Please notice the legislators use their religious beliefs to force their religion on all people in the state. My god doesn’t make mistakes so you have to put your body at risk having your rapists baby even if you are a little child yourself, and you have a different faith than mine. My god, my god, my god, they scream as they stamp their feet. Worship my god the way I do they yell at people.Women are nothing but vessels for a man’s use, pleasure, and birthing his off spring. She should be happy to be property. I know it is so because I believe it is what a mythical being told me that I follow. They don’t get that not everyone goes to their church and wants to live by their idea of god’s laws / church doctrine. I can not decide if it is pure ego that thinks they have a right to force their religious views on everyone, if it is ego that makes them ignore all science in favor of belief, or if it is a desperate need to please their god and show it that they are worthy of him. Like a child desperate to please an abusive parent. Hugs. Scottie
Missouri was the first state in the nation to ban abortion and seemingly remains determined to be as cruel as possible.
Missouri state Sen. Rick Brattin said forced pregnancy and birth could be “the greatest healing agent” for rape victims in his arguments against adding a rape exception to the state’s abortion ban.
Photo: Rick Brattin/Facebook
In 2022, Missouri was the first state to ban abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned, and anti-abortion lawmakers in the state are continuing their streak of cruelty. On Wednesday, across party lines, Republicans rejected an amendment that would have added rape and incest exceptions to the state’s total ban. Democratic state Sen. Tracy McCreery proposed the amendment by pleading with her colleagues to “show an ounce of compassion” for victims. As it currently exists, McCreery said the ban tells victims, “We’re going to force you to give birth, even if that pregnancy resulted from forcible rape by a family member, a date, an ex-husband or a stranger.”
As if voting to reject McCreery’s amendment weren’t insulting enough to victims, state Sen. Rick Brattin (R) explained his vote by arguing that being forced to carry their rapist’s baby could be “healing” for victims. “If you want to go after the rapist, let’s give him the death penalty. Absolutely, let’s do it,” Brattin said. “But not the innocent person caught in-between that, by God’s grace, may even be the greatest healing agent you need in which to recover from such an atrocity.” Seemingly trying to make his comments as horrific as possible, Brattin also managed to compare abortion to slavery.
Another Republican, state Sen. Sandy Crawford, argued against rape exceptions because “God doesn’t make mistakes”: “Even in some of these very horrific cases, there was a reason that God allowed there to be a child out of this situation,” Crawford elaborated. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Bill Eigel—who’s running for governor—inexplicably claimed McCreery’s proposed amendment would “bring back the institution of abortion so that kids can get abortions in the state of Missouri,” stating, “A one-year-old could get an abortion under this.” To this, a Democratic senator returned, “I don’t know that a one-year-old could get pregnant, Senator.” I really don’t know what to say to any of this, except that Republican lawmakers clearly have no good arguments in support of their heinous laws and the violence they’re inflicting on survivors and pregnant people—and that becomes clearer every day when they start inexplicably invoking pregnant one-year-olds.
Missouri legislators’ rejection of a rape exception comes after, last month, new research estimates that in states that have banned abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022, there have been an estimated 64,565 rape-induced pregnancies. Of these 64,565 pregnancies, 91% were in states with bans that lacked rape exceptions.
Missouri Republicans’ arguments against a rape exception are the latest contribution to anti-abortion politicians’ hall-of-shame hits on the topic of rape and abortion. Over a decade ago, failed Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin gave us “legitimate rape” (his claim that there’s no need for rape exceptions because “legitimate rape” won’t result in pregnancy). And ever since—certainly, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe—it feels like every other month there’s a new outlandish, wildly offensive comment from anti-abortion officials about abortion and rape. Shortly after Roe fell, a Utah Republican said she “[trusts] women enough to control when they allow a man to ejaculate inside of them and to control that intake of semen,” therefore negating the need for abortion for rape victims.
Also in 2022, a Michigan Republican candidate said he told his daughters “If rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it.” A Republican state lawmaker in Ohio called pregnancy from rape “an opportunity.” Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) acknowledged the abortion ban in his state could force child rape survivors to carry their rapist’s babies, but shrugged off the idea of personally doing anything about it: “I would prefer a different outcome than that, but that’s not the debate today in Arkansas. It might be in the future, but for now, the law triggered with only one exception … in the case of the life of the mother,” he said in June 2022. In other cases, Republican lawmakers have refused to even address rape victims speaking out against their laws altogether.
