#basic bitching

Fall is here, and because I am the most basic of bitches I am celebrating with some autumn related silliness with our faves. It’s basically just a bunch of outdoor sex, but with a fall motif!

Happy fall, y’all!!

Day 1: Raking Leaves

Day 2: Picking Apples

Day 3: Going on a Hayride

Day 4: Visiting a Corn Maze

Day 5: Having a Bonfire

Day 6: Visiting a Pumpkin Patch

Pairing: Ransom Drysdale x fem!Reader (OTP)

Words: ~1.5k

Summary: You and Ransom get away for the weekend.

Warnings: explicit language, explicit sexual content (wake up sex, unprotected vaginal sex, squirting, multiple orgasms, cream pie), pretty much no plot, these two still being massively soft, Ransom still being a little whiny but not as much, SMUT!!! 18+ ONLY!!!

A/N: Closing out my fun little series with some isolation sex with these two! Even when I’m just writing straight porn for them, they’re still so cute and it’s killing me 😭

Ransom groaned when the sun hit his eyes, pulling you closer against his chest so he could hide his face in your hair and avoid waking up. The way his chest rumbled against your back roused you, his arms curled tight around your torso as he murmured at you to go back to sleep.

“Ran, we have to get up.” Your voice was raspy from sleep as you wound your fingers through his, pulling his hand up to your face and pressing your lips against his wrist as he grumbled into your neck.

“No we don’t.” He gripped your chin and turned your face so he could flick his tongue against the corner of your mouth. “Let’s just stay in bed all day, baby.”

New Post has been published on https://www.wittybitches.com/2016/11/dakota-access-pipeline-crisis/

Understanding Native Religion Is A Crucial Part Of Resolving The Dakota Access Pipeline Crisis

In recent weeks, protests against the building of the Dakota Access Pipeline across North Dakota have escalated. Native American elders, families and children have set up tipis and tents on a campsite near the pipeline’s path in the hope of stopping the pipeline’s construction.

Dave Archambault Jr., the leader of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe that is leading the efforts to stop the pipeline, summed up what is at the heart of the issue. In a brief two-minute statement before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, he said,

“Oil companies are causing deliberate destruction of our sacred places.”

As a Native American scholar of environmental history and religious studies, I am often asked what Native American leaders mean when they say that certain landscapes are “sacred places” or “sacred sites.”

What makes a mountain, hill or prairie a “sacred” place?

Meaning of sacred spaces

I learned from my grandparents about the sacred areas within Blackfeet tribal territory in Montana and Alberta, which is not far from Lakota tribal territory in the Dakotas.

My grandparents said that sacred areas are places set aside from human presence. They identified two overarching types of sacred place: those set aside for the divine, such as a dwelling place, and those set aside for human remembrance, such as a burial or battle site.

In my forthcoming book “Invisible Reality,” I contemplate those stories that my grandparents shared about Blackfeet religious concepts and the interconnectedness of the supernatural and natural realms.

My grandparents’ stories revealed that the Blackfeet believe in a universe where supernatural beings exist within the same time and space as humans and our natural world. The deities could simultaneously exist in both as visible and invisible reality. That is, they could live unseen, but known, within a physical place visible to humans.

One such place for the Blackfeet is Nínaiistáko or Chief Mountain in Glacier National Park. This mountain is the home of Ksiistsikomm or Thunder, a primordial deity. My grandparents spoke of how this mountain is a liminal space, a place between two realms.

Blackfeet tribal citizens can go near this sacred place to perceive the divine, but they cannot go onto the mountain because it is the home of a deity. Elders of the Blackfeet tribe believe that human activity, or changing the physical landscape in these places, disrupts the lives of deities. They view this as sacrilegious and a desecration.

A living text

Sacred places, however, are not always set aside from humanity’s use. Some sacred places are meant for constant human interaction.

Anthropologist Keith Basso argued in his seminal work “Wisdom Sits in Places” that one purpose of sacred places was to perfect the human mind. The Western Apache elders with whom Basso worked told him that when someone repeated the names and stories of their sacred places, they were understood as “repeating the speech of our ancestors.”

