Tag: Pro-choice

Contraception–Yes Or No?

WE know from the news that the GOP wants to take and some cases already has the right of choice from the people. The battle now is over contraception and the Dems have an attempt to protect access to this form of birth control.

Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic measure Wednesday to codify a federal right to contraception access. The bill would have prevented states from enacting legislation to limit access to forms of contraception including hormonal birth control and intrauterine devices, the Washington Post reports. Many Republicans called the bill unnecessary and government overreach; Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins of Maine were the only members of their party to vote to advance the measure. Every Democrat supported it.

“This should be an easy vote,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray said before the count, per the New York Times. “It almost shouldn’t be necessary.” But Democrats were maneuvering to put Republicans on the record on reproductive rights, an issue on which the GOP stance is unpopular with voters. In vitro fertilization may be put to a vote next week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote. “I expect we will see a lot more show votes this summer,” GOP Sen. John Thune had said Tuesday, per the AP. On Wednesday, Schumer countered that: “Today was not a show vote. This was a ‘show us who you are’ vote, and Senate Republicans showed the American people exactly who they are.”

The Democratic effort to codify the right began when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago; Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion said the right to contraception is another issue the court should reconsider. Republicans have opposed the effort while saying they support access to contraception, per the Times. Schumer could bring the Right to Contraception Act up for a vote again later.

This in my opinion is a little late….it should have been waiting for the SCOTUS ruling….but better late than never I guess.

Since the GOP is so concerned wirth women’s right of choice what will they make out of the news about men?

A novel birth control option for men, as easy as applying lotion once per day, appears to be effective within weeks with minimal side effects to boot, according to new research. NES/T, a hormonal solution to block sperm production, is applied to the shoulders once per day. One of 222 participants in a phase 2 trial tells NBC News the gel solution felt much like hand sanitizer. Applying it was “such an easy process,” the man says, adding the only possible side effects he experienced were acne and minor weight gain. In terms of participants’ sperm counts, 20% were sufficiently suppressed within five weeks, 52% by eight weeks, 62% by nine weeks, and 86% after 15 weeks, according to data presented Sunday at the Endocrine Society’s conference in Boston, per Gizmodo.

Developed by researchers at the National Institutes of Health’s Contraceptive Development Program, NES/T gets its name from its two main ingredients: nestorone and testosterone. Nestorone, a synthetic version of progesterone, lowers the levels of hormones responsible for fertility, including testosterone, in the blood and testes. Since this may reduce a man’s sex drive, testosterone is added to the gel “to maintain stable hormone levels in men’s blood, ensuring temporary sterility and minimizing side effects,” per Gizmodo. “We’re pretty pleased with the limited side effects that we have observed,” Diana Blithe, chief of the NICHD’s Contraceptive Development Program, tells the outlet. She was also pleasantly surprised to see sperm counts fall so quickly.

Researchers consider suppression effective for contraception to be no more than 1 million sperm per millimeter of semen, down from 15 million to 200 million per milliliter, per NBC. The median suppression time was eight weeks. But as many participants weren’t checked between weeks four and eight, the true median might be lower. “We’re really pleased with this result. And we think it will make the gel more attractive to people who maybe didn’t want to wait three months for it to reach its effectiveness,” Blithe tells Gizmodo. The research team has since launched a Phase 2B trial involving 400 men, with encouraging preliminary results, ahead of plans for a Phase 3 trial, to be discussed with the FDA next year. If all goes well, the gel could hit the market by the end of the decade, the BBC reports.

Will the GOP try to control men’s sex lives as they are doing with women?

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Time For Men To Pay A Price

Roe v Wade decision has made our women second class citizens yet again….their personal choices out of their hands and put it into the hands of the old farts that run state governments.

Some have said that there should be some price for men to pay as well…..most of the concern is that of the popularity of Viagra….but I read about one idea that I could get behind and maybe you should as well if you are at all concerned about the loss of the right of choice.

An Oklahoma Democrat has proposed that young men in his state be forced to have vasectomies in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning the Roe Vs Wade ruling.

Last month, Mickey Dollens invited his fellow lawmakers to co-author a bill which would give a mandatory vasectomy to every young man in Oklahoma.

The vasectomy would only be reversed once each man could prove they were financially and emotionally stable, and not a moment before.

If any of this is sounding insane, that’s because Dollens is only raising the bill to make a point that the state having such invasive control over a person’s body is, indeed, insane.

This invasive control is exactly what will happen to many US women after the Supreme Court made the decision to overturn Roe Vs Wade last week, effectively ruling that the constitution doesn’t safeguard a woman’s right to an abortion.

The only exceptions to Oklahoma’s new abortion laws are in the case of rape or incest, and even then only if they have been reported to the authorities.

Saying he was thinking about introducing the legislation on forcing men to have vasectomies next year, Dollens suggested to Republicans who thought he was being ‘crazy’ that now ‘maybe you understand how 50 percent of Oklahomans feel’.

