its first official act. In 1970, a successful state-wide grassroots movement to reform Alaska’s abortion law, made Alaska the third state in the country to make abortion legal and safe, three years before Roe v. Wade. Alaska has a proud history of individual choice, privacy, and non-governmental interference in its citizens’ personal lives.
So, it’s also difficult to imagine how it would be that today’s “conservatives” who claim to support this notion of a small government that stays out of your business, and out of your healthcare would be eagerly dismantling that philosophy in the Alaska legislature. Well… only when it comes to women.
We’ve seen legislation across the country that seeks to disempower women from making choices about their own bodies, their healthcare, and their reproduction. We’ve even seen places like Virginia and Texas propose mandatory ultrasound bills that would actually force women to undergo invasive medical procedures that have nothing to do with their medical care, and everything to do with politics. Conservatives who wail about the government getting between you and your doctor apparently find no problem legislating mandatory, unnecessary, invasive, and expensive medical procedures for women, who are in the process of making a difficult and perhaps painful decision.
Forced Ultrasounds
Alaska is now on board. The “Extreme Team” of right wing Republicans starring Cathy Giessel (R), Fred Dyson (R), John Coghill (R), Charlie Huggins (R) (and their token DINO Donny Olson “D”) have sponsored a forced ultrasound bill in the Alaska legislature. These are the group of four Republican ideologues who decided not to work with the rest of the bipartisan legislature, broke their crayons and now sit pouting, in the self-inflicted minority corner.
…SB 191, mandates that the physician perform an ultrasound regardless of its medical necessity prior to performing an abortion—even though the Alaska Supreme Court has stated repeatedly that Alaska laws may not place unnecessary burdens on a woman’s right to an abortion. Forcing doctors to perform ultrasounds for political and not medical reasons is the definition of government intrusion.
Senator Dyson also tried to get a similar bill passed in 2009 stating that a forced ultrasound was “intended to ensure that a woman’s decision whether to abort is a measured, not emotional, one.” We can’t just have women making decisions the way they think is best, now can we? They must be saved from themselves via forced medical procedures. You know how emotional they can be.
But wait, there’s more!
No More Full Disclosure of Options
Sarah Palin appointee, and fellow church member Wes Keller has also introduced a bill to eliminate public funding for abortion in most cases.
HB363, which will be heard on Thursday, forbids full disclosure of pregnancy options and referrals for abortions, in flagrant violation of requirements made by federal funding laws. But Abortion is a fundamental right in Alaska, as protected by two State Supreme Court rulings in1997 and 2001. Any law limiting access, particularly one such as HB363 that targets poor women, is an attack on our Alaskan values: individual freedom from government interference, privacy and fair treatment under the law.
No worries if you’re wealthy. You’ll be fine. If not, then you shouldn’t have gotten impregnated in the first place. NO we don’t want to help you out with birth control, and NO we don’t trust your medical decisions. NO, we don’t want you to be on public assistance, and NO we don’t want to provide you with prenatal care, or healthcare for your baby, or food stamps, or welfare or pre-K care. NO, we don’t want to fully fund public schools either. So good luck with the kid. Next time, don’t be so poor and immoral.
Abortion Permission Slips from Men
And if you’re not fully convinced yet that Alaska is the next front in the GOP’s war on women, you just have to listen to State Rep. Alan Dick. He said in a House Health and Social Services Committee Hearing last week that he doesn’t believe that when a woman is pregnant, it’s really “her pregnancy.” As a matter of fact, he would advocate for criminalizing women who have an abortion without the permission via written signature from the man who impregnated her. He stated, “If I thought that the man’s signature was required… required, in order for a woman to have an abortion, I’d have a little more peace about it…” He didn’t say whether a rapist would be able to send his signature by fax from prison, or not. But he’ll have “peace” and women will require a permission slip for their own bodies.
Speak Out
If you are an Alaskan – woman or man – and you are outraged by this, take action now and tell Alaska legislators to vote NO on HB 363 on Thursday.
And to my fellow Alaskan women – remember, at this point you still have the right to vote, and the right and ability to voice your opinion loudly. Use them.
Well there already is a society where woman don’t have basic civil rights or liberty – they are called the Taliban! Also there already is a country where your employer is intimately involved in your contraception – its called China. What is hypocritical is that conservatives claim Obama is bringing Sha’ria Law and socialism to the US; however these actions against women speak volumes of their intentions and overall lack of knowledge of American freedoms, the constitution and the civil rights of women. Sad days.
Isn’t this the same internal ultrasound test that Planned Parenthood uses when determining whether or not it’s a late term abortion? I know there are the “belly ultrasound tests”, but for late term abortion clients they use that paddle thingy because of it’s accuracy.
Just saying….
Simply….it’s already been in use for quite some time by abortion places. And required I think. (Doctors want to protect themselves from lawsuits).
…but, actually, no one really cares , do they. It’s better to run off the cliff, than to actually think about what you are protesting. Both sides of this issue actually…
All lemmings.
“Ring the bell….begin to salivate…” — Pavlov would have been proud (of himself…not you).
Actually, people do care. Clearly.
It’s better not to legislate medical procedures. Period. AKM
Saw a familiar link on Crooks and Liars. (Hint – Brian)
I have yet to see any writing or legal opinions on what happens when these laws run up against state and Federal regulations concerning patient’s rights. (Wikipedia has good discussion.)
The two major elements of those rights are the right to privacy and the right to refuse treatment.
There is also a right and requirement to be informed which some of these new state laws run up against by requiring the physician to lie or intentionally withhold health care information.
So within a given state which law prevails, the patient right’s laws, or the forced rape laws. Then the next step is will the SCOTUS allow state laws to over ride the federal patient’s rights regulations.
Did we miss the memo that we aren’t people anymore? Seriously.
