War on Women

[rah]

stoning women to death for suspected adultery and holding women as sexual slaves and forcing them to bear children for the fighters.

I love when you do a quote that include parts that backup my point.
I bet they don't do that to the men.
Now if it was just this or a couple of other things you could be said to have a point but the list goes on and on. If you don't think that women have it harder than men under ISIS you really aren't a human being.


And yes they do other things to everyone, but this one is reserved for Women.

[giblets]

Maybe they do have male sex slaves

[Kidlicious]

I love when you do a quote that include parts that backup my point.
I bet they don't do that to the men.
Now if it was just this or a couple of other things you could be said to have a point but the list goes on and on. If you don't think that women have it harder than men under ISIS you really aren't a human being.


And yes they do other things to everyone, but this one is reserved for Women.

How many women are stoned? You don't even know. How many 15 year old boys are beheaded? You don't know. The fact is they oppress everyone. But you are making things up to fit your favored narrative.

[Dry]

Maybe they do have male sex slaves

They are called Bacha bazi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf2rBUC6F_0

[kentonio]

Come on now guys, be reasonable. Just because women in Saudi Arabia can't drive, couldn't vote until last week, have to cover themselves completely in public, and can't go out in public without being escorted by a male member of her family, can't speak to a man unless given permission by a male member of her family and that male is there to supervise, can't choose her own life partner and can't in any way express a disagreement about the actions of men without being considered an uppity whore doesn't mean women are being persecuted there! Men aren't allowed to drink for gods sake!

[Kidlicious]

They are called Bacha bazi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacha_bazi).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf2rBUC6F_0

That's right, and our PC military turns a blind eye to it

[Kidlicious]

Come on now guys, be reasonable. Just because women in Saudi Arabia can't drive, couldn't vote until last week, have to cover themselves completely in public, and can't go out in public without being escorted by a male member of her family, can't speak to a man unless given permission by a male member of her family and that male is there to supervise, can't choose her own life partner and can't in any way express a disagreement about the actions of men without being considered an uppity whore doesn't mean women are being persecuted there! Men aren't allowed to drink for gods sake!

Do you know what you're doing with your lies? Why are you lying to defend Muslims? Men are totured. They have their hands cut off. They have no religious freedom. They have no freedom of the press. Their children are brainwashed.

[kentonio]

Do you know what you're doing with your lies? Why are you lying to defend Muslims? Men are totured. They have their hands cut off. They have no religious freedom. They have no freedom of the press. Their children are brainwashed.

a) Why are you yet again attacking 'Muslims' as a group for the oppressive regime in Saudi Arabia? That's the kind of stupid bigotry that gets you so much abuse.

b) Even in a country as oppressive as Saudi Arabia, women get a worse deal than men. Why do you find this so hard to understand for ****s sake? Seriously, sort your life out or you'll die alone as a depressed, miserable old misogynist.

[Kidlicious]

a) Why are you yet again attacking 'Muslims' as a group for the oppressive regime in Saudi Arabia? That's the kind of stupid bigotry that gets you so much abuse.

No. I'm defending Muslims. I'm telling the truth, that they are persecuted (in more ways than just not being able to drink alcohol). You're attacking them, saying they have privilege, when in fact they are oppressed. I figure you abuse me because you want people to believe your half-truths, but who cares, it's only the internet. You think you are harming me, but you aren't. I live in a free country. You are only harming poor oppressed Muslims.

b) Even in a country as oppressive as Saudi Arabia, women get a worse deal than men. Why do you find this so hard to understand for ****s sake? Seriously, sort your life out or you'll die alone as a depressed, miserable old misogynist.

So you think Muslim men are going about their lives just wishing they could drink a beer? You liar.

[giblets]

Women weren't oppressed in the middle ages, because male serfs were oppressed too. /s

[giblets]

Twenty-year sentence handed to Purvi Patel for death of foetus condemned by women’s groups
Patel is the first woman to be sentenced for feticide in the US

The first woman to be sentenced for killing a foetus has been handed a 20-year prison term for feticide and neglect of a dependent, despite claiming she gave birth to a stillborn baby.

Purvi Patel was bleeding heavily when she entered a hospital emergency room in Indiana in 2013 after giving birth unexpectedly in her bathroom.

She initially denied a pregnancy but later said she had a miscarriage and had disposed of the foetus by placing it in a plastic bag and then in a rubbish bin.

