I touched off a bit of intra-diary controversy not so long ago when I posted, in response to nyceve's diary about Health Insurers requiring women to get tubaligations after a C-Section delivery, that I didn't really have a problem with the idea of sterilization after someone had had a child (probably didn't say it in quite the right tone). Of course HR's abounded, outrage was had, rejections and denouncements flew.

I later went back and posted a clarification which included this personal tidbit:

I asked about getting a vasectomy at 23 and was told by a Doctor he couldn't do it because I was single and young. Even though I don't want kids, and have no desire to breed copies of myself, and won't date women that want kids I still couldn't get it done. Just in case I might suddenly get hit on the head with a blunt instrument and turn into a Middle Class Bourgeois douchebag.

So, as a white, urban, educated male, I at least practice what I preach. Or tried to without much success.

This diary has nothing to do with any of the following directly:

1. the election

2. Any candidate

3. Anything remotely political.

What this does have to do with is a total unforeseen life change.. in a very very good way.

I first read about this story today on Feministing, and it was so vile and outrageous that I thought the DKos Community should be aware of it.

Sources:
The Colorado Springs Gazette Article, "State lawmaker's comment about unwed parents deemed offensive"

Rocky Mountain News Article, "Lawmaker sorry about 'sluts'"

Denver schools are considering granting a minimum of 4 weeks f maternity leave to teenage girls  who give birth, as some other schools systems in the nations do. Without a note from her doctor  justifying her absence, she is expected to return to school the day after she is released from the hospital or face being charged with  an unauthorized absence. I saw the CNN segment on this topic a couple of weeks ago. I hoped someone else would cover it, but apparently no one did. I think it’s important enough that it deserves to be disused here, even a few weeks later.

"My initial reaction is if we are punishing girls like that, that is unacceptable," said Nicole Head, one of the counselors who brought the matter to the school board last month. "We've got to do something."
http://www.denverpost.com/...

I saw this news story yesterday, and I'm still not quite sure what to make of it. On one hand, I'm happy for the parents who have a chance to have a child, but it seems like we've reached a point that has a dark and ugly side to it.

Good Evening Kossacks. I just wanted to share the happy news of expecting our first child sometime in August! Having a community like DailyKos is very reassuring because I know you are all fighting for American Families. One practical thing I'm concerned about is how to afford childcare. We live in the SF Bay Area, where everything costs an arm and a leg. My husband might end up being a stay-at-home dad, while I remain the primary breadwinner. I'm open ears about what to expect, and any advice you can give is much appreciated. Thank you DailyKos. Keep Fighting.

Is Juno relevent politically and culturally? Hells yes.  How many good movies are unabashedly about working class people lately? And I like movies that love their characters and respect their audiences.

Someone slipped a little known provision into the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 that forbids pharmaceutical companies from selling prescription contraceptives to college and community clinics at steep discounts, causing prices to double or triple for people at the lower income ends.

"What happened here is what happened everywhere: The price went up," said Jeanne Galatzer-Levy of the University of Illinois at Chicago. "We are a state institution, so we’re not in a position to do something different."

At the University of Montana, the price of a NuvaRing, another birth control method, rose to $36 from $18, said Allyson Hagen, the state director of Naral Pro-Choice America. "This is a state school where people are on Pell grants and don’t have huge amounts of spending money," Ms. Hagen said. "For them this is like a choice — groceries or birth control."

The paper I want to present at the 2007 Red River Women’s Conference will have a radical feminist approach and/or view on Single Parenting, as well as touch on ageism. Ageism will touch on taking charge of reproductive rights (and radically defending them!) at any age, being a former teen parent and dealing with "what age is right for becoming/being a mom?" (Is there REALLY one?) There are many taboos in our own modern society about being a feminist, a mother – especially a single mother, as well as dealing with others in society who look down at teen parenting, especially mothers. This is a topic rarely brought up in a positive way and I think a conference like this would really be something that could benefit from it.

I will begin by assuming that most people have read the excellent and horrific diary by eugene. If not, you definitely should This seems like an excellent time to discuss the wider implications of miscarriage for the millions of women who have had to suffer one or more, and usually in silence.

You see, miscarriage is something of a taboo topic in this country. We have scripts for break ups, divorce, loss of job, and the death of a family member. Yet grieving mothers who have lost a pregnancy are largely expected to remain silent. People don't now how to deal with miscarriage, and because of this and our increasingly anti-choice culture, it's quickly snowballing into a political issue of astounding significance.

