Some links to think about. I mean really take some time thinking about the implications

[ismnotwasm]

Rebubs impose the first "Uterus Tax. Most eligible voters in Michigan are responsible

Yes, you read that correctly. In Michigan, women who are raped may not have an abortion if their rapist impregnates them. UNLESS they purchased what is being called “rape insurance” ahead of time. Result: women need to plan for being raped, and pay out of pocket in case they are someday raped. Your humble correspondent feels that “rape Insurance” is the wrong term. Really, it’s a tax on people who can become pregnant.

It is a tax on fertile women, levied upon their functioning uteri. A “Uterus Tax”.This is a 100% “republican” idea, pushed only by repubs, voted for only by repubs. Repubs have successfully imposed it upon women in Michigan, and plan to spread it across the nation.

America, you just voted to give the party behind such obscene ideas even more power than they already had. You voted for it, and you are getting what you deserve. Almost all eligible voters are to blame for such travesties as these.

Perhaps you didn’t vote? By not voting against the GOPee, you helped Repubs to win.

Perhaps you voted third-party? See above.
http://bluntandcranky.wordpress.com/2014/11/07/repubs-impose-the-nations-first-uterus-tax-almost-all-eligible-michigan-voters-are-responsible/

100 serial rapists identified after rape kits from Detroit Crime Lab are finally processed

DETROIT (WXYZ) - "I was in shock. I was outraged and I just assumed kits were being tested," said actress Mariska Hargitay about the thousands of rape kits in Detroit and across the country that have been left sitting in storage without being processed, allowing rapists to remain free to attack again. And they often do.

Hargitay joined Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to announce legislation that will soon be introduced to state lawmakers that is aimed at setting guidelines and deadlines for rape kits tests to be processed.

"Testing rape kits is vital for keeping rapists off the street," said Hargitay during Monday's press conference.

Over 11,000 sexual assault kits, some dating back to the 1980's, were found abandoned in a Detroit Police storage facility back in 2009.

Not long after the rape kits were discovered, Worthy pushed to start the processing with Michigan State Police.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/100-serial-rapists-identified-after-rape-kits-from-detroit-crime-lab-are-finally-processed

Where Rape Victims Are Forced to Pay for Their Own Forensic Exams
Why should sexual-assault victims have to pay the state to investigate the crimes against them?

It sounds almost too unbelievable to be true, doesn't it? We don't ask home-invasion victims to cover the cost of dusting for fingerprints or the families of homicide victims to subsidize blood spatter analysis. But rape victims are being billed for the cost of collecting forensic evidence in the crimes against them.

This runs contrary to federal law, which says states or municipalities must fund investigating rape allegations as they would any other crime. When the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was reauthorized in 2005, it stipulated that all states must either provide a free forensic medical exam directly or provide reimbursement for such an exam, regardless of whether a victim ultimately decides to press charges or cooperate with law enforcement. The 2013 reauthorization (which takes effect in 2015) specifies that victims can't be charged up front for the exam (also known as a "rape kit&quot and asked to seek reimbursement from insurance later.

But they say the devil is in the details, and the VAWA doesn't provide many, leaving it up to states and municipalities to work out who covers what. Thirty-four states pay for forensic exams using money from their general victim compensation funds, according to a May report from Urban Institute. (These funds are generally built from fines and penalties paid by convicted offenders, not tax dollars.) Eleven states leave it to local law enforcement or prosecution funds; some use a combination of special funds and money from state public safety or health and human services departments; and three, including Louisiana, leave it to the county or parish to cover the cost.

In Louisiana, local coroners are supposed to provide the free forensic exams. "But in many cases, such as in New Orleans, cash-strapped coroners outsource that responsibility to another entity" such as local hospitals, The Times-Picayune reported in September. And these hospitals vary greatly in how and whom they bill. Some eat the whole cost themselves, or did until recently. Some cover testing for forensic evidence but bill victims for things like pregnancy and HIV tests. Some send patients the full tab, some bill insurance companies, and some bill the state. Some require anyone seeing a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner—the only hospital staff qualified to collect forensic evidence from rape victims—to be admitted through the emergency room, which adds hundreds of dollars to the total tab.http://reason.com/archives/2014/10/09/rape-victims-charged-for-forensic-tests

[CrispyQ]

1. I had not heard about the uterus tax.

All of these are revolting.