Prosecutors claimed the 33-year-old was 25 weeks pregnant at the time she gave birth, while activists said she was most likely to have been between 23 and 24 weeks pregnant, NBC News reports.

Her lawyers say Patel, who is from a conservative Hindu family, had concealed her pregnancy from her parents and panicked when she realised she was in labour. Patel lived with and cared for her parents and infirm grandparents in a house in South Bend, Indiana.

Patel maintained that the foetus was stillborn but the prosecution argued that she gave birth to a live foetus that died within a few seconds.

"I assumed because the baby was dead there was nothing to do," the South Bend Tribune quoted her as saying during a police interview. “I've never been in this situation. I've never been pregnant before.”

The prosecution also claimed that Patel had ordered drugs to induce an abortion on the internet. However, a toxicology report did not find any evidence of the drugs in her system.

Patel is the second woman to be charged with feticide in the US, but the first to receive a prison sentence. She was prosecuted under state laws that are otherwise intended at targeting illegal abortion providers and prosecuting crimes against pregnant women, Al Jazeera reports.

Women’s rights activists have condemned her conviction and the subsequent sentence. They say the law is being used to prosecute women who miscarry, have stillbirths or try to terminate their own pregnancies.

The British Pregnancy Advisory Service described Patel’s case as “tragic” and warned it could set a dangerous precedent for other pregnant women. A spokesperson told The Independent: “Purvi Patel is sadly the latest victim of the creeping criminalisation of pregnant women’s behaviour in America.

“These ‘feticide’ laws are being used to punish the pregnant women they purport to protect, and will only discourage those who need medical care from seeking help, putting women and their babies at greater risk.

“What we are seeing in the US should serve as a warning to those who support reproductive rights in the UK. Ending a pregnancy remains a criminal offence in British law that carries a potential twelve-year prison term if the grounds of the 1967 Abortion Act are not met.

“This means that a woman who buys abortion pills online could be incarcerated. Women need access to high quality reproductive healthcare services and support. In the 21st century, their personal decisions about whether to continue or end a pregnancy do not belong in the criminal law.”

Lynn Paltrow. the executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW), said she was deelpy disappointed by the outcome. "While no woman should face criminal charges for having an abortion or experiencing a pregnancy loss, the cruel length of this sentence confirms that feticide and other measures promoted by anti-abortion organizations are intended to punish not protect women."

Patel was sentenced to 30-years in prison for neglect with 10 years suspended and a further six years for feticide, which an Indiana judge said would run concurrently.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/twenty-year-sentence-handed-to-purvi-patel-for-death-of-foetus-condemned-by-women-s-groups-10148831.html

Women are oppressed in Indiana

[giblets]

Here's something that affects men as well as women:

Texas cuts off funding for Planned Parenthood’s HIV prevention program

Amid an ongoing battle over Planned Parenthood’s participation in the state Medicaid program, Texas health officials are cutting off funding to a Planned Parenthood affiliate for an HIV prevention program.

In a notice received by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast late Monday, an official with the Department of State Health Services informed the Houston-based provider that it would not renew its contract for HIV prevention services.

The long-standing grant, which funds HIV testing and prevention services, was set to expire on Dec. 31, according to the notice which was obtained by The Texas Tribune.

“There will be no further renewals of this contract,” a DSHS official wrote in the notice to Planned Parenthood.
The contract is federally funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but managed by the state. A spokeswoman for the CDC said she was unaware of the state’s notice and did not immediately provide comment.

By ending Planned Parenthood’s contract, the state is cutting off almost $600,000 in annual funding, which the health care provider used for HIV testing and counseling, condom distribution and referral consultations.

Through the grant, which Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast has received since 1988, the organization served individuals with HIV in five counties in the Houston area. Since 2014, the grant has funded more than 138,000 HIV tests and helped in identifying 1,182 people with HIV, according to Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. No other Planned Parenthood affiliate is currently a recipient of the grant.

“I don’t know who else is going to fill that gap, and I don’t know if anyone can, frankly,” said Rochelle Tafolla, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast. “Every time the state cuts these programs in an attempt to score political points … the true victims here are tens of thousands of women and men who no longer have access to health care that they need.”

It’s unclear whether the state will reallocate the funds to a different provider in the area. A health department spokesman on Tuesday said the state was “working with local health departments in the area to continue to provide these services.”

