Predictable poll: Nonreligious most likely to be pro-choice

Here’s more of that “being on the right side of history” thing to make you proud:

That’s good company at the top.

Interestingly, the rest of the poll focuses on the curious tendency of Americans to overestimate just how many of their fellow countryfolk are pro-choice, when the research shows that the country is actually split pretty much evenly on the issue, with a slight majority favoring abortion rights with certain restrictions. (Better yet, the “legal under any circumstances” group is still more numerous – albeit barely – than the “unborn babies are sacred” camp.)

Why, it’s almost like removing objections rooted in religious dogma leaves people with few remaining reasons to argue against women’s right to bodily autonomy.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Daily Blend: 04/20/13

With that hurdle out of the way, time to play catch-up:

Only functioning abortion clinic in Mississippi gets a temporary reprieve from being shut down by anti-abortion legislators.
(via @breakingpol; RT: @BreakingNews)

Rio de Janeiro becomes tenth Brazilian state to legalize same-sex marriage.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Imagine that an eighth-grader gets suspended, arrested and charged for wearing an anti-gun shirt to school. Now, imagine it’s a pro-gun shirt. Any difference?
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, the Family Research Council gets busted for blatantly bullshitting about the Boy Scouts. Why, exactly, does anyone still take these pathological liars seriously again?
(via Joe. My. God.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: 04/12/13

Audrie Pott (15)

Understatement of the Day: “It turns out that the Obama administration has not been honest about who the CIA has been targeting with drones in Pakistan.”
(via @ggreenwald)

I just don’t have the patience (or stomach) today to write about the horrific Kermit Gosnell case, other than to affirm how it’s the perfect argument for why abortion should be fully legalized and easily accessible to ensure women never need to resort to such barbarity out of desperation.

Ditto with Vox Day’s predictably pathetic rant about how pro-choicers are all worse than Nazis and so on.

Another teenaged girl ^[pictured] commits suicide to escape persecution resulting from the publicization of her student gang-rape. Now to watch the rape-culture-soaked media fret over those poor arrested rapists. (Again.)
(via Pharyngula)

Appeals court denies Virginia AG Ken Cuccinelli’s petition to bring back anti-sodomy law.
(via Joe. My. God.)

Uruguay becomes latest country to legalize same-sex marriage.

And finally, Cracked presents some popular online myths, revised for accuracy.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Poll: Majority supports gay marriage (and opposes abortion)

Here’s yet another poll, this one by CBS and The Wall Street Journal, showing just how greatly the tides have turned in only a few short years:

Two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two highly publicized gay-marriage cases, a majority of Americans continue to say they support same-sex marriage, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Fifty-three percent of respondents favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry, which is up 2 points since the NBC/WSJ survey last asked this question in December, though that increase is within the poll’s margin of error.

It’s kind of awesome how ho-hum these polls are getting already.

And now to sour the mood:

According to the survey, a combined 52 percent say that abortion should be illegal either with exceptions or without them, versus a combined 45 percent who say it should be legal either “always” or “most of the time.”

This is a reversal from the NBC/WSJ poll in January, when a majority – for the first time – said abortion should be legal in some form or fashion.

I guess this means we can’t really trust the hoi polloi to decide who gets to enjoy basic civil rights or not after all.

France foots the whole bill for abortion and birth control

While some places are still struggling to provide half the population with proper reproductive healthcare, France has it figured out:

As of April 1 the French state will reimburse 100 percent of the cost of abortions while teenage girls will be offered free and anonymous contraception.

The French state will reimburse 100 percent of the cost of abortions beginning April 1, while girls aged between 15 and 18 will be offered access to free and anonymous birth control.

The change comes as a law approved in late 2012 comes into force.

Until now, French women over 18 could only receive up to 80 percent of the cost of the procedure, which can run up to 450 euros.

Better yet, the new president, François Hollande, seems to grasp the simple logic that sadly evades all but precious few politicians:

And by coupling it with free contraception for younger girls and women, France hopes to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and thus the number of abortions.

RAmen.

(via ThinkProgress)

Daily Blend: 03/26/13

Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R-ND)

Applying for an internship/apprenticeship/something at a ranch tomorrow! Wish me luck. (Or a broken leg. However it goes these days.)

