John McCain Hates Women
For those misguided souls who believe John McCain is a moderate.
Besides opposing a women’s right to legal and safe abortion, he is also anti-birth control.
John McCain’s Record on Opposing Women’s Health Care:
- John McCain’s health care plan will leave 47 million Americans uninsured. His plan would largely force families to buy their own insurance through a private insurer, and decrease insurance offerings through employment. Source: CBS News
- John McCain voted to shut down the Title X family-planning program, which provide millions of women with breast cancer screenings and birth control. Source: Huffington Post
- John McCain supported George W. Bush’s veto of children’s health insurance. McCain opposes expanding the plan that will provide health care for millions of uninsured children. Source: CNN
- John McCain voted against a bill that funded sex education, provided access to emergency contraception to prevent pregnancy, increased funding to family planning services, and expanded teen-pregnancy-prevention programs. Source: OnTheIssues.org
- John McCain voted against requiring health insurance companies to cover the cost of prescription birth control. When asked if health insurance plans that covered Viagra should also cover prescription birth control, McCain had no answer. Source: Katha Pollitt, Alternet, available at Alternet.com, also from CNN
- John McCain strongly supports abstinence-only education in schools, despite extensive research demonstrating that it increases teen pregnancy and sexually-transmitted disease rates. Source: San Francisco Gate, February 16, 2007, available at sfgate.com
- John McCain doesn’t know if condoms work to prevent the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. When asked at a rally in 2007 if condoms helped stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, McCain said he didn’t know. Source: The New York Times, March 16, 2007. Available at NYTimes.com. Importantly, research by amFAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, released a report demonstrating that when used correctly, condoms are 80-95% effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection. Source: amFAR Issue Brief, January 2005, available at amFAR.org
He also doesn’t think women are entitled to equal pay.
John McCain’s Record on Opposing Fair Pay for Women:
- John McCain opposes fair pay for women. He thinks it is fine for employers to pay women less than men for equal work. In 2008 he refused to vote for the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which allows women to receive equal pay for equal qualifications to a man. John McCain said that instead of fair pay for equal work, women need more “education and training.” Source: Huffington Post.
- In 1990, John McCain also voted against a bill that would have strengthened civil rights in the workplace and banned discrimination on the base of sex. Source: Senate.gov
He hates women so much he can’t even be civil to his own wife, calling her a cunt in public when she teased him about his thinning hair.
To borrow and rephrase a right wing axium, a woman who votes for McCain is like a chicken who votes for Colonel Sanders.
Hey? What’s That Smell?
South Dakota’s favourite band of anti-choicers are showing their Communist stripes. They’ve managed (not that getting the Ill-informed to agree to The Stupid is difficult) to acquire 500,000 signatures for a totalitarian bill that essentially would reduce pregnant women to wards of the state. And ban most forms of birth control. Details of this latest bit of Pea-nuttiest, from the “what about the bay-bees” crowd here.
What is especially delightful about that blog posting is the astute comparison to Communism. Innit funny how Conservatives love to bray about the evils of the Gov’ment and how freedom is all about keeping the Gov’ment out of the business of…business and private citizens? That is unless, you are a woman, or unless the Gov’ment is protecting you from terrorists. At which point it’s perfectly acceptable to butt into the business of private citizens.
But enact a law that protects the environment (and by default private citizens, cuz clean air and water is nice), oh, boy, and let the bleating begin. Out comes the anecdotal story of cousin Bob, who was prevented from putting a pool in his backyard because some stupid law declared his yard a wetland. “The gov’ment,” whines Bubba, “is keeping private citizens from doing whatever they want on their own land.”
Alternately, there’s my favorite for Stupid. The high gas prices are the fault of the environmentalists who oppose destroying some of our last pristine wild lands in Alaska. (This despite the fact that studies have shown there really isn’t enough oil up there to provide more than a few years of fuel for Security Mom’s SUV. And all oil is a finite resource, so the intelligent approach would be to move to renewable fuel sources. But who needs logic when your are a conservative?)
If you really wanna have some fun with a anti-choicer, ask one this question:
“So, if abortion is murder, then how much time should a women who’s had an abortion serve?”
“Uh. What?”
“Murder should mean jail time, right? How much?”
The question will yield one of two responses, prevarication–”Uh, what, huh?”– or some kind of time frame–”Five years.”
The second answer, usually rare, at least displays a refreshing consistency (not to mention the obvious ass-hole-ness.) If you think abortion is murder, then women who have abortions should go to jail. Que no?
As for the rest, who hem and haw–”I, er, I mean, it’s the doctors who should go to jail. Don’t punish the women, I mean,…uh.”–you’re buying into the usual sexist notion that the little womin is too simple-minded to make important decisions about her body. She must be protected.
And protected is a pretty word for control. I am protective of my little dog Gheri. Which means, I control where she goes, what she eats, etc. Gheri, being a dog, and not vested with any unalienable rights, nor much concern for said rights, goes along rather cheerfully with the business.
Women, being human beings and fully vested with personhood (the latter not a characteristic of fetuses), aren’t cute little dogs who should live their lives in sheltered, cosseted care. Pregnancy doesn’t divest a woman of her rights, or demote her to “pet” status.
