Mississippi State Rep. Bubba Carpenter is trying to stop the spread of a video in which he was dismissive about coat hanger abortions coming back because of legislation he supported.

The New Hampshire House failed to bring back a bill that would ban abortion after 20 weeks.

Cloe Angyal is worried that Australia might follow the United States’ lead on attack of women’s reproductive rights.

The House of Representatives voted to approve a version of the Violence Against Women Act that would exclude Native, undocumented and LGBT victims of violence from protection. It abhorrent when politics prevents politicians from respecting that people have a basic right to safety.

The basis for this vote took place back in September 2011. The North Carolina House passed the ballot measure by a 75-42 while the Senate passed it 30-16. Because it’s a state constitutional ballot question, the governor had no ability to veto the measure and the vote was scheduled for May 8, the same day as the Republican Party’s presidential primary.

In a country that prides itself on individual equality and liberty through the law, passage of laws and amendments like Amendment One is a disgrace. It refuses same-sex couples the right to enter into a legal partnership, a legal right that is given to heterosexual couples. The Amendment thus discriminates against individuals based on sexual orientation. It even takes away the right of heterosexual couples to choose whether to marry or to enter into a legal domestic partnership instead. In order to have a relationship under the law, they must marry. Finally, Amendment One puts the legal rights of citizens up to a vote of others. Although our country is a democracy in electing officials, our individual rights should not be at the whim of public opinion. That is why we have the Constitution and laws to protect these rights.

How could such an amendment have passed in a country that’s known as the “land of the free”? ?” Partially it seems because voters did not know exactly what they were voting on. Just 36% of voters correctly stated that it would ban both same-sex marriage and domestic partnerships and, when voters were informed of this, only 38% continued to support the amendment with 46% in opposition.

We at Trust Women believe that respecting the dignity of each and every person in the United States and granting them equal rights under the law is an ideal that our country should strive for. One of the many ways that LGBT rights and reproductive rights are related is that when people respect and value the dignity of others, they are also more likely to trust them to make the appropriate choices for themselves and their families. This is just one of the ways in which there is a great intersection between LGBT rights and reproductive rights.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Video via ABC News)

Activists, pundits and “average Joes” from every part of the political spectrum are looking at it from all angles: It’s a historic moment. It’s a political move. It’s a step in the right direction. It’s not enough. It’s too much.

I was too wrapped up in the deconstruction of the statement that I forgot to let it sink in – that our first black president is also the first to support full equality for LGB citizens.

We have been making some serious cultural headway in the past decade. According to a Gallup poll, half of Americans now support same-sex marriage. And the trend is positive, steadily increasing.

It’s good to pause, savor a moment of validation and societal growth. But, since we live in a culture of polarized politics and the 24-hour news cycle – the moment is brief, and now I’m wondering why women and the reproductive rights movement haven’t been regarded with the same amount of hopeful enthusiasm.

Lo and behold, I am behind the rush, because the AP already has a story out comparing the reproductive rights movement and marriage equality movement.

According to the AP story, “Polls on same-sex marriage show a huge shift in public opinion in just a decade, from overwhelming opposition to a slight edge in favor. By contrast, attitudes toward abortion have scarcely budged over several decades, with a modest majority of Americans favoring some degree of abortion rights and opposition remaining both stable and vehement.”

The basic idea is that because the lives and struggles of LGBT people have become presented in the media through television shows, movies and in the news, our culture has warmed to the idea that because LGB couples are our neighbors, friends, family members, they deserve the same rights as straight couples.

On the other hand, narratives about women seeking abortion and reproductive health care have not increased.

So, while Joe Biden can make Biden-y suggestions that “Will & Grace” “probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done so far,” we don’t have a corresponding piece of pop culture for the Vice President to reference in the advancement of women’s reproductive rights.

The steadily increasing approval of same-sex marriage, while gradual, is very exciting. Those who live or were born in red states have probably regarded the wave of change with disbelief and astonishment. We have seen our family, friends and neighbors change their minds about a contentious topic; and come around in favor for human rights. We have been able to witness this change at the micro and macro level.  

The reproductive rights movement has not seen the same shift, but it may be gaining new energy.

While lawmakers’ attacks on women’s reproductive rights have been rampant, women have taken action against this. Women are expressing outrage in protests and through testimony.

Women are also expressing solidarity.

Reproductive rights advocates have been using similar methods to empower women as LGBT advocates.

In light of several tragic suicides as a result of gay-bullying, Dan Savage, a columnist for the Seattle publication The Stranger, started the It Gets Better Project. It started with Savage’s own viral video that he and his partner created to encourage LGBT teens that there is a community that they will find and life will get better. It’s been a project that’s inspired more than 50,000 groups and people to create their own “It Gets Better” videos.

Advocates for reproductive rights are using a similar strategy to show women who have gotten abortions that there is a community who respects their choice. The 1 in 3 Campaign is meant to encourage women to create video stories recounting their experience with abortion.

 The reproductive rights movement faces different challenges than the marriage equality movement, but we can gain a lot by working with LGBT equality and learning from their successes.

Calculating how much money anti-choice lawmakers have wasted over anti-choice legislation.

An Arizona Congressmen is pushing a bill that would illegalize abortion after 20 weeks in D.C.

Two Louisiana bills that would restrict women’s access to abortion have been moved forward by health committees.

A federal district court in New York is challenging the Obama administration’s blocking of offering Plan B over the counter without an age restriction.

A Catholic University will stop offering health insurance to its students because of the contraception coverage mandate.

Vicky Okine of Ghana is appealing to her government to create a policy that empowers women and families via a work-family balance policy.

