Oh My F'ing God

[kangeiko]

Taken from feminist:

02/10/2006
SD House Approves Abortion Ban
The South Dakota House has passed a bill that would nearly ban all abortions in the state, ushering the issue to the state Senate.

Supporters are pushing the measure in hopes of drawing a legal challenge that will cause the US Supreme Court to reverse its 1973 decision legalizing abortion.

The bill banning all abortions in South Dakota was passed 47-to-22 in the House.

Amendments aimed at carving out exemptions for rape, incest and the health of women were rejected.

The bill does contain a loophole that allows abortions if women are in danger of dying. Doctors who do those abortions could not be prosecuted.

*

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2817.cfm?Id=0,45916

*

I can't even begin to describe my reaction to this right now.

Comments

[hortensio.livejournal.com]

Completely OT, and sorry to spam your journal with it -- I just noticed that in one of your comments about the Fullah doll on feminist (and this is OT even to that!) you say:

...my Bulgarian relatives were also thrilled, because the blonder I was, the less Armenian I looked - Armenians being discriminated against in Bulgaria as an ethnic minority.

I'm the last to say we don't discriminate like hell against our minorities, but this was news to me. I've never encountered anything but respect for Armenians in BG. So I'd really appreciate it if you could... I dunno, leave elaborations/examples/anecdotes/links/whatever on my LJ? My Google skills aren't turning up anything either, and this is something I'd never known about or even suspected -- but obviously important; and it bothers me so I would like to know.

Again, sorry to pester you, and thanks in advance. ;)

[kangeiko]

I can't speak for how things are now, but when my mother (Bulgarian) married my father (Armenian) during the height of Communist rule, there was a lot of opposition. My mother was harrassed by government officials, offering her an annulment, and my father was quite simply kidnapped and tortured. My parents tried for years to leave the country - not because of harassment from people on the street, you understand, as they were actually well respected in their local community, but because the Communist government at the time was not enamoured of them, or of the fact that they were members of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

My half-sister, who remained behind in Bulgaria after we left (this being more than fifteen years ago, now), changed the ending of her name from -ian to -edova, to blend in more easily.

As far as I know, things have improved immeasurably in this area since the '80s and the end of Communist rule. To find information on what I'm talking about, you'd have to do a search that includes 'communist' in the search terms. I found the following by doing a search for 'bulgaria', 'armenian', 'communist', 'persecution':

http://countrystudies.us/bulgaria/25.htm

There are also documented cases in the UN archives, specifically pertaining to examples of 'disappearances' or torture.

Hope that helps!

[seelechen.livejournal.com]

Fuck that's scary. There's been a fair bit of debate in my country (Australia) about abortion recently, given that our conservative government won control of the senate in the last election, and the current health minister is a gory-heart-on-his-sleeve orthodox Roman Catholic, but there is so much public support for abortion that there is no prospect of legal government funded surgical abortion being repealed. Thank God. There is still a lot of heated debate over other forms of abortion, especially the drug RU-486 and there was even some opposition to the prospect of vaccinating women against cervical cancer in their early teens because it would 'encourage sexual promiscuity', which shows that the issue is still, unfortunately, live.

[kangeiko]

The UK's having its own abortion debate, due to recent polls showing 47% of people in favour of lowering the 24 week limit, but thus far ministers etc seem unwilling to get embroiled in it. I think the attitude is - leave it to the doctors, and concentrate on minimising the root causes of late-term abortions.

I don't know, the whole thing just makes me come over in a cold sweat. *shudder*

[seelechen.livejournal.com]

It makes me shudder, too.

[erykah101.livejournal.com]

So utterly wrong. I'm not convinced I could have an abortion myself but it's all kinds of wrong for anyone to say that a woman shouldn't be allowed to make up her own mind about what's best for her and her unborn child.

Part of my mind just can't believe that they even rejected amendments for rape, incest and health cases but then they would have to, their argument is about the child's status, not about the mother's. From their viewpoint this is black and white... abortion equals murder, no matter what else the circumstances and all else is God's will. I'm frankly amazed that the loophole for women in danger of dying got through.

But this is what really gets me, the people who peddle this pro-life crap, and deny women their rights over their own body and future, often seem to be the same people who reckon it's a good thing to send troops off to kill and get killed in pointless wars! How the heck is that pro-life? How does that square for them?! They're also the ones who keep blathering on about personal responsibility and the right to individual freedoms without government interference. Oh yeah, and they want to keep being allowed to guns so they can kill things. Pro-life. Yeah. Whatever.

People suck. This whole thing sucks. I'm so worried for American women on this. And I'm so terrified that this madness will infect us too.