Women AKA: Satan

Romney's recent pick of Vice Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan, inspired me to look into his choice for VP. I'm personally pretty liberal... But in terms of politics, I like the gov't outta my pocket so I'm often inclined to vote conservatively if the financial proposals make sense. After taking an in depth look at Ryan's budget and fiscal reform proposals, I have to admit that his "cuts" are pretty scary. But I will concede that something, ANYTHING has to be done before the whole system goes up in smoke. And while his plan isn't my ideal, in some ways it's better than the Democrat's "let's just spend until China calls USA home" plan. Unfortunately, while taking a look at Congressman Ryan's budget proposal, I also happened upon quite a bit of information about his plan for women...

I'd heard several times that Ryan voted against the Lily Ledbetter fair pay act (which gives women equal pay for doing the same job as men). But I try to take these "votes" with a grain of salt, because there are often other factors and proposals being considered in these bills. We're not always privy to the contents of these proposals - and so I try to reserve judgment for when I have more facts. I'm sorry to say, I have more facts. Aside from the FACT that Ryan's proposed cuts to SS, Medicare and Medicaid disproportionately affect women in this country; Congressman Ryan wants to ban abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. He voted FOR the Protect Life Act: It gives hospitals far reaching power to deny women abortion care without any exceptions for emergency situations such as cancer, heart attack, stroke, etc... Ryan proposed giving legal rights to fetuses starting at the moment of conception - ultimately outlawing abortion. He wants to de-fund Planned Parenthood and outlaw some forms of contraception.

I recognize that to people who wish to legislate morality, this seems more than fair. But let's start by looking at what de-funding Planned Parenthood would do. It would eliminate this country's largest provider of reproductive health services. (Of all of it's provisions, abortions account for only 3%. Contraception accounts for 35% of it's total services.) De-funding PPFA would eliminate health services to over 3 million people, 75% of which have incomes at or below 150% of the Federal poverty level. Ryan's proposal would eliminate services such as contraceptives, emergency contraceptives, screening for breast, cervical and testicular cancers; pregnancy testing; pregnancy options counseling; testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases; sex education; menopause treatments; vasectomies and tubal ligations. After cutting funding for health care access, let's make it even more difficult for women to pay for cancer screenings and treatment for reproductive related diseases (which is ultimately what we're talking about when we discuss the disproportionate effects of cuts to Medicare and Medicaid that would on average, create a $6k per person, out of pocket increase).

Ok... Let's recap: We've banned abortion; gotten rid of the nation's largest reproductive health services provider; outlawed certain forms of contraception; raised out-of-pocket medical costs for seniors and people on Medicaid (50% of whose recipients are in nursing homes); given rights to fetuses; and now we're going to cut food stamps by 18%. SO - when the people who turned to PPFA for contraceptive services get pregnant, we know they can't have an abortion and if they're poverty stricken, we'll cut their food stamp benefits and funding for medical services.

Before I'm accused of being a "Bleeding Heart Liberal" I'd like to clarify that I'm angry at the injustices in our social programs as well. I see abuses to our system every single day. These social programs need reform and tighter restrictions to help eliminate fraud. They need more case workers and updated technology for handling their case loads. However, these programs DO benefit people who are truly needy in our communities. They are our nation's way of saying we care about our fellow citizens who have fallen on hard times and need a helping hand. They're not an extension of goodwill that we can then Lord over the impoverished and elderly in an attempt to treat them like 3rd class citizens.

