Arizona Senate Passes Bill Allowing Doctors To Not Inform Women Of Prenatal Issues To Prevent Abortions

The war on women in the US is a REALITY. Apathy is no longer an acceptable perspective. WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING BEFORE THE CASUALITIES START PILING UP!!! THIS LEGISLATION IS A VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS!!

Arizona Senate Passes Bill Allowing Doctors To Not Inform Women Of Prenatal Issues To Prevent Abortions by Stephen D. Foster Jr. – Original article: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/03/07/arizona-senate-passes-bill-allowing-doctors-to-not-inform-women-of-prenatal-issues-to-prevent-abortions/

“It’s called a “wrongful birth” bill and it’s all about preventing women from having an abortion, even if it kills them. The Arizona Senate passed a bill this week that gives doctors a free pass to not inform pregnant women of prenatal problems because such information could lead to an abortion.

In other words, doctors can intentionally keep critical health information from pregnant women and can’t be sued for it. According to the Arizona Capitol Times, “the bill’s sponsor is Republican Nancy Barto of Phoenix. She says allowing the medical malpractice lawsuits endorses the idea that if a child is born with a disability, someone is to blame.” So Republicans are banning lawsuits against doctors who keep information from pregnant women so as to prevent them from choosing to have an abortion.

This bill is actually more disturbing than the Republicans seem to realize. Giving doctors such a free pass risks the lives of both the expectant mother and the fetus she carries. Prenatal care isn’t just for discovering birth defects and disabilities. It is also for discovering life threatening issues such as an ectopic pregnancy which often requires an abortion to save the life of the mother. With rare exceptions, ectopic pregnancies are not viable anyway, but Republicans are allowing anti-abortion doctors to keep life threatening information from pregnant women all because they are obsessed with stopping any and all abortions. Women may not know they have a life threatening condition until they die on the emergency room table. And the doctor couldn’t be sued.

This is an egregious bill that will lead to higher mortality rates for infants and mothers. Doctors should be held accountable for not disclosing information learned from prenatal examinations. Pregnant women have the right to know if their future child is going to have a disability or if the pregnancy may require an induced abortion to save their lives. Any decision that is made as a result of the information is the mothers own. Doctors should not be allowed to make decisions for pregnant women as a way to prevent abortions. Women have the right to make their own health decisions and hiding critical information is irresponsible, unconscionable, and risks lives. In the end, Republicans are only putting more lives in jeopardy. They might as well call this the ‘let women die’ bill.”

 

Virginia Ultrasound Bill: Republican Lawmaker Calls Abortion ‘Lifestyle Convenience’

The war on women continues. Apparently, we are no longer perceived as human beings. Welcome back to the dark ages. If it’s a war they want….”During the ultrasound bill debate, Englin offered an amendment requiring a woman’s consent to the trans-vaginal ultrasound procedure, which was rejected by the Republican-controlled House.” – THEY ARE TAKING AWAY OUR RIGHT TO CONSENT. WHAT’S NEXT? LEGALIZED RAPE?

Virginia Ultrasound Bill: Republican Lawmaker Calls Abortion ‘Lifestyle Convenience’  By John Celock-John Celock is state politics reporter and Patch liaison for The Huffington Post. He served as the launch editor of Westfield Patch in New Jersey from 2009 to 2011. Prior to Patch he was a reporter for political and real estate publications in New York.  He is the author of the book, The Next Generation: Young Elected Officials and their Impact on American Politics.

“A top Republican legislative leader in Virginia described abortion as a “lifestyle convenience” during the floor debate on a controversial measure to require trans-vaginal ultrasounds before a woman can get an abortion.

State Del. C. Todd Gilbert (R-Woodstock) made the comment midday Tuesday as the House of Delegates took up consideration of the ultrasound bill. The bill — which then passed the House 63 to 36 — would require any woman seeking an abortion in the state to receive an ultrasound first. As an external ultrasound is not able to produce a necessary picture early in pregnancy, a trans-vaginal ultrasound would be needed to produce an image of the fetus.