North Dakota Gov. Dalrymple (R) ^[pictured] signs law banning abortion at six weeks, presumably planning emergency fund for inevitable court loss. Wonder if he’ll also enact the even worse “personhood” law.
(via @BreakingNews)

Berlin-based company confirms their “atheist”-branded packages take significantly longer to reach their destinations, when they don’t go missing altogether. Looks like the US Postal Service has some explaining to do.

Oh, look, it’s another boilerplate, evidence-free diatribe about how “[m]ilitant atheism has become a religion”. (Hemant Mehta tears it apart, as does PZ Myers.)
(via @religionnews)

Vox Day: Egalitarians are “inferior beings” (because some of them sometimes make crude jokes on the Internet).

And finally, here’s the trippiest damn water spiral you’ll’ve ever did seen (more info here):

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

North Dakota trumps itself, now wants to ban all abortions

This is getting ridiculous. Just two weeks ago, the Republican-controlled North Dakota Legislature passed a bill banning abortion at a mere twelve weeks, well before fetal viability and in direct violation of Roe v. Wade. Then, just a week later, they trumped themselves by becoming the first to pass a “fetal heartbeat” bill banning abortion at only six weeks, before many women even suspect they may be pregnant.

Well, it appears they still aren’t happy that the occasional lucky woman might still be able to enjoy some reproductive agency, as they’ve now decided to try and just ban abortion outright:

Lawmakers on Friday took a step toward outlawing abortion altogether in the state by passing a so-called personhood resolution that says a fertilized egg has the same right to life as a person. The House's approval sends the matter to voters, who will decide whether to add the wording to the state's constitution in November 2014.

It's one of several anti-abortion measures to pass the Legislature. Most are awaiting the signature of Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who hasn't yet indicated whether he supports the laws. Even if he were to veto them, some could have the support for the Legislature to override him.

I can’t be the only one to find grim amusement in the irony of patriarchal ideologues declaring that mere eggs should have all the rights and protections they’re trying to strip from actual adult women who simply want to make their own decisions regarding their well-being, can I?

There’s little in Gov. Dalrymple’s record to indicate which way he swings on abortion rights in general, though he appears to be a consummate Republican in just about everything, which isn’t exactly reassuring. At any rate, should he enact these laws, it’s all but guaranteed that they’d meet certain doom in the inevitable court battles to ensue, given how very clear the Supreme Court made their view in 1973. It’s almost like Republicans enjoy a good spanking by the courts these days … which, given how many of their “traditional values” hypocrites end up making headlines for their quirky bedroom proclivities, is comedic fodder all on its own.

Who knows; there may just be hope for the state’s lone functioning abortion clinic yet.

(via @BreakingNews)

Vox Day: Indian rapes the fault of feminism and too many men

Vox Day

Here’s Theodore “Vox Day” Beale’s predictably charming take on reports that sexual crime appears to be getting worse in India. Guess who gets the blame (if not the actual criminals, of course):

Note that the problem in India is actually getting considerably worse despite the advance of sexual equality in Indian society that the feminists believe will solve everything. As we've learned to expect, feminism wreaks societal devastation even in the process of supposedly offering a means of improvement. In this case, it is the pro-abortion position that is leading to more rapes in India.

"According to the decennial Indian census, the sex ratio in the 0-6 age group in India went from 104.0 males per 100 females in 1981, to 105.8 in 1991, to 107.8 in 2001, to 109.4 in 2011. The ratio is significantly higher in certain states such as Punjab and Haryana (126.1 and 122.0, as of 2001)."

Damn those evil Westerners and their pro-women, abortion-promulgating ways!

I am curious to know, though, if Vox has any mechanism to propose – any at all – that would explain how or why a barely perceptible increase in men over the last few decades should excuse, justify, or even explain coherently, the sudden spike in sexual violence against women. Do they all just release excess testosterone into the air, which combines with greenhouse gases to drive male libidos upwards whilst ratcheting down their moral standards?

Or better yet, why do some people insist on twisting all sense and reason in order to blame biology for what is inherently a behavioral problem caused by a culture wrought with regressive sexual attitudes resulting from lacking education and insufficient law enforcement?

But leave it to Vox to find the silver lining:

The world is quite fortunate that India's excess male population appears to be inclined to occupy itself in pursuit of gang rape, considering that the more customary outlet is foreign invasion.