In Georgia a legislator compares women to cows, chickens and pigs. In Illinois they are passing women’s health issues (anti-women’s health care-read: uterus) through the Agriculture committee, and now Alaska thinks we need a man’s permission? wtf?
Smaller government. Small enough to fit up our vagina and into our uterus. Dang elephants. We must use our votes to rid ourselves of these invasive crotch critters.
Alaskans–Please be as vocal with the Legislature as you are on this blog! The hearing for House Bill 363 is today at 3:00 p.m. at your local Legislative Information Office building. The call in number 1-855-463-5009. Make sure to ask for House Health and Social Services. This bill is being rushed through and is intended to cut all state funding for low income Alaskans, with only very narrow exceptions. This particular committee is also planning future ways to constrict the definition of “medically necessary” as much as possible. This bill will also prohibit public facilities and institutions from providing abortions or providing training for them. Additionally, it bans counseling and referrals for abortions by any organization that receives state funds. This is wholly designed to restrict access to abortion down to zero and keep women in the dark about their options.
I’m not understanding this medically necessary non-sense. Can just anyone perform an abortion? Am I allowed to go to the nearest clinic and perform the procedure-afterall,I have been witness to and participated in pulling stillborn calves from their mothers? Can I prescribe a pill or an injection to facillitate an abortion? I was of the belief that doctors and/or specifically,medically trained professionals are the ones allowed to perform these procedures, which common sense dictates that these would be defined as medically necessary procedures.
Mikey- this is an attempt to co-opt decisions made by medically trained professionals and narrow the field of what is called “medically necessary” to something akin to what-makes-me-feel-ok-about-you-suffering. Pretty scientific, eh?
Kinky sounds better. Come on, make mikey suffer. Oooh I like that!
Mike, you have entered the Twilight Zone, inhabited by insurance companies, now apparently inhabited by legislators who have NO medical training, and from the sounds of some of them, no Christian training. They, the insurance companies and now it sounds like legislatures, stress their definition of medical necessity.
My definition is 1) problem, 2) care sought for problem with professional, trained, licensed health care provider, 3) who diagnoses and treats problem.
People don’t go to health care providers just because they are bored, they have problems that they want care for. And the “small government” politicians should stay the H*** out of my doctor’s office.
i have asked many times about a fetus dividing, if it has a soul at conception what about the soul, does it divide in half, what if one of the half divides again, is there a half sould and 2 quarter souls? if you have twins just think, each has a half soul.
Think about this.
They, REPUBLICANS, don’t care if we are raped or die. Just was long as that baby is born.
Not only do they, REPUBLICANS, hate women, they do not care about our husbands or our living children or our families. They just don’t give a damn.
Rick santorum and his wife made the decision that she could receive antibiotics during her pregnancy to save her life. The fetus died.
Yet, he would not allow you or your husband the same courtesy to save YOUR life.
You would be allowed, no FORCED to die.
Think very very carefully about this ladies.
Republicans what to take our woman back to the Bad old day’s of the Comstock Laws.
what the hell’s going on with Republicans. Republicans share look like thare dropping acid. Thar Poor Judgment After Dropping Acid, going after our woman and tying takeaway woman’s rights
as a man I’m piss off at the god dame Republicans.
you got to fight now … or Republicans will have new Comstock Laws for all of our woman …!
I find it infuriating that many of these legislators who are pushing these ultrasound bills and claiming that it’s to allow the women to make a ‘fully informed decision’ are also pushing to permit, or even force, doctors to lie to their patients or withhold information that might encourage them to seek an abortion. They’re clearly very selective about which kind of ‘information’ the woman should be given…ONLY the information that might shame her into maintaining the pregnancy.
These bills have nothing to do with information and everything to do with humiliation, intimidation and fear. AND denying women their legal rights.
I just listened to the whole audio of the “Dick” hearing from 03/13/12. Here’s another quote from Rep. Dick:
“We talk about a woman who is a victim of rape, and yet uh, that’s physical rape and yet there are some people in this room and maybe in the audience that feel ethically violated by having to participate in our state funding abortions that violate our conscience. In the case of rape a woman is physically violated. In this case there is other people who are ethically and morally violated by what is ‘going on, so I would like to say that if we are going to have a doctor say, `ok I think this is medically necessary’, I’ve been to doctors before who are very quick to say, well I need another doctors opinion. They didn’t want to get involved in being the only one involved in making a decision. So I think if there was at least 2 or 3 doctors all concurring that this was very very necessary for the life of the woman and/or the child, then I could live with that, but to just have one doctor say I think its necessary that hangs us all out in a place we don’t want to be.”
So Dick also believes that sexual assault is the same as someone’s disagreement of opinion a subject. He also believes that women’s doctors are liars who can’t be trusted and that a panel of up to 3 doctors needs to decide if a woman is deserving of a medically necessary abortion.
The Right-to-Lifers were ready to go for this hearing, outnumbering any other voices. And what a surprise–many of them from the Valley who obviously new Keller. In particular, we have the Anchorage Tea Party doctor that doesn’t seem to have any actual patients to see who shows up as their lone “expert”–Ilona Farr. She insists that the majority of abortions are elective, that she’s only seen one instance in her practice (she’s not an OB/Gyn) that she felt was medically necessary and alluded that very few are. The example she gave was a woman with congenital heart disease. The woman did not abort and died. Hmmmm, how does that support depriving women of a medically necessary abortion? Oh, lets see–It doesn’t. She also insists that all women who have miscarriages and abortions are emotionally damaged for life and for this reason, abortions should be allowed–you know, because all of us women are so incapable of making reasoned decisions and managing our emotions.
Clover Simon deserves some sort of medal for having to face these idiots and listen for hours to the preaching and pontificating. She was amazingly composed, even when Dick was asking her opinion on permission slips from impregnators.
I should have said re: the Farr testimony ….for this reason, abortions should not be allowed…
I mistyped.