The state’s move to end the HIV prevention funding is the latest in its ongoing efforts to cut off taxpayer funding to Planned Parenthood. It comes two months after Texas Republican leaders announced they would kick Planned Parenthood out of Medicaid, the joint federal-state insurer of the poor.

That action was spurred by the release of undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials purportedly showing that the organization improperly harvested aborted fetal tissue for researchers — a claim the group has vehemently denied.

While the group’s abortion services are separate from its health care programs, the flare-up propelled Republican leaders to call for defunding Planned Parenthood entirely, including the $3.1 million it receives through Medicaid in Texas to help low-income women access family planning and well-woman services.

In moving to cut the organization’s Medicaid funding, the state also cited unspecified allegations of Medicaid fraud. But despite its claims that it had proof of misconduct, state health officials have yet to deliver the final legal notice to defund the organization.

This year, lawmakers also wrote a provision into the budget prohibiting clinics affiliated with abortion providers from participating in the joint state-federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program, which provides cancer screenings for poor, uninsured women in Texas.

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/12/texas-cuts-off-funding-for-planned-parenthoods-hiv-prevention-program/

The right wing vendetta against Planned Parenthood claims more victims

[giblets]

From reddit:

It's already happening. Here in Texas, my wife miscarried our son and the police investigated and interrogated her the DAY OF and THE DAY AFTER. No time to grieve, nothing of the sort. They were even nice enough to come to our home a week later and let us know they weren't going to be filing any charges against us.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/3xz49t/the_coat_hanger_abortion_is_back_and_thats_scary/

Women totally aren't oppressed in Texas

[Kidlicious]

How is cutting funding, making people victims?

[giblets]

Purvi Patel Could Be Just the Beginning

The prosecution of Purvi Patel began in sorrow and ended in more sadness this week. Patel, a 33-year-old woman who lives in Indiana, was accused of feticide — specifically, illegally inducing her own abortion — and accused of having a baby whom she allowed to die. The facts supporting each count are murky, but a jury convicted Patel in February, and on Monday she was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

It’s tempting to simply look away from Patel’s case on the grounds that it is an outlier, however tragic. But it demonstrates how unsparing the criminal-justice system can be to women whose pregnancies end in (or otherwise involve) suspicious circumstances. If one lesson of the case is about the legal risk of inducing your own late-term abortion, another is about the peril of trying to get medical help when you are bleeding and in pain.

Last July, Patel went to an emergency room in South Bend, Ind., where she told the doctors she had a miscarriage. Asked what she had done with the fetal remains, she said the baby was stillborn and, not knowing what else to do, she put the body in a bag and left it in a Dumpster. The police were able to recover the body. Later, they also found text messages in which Patel told a friend about ordering pills to induce an abortion from a pharmacy in Hong Kong and about taking the medication. Three days later, she texted the same friend, “Just lost the baby.”

Patel was charged with felony child neglect and feticide, based on the supposed self-abortion. Asked by Slate’s Leon Neyfakh about the apparent contradiction between the charges, the St. Joseph County prosecutor, Ken Cotter, said that a person can be guilty of feticide under Indiana law for deliberately trying to end a pregnancy, even if the fetus survives. As Neyfakh points out, the Indiana feticide statute exempts legal abortions — but while the pills Patel took are available in the United States with a prescription, it’s against the law to order them online, as she apparently did. And so she was prosecuted for taking the medication as well as for letting her baby die after the self-abortion failed.

If this case were only about a woman who clearly gave birth to a live baby and then killed her child, it would be clear cut. There is a line between pregnancy and birth, and once it is crossed, the state has just as much at stake in protecting the life of a newborn as it does in protecting the life of anyone else. But the evidence that Patel’s baby was born alive is sharply contested. The pathologist who testified for the defense, Shaku Teas, said the baby was stillborn. Teas told the court the fetus was at 23 or 24 weeks gestation and that its lungs weren’t developed enough to breathe. (Here’s more support for this position.)

But the pathologist for the prosecution, Joseph Prahlow, testified that the fetus was further along than that — at 25 to 30 weeks gestation, which is past the point of viability — and was born alive. News reports from the trial emphasized Prahlow’s use of a “lung float test” in making his determination. The idea behind the test — which dates from the 17th century — is that if the lungs float in water, the baby took at least one breath. If they sink, then the fetus died before leaving the womb.

