Please Note

Planned Parenthood supporter? There's one place to be and one place to avoid on Saturday!

If you support women's reproductive health and rights, then please don't go to Planned Parenthood tomorrow (unless of course you have an appointment). On Saturday, there are planned protests occurring outside of Planned Parenthood offices nationwide -- including here in Pittsburgh. 

Naturally enough, some are organizing counter protests. 

All good, right? 

NO.

That 'no' is coming from Planned Parenthood itself:

Adrienne Verrilli, Associate Vice President of Communications at Planned Parenthood of New York City told The Huffington Post on Tuesday that too many cooks in the kitchen can be really detrimental to a patient’s experience ― and the patient’s experience is their ultimate priority.  

“Our goal is making sure our patients are comfortable,” she said. “The quieter it is outside, and the less people are engaging with each other, the better it is for our patients.” 
...

 When counter-protestors are present, patients don’t see them as helpful, Verrilli said, “they just see chaos.” 

Planned Parenthood of Western PA is in agreement: They do not want counter protesters.

Unfortunately, there is a counter protest planned. 

A Facebook event was set up for the counter protest by a group of three men and two women, with the International Socialist Organization - Pittsburgh later added as a sponsor.

Their event page garnered hundreds of comments from women and Planned Parenthood asking, imploring, and literally begging them to reconsider. The pleas were met with complete resistance -- primarily by two of the men who set up the page. Via Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents:

This is what what my friend Jodi Hirsh calls ‘the ultimate mansplain.’  I am reposting my own comments from Facebook with regard to the intent of a group of self-identified Socialists to organize a counterprotest in support of abortion rights, but IN SPITE of the wishes and experiences of Planned Parenthood, clinic escorts, patients and pro-choice activists across the region. 

This is not okay. A group of 3 men and 2 white women are organizing an event to defend choice in spite of the vehement opposition of Planned Parenthood, clinic escorts, patients and more. 

This counter-protest threatens our safe access to PP clinics. It shows disregard for the leadership of women and the experiences of women. It flies in the face of logic. 

But mostly it says that these men do not trust Planned Parenthood and do not trust women. They are taking action on our behalf much like all of the Republican men who sign anti-choice legislation do. Their opinions matter more than anything else.

Listen to women, socialists. Listen to women and demonstrate the capacity to model political resistance where men center women’s experiences instead of their own.

I'd link to that event page, but it was deleted by the sponsors and replaced by a new one sponsored solely by the International Socialist Organization and where no commenting is allowed.

And, in one more act of ignoring the reality of the situation, the cover photo on the new event page is actually taken from a rally in support of Muslims which took place in Denver (13th photo in the slideshow here) -- nothing whatsoever to do with women's reproductive rights. But I guess, they figure the 'look' was right. Just like they like the idea of a counter protest and the sound of their own voices -- however counterproductive that is in reality in this case.

If you could see their original counter protest page, you would see that Planned Parenthood tried to work with them. For example, suggesting that they protest at PP's Greensburg office which is closed for the day (so no patients to upset), or protesting outside of "crisis pregnancy centers" (fake clinics run by people who are anti-abortion). Planned Parenthood even set up their own event people could attend to demonstrate their support, but to no avail.

So, if you do want to support Planned Parenthood, again, please do not go to the counter protest in Pittsburgh.

Instead, join them at their I Stand With Planned Parenthood Celebration and avoid both the rabid forced birthers and the unhelpful mansplainers. 

The irony of supposed supporters doing the exact opposite of what the group they say they're supporting is beyond rich. And, it's no way to be a real ally.

Happy Women's March Day!

Snow v. Wade

Via The Washington Post:

Given the likelihood of heavy snow and coastal flooding, Capital Weather Gang reader Brian French proclaimed: “I hereby name this system Snow v. Wade.”

The snow event coincides with the "Right to Life" March on Washington.

(h/t to my sister Betty who works in D.C.)

I Stand with Planned Parenthood #StandwithPP

Today is "Pink Out Day." People around the country--including Pittsburgh*--are rallying in support of Planned Parenthood as once again, congressional Republicans (and Republican presidential candidates) continue their relentless attacks on reproductive health care. They do this even to the point of threatening to shut down the government, despite the fact that government funds do not go to paying for abortions.

One in five American women have received care at a Planned Parenthood health center. And in 2013, Planned Parenthood served 2.7 million women, men, and young people. Maybe that's why USA Today found that Americans back government support for the group by more than 2-1.

