Storm Warning: Prepare for Hurricane Ken 

by Caitlin Bancroft

Pro-Choice Virginians, I have a really bad feeling.  My ovaries are freaking out and I have this crazy urge to stock pile birth control. But I think I know what is causing me to panic. Storm season has begun and Hurricane Ken is headed right for us.

Wait there a minute!! Before you start complaining about overly dramatic weathermen and crazy political commentators, please take a moment and check out the data for yourself.  You may find that I’m actually underreacting. 

First, here is what we know about hurricanes:

• They are twisted doom-disseminators that rain destruction.
• They are so large that we always see them coming, but they still scare us to death when they hit.
• Long before they become actual threats, they start as harmless swirls of hot air.
• Once they have started to rotate, they will continue to grow more powerful and more destructive until they no longer have the ocean’s heat to fuel them.

Now, here is what we know about Ken Cuccinelli:

• He is a harsh, ruthless politician who advocates for discrimination and exudes condemnation.
• He’s been up to the same old tricks for a while now, but that doesn’t make his presence less disturbing.
• Before we elected him, he just a man with a head full of hot air and bad ideas.
• From the first moment he took office, he has used his influence to wage an ever worsening war on the women of Virginia.

Ok ok, I know. You are already complaining about flimsy metaphors and looking up the Wikipedia page on hurricanes..”Where’s the proof?”, you ask. After all, you are not gonna run off and start barricading women’s health clinics without evidence of actual danger. Well, ladies and gentlemen, let’s survey the damage.

When Cuccinelli first showed up on our radar, he was more of an annoyance than a concern. We’re Virginians -- he wasn't our first anti-choice legislator and he certainly won’t be our last. But Cuccinelli was not content with preaching to the base and voting against the occasional comprehensive sex education proposal. It didn’t take long before we realized that he was a whole different kind of zealot. 

During his first two years in the senate, Cuccinelli patroned or co-patroned six different anti-choice bills. His legislation included a parental consent requirement, a “partial-birth abortion” ban, mandatory adoption information on the consent forms for an abortion, and a state-funded abortion alternatives awareness campaigns. Also there was this lovely bill mandating that doctors must anesthetize every fetus older than 12 weeks before any abortion in “a manner suitable for patients undergoing amputation.” If the physician failed to anesthetize correctly, then he or she would be charged with class 6 felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $2,500 fine. An impressive career record for anti-choice legislator, but this was just the beginning for Hurricane Ken.

Over the next five legislative sessions, Cuccinelli championed another eight anti-choice bills to attack reproductive freedom from every angle.. He tried to close Virginia’s clinics in 2005 with a proposed TRAP bill that would impose more stringent restrictions on the licensure process. When that wasn’t successful, Ken decided that he wanted the state of Virginia to imprison doctors for providing contraception to minors if the person “knew or had reason to believe” that the minor was sleeping with someone 3+ years older than themselves. Because duh, the way to protect young women is to bully their doctors into withholding birth control. Then, to add insult to injury, Cuccinelli demanded that doctors preserve the products of conception and fetal tissue from abortions performed on girls under the age of 15. So that when a young woman in Virginia gets an abortion because she couldn’t get birth control, the government gets to run intrusive tests without her consent. Because apparently in Ken’s mind, it’s more important to restrict reproductive healthcare than to actually offer resources and guidance to vulnerable youth. And we’re just getting started.

Even after years of attacking abortion access, Cuccinelli apparently felt that his efforts were insubstantial. Therefore in 2007 he went nuclear and co-patroned a “personhood bill” with his bff (and current GOP candidate for attorney general)  Senator Mark Obenshain. It is difficult to imagine a more destructive piece of legislation than a bill which grants the “right to enjoyment of life” to every fertilized egg. Most conspicuously, the legislation would have laid the legal groundwork to overturn Roe v. Wade and ban abortion in the state of Virginia – without exceptions for life, incest, or danger to the life of the women. It would also have outlawed several common forms of birth control and even some infertility treatments, including in vitro fertilization.  Fortunately, that atrocious bill did not pass. But in a last hoorah, Hurricane Ken championed the creation of special CHOOSE LIFE license plates to fund Virginia’s crisis pregnancy centers  – anti-choice facilities that lie to vulnerable women in an attempt to dissuade them from considering abortion.  Since Cuccinelli’s budget amendment passed in 2009, over $200,000 has been funneled to Virginia CPCs.