For these Apache elders, places were not just names and stories – their landscape itself was a living sacred text. As these elders traveled from place to place speaking the names and stories of their sacred text, they told Basso that their minds became more “resilient,” more “smooth” and able to withstand adversity.

The sacredness of the pipeline site

At different national and international venues, Lakota leader Dave Archambault Jr. has stated that the Lakota view the area near the potential construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline as both a “sacred place” and a “burial site,” or as both a place set aside from human presence and a place of human reverence

Lakota scholar Vine Deloria Jr. described the “sacred stones” in North Dakota in his book “The World We Used to Live In” as having the ability of “forewarning of events to come.”

Deloria described how Lakota religious leaders went to these stones in the early morning to read their messages. Deloria shared the experiences of an Episcopal minister from 1919.

“A rock of this kind was formerly on Medicine Hill near Cannon Ball Sub-station…. Old Indians came to me… and said that the lightning would strike someone in camp that day, for a picture (wowapi) on this holy rock indicated such an event…. And the lightning did strike a tent in camp and nearly killed a woman…. I have known several similar things, equally foretelling events to come, I can not account for it.”

Deloria explained that it was “birds, directed by the spirit of the place, [that] do the actual sketching of the pictures.” The Lakota named this area Ínyanwakagapi for the large stones that served as oracles for their people. The Americans renamed it Cannonball.

Not just Dakota

Historians, anthropologists and religious thinkers continue to learn and write about Native American religious ideas of place. In so doing, they seek to analyze complex religious concepts of transformation and transcendence that these places evoke.

However, despite their contributions to the academic interpretation of religion, these understandings do not often translate into protection of Native American places for their religious significance. As legal scholar Stephen Pevar tells us,

“…there is no federal statute that expressly protects Indian sacred sites…. in fact, the federal government knowingly desecrates sites.”

In the past year we have seen protests over the potential desecration of sacred places at Mauna Kea in Hawaii (over the construction of another telescope on a sacred volcano), Oak Flats in Arizona (over a potential copper mine on sacred land) and now at Standing Rock in North Dakota.

Lack of understanding of sacredness

William Graham, a former dean of the Harvard Divinity School, wrote that,

“Religion… will long continue to be a critical factor in individual, social, and political life around the world, and we need to understand it.”

The intimate connection between landscape and religion is at the center of Native American societies. It is the reason that thousands of Native Americans from across the United States and Indigenous peoples from around the world have traveled to the windswept prairies of North Dakota.

But, despite our 200-plus years of contact, the United States has yet to begin to understand the uniqueness of Native American religions and ties to the land. And until this happens, there will continue to be conflicts over religious ideas of land and landscape, and what makes a place sacred.

Feature image: Flickr/fibonacci-blue/cc

Rosalyn R. LaPier, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s Studies, Environmental Studies and Native American Religion, Harvard University

New Post has been published on http://wittybitches.com/2016/07/bachelorette-recap-hometown-dates/

Bachelorette Recap: Hometown Dates Hello ...and Goodbye?

Hometown dates are here, and I’m excited to see if shit goes sideways. It’s happened before, and fingers crossed it happens again.

First up is Chase, in pretty Highlands Ranch, CO. Chase calms his nerves by standing in a snowbank while wearing loafers. He muses on his parents’ divorce, and how it affected him. Once they trudge out of the snow and onto a convenient lookout point, this is the first thing that comes up, too. He talks about how acrimonious the divorce was and his subsequent inability to drop his walls.

Image: ABC

He’s trying, and JoJo really appreciates that. She also appreciates how lipsmackingly gorgeous he is, so they make out for a while.

Their next stop is Chase’s house where they will be seeing his dad, apparently for the first time in a while. Great idea to film it, not awkward at all. JoJo looks as nervous as I’ve ever seen her – as well she should be. She’s totally unfamiliar with how divorced families operate. Talk turns to the divorce once again, and they’re touching on some super heavy stuff.