Keep in mind that this kind of totalitarian thinking has implications for pregnant women who want to be pregnant. How is giving the state authority over your pregnancy and the medical choices you make to keep yourself and your baby healthy, ever a good idea?
If all pregnant women are wards of the state, then does that mean they get prenatal care from the state, gratis? Heh. One can imagine the furor that would erupt from most conservatives when told their tax dollars would cover prenatal care for all pregnant women, regardless of income status. Most gnash their teeth now, at the thought of “all those welfare types” who get coverage under Medicade and similar programs.
“Grrr. All those slutty, poor women, fucking and having babies on my dime. Why there aughta be a law…”
Hmmm. What kind of law, Bubba? One that forces some pregnant women (low income) to have abortions? Or maybe forced sterilization for anyone deemed (by the state) unsuitable to breed? Sniff, sniff. What’s that smell?
Ah, I love the smell of Communism in the morning.
See You in Hell
From the people who brought you the Spanish Inquisition and “pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth,” –i.e. The Catholic Church–comes a new list of fun things to do, erm, …seven social sins.
The seven social sins, as per Pope Ratzy are:
1. “Bioethical’ violations such as birth control
2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty
I’ve always thought Catholics lived in their own special kind of Bizarro World. Growing up in a largely Hispanic neighborhood, I was surrounded by Catholics. (It wasn’t until high school, that I realized that there were even wackier Xians out there–evangelical Christians.) But the thing I’ve found most striking about Catholics is their loyalty to team Catholic, even when they follow so few of the tenets of their religion. Take for instance birth control*, which a majority of American Catholics use despite the admonitions of their much revered Pope. Right now, thousands of dutiful Catholics are in the midst of Lenten-imposed sacrifice–”I gave up chocolate”–all the while taking their birth control pills or sliding on a condom. I guess the logic is, “I gave up beer for a month, thus distracting Jesus from the birth control patch stuck on my hip.”
There’s not much doubt my soul’s heading somewhere warm for the afterlife. And Hallelujah, because after this winter, I’ve had it with the cold.
1. “Bioethical’ violations such as birth control–Check. See I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t. Since I’m a starving artist, I can’t afford to have a child. And if I did get pregnant, I’d have to make use of SCHIP monies or other government assistance to bring said child into the world and get him/her medical care, which would lead the Right Wing finger-wavers to scold me for having children I couldn’t afford. Course, if I spared the taxpayers and had an abortion, that would be even naughtier. But if I keep the happy little sperms from their rendezvous with the egg, I’m subverting God’s will. So, uh, fuck God’s will.
2. “Morally dubious” experiments such as stem cell research- Check. Well, no, I’ve never actually done stem cell research, but, like a majority of Americans I think the life of a ten-year-old boy with diabetes is much more important that a blob of cells in a petri dish.
3. Drug abuse-Check. If alcohol is a drug…
4. Polluting the environment-Check. (There’s a fart joke in here somewhere.) Anyone who drives a car is guilty of this one. Hope you like it hot, America.
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor-Check. Sort of. I mean, if buying cheap shit made in China counts, then oh-boy, Hades here I come.
6. Excessive wealth-Check. Not rich. But I wish, which is Greed, so there you go.
7. Creating poverty . Well, to the best of my knowledge, no. It’s worth noting, however, that the Catholic church, via Sin Numero Uno (No birth control allowed), is itself guilty of Sin Number Seven.
*Actually, the birth control issue isn’t the most mind blowing example of the perversity of Catholic loyalty. That honour would have to go to the sex abuse scandals, and the apologetics and mental gymnastics that American Catholics will go to to explain why they give money to an organization that essentially sanctions pedophilia. It’s like they think their offering monies only go to the priests who keep it in their pants aren’t pedophiles. There are special Catholic accounting practices, apparently.
Rebellious Jezebel
I believe yesterday was Blogging for Choice day. This post over at Feministe gives ten reasons why abortion should remain legal and accessible for all women. All are great points, especially when confronted with the vacuous reasoning–”But what about the bay-beez?”–of many who claim to be “pro-life.”
The truth is that most people who yammer about being pro-life, really haven’t given the matter much thought. Most don’t realize that they’ve cast their lot in with a movement that is vehemently anti-women. To align yourself with the pro-lifers is to align yourself with those who want to return to the “good old days.” The days when an unplanned pregnancy meant no choice: no abortion and, more importantly, no opportunity to have and raise the baby, since only a shameless Jezebel would keep the child. The only choice was to slink away to a home for unwed mothers and be forced to put the child up for adoption. Because keeping the child would brand a woman as a dirty slut who had the audacity to have teh Sex without ownership papers a marriage certificate.
Pro life = anti-woman = anti-family
Anyhoo, my favourite, silly, pro-life talking point is ye olde, “But what if your mother aborted you? Are you glad she didn’t?”
Heh. Meaning what, exactly? If she had, then I wouldn’t exist or be in a position to give a shit, would I? Or are you suggesting that a ghostly, fetal version of me would be trolling the Everafter, wringing my little hands and crying, “But why, mommy, why?” *Snerk.* How droll.
Cheers,
P.K.