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_audio.asp?session=27&chamber=H&comm=HSS&date1=3/13/2012&start=1507
Yes , Ms Simon was amazing.
I asked Rep. Alan Dick via fb: If it wasn’t my pregnancy, why do I have to pay the bills??
He blocked my account after that. 🙁
Alaska is getting as crazy as some of the reddest states of the lower 48. And in response to Alaskan State Rep. Alan Dick (appropriate name) who wants women to get written permission from the man who impregnated her to get an abortion … WOMEN ARE NOT PROPERTY, YOU JACKASS!
Rick Perry is getting hammered on his FB page,
http://www.facebook.com/GovernorPerry
I’m also wondering if they want to force an ultrasound on us, and they don’t want to use public funds to pay for abortions, who is going to pay for their forced ultrasound? Our lawmakers are looking disorganized here. We can fight this one.
This is an unfunded man date. The man date from Hell you never wanted and are about to have.compliments of rwnj who feel it is their business to mind your business.
In most states that I’ve read about, the woman will be expected (read forced) to pay for a test that is medically unnecessary and that both she and her doctor don’t want performed.
Just one more roadblock to keep poor women from being able to get a (for now) legal medical procedure. ‘Cause they should be made to pay for their wanton ways, the little strumpets!
Oh, save us all from the righteous sanctimoniousness of the right wing!
I really do not understand why the medical community remains so silent about this issue. Any remotely invasive procedure is problematic during pregnancy so why the silence? Have the gynecologists of the country so little concern for women (the source of their livelihood) that they just do not care?
Maureen Dowd weighs in:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/dowd-dont-tread-on-us.html?_r=1&WT.mc_id=NYT-E-I-NYT-E-AT-0321-L27&nl=el
Well, this is interesting. I asked Representative Paul Seaton on Feb. 22 live on KBBI Homer Public Radio if he knew of any legislation being considered that would limit my right to an abortion. He was obviously unprepared for the question; to be fair it came straight out of left field.
Rep. Seaton said he didn’t know of any such legislation….mentioned that he is on the House Health & Social Services Committee…..said he doesn’t support the government getting between a woman and her health care. The next caller came on, asked their question, and Mr. Seaton came back to my topic to reiterate that the government shouldn’t be involved.
Fickle me went away thinking he wouldn’t push anti-abortion legislation. I felt reassured that there wasn’t anything brewing, according to the Representative. I WAS DUPED.
The first thing I want to ask Rep. Seaton is why he claimed he didn’t know about a bill in Senate HESS that restricts my right to an abortion when I asked him live on the radio about it on Feb. 22. Yesterday I discovered that on Feb. 8, Senate Bill191 (ultrasound bill) was introduced and moved straight into senate HESS. Do not the House HESS and the Senate HESS ever powwow? Do they keep secrets from each other about legislation they’re committee-ing over?
Next I will ask Representative Paul Seaton why his committee (House HESS) put forth a bill 19 days after his comments on KBBI that in fact, DOES limit my right to an abortion. This is House Bill 363 (cutting public funding) that would limit abortion access for poor women. If I read the proposed bill right, it would be illegal to use your student loan money to pay for your abortion. It also prohibits the use of public facilities for abortions. How do they define a public facility I wonder?
This is the situation from my couch. Please write to Rep. Seaton — better yet, use the Mudflats link to send an e-mail to all of the House HESS committee members at once (takes 2 seconds) — before tomorrow, Thursday, March 22. The House HESS committee is going to address the bill they’re tagging the “Abortion Subsidy Prohibition Act.” Please join me in writing a straightforward, respectful e-mail to these people who are trying to FAST TRACK ANTI-ABORTION LEGISLATION. Cut and paste and pass the word on quickly. We need to nip this in the bud, women.
HEALTH & SOCIAL SERVICES STANDING COMMITTEE * Meeting Documents
Mar 22 Thursday 3:00 PM CAPITOL 106
*+HB 363 NO PUBLIC FUNDS/FACILITIES FOR ABORTION TELECONFERENCED
Citation needed.
The bill is posted here: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill_text.asp?hsid=HB0363A&session=27
and there is nothing in it about needing permission from anyone.
Are you claiming that Dick said this, or that he is proposing this. Either way, cite your sources. This story is making its’ way through the liberal blogosphere and every post I find leads back here. If you are going to have a story like this, you should have some evidence to back up your claim. To do otherwise makes all of us look bad.
Citations are important. The left should not just be making stuff up to support our views. Leave that to Fox News.
I’m not making stuff up. Why would you just assume that? The quote is from Rep. Dick’s statements in the Alaska House Health and Social Services Committee Hearing on 3/13/12. AKM
I’m not assuming anything. I’m also not trying to be offensive or contrary or anything. But if you have a source, you should cite it. I realize you’re just a blogger, but if your blog entry is going to be picked up all over the place it should be better than he said she said type of stuff.
Basically I am holding you to the same standard I would to anyone I don’t know who is telling me something: prove it. Nothing personal. I just don’t know you from Ann Coulter. Until you do so, it’s ‘made up stuff’
If you have a link to an article or a video or something where he is saying what you said he did, please post it.
Also, I did just read the bill that you are telling people to come out against and I didn’t see anything in there requiring anyone’s permission for anything. It seems a garden variety ‘don’t spend public money for stuff we don’t like’ bill that always comes out of the Republican party. (Funny how my tax money still goes to bomb foreign countries and keep people in prison forever and to torture people but I don’t get a say in that.).
If it’s just Jackass Republican spouting off at the mouth it’s nothing new. If he’s actually trying to pass a bill that says you need to get permission to manage your uterus or he’s trying to insert an amendment to do that very thing people need to know about it. But that’s not what i’m seeing in the text of the bill. Please clarify your claim.
http://gavelalaska.org/media/?media_id=HHSS120313A
32 minutes in and 58 minutes in
get over yourself.
saying you are not here to be contrary or anything and snarking off about “just a blogger” didn’t get you started off very spiffy round here
Get over yourself.
