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Links in this episode:
Reacting to Bob McDonnell's thesis
FDA permits vaccinating boys for HPV
Anti-choice extremists try to raise money
On this episode of Reality Cast, I'll be interviewing Naomi Cahn on her book on fertility treatments and the legal issues surrounding them. Also, I watched the Law and Order exploiting Dr. Tiller's murder so you don't have to, and the FDA approves use of the HPV vaccination for boys.
Virginia's NARAL decided to take candidate for governor Bob McDonnell's thesis to the streets and have people read what amounted to a rant against anything threatening a strict patriarchy to see what the people think. The people think it is silly.
- mcdonnell *
Funny stuff.
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I'm sure you've heard by now that "Law & Order" did a despicable episode based on the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and as is often the case with these shows, they pander so much to conservatives in the audience that they forget that women who have abortions and those who provide them are people who deserve respect. Early in the episode, you have an idea of how bad this is going to be.
- l&o 1 *
Right away, they make sure to spare your average anti-choice nut responsibility for this, and even wrongly imply that they go out of their way to stop these murders. There is no reason to believe this. Those who shoot abortion providers tend to move freely amongst other anti-choicers, and even though someone like Scott Roeder spoke openly of his belief that murder was justified, as far as I know, no one tipped off the police or the potential victims. They are too busy spreading dehumanizing rhetoric about abortion providers that gives killers moral support.
Of course, they have to make one of the cops an anti-choicer, which means that the rest of us have to listen to the cheap sentimental stuff that assumes that women who have had sex, even forced sex, forsake their right to be treated like human beings.
- l&o 2 *
Oh, way to make the pro-choicer look like a bad guy. Here's a better reply: You poor mother was in such hell that she threw herself down a flight of stairs in despair, and you can't even pause to think about what that must have been like for her? You weren't even around! Or maybe not write that story in the first place, because it's stupid and implausible. Most women who attempt to self-abort do so early in the pregnancy, because that's the best chance they've got. Remember kids, if you parents didn't have sex the night you were conceived, you also would have never been born. Do you think that means that abstaining should be illegal?
We also see an example of the anti-choice unwillingness to believe pregnancy occurs in women's bodies. The argument that the rape was the crime, but the life isn't makes no sense, if you believe women are human beings. He is completely uninterested in the 11-year-old's physical and mental well-being. As soon as she was raped, apparently she is not a person who deserves consideration. She is a nonentity; all suffering dealt out to her is irrelevant. What a horrible way to think.
They do show the anti-choice activists as smarmy people, but most of the episode takes anti-choice nonsense too seriously. It also hangs the show on the unlikely event that a judge would allow a defense of others defense in an abortion shooting. And then the clichés:
- l&o 3 *
As Kate Harding as Salon noted, this notion that giving birth means you're comfortable forcing others is completely false. 60% of women getting abortions are mothers already. In addition, there's some evidence showing that parents of daughters become more liberal about reproductive rights. Your feelings on choice statistically are more likely to depend on your attitudes about women, not about fetuses.
And then there's the blatant lies:
- l&o 4 *
This story comes from the obviously false story that Jill Stanek delivered to the Illinois Senate, causing then-senator Barack Obama to practically laugh in her face. It would be funny, if it weren't so sad. They are spreading lies about Dr. Tiller, who was a good man who gave his life to serve women's health, and he loved children. In fact, if you want children to do well, you don't attack their mothers. Unsafe, illegal abortion doesn't just kill women, it orphans children. Playing the anti-choicers love babies card doesn't fly if you look at the facts.
They also have another abortion doctor on the stand who is supposed to be a villain because he calls anti-choicers hypocrites and fools. I found myself liking him, and it occurred to me that the only reason that the audience is supposed to hate him is they've been fooled for so long about what anti-choicers are about.
And now for the part pro-choicers love---two dudes without uteruses talk about women's rights as if they're a rhetorical exercise and not a lived experience!
- l&o 5 *
First of all, not every birth defect is correctable. And contraception is not always used or always perfect. But let's deal with the idea that abortion is like slavery. This is exactly backwards. Like slavery, forced birth is an old-fashioned, conservative idea based on the belief that entire classes of people should be stripped of their basic right to bodily autonomy. The people closer to the abolitionists of yesteryear are the feminists of today. You know, there's all on the left, pushing for greater rights and dignity for all human beings.
I'll spare you the humiliating scene where the tough female lawyer converts to being anti-choice. Suffice it to say, they might as well have had a good old horse-whipping of the murder victim's widow, while they were at it. Finding the defendant guilty doesn't make up for this. Dr. Tiller saved lives. Shame on Law & Order for this horrible misogynist pandering.
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- insert interview *
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Semi-good news: the FDA recently approved the use the HPV vaccination for boys, and recommended it as part of the boys package of childhood vaccines, but they are still not officially recommending it, just staying in the permissive category. NPR did a segment on the pros and cons of vaccinating young men for HPV, which would mainly be done to prevent cancer. But not cancer in the boys, but cancer in their potential partners.
- hpv 1 *
But the shots cost money. And so the question remains, should boys be required to get it in order to increase herd immunity? As someone who plans to get an H1NI shot so that I'm not a risk to pregnant women I encounter, I tend to say yes. But from a public health cost/benefit perspective, the question is up in the air.
- hpv 2 *
And there lies the rub. In the U.S., at least, there's a lot of people that aren't going to get the vaccine for their girls. It's a combination of two factors. One is the general anti-vaccination hysteria that's out in the air, most of it sadly coming from the left. A lot of people see that Big Pharma will make money off the HPV vaccine, and as an impotent form of protest against capitalism in every part of our lives, they decide vaccines are dangerous and won't get them. That there is no evidence whatsoever for their fears, but plenty of evidence that cervical cancer is deadly doesn't deter them.
And part of the reason is coming from the right, and their belief that preparing young women for sex just inclines them to have it. The right continues to believe that abstinence will happen if you provide enough pressure, even though the continuing existence of the human race indicates that sex is as popular as ever.
These two ridiculous mindsets work together to create an extra special paranoia about the HPV vaccine. The combination of sex and medicine tends to be incendiary for whatever reason. That, plus the expense of the vaccine. What this means is that we might not get the herd immunity we need just by vaccinating all the girls. And then there's this.
- hpv 3 *
Well, there's a couple flaws in the idea of only vaccinating gay men. For one thing, vaccinating only one group tends to escalate fears about the vaccine. For another, how do you separate gay men from straight men, especially before they become sexually active? Most gay people still are assumed straight until they say otherwise, and a lot of gay people don't come out until after they become sexually active. To make the vaccine the most effective, it's best to get people vaccinated before they start having sex. Plus, a lot of men have sex with men while identifying as straight. There are just so many flaws in the idea.
Personally, I think that vaccinating men to protect women's health is a smart idea. It helps drive home what people don't understand about vaccines, which is they are both about self-protection and about herd immunity. We get vaccines as part of the social compact, like paying your taxes. We all do our part, and we all benefit. Men may not get cervical cancer, but if someone they love does, they suffer, too.
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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts, life isn't Law and Order edition. Here's a clip from a Kansas news station covering attempts by anti-choice extremists to raise money for Scott Roeder's defense through an eBay auction.
- roeder *
Sure, the show Law & Order portrayed the so-called necessity defense as something a judge would allow in court, but as I demonstrated earlier, Law & Order isn't very interested in reality at all. This entire thing is a joke, intended to do what 95% of anti-choice actions are supposed to do, which is create attention for anti-choicers, so they can feel righteous in their misogyny. Luckily, eBay will not allow the auction.
