“If the anti-abortion movement took a tenth of the energy they put into noisy theatrics and devoted it to improving the lives of children who have been born into lives of poverty, violence, and neglect, they could make a world shine.” by Michael J. Tucker (via princesssimon)

(via stfuconservatives)

STFU, Conservatives: deliciouskaek: URGENT: SIGN THE PETITION SUPPORTING OBAMA’S DECISION...

deliciouskaek:

URGENT: SIGN THE PETITION SUPPORTING OBAMA’S DECISION ON CONTRACEPTION WITH NO CO-PAYS

prolongedeyecontact:

From an email from NARAL:

The new policy that will cover women’s birth-control coverage is under attack from all sides.

Anti-choice groups have collected…

The Obama administration is standing strong, but we need to make sure they hear from us.

Sign our petition to support no-cost birth control today!

_______________________________________________________________

The attack on women’s access to no-cost birth control just went up a very big notch.

Anti-choice groups are fast collecting signatures on a petition on the White House website calling on the administration to rescind its new birth-control coverage policy.

The White House has committed to responding to every petition that collects 25,000 signatures, and our opponents are close to reaching this number.

Help us counter their anti-contraception petition. We started our own petition, expressing support for every woman’s right to get her contraception covered.

Please add your name to our petition on the White House “We The People” website to show that pro-choice support far outnumbers opposition.

Here’s how it works. Please note that you will need to create an account on WhiteHouse.gov.

1. Go to our petition: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/stand-strong-support-new-no-cost-birth-control-policy/HM8jg7Y4

2. Sign in if you already have an account. If you don’t have an account already, click “Create an Account” and fill out your information.

3. Check your email. Look for an email with the subject line “Almost done! Verify your WhiteHouse.gov account.” Click the link in that email to verify your account and sign in. It may takes a few minutes to receive this email.

4. Click “Sign This Petition.”

5. You’ve signed it! You can use the links on the next screen to share the petition with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, or email.

What we’re seeing is a coordinated effort to deny women coverage for basic family-planning services. Last week, the Susan G. Komen Foundation decided to discontinue providing grant money for cancer screenings at Planned Parenthood. Now, anti-contraception forces have launched a multi-million dollar campaign to overturn the new no-cost birth control policy.

The good news is that – as you know – pro-choice Americans like you pulled together and convinced Komen to reverse course. You made that victory possible. We must continue to work together and defeat this next attempt to take away women’s birth-control coverage.

Thank you so much for adding your name.

Nancy Keenan
President, NARAL Pro-Choice America

[Obviously not just women use the forms of contraception covered and not just women are being affected by antichoice groups trying to rescind access to important contraception coverage with no copays.]

Hey guys. I can’t sign because I’m not American, but I urge everyone who is eligible to sign, cause it’s such an important cause. Cheers.

(via stfuconservatives)

“Women access abortion for diverse, complex reasons. To do so is their human right, affirmed by multiple UN Committees including those who interpret Human Rights, the Rights of the Child, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention Against Torture. People are entitled to their private views about when life begins, but forcing those views onto others, and denying recognised human rights in the process, demonstrates a serious lack of empathy for the difficult choices that women face. It is also naïve: regardless of legal restrictions, when women find themselves confronted with the extreme stress of an unwanted pregnancy they may seek whatever means possible to end it. For Alice, a 17-year-old who I knew while working at a refugee camp in Kenya, death was a less frightening prospect than bearing the child of the man who killed her father and raped her. Let those who would seek to end Australia’s support for safe abortion cast their first stone at her. Removing choice from teenage girls like Alice does not reduce abortions. The number of abortions performed in countries where abortion is illegal is actually higher than the number in countries where it is legal. The reality is that anti-abortion campaigning does not save lives. What it does do is promote unsafe abortion. What it means is that desperate girls and women will continue to die, needlessly, every year. And after they die many of their orphaned children do too.Australia has finally joined global efforts to make abortions rare, legal and safe. Now that is a pro-life cause.” by Melanie Poole (via gothipslikecinderella)

“Every time I read an article about conservatives being “pro- life” I am reminded of my brother who died of ALS at the age of 47. He spent the last 6 years of his life in nursing homes where the care, supervision and meals were abysmal. One of his former roommates was smoking a cigarette, fell asleep and burned to death because his diaper caught fire. Another roommate went home for the weekend to visit his mother and committed suicide in the garage of her home so that he wouldn’t have to return to the nursing home. I have to say that in all the years my brother was there I never once saw a group of conservatives out in front of the building shouting slogans about the sanctity of life and how all lives - no matter what age - are meaningful. I never once saw a group of evangelicals visiting with patients, pushing wheelchairs, or feeding the elderly residents. There were no Rick Santorums advocating on behalf of my brother who several years before had been a pro golfer and was still the father of two adorable young boys. When conservatives and evangelicals understand that ALL life really is sacred, including that of the elderly, the permanently disabled, the terminally ill, and the women and children who accidentally get bombed in the course of a war, then maybe I’ll listen to their opinions on contraceptives and/or abortion. For now, however, this is really just a politically heated argument about women’s reproductive rights and who gets to control those rights.” by The ‘Safe, Legal, Rare’ Illusion - NYTimes.com

(via stfuconservatives)

10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts

I can vouch for this!

