At a recent protest in favor of reproductive rights in Richmond VA, protesters assembled on the Virginia Capitol’s steps. Police, many in riot gear, demanded that they disperse or be arrested. 33 people refused to leave the steps, and were arrested.
Top picture: The 33 arrestees, shortly before police moved in.
Bottom picture: Protester, identified as Mara Hyman, faces down cops in riot gear.
[Pictures from Style Weekly’s facebook page. Full article on styleweekly.com.]
(Source: andrewtsks)
Awesome pro-choice billboards in Mississippi. Via Wake Up Mississippi.
Vote NO on amendment 26 if you live in Mississippi.
Love,
Rabble
1. How many years do you consider to be a fair prison term for a woman who has an abortion?
2. How many years for a doctor who performs one?
3. What other punishments would be suitable for such a breach of law: a fine, community service, submission to regular pregnancy tests, for instance?
4. Will the punishments be greater the second time around? How else will you handle recidivism?
5. Where will the state get the money necessary to prosecute one-third of all American women for this crime?
6. 42% of women who have an abortion have incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level (that’s $10,830 for a single woman with no children, for those of who are counting). When women are forced to have children they cannot afford to raise, will those children become wards of the state or new Medicaid recipients? Where will the state find the money necessary to support them?
7. Will you be willing to watch your wife die in front of you when her life is threatened by an unsafe pregnancy that no one is allowed to do anything about? Your daughter?
8. Will rapists have to pay child support to women who are forced to have their children?
9. Will the child of incest be in the custody of its rapist father or the father’s teenaged daughter, his mother? In fact, 18% of women who have an abortion in America are teenagers. Will they be required to drop out of high school to raise their children or will the state provide free childcare?
10. Will upper-class white women be prosecuted as vigorously as other women who have abortions?
10.b. You are aware that upper-class white women have abortions, aren’t you?
(Source: boomvagynamite)
Crimes Committed by Abortion Protesters in the United States and Canada, 1977-2006
(also known as “Cool pro-life story, bros!”)
- 7 murders
- 17 attempted murders
- 52 bombings
- 180 arsons
- 89 invasions
- 1,211 incidents of vandalism
- 1,341 trespasses
- 100 acid attacks
- 655 anthrax threats
- 146 cases of assault and battery
- 375 death threats
- 3 kidnappings
- 96 burglaries
- 480 cases of stalking
One in five clinics experiences blockades, invasions, arsons, bombings, chemical attacks, stalking, gunfire, physical assaults, threats of bombs, death or arson.
(source: This Common Secret, which cites the Feminist Majority Foundation for these statistics)
New racist anti-choice billboards show up in NYC
The huge billboard featured above recently went up in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City. Sponsored by the Texas group Life Always, this billboard is just one in a series of similarly targeted billboards that have gone up around the country. This one is conveniently located around the corner from the NYC Planned Parenthood.
Responses from the organization behind the billboard specifically talk about targeting Planned Parenthood and the rates of abortion among African-American women.
Reproductive justice advocates are livid.
From Sistersong and the Trust Black Women Partnership:
Yesterday, racist billboards went up in Soho attacking black women and our human rights by claiming “the most dangerous place for an African American child is in the womb.” SisterSong, a coalition of 80 women of color and Indigenous women’s organizations, denounces this cynical attempt to use race during Black History Month as an excuse to assault women’s rights. Black women are not the pawns of these white people who erect such billboards. We find them offensive, racist, sexist and – most of all – disrespectful of our decision making, our 400-year history of raising and caring for black children, and our human right to make health care choices for ourselves.
Read the full statement here.
Also, an interesting note. The mother of the child pictured (who is only 6 years old)apparently had no idea how her daughter’s image was going to be used: “I would never endorse something like that,” says Tricia Fraser, Anissa’s mother. “Especially with my child’s image.” Her daughter’s photo was taken by an ad agency and then sold to a stock photo company, where the anti-choice group purchased it for the ad. Fraser is now demanding that her daughter’s image be taken off the billboard.
UPDATE: Want to take action against the offensive billboard? Contact the advertising company that hosts the billboard and ask them to remove it:
Lamar Advertising
General Manager: Peter Costanza, pconstanza@lamar.com
437 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016Phone: 212-644-6147
Fax: 212-644-6148
Since the vision of the suffering immigrant or Third World woman and the liberated Western one has so strong a hold on the American imagination, I attempt to demonstrate that the presumption of Western women’s liberation depends upon the notion that immigrant and Third World communities are sites of aberrant violence. … I elucidate this fact by contrasting narratives of here versus there, of us versus them. Part of the reason many believe the cultures of the Third World or immigrant communities are so much more sexist than Western ones is that incidents of sexual violence in the West are frequently thought to reflect the behavior of a few deviants rather than as part of our culture. In contrast, incidents of violence in the Third World or immigrant communities are thought to characterize the cultures of entire nations.
Culture is invoked to explain forms of violence against Third World or immigrant women while culture is not similarly invoked to explain forms of violence that affect mainstream Western women.
…
The philosopher Uma Narayen has calculated that death by domestic violence in the United States is numerically as significant a social problem as dowry murders in India. But only one is used as a signifier of cultural backwardness: “They burn their women there.” As opposed to: “We shoot our women here.” Yet domestic violence deaths are just as much a part of American culture as dowry death is a part of Indian culture.
"(Source: boomvagynamite)
![becauseiamawoman:
I have so much respect for Tina Fey. Yay for strong opinionated successful women!
danielextra:
Controversial Remarks of the Day
Yesterday it came to light that PBS had edited out remarks made by Tina Fey about Sarah Palin “and women like her” during her Mark Twain Prize acceptance speech.
This is what she said:
And, you know, politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women - except, of course —those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape ‘kit ‘n’ stuff, But for everybody else, it’s a win-win. Unless you’re a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years - whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know - actually, I take it back. The whole thing’s a disaster.
PBS claims the remarks were cut because the show ran long. “We took a lot out,” says executive producer Peter Kaminsky. “[I]t was not a political decision. We had zero problems with anything she said.”
You can watch the unedited speech at PBS.org.
[thr.]
[via:thedailywhat]
Amazingly, you can actually watch this in the UK! No country-bans here :)
Enjoy!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbzk6kN1zL1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
I have so much respect for Tina Fey. Yay for strong opinionated successful women!
Controversial Remarks of the Day
Yesterday it came to light that PBS had edited out remarks made by Tina Fey about Sarah Palin “and women like her” during her Mark Twain Prize acceptance speech.
This is what she said:
And, you know, politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women - except, of course —those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape ‘kit ‘n’ stuff, But for everybody else, it’s a win-win. Unless you’re a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years - whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know - actually, I take it back. The whole thing’s a disaster.
PBS claims the remarks were cut because the show ran long. “We took a lot out,” says executive producer Peter Kaminsky. “[I]t was not a political decision. We had zero problems with anything she said.”
You can watch the unedited speech at PBS.org.
[thr.]
[via:thedailywhat]
Amazingly, you can actually watch this in the UK! No country-bans here :)
Enjoy!
(Source: thedailywhat)
