oklahoma abortion bills make me ill
February 24, 2010
Bad news for supporters of choice, free will, sanity, health, happiness, and intelligence (from the Tulsa World).
Oklahoma’s House passed four separate abortion measures that previously had been declared unconstitutional because they had been combined in one bill.
• The panel passed HB 3290 by Rep. Skye McNiel, R-Bristow. It would require a doctor to be in the room when the abortion pill RU486 is administered.
• The panel also passed HB 2780 by Rep. Lisa Billy, R-Lindsay, which would require women who seek an abortion to have an ultrasound and have its contents explained to them.
• The panel passed HB 3110 by Rep. Pam Peterson, R-Tulsa, which would allow health-care providers who object to abortion not to participate in the procedure.
• Peterson’s other abortion bill, HB 3284, also passed. It would require women who seek abortions to provide a host of information about themselves to be posted on a public website.
The first one’s stupid enough- a paternalistic infringement upon privacy, to say the least. What if I decide I don’t want to take the pill just now? What if I decide I want to go home to be sad and pissed (instead of sitting in a Dr.’s office feeling like a child taking cough syrup)? What if I wanna go have a beer with my RU486? I’m a grown-ass adult woman; I can swallow a pill that does not affect my ability to operate heavy machinery whenever and wherever and however I want! Doctors hand out pain pills and muscle relaxers like candy without a care to when or where or how or if the patient ever takes it. But this? A pill that only a female with a womb will take? That needs supervision? Skye McNeil, you just wrote a piece of crazy, stupid, sexist legislation, and I will be calling you.
The second piece of (professional?) legislation is so full of sleezy Hallmark-card sentimentality that I just vomited all over my computer keyboard. Besides being pathetic tripe, it also reeks of control-freakiness! Where the fuck are the Republicans that are opposed to big government intrusions into our personal lives?!?!?! If my womb and what I do or don’t let grow in it is not personal, WTF is anymore?!?!?!
The third one REALLY drives me nuts. A doctor would be able to tell me they don’t want to perform a MEDICAL procedure on me because they MORALLY object. What if a man wanted a vasectomy and the doctor morally objected? It wouldn’t happen! 1.) Because most religious zealots let go of their campaign against birth control decades ago. 2.) A male-specific procedure is his business! Notice the blaring double standard yet? I have been noticing lately that the definition of abortion provided by religious zealots has now almost completely replaced the actual, medical definition of abortion in American discussion of the topic. Am I stuck in a scary movie? Are my vagina, my womb, my mind, my behavior, or my religious views on trial? How exactly does a medical professional “object” to an abortion? Is this the Dr.’s office or a courtroom?
The fourth one: ridiculous, costly, unnecessary. And just why do we need a mandatory registry for people who get abortions? So that sexist zealots can use the information to send missionaries to places where clusters of free-willing women live and have sex? Then those happy, humanly imperfect and beautiful women can hear the shaming, damning, narrow-minded anti-abortion propaganda? Are we cattle that need to be tracked or pigeons that need to be electronically tagged? What else this bill is: Nazi-ish. SS Pam Peterson, you suck (kick her out, South Tulsa!).
Furthermore, every one of these bills were written by a woman? Seriously, ladies? Why are you soooooooooo concerned with this one topic? Are you trying to make yourselves look like good girls? Or mean girls by picking on other women? Are you trying to waste our money? As if it’s not already hard enough to get an abortion in Oklahoma? You want to keep spending time, money, and energy on this until abortion is completely illegal? Is that your main priority as a Representative? Is that what you promised your constituents that you’d do? Is that what is best for our state (a state with soaring teen-pregnancy rates, a state where women are under-represented in the House and Senate, a state where women have even lower incomes than our low-income men)?
Gagging and dry-heaving (I hope I’m pregnant so I can go sit through an ultrasound and an explanation of how I’ll be killing a future Tim Tebow, and then a Dr. can feed me my meds like I’m a lunatic stuck in Yellow Wallpaper, only after I’ve taken a few days off of work to find a Dr. willing to perform a MEDICAL PROCEDURE for which I am PAYING OUT OF POCKET because s/he didn’t get fear-mongered into forsaking the Hippocratic Oath like so many of her/his peers, and then I can go register on-line like a sex-offender since I offended so many people by having great, consensual, adult sex).
