War on Women -- Part Three


In part one and two of this blog, discussed how women are coming under attack constitutionally. This blogger has made an effort to demonstrate this by showing how conservative legislatures and social extreme religious groups have impacted women's rights to privacy.
"The time to claim the birth rights of women are far overdue and the time for full representation in the political forum is at hand.This is the decade of the women -- right, left, and center. Let the refocus-ing of values, social mores, and justice begin ..."

In the latest round of news, a school district in Louisiana further illustrates how far conservative administrators are willing to stray (link). Going against federal law, the school has decided to ostracize teen-mothers by either expulsion or offering the girls homeschooling if they refuse to be tested for pregnancy, or are pregnant. The Delhi Charter School, in Delhi, Louisiana, according to the ACLU, which has filed a lawsuit against the school, charge that:
.... female students who are suspected of being pregnant are told that they must take a pregnancy test. Under school policy, those who are pregnant or refuse to take the test are kicked out and forced to undergo home schooling....
A bill that is currently in committee, in the United States House of Representatives, is a national personhood bill-H.R. 212, which dictates that from the moment of conception (fertilization) that human life begin and "shall have all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood (link).

Arizona just passed a law, sponsored by State Representative Kimberly Yee and signed into by Arizona governor Janet Brewer, according to the Examiner.com  (link here) and Plan Parenthood, " ... Defines pregnancy in a way that bans abortion two weeks before actual fertilization.  It calculates gestational age starting with the first day of the last menstrual period rather than the date of conception. Essentially, before one is the sparkle in your mother's eye she is pregnant. There are other seven states who have similar laws.

And then, there is U. S. Representative, Todd Akin, who asserts, in an local television interview, that in the cases of "legitimate rape" a woman's body has some sort of "natural biochemical" defense from preventing her from getting pregnant. Setting aside the biological inaccuracy, the front half of his statement -- "legitimate rape" -- is code for the "worthiness" of the abortive act; and, even then among more stringent pro-life activists, however, rape is not sufficient reason to abort a fetus.

These are but a few of the events that happened over the summer of 2012. The list of events that happened to restrict women's right you reach the apex in the republican nominating convention. The platform for the 2012 Republican convention states on multiple occasions the denial federal funds being used for abortions domestically or internationally. This also included the denial of federal funds for sexual education training and that of school providing materials for contraceptives and counseling for abortions for teens. In fact, the GOP platform states the following,
Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS when transmitted sexually. It is effective, science-based, and empowers teens to achieve optimal health outcomes and avoid risks of sexual activity. We oppose school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling, and related services for abortion and contraception. We support keeping federal funds from being used in mandatory or universal mental health, psychiatric, or socioemotional screening programs.
In essence, this restriction of funding sex education is suppose to shift the control back to familial households and away from public schools by reducing the influence of social mores of liberalism. Furthermore, it disempowers adolescent females in understanding and providing information on the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). For instance, according to Lifenews.com article (11/18/11)., teen pregnancy rates had dropped three years in row as reported by the CDC, which was attributed in part to abstinence education programs; yet, the article revealed an increase in teen STDs.

This anomalous increase seem to displace the rationality of less pregnancies equating to more teen STDs and continuing, at the same, the condemnation of birth control.

The GOP platform therefore is a political document that asserts several policies on expansion of theocratic values disguised in secular conservative rhetoric; but, I digress. The war on women is a multivariate campaign that has endangered human liberties of women -- young and old alike. The indoctrination of the extremes has wrangled the war on women into the level of obfus-cation, confusion, and polarization. The time to claim the birth rights of women are far overdue and the time for full representation in the political forum is at hand.This is the decade of the women -- right, left, and center. Let the refocusing of values, social mores, and justice begin ...

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