NEWS: Obama “Comfortable” With FDA Disregarding Judge’s Ruling on Plan B
© 2013 by Trish Causey. All Rights Reserved.
Apparently, our centrist president doesn’t want to rock the boat with a minor victory for women and girls at stake.
I wrote about the April verdict by Judge Korman in which Plan B would be required to be available on store shelves without a prescription or an I.D. check within 30 days of the ruling. The FDA made their own announcement that it would be available to girls over the age of 15 with proof of age (an I.D. check), then the Justice Department decided to stick its misogynist nose into the fray just to complicate matters.
After a push by the Obama administration, the FDA relented slightly, saying emergency contraception, a.k.a. the morning after pill, would be available on the store shelves, without a prescription, but only for females aged 15 and over (still requiring that I.D. check). President Obama said he was “comfortable” with that.
Which, I guess, is all that matters — that a a man can be “comfortable” with a male-dominated government deciding when and how women and girls can have rights to their bodies.
He also used the phrase “scientific evidence” a couple of times when referring to why Plan B should be available to teenage girls without a doc’s script in an obvious play to knock out the religious objections to having the emergency birth control on the open shelves to be seen by god and everybody…. Why, hell’s, bells, Scarlet! Look up that Jesus quote about birth control being evil…. oh wait…. Jesus never mentioned birth control, did he? …. Hmmmmm….
Obama — I voted for you twice, so don’t allow this kind of bullshit to taint my opinion of your otherwise strong stance for women’s rights.
I’m sure there will be more to update on this story as the misogyny continues.
trish
NEWS: FDA’s Emergency Contraception Plan for Plan B Contradicts Court Ruling
© 2013 by Trish Causey. All Rights Reserved.
05-01-2013
The wonderful victory for all females in the United States to have access to emergency contraception without a prescription has been foiled by the evil charlatans at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Justice Department.
The Center for Reproductive Rights’ (CRR) had filed a lawsuit against the FDA to require emergency birth control pills be available without restriction, an effort to remove the obstacle and perhaps shame of getting a prescription from a doctor. On April 5, 2013, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman ruled that the FDA must make emergency contraception, a.k.a. the morning after pill, available over the counter without an age-limit restriction within 30 days of the ruling.
Instead of complying with this basic right all women should have — and do have thanks to this ruling, the FDA announced it would make Plan B and Next Choice-type emergency contraception available over the counter to females aged 15 and up, in direct violation of the court’s ruling. (The FDA says its decision was in no way affected by Korman’s ruling.) The FDA has thrown in a requirement for the female buying the emergency contraception to provide proof of age for the purchase. As the CRR and other activists have noted, this may prove problematic since some states do not allow teenagers to get a driver’s license until the age of 16, so 15 year old girls might have a difficult time proving their age.
Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch sent an appeal of Korman’s ruling to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend the ruling until further notice. The Obama administration subsequently announced it will appeal the Justice Department’s appeal, if need be. So for now, the FDA’s asinine proclamation of limiting Plan B et al will stand, complete with photo I.D. and age-requirement intact.
Time will tell if the original court ruling will win the day and allow all females to have access to emergency birth control without politics interfering with our individual right to body autonomy.
trish
For other NEWS Articles check out these posts on my other blog:
NEWS: Raising $$$ for ArousedWoman Radio & Forum!
This is a quick note to let everyone know that I am taking the bull by the horns and starting up the Radio show and Forum that I’ve been wanting to create for a while now.
So many people ask me if I do podcasts, and I have to tell them, yes, but not yet for AW. Well, that’s changing!
While we dream of Utopia, running a radio show and hosting a forum is not free. It costs money for the licensed platforms even when the daily toil of maintaining each is based on sweat equity.
AW Radio will cover all aspects of the AW raison d’etre including Women’s Sexuality, Women’s Rights, LGBT, Survivors of Abuse, Religious Freedom, Indigenous Rights, Environmental Issues, Healthcare, Anti-Circumcision/Body Autonomy issues, and more.