McCreery introduced the proposed rape exception as an amendment to a Republican-sponsored bill that would continue Missouri’s ban on taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Democratic lawmakers in other states have also run into problems trying to add exceptions—including rape exceptions—to their state abortion bans, and rape victims and advocates have argued that the processes to access rape exceptions are too cumbersome for victims. “It may not be today or tomorrow, but down the line, this could happen to someone you love,” Hadley Duvall, a rape survivor who’s helping to lead an effort to add a rape exception to Kentucky’s ban, told Jezebel in January about the prevalence of sexual violence. “And if you can look them in the eye and tell them ‘You don’t deserve this medical procedure, even though your innocence was taken from you, your health is in danger’—I don’t know how they live with themselves.”
Per Jezebel, Brattin went on to compare abortion to slavery. Brattin first appeared here in 2017 when he declared that there’s a “distinction” between human beings and LGBTQ people. That earned him a scathing rebuke from the editorial board of the Kansas City Star. In December 2023, Brattin appeared here when he authored or co-sponsored nearly two dozen anti-LGBTQ bills. One of his bills would make it a felony to perform drag in the view of children, another would institute a K-6 “Don’t Say Gay” law.
In 2014, Brattin introduced a bill that would require women seeking abortion to get written permission from the father of the fetus. In 2022, Brattin ran for the US House, finishing second in the GOP primary.
My aunt had a former student who was a result of a rape. He is now in prison as a result of several acts of violence against different people due to anger issues. Anger issues brought on in large part by his mother who made no secret of the fact he wasn’t wanted and how much she resented him. This fucker has no clue what he is talking about. P.S. Even in ones with “happy endings” the woman in each story made clear it was HER choice and no one else should get to make that for them.
This is the result and fear of the minority when they try to rule over the majority. Think of it. The majority of the voting public, the people, want this right. So republicans being a minority based on misogynistic religious ideals want to deny the majority the right to have a say. That is the republican right wing maga in its entirety. That is the mom’s of liberty, the mom’s of TikTok, it is the idea that a racist bigoted repressive regressive oppressive religious minority trying desperately to force their ideas on the rest of society. I am so sick of these anti-democracy theocratic republican minority trying to force the rest of the country to live by what their preacher says. Hugs. Scottie
Remember it started with protecting children, first by stopping trans girls from playing on female teams so they wouldn’t take trophies from daughters that don’t earn them. Then they moved on to protecting kids from having mutilation surgery at 9 years old, as they are convinced is happening. Then to protect kids they had to remove any mention of trans kids from schools and libraries. But now it is not enough hate yet. These people never stop, give them an inch and they will take a mile while still wanting more. So now red states are forcing trans adults to detransition, forcing younger adults to delay their needed treatment until 25 or 26 years old, forcing insurance companies to pay for conversion therapy which is well known to be a fraud and sham. It can not work, it will not work, it causes more medical problems, and the major medical organizations are totally against it. But fundamentalist religious politicians know far more about medical issues than the very doctors who went to medical school and study those same issues. When the doctors say puberty blockers are safe and reversible, the right wing politicians say only for cis kids, but for trans kids they are deadly dangerous. WTF? I would suggest you read the linked article, the plan the republicans are pushing to remove trans people from society is more than Joe quoted.
This is simple, wipe out trans people, remove them from society. Then go after the rest of the LGBTQIA and wipe them out, remove them from society. It is about returning the country to the same public society of the 1950s. It is about rejecting the modern age, the modern society. It is about wanting a return to a time when their prejudices were acceptable, their hates tolerated. We must not only reject them, we must fight back against what they are doing. We may not win in all red states, and I fear that Florida is going to remain a maga paradise for some time, the rest of the country is savable.
These are people that refused to issue mask or vaccine mandates for public safety because it was against people’s freedom, yet these people feel free to regulate every aspect of other people sexual / gender lives even though that doesn’t affect anyone else. Freedom for them to hate and control, freedom for you is to obey them, doing as they tell you. Hugs. Scottie
A Florida House panel has backed a measure that would require state-issued identification cards to reflect a person’s sex assigned at birth and impose requirements for insurers who cover gender-affirming care.
The Republican-controlled House Select Committee on Health Innovation approved the bill (HB 1639) along party lines, despite opposition from transgender people and their allies.
Under the bill, insurance companies and health plans that cover such treatments as hormone-replacement therapy and surgeries for people diagnosed with gender dysphoria would additionally be required to cover the cost of “de-transitioning,”
Read the full article. My first report on the bill is here.
Florida House panel backs measure to require ID cards to show sex assigned at birth https://t.co/REUGshGNoR
Republican supermajority in Tallahassee heard their constituents wanted solutions to the insurance crisis in this state and this is what they’re proposing.