Which brings us to Ken’s arguably greatest achievement in his fight against women’s health: TRAP. In 2009, Hurricane Ken was elected to the office of attorney general. As the official legal adviser to the state of Virginia, the attorney general is supposed to be an unbiased officer who advocates on behalf of the state. But Ken Cuccinelli was not about to waste his new-found power on silly things like fighting unconstitutional laws. During his first year as attorney general, Hurricane Ken issued an official legal opinion of the state concluding that the Virginia Department of Health had the power to institute TRAP laws (and require abortion clinics to meet hospital standards of construction and care). But it was clearly just a coincidence that he was giving the state legislature permission to pass a bill that he had once patroned, right? I’m sure there was no bias involved when he gave his  anti-choice buddies in the General Assembly a thumbs-up to regulate our clinics out of existence.  Um…NO.

As expected, the Virginia General Assembly took the wink-nudge-nod and passed an extremely stringent TRAP bill in 2011. The new targeted restrictions of abortion providers (TRAP) reclassified every clinic that performs more than 5 abortions a month as a type of hospital. As such, each abortion clinic would have to undergo extensive renovations or be forced to relocate in order continue providing health care.

The suggested regulations were passed on to the Virginia Board of Health, who actually listened to medical professionals, precedent, and reason and decided to grandfather-in VA’s existing clinics, exempting them from these burdensome laws. Well, Hurricane Ken was not having it. In  a classic display of arrogance and ruthlessness, Ken Cuccinelli refused to certify the new regulations with the grandfather provision. He told the Board of Health that they were overreaching by granting an exception to current clinics; furthermore, he warned them that if they were sued, the attorney general’s office would not represent them. Seriously – the top lawyer in the Commonwealth actually threatened to refuse to protect the state from lawsuits. Unsurprisingly, the Board of Health heeded Cuccinelli’s threat and removed the grandfather clause, officially approving the new rules in April of this year. In the three months since its vote, two of Virginia’s women’s health centers have closed, and more are expected to follow. Only 1 of our remaining 18 clinics is currently TRAP compliant.  

I think it’s pretty obvious Virginians: We are facing down a storm of epic proportions. Hurricane Ken has been developing for years, and we know just how ruthless he is. Fortunately, we have the chance this year to stop the damage by defeating Cuccinelli’s gubernatorial bid & kicking him out of office for good. Gov. Ken Cuccinelli is a storm that Virginia will not weather well  -- and we cannot afford the devastation it will cause. If you have never heeded the warnings before, now is the time to get concerned – and we need your help to sound the sirens. To fight back, check out NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia’s website and blog, and follow us on facebook, tumblr and twitter to stay involved.

Thanks for your help, fellow fierce feminist storm-troopers!

Caitlin Bancroft is a legal intern at NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia and a disaster movie enthusiast. You can follow her on Twitter @caitbanc and share her feminist outrage on libertytochoose.tumblr.com.

Choosing Abortion Over Child Abuse

Welcome - My name is Ellen, and I am passionate about life, equality, women's rights, freedom, privacy and spiritual growth. I love photography and writing.   I am the PR/Media Director for the Florida chapter of UniteWomen.org.  A big thank you to The Rude Pundit allowing me to be here today. You can follow me on Twitter @Victrisselle

Choosing Abortion Over Child Abuse

My blood is boiling. I barely sleep anymore. Who the hell do these legislators and governors think they are that they can put so many women's lives and mental well-being at risk by their pernicious legislation? Who are these self-designated arbiters of decisions that should only be decided by a woman and her doctor?  The new laws in Florida, Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and many other states are cruel and inhuman. I believe some are also unconstitutional because they take away my civil rights and my sovereignty over my body.

Worse yet, the new laws are based on one group's desires to hold on to the patriarch at ALL costs, and on another group's RELIGIOUS beliefs. Beliefs that do not coincide with my religious or moral beliefs. So who's religious beliefs take priority, mine or theirs? Separation of religion and government was foremost in the minds of our founding fathers when crafting our Constitution. It was structured this way to avoid the long, bloody history of religious wars in Europe and elsewhere. Yet, here we are 230 plus years later, at great risk from a small fanatical, religious, ignorant minority. I say "ignorant" because, when you lack education and knowledge....you ARE ignorant - as opposed to stupid. These changes in our laws are fueled and financed by religious groups, the Patriarchy, ALEC, the Koch Brothers and others. They will go to any lengths to further their agenda and enact legislation. And in the process of forcing their beliefs on others, they are putting many lives at great risk. I will not obey laws based on another person's religion. EVER.