While I've focused a great deal of this post on Congressman Ryan, he himself is not my intended target. It is the ideal that he represents. We're all familiar enough with nature's design to understand that female homosapiens are the ones who become impregnated, incubate and give birth to our species. But after that, I'm unsure what some people believe we're responsible for. There has been no lack of controversy surrounding women's reproductive rights for decades. After being allowed to attend public universities, hold jobs and vote, we wanted the ability to decide whether or not to have children too - and apparently that stirred up quite the shit storm, because after 40 years, we're STILL debating this!! But from the social conservative, fundamentalist standpoint, I want to make certain that I have this right, so bare with me while I attempt to unfold my responsibilities as an American woman from girlhood to adulthood and punctuate it with attitude about males:
As a young girl, I am expected to exude femininity, to be lady like and dignified and quiet in church (which I attend regularly). If I play sports, I must play gender specific sports like softball and volleyball (because no boy will be attracted to a girl who is more athletic than he is). I am expected to dress in a way that lets you know I'm feminine without being overtly so. I am to make good grades, learn to keep house and cook, and have an innate desire to reproduce. I MUST guard my virginity at all costs and understand that a male's sexual advances are only an attempt to steer me away from my true calling as a virgin bride to my soul mate (and boys will be boys, and boys like sex, and it's their right to seek it from anyone anytime, because that's how they're designed - but if he manages to get vaginal or oral sex from a girl then he'll know that she's not virtuous enough to marry, and WHEW! thank God he found that out early!) I should never be in a situation or a form of dress that would lend me a victim to a sexual assault. Rape is a crime and it's terrible, but if you dress like a slut then you're asking for it, and there's nothing we can do about that. Humm-dee-dum. After escaping high school with my hymen in tact, I should attend a college or university and prepare for a career in my chosen field of interest. If I manage to make it through college without bumping into my soul mate, I'll need that degree to land a job to support myself until Mr. Right comes along  *insert girlish giggle here*. At which point I'll surrender all of my goals in order to become his blushing bride. I'll be so excited and nervous about this wonderful world of Biblically sanctioned sex we'll be having. Whether I like it or not is irrelevant. As my husband's new help mate and side (rib) kick, it's my job to give it up in any hole he chooses whenever the mood strikes him (and ha-ha-ha! we all know that the "mood" strikes a man a lot! *wink*) If we're blessed by God and I'm not equipped with any defects, we'll start a family soon. I wont need contraception, because preventing births is the same as killing fetuses *sniffle snort* I'll then surrender all of my childbearing years to having and raising as many children as the Lord sees fit to give us. And if I'm dedicated, I'll raise them up well, maintain my fitness (because no man wants to come home to a haggard, flabby Mrs.) keep a clean home, make a great meal and keep that man o' mine stimulated! (all while keeping my big fat trap shut, because no man wants to hear a bitch complain. SHEESH!!) Now, it will be essential that all of our girls be raised in the same fashion. They must be virtuous, feminine, goal oriented virgins, Hell bent on only giving it up to one man - their husbands. Our little boys will be nurtured in a way that gives them pride in their masculinity. They'll have goals and dreams, play sports and try to plug any vagina they can get close to. If they happen to fall into a few loose women, no biggie, there are virgin brides out there somewhere waiting to be Mrs. Help Mate. And they'll, say it with me... "Live Happily Ever After" 

If I live my life in just this fashion, it would eliminate any issues I might have with Congressman Ryan and the entire Religious Right's desires to catapult women back to 1955. 

There are so many things wrong with our government, the least of which is SS, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare and Planned Parenthood. Our problem is lobbyists, special interests, corporate influence, the extremely wealthy (including these enormous corporations) continuing to receive tax cuts while our children, elderly and most impoverished Americans continue to take the spending cuts; bleeding dry the turnip that is the American worker all the while, forcing us into these budget cut programs. It's insane to give a corporate chain restaurant a tax break in order to lure them into a city (under the guise of job creation) and then tax the devil out of the private restaurant owner (who also employs people). THIS example is the road map to the heart of the problems we face as a nation.  Just like "redistribution of wealth" is bullshit, so is the "trickle down effect"! It doesn't exist. Rich people getting richer doesn't help people become less poor anymore than pumping money into the hands of people who have no desire to earn it, helps them to become productive citizens. But fixing these problems requires that we back away from judgments about people's personal lives and focus on the facts. And that is seldom a popular answer.

 And at the end of the day, what matters is our compassion and the love we have for our fellow citizens. My guess is, if God's really judging our nation, that's what he's looking at - and man are we doing a shitty job!