Let me give you a nightmare scenario: because of medical complications, you and your spouse decide to employ a surrogate mother to bring your baby to term. After the massive contract fees and the cost of in vitro fertilization, the pregnancy takes and everything is hunky-dory. For a while. Then, in the 2nd trimester, an ultrasound reveals the baby is having serious development problems. The doctor concludes there is a 75% chance the baby could die at an extremely young age, and an almost 100% certainty that if it survives, it will need to be in the hospital most of its life, having dozens of costly surgeries to repair whatever organs came out all fucked up.

Unfortunately for you, your surrogate is a ‘right to lifer’, and despite your insistence that she terminate the pregnancy, she decides instead to bring it to term. The baby is born with all manner of defects and genetic problems, and now, as the biological parents, the responsibility of caring for the child is entirely up to you, not the surrogate. Sounds like a nightmare situation, right?

Well, unfortunately for a couple in Connecticut, that’s exactly what happened. When the doctor discovered their unborn child would be born with a serious medical condition that would affect her internal organs, her brain, and even her physical features, they desperately offered 10K to the surrogate, which she refused, and instead tried to extort them for an extra 5K (the surrogate claims this was a moment of weakness). Realizing the situation was lost, the couple moved to Michigan, since in Connecticut, they would have been legally obliged to take care of the infant. Michigan state, however, considers the surrogate to be the biological parent.

When the baby was born, it was worse than the doctors had feared. Her myriad medical complications, ranging from a brain disorder where the left and right hemisphere failed to split, to having organs in the wrong places, the baby has to be fed via a tube in her stomach. Doctors estimate there’s a 50% chance she will never walk. Her tiny face also has a serious cleft palate, and her ears are deformed and mostly non-functional. The baby, in other words, will spend the rest of her life in the hospital.

In the end, the baby was given to adoptive parents, with the biological parents making the occasional visit. It’s a nightmare scenario brought to you by the self righteous assholes who think every unborn life is somehow more sacred than living, breathing human beings. These people – who live in a bubble of delusion – think their actions are mandated by God, when in fact their sanctimonious, reality-denying ideals imprison the rest of us to a life devoted to the infirm. How else can you explain the relentless efforts of the right to prevent all forms of abortion, even when the life of the child will undoubtedly be more miserable and painful?

You can check out the surrogate’s sanctimonious blog here

Since I first blogged about this a few days ago, the death of Savita Halappanavar has caused a lot of understandable outrage in Ireland. It seems her highly avoidable passing has rudely awakened a generation of young people who are shocked their own health could be threatened due to the persistence of religious dogma.

Even more shocking, they’re about to realize change is impossibly slow, given the ones holding the reins of power have no interest in making necessary change, lest it upset the old guard:

“This is a matter that has divided Irish society now for a great number of years, and I am not going to be rushed into a situation by force of numbers on any side,” Prime Minister Enda Kenny told state broadcaster RTE.

I don’t give a damn if you feel abortion is wrong. That’s your own personal opinion, and as uninformed as it is, it doesn’t for one second change the fact they need to happen. Making them illegal or inaccessible places the lives of actual sentient beings at risk, whether it be from botched street abortions, or from countless medical complications caused by pregnancies. I don’t have to bring up the fact women were dying all the time before abortion was legal in America, do I?

Like drug prohibitionism, making something illegal doesn’t actually solve anything: it in fact compounds both the risk and the cost to society by making them the realm of black markets and underground economies. These are the real consequences of a confused sense of moral responsibility towards unborn fetuses (which tragically seems to end once they’ve taken their very first breath of air), and should not be ignored. Unlike our religious counterparts, it’s the material world we are concerned with, and the individuals who make up that physical realm. The supposed concerns of a make believe troll or bearded entity in the sky has absolutely no bearing on the procedures we undertake to save the lives of other human beings.

If there is any debate, it boils down to this: medical decisions should be pretty obvious considering one is based on simple logic, the other is based on the interpretation of a fairy tale about a guy pulling out on her brother’s widow, and getting killed by a vengeful deity.

It’s divided society alright: one side thinks people should have the ability to be treated for a medical condition based on science, and not religion. The fact some people are mad that abortions happen is irrelevant to their actual real need. And the victims of all this stupidity are women. Now, I wonder how a society still under the spell of a misogynistic, male dominated cult will react to the news there’s no real rush to ensure their well being is preserved so the feelings of superstitious ignoramuses can be spared?

“This is something that has to be dealt with rationally, and openly and truthfully and that is what will happen,” said Kenny.

Dealt with rationally? Do you honestly think the reason for these insane restrictions are logical and reasonable to begin with?

Ireland may be quickly de-converting to atheism faster than any other country, but that certainly doesn’t mean the fight against superstition and religious indoctrination is over. If anything, the stakes have gotten higher, especially when it comes to certain key issues which don’t seem to go away. A young woman by the name of Savita Halappanavar was told she was miscarrying, and after one day in severe pain, asked for a medical termination. This was refused, her husband says, because the fetal heartbeat was still present and they were told, “this is a Catholic country”.

She spent a further 2½ days “in agony” until the fetal heartbeat stopped.

