"Oft-Cited Study Linking Mental Health Problems to Abortion Debunked" (Sheppard, 2012)
motherjones.com“For one thing, they report, the paper failed to factor in whether the women included in the study had exhibited those mental health problems before having an abortion. Steinberg and Finer reevaluated the data Coleman and her colleagues relied on and found that the conclusions in the paper were not supported by the data. ‘These deficiencies are fundamental analytical errors that were incorrectly presented in the original paper,’ they write, ‘… not a scholarly difference of opinion.’”
Abortion Foes' Latest Backdoor Ban
motherjones.comKansas has long been a frontline in the abortion wars, so it isn’t much of a surprise that anti-abortion crusaders there have pioneered one of the newest tactics for limiting access to legal abortion procedures: developing onerous regulations that specifically target clinics. And this strategy—which could lead to shutting down all of the state’s abortion clinics by the end of this month—is being embraced by abortion foes in other states as a way to end abortion in practice if not in law.
This is how it works: anti-abortion legislators pass what are often called “TRAP” laws, or “targeted regulation of abortion providers.” That is, regulations that only apply to abortion clinics, setting compulsory standards that are often difficult to meet, like mandated sizes for waiting and recovery rooms, reconfiguring of exits and entrances to facilities, and additional bathrooms. In Kansas, abortion providers last week were handed a long list of new regulations and told they must comply by July 1. Virginia and Utah have signed similar measures into law this year, joining states like South Carolina and Indiana that have previously targeted providers with stricter regulations, and a number of other states have been considering bills like these.
Kansas Medical Board Investigates Dr. George Tiller's Colleague
motherjones.comHoly shit.
From 1999 through 2007, Neuhaus spent one day a week in Tiller’s clinic providing the legally required second opinion on whether there was a medical need for a woman to have a third-trimester abortion. She did not provide these later-term abortions herself at Tiller’s clinic. In October 2006, Cheryl Sullenger, an anti-abortion activist and convicted felon, filed a complaint, alleging that Neuhaus did not adequately evaluate the women who came to Tiller’s clinic or properly document their cases in her files. That led to an investigation by the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts, which regulates medical services in the state.
Given the origins of the complaint and the anti-abortion views of some of the panel’s members, Neuhaus’ supporters worry she has little chance of a fair hearing. They also fear that the state isn’t doing enough to protect her from potential violence.
Kate Sheppard
Kate Sheppard was the leader of the New Zealand women’s suffrage movement in the late nineteenth century. She organized no less than three separate petitions, the first two rejected in turn by the legislature. Undaunted and dedicated to the cause, she kept getting signatures on the petitions until finally the bill granting women full voting rights was passed in New Zealand in 1893. New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women full voting rights, and it had a direct effect on sufferage struggles everywhere.
“You should stop talking to him because he’s just messing with your head. But you should continue because he’s messing with it in the best way and it makes your heart thump really hard and feel as light as air and it’s the most amazing thing - until it falls back down and hits you in the chest and you can't breathe and it feels like you just want to die because there’s no point living if you feel like this and it won't get better because he doesn’t like you and he never will. And then you talk to him and everything is ok again because he’s amazing.”
—Kate SheppardMy Uterus, LLC - Kate Sheppard
motherjones.comFlorida women can now symbolically incorporate their uteruses, in protest of both the onslaught of bills limiting reproductive rights and the ban on the u-word in the state House. Incorporatemyuterus.com, where women can file for corporate uterus status, is a project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.
[…]
Here’s the idea: Businesses get special treatment these days. If lawmakers and other politicians see your uterus and your body as a business, maybe they’ll work to get government out of the uterus regulation business as they do for every other company.
If I ever get around to playing through Mass Effect again...
I am naming my Shepard Kate. After this other Shep(p)ard and boss of a lady:
And because NZ ladies will have had the vote for nigh on 300 years in Kate Shepards world, she will need something else to occupy her time, like saving the entirety of organic life.
She will be the paragoniest Shepard ever, wear her hair in a sensible bun, and like her namesake will probably end up having her face on some form of money(even if they have to bring back paper notes to do it).
(I cannot believe this idea never occurred to me when I played Mass Effect way back when. I mean, Kate Sheppard is my great-great-great aunt! How did I miss that?)
Climategate: What Really Happened?
motherjones.comHow climate science became the target of “the best-funded, best-organized smear campaign by the wealthiest industry that the Earth has ever known.”