The AW Forum will provide a safe place for like-minded individuals and orgs to talk about issues, recovery, and more importantly, foster solutions to put into practice. The Forum will be membership-based (to keep out the crazies) at $14.95/year, with a portion of the proceeds being donated annually to 2 organizations as voted on by the Forum community.
For more info on the Radio show as well as the Forum, visit my GoFundMe page I’ve started. Donations are securely processed by either WePay or PayPal (your choice!).
Be sure to check out the REWARD that accompanies each donation level, and make a TAX-DEDUCTIBLE donation if you can.
Thank you!
trish
NEWS: Rep. Todd Akin Defines ‘Legitimate Rape’ for All of Us Pretend Rape Victims
Just when you think the Grand Ol’ Party can’t sink any lower in its blatant misogyny of women, women’s rights, and their outlook on women’s bodies, Rep. Todd Akin reveals a whole new abyss of as yet unexplored hatred of the female sex.
It wasn’t long ago that men were the only ones on the House panel on birth control, that 31 Senators voted against the Violence Against Women Act, and the GOP in Michigan censored a female state representative, violating her First Amendment right to free speech. Now, the GOP creeps us out further.
In a TV interview, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) had this to say about his views on abortion, even if conception is due to rape:
“From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. But let’s assume maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist.”
Wow.
So Akin is now a medical expert as well as a judge-and-jury on “Legitimate Rape?” So all of us who have been raped now need to measure our own horrible experience with sexual abuse by his and the GOP’s standard? A standard which has no medical basis? Because, according to Akin, every woman who has ever said she got pregnant from being raped was lying?!
The GOP RWNJ Republicans rape women on a daily basis! Oh, wait that’s “Legislative Rape” as they are systematically removing laws and undoing decades of work women have literally fought and died for in the battle for equality. And that kind of rape of women, our rights, and our bodies is just hunky-dorey.
This is a blatant sign of the ensuing institutionalized brainwashing against women that we can expect if the GOP continues to buy its power via elections in the United States.
What’s worse than our rape experiences being de-valued by the patriarchal, misogynist GOP is that this makes men look bad as well. The men who love women and support women’s rights will be lumped into either the GOP misogynist corner or the corner of “all men” who are abusers.
By the way, Akin’s thoughts on the morning-after pill are pretty clear as well:
“[T]he morning-after pill is a form of abortion, and I think we just shouldn’t have abortion in this country.”
Maybe we should not have misogyny in this country?! The elections this year are paramount to blocking the GOP’s persistent #WarOnWomen!
Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment below!
trish
MyTweets 08-04-12: My ‘ArousedWoman’ & Tweeting Philosophy
I started ArousedWoman in February-ish after the stupid crap that happened with Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood debacle, Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke, and the all-male birth control panel in Washington, D.C.
I am an ActivistArtist(TM). My original musicals all incorporate women’s rights into their songs and stories, with the hope that once a person hears my music or sees one of my shows, they will be moved to examine their own feelings about women, equality, and tolerance. However, this year, 2012, is not a year to write something that will hopefully see the light of stage in 5 or 10 years, if then.
2012 is a year of action. “Arouse” means “to excite to action.” I thought using “Aroused” was the perfect double entendre for my site and blog to inspire activism in all those armchairs activists who complain just to hear themselves talk but don’t actually do anything to create change. Unfortunately, some of the people who follow me think I’m a porn chick and quickly unfollow. My favorite followers are the conservative Christians. I can only hope I can enlighten them on women bodies and our basic human rights to equality… before they unfollow me…
I do not consider myself a feminist, but rather a humanist. Little did I know back in February that I would spend hours each day on Twitter talking about female anatomy, female sexual response, how women’s sexuality as just being female affects women’s status in society, government, religion, culture, and the workplace… all the while trying to keep my Irish temper in check and stay level-headed when getting bombarded by some of the crazies who try to engage me in Twitter wars…
So I put up a disclaimer….
trish
NEWS: The War on Women
With the current political climate in the United States, tensions are running higher than ever in the battle for women’s rights. In fact, the GOP’s consistent disregard for a woman’s sovereignty over her own body has been dubbed the “War on Women.”