Spring
February 24, 2010 at 7:08 pm
i really wish that people would understand that its the womans body, are they goign to start having talks with people for being too fat or too skinny when they go into doc office and tell them im sorry i cant help you your fat its against their beliefs???
February 24, 2010 at 8:01 pm
I’m seriously sick to my stomach after reading this. What is WRONG with people? I honestly only want me, my husband and the gyno worring about my uterus and not other “concerned citizens” that think they know best because I must be hysterical since I have said uterus. (Ohhh NO!!! It’s gotten to her BRAIN!)
The final bill (requires women who seek abortions to provide a host of information about themselves to be posted on a public website) is the most irrational, privacy invading horse shit I’ve heard about in a while. What is WRONG with people? Obviously the people who make this bills have never been in a position to go through an abortion. I hope their daughters don’t ever have to get an abortion and wade through all the emotional distress of having to decide on one, much less having their private information displayed for all to see (oh, but the NAME isn’t mentioned…. give me a break) making them feel even more of a statistic. Eff these bills.
February 24, 2010 at 8:50 pm
Um, at least we don’t live in Utah?
Weak attempt at looking at the bright side, I know…
February 25, 2010 at 12:50 am
amen, spring. what offensive and hypocritical legislation. disgusting. very appropriate reference to The Yellow Wallpaper, also. i’m also thinking of The Handmaid’s Tale… and i remember from all my feminism and lit classes that patriarchy feeds on female horizontal hostility (woman vs. woman competition). i hate using that word, patriarchy… but in this case, it’s clearly the institution keeping women’s choice restricted here in oklahoma. no woman WANTS to have an abortion; no one dreams of having to make the decision. no woman WANTS to take RU486 or the morning after pill; no one dreams of fearing conception so much that she must take a prescription to preemptively stop it or halt it as it takes place. but the freedom to do so for the sake of protecting yourself must be defended. i am more than my body, and i am capable of deciding what is best for myself, thank you.
February 25, 2010 at 8:07 am
wilene- i agree. when women try to take control of their healthcare, one of the obstacles in their way shouldn’t be her doctor’s religious beliefs! ugh.
kara- i totally thought of the history of the word “hysteria”, too. it is so frightening that history is repeating itself here; it’s like we are living on a predictable plot-line instead of the planet earth.
whatif- oh, that link. we’re all effed.
great point, beamish! these bills are THAT crazy and backward and a perfect example of “patriarchy feeding on female horizontal hostility”.
February 25, 2010 at 9:32 am
Wow. I’m gobsmacked. Just utterly gobsmacked.
Re-posted to Twitter.
February 25, 2010 at 9:38 am
You know what? Bring it. Fucking bring. it. on. If they’re going to do this to us, we’re not going to roll over and react they way they want us to.
They want the doctor in the room? Fine. I’m going to piss and moan and cry and do whatever I was going to do at my house alone. Maybe it’ll take three hours. Fortunately, doctors have a TON of leisure time, so they can hang out.
Go ahead and explain that ultrasound. “So, uh, here is a little flickery light that is, well, for lack of a better term ‘heartbeat’, but is actually just some extra blood flow. This is a pole-shaped clump of cells that’s, ok, well it’s really just a clump of cells right now, but if it keeps feeding off this OTHER clump of cells–oh, that doesn’t turn into anything, it gets absorbed–then it might make a baby. Someday. Now if we could take it out and look at it, it would look like, um, well, a blood clot. Which is really what it is. So yeah. You sure you really want to destroy this unique and precious…scab?”
You don’t want to partake in abortion because it offends you delicate sensibilities, doc? Fine. The precious, precious free market will take care of that one. Since the Republicans are SO opposed to government getting involved in healthcare, hospitals are privatized and profit driven. Meaning that if you don’t want to do your job, your ass gets fired. So all those doctors who don’t want to do their job can form little cabals and wingnut practices and I’ll know where NOT to go. Aces.
Registry? Fine. We’ll send cards and flowers and praises of bravery for making such a hard choice. Except, well, this registry is estimated to cost upwards of $15k annually to maintain, and where exactly do you think that money is going to come from? You think that isn’t going to the NUMBER ONE item on every Dem’s “wasteful spending” campaign attack ads?
