More from the Virginia legislature

[Southpaw Bookworm]

Seen in conjunction with the miscarriage reporting bill, I find this all the more scary:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64225-2005Jan10.html

The constitutional amendment measures are part of a raft of bills offered by the state's socially conservative lawmakers.

Other legislative ideas include proposals to require that physicians administer anesthesia to a fetus older than 20 weeks before an abortion and to end state funding for Planned Parenthood. The group of lawmakers also supports tightening health standards on clinics where abortions are performed to make them comply with hospital standards.

Democrats in the House and Senate said the clinic legislation was a veiled attempt to restrict access to abortions. Many clinics would not be able to retrofit their facilities to hospital standards, they said, potentially driving them out of business.

"Many of the standards are irrelevant for the quality of care," said Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax), who said the rules were for things like janitors' closets. Referring to the fetal pain bill, she said that "there is evidence that shows that the procedure could endanger the health of the mother."

[Jackie97]

1. This is what I'd like to know.

Why the heck doesn't these do gooders ever try to make these requirements for other medical practices? I've never heard of the dentists having to go through so much red tape to keep their businesses open. It's BS.

As far as fetal pain goes, there is evidence that the fetus doesn't even feel pain until sometime after birth. I used to find that hard to believe, but it's true. People don't care to question what they've "known" their whole life though.

[WildClarySage]

2. I don't see these people demanding anesthesia

for fetuses who are being born via the birth canal, despite the fact that the pressure from contractions is strong enough to reshape the newborn's head for several days. This is child abuse, I tell ya. We gotta do something to protect the children!

[Jackie97]

3. I guess....

if something (like child birth) has been done since the beginning, people don't question it. How long have we had late trimester abortions to save lives and to stop defected fetuses from being born?

[iverglas]

4. ah, the Virginia state legislature

I've been googling in vain for a couple of things I vaguely recall about it from discussions on a long-ago internet board.

Actually, I now see I was probably wrong about one of them; it apparently happened in North Carolina:

http://www.witchvox.com/vn/vn_detail/dt_wn.html?a=uspa&id=11901
(in a discussion about the US Dept of Justice's failure to include instructions about offering emergency contraception in its guidelines for the treatment of sexual assault victims)

I am reminded, for some odd reason, of an incident that happened in NC during the 1990s. A state representative said during a public meeting that there was no way a woman could get pregnant by being raped. According to him the "juices didn't flow" and conception just "didn't happen". This is right about the same time we had the Rev who swore Barney could lead kids into the occult.... we were the laughing stock of the nation for a *very* long time.

Aha, here we are:

http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/pc/hoax.html

Superstitions can have other horrible consequences in our modern world. Consider the 1996 case of North Carolina state
representative Henry Aldridge who explained why there was no need for his state to fund abortions for rape victims:

People who are raped — who are truly raped — the juices don't flow, the body functions don't work, and they don't get pregnant.

After Henry Aldridge's speech, the North Carolina State Legislature voted to reduce the amount of funds available to poor women having abortions from $1.2 million to $50,000. As a reward for his expertise on rape and pregnancy, Aldridge was appointed co-chair of the North Carolina House Committee on Human Resources, which oversees day care, services for the poor, and abortion funding.

Trying to remember who reported the other tale on that board, I don't know for sure whether she was from NC or VA. Anyhow, it involved a state legislator who recommended that women douche with Drano after sex to prevent pregnancy.

Oh well, I guess it just goes to show that stupidity and misogyny aren't unique to Virginia.

[Jackie97]

5. That's my state everybody!

We often take the cake with stupidity, don't we?

All NCers and Virginians, be proud! LOL.

I remember my preacher telling me years ago that he read that the chances of getting pregnant from a rape were rare (when I was still into the being preached at sort of thing).

Now, I know where some of those dumb ideas being said in my article on Abstinence Only education came from. They're lying to adults, and even adults fall for it.

I live in a dumbass state and a dumbass country. Somebody please just shoot me.

[rfkrfk]

6. Are any states going in the progressive direction?

Are there efforts in any states trying to repeal
restrictions on reproductive choice?
Perhaps some state with a Dem legislature and governor.

[seaj11]

7. No, they're not pro-life.

Anesthesia? The limitations on abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood are no surprise, but administering anesthesia to a fetus before removing it from the uterus...wow, I don't know what to say to that. Is the world crazy or is it just me?