Yes, a (presumably, if not always evidently) thinking and feeling human being actually wrote that. The mind boggles.

You know, I have a hypothesis for why so few of Vox’s critics bother to refute him anymore – they’re just too goddamned embarrassed to share the same taxonomic classification as this glorified neanderthal to be able to stomach his revolting spiel for any amount of time. (Lucky for SIWOTI-afflicted masochists like yours truly, I suppose.)

North Dakota to pass strictest anti-abortion law yet? [updated]

Only last week, Arkansas Republicans made headlines by overriding their governor’s veto and becoming the first to pass a “fetal heartbeat bill” banning abortion at only 12 weeks (and only a week after setting the limit at 20 weeks). I guess one couldn’t expect North Dakota to take such an affront lying down, though, because anti-choice lawmakers there may now be about to prohibit women from terminating a pregnancy they might not even know they have ^{[original emphasis]}:

Republican lawmakers are advancing a “fetal heartbeat” measure to outlaw the procedure after just six weeks of pregnancy, before many women even realize they’re pregnant, and they expect to have enough support to push it though:

House Bill 1456 would make it a felony for a doctor to perform a nonemergency abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can be as early as five or six weeks. House Bill 1305 would prohibit abortions sought because a fetus has been or could be diagnosed with any genetically inherited defect, disease or disorder.

The Republican-led state Senate will vote today on the measures, said state Representative Bette Grande of Fargo, who co-sponsored the bills in the Republican-controlled House, where both have passed. Grande said she expects the Senate to approve both and the governor, also a party member, to sign them.

This measure would also necessitate more state-sanctioned rape by unwanted and medically pointless transvaginal ultrasound to detect that fetal heartbeat in the first place. Meanwhile, anti-choice legislators are trying to cram through even more restrictions on women’s reproductive healthcare, including against some forms of contraception. And all this in a state that only has one functioning abortion clinic to begin with … at least until Republicans manage to shut it down, too.

Why don’t they just come out and challenge the Supreme Court to a fistfight already? They could hardly make their contempt for Roe v. Wade more apparent as it is.

---

UPDATE: 03/15/13 2:40 PM ET —

The bill has passed.

Arkansas first to pass “heartbeat bill” (for now)

Arkansas Republicans have won a victory (anyone else suddenly hear foreboding drums?) in making their state the first to pass a “heartbeat bill” banning abortion in nearly all cases as soon as 12 weeks:

The Arkansas House has completed a veto override that gives the state with the toughest anti-abortion law in the country.

Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe had vetoed a ban on most abortions beginning in the 12th week of pregnancy. The GOP-dominated House voted 56-33 on Wednesday to override. The Senate overrode it Tuesday.

Just last week, the Senate also passed a 20-week ban (also by overriding Gov. Beebe’s veto), which evidently wasn’t early enough to begin stripping away women’s rights to bodily autonomy and family planning (considering how blatantly false their excuses of “for the children/women!” are).

Meanwhile, Gov. Beebe thinks it’s likely that ensuing lawsuits over the new laws will result in both being struck down in court. One can certainly hope – not that such a stupid, pointless and entirely avoidable waste of time will likely discourage anti-abortionists from pulling the same stunt over and over again in the future.

(via @breakingpol; RT: @BreakingNews)

Daily Blend: Thursday, February 28, 2013

Bill Donohue

NOTE: Effective tomorrow, Disqus will automatically “update” the old system (still in use on this blog as of this writing) to the new platform, which trades in marginally improved functionality while stripping any trace of customization. I expect to spend some time tinkering with the new system to try and squeeze out any possible improvement, though I won’t hold my breath. (Configurations and commenting histories should remain untouched.) That is all. (UPDATE: 03/06/13 3:35 PM ET – Date has been set back to the 13^th. So … yay?)

You know, it’s not often that we see priests making accusations of clerical child abuse against their superiors. Refreshing?
(via Joe. My. God.)

Indiana Republicans correct themselves: One government-sanctioned rape by medically pointless transvaginal ultrasound (instead of two) is just right for women seeking an abortion after all.

Another prosecutor thinks the best way to protect teens from the eeevils of “sexting” is by ruining their lives with the criminal justice system.

US Senate finally reauthorizes full Violence Against Women Act despite House Republicans’ best attempts to derail it and strip LGBT, native American and undocumented immigrant protections.

