extantecstasy:

Because the media reacts like this when we’re less than perfect. Because our emotional range gets stunted and limited.

Because so many aspects of our culture normalize rape on a subconscious level.

Because Kansas and Arizona pass bills that allows the beliefs of a doctor or pharmacist to trump the health of a woman. And because fetuses are becoming increasingly more important than the woman carrying them.

Because a state representative can compare a woman giving birth to livestock.

Because legislature that criminalizes pregnancy and abortion are being forced into discussion again and again. 

Because the rest of the world wants to know why American women aren’t angrier.

Because of bills that limit the time frame of my choices.

Because for some reason, religion is a legitimate reason to interfere in my uterus.

Because the Protect Life Act even exists.

Because women who miscarry or lose their babies are being charged with murder.

Because a woman who tried to commit suicide while pregnant was jailed and charged with feticide.

Because mandatory trans-vaginal ultrasound probes are legally defined as rape.

Because ectogenesis technology could further remove birthing rights from a mother.

Because programs like this even have to exist.

Because birth control is suddenly a religious issue. Because women can be fired for using birth control as a contraceptive. Because the benefits of no-cost or inexpensive birth control are overlooked. Because ignorance necessitates posts like this.

Because again and again, organizations like the Medicaid Woman’s Health Program are seen as unnecessary. Because even the Susan G. Komen Foundation tried to stop funding Planned Parenthood. And if you think we’re past that, think again.

Because America ranks among a very small number of countries that don’t have paid, mandatory pregnancy leave. In fact, women routinely get forced out of their jobs for being pregnant.

Because public discourse from men like Rush Limbaugh is insulting and misogynistic and goes mostly unpunished.

Because the U.S. Military has some of the highest rape rates and most reprehensible policies for dealing with them.

Because women are bitches for saying no and sluts for saying yes. Because we are valued by how many or few cocks have been in our vaginas.

Because this is normal.

Because I don’t know a single woman who has not been harassed, derided, assaulted. Because I know many women and girls who have been raped. Because I’ve seen the long term, life long repercussions of sexual abuse.

Don’t tell me there isn’t a war on women. And don’t tell me the economy is more important than this. This barely scratches the surface.

Repeat after Soraya Chemaly: I am a woman and I have these human rights. The right to life. The right to privacy. The right to freedom. The right to bodily integrity. The right to decide when and how I reproduce.

gardensgrey:

You won’t see Hillary Clinton in the same light ever again. Read Meryl Streep’s introduction of Hillary Clinton during the recent 2012 Women in the World conference:

Two years ago when Tina Brown and Diane von Furstenberg first envisioned this conference, they asked me to do a play, a reading, called – the name of the play was called Seven. It was taken from transcripts, real testimony from real women activists around the world. I was the Irish one, and I had no idea that the real women would be sitting in the audience while we portrayed them. So I was doing a pretty ghastly Belfast accent. I was just – I was imitating my friend Liam Neeson, really, and I sounded like a fellow. (Laughter). It was really bad.

So I was so mortified when Tina, at the end of the play, invited the real women to come up on stage and I found myself standing next to the great Inez McCormack. (Applause.) And I felt slight next to her, because I’m an actress and she is the real deal. She has put her life on the line. Six of those seven women were with us in the theater that night. The seventh, Mukhtaran Bibi, couldn’t come because she couldn’t get out of Pakistan. You probably remember who she is. She’s the young woman who went to court because she was gang-raped by men in her village as punishment for a perceived slight to their honor by her little brother. All but one of the 14 men accused were acquitted, but Mukhtaran won the small settlement. She won $8,200, which she then used to start schools in her village. More money poured in from international donations when the men were set free. And as a result of her trial, the then president of Pakistan, General Musharraf, went on TV and said, “If you want to be a millionaire, just get yourself raped.”

But that night in the theater two years ago, the other six brave women came up on the stage. Anabella De Leon of Guatemala pointed to Hillary Clinton, who was sitting right in the front row, and said, “I met her and my life changed.” And all weekend long, women from all over the world said the same thing:

“I’m alive because she came to my village, put her arm around me, and had a photograph taken together.”

“I’m alive because she went on our local TV and talked about my work, and now they’re afraid to kill me.”

“I’m alive because she came to my country and she talked to our leaders, because I heard her speak, because I read about her.”

