I guess I know where I stand... the Let Women Die Act

Congress actually made me cry last night, and I'm sure that they are crowing in unholy glee at that fact.

I am 45 years old. I live in California. I have voted in every local, state, and federal election since I was 18, with the exception of the years that I was in Colorado for college. In all those years, I have gotten angry, I have applauded, I have been saddened by Congressional action. Never before has a Congressional bill actually made me cry. Except last night, I cried on my husband's shoulder. Honestly, I did.

I am peri-menopausal (yes, I can even admit that!), and my husband has had a vasectomy. We have two teenaged sons. I've had my children and am not looking to have more. Being pregnant at this stage of my life would not only be undesirable, but would put me in a very high risk group. But the only way that I am likely to get pregnant is - god-forbid - a rape.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 358, the "Protect Life Act", which is total bullshit because it doesn't protect anything. It's been dubbed the "Let Women Die" Act, because it allows any entity to refuse to perform an abortion on any woman, including one necessary to save the life of the mother. To put it bluntly, a hospital, physician, or other licensed medical professional person or service can watch a woman die on the floor rather than perform an abortion to save her life.

Of course the irony here is that if the mother dies, so does the unborn fetus they are trying so hard to protect. Also, this does nothing to protect life. The 'pro-life' party once again shows that it is the anti-choice party; not in the slightest bit pro-life. Someone please explain to me how intentionally letting a woman die on your emergency room gurney is pro-life. You'd better try really hard, because I don't think you can possibly justify that.

Unless, you're Rick Santorum. We should make an exception for Rick Santorum's wife. Because she, above all others, is needed as a mother for her other children who might have been left behind. Not another woman in this country would have that same situation. She's special.

I feel terrible for her, honestly I do. She had a much wanted (I assume) pregnancy, and a problem with the fetus left her with a life-threatening infection. In her 20th week of pregnancy, labor was artificially induced in order to expel the fetus and save her life.

I approve. It was their choice to do this. They were given the options, and made their decision. As it should be.

Now, other women will no longer have that choice, and with Rick Santorum's full blessing. According to him, doctors who perform life-saving abortion procedures should be criminally charged, and the rape victim would just undergo another "trauma" should she choose to abort a pregnancy resulting from said rape (poor thing, we should make her decision for her, she's so traumatized). According to him, we need to preserve the sanctity and dignity of every human life. Except any woman who is not his wife.

From Keith Olbermann's Facebook
fan page. Original source unknown.

Once again, the party of jobs, jobs, jobs has shown that we can set aside the jobs agenda to stick the long arm of the government that should be getting out of our personal lives up inside my uterus. They have shown once again that, in their esteemed opinions, women are the lowest life form on the planet.

H.R. 358 was co-sponsored by 9 women, one of them a presidential candidate (and it kills me to call her that). 16 women voted AYE. 5 women did not vote, including Michele Bachmann (a co-sponsor) and Gabrielle Giffords, who IMO, is the only one with a possible excuse not to be there. 15 Democrats (all men) voted AYE.  The vote in the House was 251-172.

This bill will likely not affect me personally, and by that I mean my personal body, but I have a sister and 2 sisters-in-law. I have 3 nieces. I have many female cousins who are of childbearing age and who are not yet of childbearing age. I will someday have 2 daughters-in-law. I have 2 nephews who will eventually marry women who will have children. I have a multitude of female friends, many of whom have daughters, and if they don't, they have nieces, sisters, mothers, or daughters-in-law or future daughters-in-law. As I'm sure all those members of the House who voted yesterday do.

I'm not an intentionally cruel person, and I truly don't wish this horrid event on anyone. But all I can say is that if somehow this bill gets past the Senate and the White House, after I move to another country, I hope that the funeral I'm attending for the woman who died while medical staff sat and did nothing is not for one of my loved ones, but a loved one of someone who voted Aye.