While addressing the debate, Gilbert, the House’s deputy majority leader, took to the floor to support the bill. The Shenandoah Valley lawmaker used his floor statement to describe most abortions as a “lifestyle convenience” for women. Witnesses said that Gilbert did not clarify which abortions he does not consider to be “lifestyle conveniences.”

Within minutes of Gilbert’s statement, two Democratic lawmakers — Del. Mark Keam (D-Fairfax County) and Del. David Englin (D-Alexandria) — both sent out the remarks on Twitter. Englin, who commented “Wow” in his Tweet about Gilbert’s floor statement, said that Gilbert’s exact words were “a matter of lifestyle convenience.”

Gilbert has not returned a call from The Huffington Post for comment on his statement. Aides to Gilbert said the lawmaker was on the House floor and then in meetings off the floor following adjournment of today’s session.

Debate on the bill ended shortly after Gilbert’s statement, preventing Democratic lawmakers from responding. The bill’s passage followed the state Senate’s approval of a similar bill earlier this month. Virginia legislators are expected to pass final versions of the ultrasound bill before the legislative session ends in March. Lawmakers also passed the state’s personhood bill today.

During the ultrasound bill debate, Englin offered an amendment requiring a woman’s consent to the trans-vaginal ultrasound procedure, which was rejected by the Republican-controlled House.

Democrats have criticized Gilbert’s floor statement, and Englin said that the statement is in line with previous Republican comments on the issue. He noted he had a conversation with one GOP lawmaker regarding his amendment where the lawmaker had told him that women had already made the decision to be “vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant.”

“For him to be so dismissive of women to control their own reproductive decisions is shocking,” Englin said. “This is not abortion as contraception this about women facing difficult circumstances. It is unfortunate that he used that language.”

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) is expected to sign the ultrasound bill.”

Original Article at Huffington Post

 

The War On Women Continues: Republicans Try To Weaken Violence Against Women Act

Every soulless waste of a human being politician who pushes to weaken any act that protects women in a country where the concept of equality is a fucking joke, should be charged with crimes against humanity and treason against their own constituents. To hide behind the immigration controversy is cowardly and to use a crucial act that has saved so many lives as a venue to attack immigration or any other irrelevant issue is fucking deplorable. It’s disgusting and disgraceful. 

Senate Republicans push to weaken Violence Against Women Act by Laura Clawson

What Republican war on women? The Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized in 2005 by unanimous consent in the Senate and with 415 votes in favor in the House, and signed by George W. Bush. It’s up for reauthorization again now, and of course, this time, Republicans have a problem with it. The bill—which is actually cosponsored by Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo—received no Republican votes in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Oh, they’ll tell you they want to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act … but of course, they want to do it their way. “The Republican opposition seems driven largely by an antigay, anti-immigrant agenda,” a New York Times editorial explains:

The main sticking points seemed to be language in the bill to ensure that victims are not denied services because they are gay or transgender and a provision that would modestly expand the availability of special visas for undocumented immigrants who are victims of domestic violence — a necessary step to encourage those victims to come forward.

It’s not just that, though. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, not only wants to eliminate those provisions, but has his own version of the bill that contains “a huge reduction in authorized financing, and elimination of the Justice Department office devoted to administering the law and coordinating the nation’s response to domestic violence and sexual assaults.” Grassley’s funding cuts are above and beyond the $135 million reductionin funding from 2005 levels already contained in the bill the Judiciary Committee Republicans unanimously rejected.

Nothing to see here! It’s all just a coincidence that Republicans are going to the mat both to cut funding to protect women from domestic violence and sexual assault and to protect employers from having to offer complete preventive health care to women if that means women might have sex without being punished for it.

Sign our petition telling Senate Republicans to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act without further cutting funding.

 

Tell Obama to Cease FDA Ties to Monsanto!