By the time the fetus’ heart had finally stopped, many of Savita’s organs had already begun to shut down. When they began operating on her, it was already too late, and she died.

the hospital extended its sympathy to the family and friends of Ms. Halappanavar but could not discuss the details of any individual case.

Somehow, a “sorry your wife died because our bullshit doctors think life begins at conception” doesn’t cut it. How about a “we’ll make sure no other woman has to die needlessly because we still think we’re living in the 18th century”. Ireland, I think it’s time for you to clean house and prove why you’re in the Top 10 atheist countries. Do it for the future Savitas’ of the world.

Catholics are hilarious. It’s been 60 years since the invention of the pill, and these dinosaurs are still trying to argue that it’s the most evil invention since the guillotine.

Abortion and birth control are two sides of the same coin. The currency of which is the prevention and/or the destruction of nascent human life. While some forms of contraception, such as the condom or the diaphragm, are not themselves capable of destroying human life, (as are many chemical contraceptives, including forms of the Pill, the patch, and IUDs) they are a kind of “gateway drug” into the abortion mentality.

Ah yes, the gateway drug argument. If it worked to make a harmless drug like marijuana illegal, surely an illogical statement like this can prevent women from having full control over their reproductive cycles. The very fact that she’s even trying to prevent ovulation must mean she considers any potential child to be an enemy:

What I am saying is that the very act of using “birth control” (an oxymoron if ever there was one) pits prospective parents against prospective offspring.

Not sure if this guy actually knows what an oxymoron is, but this definitely doesn’t qualify (my example of an oxymoron would be ‘honest religion’, but I digress). Does he honestly believe that every woman who tried to regulate her ovulation is at war with her own body?

What I do believe, however, is that people who choose to contraception are damaging their consciences and hardening their hearts in a very real way, whether or not they acknowledge or comprehend the sinful nature of their actions. Sin, you see, has consequences. Whether or not we acknowledge our actions as sinful … heck, whether or not we even believe in sin, reality stands. And the reality is, contraception and abortion are about as intrinsically linked as are sugar and cavities. One doesn’t always cause the other, but it sure as heck predisposes the midnight snacker to more frequent trips to the dentist’s chair.

Snacking on all those birth control pills have made you into coldblooded killers, ladies. Can’t you just feel the genocide inside your womb every time you take your medicine? Man, I wish there was some kind of study that might actually attempt to answer the question of whether or not birth control reduces rates of abortion. Oh wait, here’s one:

Free birth control led to dramatically lower rates of abortions and teen births, a large study concludes….There also were substantially lower rates of abortion, when compared with women in the metro area and nationally: 4.4 to 7.5 abortions per 1,000 women in the study, compared with 13.4 to 17 abortions per 1,000 women overall in the St. Louis region, Peipert calculated. That’s lower than the national rate, too, which is almost 20 abortions per 1,000 women. In fact, if the program were expanded, one abortion could be prevented for every 79 to 137 women given a free contraceptive choice, Peipert’s team reported in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

So, not only is that jackass wrong, his very objection to birth control actually allows more abortions to take place, and it’s not an insignificant number: the rates of abortion are double for women who don’t take the Pill, regardless of what particular nonsense faith they belong to.

See, this is the problem when you allow non-thinking persons to try and dictate the health of our citizenry: their well meaning stupidity notwithstanding, health issues cannot be dictated by people who get their cues from the Bronze Age.

There’s a reason, after all, that Planned Parenthood is fighting so hard to keep Obamacare and its promises of subsidized hormones alive.

Their bottom line depends upon it.

To uninformed Americans, Planned Parenthood is a Henry Ford style abortion factory. Ignore for a moment that abortions are merely a fraction of the services the organization provides: if money is supposed to indicate an organization’s true motivation, where does that leave the Catholic Church in all of this?

There’s no denying the fact as of late, the religious right has been flexing its political muscle, and the result has been a steady erosion of women’s reproductive rights. It’s gotten so bad, in Mississippi a Federal Judge had to get involved when the state effectively declared war on abortion.

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Jordan entered a temporary restraining order and set a hearing for July 11 to determine whether it should be extended. “In this case, plaintiffs have offered evidence – including quotes from significant legislative and executive officers – that the act’s purpose is to eliminate abortions in Mississippi,” Jordan found.

While that cluster-fuck is happening, other states are considering similar legislation that would effectively make it impossible for women to terminate their pregnancies.

If it isn’t religious people in government trying to fuck you over, it’s religious citizens ensuring your life is a living hell. Pharmacists, nurses, and other health care professionals are using ‘conscience clauses’ to deny people access to birth control or, in the case of one recent rape victim, a morning-after pill:

In the process of filing a report on the rape, a Tampa police officer discovered that there was an arrest warrant for R.W. She was taken to jail, and everything she had with her was confiscated – including her pill.

OK, I know she had an arrest warrant, but surely a woman who’s just been raped deserves better than a terrifying night in jail, not knowing if she is pregnant with her rapist’s baby. The prison guard who refused to allow her to take the pill, Michele Spinelli, claimed her religious beliefs forbade her from handing over the pill. Spinelli and the prison are now being sued, although “R.W” was luckily not pregnant (close one). Nevertheless, the gross misconduct of the entire prison establishment in allowing this nonsense to happen should not be treated lightly. I hope the financial incentive of not being sued into oblivion is enough to make sure we stop giving the fundies any more inroads.