If you're not already at a rally, you can still participate:

Wear pink to show your support for women's health and for Planned Parenthood, and make sure your friends know why. 

Share a #PinkOut selfie to #StandwithPP on social media.

Pink Out your Facebook and/or Twitter profile image.

Let them know that we're sick of this bullshit.


* Thank you  Lynn Cullen, and City Councilman Dan Gilman!

BREAKING! Carly Fiorina has seen video proof of zombie outbreak!

Here it is!

 

 Just in case you were wondering, when Ms. Fiorina said at the debates last night:

"I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain,'" Fiorina said Wednesday night at the GOP presidential debate, during a discussion about a congressional vote on defunding Planned Parenthood.

1. No scene anything like the one she described were in any of the versions--edited or unedited--of the Planned Parenthood videos put out by Center for Medical Progress.

2. There was a scene of a baby in a mini documentary by Center for Medical Progress that was not filmed at any Planned Parenthood, that may have simply have been ten-year-old stock footage of a preemie that was used to *illustrate* someone's never proven claims about Planned Parenthood.

See here, here, here (and numerous other sites).

But by all means, let's shut down the entire government over a scene that was not in the videos she claimed it was in and that did not show what she claimed it did!

And, by the way, when she was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, she illegally sold hundreds of millions of dollars of computer products to Iran, meanwhile every single investigation of Planned Parenthood about those videos has turned up nothing illegal.

A Message to Alabama

(But it applies equally well to, say, some pharmacist anywhere who refuses to dispense birth control, etc.)

 

I guess Jesus just needed a better lawyer...

Link to article

Gov. Corbett's Greatest Hits!

Just a reminder as you go to vote...

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Post by Pennsylvania Democratic Party.

Corbett compares same-sex marriage to incest.


Corbett makes insensitive remarks about the mandatory ultrasound bill, telling women who do not want to see the ultrasound "you just have to close your eyes."

Independence Day

"I long to hear that you have declared an independency. And, by the way, in the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make, I desire you would remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."

- Patriot Abigail Adams, 1776

"Certainly the Constitution does not require discrimination on the basis of sex. The only issue is whether it prohibits it. It doesn't. Nobody ever thought that that's what it meant. Nobody ever voted for that. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws."

- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 2011

While the Founders would obviously have no problem with discrimination against women, how many truly believe they'd be in agreement that corporations were people who had religious beliefs that allow them to discriminate against a class of citizens and be exempt from duly passed laws?

Certainly the five Catholic, male judges on the Roberts Court believe that it's perfectly fine for corporations to hold others (others of course being women) hostage to their own particular religious views.

And while the media and supporters got the Supreme Court ruling in the Hobby Lobby case wrong by insisting that it was a "narrow" ruling, it only took a day for that to be proven false and for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to be correct (in calling it a "decision of startling breadth"):

In fact, it only took a day for the Court’s “narrow” decision to start to crack open. On Tuesday, the Court indicated that its ruling applies to for-profit employers who object to all twenty forms of birth control included in the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, not just the four methods at issue in the two cases decided on Monday. 

In light of its ruling on Hobby Lobby and a related suit, the Supreme Court ordered three appeals courts to reconsider cases in which they had rejected challenges from corporations that object to providing insurance that covers any contraceptive services at all.

[snip] 

 It’s bad enough that the Court privileged the belief that IUDs and emergency contraceptives induce abortion over the scientific evidence that clearly says otherwise. With Tuesday’s orders, the conservative majority has effectively endorsed the idea that religious objections to insurance that covers any form of preventative healthcare for women have merit.

Just as bad, these males on the court actually lied about their ruling.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing in a dissent on Thursday (signed by all the women on the court), noted, “Those who are bound by our decisions usually believe they can take us at our word. Not so today.”

Sotomayor was referencing that accommodation was one of the reasons Justice Samuel Alito cited to justify his Hobby Lobby decision:

Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the government has to show it has pursued the least restrictive means to accomplish its goal. Alito claimed that because the nonprofit accommodation exists, that means the government has other ways to get women access to contraception that respects religious liberty. Yet only a few days later, he ruled that the nonprofit accommodation – again, signing a form – is also a violation of religious liberty.