By Frederick Ravid   (Contact)

President Obama has appointed former Monsanto VP and lobbyist Michael Taylor to become senior advisor to the FDA’s commissioner. This unthinkable linkage between food safety and corporate interests that have little regard for the public health must be stopped. This example of a “fox watching the henhouse” is inexcusable. President Obama must reverse this unimaginably dangerous policy and isolate the FDA from corporate influence.

“President Obama, I oppose your appointment of Michael Taylor, a former VP and lobbyist for Monsanto, the widely criticized genetically modified (GM) food multinational, as senior advisor to the commissioner at the FDA. Taylor is the same person who as a high-ranking official at the FDA in the 1990s promoted allowing genetically modified organisms into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty.

Taylor was in charge of policy for Monsanto’s now-discredited GM bovine growth hormone (rBGH), which is opposed by many medical and hospital organizations. It was Michael Taylor who pursued a policy that milk from rBGH-treated cows should not be labeled with disclosures. Michael Taylor and Monsanto do not belong in our government.

President Obama, Monsanto has been seen as a foe to family-based agriculture, the backbone of America, by introducing dangerous changes to plants and animals and by using strong-arm legal tactics against farmers for decades. Naturally occurring plant and animal species are permanently threatened by the introduction of DNA and hormonal modification, Monsanto’s core businesses.

FDA scientists once regarded genetic modification of the food supply as the single most radical and potentially dangerous threat to public health in history. As early as the 1991, a body of scientific research began to form which now includes articles in over 600 journals. As a whole, these offer scientific evidence that GM foods, hormones, and related pesticides are the root cause for the increase of many serious diseases in the U.S. Since GM foods were introduced, diagnosis of multiple chronic illnesses in the U.S. has skyrocketed. These illnesses include changes in major organs and in hormonal, immune, digestive, and reproductive systems. These modifications to foods and food production may also be contributors to colon, breast, lymphatic, and prostate cancers.

Experts are discouraged that regulators and GM companies systematically overlook potential side effects of GM. Monsanto’s objective to use biotechnology to change the world’s food supply is the opposite policy direction your administration should pursue. Your legacy of supporting Monsanto to have free rein in U.S. food policy is a nightmare scenario that is against the interest of all Americans and world citizens.”

Click here to sign the petition at Signon.org

For more information on The Monsanto Company, please visit this wikipedia page!

Click here for more on Monsanto’s Dark History

Youtube: Monsanto Poisons Food, BP Poisons Water and the Government Poisons Our Air

Thank you for reading!!

 

Gingrich: Free Speech Should Be Curtailed To Fight Terrorism

This is an old article from 2006, but in light of the asshole’s run for the presidency I wanted to share:

Gingrich: Free Speech Should Be Curtailed To Fight Terrorism by JOSH GERSTEIN, Staff Reporter of the Sun | November 29, 2006

“A former House speaker, Newt Gingrich, is causing a stir by proposing that free speech may have to be curtailed in order to fight terrorism.

“We need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until we actually literally lose a city, which I think could literally happen in the next decade if we’re unfortunate,” Mr. Gingrich said Monday night during a speech in New Hampshire. “We now should be impaneling people to look seriously at a level of supervision that we would never dream of if it weren’t for the scale of the threat.”

Speaking at an award dinner billed as a tribute to crusaders for the First Amendment, Mr. Gingrich, who is considering a run for the White House in 2008, painted an ominous picture of the dangers facing America.

“This is a serious, long-term war,” the former speaker said, according an audio excerpt of his remarks made available yesterday by his office. “Either before we lose a city or, if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people.”

Mr. Gingrich acknowledged that these proposals would trigger “a serious debate about the First Amendment.” He also said international law must be revised to address the exigencies posed by international terrorists.

“We should propose a Geneva Convention for fighting terrorism, which makes very clear that those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are, in fact, subject to a totally different set of rules that allow us to protect civilization by defeating barbarism before it gains so much strength that it is truly horrendous,” he said.