The best part is, when they do this, they bring on a pointy reckoning. I just LOVE the thought of Spring, daughter in tow, marching up to the capital and bellowing “See this adorable thing? THIS IS WHAT *CHOICE* LOOKS LIKE MOTHERFUCKER!” It’s the same sort of empowerment I feel when talking about abstinence education. “I made the choice you would wanted me to, asshole, and I *STILL* think you’re wrong. And an asshole.”
Nothing like the rage of a pregnant women, yeah? And don’t get me started on Utah and Iowa. Let’s just say I’m happy I’m almost done or I would be TERRIFIED. Handmaid’s Tale indeed…
February 25, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I like Miz H’s idea of sending cards to those on the registry! I think your post, Spring, is right on. I can understand why conservatives would be against abortion for religious reasons, but I cannot understand why they can’t understand liberal perspectives. Where is the understanding that these laws put women’s health at risk?
February 25, 2010 at 1:53 pm
“Understand” and “care,” Courtney, are drastically different concepts.
February 27, 2010 at 1:20 am
speaking of abortion rights: thank you, New York Times, for explaining what race rhetorically has to do with being pro-choice or anti-choice (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/us/27race.html?hp). and thank you, Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, for existing.
February 27, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Do you really think that your slam poem will accomplish anything. Shock and Awe didn’t work for Dubya, and it sure isn’t going to work for the part of the population that takes the most scorn.
Let’s find a productive way to make our arguments and actually get something accomplished. I’m tired of all the talk. It’s all negative, and it’s leading no where. If you want THEM to change their perspective, you have to start looking at your argument from another angle…
I’m on your side, but you need to find a new direction for your passion.
Good luck.
February 28, 2010 at 7:51 pm
EL, do you really think that the tone of your comment will accomplish anything? you’re fighting slams with slams.
what do you mean, “shock and awe didn’t work for dubya, and it isn’t going to work for the part of the population that takes the most scorn?” it sounds like you are comparing spring’s rhetoric to bush jr.’s military strategies? like she’s trying to distract her opponents and then devastate them in battle, but she isn’t succeeding? and which part of the population is it that “takes the most scorn”?
you’re encouraging productivity, but i don’t see you being productive yourself in your comment. from what other angles, specifically, do you want us to view our argument? what actions do you suggest taking? links and further information are always helpful in discussions.
with respect, beamish
February 27, 2010 at 5:01 pm
you’re right, educated lefty. but you forgot the question mark at the end of your opening question.
February 27, 2010 at 6:08 pm
I don’t think this website is meant to persuade the other side. I always felt like PotP was a place to rally the troops, as it were.
March 3, 2010 at 10:53 am
I guess I’m not as educated as I thought… at least I only made one mistake (I hope).
Regardless, my message wasn’t meant as an attack or harsh criticism. I apologize if it was taken that way.
I just know, having grown up in a negative environment, that being called names and being scolded did nothing but push me further into my beliefs and ideas, regardless of how right or wrong they were (and a lot of them were wrong).
I know that there is power in your pen. You show it. I just think that using it to build up and excite your side with harsh words for others is not a step in the right direction. Building an army of “troops” based on rage and hatred will do nothing for your cause. You have to win a few hearts from the other side to begin to make progress. You have to educate, not obliterate… or maybe I’m to hopeful.
To clarify something. The GLBT population is the one that probably takes the most scorn, but I was referring to women — especially those who seek abortion.
I’m not saying that I have all the answers, or any of them for that matter. I’m just telling you what I see, and how I feel about it.
I would love to help make progress, but as we’ve seen I can’t focus my thoughts, I can’t write, and I have a giant problem of never knowing where to begin. Perhaps you can point me in the right direction.
Interested to see the next posted article.
March 3, 2010 at 11:58 am
EL, thanks for the second reply! i did take offense a bit to your first comment because while i do want to offer you hope and guidance, i also want a secure a space to vent. my goal, and i’m sure the other writers’ goals, do not include “building an army of troops based on rage and hatred.” we want to inspire critical thought and we want to model critical thought–by critical thought, i mean investigating what’s behind statements, research, belief systems… reading between the lines, basically.
i really like that you’re participating on the blog! and i wish you wouldn’t degrade yourself about your writing and thinking… spring introduced a kind of motto around here. she gifted some of us with a poem/booklet that is titled “i write anyway,” which means that despite apprehension, anxiety, and fears of judgment, the writer can attempt to express himself or herself and then revise and refine writing and thought through dialogue with others.
here in the comments is where that conversation happens. you’re contributing, challenging the writers, being honest, and that’s great!
we do get feisty on this blog from time to time, but that’s part of its purpose, like Miz H said. in the case of the laws spring discussed in this entry, i think sassiness is more than called for… i don’t want to be treated like chattel, and i can recognize irrationality and hypocrisy despite the fact that i have a uterus. if we can’t hold these laws up for incisive, aggressive criticism, i don’t know what the first amendment is even for.