When people put more stock in a Bible written eons ago by a group of misogynistic Arab men than in science and facts, they are ignorant. When people put more stock in religious beliefs than in citizen's civil rights, you are also dangerous. I respect all individual choices - even if I do not agree with them. Just like I support freedom of speech - even if I do not agree with the opinions being expressed. I believe there are many paths to God. This planet has room for all views and paths, including the path of not believing in God. Some of the most caring, compassionate, moral people I know do not believe in God.

If I had gone through with any of my pregnancies, I think it is very likely I would have ended up in jail for child abuse, or worse. I did not grow up in ideal circumstances. My childhood included incest, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, divorce and abandonment. My mother and step-father sold our house and moved to Florida at the beginning of my senior year of high school. They left me with a car so I could get to school. I ended up living in a coed house on Youngstown State University's campus. I feel robbed of my childhood. I lost the ability to trust or to be truly intimate with people. It also left me with intense, uncontrollable rage. When deep hurt remains unresolved, it turns to rage. My father terrified me so much that, in spite of no physiological causes, I did not get my first period until 9 hours after leaving the funeral home for the first time the day after my father died. I was 29 years old. I did not want to be a woman while my father was still alive. That is deep fear.

When I got married, I wanted to have children. I always assumed I would in spite of having a career. After long and painful consideration, I realized that I could not allow myself to have children as long as I had uncontrollable rage. I did not want to take the slightest risk I might harm a child in any way. I could not live with having harmed a young soul. I did not have abortions because I did not want children. I had them because I love and respect children. I had them because I was fairly certain I would physically hurt them in a blind rage. I will never know for certain, but I can live with not knowing more than I could live with the horror of hurting a child, physically or emotionally.

Had I been forced to have a child when I got pregnant, due to laws or lack of affordability, it would have put myself and the child at great risk. I doubt the courts or public would show leniency to me if a child was badly hurt or dead. The pro-life people could care less what happens to either of us after the child is born. They are not for life, only the birth. If they did care, our social services would be strengthened, not cut. The Food Stamp program would not be at risk. If they were truly pro-life, they would not be taking away women's access to affordable contraception or reproductive health care, which will result in deaths. In their smugness, they claim they are preserving life. Whose? Theirs?

Florida only passed one abortion-related law in the 2013 that addressed the birth of a live birth during an abortion attempt. Florida women got lucky in 2012. No abortion laws were enacted - though not for lack of trying. Republicans introduced 11 bills to restrict abortions, but all failed to pass.

Women's abortion rights in Florida took its biggest hit in 2011. Gov. Rick Scott decided that hurting women and restricting their civil rights is something worthy of celebrating.  He threw a big party at the governor's mansion on August 1st to celebrate the four tough new abortion bills that went into effect on July 1, 2011. I found it painful watching dickhead Scott celebrating with his cohorts in a mansion paid for by all of Florida's citizens when I knew the newly enacted laws would actually hurt women and could result in bad outcomes or deaths. I guess it could have been worse. Republicans introduced 18 bills to restrict abortions in 2011.

After seeing some of the new laws in other states, I am starting to think that Florida fared just a bit better than other states -- like Texas.  The only way we can fight these draconian laws is to get out of our homes and into our communities to educate and register voters. Grassroots organizing does work and is very effective. If we do not take action to create change, we will get what we deserve. I urge everyone to volunteer and drag along a friend or ten.  It is a dire situation and women are at great risk in many states - not just Florida. Take action. Volunteer. Please. Lives depend on it.

#AlabamaLege: Y'all Are Not My Deciders

#AlabamaLege: Y'all Are Not My Deciders

I'm pro-choice for many reasons and though I could fill a book about being cheerfully childfree, I had to pick one reason to write about for this post. Thus, I wanted to pick one issue that would perhaps open up the tiniest sliver of doubt in the minds of those who still cling to the notion that a fetus is somehow more important than its host. Not that any of those types would be wandering around this blog, but adding my story it to the chorus felt right. (Side note: I appreciate His Rudeness for featuring all these pro-choice voices. This blog is my new happy place.)