In the world of social networking, the hashtagged terms #waronwomen and #wherearethewomen have hundreds of thousands of women following the Twitterverse updates on their phones as well as articles and editorials in the online blogosphere. This unity of women extends beyond the borders of the U.S., as women around the world are beginning to #occupy their bodies and the legislatures to end the #waronwomen and our bodies.
Whether the topic is birth control, pregnancy, body piercing, or genital mutilation, or forced sterilization, women must be in control of what happens to and in out bodies.
The Republicans in Congress are leading the charge against women. Congress has repealed the Violence Against Women Act, which changes the legal deifnition of rape. As if the the Susan G. Komen kerfuffle and the attempt to de-fund Planned Parenthood wasn’t bad enough. Sandra Fluke became a household name when the all-male committee on the women’s birth control panel had no women on its team and refused to hear Fluke’s testimony.
And it’s only April. Presidential elections aren’t until November. This will be a long year, kids.
I recently posted the following as my status update on Facebook and Twitter:
Hey, #GOP! I’m ovulating. Would u like 2 come over 2 catch my egg b4 it’s flushed down the toilet when I go 2 the bathroom? #waronwomen #fem2 #women
Aside from a few snickers from men, my point was made, and I am just one woman who is speaking out against the tide of oppression powered by the GOP’s medieval mentality.
With the Republicans claiming they know best in all matters of a woman’s body, incensed women around the country have bombarded the Facebook accounts of religious, conservative Republican legislators. Women have been leaving messages about their periods, bloating, cramps, ovulating, hormonal fluctuations, mood swings, what kind of bra to buy, the best cure for a vaginal yeast infection, soothing tender breasts, requesting breastfeeding tips, and so much more.
Interestingly, I don’t think any of these male right-wing nut-jobs was able to offer any advice. On another forum, I’ve recently had my own run-in with men who think they know the female body and female orgasm better than women do. And this guy wasn’t even American. So clearly, the problem exists everywhere, which means the #waronwomen is far from over.
The bad news is that this is just the middle of the war, each week brings a new battle, it seems. The great news is that women in America are not sitting idly by and hoping for the best. Women are taking to the streets to protest the right-wing’s agenda and networking online and via social media to connect and get the word out. We don’t need an imaginary warrior princess to save us from the bad guy. And the war won’t end with the elections in November.
Every woman has the capacity to be a Warrior Queen, fighting for her right and all of our rights to have control over our bodies.
trish
NEWS: No Women on House of Representatives’ Birth Control Panel
by Trish Causey
Originally Published February 17, 2012
In yet another egregious action by the neo-cons of the United States’ central government, House Republicans created a panel to discuss birth control insurance coverage, and yet, no women were invited to participate.
On the Democratic Congressional Committee website, they have a petition going, “Where Are the Women?” and every woman should sign it:
“Join Leader Pelosi in our call to Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor, Chairman Issa and all House Republicans to demand that women be brought to the table when discussing women’s health issues. Help us gather 50,000 signatures before Congress heads home tomorrow.”
NARAL Pro-Choice America also had something to say in response to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform denying a female law student from testifying on the importance of access to birth control. This is insult to injury considering the hearing panel consists of 10 people, 8 of whom are men.
NARAL’s president Nancy Keenan issued this statement:
“Just when you think the U.S. House of Representatives could not be more ridiculous, here comes a hearing on contraception to which women are not allowed to talk about the importance of birth control. When it comes to women’s health and privacy, the committee would rather listen to eight men than one woman who supports contraception.”
Democrats and women of America, get off your ass and get moving. The attack on Planned Parenthood was just the beginning. The Republicans are already working toward winning as much governmental power as they can in 2012. If they win, the women and the poor of America will pay the price.