“I’m here today because of that, because of those stores.”

I didn’t know about this. I never knew any of it. And I think everybody should know. This hidden history Hillary has, the story of her parallel agenda, the shadow diplomacy unheralded, uncelebrated — careful, constant work on behalf of women and girls that she has always conducted alongside everything else a First Lady, a Senator, and now Secretary of State is obliged to do.

And it deserves to be amplified. This willingness to take it, to lead a revolution – and revelation, beginning in Beijing in 1995, when she first raised her voice to say the words you’ve heard many times throughout this conference: “Women’s Rights Are Human Rights.”

When Hillary Clinton stood up in Beijing to speak that truth, her hosts were not the only ones who didn’t necessarily want to hear it. Some of her husband’s advisors also were nervous about the speech, fearful of upsetting relations with China. But she faced down the opposition at home and abroad, and her words continue to hearten women around the world and have reverberated down the decades.

…

She’s just been busy working, doing it, making those words “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” into something every leader in every country now knows is a linchpin of American policy. It’s just so much more than a rhetorical triumph. We’re talking about what happened in the real world, the institutional change that was a result of that stand she took.

…

Now we know that the higher the education and the involvement of women in a culture and economy, the more secure the nation. It’s a metric we use throughout our foreign policy, and in fact, it’s at the core of our development policy. It is a big, important shift in thinking. Horrifying practices like female genital cutting were not at the top of the agenda because they were part of the culture and we didn’t want to be accused of imposing our own cultural values.

But what Hillary Clinton has said over and over again is, “A crime is a crime, and criminal behavior cannot be tolerated.” Everywhere she goes, she meets with the head of state and she meets with the women leaders of grassroots organizations in each country. This goes automatically on her schedule. As you’ve seen, when she went to Burma – our first government trip there in 40 years. She met with its dictator and then she met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the woman he kept under detention for 15 years, the leader of Burma’s pro-democracy movement.

This isn’t just symbolism. It’s how you change the world. These are the words of Dr. Gao Yaojie of China: “I will never forget our first meeting. She said I reminded her of her mother. And she noticed my small bound feet. I didn’t need to explain too much, and she understood completely. I could tell how much she wanted to understand what I, an 80-something year old lady, went through in China – the Cultural Revolution, uncovering the largest tainted blood scandal in China, house arrest, forced family separation. I talked about it like nothing and I joked about it, but she understood me as a person, a mother, a doctor. She knew what I really went through.”

When Vera Stremkovskaya, a lawyer and human rights activist from Belarus met Hillary Clinton a few years ago, they took a photograph together. And she said to one of the Secretary’s colleagues, “I want that picture.” And the colleague said, “I will get you that picture as soon as possible.” And Stremkovskaya said, “I need that picture.” And the colleague said, “I promise you.” And Stremkovskaya said, “You don’t understand. That picture will be my bullet-proof vest.”

Never give up. Never, never, never, never, never give up. That is what Hillary Clinton embodies.

I love Hillary Clinton so much, and I’m still holding out hope that we’ll some day see her in the White House as the leader of the nation. She’s absolutely amazing.

oliviawaite:

Scene: a bar.

Tucker Max: Hey, baby, let me buy you a drink.

Planned Parenthood: No, thanks.

Tucker Max: What kind of bitch refuses a free drink, huh? You’re in a bar, you obviously want to be drinking, I offered you a drink — yet you refused! What kind of hypocrite comes to a bar just to refuse drinks?

Exit, pursued by a bear.

lifeofatokophobic:

poorbutrich:

feminist-slut | aquintessentialgirl

A message to Planned Parenthood women’s rights supporters from President Obama.

Watch the whole video here.

I love our president. Seriously, he is the best. 

“Lets be clear here. Women are not a special interest group. They are mothers. And daughters. And sisters. And wives.”

Thank you, Obama.

boppinrobin:

purns:

Maryland.

FUCK YEAH, MY STATE

GOLD FUCKING STAR.

alexandraerin:

justjasper:

keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:

@monicaisliberal:

Here is senator Wendy Davis’ front door!

Again, no one was hurt.

Context for what you see here.

“Pro-Life”.

Don’t be silly; everyone knows that for women, life ends when they’re born. Obviously.

This is fucking appalling.