Yep, that means that the often trotted out example of the Little Sisters of the Poor (with a name like that, how could anyone deny them anything?) can refuse to even sign a damn sheet of paper saying they want a waiver for providing birth control because: religion.

To recap: Corporations are people with religious beliefs. Their beliefs trump women's beliefs, women's rights under the law and women's health. Women can be discriminated against and have no rights against discrimination under the Constitution. And, it's perfectly fine for Supreme Court justices to lie in their rulings.

Happy Fucking Fourth, ladies!

SCOTUS rules that many corporations are people with religious rights and that they can discriminate specifically against women's health care because Eve was a dirty, dirty slut

Did you expect anything else?

Pro Choice/Anti Readshaw Rally Turns Ugly

On Wednesday, May 7, Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania Advocates held a "Rally Against Readshaw: 31 Minutes for 31 Votes Against Women's Health" in front of PA State Rep. Harry Readshaw's (D-Allegheny-Dist 36) Brownsville Road office. Here's how the event was described on Facebook by the hosts:

Representative Harry Readshaw has voted against women’s health an astonishing 31 times in the Pennsylvania legislature, and it’s time to show him that the women of South Pittsburgh deserve better. 

Join us for a 31-minute protest out side Rep. Readshaw's district office against the 31 times Harry Readshaw voted to restrict women's access to reproductive healthcare in PA. Let's make Readshaw tell us why he thinks women are not capable of making our own medical decisions.

Here are some photographs from the event:

And, here is a list of Readshaw's votes on women's health: www.31votesagainstwomen.com. It includes the infamous bill he introduced which would have forced women:

[T]o have a medically unnecessary ultrasound 24 hours prior to an abortion. It also forces doctors to turn the ultrasound screen towards the woman’s face. It then forces the woman take TWO prints with her (one for her scrapbook, and the other one SHE has to bring to the doctor performing the abortion.) And, furthermore, it forces civil and criminal penalties for doctors and patients who dare defy their legislating of medicine.

Here's the ad Planned Parenthood is running against him:

 

Readshaw has run unopposed in the Democratic primary for many years and has been a legislator since first winning in 1994. However, since House districts have been redrawn, he now has an opponent in the May 20 primary: Rep. Erin Molchany (D-Allegheny-Dist 22) who is progressive and pro choice and who has picked up endorsements from such local elected democrats as County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Mayor Bill Peduto, City Council President Bruce Kraus, City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, and others.

Maybe that's what's driving (no pun intended) some of Readshaw's supporters over the edge. From the Community Matters blog description of the rally:

I've been to hundreds of demonstrations in my lifetime. This began as a pretty standard event. We circled the sidewalk in front of Readshaw's office until a woman in a large SUV backed up along the curb, nearly hitting some protestors and reporters. Jeanne Clark, a longtime Pittsburgh activist, walked to the driver's window and said "Stop. There are people behind you." The driver said "You don't care about killing babies", and she did it again. Deliberately. She sat in the car screeching "Abortion is murder." Apparently, she doesn't have a problem with vehicular homicide or critical injury. Pro-life my ass. 

We learned that the woman is Megan Readshaw Perfetti, Harry Readshaw's DAUGHTER. 

Perfetti is a health teacher and coordinates the health education curriculum for the Pittsburgh Public Schools. I guess she doesn't think women need health care. 

Before the event even began, a man from the business next door strongly objected to our presence. He shouted that he was calling the police. No one cared, since we were protesting legally. A Pittsburgh Police car arrived a few minutes later, after Perfetti's stunt, and sat in a parking space across the street. Perfetti walked over to talk to the officer. I don't know what they discussed, since she was clearly the only person committing a crime at the time, but the officer never left his car. He drove away as the event ended.

Wow! And they call themselves "pro life."

You can also read the City Paper's Blogh coverage here.

Just a reminder

Hey Supreme Court: No Bosses in My Bedroom

This:

Silly Tea Party! Everyone knows that penis-shaped cakes are for birthdays, not weddings!

(Via Cake Wreks)

From the Headlines:

Tea Party Leader: Arizona Veto Enslaves Christians into Baking Giant Penis Cakes 

Bill O’Reilly: A woman can’t be leader of the free world because of a ‘gender deficiency’ 

Maine Republican regrets saying men should rape women if abortion is legal

State of Disgrace

First up: Pennsylvania. In Southwestern PA, homeowners wake up to find scary, bomb-looking masses of wires and electronics on their front yards. When they contact the police/local officials, they are told by these officials that they cannot comment on the devices (which, as it turns out, were installed by a private Texas company to facilitate seismic mapping in the search for gas). Some of the devises are accompanied with threats of criminal investigations if anyone dare remove them. Meanwhile, the process of seismic mapping is actually damaging the homes in its path.