If Ann Coulter made an assertion of “Obama is a muslim” on her blog (I assume Skeletor has one) and provided no proof beyond her word would you accept it as the truth?
I don’t particular care if you like me or care if i”m ‘spiffy’ or not. All I know is I’ve been seeing this post all over the place and making an assertion and providing no proof to back it up. “just a blogger” wasn’t meant to be insulting. I’ve just heard that claim far too many times in this situation. “I’m just a blogger, not a reporter.” It’s BS… if you’re making a claim and expect to be taken seriously it’s up to you to back up your claim. It’s really that simple.
get over yourself.
no thank-you-Pi-for a link to that which I requested, which Alaskans know how to find already?
no golly gee I’m such truth finder I maybe forget my manners in someone else’s place of business sometimes?
no shucks I talk down to people all the time and I don’t mean anything by it?
Pffft.
AKM- I have sinned . I have violated the commenting rules and been snotty to another guest here. Please know that I understand this means you can delete this as counterproductive to measured conversation and keeping a place where folks can feel comfortable. I apologize.
How about a hearty ‘Are all Alaskans as smarmy and douchy as you?’
>> Please note that I am not a journalist, and do not claim that anything I write is neutral, balanced or impartial. This is an opinion site. I link to sources, I write what I feel, and I give anyone who finds the content distasteful complete permission to free themselves of this blog and go find one they like better.
Hence ‘just a blogger’
I am not an Alaskan. I am someone who read this article quoted on eight different sites as though the Republicans in your legislature were forcing women to get permission slips from sperm donors to have abortions and I decided to investigate further. I do that before I repeat an article to other people. I did a bunch of googling when I first read the re-posted posting and the only thing I could find about it -was this article-. That is why I came here.
Upon finding said original posting, no such thing was said but I could see how people could be confused by the wording and lack of citation so I asked for clarification. What I got was a bunch of condescension by you and a reasoned response by AKMuckraker.
I’ll thank you for the link that should have already been supplied. But beyond that Pffft to you too. I realize that Blogland is a series of very insular communities that circle the wagons any time someone doesn’t immediately fawn over everyone….but i don’t think ‘Get over yourself’ and ‘You’re too dumb to find stuff buried in our state legislatures sites because he’s not Alaskan’ is a response that is all that conducive to sharing information. Which presumably is the purpose of this site in the first place.
If i’m not welcome here. That’s fine. No skin off my nose. I doubt I’ll ever be back here and I’ve been dissed before for not just trusting random people at their word before.
Have a nice day.
nope- I’m one in a million and as we have fewer than 1 million residents I’m one of a kind 🙂
whatever your REASONS for stopping by, your words come across as a concern troll more and more.
it pretty much works here to simply ask for links without all the extra gobbeldygook about this that and the other. when AKM has time she adds the links and updates the post with an “oops”.
that is all the wagon circling i’m into.
i respect and admire AKM but i quite often disagree with her as i am considerably left of her.
but sure, let’s chalk it up to smarmy and douchy. the post-menopausal outfall of not enough estrogen, whatever.
sincerely,
smarmy douchy hippie commie liberal wierdo Pi
I didn’t claim it was in the bill. I said that he said it. And he did. I’ve also now told you where he said it, and when. I was clear about the content of both bills I discussed.
You claimed he said it, offered no proof to back up your claim and then immediately went on to tell people to call and email their representatives to vote against a bill as though the two were directly related. They’re not.
Unfortunately that’s the exact what way it’s being picked up. Every site I’ve seen a reflection of this post so far is conflating this Republican douchebag’s words with the bill as though the bill contains a provision requiring the father’s permission to get an abortion. Look in your own comments and you’ll see the same reaction. I was merely calling for you to clarify.
Well- please be sure you take your internet police routine to every site which has taken this up and share the links to audio and visual confirmation of what Mr Dick said. And please be sure to lecture all of them also, too.
This “douchebag’s words” are at the heart of this latest run here in Alaska to redefine what is a medically necessary abortion, which the state MUST pay for, and having a a Rep who thinks this way in one of the seats which can pass this crap out of committee matters a great deal. That others did not bother to look at the legislation nor the context is rather on them, eh?
We know what this is here.
AKM- I have sinned again. I have violated the commenting rules and been snotty to another guest here. Please know that I understand this means you can delete this as counterproductive to measured conversation and keeping a place where folks can feel comfortable. I apologize.
Thank you so much AKM. I had asked for the source earlier also, not because I didn’t trust you, but because I wanted to listen or read it for myself and just couldn’t find it. I wanted to hear it within the full context. Good job!
http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_audio.asp?session=27&chamber=H&comm=HSS&date1=3/13/2012&start=1507
For Alaskans who don’t know you can access audio files on Basis ( and visitors from somewhere or other who haven’t figured the ponderous BASIS out)
Please note the permission-of-the-man-involved remarks are made in relation to the testimony by the Alaska Planned Parenthood speaker.
Oh, just majorly appropriate in light of what she said, eh?
1- Mr Dick – it is obvious you are thinking with that “other head” we so often hear a certain type of man describe as the operant “reasoning” behind many of their decisions. I hate to go all hierarchical on you but, really, hon, at least emotions are lodged in the brain, albeit a portion many call the “primitive” brain, and as such take precedence over bits and pieces which don’t respond to commands of that organ we love to say sets us apart from other critters. So, really, until you register that “other head” for full inclusion in discussion of what constitutes moral responsibility to the individual and the community, I’d suggest you shut up. We have plenty of men who can think with their real head and don’t need anymore of your stoopidity .
