HHS wants to redefine birth control as "abortion"

Unbelieveable!

Benefit number 7,496 of being a lesbian.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." -E.E. Cummings

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by: popsiclestand @ Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 19:42:25 PM CDT

Uhm I hate to break it to you

but I've been on the pill for five years and no one has pulled my "Lesbian Avengers" membership card as of yet.

The pill is a wonderful stabilizer for some serious gynecological funkiness (fibroids, that are fairly significant). As I age, these should shrink and once I hit the big M, fade away like Ronald Reagan. BUT, unless I want to go skipping towards a hysterectomy (no thank you), the pill is this lesbian's best friend for health.

Cheers,

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by: brat @ Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 19:47:14 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not for me

I can understand your situation.  Such is not the case for me and birth control.  Not only can taking it increase the risk for stroke and blood clots (my family has a history of high blood pressure I'm seeking to avoid), but I personally feel, for my own body at least, that letting nature have its stubborn way is the best course.  But then again, I don't suffer from fibroids (my mother does however).

I'm sure you got the general point of my post -- lesbians don't have to worry about getting accidentally pregnant the same way that straight people do.  Which to me is great.  This article just emphasizes that point with its ridiculousness.

But yeah, those who want to classify it as "abortion" obviously don't know of the many many women who don't just use the pill as a way to "kill babies" but as a way to regulate their cycle (and for other reasons as you've stated).  Thanks for pointing it out.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight and never stop fighting." -E.E. Cummings

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by: popsiclestand @ Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 12:21:11 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

here's the link

to NARAL's form letter that can be sent to your representative

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by: ol cranky @ Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 20:05:54 PM CDT

Done.

as My Dr. self.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 21:28:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Don't have sex with Pro Life Repig men

it will cut abortions in half, and reduce contraception costs by 50%, and there won't be republican progeny...priceless.

"race, taste. and History finally overcome....and you ain't there"
by Tony Kushner

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by: peteyPornpig @ Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 20:55:41 PM CDT

(Sorry, I tried to resist posting this)

I can't help it! They keep soliciting me in the restroom and telling me that if I don't the terrorists will win.

watashi no yomeiri wa doko desu ka

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by: belfrieboi @ Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 12:42:18 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I'm sitting here

with my mouth open... not really believing this is true.
HHS?!

http://EQFL.org

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by: banshiii @ Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 21:02:27 PM CDT

And here I've been

using the stuff off and on for over 20 years, as well as educating my daughters about it. Same as my mother before me, who was on the Pill in the 1960's onward. And as she didn't drive, Dad had to pick them up for her (until his vasectomy)- so I guess they can charge him with aiding and abetting.

First up against the wall, I guess. We'll all go quietly.

Click HERE and sign up: Campaign For Military Partners

Click here for DADT photobook

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by: Louise @ Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 12:33:24 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

So this is how McCain=Bush,

  plans to have enough people to enlist in the military to keep US troops in Iraq for 100 years.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 21:50:22 PM CDT

7 comments...

and no one has done a "Every Sperm is Sacred" joke?

wow
That's almost as mind boggling as this bizarre redefinition.

But we are dealing with a gov't that once wanted to define ketchup as a vegetable.

So, when a guy stays out late with the boys and fails to return home in shape to um "conceive," that too is abortion, right?

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by: voz @ Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 23:49:49 PM CDT

Facts not in evidence,

Did the woman use a vibrator for her self needs because boy got in late.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 00:08:32 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Not just a vibrator,

the Hitachi Magic Wand.

Accept no substitutes.
Also, the HMW has never once left the seat up. Ever.

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by: voz @ Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 09:59:03 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Is there ANYTHING Cheney/Bush haven't f*cked up?

I am SO ready for Jan 20th 2009, to NEVER give those two bible-thumpin' war criminals another thought.

"race, taste. and History finally overcome....and you ain't there"
by Tony Kushner

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by: peteyPornpig @ Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 00:09:10 AM CDT

Passion-finger presidency!

You know - "Everything he touches is fucked!"

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by: Jami @ Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 10:25:17 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

save it, it's a LIFE!

 And here the fundies complain that we're so hateful of their beliefs!
 When will they understand when they make a mockery of personal choice and freedom about medical intervention and access to it?

 Each one of us is different, has different needs and reasons for that intervention, the PRIVACY of which is nunna der bidness!
  Contraception has MANY uses. But by this stupid logic...we should save menstrual flow and nocturnal emissions.

   Is it just me....or is there an unhealthy obssession with making babies?
Because it looks to me like, despite the AIDS scourge on all major continents, war and the murder rate: 6 billion and counting is hardly putting a dent in the population of the world.
 LACK of making babies isn't the problem!

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by: Regan DuCasse @ Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 12:49:03 PM CDT

The really interesting part of the statement

"As discussed above, both definitions of pregnancy are reasonable and used within the scientific and medical community. The Department proposes, then, to allow individuals and institutions to adhere to their own views and adopt a definition of abortion that encompasses both views of abortion."

Reasonable?  Not.  And in addition to adhering 'to their own views', of course, they get to SECRETLY IMPOSE THEIR DEFINITION ON OTHERS

"Because the statutes that would be enforced through this regulation seek, in part, to protect individuals and institutions from suffering discrimination on the basis of conscience, the conscience of the individual or institution should be paramount in determining what constitutes abortion, within the bounds of reason."

So the tender conscience of the health care provider, who cannot be discriminated against, allows them to discriminate against others.

This reminds me SO MUCH of the 'teach the controversy' blitz for ID/Creationism - if 5% believe something weird, then they should get 50% of the teaching time.

So 10 or 15% of the people believe something bizarre on the basis of 'faith', and they get to make the decisions for everybody else, not because they are right or it's the truth or the facts are on their side, but instead because their belief is based on religion and that trumps everybody else's right to their own free will and conscience.

I wonder just where the bounds of reason fall in these cases?  Are obdurate women who insist on using birth control going to be jailed?  Is this just another Republican pro-business opportunity to encourage drug dealers to expand their product line?  Is the War on Drugs going to use those nifty passenger X-ray machines to start checking to see whether women have brought back an illegal IUD?

Too bad the only population control the Republicans embrace wholeheartedly is letting women die from complications of pregnancy.

Crow

Crow

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by: crow @ Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 20:27:03 PM CDT