(Old gem) Quacks of a feather: Australian chiropractors accused of being key supporters of the anti-vaccination Australian Vaccination Network.
(via @DrRachie; RT: @BadAstronomer)

And finally, I don’t understand what Bill Donohue’s ^[pictured] anti-abortion argument is, here. I don’t think he does, either.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Friday, February 22, 2013

Diana Medley

Ontario top appeals court rules it just fine if police want to snoop around a suspect’s cellphone – so long as there’s no password, or then they have to ask permission.

Indiana Republicans agree: One government-sanctioned rape by medically pointless transvaginal ultrasound just isn’t enough for women seeking an abortion.
(via @jennifurret)

I’m not sure what’s remotely surprising about a study that links childhood bullying to psychological disorders in adults (except to those “it’s normal/harmless for kids to pick on each other” assholes).
(via RT: @jennifurret)

Sullivan, Indiana teacher ^[pictured] suspended over anti-gay remarks, universally suspected of being special educator Dianne “gays have no purpose in life and I don’t understand it” Medley.
(via Friendly Atheist)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Bill Donohue

New York City teen pregnancy rate continues to plummet thanks to easier access to birth control.

Creeping Creationism fails in Colorado.

Continuing from yesterday, Bill Donohue ^[pictured] really, really hates that sexually experienced and shamelessly gay man Andrew Sullivan would dare criticize the Catholic Church’s child-molestation problem. (Note his revealing derision over “consent” – that word obviously has no application or meaning in Catholicism.)

And finally, John Scalzi’s counter-Vox Day fundraiser is starting to make some impressive headlines.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, January 29, 2013

[full size (584×764)]

Good: Federal judge stops DEA’s attempt to seize a rural Massachusetts motel after a few guests there committed crimes without the motel owner’s knowledge. ^[pictured]
(via Uzza)

PZ Myers handily dismantles the tired anti-abortionist claim that science proves that personhood begins at conception.

Meanwhile, the anti-abortion fetal “heartbeat bill” makes it to Arkansas.

Creeping Creationism in Missouri.

Ray Comfort: Surgeons can’t reconstruct chimp attack victim’s face, ergo, Evolution is dummy-dumb-dumb.

I’m 96% humanist! Take that, 2009 Humanist of the Year PZ Myers and your paltry 90%!

And finally, here’s a bunch of Christians I could have a drink with (if I drank):
(via Joe. My. God.)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Study: Abortions more common (and dangerous) when outlawed

This is a year old, but still relevant as ever. A joint study by the Guttmacher Institute (Planned Parenthood’s research arm) and the World Health Organization reaffirms the obvious: Not only do anti-abortion regulations do nothing to reduce the number of women who terminate unwanted pregnancies anyway, but it actually results in more abortions taking place around the world when more women become pregnant due to a lack of access to birth control:

Abortion rates are highest where the procedure is illegal, according to a new study. The study also found nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe, with the vast majority of unsafe abortions occurring in developing countries.

As for the overall global abortion rate, it remained virtually unchanged from 2003 to 2008, at about 28 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 4 - a total of about 43.8 million abortions - the study found. The rate had previously been dropping since 1995.

The new global abortion study - that's published in the Jan. 19 issue of The Lancet - is from the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute and the World Health Organization. Researchers found a link between higher abortion rates and regions with more restrictive legislation, such as in Latin America and Africa. They also found that 95 to 97 percent of abortions in those regions were unsafe.

Experts couldn't say whether more liberal laws led to fewer procedures, but said good access to birth control in those countries resulted in fewer unwanted pregnancies.

Unsafe abortions are responsible for about 47,000 needless deaths every year, according to 2008 estimates. But of course, that’s not something the “pro-life” camp really worries about, given how its opposition to reproductive freedom is primarily (if not entirely) rooted in controlling and punishing women for possessing sexual agency.

That’s why anti-abortion arguments inevitably fall apart under a minimum of scrutiny. If they actually cared about either women or their fetishized fetuses, their first priority would be to crack down on unwanted pregnancies – which is done by providing easier access to birth control. Y’know, since that’s kinda what contraception’s all about. The fact that they instead fight tooth and nail against birth control is just fundamentally revealing about where their true priorities lie.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

New Mexico Republican wants to criminalize rape abortions

Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R-NM)

The only thing Republicans seem to love more than posturing about rape babies is using them as an excuse to strip away disenfranchised women’s right to bodily autonomy:

A Republican lawmaker in New Mexico introduced a bill on Wednesday that would legally require victims of rape to carry their pregnancies to term in order to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.