If that sounds like the old test for witchcraft — if an accused witch floated, she was judged guilty; if she sank, she was innocent — it’s also about as old and nearly as discredited. “The lung float test was disproven over 100 years ago as an indicator for live birth,” Gregory J. Davis, assistant state medical examiner for Kentucky and a professor of pathology and lab medicine at the University of Kentucky, told me. “It’s just not valid.”

When I called Prahlow, who is a professor of pathology and lab medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, South Bend, and a former president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, he conceded that “the lung float test, in and of itself, is unreliable.” Still, Prahlow argued, the lung test could “provide corroborating evidence, in light of additional findings.”

Prahlow enumerated those findings to me as he had to the Patel jury: The weight of the lungs and the other organs, the inflation of the lungs and the air sacs, the presence of blood in the lung vessels and the “relative maturity” of the lungs. Put these findings together, along with a lack of blood in the baby’s body, and “I can’t come up with any other explanation other than that this baby was born alive,” Prahlow said.

But Davis was unconvinced. He said that while he knows and respects Prahlow, his conclusion was “dead wrong.” Prahlow’s list of findings are still “totally nonspecific” as to whether Patel’s baby died in utero or after being born, Davis said. “Or even if we agree hypothetically that the baby took a breath, that doesn’t mean Ms. Patel did anything wrong. What if she was scared and bleeding herself, and she didn’t clamp the cord in time, because she didn’t know how, and the baby died?”

To Davis, the forensics in this case can’t determine whether Patel was culpable any more than looking at a body that fell from a high building can determine whether the fall was a suicide, an accident or a homicide. “Sometimes the only answer you can give as a scientist is ‘I don’t know,’” he said.

Whatever happened to Patel and her baby at the point of delivery, it’s hard to imagine that either the prosecution or the judge at sentencing would have come down as hard on her if they weren’t sure she’d tried to induce her own illegal abortion. And this is where Patel’s case moves from a fight over birth to a fight over pregnancy.

This is the first case I can find in which a state-level feticide law has been successfully used to punish a woman for trying to have an abortion. Women have been charged with other crimes after taking abortion pills without a prescription, but the feticide charge appears to be Indiana’s idea. It could spread, though: About 38 states have fetal homicide laws in place.

The common justification for these measures is that they protect pregnant women against unscrupulous abortion providers or abusive partners. Indiana’s feticide law was intended to apply to the knowing or intentional termination of another’s pregnancy, its history shows. Abortion opponents, who support feticide laws, have given repeated assurances that their aim is not to put pregnant women in prison. “We do not think women should be criminalized,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List told NPR in 2012 after a woman in Idaho was prosecuted for a self-induced abortion, also with pills she ordered online. “Criminal sanctions or any kind of sanctions are appropriate for abortionists and not for women.”

Nevertheless, prosecutions like these are growing more frequent. In Indiana, before Purvi Patel, there was Bei Bei Shuai, a Chinese immigrant who tried to commit suicide while pregnant and was also charged with feticide. The charges against Shuai were dropped in 2013 after she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and spent a year in custody. In Iowa, Christine Taylor faced charges for attempted fetal homicide after falling down the stairs, going to the hospital and being reported for trying to end her pregnancy.

The charges in Taylor’s case were dropped, too. But in an Op-Ed in The Times last year, Lynn M. Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, and Jeanne Flavin, a sociology professor at Fordham University, detailed similar cases. A study they conducted, surveying cases since 1973, turned up hundreds of arrests of women for actions taken during their own pregnancies that the authorities deemed harmful to their fetuses.

Many of the cases involved women who took drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines during pregnancy. But they also included women who refused cesarean sections their doctors recommended — and, lately, women who took abortion pills they ordered online. Last September, I wrote about a mother in Pennsylvania, Jennifer Whalen, who went to prison for helping her 16-year-old daughter do that, even though it was a first-trimester abortion and the girl came to no harm. (Whalen has since been released.)

Patel’s case stands out, for the draconian length of the sentence she received, and for the disturbing image of a baby left in a Dumpster. But it is also part of a pattern. “This case shows how easy it is to sweep up women who’ve had miscarriages and stillbirths into a criminal justice framework,” Paltrow told me. For her, the key question is how to ensure that fewer women become as desperate as Patel must have been about her pregnancy. “Do you think these cases will be less rare if you terrify people and make them criminals?” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/magazine/purvi-patel-could-be-just-the-beginning.html