The former speaker also pointed approvingly to England, where suspects in terrorism cases can be detained for several weeks without charge. Some of Mr. Gingrich’s remarks about balancing freedom and terrorism were reported by the Associated Press on Monday and the Union Leader of Manchester yesterday.

In the same speech Monday, the former speaker expressed a more expansive view of First Amendment rights in the American political arena. Mr. Gingrich picked a fight of sorts with a potential rival for the Republican presidential nomination, Senator McCain of Arizona, by branding as a failure the campaign finance restrictions known as McCain-Feingold. The former speaker said the limitations have not stemmed the flow of money into politics and failed to curtail negative political advertising.

Mr. Gingrich has been traveling to politically important states, like New Hampshire, but said Monday he would not decide on a White House bid until September 2007.”

Read the original article here.

 

Republican Bullying Behind Susan G. Komen’s Split From Planned Parenthood

This is infuriating. You’re pro-life but only for rich people, right? The poor who have no health insurance can die from cancer, no skin off your noses, right? HOW CAN YOU BE ANTI-ABORTION AND PRO-LIFE AND STOP SUPPORTING LIFE-SAVING TECHNIQUES LIKE CANCER SCREENINGS? ELITEST, HYPOCRITICAL, DELUSIONAL SOULLESS PIECES OF SHIT YOU ALL ARE.

Also, further proof that our government doesn’t give two shits about whether it’s constituents live or die- SO WHY DO WE KEEP VOTING FOR THEM? I think the whole country should abstain from voting until ALL PARTIES can present a wholly acceptable candidate while WE THE PEOPLE investigate, impeach & imprision all the current politicians who are engaging in illegal behavior, bullying, and other such douchebaggery.

And if it’s a class war they want, IT’S ON….

***

Who Is Behind Susan G. Komen’s Split From Planned Parenthood? by Nicholas Jackson – Nicholas Jackson is an associate editor at The Atlantic, where he oversees the Health channel. A former media aggregator for Slate, he has also worked for Encyclopaedia Britannica, Texas Monthly and other publications.

“The nation’s leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which has spent nearly $2 billion over the past 30 years for breast cancer education, health services, research, and advocacy, has announced that it will end its longtime partnership with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The announcement has sparked bitter debate among representatives from all concerned parties, highlighting the ongoing debate over abortion.

Planned Parenthood, currently the largest provider of reproductive health services in the United States, is widely known for helping women to obtain abortions and contraceptives. But those services, despite their high profile, account for only 38 percent (PDF) of the organization’s work. And though Republicans often portray Planned Parenthood as strictly an abortion provider, using the phrase to incite anger among pro-life constituents and gain support for cuts to federal funding — it comes largely through the Title X and Medicaid programs — the fact is that the organization devotes most of its money and manpower to screening for breast, cervical, and testicular cancers; treating menopause; testing for sexually transmitted diseases; and more.

The money provided by Susan G. Komen for the Cure went to just a fraction — about 19 according to one report— of Planned Parenthood’s more than 85 affiliates. And it was all — roughly $680,000 last year and $580,000 the year before that — used for breast-cancer screening and other breast-health services for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured women.

Koman has been criticized in the past for donating to Planned Parenthood and the official response has always been that, despite the controversy surrounding some of its programs, the organization was the only one working to provide breast-health services to women in need in dozens of communities around the United States.

So why the sudden change?

Cutting funds to Planned Parenthood is the result of a newly adopted policy to block grants to organizations currently under investigation by any local, state, or federal authorities, Koman spokeswoman Leslie Aun told the Associated Press. A statement released Tuesday evening added: “While it is regrettable when changes in priorities and policies affect any of our grantees, such as a long-standing partner like Planned Parenthood, we must continue to evolve to best meet the needs of the women we serve and most fully advance our mission.”

