I participated in the Women’s Health Rights Honk and Wave organized by Planned Parenthood on Wednesday. This was in protest to the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the Federal Ban on abortion. Mind you, six white guys have decided what the fate of women’s health issues are in this country. Women, we have been raped.
Here are some photos:
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Morning News
Planned Parenthood Protests Supreme Court Ban of Partial Birth Abortions
April 25th, 2007 @ 3:42pm
(KSL News) Demonstrations across the country and here in Utah showed their opposition today to a Supreme Court abortion ruling.
In Salt Lake, women’s rights advocates held signs and rallied against the court’s decision to ban partial birth abortions.
Demonstrators say the abortion ruling opens the door to lawmakers to make medical decisions for American women.
The recent ruling is the court’s first decision to uphold a federal ban since Roe versus Wade.
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The Salt Lake Tribune has posted a brief mention of yesterday’s rally that I attended.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND ABORTION-RIGHTS SUPPORTERS…
(Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune )
Today a rally was held at the Utah State Capitol by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU to lobby for a “no” vote to H.B. 235, the bill that originally would have banned abortions in Utah, but has now been reverted back to being a “trigger” bill.
The prevailing message was that women must retain the right to do what they want with their own bodies and the way to avoid abortions is by providing sex education (and not just abstinence) as well as legal and safe abortions if needed.
Pom Poms Not Bomb Bombs, Utah’s Radical Cheerleaders, of which I am a member, participated. Here is the appropro cheer we did:
2-4-6-8!
Women’s care is second rate!
That’s not decent in our state!
We want access not debate!
Uh-uh, uh, uh Continue reading →
I am cautiously optimistic after seeing this in today’s news: Abortion bill opposed: 52% don’t support spending millions on Roe challenge
According to a poll conducted by the Deseret News, a little over half of those polled do not want to spend money on this issue. I am optimistic because it means that folks are thinking now about what the government should be spending money on:
Services and Programs, not personal and moral issues. It’s o.k. not to believe in abortion. It’s not o.k. to spend millions of dollars taking away a woman’s right to have one.
If you read the entire article, you will see that there are lawmakers who won’t stop, though and that there are people stepping forward with tons of money to see that the bill goes through and that ensuing litigation is funded.
Where are these people with this money for food for the starving and healthcare for the poor?
It’s bad enough that the men of our legislature are making decisions regarding women’s reproductive choices for women of our state. Now they are continuing to “put women in their place” by preventing them from other health care needs.
A House Committee killed a bill for healthcare that would potentially prevent a fatal form of cancer in women.
HB358 would have given the Utah Department of Health $1 million to educate females about cervical cancer and immunize girls and young women against it with the new Gardasil vaccine. Bill sponsor Rep. Karen Morgan, D-Cottonwood Heights, said she thought the bill would pass out of the House Health and Human Services Committee.
“Many people are afraid of something new,” she said. “I think these are individuals who are against immunization altogether. But this is the first vaccine to protect against cancer.”
Upon reading the article, it is clear that conservative lobbyists in this state have had influence over the death of this bill because heaven forbid we provide any kind of education on health care to young girls and teenagers.
They might learn something and that would be (gasp!)unthinkable.
So women of Utah remember your place.
A Maine physician has had a post published on Common Dreams:What it Meant When Abortion Was Illegal.
He describes the anger and frustration on the part of his father, a physician who was also a Republican, family man, and well respected community member, when he couldn’t save a 16 year old from an abortion-gone-wrong by an unskilled abortionist in the early 1900’s.
The article speaks for itself.
I learned from today’s Deseret News that Salt Lake has a women’s radio station: KUTR AM-820. I never knew this! An article in today’s D-News about an Iraqui Women’s Radio Station revealed this.
The article is about the Iraqi women’s radio station seeking support. It’s spokeswoman, Bushra Jamil, a human rights officer in Baghdad, will speak the the Salt Lake City Main Library at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 19; at the University of Utah’s Women’s Resource Center on Thursday, April 20, at noon; and on Friday at the university’s Hinckley Institute of Politics at noon.
There’s a sense of urgency on Radio Al-Mahaba, Baghdad’s “Voice of Iraqi Women.” The station, which debuted a year ago, wants to educate women about their rights in a country where those rights are in a state of flux. It also gives Iraqi women a chance to express their opinions on everything from husbands to politics.
“We tell about their dreams, their suffering, their hopes,” explained Radio Al-Mahaba spokeswoman Bushra Jamil in a phone call from Baghdad. Jamil will be in Salt Lake City next week, where Utah friends she has never met are hoping to raise enough money to replace Al-Mahaba’s transmitter, destroyed by a bomb last fall.
Continue reading →
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 