“Let me tell you some things. I used to investigate child abuse and...

feminisminapapercup:

““Let me tell you some things. I used to investigate child abuse and neglect. I can tell you how to stop the vast majority of abortion in the world. First, make knowledge and access to contraception widely available. Start teaching kids before they hit puberty. Teach them about domestic violence and coercion, and teach them not to coerce and rape. Create a strong, loving community where women and girls feel safe and supported in times of need. Because guess what? They aren’t. You know what happens to babies born under such circumstances? They get hurt, unnecessarily. They get sick, unnecessarily. They get removed from parents who love them but who are unprepared for the burden of a child. Resources? Honey, we try. There aren’t enough resources anywhere. There are waiting lists, and promises, and maybes. If the government itself can’t hook people up, what makes you think an impoverished single mom can handle it? Abolish poverty. Do you have any idea how much childcare costs? Daycare can cost as much or more than monthly rent. They may be inadequately staffed. Getting a private nanny is a nice idea, but they don’t come cheap either. Relatives? Do they own a car? Does the bus run at the right times? Do they have jobs of their own they need to work just to keep the lights on? Are they going to stick around until you get off you convenience store shift at 4 AM? Do they have criminal histories that will make them unsuitable as caregivers when CPS pokes around? You gonna pay for that? Who’s going to pay for that? End rape. I know your type errs on the side of blaming the woman, but I’ve seen little girls who’ve barely gotten their periods pregnant because somebody thought raping preteens was an awesome idea. You want to put a child through that? Or someone with a mental or physical inability for whom pregnancy would be frightening, painful or even life-threatening? I’ve seen nonverbal kids who had their feet sliced up by caregivers for no fucking reason at all, you think sexual abuse doesn’t happen either? You say there’s lots of couples who want to adopt. Kiddo, what they want to adopt are healthy white babies, preferably untainted by the wombs and genetics of women with alcohol or drug dependencies. I’ve seen the kids they don’t want, who almost no one wants. You people focus only on the happy pink babies, the gigglers, the ones who grow and grow with no trouble. Those are not the kids who linger in foster care. Those are certainly not the older kids and teenagers who age out of foster care and then are thrown out in the streets, usually with an array of medical and mental health issues. Are they too old to count? And yeah, I’ve seen the babies, little hand-sized things barely clinging to life. There’s no glory, no wonder there. There is no wonder in a pregnant woman with five dollars to her name, so deep in depression you wonder if she’ll be alive in a week. Therapy costs money. Medicine costs money. Food, clothes, electricity cost money. Government assistance is a pittance; poverty drives women and girls into situations where they are forced to rely on people who abuse them to survive. (I’ve been up in more hospitals than I can count.) In each and every dark pit of desperation, I have never seen a pro-lifer. I ain’t never seen them babysitting, scrubbing floors, bringing over goods, handing mom $50 bucks a month or driving her to the pediatrician. I ain’t never seen them sitting up for hours with an autistic child who screams and rages so his mother can get some sleep while she rests up from working 14-hour days. I don’t see them fixing leaks in rundown houses or playing with a kid while the police prepare to interview her about her sexual abuse. They’re not paying for the funerals of babies and children who died after birth, when they truly do become independent organisms. And the crazy thing is they think they’ve already done their job, because the child was born! Aphids give birth, girl. It’s no miracle. You want to speak for the weak? Get off your high horse and get your hands dirty helping the poor, the isolated, the ill and mentally ill women and mothers and their children who already breathe the dirty air. You are doing nothing, absolutely nothing, for children. You don’t have a flea’s comprehension of injustice. You are not doing shit for life until you get in there and fight that darkness. Until you understand that abortion is salvation in a world like ours. Does that sound too hard? Do you really think suffering post-birth is more permissible, less worthy of outrage? “Pro-life” is simply a philosophy in which the only life worth saving is the one that can be saved by punishing a woman.”

Holy shit, this blew my mind. To say it so simply. Bluntly. It’s powerful.  And this is why I am pro-choice. 

(via stfuconservatives)

This happened recently...
Me: Even if abortion was illegal, women would still have them, just under unsafe or even deadly conditions. That's why it's important for them to be safe and legal.
My Sister: But by that logic prostitution would be legal!
Me: It SHOULD be legal!
My Sister: By that logic drugs would be legal!
Me: They SHOULD be legal!
My Sister: By that logic littering would be legal!
Me: ...
My Sister: ...
Me: That's a totally false analogy.

theintentionalife:

Being pro-women and pro-choice isn’t a liberal conspiracy.