So here's my story: I have a rare, undiagnosed condition that causes some of my bones and tissues to grow oddly and unpredictably throughout my life. Since I have no formal diagnosis, I worry about the health implications an unplanned pregnancy would mean for me. Not only have multiple specialists advised me that pregnancy itself is risky for my body to take on, but I also worry because I am certain I don't want to bring a child into the world with the same condition I have. Since it's an unknown syndrome, testing would likely be inconclusive (especially before 20 weeks), but geneticists believe it could be passed on. Thus, the decision to procreate should rest with me alone – the dreaded gene carrier, potential fetal hostel, and possible special-needs parent. Only I know what it means to live with this condition over a lifetime and only I can judge if it’s fair to deliberately deal this hand to a new person. Only I know if I am physically and mentally ready to withstand the toll of pregnancy and if I'm ready to parent a child, potentially born with severe medical challenges. By outlawing abortions after 20 weeks, states have removed options and merciful choices when fetal anomalies are discovered, or have at a minimum made those options significantly more arduous to exercise for women and couples. Furthermore, women seeking abortion are stonewalled with waiting periods, permission slips, invasive and unnecessary procedures, and to add insult to injury, often the advice they’re given is tainted by medical professionals fearing for their licenses, all while the she is fearing for her very life.

Throughout my childhood my mother worked hard at a job she hated so that we had excellent health insurance. No procedure, specialist, or distance was too extreme to get the best care for me. Now, however, as a grown, employed, tax-paying person with good benefits, my insurance coverage pales in comparison to what my mom provided me. (For example, on her insurance a prescription I frequently need is $10; on mine, it's $105 for the same two-week supply.) If I had a child with similar early-life complications I shudder to think...  the extensive testing, specialist care, corrective and reconstructive surgeries, rehabilitation, medical devices... I simply couldn't afford it. Then, there’s the burden of having available work leave, affording travel, and securing qualified childcare. And that’s assuming my own condition wasn't worsened after a pregnancy and delivery. To force pregnancy and birth on women is torture. It's inhumane. It's incompatible with the ideas of privacy, autonomy, and bodily sovereignty. It robs us of self-determination.

At some point, a choice is made. Right now, legislators want to play judge and jury and determine each and every case that is “worthy” of a golden ticket to the clinic. This is ridiculous! We have over 300 million citizens and I'm just one person with a funky medical condition. I want to live my best life and for me and my partner, that means a childfree life. I reject the idea that sex is only for procreation. I refuse to beg my doctor to administer a couple of pills, forced to cite a laundry list of defenses for my choice. I resent being told by multiple pharmacists that they won't fill my scrip because of their “morality,” even though they chose to enter the ever-altruistic industry of Big Pharma. And I certainly don't deserve to be shamed and intimidated by "Sidewalk Angels" (gag) decrying me as a murderer when I visit a clinic for my basic healthcare needs.

Alabama’s state motto is: Audemus jura nostra defendere, Latin for, “We Dare Defend Our Rights.” I have a right to bodily autonomy and self-determination and our out-of-touch legislators can’t dissuade me from that charge.

I tweet about reproductive rights @SthrnFriedFemst.

Banning Abortion Is Bad For Women.

It’s Bad For Virginia Business, Too.

Hi — I'm Sheila, a blogger from Virginia. Well, actually I’m the chief stenographer for the fascinating felines who opine at My Cats Are Democrats. If I knew how to purr, I’d do it in The Rude Pundit’s direction — for giving me space to point out that the Republicans are terrible in ways we perhaps haven’t yet dreamed.

On top of all the havoc that Republicans are wreaking on our Constitutional rights, healthcare and lives, damage to the business world is the other destructive legacy that’s sure to result from the GOP’s war on women.

And it’s definitely going to be something that our now-scandal-tarred governor, “Transvaginal Bob” McDonnell, and his anti-choice, anti-fun-sex-even-between-married-people attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, will leave the Commonwealth of Virginia. Here’s how.

First, a little background: Virginia is really two states — the blue one that Barack Obama carried twice, and the red one that the Republicans and teabaggers are in charge of down in Richmond.

Virginia is the populous, ethnically diverse Washington suburbs, which stretch into Prince William County, where I live. And it’s also the state of Liberty and Regent Universities, of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, of Gadsden flag and "choose life" license plates, and gun shows at the county fairgrounds.

But it’s not going to stay that way.

The Republicans here are, as in other states, demographically doomed. (Heck, even Liz Cheney is abandoning us.) Commonwealth-wide, Virginia is purple and trending blue. Regent Law School grad Bob McDonnell knew that, which is why he downplayed his right-wing Christian background and ran for his constitutionally limited single term as a business-friendly non-ideologue à la Mark Warner or Tim Kaine.

But that was then, this is now. Today, we have McDonnell-mandated ultrasounds, and Cuccinelli-coerced abortion-clinic building standards. (A women’s clinic in Fairfax is Cootchy’s latest victim.) These new laws are sapping women’s healthcare resources, cutting them off from necessary services, and, of course, stomping on their Constitutional rights. And I’m convinced that Virginia corporations with active recruitment efforts and well-crafted succession plans are secretly very unhappy about it.