Vote these fucking idiots out already….oh wait it is Florida…so many residents are FUCKED in the head
Most of the legislation you are seeing pop up all over the country is a product of the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. The create boilerplate legislation like this and push it to the ultra conservatives in various state legislatures. No lack of any of that in Floriduh or here in Utah. Those that sponsor the bills are normally looking for that unique “LOOK AT MEEEEE!” media moment so they can get some air time and remind everyone of who to hate and what to hate about them. They are admittedly devout christians and that should surprise absolutely nobody.
You got that right. Since trump was prez all the qanaon and maga followers have flooded into the state. Its a cess pool and will not be blue or purple ever for generations and generations to come.
Floridians appear to be perfectly fine with Republican bs. I barely even hear about protests or pushback. It’s amazing to see a state move from semi-purple to dark red so quickly.
But are they? Or is the media not reporting on the public pushing back. Notice. We don’t hear a lot of people complaining about the skyrocketing insurance cost in the media either. That’s not impossible with the conservative takeover of most of the media in the United States.
I’d swear this sounds like one of those super evil “regulations” that the GOP is always complaining about… what ever happened to the “invisible hand of the free market” that they praise?
If you want to know what republicans are doing, listen to their accusations against liberals. Projection is a republican thing. They do it but don’t seem to know it.
Sad thing is it wont stop here. And it seems like we have no recourse. Our federal gubment is shocked and awed and seems to not know how to respond. Now that TX has blatantly said they will defy the FEDS and the SCOTUS red states know they are free to do what they want.
The other point is that these GOP goobers ain’t got nuttin’ else but sex, gender, and pregnancies on their minds. International diplomacy? Bah! National debt? Pfff! National infrastructure? Nah! Equality for all per the Constitution? Nuh-uh, spurshally not for women, ick! Improving First Nations people’s well-being? Fuck that!
These cruel mutherfuckers…what happened to having politicians between your and your doctor? For that matter, what happened to the liberty these fuckers are always talking about?
GOP won’t OK mandates for vaccine.. but “re-de-sexualize” you against your will is Just OK with GOP ?! Whaaaaot?!? – well kids, this is it.. this IS the GOP on parade rain or shine.. FL IS the GOP End Goal “town with the parade” on parade.. sad it is that GOP patterns get set in like this, as if rehearsal.. GOP Kock Bro. plays in WI for rehearsing Dark Money influence, GOP Abbot in/with TX as rehearsal in Cruelty, GOP states follow in with Trigger Laws and stair steps to the GOP 6-3 supreme court (no, I don’t capitalize that anymore).. and GOP base so Warped and manipulated and trained to distraction the GOP base cannot see the ways this plays out against them down the road.. Gads, Work for DEM WINS Ahead !
So Lance is a video YouTuber I enjoy listening to. But the thing about his well researched true science rebuttal to the new trans hate battle in Canada I wanted to respond to is he missed an important aspect of the hate drive on the right.
During the video the political leader says that they are requiring all teens to wait until 16 before using puberty blockers, and she says this is because no harm is done. But this is the propaganda of the anti-trans people. First the truth is puberty blockers are safe, long time used for at least 60 years, and the only time the right has an issue is when used for trans kids.
But more importantly these people have to ask themselves why do they want trans kids to go through the assigned gender at birth puberty? Because after the puberty changes happen, it is so much harder to reconcile the internal gender ID with the outside look.
Think of it, a 12 year old boy who knows they are a girl is about to have his face change, hair grow on parts that women don’t, his shoulders broaden, his bones and muscles change, his chest and hips change. Her entire body is about to become what she is not, a male. Her testis will grow and produce even more of the hormone they want stopped. They will turn more into what they know they are not. Hating their own bodies even more. Again requiring that surgery that the right hates and calls mutilation.
Now think about a female who knows they are a male. They are about to develop breasts that they hate and will have to have cut off, they will develop softer face features, they will turn more into what they know they are not. They will have smaller shoulders and wider hips. Hating their own bodies even more.
The problem is not that these physical changes can not be changed, but that a person’s looks don’t change easy. Plus it creates the very thing the right claims to hate, confusion over gender identity and trans kids having surgery to change their breasts. But worse so very worse it sets them up with face, hair, and so many other body images they have to deal with that they know deep inside them are wrong for them. The thing is it could all be avoided by listening to the child, and administering the proper medical treatment which is totally safe puberty blockers.
In both the male and female trans kids by forcing them to go through the WRONG puberty their body develops the very things they will hate all their lives about themselves. Those body changes they will have to have surgeries, and forever try to hide, or worse always be accused of noting being pretty enough or not being masculine enough to be who in their mind they know they are.