Republicans have argued that there is ‘nothing higher or more critical than the defence of innocent, unborn life’.

https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/lawmaker-mandatory-vasectomy-roe-wade-decision-20220627

It may sound a bit extreme but no more so than taking a woman’s right of choice.

I agree with this idea…..let men pay for a price as well as the women.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A New Pro-Choice Plan?

After the disastrous ruling by the political hacks on our Supreme Court I made my thoughts known and have said that the battle was lost and it was time to formulate a new plan that would bring back a woman’s right to choose.

It seems that I was not alone in my thoughts……

An interesting mood is rippling through abortion advocacy circles right now: a sense of possibility. At first, you might not expect that. The Supreme Court’s overturn of Roe v. Wade is a historic affront, with devastating implications for the health, safety, and autonomy of millions. And so you might expect that people working on the front lines—abortion providers and reproductive rights activists and community organizers and clinic defenders—would curl into a collective ball: We lost! You would be very wrong.

As Roe was spiraling around the judicial drain, all throughout June 2022, Cosmo’s reporting team connected with grassroots movement leaders in all 50 states to gather dispatches from the ground. Many of these leaders used words like “optimism” and “excitement” to describe what’s fueling their work in this moment. Some said they’re feeling more inspired, more energized than they have in years. And this isn’t just in regions where abortion remains legally protected. What emerged from these conversations was an impassioned consensus: Progress toward reproductive freedom and justice is still very much happening, thank you. Regardless of the courts. Regardless of the alt-right rhetoric. Regardless of the discriminatory barriers that have always been there—but maybe won’t be for much longer, if we come together and do this next part right.

It’s understandable if you’re scared or uncertain right now, wondering, What does the future hold? For a road map, look to what folks have been out here doing all along: dreaming up new systems that not only protect but also expand abortion access, rooted in love, solidarity, and community care. Systems that, in some cases, are already up and running. The more of us who engage, the stronger and more real it all becomes. Welcome. Here’s how we’ll build something better.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a40376943/abortion-activists-movement-after-roe/

If you are so inclined please read the answers for a new direction and join in if you are also concerned.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

FLASH! We Have A GOP Revolt!

As I was fiddling about last night I heard something on the news that made me stop and take notice.

It seems that some GOP women have had a change of heart and pulled their names from an abortion bill and in essence killing the bill for now……

House Republicans have abruptly dropped plans to debate a bill banning virtually all late-term abortions after objections from GOP women and other lawmakers left them short of votes. The decision was embarrassing for Republican leaders eager to display a united, GOP-led Congress, who had planned to push the legislation through the House today. But after meeting repeatedly with female lawmakers and others who were unhappy with the measure, they decided last night to postpone the debate indefinitely. The vote was timed to coincide with the annual March for Life, when anti-abortion protesters stream to Washington to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. Instead, the House will debate legislation banning taxpayer funding for abortion—a prohibition that is already largely in effect.

What The Hell?

Good news for the pro-choice movement…..but…….my question is why now?

Is this sincere or is it more political games from the GOP?

I regret that I am a cynic….it is just too convenient with the anniversary of Rowe v Wade when activists descend on the halls of Congress with petitions and such…….is this an attempt to change the complexion of the GOP a bit?  After all a new election is not that far away.

Any thoughts?

So Now I Am A Nazi! Go Figure!

In my years of activism and radical political thought I have been called many things….a pinko, a commie, a bastard, etc etc…..but the one I have missed I all those years was…….a Nazi.  I figured that with my political views I could eliminate that one as an insult to my beliefs……but I was mistaken!  I am officially a NAZI!

First, I am pro-choice and I know that some of my readers are not……I seldom debate the value of either because no matter how much we twist and shout….our opinions on the subject will stay the same and in these exchanges tempers flair and stuff is said that should not have been said……..I respect my friends that are pro-life and I would hope that they will respect my views also…..

With that said, I am officially a NAZI!  I know….I know….why would I say that?  It was not me that says that but a person on the Right…….

Liberty Counsel’s Matt Barber, at least, has been very open about this.  Just a few weeks ago, he plainly stated that those who support marriage equality or a reproductive rights are “on the wrong side of history” and “advocating things that are equally as horrific” as what the Nazis did.

But just in case that wasn’t clear enough, Barber followed it up today with a another Bonhoeffer/Nazi comparison where he explicitly stated that he is comparing those who support a woman’s right to choose to the Nazis

Let’s be very clear here. What we’re talking about here is, as we’ve long called it, an abortion holocaust. Are we comparing the pro-choice movement to the Nazi movement? Yes! Absolutely.

In recent weeks we talked about how the pro-life movement really embraces the mantle of Dietrich Bonhoeffer …This is the modern-day anti-holocaust movement; the pro-life movement is.

And, you know, I was, a few months ago, in the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC and I was taken by how the arguments that the Nazis made in order to dehumanize the Jews are the same arguments that we hear coming from the so-called pro-choice movement to dehumanize the unborn child.

There you have it….it is official!  According to Barber I am a NAZI!

I try to avoid using insulting language to describe one of my political opponents…..and I will take the high ground here and only say…..if his IQ ever makes it to 80 he should sell!