See, Virginia is home to some pretty big industries — like agriculture, tobacco, shipbuilding, tourism, banking, consulting, healthcare, finance and tech — and celebrated “best employers” like Accenture, Booz Allen Hamilton, Capital One and Deloitte.

Important companies like those are constantly chasing high-quality talent from around the country, and competition is fierce. Too many employers are pursuing too few highly skilled executive/management candidates, especially in fields like IT, finance and engineering. And with times so tough for recruiting, Republicans in states like Virginia — by passing anti-abortion, anti-family-planning, and anti-women’s-healthcare legislation — are making it even harder.

That’s because Republicans are balkanizing America — turning it into a bunch of states you want to live in because you can pursue happiness in them, and a bunch of states that you don’t because you can’t. States where you can terminate a pregnancy, get a contraceptive, marry whom you love, stay safer from guns, rely on a social safety net, vote without a hassle, and have your kids learn science in school — and states where you can’t. States with a good quality of life, and states without.

A few years back, an executive recruiter cold-called my husband with a job opportunity. It was a great job, she said, located in a city in America’s heartland. He turned her down flat — wouldn’t even interview for it, because the state in which it was located had, thanks to Republicans, gone off the political deep end. (And he felt this way even though we had long since passed the stage that Jeb Bush would describe as “fertile.”)

The recruiter was surprised and puzzled. I assume that she no longer is. Because since that time, Republicans have only gotten worse, creating right-wing Siberias where no smart, clear-thinking American will ever want to move — states like Texas, North Carolina and Kansas, or even Ohio and Wisconsin.

The Old Dominion, unfortunately, has joined that list. What ambitious and progressively minded young woman (or young man, or young couple) would want to take a job in Virginia, when McDonnell and Cuccinelli have openly vowed to “make abortion disappear”? That means making women’s healthcare disappear. But abortions will not go away. The women who may need them will — especially up-and-coming professionals who refuse to live somewhere they have no rights.

What will it take for Virginia businesses to speak up? Sadly, not because the state is forcing itself into our doctors’ offices. They’ll start screaming when enough talented people tell recruiters who want them to live and work here, “Hell, no, I won’t go.” When a CEO in another part of the country announces to his employees that they’re relocating to, say, Norfolk, Virginia Beach or Richmond, and his best workers quit rather than move.

Are you one of those talented women whose skills Virginia businesses crave? If so, the economic power is in your hands. Please think about using it.

Meanwhile, Virginia Republicans heedlessly, obliviously bash on. Their candidates for statewide office this fall are living proof. Vote for them, and you’ll be electing: 1) Cootchy governor, 2) an attorney general candidate who thinks women who have miscarriages should be reported to the police (just in case they’re having self-induced illegal abortions), and 3) a maniac for lieutenant governor who says Planned Parenthood is a hate group and who makes Cuccinelli look like a flaming lefty.

The GOP war on women is giving my state’s business community a long, slow heart attack. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon. I promise.

(IMAGE: The seal of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in all its half-naked glory. Don't tell Cootchy!)

Pro WHOSE Life?

Pro WHOSE Life?:
Hey all – I’m Lainie. Single mama of two beautiful boys, homeschooler, rabble rouser, and member of Occupy Austin, Levanta/Rise UpTexas, and Unruly Mob media. I’ve spent pretty much every spare minute of my life this past month either at The Capitol or with my eyes riveted on the various streams and feeds. You can find a lot of my thoughts on my Twitterstream (@drublood), videos on my youtube channel and some on ustream, and photos on flickr. Thanks so much to the Rude Pundit for the opportunity to post here today. I’m pretty exhausted from all of the hubbub, but hopefully this post will provide some information about the organizing around these issues, and what it felt like to be on the ground during the various phases of bill passage. <3

What do for-profit prisons, stand your ground laws, and the forced birth bills proliferating through our nation’s state legislatures all have in common?

I’ll give you a hint. It’s a four letter word. Possibly the most obscene four-letter word.

ALEC:

A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council — presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political action aimed to increase corporate profits at public expense without public knowledge.