House Bill 206, introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R), would charge a rape victim who ended her pregnancy with a third-degree felony for "tampering with evidence."

“Tampering with evidence shall include procuring or facilitating an abortion, or compelling or coercing another to obtain an abortion, of a fetus that is the result of criminal sexual penetration or incest with the intent to destroy evidence of the crime," the bill says.

Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.

It’s also intended as yet another penalty against sex offenders:

Brown said in a statement Thursday that she introduced the bill with the goal of punishing the person who commits incest or rape and then procures or facilitates an abortion to destroy the evidence of the crime.

“New Mexico needs to strengthen its laws to deter sex offenders,” said Brown. “By adding this law in New Mexico, we can help to protect women across our state.”

Imagine the repercussions if it were made law that a legislator must first present compelling evidence that a certain offense is actually taking place in the real world (as opposed to within the confines of their fevered authoritarian mind) before they were allowed to present harsher restrictions on the rights of the supposed victims under the guise of “protecting” them.

Wouldn’t that be something?

(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Daily Blend: Wednesday, January 23, 2013

An important reminder that repealing DADT ^[pictured] doesn’t mean full equality until DOMA is also gone.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Catholic Church: Fetuses are people, except when it’s legally expedient that they aren’t.

Latest from Arizona wingnuts: High school students shouldn’t be allowed to graduate until they swear their loyalty to the U.S. Constitution.
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, another victory for free speech: Federal appeals court nixes Indiana law banning sex offenders from Facebook.
(via @BreakingNews)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

MS governor eager to shut down state’s last abortion clinic

Gov. Phil Bryant (R-MS)

Mississippi women are about to find it that much more difficult to find any kind of reproductive healthcare thanks to the caring and benevolence of their elected representative:

A federal judge last year delayed enforcement of a law that abortion-rights advocates say is designed to be so restrictive that it effectively abolishes abortion in the state. Under the law, Mississippi’s only abortion clinic would need toget “admission privileges” from local hospitals, which have not been willing to cooperate.

The judge’s order is set to expire on Friday and state officials have said that they will make an unannounced visit to the clinic in Jackson to determine if it was able to comply.

“My goal of course is to shut it down,” [Gov. Phil] Bryant told a group of pastors in video captured by WJTV on Thursday.

Maybe Gov. Bryant is just proud that his state has the highest unplanned pregnancy rate in the nation. It would certainly explain his desire to ensure that the aggrieved or vulnerable women in his state go without the medical care and counseling they need.

(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

Daily Blend: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Rev. Louie Giglio

Tulsa, Oklahoma Planned Parenthood clinic forced to shut down due to slashed funding.

Anti-gay Christianist asshat Rev. Louie Giglio ^[pictured] voluntarily backs out from President Obama’s inauguration. Spokeswoman claims the Administration wasn’t aware of his history of bigotry.

U.K. Met Office blog kicks the Daily Mail’s ass over its latest garbage-packed global-warming-denying article.
(via @BadAstronomer)

Jebus: Cops barge into home without warrant or probable cause, shoot sleepy man 16 times (somehow without killing him) when he reaches for a flashlight. But of course, this “perceived risk” meant their actions were “justified”.
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, some good news: We won’t get smashed into Earthling purée in 2036 after all!

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

U.S. reproductive rights restrictions in 2011–2012

Remember how the Tea-Party-backed wave of lawmakers that swept through Congress in 2010 was all about reigning in the government’s powers while focusing so intensely on jobs and spending and whatnot? Yeah, about that …

Reproductive health and rights was once again the subject of extensive debate in state capitols in 2012. Over the course of the year, 42 states and the District of Columbia enacted 122 provisions related to reproductive health and rights. One-third of these new provisions, 43 in 19 states, sought to restrict access to abortion services. Although this is a sharp decrease from the record-breaking 92 abortion restrictions enacted in 2011, it is the second highest annual number of new abortion restrictions.

Government so small and job-focused, it doesn’t even notice that it’s stumbled into your uterus.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)