*** On Twitter, use the hashtag term #waronwomen or #wherearethewomen to join the debate! ***
Aroused and fighting,
trish
For more of my personal orgasm journey, read Trish’s Daily O.J.
Visit the AW site: Aroused Woman
NEWS: Sex Education in Middle School Still Includes Abstinence-Only Program
After the disgusting male chauvinism displayed by the Republicans in the United States Congress recently, the Puritanical hammer hit home (again) this morning.
I received a recorded phone message from my daughter’s middle school, explaining that the new state law requiring sex education in our public schools is going into effect. Parents and educators are being asked to answer a survey to see what “kind” of sex-education program would be administered to the little darlings.
Trying to do my duty as a mother, I went to the website to take this “survey” and was shocked at what I saw. It was not a survey so much as an either-or choice that clearly shows you’re either a religious Southern Republican or a leftist heathen Democrat (living in the South). Our choices for the survey were: Abstinence-ONLY or
Abstinence-Plus-Education.
After lifting my jaw off the floor, I could only exclaim, “REALLY??!! Those are the options?! Either way, abstinence is still a major part of the curriculum?!”
I remember seeing a study since the Bush regime’s Abstinence-Only sex-education programs went into effect that showed teen pregnancies skyrocketed as has sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers. A friend of mine who is studying to be a nurse told me that in one of his STD courses, he learned that the group in which HIV is spreading the fastest is among teenage girls aged 13-18.
My daughter is 13. Oh, goddess, help me.
Thanks, Bush! Your legacy will live on via unwanted teen pregnancies that will either be aborted, put up for adoption, or force many teenage girls to go on Medicaid, WIC, and even Welfare, as well as a generation of teens who will spend the next 80 years of their lives with sexually transmitted diseases — assuming they live that long. Bush, you’ve done a bang-up job of perpetuating the Republican agenda — “no” to accurate information on sex and women’s rights, but “yes” to guns, corporate greed, war, and the death penalty. Considering Republicans hate the cost of social programs like Medicaid and Welfare, you’d think they would see the correlation between abstinence-only sex education and the rising numbers of people receiving tax-payer paid services and monthly government checks ON these social programs.
If bullying is the new evil, then why are our legislators bullying us and our children into the vacuum of religious and political brainwashing? I’m damn sure not drinking this Kool-aid!
Back to the survey I was taking, there was a third choice of “Other” with a little box to accommodate a comment. Of course, I chose that option. Here’s my response to
their ridiculous sex-ed program proposal:
“ABSTINENCE is NOT a realistic option. The human body is biologically ready for sex at the onset of puberty at age 11 or 12, and a hundred years ago, girls were married and having kids at 16. Humans are supposed to be sexual. To push a Republican agenda on our kids is WRONG. Kids need to know about sex, safe-sex practices INCLUDING birth control and condoms, as well as the consequences of sex, including pregnancy, STDs, and other infections that cause health problems (HPV, pelvic inflammation issues, etc.). I VOTE FOR EDUCATION not Puritanical religious bullshit. Feel free to email me at (my personal email).”
WOMEN OF THE UNITED STATES: If we don’t consistently stand up for our rights as human beings, as women, and as American citizens, we will find ourselves BACK in the status of second-class citizens, with no voice in the government, merely existing as the property of our father or our husband, and spending our lives barefoot and pregnant while serving the family as the maid, cook, laundress, teacher, and general slave, and serving the husband as his personal whore — a life with no rights to our bodies and no rights to our self-determination as human beings.
Sex-Education is NOT just about the penis and the vagina, or birth control or STDs. Sex-Education is about educating the WHOLE PERSON on their rights to be sexual and sensual, to choose what happens to his or her body, to know the consequences of being sexual, and know the options for dealing with the consequences.
Wake up, America. Turn off the reality TV and other cultural mind-numbing devices, and see the brainwashing that is going on around us and to our children.
Aroused and angry,
trish
For more of my personal orgasm journey, read Trish’s Daily O.J.