This is the critical point, and why the right hates puberty blocker, desperate to force trans kids to go through the wrong puberty. So later they can look at these adults and shout at them … You are not a woman, or you are not a man. So they can identify them when they go to the bathroom, or in public, so they can call them out. It is sick.
The right is so desperate to keep the clearest division between what is recognizable as a male or female. That is why the right hates fem gay boys and twinks. Shit, they are too easy to be attracted too. The very thing the right is horrified about, they might be attracted to a trans person. If you have questions you don’t feel you can google for yourself, comment for me to explain it to you. If you are one of the normal people / viewers here, please comment and add your voice to correct the right wings insanity. Hugs. Scottie
Between Nikki Haley enthusiastically supporting a national abortion ban, to Donald Trump’s rape case, to the GOP’s entire personality, the Republican Party has declared war on women, and we just can’t be ok with it.
I just got home about 45 minutes ago and my vision is still more blurry than normal. I have been for years using an eye doctor at a place we will call company A. A small eye firm with two shops, great people, good doctor, and a wide selection of frames. Plus the glasses were a great price, far less expensive than the big companies. After your exam if you needed glasses you picked out two frames, they only charged you for one of the frames. Then you selected your lenses. One with all the features would be put in the frames you selected, the other frames would have just plain prescription lenses so you had an emergency back up pair. The two pairs of glasses often were half the price of one pair of the big local chains.
In November, Ron went to the big local chain eye doctors he has seen before because they treat his eye disease, which our small eye doctor did not, and they pushed him hard to get cataract surgery. Both of us have cataracts so we thought his had gotten worse than mine, even though his developed much later than mine. When he checked out, his visit was no charge because he had medicare. So we made an appointment for me, thinking it also would be no charge. But he needed a follow-up visit for a different test, scheduled a few weeks ago and they hammered him with charges. Cost us $188 dollars with his medicare paying also.
But being hopeful that my eye appointment would be covered under Medicare, we kept my appointment, which was this morning. I wish I had not. *** edit They charged me nearly $100 for my eye exam *** So they did some test on me they didn’t do for Ron, but every test they did for me was tests my other eye doctor did, but they did tests for Ron they did not do for me. But even before they gave me an eye exam they asked if I had watched the video they sent to me as a text. I said I did not. Turns out it was a video on cataract surgery choices. In the check in stuff, they gave us extra forms to fill out again before even examining me about if I were to have cataract surgery what choices I would want. At this point, they had not examined me to see if I had cataracts. Remember they had pushed Ron hard to have the surgery.
So when the tech finished, and unlike the other eye doctor I had the tech did all the tests for my eyesight portion where my first eye doctor did the tests themselves, she gave me a video to watch on different choices for cataract surgery. When the doctor came in, the first thing she asked was about the video, then launched into talking about the cataract surgery and how she wanted me to plan it for next year. She had not even looked into my eyes yet. She felt the left was bad and growing bad much faster than the right, so I should plan for next year and what options did I think I might want. I told her I would need more time to think on it. Later Ron told me the first option Medicare paid for but the other options ran thousands of dollars.
Then she quickly did her check in my eye quickly spewing numbers to her assistant operating the computer, saying scaring such and such at such and such in the left eye … but when she was done she went back to talking about the cataract. But she never talked to me about the scaring in my left eye! So then they had me sit in the waiting room for a person to go over glasses with me. I had brought a set of frames with me I liked and wanted any new lenses put in with the frames refitted to me.
What do you think they quoted me for just the lenses to be put in my own frames? Hold on to something … $920 for the basic / standard lens and $1160 for the preferred / premium lens. WTF. Remember at the other eye doctor I got two pairs, two new frames with one set of lenses being fully progressive with the photo gray sunglass thing with computer anti-glare for $650.
I did not buy the new lenses. I told them I needed to think on it, and I did not schedule a new appointment next year as they pushed me to do. I talk to Ron on the way home how I felt very pressured to have the cataract surgery and reminded him how they were pushing him to schedule his right way. They had sent me a video on it before they even examined me, and I felt the exam I got was less than our other doctor did.