The key factor behind Komen’s decision, Aun told the Associated Press, is not ongoing protests of Planned Parenthood — the Alliance Defense Fund was quick to praise Komen “for seeing the contradiction between its lifesaving work and its relationship with an abortionist that has ended millions of lives” — but an audit launched by Rep. Cliff Stearns, chairman of the Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, to determine whether public money had been spent on abortions over the last decade.

When launched way back in late September, Stearns’ review was described as the first-ever oversight on taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood. But his motivations have been questioned repeatedly. Rep. Henry Waxman called out (PDF) Stearns: “Your fervent ideological opposition to Planned Parenthood does not justify launching this intrusive investigation.” And Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), has said that investigation was politically motivated; Stearns must bow to the demands of Florida’s 6th congressional district, a largely Republican area of North Central Florida that includes parts of Ocala and Gainesville.

Perhaps best known for his position overseeing the investigation into the Solyndra loan guarantee, Stearns has spent more than 20 years in Congress. Over such a long period, his political opponents inevitably called him a number of negative things. Among them, “bully” might be the easiest to print.

“It’s hard to understand how an organization with whom we share a mission of saving women’s lives could have bowed to this kind of bullying. It’s really hurtful,” Richards told the Associated Press. More than confused, Richard was shocked to learn about decision in a phone call this past December. She called it “incredibly surprising” that Komen’s president, Elizabeth Thompson, was unwilling to have a discussion about the quick shift.

According to Jezebel‘s Erin Gloria Ryan, however, the influence of another key player in the Komen organization goes a long way in explaining its decision to defund: Karen Handel, who ran for governor of Georgia in 2010 and lost, despite an endorsement by none other than Sarah Palin, has been Komen’s senior vice president for public policy since April 2011. On her campaign blog (fire up the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine because, curiously, these pages don’t exist anymore), Handel wrote: “I will be a pro-life governor who will work tirelessly to promote a culture of life in Georgia. … I believe that each and every unborn child has inherent dignity, that every abortion is a tragedy, and that government has a role, along with the faith community, in encouraging women to choose life in even the most difficult of circumstances. …since I am pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.”

Handel even “promised to eliminate funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings provided by” Planned Parenthood, according to Jezebel.

Some of those affected are still figuring out how to respond to Komen’s decision. “We’re kind of reeling,” Patrick Hurd, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Virginia, told the Associated Press. “It sounds almost trite … but cancer doesn’t care if you’re pro-choice, anti-choice, progressive, conservative. Victims of cancer could care less about people’s politics.” And Hurd knows. Not just as the suit overseeing his organization’s operations in one region, but as the husband of Betsi Hurd, a veteran of many Koman fundraising races and a current breast cancer patient.”

Click here to donate to Planned Parenthood!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Click here to read an original article from November that tells the whole story via The New Yorker

 

Washington State Senate Votes Wednesday on Marriage Equality Bill

By Andrew Harmon

The Washington state senate is expected to pass a marriage equality bill Wednesday — legislation that Gov. Chris Gregoire has promised to sign into law.

The senate will likely vote on the bill late Wednesday afternoon or early evening. Though the vote margin in the senate chamber is extremely narrow, the bill is expected to pass in the house by a wide margin.

If passed, Washington would become the seventh state plus the District of Columbia to extend equal marriage rights for same-sex couples. But marriage equality opponents including the National Organization for Marriage have vowed to take the issue to a voter referendum and to fund primary challenges to Republican lawmakers who voted in favor of gay marriage.

On Tuesday, Washington state senator Ed Murray, an openly gay lawmaker and lead sponsor of the bill, told The Advocate he remains confident that the 25 pledged votes needed to pass the legislation remain solid.
Murray said he expects Gov. Gregoire to sign the bill late next week, though he anticipates a referendum on the issue later this year (read the interview here).

Read The Advocate’s January interview with Gov. Gregoire here.