2- Mr Dyson- see above. The idea that requiring women to undergo a traumatic experience to make a “measured” decision is good community policy is rather interesting especially when the experience is dictated by law and not what we already know about human beings. Exclusion by law of full information to women seeking an abortion really undercuts big pieces of this foolishness but it is the notion that being exposed to YOUR understanding of what her to-be-aborted fetus’ humanity “really” is will command a measured-decision you approve of which really rankles.
I recognize that the old saw about women being most fully under the control of emotions and hormones as opposed to reason still has adherents and you appear to be one of them. However, I would submit that women who are bullied and cowed into carrying a child are not fit, in a very real sense, to be parents . Parents are a child’s anchor. Parents who can be pushed hither and yon cannot do their job properly.
Your assumption that this law would result in measured-decisions is flawed on so many levels it is hard to get at all of them but I sure don’t want anyone to carry a child to term because some butthead hides information, controls information, and requires a phony prescribed script to be the basis for a measured -decision.
AKM- I apologize for calling a State Senator a butthead but the very idea that invading a woman’s person and regulating information given to her will result in a “measured decision”, a presumed reasoned decision and not an emotional one is just about the most disgusting and stoopid thing I have heard in a long time.
If that is really what “reason” is presumed to be I say we run like hell from it.
Extremely well put,although I fear it may be way above the normal rwnj’s ability to comprehend.
This is more than outrageous. There are just not enough words to describe my feelings about these maniacs. The Kansas bill goes much farther than just disclosing the names of women who have abortions, they give their home addresses, their work places (if any), their marital status, their ages and many other private and personal information about them. That directly puts both the Dr. and the women at immediate risk of harm from those insane Dr. killers in the name of Gawd.
Not to confine their war just to women, Senator Dyson just introduced a bill that would require a Dr. to administer CPR to a dying patient, even those who have DNRs. He’s claiming that’s for people who have signed their DNRs & want to change their minds, even though the DNRs have not been withdrawn.
http://www.adn.com/2012/03/19/2380414/bill-would-revamp-do-not-resuscitate.html#storylink=misearch
You wonder what will happen when someone in the legislator’s family is at death’s door and whose final wishes are not being followed. These crazy legislators just don’t think, do they?
No, they don’t. I read the article, and don’t understand Dyson at all. I guess the R after his name has addled his brain, if he ever had one.
Dr/Sen Dyson is conflicted and should give up eother his medical practice or his legislative career and devote his full attention to one or the other. Apparently,all rwnj pols are M.D.s,they all seem to have god complexes as well. They all seem not to listen to their constituents,but rather a mythical creation that gives them their marching orders.
the argument is not about abortion, it is about control. men fear strong women they are unable to control.
Meant “for”
They hate women from their freedom!
Rep. Dick reminds me of the old Fly By Night Club song by Mr. Whitekeys that included words something like “anything dumb you can do, an Alaskan can do dumber.” As states keep outdoing each other in how they can offend women, Rep. Dick wants to be first.
I think Alaska was the first state to ratify the ERA. Different legislature in the late 70’s.
So…With all of the attacks on women in general happening lately, i have to wonder: This is all smoke and mirrors to hide something that is happening behind the scenes. I wonder what it is??? A bit frightening eh?
VernD
With all the comments made on this page—-I keep wondering about the wives of these idiot men who are making these laws. Do they agree with their husbands? How are they being treated in their marriage? The pervert that is running for Pres—-must have a wife that agrees with him?
I just plain don’t get it. The wives must have a screw loose.
Also, some of the states trying to bring this in are burying in the law a provision that says the various medical personnel involved in the ultrasounds do not have to disclose to the woman if they detect anything wrong with the fetus.
This would all stop-in fact men would be the first to use birth control if we did this: When a male is born, he is given a DNA test that is stored forever with his social security number and other identifying information. When a child is born, the DNA is run and the father is automatically identified and the pre-determined percentage of his monthly income is routed to that child. This goes until the child is 18. So if a man is married to someone else, a preacher, a bigot, it doesn’t matter. He will pay for the child he fathered. I wonder when I see these self righteous men trying to de-fund birth control- how many kids have they secretly fathered?
Seriously, one has to ask, why the focus on controlling a woman’s private parts? Yet, there is a huge deadbeat dad problem and not a peep about it.
I read about this proposal and I think it’s a good idea. I believe that many abortions come about because the “father” skips out on his responsibility for the pregnancy. It takes two to make a baby.
This bill HB 363 comes up in the House HSS Committee on Thursday at 3pm. To see the documents they have posted for it go here: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_documents.asp?chamber=HHSS&session=27&bill=&date1=20120322&time2=1500
For a list of Committee members go here: http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_com_info.asp?comm=HHSS&session=27
Do Repug women vote for these pin heads?
TEH stupid boggles the mind.
Great Post.! You just can’t make this stuff up!! I’m outraged at the absolute nonsense of a dick’s comments. , and he’s my rep.!!!! I’ll have to email his office, promise I will be nice to him. I won”t put in the subject the one quote liked the best. ” Keep dick out of my vagina”.That quote says it all.
t
Maybe a good bumper sticker?
To, you know, kindly cover up all those other obnoxious ones being driven around town.
Waiting to vote may be waiting too long. I think this may need to be taken to the streets in as large of numbers as we can muster. Make the anti-Palin march look like a joke.
What in the world is happening in this country? Where have these people and their ridiculous ideas come from? I can’t believe this is 2012! is this what homeschooling and Jesus camp accomplishes? Ladies it is time to get off out laurels and make ourselves heard. This election is mug importante. Just think, the next President will get to make another Supreme Court pick. That should scare all of us.
-Ayerishgrl
I suspect that, with all of these types of bills being passed around the country, there will be many more babies abandoned in dumpsters and on church steps in the coming years by desperate women whose choices have been eliminated.
These laws clearly demonstrate that voting for local and state legislators is as important, if not more, than voting for President. These are the lawmakers that can make our lives a living hell if allowed to.