March 3, 2010 at 2:35 pm
This might be a little controversial on my part (I know, you’re shocked), but, well, I think maybe some of us *should* get a little ugly. Part of the reason liberals get trampled on so much is because we’re just too darn nice. And that’s good! We need to keep that reputation up! But we mustn’t forget that the corollary to “speak softly” is “carry a big stick.”
Ideals are great. It would be awesome if we could sit down and reason with the people doing these awful things. But I think it’s been pretty well established that *these are not reasonable people.*
Legislators listen to the people who yell the loudest. That’s why you get stuff that most people don’t actively want, they just tolerate because it doesn’t effect them/they don’t care/don’t want to cause trouble, etc. etc. etc. Most people just don’t give a rat’s ass enough to take action.
I hope someday we get to a point where people can civilly discuss opposing viewpoints. I *hate* that I’m even writing this. And I fully believe in “not stooping to their level.” But the truth is, our civil liberties are in a burning house. If we have to break a window to get them out, well, it sucks but there you have it.
MLK is one of my biggest heroes. The Mountaintop speech reduces me to snot-bubble sobbing hysterics every single time I hear it. But I know that part of what helped his message of peace make it was the fact that, lurking behind him, was the threat of Malcom X and “any means necessary.” Suddenly, hey, maybe we should listen to this passive guy.
It’s a form of moral martyrdom. Somebody has to throw themselves under the Principles bus so that the good people can keep being the Good People that everyone admires and listens to instead of ignores and mocks. For Gabriel to exist, you must have a Michael backing him up somewhere.
March 3, 2010 at 7:02 pm
i promise that i REALLY usually try my darndest to stay positive and uplifting and encouraging and open and honest. sometimes, however, i get too frustrated to be eloquent and diplomatic or even effective. much less considerate of the opposition or inclusive! i mean, i was crying most of the time i wrote this post, and it took me quite some time to get all my thoughts down. a quick-witted stoic, i am not! and it doesn’t surprise me that it would turn off many people, cuz i’m sure deep down i don’t want everybody to see my weaknesses. especially those who i know will not agree with me. when i’m hurt, i run to my friends.
abortion is, for those who have a firm opinion on the topic, one of those issues that is utterly divisive. some people think it is murder, and that a woman has no right to “murder” the “child” inside her. i don’t think women should murder children, either, of course. but i fundamentally disagree with pro-lifers in that i do not believe that abortion is murder. i do not believe that abortion is anti-life. i do believe that we will never agree on this issue. furthermore, it is extremely offensive to me that anti-abortion activists call women who have abortions (for whatever reason) murderers. it is very rude. it is very mean. it is very cruel and demeaning. murder is one of the worst things a human being can be accused of.
so i still say that no matter how rude i am being here on the blog (and it was really rude of me to call peterson a nazi, i admit), i must agree with beamish and say that in this case, sassiness was appropriate!
also, to highlight my pretty side let me say that my heart is in the right place, and i do plenty of positive activism. for instance, i wrote those representatives that opposed these bills a note of thanks (like my very own jeannie mcdaniel and seminole’s ryan kiesel). and i hereby promise to TRY to encourage more and do more of the positive for others to see
p.s. miz h- great point about mlk and malcolm x!
March 3, 2010 at 8:23 pm
And D. and I promise to keep spewing vitriolic rage over at TCN
March 4, 2010 at 1:43 am
i bow to your sass.
adoringly, beamish
March 25, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Oh, this makes me so angry. I am a grown ass woman. I can decide for myself if I want an abortion or not, without them doing an unnecessary ultrasound…I understand what I choose to do. I did not know that doctors could refuse certain procedures because it is what they decide immoral. So if they think obesity is immoral are they going to refuse to treat an obese patient? These laws make no sense, at all.