Tuesday, November 8, 2011

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Up until the 19th Amendment, Women had little say over their own lives. Up until the 20th century they were property of their husbands and fathers, unable to control their own money or own their own property.

But it got better.... for a while.

Around that time many states (31 in fact) passed laws legalizing Eugenics, and setting up Eugenics boards. Women (mainly poor and African American) were forcibly sterilized in an effort to end poverty and "feeblemindedness." These practices continued thought the 40's, and in come cases as late as the 70's.

Now the trend has reversed, and instead of sterilizing women, lawmakers want to make sure they have children by making a fertilized egg a "person."

Mississippi's Prop 26 want to declare a fertilized egg a person. This would outlaw abortion. It would also outlaw birth control. It would let women with ectopic pregnancies die instead of ending the pregnancy. It would spell the end of IVF in Mississippi.

Now, knowing that Mississippi has one of the highest poverty rates, teen pregnancy rates, one of the lowest literacy rates and one of the highest percentages of adults over 25 that don't have a High School Diploma, how is this law a smart thing? Even with all of that stacked against them, the federal government wants to slash the funding for W.I.C and Head Start, two programs designed for poor single mothers. Assuming this passes, there will be more and more poor single mothers in Mississippi.

For a group of Republicans that want more spending cuts and less government regulation... they seem to be wanting a lot of regulating.

Or maybe it's just that they don't respect women?

Or maybe they are so concerned with ending abortion that they never stopped to consider what would happen after. Or do they care what happens with all the babies that result?

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