A forced birther lawmaker in Virginia refers to a pregnant woman as nothing more than a “child’s host” on Facebook. He later disappears the phrase. So if the woman is the "host" doesn't that make the fetus a, well, parasite? Hey! It's his analogy, not mine.

Finally, all eyes turn to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer to see if she believes--like the lawmakers in her state--that it's legally OK to deny LGBT folk public accommodation as long as Baby Jesus said so.

Uncle Sugar!

 

("Uncle Sugar" link)

Huh? Whah?...Huh?

There's crazie and then there's World Net Daily Cuh-RAY-zee!

Check it out:

The Kansas Supreme Court has come up with a response for when its own justices are accused of being biased toward the abortion industry and against a former state attorney general who investigated alleged criminal activity there.

Stonewall.

That’s the result of a petition to the court that was filed on behalf of former Attorney General Phill Kline.

Kline probed alleged illegal activity by abortion provider Planned Parenthood and the late abortionist George Tiller, eventually filing charges against them after getting the counts approved by several trial judges in the state.

However, the pro-abortion political atmosphere in the state spelled defeat for Kline in the next election, and his foes launched criminal investigations into his probe of Planned Parenthood and Tiller. [emphasis added]

That's right.  You read that right.  Kansas where the:

• Governor
• Lieutenant Governor
• Secretary of State
• Attorney General
• Both US Senators
• All four members of the US House of Representatives
• 31 out of the 40 State Senators
• 92 out of the 125 State House members

are all Republicans. 

Kansas, where Mitt Romney won the state in the 2012 election by about 22% of the vote.

Kansas, where according to the Guttmacher Institute:

• A woman must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage her from having an abortion and then wait 24 hours before the procedure is provided.
• A woman must undergo an ultrasound before obtaining an abortion; the provider must offer her the option to view the image.

Yea, that Kansas.  How crazie must Bob Uruh (and World Net Daily for publishing this) be to think that the political atmosphere in Kansas can, in any way, be "pro-abortion"??

"I can smell the booze wafting from members as they walk off the floor"

While voting to shut down the government Saturday night, apparently some of the House members weren't just drunk on power. From a Politico Congressional reporter:

I'm not over exaggerating when I say I can smell the booze wafting from members as they walk off the floor.
— Ginger Gibson (@GingerGibson) September 29, 2013

And from a Buzzfeed reporter on Capitol Hill:

I def saw more than 1 member of congress putting a few back on Penn earlier. Ran into 2 in the liquor store.
— KateNocera (@KateNocera) September 29, 2013

And before they even got drunk, they were already acting like drunken pigs:

[T]hey have added a “conscience clause” to the spending bill which takes away preventative care from women, which includes birth control.  

[snip]  

Friday afternoon, Republican John Culberson from TX got huge applause from his colleagues when he compared the GOP’s effort to destroy Obamacare to the heroes of 9/11. Culberson compared the House Repubs to the passengers on United Flight 93 who overtook the terrorists and got control of the plane on 9/11. Yes, Seriously.

This is your government on drugs Tea.

Roll Back Those Lazy-Crazy-Hazy-Days Of Summer

It's the summer of 1963, err, 2013 in the Good Ol' U.S. of A and everything is A-okay!

Any 'War on Poverty' Is Thankfully Still Just A Dream
Poverty? What poverty? This is the greatest nation on the face of the Earth!

(80 Percent Of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment: Survey)

We Will Arrest Those Who Practice The Love
That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Really, what do they expect?

(Gays in Baton Rouge arrested under invalid sodomy law)

The Little Lady Knows Her Place (As She Should)
We're working hard to ensure that the only abortions will be back alley ones!
(As abortion limits sweep US, even 'purple' states join the crackdown)

Negroes Know Their Place Too
Because they know death lies only a whistle at a white woman (or a hoodie) away!

(George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty And Goes Free)

And For the Ones Who Are Still Too Uppity...
We'll make it as hard as legally possible to vote!

(North Carolina Passes the Country's Worst Voter Suppression Law)

Yes siree, Bob! We wish that summer would always be here!