Whatcha gonna do when dumpsters are outlawed? When dumpsters are outlawed,only outlaws will have dumpsters..
The Republican party is about six months away from coming out for female circumcision.
Boy am I hot. AKM, thanks for getting my bp up today.
Just called Wes Keller’s office, it started out ok, but went down hill fast. After talking to two people, I told them I would like to talk to the idiot Keller. Of course, they said after I called him an idiot I could not talk with him.
I am sitting here angry and laughing at the same time.
Guess they knew who “Idiot” was!! ha
Chuck Winder, Idaho Lawmaker, Suggests Women Use Rape As Excuse For Abortions
“The sponsor of an Idaho mandatory ultrasound bill, state Sen. Chuck Winder, made some highly controversial comments Monday during his closing arguments, suggesting women might falsely use rape as an excuse to obtain an abortion.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/chuck-winder-rape-abortions_n_1366994.html
Thank you for alerting us to this! It’s upsetting to read what’s going on in other states and enraging to discover the same kind of outrageousness happening here.
Not long ago, I heard someone offer a useful way to think about the embryo vs. baby question. It goes something like this:
Say you work in a fertilization clinic that implants embryos so women can get pregnant. Your colleague brings her baby to work one day. A fire starts, and you have just a moment to get out safely. Would you rescue the six embryos awaiting implantation, or would you rescue the baby?
There’s several uterused-Americans voicing their concerns on Rep. Dick’s Facebook page. Here’s my contribution: http://cognitivedissonance.tumblr.com/post/19645218254/my-contribution-to-rep-alan-dicks-facebook-page
#5 of The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism:
Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
http://www.rense.com/general37/fascism.htm
I hope everyone reads this article. Thank you.
I must admit I am absolutely gobsmacked about what is happening in America today regarding the war on women and their health. I even had a few suggestions of my own on how to respond to this madness.
http://austinisafecker.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/dear-mr-republican-i-want-to-tell-you-about-my-vagina/
Paul Fanlund-editor of the Madison Capital Times paper-says “This crusade against women is simply definitive proof that the Wisconsin Republican Party has moved beyond the far right to,well,perhaps the Deep South.” I strongly believe that once a woman has determined that a single cell pre-person is floating around trying to avoid paying back womb rent,that pre-person should be forcibly retrieved from disgusting living conditions and brought out into the light of day and forced to find a job and support itself. Afterall,are we not right thinking,patriotic Mericuns who wouldn’t conceive(pun intended) of forcing pre-persons to live in dark,wet caves like Al-Qaeda. Isn’t that the reason we occupy Afghanistan- to force their citizens out of caves and into the 17th century? Talibanistan,whether here or over there,is all about protecting radical religious beliefs and if you refuse to get right,you get left,as in liberals.
For the last few years, I’ve been saying to all and sundry that men should have no right to address any matters relating to rape or abortion. In my mind they are the perpetrators of both. I assume that most women seeking abortions for reasons other than health are doing so because the putative father has reneged on his responsibility. You know how they suddenly claim to be “trapped.” Well, I don’t think the dirty old Republican men in all of our state legislatures and in Congress have any right to make rules about abortion or to define, redefine or even discuss the subject of rape. I have written to my Congressman about this more than one time: he is a confirmed supporter of “the unborn” but votes regularly about anything that might help the “already born.” I think that we simply have to vote them all out of office. Out of every state legislature and out of Congress. We women, with the help of rational men, can do it!
My mantra:
The only people that should be deciding issues related to the availability of abortions are the people that have had them or may need them.
Would be so much more effective in reducing unwanted pregnancies if a series of ultrasounds showing all weeks of pregnancy were readily available to teens and others, along with contraceptives at Planned Parenthood locations and sex education classes.
The punitive stuff for women who have already incurred an unwanted pregnancy (what’s the guy have to do?) is totally disrespectful and invasive, not to mention expensive for whomever is picking up the costs, which will turn out to be all of us.
We didn’t get ultrasound pics, but when I was a teenager overseas (military brat), Health was a required one-semester credit.. and Sex Ed was half of that semester. Even in the early ’80s (pre-AIDS), I learned more about STDs, the good the bad and the ugly of contraception (no “just abstain here, folks), and the physical and psychological aspects of pregnancy, miscarriage, and admittedly very lightly, abortion.
Ladies and gentlemen, this was a sophomore class. Most of my classmates were no longer virgin. Yes, there were a few giggles, and some male braggidacio (forgive the spelling there), but for the most part, we all took it seriously. No parents complained or demanded their children be pulled out or exempted from the class. Overall, I consider it to have been a valuable learning experience.
When I returned to the States, and mentioned this, people looked at me like I had two heads.
If there ever was a reason to get out and vote, this is it. The abysmal 30% or so turnout this country has grown accustomed to has to change. Take someone with you when you do vote. Don’t let a friend sit this one out.
BTW, the state of Tenn is looking to publish names of doctors who provide abortion services and the names of women who receive them.
And men, shame on you if you support or allow this kind of government intrusion upon our women.
It’s time to put a stop to this. VOTE.
Oh, very interesting…. He has a FB page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alan-For-Alaska/153736111401979?sk=wall&filter=12
Women are posting some really amusing stuff on his wall, similar to what has been happening to other controlling, misogynistic legislators trying to assert power over women’s bodies.
He is scrubbing FB like crazy. A few minutes ago there were tons of posts denouncing his positions, now they’re all gone. Here’s a sampling:
“Keep Dick In Your Vagina!”
Your new campaign slogan, I hope you like it.
Hey! Since word on the street is you control my body and decisions, is it okay for me to go outside today? Just checking!
Next time you get an erection, contact me for permission to masturbate
(I kept a screen shot of what I could….there’s lots more)
Those are great! Glad you are keeping screenshots. Rachel Maddow did a segment on these kinds of comments on other legislator’s FB sites. Funny, funny, funny. However, just like Dickie, they scrubbed them clean as fast as they could but people kept re-posting the comments.