If I were JoJo I would have run screaming from the house. I wouldn’t want to be there when they hashed out why his parent’s marriage didn’t work out for what seems like the first time. I don’t need to witness it. Give me the highlights, babe. GAH.

I’ll do the same for you with Chase’s convo between him and his dad alone – dad’s worried that four guys are competing for one girl, but Chase is throwing himself all in, dad’s thinking about how Chase’s decisions could affect people’s lives, but Chase is happy and ready to bring JoJo home at the end of this. It’s a lot.

D’awwww. Walls? What walls? (image: ABC)

As dad leaves, Chase talks about how he’s formed a deeper connection with his Dad, one that wouldn’t have happened but for JoJo. Well, if she doesn’t pick him, at least he’s got that going for him, which is nice.

Lunch was dad’s time, now they’re headed to mom’s for dinner. Long day, I’d say. They do the smart thing and immediately start quaffing basketball sized glasses of wine around the table as Chase brags on how great JoJo is. When Mom gets JoJo alone, they talk about all the divorce stuff and also about knowing how to have fun (there is more wine quaffing).

It’s very convivial, on the whole. While that is going on, Chase is speaking with his sister, and I have to give it to these “kids of divorce,” they know how to talk emotional shit out. It seems like a really healthy dynamic all around. The upshot of that talk and the one with his mom is that he is ready to propose and is planning to tell JoJo he loves her. Tears are shed. It goes well, especially when he tells her he’s falling in love with her. His confidence is sky high. 

Second date

The second date belongs to Jordan in Chico, CA. He starts in on his usual patter about how excited he is about her, and excited to show her this place that he loves, and I can’t quite help getting a subtle villains gotta vil vibe from him. I get an unpleasant squidgy chill every time he says he’s in love with her.

They go to his old high school first, and he does a long round of glad-handing with his old teachers while JoJo nods and smiles a lot. He’s the star.

I have been slowly turning against Rodgers-the-Lesser for a while but something has solidified for me. I don’t know if it’s the smooth speeches or the subtle attention whoring, but I don’t trust him and I don’t think he’s here for the right reasons.

After they check out all the photos of him on the football coach’s wall, JoJo points out the ones with Future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers in them. Jordan tries to change the subject but as they wander out to sit on the bleachers JoJo slides around asking him what happened. He, in turn, weasels out of telling her, using her weak questions as an excuse not to get into it.

Image: ABC

Their next stop is the family homestead, a huge Victorian mansion. She’s nervous, but he assures her that there’s nothing to worry about. Indeed, they’re more worried about roasting Jordan than grilling JoJo. Luke, Jordan’s other brother, steals her away for a talk, but she takes control and asks Other Brother what happened with Aaron. Luke double speaks his way through a whole lot of no explanations, throwing in that Jordan wouldn’t have told her all that if he didn’t care. All of what?!? He’s said nothing! Just like you, OB.

There’s more private chats between Jordan and Other Brother, JoJo and Herman Munster Jordan’s dad, Mom and Jordan; everything is going swimmingly. Blessings are given and toasts made. It’s enough for JoJo to make declarations in the confessional booth. She knows who he is, and he’s nobody’s brother, and he’s the man she’s falling in love with. Strong words. He gives them back to her, but she’s still a little bit scared about whether he wants this to be forever.

I think she’s right to be scared. She’s in love with him, but her gut is screaming at her. The date ends on that somewhat sour note, but let’s not kid ourselves that he’s going anywhere. She’s dead gone on him.

Third Date

Image: ABC

The third date is Robby’s to claim, in St. Augustine, FL. Supposedly they’re in Florida, but Robby is in Lala Land, because he thinks there’s actually a possibility that JoJo will say she loves him after this date. He’s in love with her, so it’s gotta happen, right? Not a snowball’s chance in hell, buddy. You can thank Ben for that.

