When all else fails, make an end run (defunding of abortion)

[Sarah]

HR 3, currently on the table as the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortions Act" is due to be voted on.

" * It resurrects the failed "Stupak ban" from the healthcare debate, effectively banning even private coverage of abortion care, and adds a new tax penalty to ensure that the ban becomes a reality.

* It opens up the possibility that rape and incest survivors who choose abortion care could be audited by the IRS.

* It makes permanent the current annual ban on federal abortion funding known as the "Hyde Amendment."

* It continues a funding ban for the District of Columbia.

* It expands refusal clauses that allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide abortion services.

* Finally, it has been reported that Republicans are trying to reinstate a widely-condemned redefinition of rape through behind-the-scenes procedural tactics."

[~Geektastic~]

The fact that there is even a debate concerning the definition of rape or a question that it is unfair for a woman to carry the burden of that assault indefinitely into the future... I don't even have words to finish the thought; it makes me physically ill with rage.

America got raped by the big banks, but our taxes pay for the bailouts and million-dollar CEO bonuses that enabled them to essentially abort the burden of personal accountability. Corporations with the power of individuals, indeed. It's coming to a point (or is probably long past the point) where corporations have more rights than women in this country, and many Conservatives want to keep it that way.

[Sarah]

This one's worth a call to my reps, though my reps are never in doubt.

[Ken]

The Republican dominated House reflects the rest of the Republican Party, a major party with fringe ideas and more zealotry and ideology than brains. So they’re going to amuse themselves passing all sorts of radical measures that have no chance of being enacted into law, though they will mightily please their zany base. Fortunately, ideological intoxication makes them oblivious to political reality and to learning political lessons, one of which should have been that no matter how satisfying passing way-out bills like the Ryan budget may be, such votes are a poison bill beyond the base.

Whatever mixture of self-righteousness, de-facto Puritanism, misguided religious indoctrination and superstition are responsible for the new hard core anti-abortion views, they’re increasingly tedious, and should be offensive to rational people.