It was because of ALEC that a large group of women and men from diverse backgrounds spent the last month at the Texas State Capitol building, trying desperately to get our legislators to listen to our varied personal stories of unplanned pregnancy, rape, fetal abnormalities, spousal abuse, poverty, and many other reasons why women need to have access to medically safe abortions, and the autonomy to make our own decisions about when it was necessary to access them. In return, we were ignored by senators and representatives alike, were called baby-killers, murderers, and a violent mob by those who disagreed with us, were herded around the capitol by DPS officers enforcing arbitrary rules and utilizing prison-guard tactics of divide and conquer, were denied access to food, water, and basic feminine hygiene products if we wanted to actually attempt to look those who were stripping our rights from us in the eye, and in the end, when we finally sat down peacefully to protest the passage of the bill, we were brutalized, tazed, beaten, and jailed.

Additionally, we were subjected to countless tales of forced abortions (sucks to not have a CHOICE, doesn’t it?), bad science, anecdotes about people who regretted CHOICES they made, and prayer after prayer after prayer after motherfucking prayer, and countless male senators salivating over the prospect of getting their dirty claws all over our ovaries. At one point, a representative whose name I can’t recall apologized for the graphic detail, but felt it was important that we should hear his version of what an abortion procedure looked and felt like. He included vivid descriptions of the process of inserting a needle into the cervix, and talked about “tiny hands and feet” flowing out of the vagina and washed down the sink. It would have been hilarious if it hadn’t completely sucked the air out of me and made me feel incredibly fucking violated. I remember I was at home listening to that testimony, trying to decide whether I should drive down to the capitol. In the end, I decided that I would feel less lonely and vulnerable in a crowd of my sisters, and drove down to be with my friends and allies.

And that is the shining star of this whole morbid tale. From the damp soil of our outrage and our shared disenfranchisement, our rage, our sorrow, our passion, there sprouted the roots of an amazing coalition. Groups of people who had never met came together to work on this issue. I met powerful sisters and realized the power of true male allies. It was as if we all just nodded at each other silently, rolled up our sleeves, and came together to form an Unruly Mob that our local and state government will have to be dealing with for a very long time.

Together we admitted that we had little to no chance of winning legislatively. We all knew this bill would have to see court battle to be overturned. But with that knowledge, we were empowered to think creatively and strategically about actions that would encourage and empower autonomy, diversity, and connection to the larger issues at hand. We formed sister coalitions: Levanta/Riseup Texas, to ensure our messaging was consistent, while our approaches to action were diverse. We formed media alliances, legal teams, and direct action affinity groups. We had a ground team talking to legislators, reminding them we were watching. Some of us organized marches, some of us facilitated trainings, some created songs and dances to keep people motivated. Media teams ensured livestream and live tweet coverage, amplifying the media being generated by independent individuals who were also at the Capitol, unorganized but no less willing to participate.

Community was created in those spaces, in a way that only public spaces being held by passionate individuals can create community. In line on Senate testimony day, I met a woman attempting to override the negativity of the forced-birth advocate standing in between us in line by having our own conversation and sharing our own stories. Her story was a powerful one. I immediately felt a kinship with her upon hearing it. It’s the same story that moved Victorian Prude to finally break and go off-the-cuff during her testimony:

I drove from Central Texas at 5:30 am and testified at little after 11pm.  It was a long day but I and many others have been used to it since our first citizen's filibuster on June 20th. Hours of watching antichoicers insult and talk to women, watching awful pseudoscience continued to enrage me. Finally, after I saw a woman named Vanessa (@lochnessa) testify angrily about the heartbreaking medically necessary abortion she had to have after countless IVF attempts, I knew I had to rewrite. Their baby had rare form of spina bifida and a 20 week ban would have hurt them. After she spoke an antichoice next to her cruelly said "I know people who adopted two children with spina bifida". Not a word from the chair. I scrapped my speech and began a rewrite that would call out each member of committee for their lack of expertise or past bad record on women's health. Took about 5 more hours until I was finally called along with the rest of Group 6.

And I am told I nearly rose from my seat to go after the allegedly pro-life woman who smugly mentioned the sacrifices her friends had made in what she assumed was a similar situation. Such was the nature of the relationships that were formed in line and in the bowels of the Capitol building.

On Friday, the day of the final vote, our team had multiple plans for ensuring our voices were heard. None of which, by the way, included throwing feces, urine, or feminine hygiene products. Wanted Posters were displayed (DPS took them away because they claimed they were materials that "threatened the lives" of the representatives depicted) Banners were dropped, cheers were led, women in bloody skirts chained themselves to railings in the gallery, paper shoes representing women who will die from illegal abortions were thrown from the second floor rotunda, and protesters in all areas of the building made sure they held a visible and audible presence throughout the Capitol building for the duration of the proceedings.