And he actually has the nerve to call his page “Alan for Alaska.”
I have been trying to find the source of this quote from Rep. Dick. Can’t find it in BASIS. Can anyone direct me? Before I call his office, I want to have all my facts in order.
We’re fighting radical fundamentalism over there, so we don’t have to fight it …….. opps. So why do Republicans hate women’s freedom?
More Right-Wing “Monkey-See, Monkey Do” politics. I am so sick of these politicians taking their inspiration from that lower 48 Freak Show festering ‘neath the so-called ‘conservative’ zeitgeist…
“remember, at this point you still have the right to vote, and the right and ability to voice your opinion loudly.”
“at this point”, scary.
I wonder when they will go after women’s right to vote. I’ve heard a couple of yahoos already say – and one of them was a woman legislator from KS (now retired) that women shouldn’t vote – just too emotional.
I suspect they don’t want us to vote because we are educated and willing to voice our concerns.
That woman doesn’t have her head screwed on right!
Does anyone know if the native health care system in Alaska covers/provides abortion services?
Keller introduced a bill to eliminate public funding for abortions, who will this affect? Has this issue not already gone to court?
These folks have to be thrown out of office, if they won’t go peacefully, then recall. These ideologues
are false transplants to Alaska, they represent the exact 180 degrees out of whack what Alaskans believe and think. This entire corrupted image of women’s rights is the evil spawn of Palin, “it’s gods desire to overpopulate the planet with white christians”. She and Limbaugh are hell bent on trashing American women. Completely insane, and scary
According to the GOP, this is a chicken dinner:
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Eggs_g382-Double_Yolker_p72356.html
This makes perfect sense when you understand that some men consider women reproductive vending machines: penis in, baby out. If that vending machine won’t produce what was ‘ordered’, the rightwing response is to kick it a few times.
Hey, Alan Dick, here’s a newsflash: Eggs are not people. Sperm cells are not people. Blastocysts, zygotes, and embryos are not people. Fetuses are not people. Women, on the other hand, ARE people. I hope people vote the malefactors bringing this legislation to the floor OUT at the earliest possible moment.
Well and truly said! Thank you.
I can’t even type I’m so spitting mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone should read the following. It is a brilliant opinion piece that speaks for women’s rights.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/womens-reproductive-rights_b_1345214.html
You are right, I read it this morning. It is beautifully written.
Thanks, KS, that piece lays it all out, with fury and anger sauce.
It’s immoral to vote Republican.
The Taliban is Here—in america!!!!!!!!!
Okay, prepare yourselves. The GOP is getting even crazier on these reproductive issues.
Are you ready?
Chuck Winder, a Republican from Boise, in response and opposition of exceptions to an forced ultrasound bill that would exclude women who have been raped or are victims of incest, wondered if:
“whether women understand when they have been raped.”
He hopes that, through counseling, the idea what rape is would be explored. Under the bill, the women have to attend a “crisis pregnancy center” and if she were in her first trimester, would have to have a SECOND, more invasive ultrasound (the trans vaginal one). Let’s see, after all that it will be rape victim herself who will be in a fetal position – I cannot imagine the emotional trauma that she will have to endure!
What a piece of dumb excrement is Idaho State Senator Chuck Winder and all his cruel, ignorant and totally heartless GOP buddies in the legislature.
Alaska – this could be what comes to pass for you — Kansas and Idaho are just giving you a taste of what is coming unless you stand up now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/20/chuck-winder-rape-abortions_n_1366994.html
It worries the hell out of me – we have a religious, Republican governor and I could see him doing something like this! Just hope he knows he’d run into big trouble!
Here is a website that is taking him on. This post made me feel a little better about his chances for success.
http://www.43rdstateblues.com/?q=ID_State_Sen_Chuck_Winder_wants_to_get_his_hands_on_your_uterus
Thanks for that link!
Between Chuck and Mr. Dick, I can see a whole lot of jokes and sayings that you wouldn’t want your kids saying.
I’m going out on a limb here, and suggesting that a woman who has been raped has a far better idea of what rape is than Chuck Winder.
These are the same people that will fight to protect a fetus … then kick the newborn to the curb. Hypocracy at its finest, Further, I think Representative Dick (I would change my name before speaking out on manly permissions slips) needs to take a look at the long list of men refusing to pay child support.
It might well surprise Mr Alan Dick about those permission slips when men are more than happy to sign them so they do not have to address child support for a minimum of 18 years.
If women do not realize this is the first step in reducing the rights of women overall, they are sadly mistaken!!
Think work place, pay rates, voting rights, rights to own property, etc. Go back just a few years and it will not be hard to find where banks would not loan monies to single women for homes, cars, etc. Workplace and equal pay is still an issues. There are many examples, just look and ask the women around you!
This can’t be tolerated!
http://crookedtimber.org/2012/02/18/things-i-have-learnt-from-and-about-ivf/
“Embryos are not babies
You might think someone so eager to have children as to undergo months of difficult and expensive treatment would have a hard-core view on embryos and babies. You’d be right.
Twice now, I’ve had two embryos placed in my uterus. I have pictures of the precise moment they were ‘put back’. None of them stuck. The fact is, most don’t.
Despite what we went through to create these embryos, I am left with the cold conviction that they were opening gambits, and no more. Certainly, I would have loved them if they’d turned into babies and mourned them if I’d lost them farther along, and I was very, very sad to not get pregnant. But I felt as if the embryos were simply sets of ultimately flawed operating instructions that de-compiled within hours or days. Most embryos are only that. They may succeed, or they may not. They may be carried to term, or they may not. Human agency may intervene in any of these moments, or it may not. This makes me a bad Catholic, but I find it strangely comforting nonetheless.
