Month: April 2013

As Amy posted earlier today, Margaret Thatcher has died. She was Britain’s first and only woman Prime Minister, crashing the ancient iron gates of patriarchal politics. Though her actions can be seen as a feminist victory, she herself was not a feminist.  She oncesaid,

“The battle for women’s rights has largely been won. The days when they were demanded and discussed in strident tones should be gone forever. I hate those strident tones we hear from some Women’s Libbers.”

In case you need more proof of her anti-feminism, here’s another gem from the “Iron Lady”:

‘The feminists hate me, don’t they? And I don’t blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison.”

Read more at Feministing

Earlier today I blogged about Alabama’s new bill which places major restrictions on abortion clinics. Well, meet the man who will sign this bill into law, the charming champion of the war on women, Governor, Robert Bentley. Bentley is not only the duly sworn chief executive of his state, but a licensed physician, who like all physicians has taken an oath to do no harm and to only heal. But when he signs, he will be not only undermining the rights of women throughout his state but undermining their health.

Who is Robert Bentley MD? Well, he seems to be an equal opportunity harmer, degrading the lives of not only women but other groups that are not of his tribe—wealthy, white, male, and Christian.

In 2011, he signed into law an immigration bill considered at the time the most restrictive in the nation, bypassing even Arizona. The law obliges schools to investigate students’ legal status, and resulted in many immigrants not sending their children to school. The law made it illegal to give a ride to an immigrant, hire an immigrant, and just be an immigrant—in that police were able to arrest anyone they suspect might be here illegally.

Read more at Feministing

Bad News: Alabama passed a bill which pretends to be about protecting women but is actually aimed at shutting down abortion clinics on Tuesday. The governor has said he will sign the bill, ironically called the “Women’s Health and Safety Act,”  which requires that doctors preforming abortions be granted admitting privileges at local hospitals. Some of the doctors who perform abortions in Alabama are from out of state and thus aren’t affiliated with hospitals. The Alabama bill also requires that clinics meet standards of ambulatory surgery centers. Clinics would have to spend millions of dollars on unnecessary construction, equipment and supplies. These bills, which are less egregious and overtly anti-choice than the heartbeat bills passed in South Dakota and Arkansas are actually more dangerous, explains Carole Joffe, a sociologist at the University of California, San Francisco:

“Those other laws may sound more drastic… but one assumes the Supreme Court will not uphold them…. It’s the more reasonable-sounding things like hallway width, or requiring a doctor to have local admitting privileges, that some courts will possibly approve….These have the capacity to be much more devastating to the ability to provide abortion care.”

In case you have any doubts about the people behind the bill, they think they are doing god’s work and still haven’t gotten the memo about the separation between church and state. The governor, Robert Bentley, a… you guessed it… Republican, said, “We need to remember we are dealing with human life and this is what God expects us to do.”

Good News: The Kansas clinic operated by the tireless and valiant Dr. George Tiller, who was killed in 2009 by an anti-choice zealot (I mean, are we really going to call a killer “pro-life”? Sorry.) has reopened as the South Wind Women’s Center.

Read more at Feministing