My goal was to hold the rotunda all day with the People’s Library, and I managed to do so. Amidst swarming masses of blue-shirted, rosarie-clutching motherfuckers spitting religion at me in a never-ending litany of vengeful Hail Marys that I swear to god almost had me speaking in tongues/barfing up pea soup, and very definitely caused me to respond more than once with a “Hail Satan” or a “Hail my Ovaries” or “Hail flying spaghetti monster” just to cleanse my brain and distract myself from the angry energy emanating from the woman towering over me with a gigantic wooden cross (which was mysteriously allowed into the building…prompting me to create this emergency feminine hygiene product):

I held my sign that said “Anti-poverty=pro-life/anti-war=pro-life” and was unable to find anyone at all who would tell me what sorts of policies they supported that ensure the health and safety of poor mothers, single mothers, rural mothers, and/or immigrant mothers. Because, you know, pro-life doesn’t actually mean what you think it means. The term pro-life is just another way to blame the victim of white supremacist patriarchy. Because, as many people repeated throughout the duration of this extended debate, the best way to reduce abortion – the best way to be ACTUALLY pro-life - is to reduce poverty, increase access to healthcare, provide comprehensive sex education and access to birth control, and improve our educational system so fewer people are confronted with an unintended pregnancy and those who are don’t have to choose to terminate based on purely financial reasons.

To the contrary, ALEC, along with most of those who support these kinds of bills reject worker’s rights, undermine consumer rights, obstruct environmental protections, promote for-profit prisons, and interfere with expansion of Medicaid for the working poor…among many many other things.

You can't get much more anti-life than that.

In the end, of course, the state reared its ugly head and brutally tazed and beat peaceful protesters who ended up locking arms and sitting down in the hallway in front of the Senate floor. DPS officers gave no warning before descending on the crowd, snatching targeted individuals, sending one to the hospital and battering, humiliating, and traumatizing many more. 

It is my hope that at the very least, the actions of the state have radicalized some of the more moderate participants in the crowd, and that we will continue to fight for the rights and dignity of all people, because all of our issues are related and connected. We must all rise up together.

View from Inside the Orange Microscope Slide - part 2

View from Inside the Orange Microscope Slide - part 2


 This is part 2, my personal anecdotes and the highlights reel of my three weeks of protest. --TexBetsy from Relaxed Politics and The Head On Radio Network

Photoshopping by Texteen

On a personal level, most of the protesters were pleasant.  Everyone generally used their southern manners -- doors were held and pleasantries exchanged.  But the tension was palpable as busloads of the anti-choice protesters in blue clothing walked into a room. 

Perhaps the most disturbing experience was on the first Sunday of the protests, my first trip to the capitol for this particular issue in the legislature.  I was waiting in line to enter the gallery and a woman walked out with a tiny green-shirted infant in a stroller.  When she paused to adjust her diaper bag, I looked over and cooed “Oh how adorable!  How old?”  Her response floored me.  “He’s five days old, which means that six days ago YOU PEOPLE would have been just fine with letting me MURDER him.”  Then she sauntered away as my eyes bugged out, like in cartoons.  I asked the people around me, “Did that just happen?”  Someone conjectured that she had been invited into the gallery with her prop.  Only later did I recall that when my own son was five days old, he hadn’t had any vaccinations yet and was not allowed out of the house except to go to the doctor.  Even on an individual level, the health of the pre-born outweighs the health of a living, breathing, and adorable newborn. Which of us really values life?

The other really bizarre incident occurred on the day that hundreds waited in hours-long lines to sign up to give testimony to the senate. I heard a woman in a blue dress ask in Spanish if anyone could interpret for her. In the interest of bipartisan camaraderie, I agreed, then realized that I couldn't stand the whole morning, so I looked for her to offer my twitter handle if she wanted to contact me when she got to the front of the line. I found her a few minutes later, speaking English as well as I do.
Over the course of the three weeks I made new friends and reconnected with old ones as I watched my state house become a police state, with more and more DPS troopers materialize every ten minutes. Our access to electricity and wifi became intermittent and unpredictable, even as the guidelines about where we could sit and stand grew. The fact that, by the final night, we could carry permitted handguns into the gallery but had tampons and medication confiscated is more of a Texas feature than a bug.

One of my new friends stayed in the same hotel as many of the troopers from East Texas. She befriended them over breakfasts and was told that the troublemakers who got arrested Friday night were actually hired to make trouble while wearing orange shirts. I believe her, but have not heard this elsewhere.
On a side note, I am also a disability rights advocate and an education funding activist, I am horrified at the myriad ways that the capitol and the legislative rules themselves discriminate against the mobility-impaired. I had occasion to advise two other women on ramp locations, drop-off points and a secret elevator on the supreme court side of the annex, but that sort of thing shouldn't be left to twitter and happenstance. But that's an entirely different post.

