Listen Up Dems: Repressive Societies Prioritize Controlling Women's Reproduction

Repressive Societies Prioritize Controlling Women's Reproduction

Anne of Carversville has tracked the Republican War on Women in-depth since 2007. The assault on women has gained huge momentum under Trump, and this 2007 essay written by Steven Conn, now the W.E Smith Professor of History at Miami University, is more relevant today than ever. 

Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico lit a bonfire among Democrats when he said earlier in August that abortion rights shouldn't be a "litmus test" for Democrats. 

Abortion rights activists including myself erupted, imploring leaders like Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, to remain defiant with the Democratic Party. Richards couldn’t be clearer on how wrong she thinks Luján is, telling Politico. “It’s a shocking sort of misunderstanding of actually where the country is … which is overwhelmingly supportive of abortion rights and also, who are the ground troops that kind of fuel the election of candidates.” 

“Fundamentally, perhaps [what] he’s missing is, people can distinguish between their own personal feelings and what they believe government or politicians should do. And people even in some of the most conservative areas of the country who may themselves personally say, ‘I would never choose to have an abortion,’ or, ‘That’s not something that’s right for me,’ also, absolutely do not believe politicians should be making decisions about pregnancy for women,” Richards argues. “I think he’s totally wrong and I’ll use every opportunity to convince him of that.”

The truth is that Trump and conservative Republicans are coming at women's body autonomy with a torch -- the same torches that burned in Charlottesville. The alt-right believes that women's essential purpose is to breed. The white supremacists want white babies and they are poised to insist Handmaiden style that they -- THE MEN -- have control over women's bodies. It's positively disgusting to understand that in the aftermath of Hillary's defeat, Democratic men want to bring the Blue Dog Southern Democrats back into the party -- when they would be far more conservative today than 50 years ago. 

Handmaids News: Digesting Cardinal George Pell Sex Abuse Charges, Vatican Reels Over Msgr. Luigi Capozzi's Gay Sex Orgy

It's been a rough couple of weeks at the Vatican, and Pope Francis is not amused. The Daily Beast reveals the latest scandal, one in which the Vatican's Swiss Guards were called to "break up a drug-fueled gay orgy in Pope Francis' backyard'.  Last week's blockbuster found Australian Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican's de facto finance chief, according to the New York Times, charged with sexual assault. Pell is due in court in Melbourne, Australia on July 18. He has testified previously before Australia's Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse about charges that he "had sexually abused minors himself beginning early in his priesthood and continuing until he became archbishop of Melbourne." Cardinal Pell insists that he's innocent of all charges and will return to Australia, as soon as possible, to clear his name following advice and approval by his doctors who will also advise on his travel arrangements,” according to a statement issued by the Archdiocese of Sydney. 

With Rome reeling from the Pell charges, the Vatican's Swiss Guards were called to a ruckus in the so-called Ex Sant'Uffizio Palace, owned by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, charged with investigating charges of clerical sex abuse within the church, and formerly occupied by Joseph Ratzinger, aka Pope Benedict XVI. Countless high-ranking cardinals live in the palatial building, whose 'Ratzinger' quarters had been given to Monsignor Luigi Capozzi, the secretary for Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, who heads the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, charged with deciphering and clarifying various points of canon law. 

When the Swiss Guards showed up, an orgy was in progress, with numerous naked men allegedly writhing around the floor with Capozzi and his guests, apparently under the influence of hard drugs according to the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano which broke the story.

Catholic Culture confirms that indeed the event did occur, noting as well that it's not clear how Msgr. Capozzi landed an apartment there, a plum not normally accorded to his rank. 

Msgr. Capozzi had access to a car with Vatican license plates: again a sign that he had influential friends. Those license plates made him virtually exempt from searches by the Italian police, and could have facilitated the transportation of illegal drugs. The location of his residence—in a building with one door leading onto Vatican territory, the other onto the streets of Rome—was also ideal for someone avoiding police oversight.

Renee Rabinowitz Wins Case Over Ultra-Orthodox Demand That She Be Moved On El Al

Renee Rabinowitz was asked to switch seats on an El Al flight from Newark to Tel Aviv in 2015 because a strictly Orthodox male passenger did not want to sit next to her. CreditUriel Sinai for The New York Times

Women's rights in Israel have seen a steady erosion in recent decades, although there is no high-pitched debate around a liberal abortion policy in the country. In fact, about 97% of women who seek state financing for abortion are approved. Israel approves abortions as late as 40 weeks of pregnancy.

The most obvious erosion of women's rights in Israel centers around issues of religion and gender in public spaces. Now 83-year-old Renee Rabinowitz has won a critical court ruling, suing the strictly Orthodox male passenger who demanded that she be moved from her El Al aisle business-class seat when he boarded Flight 028 bound for Tel Aviv from Newark in December 2015. Strictly Orthodox Jewish men believe they are contaminated and tempted in the close proximity of women who are not their wives. 

Ms. Rabinowitz, who lived through traumatic days of the Nazis in Europe, moved reluctantly. But she landed in Israel determined to take action. This week a Jerusalem court ruled that gender segregation and the movement of passengers to accommodate gender discrimination was illegal on El Al. 

“This is a common story; it happens to many,” Anat Hoffman, the director of Israel Religious Action Center who represented Ms. Rabinowitz, said of the pressure on women to change seats. Ms. Hoffman called the verdict “a breath of fresh air” and compared Ms. Rabinowitz to the Israeli actress who starred in the movie “Wonder Woman.” “Like Gal Gadot, Renee has superpowers,” she said.