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Transvaginal Ultrasounds ARE ALREADY HAPPENING

keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:

I keep wanting to scream, “TRANSVAGINAL ULTRASOUNDS ARE ALREADY HAPPENING RIGHT NOW TODAY IN TEXAS!!!!”

Texas has THREE times as many people as Virginia AND they already have mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds before abortions (I also have no hard data but I’m going to guess that Texas probably also has a much larger poor population and a higher percentage of minorities, both groups which have so many barriers to accessing abortion as it is).

I’m glad people are mad about Virginia. I’m glad Amy Poehler is talking about it on SNL. I’m glad that people whom I’ve never seen speak up about this issue are now because of what is POSSIBLY going to happen in Virginia. I’m pleased with these developments.

But please, let’s STOP talking about mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds like they MAY happen. THEY ARE HAPPENING.

(Source: keepyourbsoutofmyuterus, via brashblacknonbeliever)

The GOP crusade against Planned Parenthood is devastating basic care for Texas women

Carole Belver, executive director of Community Action Inc. of Central Texas, spent Tues­day, Jan. 24, closing up the CAI women’s health clinic in Elgin. As she packed up supplies and prepared files to be moved to Lockhart, the closest of the group’s two remaining clinics, “the phone was ringing off the wall,” she says. Three staff members have been terminated, and hundreds of clients have been left wondering where they’ll go to receive basic reproductive and preventative health care.

Belver doesn’t know what to tell them. CAI, which until recently operated 13 clinics in medium- and small-sized communities in Central Texas, now has just two, in Lockhart and San Marcos. “It’s horrible; it’s just devastating,” she says. “And there’s really no place for these clients to go.”

read more

CVS Refuses To Sell Texas Man Emergency Contraception For His Wife, Suggests He’s A Rapist

By Marie Diamond | Think Progress

A Texas man has enlisted the ACLU to help him sue CVS for gender discrimination after a pharmacist refused to sell him emergency contraception.

Jason Melbourne had already visited four pharmacies in search of Plan B for his wife when he was referred to a CVS in Mesquite, Texas, some 15 miles away from his home. They had one box left:

But when he finally got there, the overnight pharmacist, Minni Matthew, told Melbourne she wasn’t going to sell it to him.

In order for him to buy the meds, the pharmacist said, she’d need to talk to and see the ID of his wife, who was at home with their two young children. He asked why, and she pointed to the fine print on the medication’s box, which says it can only be sold to someone age 17 or older. Melbourne pointed out that he was well over 17.

“I’ve bought this plenty of times in my life, and it’s never been a problem,” he said. “Are you telling me every other place I’ve bought it from has been wrong?”

Didn’t matter, Matthew said, since the medicine obviously wasn’t for him.

“Why don’t you show me the law that says you can’t sell this to a man?” Melbourne replied.

The situation got worse from there. Melbourne put his wife on the phone and even Googled the medication to show the pharmacist there was no law against selling it to a man. But “she didn’t want to see it,” he said.

That’s when a male pharmacy technician informed Melbourne that they didn’t want to sell emergency contraception to men because they might be giving it to “rape victims.”

[FULL STORY]

1/3 of Texans Believe Humans and Dinosaurs Co-Existed

nonplussedbyreligion:

If God existed, I’d wish he would help his ignorant followers in Texas:

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”

Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs? Three in ten Texas voters agree with that statement; 41 percent disagree, and 30 percent don’t know.

Also here’s some evidence that Texas Democrats are smarter than Republicans:

Democrats (28 percent) are less likely than Republicans (47 percent) to think that humans have always existed in their present form and more likely (21 percent to 7 percent) to think humans have developed over millions of years without God’s guidance. Republicans are less likely to believe that humans developed from earlier species of animals; 26 percent agree, while 60 percent disagree. Among Democrats in the survey, 46 percent agree that humans evolved from earlier species; 42 percent disagree. Perry’s voters were most hostile to this premise — 67 percent disagree.

Looks like there’s a good part of Texas that needs to be told about the last couple centuries of scientific enlightenment.

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Oh my stars, you can’t make this stuff up.  I have friends and followers from TX who I’m proud to say are not amongst the ignorant.  Unfortunately they have to live, work, and vote with them.  {{hugs}}  All emphasis mine.  ~ Kim

(Source: patheos.com, via nonplussedbyreligion-deactivate)

Scientists confront Perry administration over censorship in Texas

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality decided to edit parts of a scientific paper that refereed to rising sea levels due to global warming as well as sedimentation problems caused by dams and other human activities.

Entire paragraphs and sentences were removed as well as references to other peer-reviewed studies at the end of the paper, their rational: the report contained “information… that we disagree with.” as well as, the entire chapter was beyond the scope of the report and “inconsistent with current Agency policy.”

In other words, they don’t believe in global warming.

[FULL STORY AND SOURCES]

Rick Perry Cut Funds For Women’s Health In Texas

A ‘War On Birth Control’

These cuts are less about saving money and more about abortion and contraception. Evangelicals and Tea Party supporters are ascendant in Texas and Gov. Perry is their champion. These cuts are evidence of their political power as well.

The goal is to get government money out of the abortion process and if contraceptive services have to suffer a bit of collateral damage in the process, so be it. When The Texas Tribune asked state Rep. Wayne Christian (R-Nacogdoches), a supporter of the family planning cuts, if this was a war on birth control, he said “yes.”