In no particular order, other highlights included:

• Meeting some of my new favorite legislators, including Senfronia Thompson and Jessica Farrar. Farrar was kind enough to allow large groups of us to accept pizzas and baked goods, and watch the proceedings from her office.
• Going onto the senate floor the last day as part of a tour group, then staying behind to take pictures of Senator Wendy Davis's desk. I even asked a photographer to snap a pic of me near her desk, and was trying to leave her a thank-you card when the troopers and bomb-sniffing-dogs came to clear the chamber.
• Seeing two hours of Davis's filibuster from the gallery, then being part of the group that stormed the rotunda with screams after her third strike.
• Meeting Tampon Lady, who decorated her hat with tampons and gave each of us tampon-brooches for entry into the capitol Friday evening.
• Wearing bright Ohio Northern University t-shirts that a good friend sent me, only to have at least one person daily ask me where in Ohio I'm from, what year I graduated, or whether I was here to learn about the protests so I could teach friends "back home" how to be activists.
• Having a state trooper inform me that I had to remove my hat before entering the house chamber, standing up for my rights and traditions, and having him back down when I walked past him and took a seat, hat firmly on my head.
• Hearing two of my rabbis speak eloquently from the stage, and hearing Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks sing "Not Ready to Make Nice" all in the same afternoon.
• The food and water that arrived in great quantity and with greetings from pro-choice activists from other states. Someone made a point of sending vegan pizza and donuts to Representative Farrar's office.
• Having my son and his girlfriend protest with me for the first time ever on any issue. Of course I put them both to work via the Planned Parenthood volunteer table.
• Finally getting my own official "Stand with Texas Women" shirt at about ten minutes until midnight on the final night.
• Getting a chance to blog about my experiences right here! (Thanks Rude Pundit!)

Assorted pix and videos from the whole three weeks:

View from Inside the Orange Microscope Slide - part 1

View from Inside the Orange Microscope Slide - part 1


This is part 1, my philosphical musings about the abortion debate in general and the results of  three weeks of protest.

 --TexBetsy from Relaxed Politics and The Head On Radio Network


 I'm an Austin resident, and a sometimes blogger over at Relaxed Politics, a blog that has fallen from its glory into a definite relaxed state.  Texas, on the other hand, is NOT a relaxed state. Not when it comes to women's reproductive rights. Over the three weeks of abortion rights hearings and legislative sessions, I think I spent most or all of seven days wearing orange and protesting at the capitol. Three of those days went late into the night.  I saw parts of Wendy Davis's filibuster live and in person.  I stormed the rotunda that night and screamed myself hoarse at least four times. Here are a few of my reflections.

I got discouraged a few times over the course of the protests, especially during the second special session, as it became obvious that the bill would pass in spite of our best efforts.  So why continue? What was the point?  Why wake up early, dress again in a color that makes my skin look like I'm related to Boehner, pack up an electronics bag, snacks, and take the bus down to the capitol; the results are a foregone conclusion with the party line votes and the supermajority in both chambers?

As I am sure you know, this is NOT a debate about women's health or about life, at least not in the sense that the republicans are framing it.  If it were any of these things, the legislators would have adopted the amendments that might actually keep women and babies healthy, or prevent unwanted pregnancies to begin with. A  truly “pro-life” cause does not reject federal medicaid money, cut WIC benefits, or deny TANF to pregnant women. Pro-life must be pro-Quality Of Life for all those involved. This is something more than pro-existence.

I am a professional in what a friend refers to as "the religion industry" and my religious beliefs inform my politics and most aspects of my life. (In my case, my religion teaches that the life and health of the mother take precedence over the developing fetus in all cases.) As important as it is to me, religion should not inform public policy, and no lawmaker has the constitutional right to devote his or her floor speeches to how the legislation under consideration aligns with the Baptist Convention. No legislator speaks for God, and I resent that even the pro-choice democrats feel the need to talk about and name their savior while opposing a bill. Is this a theocracy?

So why continue to protest when we had no chance of winning in the second session? The effort matters because the world is watching.  Our orange marches and protests and screaming matches focused the eyes of the world onto the abortion politics and the insanity in this country.  Our Twitter feeds and Facebook pictures and YouTube posts showed the rest of the world exactly how corrupt and conniving the pro-birth politicians are, not just here in Texas but all over the country.