[ismnotwasm]

3. They certainly are

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. DU Rec.

[seabeyond]

4. lets not forget, small handful of old white men sitting in a room discussing how to shame, humiliate

degrade and cause pain to our girls.

see it for what it is.

a large plastic thing, shoved up the vagina for no other reason than to shame and degrade and cause pain to a girl, because she chose a legal medical procedure.

every person that vote repug, voted to shame, humiliate, degrade, and cause pain, for no reason but your entertainment.

[ismnotwasm]

7. Exactly

This exactly

[freshwest]

16. Humiliating the lessers is their hobby, a luxury that costs them nothing to enjoy it.

Blood sports is what they are playing here. They don't make it illegal for the rich to have control of their reproductive lives:

Rick Santorum’s Anti-Abortion Politics Would Have Killed His Own Wife

Let's get down to brass tacks: Presidential candidate Rick Santorum, Personhood Pledge-signing, Griswold vs. Connecticut-opposing, Mr. Ban Abortion in All Circumstances With No Exception for the Life of the Mother, believes that the actions of his own wife should be treated as criminal. Why? Because, back in 1996, his wife had a procedure that resulted in the deliberate death of her fetus, even though it was a matter of saving her own life.
Karen Santorum's difficult pregnancy and resultant life-saving, induced early delivery is no secret; in a 2004 interview with NPR's Terry Gross, her husband characterized the 1996 procedure as a harrowing but necessary. Karen, in her 19th week of pregnancy, received a risky surgery to save a pregnancy that doctors thought had little chance of survival. After the surgery, she came down with an infection, and doctors told Rick that unless the source of the infection — the fetus — was removed, his wife would die and his already-born children would be motherless. The doctor also told Santorum that his wife's fetus would not survive outside of the womb. According to Santorum, Karen went into labor as a result of the antibiotics, and then doctors gave her a drug that further induced labor. She delivered, and unfortunately the doctors were right...

As Rick Santorum gains ground in the polls and commentators increasingly speak of him as if he's not a dangerous, raving zealot, please do remember that Karen Santorum's lifesaving medical intervention is different than the abortions that Santorum wishes to outlaw only in that the woman getting the lifesaving medical intervention was Karen Santorum. His policies would prevent other women from receiving the care they needed, and leave scores of non-Santorum children motherless. If that's not hypocrisy, then I don't know what is.

Update: There's debate regarding the specifics of Karen Santorum's procedure; some professionals, none of whom actually treated her, say that her labor was not induced, but spontaneous. Whether or not this is the case, the point remains the same: Rick Santorum's stance on abortion would have killed his wife. Had she not gone into spontaneous labor, she would need an abortion (or induced labor of a nonviable fetus) to save her life — and Santorum's politics wouldn't have let that happen.

http://jezebel.com/5873158/rick-santorums-anti%20abortion-stance-would-have-killed-his-own-wife

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002305425

[dhill926]

5. despicable….

[shenmue]

6. Jesus, Mary and Joseph

[blue neen]

8. OMG.

This is horrifying.

Bookmarking to show to anyone who continues to suggest that both parties are the same.

[ismnotwasm]

9. +1000

[niyad]

11. k and r and bookmarking--if I read this now, I would be throwing things (or people)

[seabeyond]

12. how are you doing?

and ya. this one, throwing things. and people. lol.

[niyad]

14. doing okay, thanks. and you?

[seabeyond]

15. kinda restless right now. lol. restlessly sitting with restless to try to figure out

what is causing the restlessness. lol. i am not often, or rarely am i restless.

[gollygee]

13. Yes

I live in Michigan and have been following #1. I am so angry about it.