So, it turns out it’s totally OK to give false, misleading information to women seeking to terminate their pregnancies. America has essentially slowly lost its collective mind over the fact women need abortions, regardless of how Jesus lovers feel about it. Mississippi has managed to effectively make it impossible for anyone living in the state to get one (although the Feds had to get involved), and to make matters worse, the Anti-Choice movement has made another inroad recently in Baltimore, thanks to two conservative judges with their heads up their asses.

In an effort to undermine a serious health service, a non-profit organization called the Crisis Pregnancy Center effectively masquerades as Planned Parenthood clinics (often sharing a parking lot with them), giving false information, using scare tactics and and even deceiving ‘patients’ in order to ensure babies are born. The city of Baltimore was having none of that, and passed a law in 2009 that forced these ‘clinics’ to post a disclosure regarding their stance on abortion. These scumbags fought back, and now the Fourth Circuit court has decided to strike down this law, effectively declaring it legal to lie to women. This includes:

1: It’s ok to tell a woman that she isn’t pregnant in order to get her to term without her knowledge
2: It’s kosher to pretend to be a Planned Parenthood and give false information of the risks and emotional impact of abortion, since you’re lying for Jesus.
3. It’s fine to discourage women from using safe and effective forms of birth control using false information.
4. You’re allowed to scare the shit out of women using videos, pictures, and any other kind of propaganda available to you.

Keep in mind that CPCs outnumber Planned Parenthood five to one in most states, and these scumbags receive millions of taxpayer dollars to lie to vulnerable women.

I’ve written in the past on the dangers of having fetal homicide laws. While originally intended to help prosecute any man whose violent assault causes a still birth. As you might have guessed, the law has yet to actually be used on any guys. Only one dude was ever facing charges, and they were dropped. Meanwhile, hundreds of women have been charged, including a 15 year old whose coke habit is being blamed on a stillbirth. She’s facing fucking LIFE IN PRISON for the crime of being a stupid teenager.

…anti-abortion groups were trying to amend the Mississippi constitution by setting up a state referendum, or ballot initiative, that would widen the definition of a person under the state’s bill of rights to include a fetus from the day of conception.

In Alabama, a women is facing jail time after her Downs Syndrome baby died only 20 minutes after birth. The prosecutor charged her with “chemical endangerment”, even though she flatly denies taking anything leading up to the delivery.

This type of behavior isn’t at all surprising. The Religious Right has a pretty big issue with the fact that abortion is legal, and they’ve found a clever way to bypass the legality of it by prosecuting women they feel need to be punished. What’s surprising is how cozy people are with this law. It seems totally irrelevant that we’re relegating women to the roles of baby ovens, and not much else. Their rights apparently end as soon as you impregnate them.

Ladies, if you need another reason for you to move the fuck out of this bat-shit insane country of yours, how about the fact that in at least 38 states, if anything happens during your pregnancy you could go to jail for the rest of your natural life. Does that sound reasonable to you?

Did you know that of all the states in the Union, none played a bigger role in the birth of the nuclear age than Illinois (the first sustained nuclear reaction took place at the University of Chicago)? I found that out when I was trying to do a little research about it. Needless to say, the above headline made me shake my head in disbelief.

As the fifth largest state, it’s often considered a microcosm for the rest of America, and if that’s the case, I have some pretty grim news. Turns out a circuit judge recently ruled that pharmacists can refuse to sell women the “morning-after” pill based on their religious objections.

“The judge’s decision makes clear that religious people don’t have to give up their religion, don’t have to check their conscience at the door, to enter the health care profession,” Rienzi said.

Actually, you do need to check your nonsensical beliefs when you’re part of the medical profession, buddy. What’s next; someone refusing to perform surgery because the patient is gay? Religious faith has no fucking business in medicine, and access to contraception is a vital health service that has nothing to do with people’s religious convictions. Let’s hope the state attorney has some success fighting this bullshit, otherwise I might advise every young woman from that state to pack your bags and get ready to move somewhere that isn’t still living in the 19th century.

Thanks to the progressive beliefs of Christianity, citizens in the small suburb of Alabang will need a prescription to buy birth control pills or condoms.

Violators of the ordinance’s provisions will be fined an amount no less than P1,000 but not exceeding P5,000 for the first offense. A second offense will be fined not less than P5,000 and will merit imprisonment for not less than one month but not exceeding six months. Violators will also be held civilly liable to the offended party.

So you risk jail time and getting sued because you put a piece of rubber over your penis? That seems totally reasonable.

According to the ordinance, the barangay views contraceptive pills, hormonal contraceptives, and IUDs as products that can kill children and injure the health of women who use them.

People have a pretty fucked up idea of what “children” means. If by kids you mean gametes that have half of the necessary chromosomes to even make a functional human, then yes, you’re “killing babies”.

Another great example of religion imposing stupid beliefs and making the world less safe as a result.