Original Text Here

 

This Evil Woman Must Be Stopped: She Hurts Children!

Should Witch-Hunter Helen Ukpabio be Allowed to Visit America? by Jason Pitzl-Waters

The United States has a strong ethic of not interfering with the internal affairs of religious organizations. The recent unanimous Supreme Court decision affirming the right of “ministerial exception” sent a clear signal that our government is limited in what in can demand or regulate. In America, religious institutions aren’t taxed, and our constitution enshrines a secular ethic that prevents one faith being raised up above any other. However, freedom of religion does not place clergy and religious leaders above the law, individuals have been imprisoned when their teachings have led to the abuse or deaths of others. Now, the question is if the United States should act to keep a religious leader accused of encouraging the abuse, and in some cases death, of children from entering our country. In March, Nigerian Christian leader Helen Ukpabio is planning a trip to the United States to engage in a “Marathon Deliverance” session in Texas. The International Humanist and Ethical Union claims that Ukpabio “uses her sermons, teachings and prophetic declarations to incite hatred, intolerance and persecution of alleged witches and wizards.”

“Ukpabio claims to be an ex-witch, initiated while she was a member of another local church, the Brotherhood of Cross and Star. She later founded the Liberty Gospel Church to fulfill her ‘anointed mission’ of delivering people from witchcraft attack. Ukpabio organizes deliverance sessions where she identifies and exorcizes people, mainly children, of witchcraft. Headquartered in Calabar in Southern Nigeria, the Liberty Gospel Church has grown to be a witch hunting church with branches in Nigeria and overseas.”

Ukpabio’s teachings were profiled in the documentary “Saving Africa’s Witch Children,” a ministry that includes a propaganda film, “End of the Wicked,” and a book entitled “Unveiling the Mysteries of Witchcraft,” materials that are taken very seriously by many Nigerians, and is claimed to have directly led to the torture and abuse of “witch” children. When confronted with these allegations by the New York Times during her last visit to America, Ukpabio claimed the film was mere fantasy, and that the accusations against her were fueled by racism.

“Do you thinkHarry Potteris real?” Ms. Ukpabio asked me angrily, in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express where she was staying. “It is only because I am African,” she said, that people who understand that J. K. Rowling writes fiction would take literally Ms. Ukpabio’s filmic depictions of possessed children, gathering by moonlight to devour human flesh. […]  Ms. Ukpabio argued that “Saving Africa’s Witch Children” exaggerates or invents the problem of child abandonment. Asked how she could be so sure, she said, “because I am an African!” In Africa, she said, “family ties are too strong to have a child on the street.”

Despite these claims of “exaggeration”, Nigeria has since outlawed accusing a child of witchcraft. A law challenged by Ukpabio, who tried to sue the Akwa Ibom state government, local police, and relief charities for damages and an exemption from the law. Failing in that initiative, her followers have used the press to attack the organizations that seek to help children accused of witchcraft. As the New York Times so aptly puts it: “In the name of religious freedom, Ms. Ukpabio seeks a gag order on anyone who disagrees with her.” Now she seeks to return to America again, to no doubt rake in donations from her American followers and admirers.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NUeKBibBN0I

I’ve written about Ukpabio several times at this blog, a prominent figure in a gruesome business of churches naming and “curing” witchcraft in children. A phenomenon that Western churches have much to answer for. This time, Ukpabio’s visit is seeming to inspire some coordinated opposition. Humanitarian activist Michael Mungai at HuffPo says there should be protests, which are now being organized by Staise Gonzalez in Houston against Ukpabio’s visit.

Her critics, such as Staise Gonzalez, say that once children are identified as witches, especially in areas where people believe in sorcery, they are tortured and sometimes killed. ”These suspected witches have been treated in brutal and inhumane ways,” says Gonzalez, who is organizing 12 days of protest to correspond with Ukpabio’s appearance, scheduled from March 14 to March 25. ”Abandoned, isolated and otherwise ostracized from the community, taken to the forest and slaughtered, disgraced publicly, bathed in acid, poisoned, buried alive, chained and tortured in churches in order to extract confession, and murdered,” she says.