NARAL endorsed Obama’s reelection campaign – which makes sense since he is the only pro-choice candidate.

Catholic Bishops are at it again – this time they are investigating the Girl Scouts to judge whether or not they associate too much with Planned Parenthood.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is a type of antiquated misogyny that our grandmothers rolled their eyes at. It’s not the underhanded anti-woman blather that is masked by paternalistic notions of protecting women. Instead it blatantly embraces disgust with women for the sole sake of their sex.

I wish Peterson was just another neighborhood bigot, and that his ranting, made famous by YouTube, would get passed around by liberals indulging in cathartic outrage, until the timeliness faded and his words would become even more irrelevant than they already are.

Unfortunately, his voice is deemed valuable and credible by Sean Hannity, and by extension the mega-media corporation, Fox News.

Peterson is the founder and president of Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny. At this organization, Peterson is advertised as the “antidote to Jesse Jackson.” Hannity is on the advisory board.

Peterson is an influential figure with the sort of connections that grant him access to a widely watched “news” program.

So, unfortunately, I can’t advocate ignoring him. Here, we cannot exercise willful ignorance. Since his ideology is disseminated and supported by the daunting overlord of news, his simpleminded bigotry is validating that same ignorance in others. He is held up as a source worth considering – worth listening to. 

On May 1, Peterson was a guest on Hannity’s show to discuss one of President Obama’s campaign ads. Kirsten Powers, a Fox News political analyst who was also a guest on that day’s show, refused to even fully answer the first question Hannity directed toward her. She insisted on addressing the misogynist in the room. She knew who Peterson was and had seen his sermons.

Powers called out not just Peterson for his bigoted views, but also Hannity for having Peterson even on the show. Of course Hannity was dismissive of the confrontation – acting titillated and bemused by the controversy but not concerned with what was actually being argued by Powers.

Nonetheless, Powers brought to attention Peterson’s history of hateful anti-women rhetoric, and now a very negative spotlight is on the man. While it is troubling to see that such pointed misogyny is being spread and discussed by influential people, it is important to take note of the ways in which people are successfully challenging it and to continue challenging anti-woman and bigoted voices. 

Mississippi State Representative Bubba Carpenter isn’t too concerned about how making abortion inaccessible in the state could be harmful to women.

A district judge in Oklahoma ruled that a bill limiting women’s access to drug-induced abortion was unconstitutional.

How abortion rights and marriage equality have a lot in common, but the movements are meeting different levels of success.

Anti-abortion protesters march on Rome.

Attachment parenting has gotten a lot of controversial coverage since the Time cover of a mother breast feeding her toddler.

Well, it looks like this comment was only the beginning of a trend among anti-choice leaders. Their trend being: Let’s create irrational associations between reproductive health providers and the most morally corrupt and evil organizations in order to instill fear and anger in our base supporters.

Take Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott who compared Planned Parenthood to a terrorist organization. A Texas judge had blocked a bill that would have cut Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, and Abbott wrote up a motion against it that overturned the injunction.

Now, we may be perplexed at the extremity of this comparison. Planned Parenthood provides necessary health services to women – especially lower-income and uninsured women (and almost 30 percent of women in Texas are uninsured) – including pap smears, breast exams, affordable contraception and abortions. Terrorist organizations terrorize: inspire terror via acts of violence, kidnappings etc. So, how is it that Abbott was able to Six-Degrees to Kevin Bacon his way into a connection?

Abbott exact statement was “Money is fungible, and taxpayer subsidies – even if ‘earmarked’ for nonabortion activities -free up other resources for Planned Parenthood to spend on its mission to promote elective abortions,” Abbott wrote, “Because ‘[m]oney is fungible,’ First Amendment does not prohibit application of federal material-support statute to individuals who give money to ‘humanitarian’ activities performed by terrorist organizations.”

So, because Planned Parenthood can hypothetically have extra money to put toward elective abortions because they receive taxpayer funds, they are akin to a terrorist organization?

But, this isn’t really about how he drew nonsensical connections. It’s about why.

Women’s bodies- again – have become a central part of our political discussion. And, anti-choice leaders are using overly dramatic language as their weapon against women’s autonomy.

New York State Senator Ruben Diaz is a perfect illustration of an anti-choice leader using language as a weapon. He challenged some pro-choice legislation by comparing abortion to the Holocaust.

He said it was Hitler’s choice to send the Jews to concentration camps and somehow related this to being “pro-choice” in general.

“That was not their choice, that was Hitler’s choice. Murderers, assassins and criminals are pro-choice. They choose to put a gun to your head and take your life. That is not your choice. That is their choice,” Diaz said.
Wait, that sounds like he is comparing women who choose to get abortion to Hitler – that notorious genocidal maniac who was responsible for the death of six million Jews.

Anti-choice leaders don’t have the facts on their side, so they are resorting to fearful language as a weapon against choice. It’s dangerous when people don’t realize that these are not facts but language that is specifically meant to incite listeners. And it’s the pro-choice movement’s responsibility to respond with the facts and remain reasonable. Because that’s the point – women reasonably should have access to valuable health care. And anti-choice leaders need to stop throwing hateful arguments against women’s choices.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed a bill into law that will allow employers to deny their employees contraception coverage in their insurance plans.

Texas sent misinformation to 100,000 clients of the Women’s Health Program telling them that they will need a new health care provider – and pushing people away from Planned Parenthood.

Women in the UK are struggling to find reliable contraception access.

Opponents of abortion clinic regulations in Virginia are using exhaustive methods to protest.

The abortion debate is getting ugly in Canada.

The president of NARAL, Nancy Keenan, is stepping down by the end of the year.