I believe more firmly now that an embryo is a step along the way to becoming a human, but it’s not a human. It’s a possibility. And a real, live human woman in all her flaws and situational complexity is infinitely more important and deserving of consideration than the mere possibility of one.”
But don’t just stop there; the whole piece is a must-read.
You’re right. Thank you for posting this. I wanted to have children. But after 5 miscarriages I got the message that it wasn’t to be. My last pregnancy was discovered as a miscarriage-to-be during a routine ultrasound at 10 weeks. I had a D&C a few days later…before the miscarriage that would have happened between 14 & 16 weeks…based on the previous 4. I wonder if that ‘qualifies’ as an abortion in the warped minds of the ‘pro-life’ party. Probably.
So sorry you had to go through that. =(
Yes it does… and that reasoning is just plain sick.
I wrote to my Representative to tell him about my D&E, and said that the last thing I’d need is for my government to judge the validity of the procedure. My husband and I wanted that baby but it quit developing at 11 weeks. But whether I wanted this baby or not, and the fact that it needed to be aborted, is NONE of anyone else’s business outside my doctor’s office – and my OB/GYN’s speech, lack of speech or political and moral policy has no place in consultation belongs there either.
This is indeed outrageous. I hope Alaskan women and the men who love them stand against this overreach of government.
If you don’t, you could be facing what we here in Kansas are: Governor Brownback has not read, but will sign, a pending bill that requires doctors to withhold – yes, I said withhold – information about a women’s condition during pregnancy that might influence her to have an abortion.
Just think about that – if a doctor knows that pregnancy might harm the woman or that the fetus might not be viable, he or she will be prohibited from telling the woman or her family. Talk about intrusive – that can be devastating. I believe it will bring about wrongful death suits at some point in near future, BUT the law will also prevent a woman or her family from suing the doctor for having withheld what might have been life-saving medical information about her pregnancy.
Imagine! A nightmare come to pass. I urge all Alaskans to take this seriously and work your butts off to prevent this from happening there. Kansans for the most part either don’t know about the impact of the pending bill (no media here seems to be addressing it although Rachel Maddow has) or simply agree with it for their own twisted reasons.
You would think that the medical profession would protest this legislation as it directly conflicts with their Hippocratic oath.
Yes, where is the AMA in all of this? Doctors fuss and fume whenever there are any cuts in what they make from Medicare and/or Medicaid but they remain silent on these very important issues. And remember that the American Hospital Assn. stayed mute while Republicans were protesting about non-existing “death panels.”
The Kansas legislature amended the bill, for one year, so the KU Med Center would keep its accreditation- not that the righties wanted to do that.
They aren’t Christians- they have pushed for cuts in all the social services that newborns, the very ones they say are sacred, need to survive and thrive.
Exactly – once born, they don’t care about anyone. That’s why I believe their efforts are geared to humiliating women and forcing them back into the shadows. I think it will backfire on them big time.
I have never understood why pro-lifers don’t work to ensure money is available for all sorts of children’s programs, from preschool, Head Start, neonatal care, affordable health care for children and their parents, education at all levels, food stamps, immunization, orphans, adoption, better foster care, et cetera. No, they just want control over our reproductive systems – and I suspect, control over sexual behaviors period.
Very sad that they have limited understanding as to what being pro Life really means – taking care of the living.
Ks sunflower: You for got to mention the need for all war material, tanks, guns,bombs,men and women. All these the rethugs say are in great need so we continure to fund. But must cut all forms of social care.
Por-life people only care for the fetus.the zygot, not the living breathing child or baby. Once born kid, you are on your own .Women are only to be used as baby factorys. Seems this was tried in the German country with another evil human.
Alol this coms from Dominionism,women stay home, home school,have babies,and do what the male says. sort of like the Duggers 19 and still counting!
Your caption is perfect, Jeanne!
We, Alaskans, need to get out and vote and get our State back to being ‘blue’ as it was in the Gruening and Bartlett days. We are a total mess today.
Anyone pay attention to the D+ and F ratings the State of Alaska recently received for corruption?
Could you link that for me?
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/03/19/8423/grading-nation-how-accountable-your-state Here is a link that shows all the states.
Best title for a blog post ever. Well done, AKM.
This is just the saddest, most horrible thing I have read so far on this whole issue … the comments from Alan Dick (and he is one apparently, too) wanting permission from the impregnator … women are going to go back to being treated as chattel. If this movement is not stopped, they will take away our right to vote.
And what if the impregnator decides he doesn’t want his offspring coming into the world? Will the woman be required to get an abortion?
This is just ridiculous.
Or, would they legally prevent a women from leaving the state so she would not have an abortion elsewhere?
That’s a question asked far too infrequently, IMO. Remember the douche who took out a billboard ad to shame the woman who’d miscarried his “last chance of fatherhood”? THAT is the kind of guy we’re dealing with. I know 2 women who got pregnant very young, decided to keep the baby, and held meetings with the sperm donors offering to swap “no child support” for “giving up parental rights”. Those immature young men fell over themselves in their haste to sign off on that deal. THAT is a more typical reaction to “you got me pregnant” than “if you don’t want it, I say you still have to have the baby, & then sign it over to me”.
Daisydem, you are so right! I intend to go to the Anchorage and Eagle River legislative offices to have a meaningful discussion with all the Legislators. We must be loud and proud to be a woman.
And we haven’t had that right for long, anyway..
Unbelievable. How many generations have to fight increasingly ridiculous variations of the same fight? Thanks for this call to action, AKM.
WTF? I thought Alaska was all about individual freedom! Is that no longer true for females? I’ve also read that Alaska is one of the LEAST religious of all the states. What happened that these RWNJs have highjacked your state? It’s time for Alaska progressives to get out the vote.
Dominionism happened.
Of course, of course.
Ladies:
Lobby the obstetricians. Wear a “Do No Harm” T shirt to start a conversation.
Make it be known that they could lose $$$ if they don’t support women on this issue.