Month: April 2015

Discuss

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

IRELAND-US-DIPLOMACY-NATO-OSCE

Gee, I wonder why so many people are working so hard to make Hillary Clinton seem unlikeable:

Research commissioned by the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which seeks to advance the electoral prospects of female candidates, has found that a double bind still exists. While male politicians can attract voters’ support by appearing strong and decisive, even when they are not perceived as being particularly likeable, women still have to prove to the world they are both qualified for office and likeable.

“Voters are perfectly willing to vote for a male executive they think is qualified but do not like. However, they will not vote for a woman they find unlikeable even if she is qualified,” the researchers concluded.

This is very frustrating for women activists, because male progressives insist this “just isn’t true” — right after they list all the personal attributes they dislike so much about her.

NC wants to prohibit med students from learning how to do abortions

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Pat McElraft
Rep. Pat McElraft cares so much about the wee babies.

And also want to prevent anyone who isn’t a board-certified OB-GYN from doing abortions. Because they care so very, very much about the medical qualifications of whoever is performing the still-perfectly-legal procedure. You know, Wisconsin gets a lot of press, but North Carolina is the Koch Brothers’ favorite wingnut incubator:

RALEIGH, N.C. — Doctors working for the medical schools at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or East Carolina University would be prohibited from performing elective abortions under a bill filed Wednesday.

House Bill 465 would also require women seeking abortions to speak with a doctor or other “qualified health care provider” three days before undergoing the procedure, tripling the state’s current 24-hour waiting period.

“We do not want state funds being used for abortions,” Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, saidWednesday. “Our constituents have made that loud and clear from all over the state of North Carolina.”

McElraft is one of a quartet of Republican women who filed the measure. She is joined by Reps. Jacqueline Schaffer, R-Mecklenbrug, Rena Turner, R-Iredell, and Susan Martin, R-Wilson.

McElraft said there is data to show that the 24-hour waiting period had led to fewer abortions. Making that wait three days, she said, could lead to even fewer abortions.

“There’s no effort here to try to restrict a woman’s right to have an abortion,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is make her care competent.”

Although McElraft pitched the bill as a measure that would help protect women as well as curb the use of taxpayer money, the topic of abortion is always a volatile one. An abortion measure passed in 2013 sparked protests at the Legislative Building and garnered national attention.

The bill would “prohibit two of the finest medical schools in the the country from providing doctors with the training necessary to provide safe abortion care,” said Melissa Reed, a vice president for public policy for Planned Parenthood, a women’s health care nonprofit known for its advocacy for abortion rights.

Reed said a third provision of the bill, requiring that any physician performing an abortion be ob-gyn, rather than just any doctor, ignores current practice and creates more of a barrier than is necessary.

“The politicians supporting this bill completely disregard the complex decisions women and their families face every day,” she said. “It is shameful that North Carolina legislators continue to sacrifice women’s health in their ideological attempts to take this state backwards.”

The House measure is the second abortion measure filed at the General Assembly this year. Senate Bill 604 would place more requirements on clinics where abortions are performed.