“Well of course this is a war on birth control and abortions and everything, that’s what family planning is supposed to be about,” Christian said.

Family planning clinics are routinely referred to by many Texas Republican legislators as “abortion clinics” even though none of the 71 family planning clinics in the state that receive government funding provide abortions. Texas and federal law prohibits that, but most women’s health clinics will refer women or teens who want an abortion to a provider.

“They’re sitting here, referring women out to receive abortions,” Christian said in an interview with NPR. “Those are the clinics, including Planned Parenthood, we were targeting.”

[FULL STORY]

Yeah, so basically, fuck everyone because we think we have the right to tell you what to do with your body.

In Texas, Not Even Death Brings Atheists Respite From Evangelical Christians

manicchill:

Three members of the 82nd Texas Legislator, and several Christian military organizations, are currently doing what they can to force Christian ideology, prayers, and rhetoric where it’s truly not wanted. And they’re trying to do so on the hardest day of some peoples’ lives.

Alternet reports:

Three organizations — Veterans of Foreign Wars District 4, the American Legion Post 586, and the National Memorial Ladies — have filed a lawsuit against VA officials at the Houston National Cemetery for banning references to God in a recent service. 

“It makes my skin crawl that liberals are attempting to drive prayer out of a funeral ceremony for our heroes,” Texas Rep. John Culberson told Fox News, which has given significant airtime to the controversy. “We’re going to fix this so that no Obama liberal bureaucrat will interfere with the funeral of a hero.” 

Representatives Ted Poe and Michael McCaul have joined Rep. Culberson’s movement as well. In addition to supporting the lawsuit filed against the VA officials, the three members of the 82nd legislature are threatening to block the salary of the cemetery director who enforced the “no-consent-no-God” rule. They’ve also scheduled hearings in the fall to investigate the “anti-Christian stances” of the VA.

Thankfully, the American Atheists are doing what they can to help families on what is already, likely to be, one of the hardest days of their lives. American Atheists’ military director, current member of the military Justin Griffith, spoke out against what he perceives as an attack on the victim/family’s rights. In a post titled “Texas Congressmen to force Christian prayer over my dead body,” he said:

McCaul, Culberson and Poe are lying about it all.

They are ‘standing up for’ a few private groups who like to officially incorporate their Christian prayer and ceremonies at the funerals of military veterans. The problem is, well… there is no problem! They just need to be absolutely sure that their religious statements are actually welcome.

Basically, these groups just need to have it in writing that the families are Christians and/or willing participants. Then they can actually be a part of the official ceremony, with the cased flag, 21 gun salute, taps, etc. As tough as it might sound for them to get a grieving family to sign a prepared statement, it’s all for the sake of upholding the U.S. Constitution that all members of the military served to protect.

The Department of Veterans Affairs is speaking out too and, although they can’t discuss many details of the impending lawsuit, they’ve made clear they stand behind the cemetery director at the heart of this “controversy”. 

“The idea that invoking the name of God or Jesus is banned at VA national cemeteries is blatantly false. The truth is VA’s policy protects veterans’ families’ rights to pray however they choose at our national cemeteries. Put simply, VA policy puts the wishes of the veteran’s family above all else on the day it matters most — the day they pay their final respects to their loved one.”

What the literal fuck. THIS is forcing beliefs down people’s throats.

(via manicchill)

A Final Victory for Science

[SOURCE]

That sound you hear is the collective heads of the anti-science lobby exploding. That other sound you hear is their two-year effort to undermine science education in Texas going down the drain.

As we told you late last month, the State Board of Education approved instructional materials in science that could be used in Texas public schools for the better part of the next decade. In all, the board approved materials from nine publishers. But in the case of one of those publishers, Holt McDougal, it did so on the condition that it make changes of so-called “errors” that were based on the objections of a well-known creationist who reviewed the materials.

Holt, of course, tried to hold the line in support of sound science and argued against tainting its product with creationist arguments attacking evolutionary science, and so did TFN, the National Center for Science Education and other mainstream scientists. As a compromise, the board agreed to let Holt work with Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott on any needed changes.

Well, those changes are now in (click here to download a PDF) and so are the reviews. TFN, NCSE and other scientists have reviewed the changes and have found them to be in line with established, fact-based science.

Here’s the head-exploding part for the creationists. Not only does the final version of Holt not include creationist arguments against evolution, but they also include language explicitly affirming Darwin’s theories.

With Holt’s materials finalized, we can now say with certainty that all of the materials approved from the nine publishers are in line with fact-based science and free of creationist attacks seeking to undermine science.

We wonder how the anti-science forces will try to spin this one.

Here’s what TFN President Kathy Miller had to say with respect to Holt’s final product:

The release of Holt McDougal’s finalized materials puts an end to a campaign to undermine science education in Texas that began with the board’s adoption of flawed science curriculum standards two years ago. There is now no doubt that this is an unequivocal victory for sound science. But more importantly, it is a victory for Texas school children who are now assured that their science instruction will be free of political agendas and will instead be solely focused on fact-based science that will prepare them for college and a 21st-century economy.

Not sure if this is a “final” victory for science, but it certainly is a victory!