A Facebook page, Stand Against Helen Ukpabio, has also been created. Meanwhile, back in Nigeria, children are still being branded as witches, and a judicial commission on witchcraft accusations in Nigeria is demanding that she appear and testify before it. A warrant for her arrest may be issued if she ignores those summons. Considering the circumstances, and the mountain of evidence that Ukpabio is engaged the naming of child witches, and her defiant stance to any and all accusations of wrongdoing, is it in the best interests of our State Department to allow her a visa? A petition on Change.org argues that Ukpabio should be denied entry.

“US Department of State needs to be urged to do the right thing and deny Helen Ukpabio’s entry into the United States on grounds of her human rights violations.”

PZ Myers adds that “this evil, criminal woman ought to be met at the airport and turned right around, if not sent off to trial for crimes against humanity.” Will the State Department acknowledge Ukpabio’s witch-hunting as a crime against humanity and deny her entry? I can only imagine that a concerted effort to bring the matter to their attention may have some effect. I will try to contact them to see if they have an official stance or response to the charges against Ukpabio.

Those who would accuse children of witchcraft have no place in our society, and should not be feted or encouraged by welcoming them to our shores. The cures and blessings peddled by Ukpabio, and those like her, should face intense scrutiny, and not allowed the status of an United States victory lap.  For those who want to help the witch-children of Nigeria, Stepping Stones Nigeria is a good place to start.

 

Mitt Romney: Just Another Misogynistic, Oppresive @$$hole

Let’s hope and pray this assclown doesn’t get elected. It’s one thing to be against contraception, it’s another thing to deny women the CHOICE and OPPORTUNITY to take them or not. It’s our RIGHT, OUR body and OUR choice- religion be damned. It’s called FREE WILL. If we want to “sin” by protecting our bodies, then it’s OUR right to commit that “sin”. Especially when it comes to rape survivors! STOP SHOVING YOUR OPPRESSIVE, MISOGYNISTIC & HATEFUL “RELIGION” DOWN OUR FRACKING THROATS, YOU FASCIST ASSHATS.

Ugh…here’s a proper article.

*End Rant*

Mitt Romney Slams Birth Control Decision Similar To One He Made In Massachusetts by Laura Bassett

“The Mitt Romney campaign sharply criticized President Barack Obama’s recent decision to require most religiously affiliated employers to offer their employees birth control coverage in an email to The New York Times Sunday, calling it a “direct attack on religious liberty.” But in 2005, Romney made an almost identical decision as governor of Massachusetts.

Romney vetoed a bill that would require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims, but the Massachusetts legislature overturned that veto. He then changed his position on the issue, denying Catholic and other private hospitals an exemption that would have allowed them to refuse to offer the pill to their patients.

Although Romney had already begun opposing abortion rights at that point and had written a Boston Globe op-ed arguing that he opposed the morning after pill because he believed it could cause abortions, he said his lawyers had advised him to scrap the old Massachusetts law that barred the state from forcing private hospitals to dispense contraception.

Now, the Obama administration has denied a similar religious exemption, requiring religious hospitals and universities to fully cover contraception costs for their employees, even if they morally object to contraception.

Andrea Saul, a spokesperson for Mitt Romney, commented on the decision in the email to the Times.

“This is a direct attack on religious liberty,” she said “and will not stand in a Romney presidency.” ”

Orginal Article on the Huffington Post here.

 

Newt Gingrich’s Hatemongering Against Gays & Pagans…

Dear Newt Gingrich,

You are a DOUCHEBAG, with a capital DOUCHE. You ask your SECOND wife for an “open marriage”, blatantly cheat on her while she struggles with MS, and then get ANOTHER divorce, but you’re going to call yourself a christian, fight for the “sanctity of marriage” and vomit hateful, intolerant rhetoric against other religions? Newt Gingrich, you are the WORST kind of human being. You make me SICK.