Visit the AW site: Aroused Woman
NEWS: Susan G. Komen Finally Shows Its True Colors – And It’s NOT Pink!
Anyone who was within tweet-shot of a social media gizmo last week could not escape the public’s coverage of Susan G. Komen’s latest turn against women and the pursuit of a cure for cancer… (of course, the cure for cancer already exists, but that would mean growing certain herbs the FDA deems illegal and that Big Pharma couldn’t make billions of dollars from our ability to heal ourselves by going back to earth… but I digress…)
Why people were outraged at Susan G. Komen foundation pulling current and future funding from Planned Parenthood is a mystery to me. In 2010, the Komen branding nazis began suing smaller charities that were using the phrase “for the cure” in their mottoes. Smaller local or regional groups that raise money to support breast cancer research and women in their local areas suddenly had to give up use of the words “for the cure” or spend their hard-raised funds on lawyers to stand up for their rights to maintain their mottoes. Clearly, Komen had become too big for its britches… or just filled with neo-con bitches?
A few days in the hot-seat, and Komen finally came around to pretending to make amends. Komen issued a statement:
While Komen and right-wingers were trying to sneak money away from Planned Parenthood under the pretense of not giving money to organizations under “investigation,” no one was speaking up for Planned Parenthood and why it is being attacked by Congress and their “investigation” in the first place.
Komen’s press release consisted of a banal “apology” and “explanation”:
“The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.
Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.
Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.
… We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.”
Yeah, right.
Susan G. Komen’s public image is officially tarnished. But better than that, women around the United States spoke out and spoke UP for women’s access to healthcare, women’s access to choice about their bodies, and women’s refusal to be a pawn in the political machine of Republican conservatives who will try to rip away the last of our basic freedoms should they win the Presidency and/or control of Congress in 2012.
Last week was a beautiful week for democracy, activism, and showing the world the vagina revolution didn’t end in the 1970′s!
OpEd: FUCKING CHEROKEE MEN (AND OTHER PEOPLE OF COLOR)
OpEd: THE FACE OF ORGASM: IS YOUR WOMAN FAKING ORGASMS OR NOT?
DailyOJ: ALLOWING AND RECEIVING
MyTweets & Comments 08-19-12: “You Want to Milk Your Rape for Sympathy”
With the ridiculous comment from Rep. Todd Akin about “legitimate rape,” all of Twitter was a-buzz with chatter on the subject of rape. Interestingly, the topic which had started out being on abortion had shifted dramatically to rape, and not surprisingly, society once again placing the blame and the shame of rape on the women — the rape victim.
Out of nowhere, this jerk, “Dan,” buts into the civil convo I was having with my friend @sevenlayercake — though we differ in viewpoints, she and I can have amiable conversations. Whenever a Twitter interloper butts in, I check their bio. This guy was supposedly an “outspoken gay professional.” As a loudmouth Scotch-Irisher and theatre pro, I can certainly handle this guy.
I posted the link to my recent article on my rape — something I have never, ever, ever, EVER told the details of to anyone alive or dead on this earth until I wrote this article on it a few days ago. Why? For the very reason, I didn’t think anyone would believe me. And this jackwad says, “You want to milk your rape for sympathy.”
If this guy is “gay,” then he is the most fervently women-hatin’ gay man I’ve ever met. Gay men usually dig women, just not sexually. Being in the theatre, it’s not unusual for a gay man to ask me how I do my lipstick or to borrow my blouse.
So, below, is the conversation and yet another example of how the War on Women exists — and is apparently spreading to the gay men demographic, which I find to be very sad.
In my head, I hear the lyrics to Gloria Gaynor’s anthem:
trish
(Click image to enlarge.)
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August 19, 2012 | Categories: #WarOnWomen, #WhereAreTheWomen, 2012 elections, activism, birth control, comments, male perspective, men, misogyny, MyTweets, planned parenthood, politics, reclaiming sexuality, reproductive rights, sexual abuse, sexual energy, shamanic, stress, women's circles, women's health, women's rights, women's sexuality | 1 Comment »