So I am going to see if our other eye doctor is still seeing patients and if so we will both get exams, and as I already know I will need glasses I will get them there. But also I wanted everyone to know why I have not been doing much online, I am struggling more than normal to see everything. Best wishes, hugs, Scottie
Please notice the date. Two years ago. These were children, 50% being held in pre-trial detention, but already convicted and serving harsh sentences. Even though the boys were 17 at the time of the interview they were younger when picked up, and we have seen younger kids in each video I have shared. Every single thing the Israeli soldiers did to these kids was to induce pain and fear. It is the shit interrogators at Gitmo did to adults, and that was called a war crime then. They are doing this to hurt, be cruel, to break these kids, and terrorize both them and their parents. All because they are Palestinian. This is the government the US has supported unequivocally, and this is why the attacks on Israel happen. In the US some states have made it illegal to protest Israel, to support the BDS movement. What is BDS? Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity. The republicans in congress are trying to equate the protesting what Israel is doing with antisemitism. That is stupid. Don’t fall for it. This is a short clip, all the words are in big print on the screen. Please watch, and then spread the word. Help these kids. Hugs. Scottie
Palestinian teenagers Ahmad, and Abdulkareem, both 17, describe their harrowing experiences being interrogated and ill-treated by Israeli forces in the Huwwara Interrogation and Detention Center near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
This is the most critical thing in Utah for the elected officials to get to. What are there, 10 or 15 trans people in the state? So rather than fix kids going hungry in the summer when school is out, rather than fix medical care for poor people, rather than tackle homelessness, they are worried about who is peeing in what bathroom. Something that doesn’t matter. When you go into a public restroom it is not for a social gathering! If you are trying to see or determine what is someone else’s pants, you are a pervert and you are wrong. If you buy into the garbage that a trans person in a bathroom is just there to attack a cis female, weird they never seem concerned about trans boys attacking cis boys in bathrooms, but if that is your worry, don’t. It doesn’t happen! Facts are pesky things, the people being assaulted in bathrooms are trans people and cis women accused of being trans people. The ones doing the attacking … yes bigots, vigilante cis people thinking they have a right to police who gets to use the bathroom. This is a created panic issue by right wing religious haters who can not stand that trans people, people who are different, exist. This is all about enforcing homogeneous, forcing people to fit the right mold, to have only the correct people in society / public. About rejecting the modern age to force everyone to return to what was acceptable in the distant past. It is no different than the Amish demanding that everyone act just like them. Hugs. Scottie
The Senate spent days deciding just how anti-trans they wanted the law to be.
Utah’s Republican-dominated Senate approved a revised version of an anti-trans bathroom bill Thursday, following days of flip-flopping over just how anti-trans they wanted it to be. The state House must now sign the revised version before heading to the governor’s desk to become law.
The initial version of H.B. 257, passed by the Utah State House last week, included a provision banning transgender people from entering bathrooms and other “sex-designated privacy spaces” that align with their gender identity in “publicly funded and publicly owned” buildings unless they have updated their birth certificates and can prove that they have undergone gender confirmation surgery. Violations of the law would have been punishable by up to six months in jail.
The dangerous measure fits with the state’s long history of policing private matters.
As journalist Erin Reed noted, that version of the law would have applied to airports, convention centers, park buildings, recreational centers, public administration buildings, colleges, universities, and public schools.
On Wednesday, Utah state Sen. Dan McCay (R) introduced an amended version of the bill in the state Senate. As KUER reported, that version only applied to “government-owned and operated” buildings, like public schools, universities, and government buildings.
McCay’s version retained the original bill’s ban on transgender locker and changing room access as well as the ban on bathroom access in K–12 schools, but did away with restrictions on who can enter sex-designated bathrooms in other government buildings. McCay said the amended bill focused instead on “the actions of those who commit lewd and offensive behavior in a privacy space” and was “no longer related to gender or identity.”
But McCay reversed course on Thursday, introducing a new draft of the bill minutes before the Senate began its final discussion of HB 257, KSL.com reported.
The latest version restores the original’s prohibition on trans people entering bathrooms that align with their gender identity in government-owned buildings, while also narrowly defining “male” and “female” in state code according to biological sex assigned at birth.
While the bill does not include any enforcement mechanism or criminal penalties for violations of the bathroom ban, it does include enhanced criminal penalties for anyone who commits multiple crimes in a restroom as well as additional criminal penalties for anyone who commits crimes in a bathroom that does not align with their biological sex.
“Instead of making this about enforcement, we define what bathrooms are and we define who belongs in what bathroom and how to, I guess, qualify to be in one bathroom or another,” McCay said. “And I think that definition makes it very clear.”
The Senate approved H.B. 257 Thursday by a 21–8 vote, with only two Republicans joining Democrats in voting against it.
As the Senate voted, around 100 people gathered on the Utah Capitol steps to voice their opposition to the bill, urging Gov. Spencer Cox (R) to veto it.
H.B. 257 will return to the House for approval before reaching Cox’s desk. But as KSL.com noted, both critics and supporters expect the bill to face legal challenges.
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