Sincerely,

Me, the not entirely heterosexual pagan

PS- Your name is NewTON, Newt is a stupid nickname and an insult to a very cute little amphibian. Just sayin’. Now promptly choke and die so we can stop being subjected to your BS.

Gay Marriage and Other “Pagan Behaviors” by Jason Pitzl-Waters

“On Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich participated in a conference call to conservative Christian supporters. In a statistical tie with fellow contender Mitt Romney in the upcoming Florida primary, Gingrich is trying to win the support of as many evangelicals and religious conservatives as possible, a demographic that Romney has had a hard time winning over. During the call, which had around 1000 participants, and was moderated by Jim “Cracking Da Vinci’s Code” Garlow, Gingrich called same-sex marriage a “fundamental violation of our civilization” that illustrates the “rise of paganism” in the United States.

“It’s pretty simple: marriage is between a man and a woman. This is a historic doctrine driven deep into the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and it’s a perfect example of what I mean by the rise of paganism. The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization.”

Gingrich also doubled down on earlier statements by saying during the call that “a lot of what surrounds us today is paganism,” drawing parallels to Christianity during ancient Rome. In Gingrich’s mind secularism and paganism seem to be one and the same, a force that joins Islam in a two-pronged “war” against Christianity. You can download and listen to the entire conference call, here.

I have two responses to Gingrich’s comments, and this conference call. First, for a historian, Gingrich seems to have a shaky grasp on the history of marriage. Marriage has been an ever-shifting thing, practiced in a number of ways, and Christians did not always treat it as a holy condition. I’m certainly happy to agree that Pagans are open towards creating “alternatives” to the modern rigid constructions of this social contract envisioned by conservative Christians, but I part ways with candidate Gingrich on the idea that this is a “violation” of Western civilization. Perhaps he should remember that is was the “pagans” he seems to have no trouble vilifying that invented Western civilization.

My second response has to do with Florida. While it may seem like good politics to construct religious straw men that Christians can alternatively fear and revile, the state is far more diverse than many give it credit for. Florida has thriving Pagan, Hindu, Haitian Vodou, Santeria/Lukumi, and other non-Christian/non-Abrahamic faith communities. What could be beneficial in a primary might come back to harm you in a general election. I doubt that Gingrich much cares about this, but future politicians should. As I said not too long ago at The Washington Post:

America’s religious diversity isn’t simply a stock phrase to pull out when describing the virtues of our country. According to the Pew Forum, 16.1 percent of Americans claim no formal religion, while another 2.3 percent are part of religious tradition outside the Christian-Jewish-Muslim monotheistic paradigm. Those aren’t insignificant numbers, and they put the often lumped-together “other/unaffiliated” category on a statistical par with evangelical and mainline Protestants. Despite this, moral debates are almost always framed along a left-right Christian axis; Rick Warren gets to interview Obama and McCain, while Hindus, Pagans, Buddhists, and practitioners of indigenous traditions rarely get to ask questions on a national stage. Gov. Johnson’s courage in talking to religious minorities might have been driven by a modicum of desperation in getting his message out, but it should be seen as a harbinger of what campaigning to religious groups will be like in the future.”

Declaring yourself in de facto opposition to America’s religious diversity and secular government should automatically disqualify you from running our executive branch. Our president is the duly elected representative of all its citizens, not just its Christian citizens. Assembling campaign faith coalitions that speak to one very narrow idea of religion alienates instead of unifies, and when that coalition claims that electing anyone outside their boundaries will bring about the end of civilization, it sends a dangerous signal. Americans shouldn’t be worrying about “Pagan behaviors.” Instead, they should worry about the “Christian behaviors” of Newt Gingrich and those like him.”

Original article: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2012/01/gay-marriage-and-other-pagan-behaviors.html