Going Up!  Maternal and Neonatal Morbidity?  Going Up!  
Access to Safe, Legal Abortion Care?  Going Down!

And of course, we all know that pregnancy is the end result of SEX!

And for much of the Religious Right, any slut who doesn't want to have a baby has no business having SEX, and an rise in Maternal Morbidity (M&M) and Mortality is exactly what she deserves!  And, you might ask, "what about Birth Control (BC)?"  Well, don't ask!  If she's screwing around and doesn't want a baby, she deserves to get sick and die!

For the Religious Right and TGDSOBGWB, abstinence is the answer.  Just say NO!

Another public health indicator just got worse. The rate at which women die from childbirth has hovered between 8-10/100,000 for over a decade. However, since 2000, maternal mortality rates have begun to rise. The latest year for which there are statistics, 2004 there were 13 deaths for every 100,000 births. If you break these down by racial and ethnic groups, that is 8/100,000 for Anglos, 11.7/100,000 for Hispanics and 38/100,000 for African-Americans, according to an article from the Associated Press.

http://www.star-telegram.com/...

Why has a woman's risk of dying from childbirth gone up, according to the experts quoted by AP? Because women are fatter and therefore they are getting more C-Sections. And Ob-Gyns are doing way too many C-sections. And Black women do not bother to get prenatal care. And did I mention that too many C-sections are being done? (Never mind that C-Sections are often done on women with pre-eclampsia, abruption, sepsis and other medical complications that are the actual cause of death from childbirth)

I am not one to use profanity in my diary titles, but after reading Miss Laura's front page diary about the anti-contraception agenda of the so-called "pro-life" crowd, I can't help myself.

On one hand, I can understand their anti-abortion stance.  I personally think abortion is the taking of a human life.  THAT BEING SAID, I am a staunch supporter of Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose if for nothing more than the simple fact that government has ABSOLUTELY NO RIGHT in interfere with ANY medcial decision made between a woman and her doctor.  Whether it's abortion, cancer treatment or withholding or terminating treatment (oh, you know what I'm referring to), government needs to STFO (stay the fuck out)!

Furthermore, I am additionally a staunch supporter of contraception.  The best way to prevent abortions is to prevent pregnancies.  I am one of the 89% who uses contraception because if I didn't, another pregnancy for me has the potential to kill me.

Join me after the fold and I'll explain.

So goes the electronic rumor mill: Jenna Bush is pregnant out of wedlock.

Now is a time, my fellow liberals, for great pettiness and terrible vindictiveness.  I believe that we, as a community, squandered the Mary Cheney lesbian pregnancy when it fell into our collective laps like mana from heaven those months ago.  The poster child, literally, for the hypocrisy of our nation's conservative elite, and we treated it with less regard than we gave to a zombie kid who likes turtles.

Not that the Left ignored the story, of course, but we let it fizzle relatively quickly when it should have blazed, blazed, BLAZED with non-stop, around the clock, soul-crushing voyeurism for every single month that the child gestated.

Then, the mad paparazzi rush for the first picture of the little spawn would have sent the lesbian neo-con fleeing the hospital tearstained on the verge of a post-postpartum induced nervous breakdown.

Many American mothers and fathers will wake up today to find their daughter is pregnant and she doesn't want to be.  Parents will begin the search for abortion care for their daughter.  Depending where you live in America you may or may not be able to find the care you seek.  Your daughter may be early or she may be late in her pregnancy.  Teens delay telling parents, are in denial about the pregnancy themselves and hide their tummies very well.  If you daughter starts wearing large bulky sweatshirts beware.

Cristina Page has a winning strategy for pro-choice Democrats this campaign season -- tell the truth. Pro-choice policies alone result in dramatic declines in the need for abortion.

There appears to be a huge study about the risks of antidepressants on newborns.  

From msnbc website perspective the title is "Antidepressants pose low risk to fetuses" (Studies unable to tie defects to meds taken in first 3 months of pregnancy)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

However, when I went searching for more information I found a news item from the San Diego Union Tribune with a different angle, "Antidepressants pose risks for newborns."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/...

A new study today but slightly different takes.

Yes folks, it's true.  In his second repeated action today, he is shouting from the roof tops of the Capitol, "Ladies, I want you to forget about men".

See, we've been suffering from Bushitis, too.  We've been experiencing "mexed missages".  When he took pen in hand and vetoed that Stem Cell Bill for a second time, he really was trying to tell us that women of the United States didn't need men to be experiencing all the wonders of their body.  No indeed!  We can have pleasures with out men and we too can get pregnant with out men!