They take a carriage ride through the city, but they do more exploring of each other’s mouths than anything else. Once that’s over and they’re settled in for lunch, JoJo brings up his relationship with his last girlfriend again. It’s only been three months, is he ready to close that chapter for good? She doesn’t want to fall madly in love and get blindsided, okay? But, no, she’s everything, and the past is in the past. I bet this isn’t the last time it gets talked about, though.

They cut right from lunch to dinner, and when they arrive at Robby’s house, the greetings are raucous. It’s his parents, his brothers and sister, and Robby is hop out of kin with the rest of his siblings. They are all very Italian looking, and he couldn’t look more white bread if he tried. Must get it from his dad, who is not quite so swarthy as the rest.

JoJo fits right in to the boisterous clan (how could she not, she of the bottled wine drinking mother), and everyone is gushing about what a great impression she’s making. Even Robby’s brothers enthuse away in a separate chat with the three of them. Mom and JoJo’s conversation goes well, too; it is here we hear the first family talk about his ex. His mom reassures her – Robby is in it with his whole heart. So is JoJo, I guess, because she flat out tells his mom that she’s falling in love with him. I’m shocked, frankly. I didn’t realize she liked him this much.

Robby’s talk with him mom takes a much different track. She catches him up on the chatter on twitter. He broke up with his ex to come on the show. They know it’s not true, of course, but Robby is immediately stressed by this. After all, JoJo is already worried, what will this do to her?

He wastes no time going and finding the lady in question and catching her up on what has been going on. He fails to spin in in the way that I would have gone with, likening it to what her ex, Chad, did to her. Since he doesn’t go the smart route, JoJo enters a tailspin almost instantly. Is there any truth to this? She’s made so many mistakes, and she just needs him to be honest.

Tell the truth and shame the devil, boy. She would rather know now. He categorically denies that the rumors have even a shred of truth, but she looks shook. It scares her shitless. Is this enough to derail them? She decides to trust him, but I can tell she’s still thinking about it. It will be interesting to see what she does with that, come rose ceremony time.

Fourth Date

Uhhh, whaaaa? (image: ABC)

Last but hardly least is Luke’s date in Burnet, TX. They’re both kitted out in true Texas style, her in chambray and boots, him in gingham and jeans.

She’s looking for depth, and he promises to deliver. They head out to the homestead right away, and the front yard is packed with cars, to the tune of fifty plus people. They’re all just like family, and JoJo has to do the pretty, smile and go with it. She’s keeping her head above water, and Luke’s “heart is smiling” to see her look so comfortable. I don’t know if I’d call her comfortable, but she’s holding her own. It helps that they come off as a pretty nice bunch of people.

Luke’s mom likes her, and so does dad; after these talks, Luke confesses that he’s ready to give all of himself. Heart, body, mind. Penis. In order to have the space to do this, he carts her off to some horses, and they ride off to watch the setting sun. JoJo is not quite as good of a rider as he is, but at least she knows to keep her heels down – she’s not a total novice, either. It makes a nice change from previous seasons.

As an additional aside, the herky jerky way that he moves would drive me crazy. JoJo doesn’t seem to mind, but I can’t see anything else.

They arrive at their definitely not set up by the producers hay bale couch, and Luke makes a production (to the tune of a  lighted path and rose petal heart) of declaring his feelings for her, all without actually saying he’s in love with her. She seems happy, but I wonder if his reluctance to name his emotions will hurt him in the final consideration.

All the dates are done, and they move right to the rose ceremony, held (rather dramatically) in a hangar, with a jet ready to roll away with the lucky three. She’s freaking out, but there’s no escape – time to do the dirty. And whoa! I totally misjudged things and she’s apparently going to let Luke go according to her last minute confessional. I did NOT see this coming. They have so much heat.

Luke, sensing something is amiss, pulls JoJo aside to finally, explicitly tell her that he’s for sure in love with her. The other guys are left behind grumbling, and I’m all at sea. I have no earthly idea what’s coming next. Neither does JoJo, and now she can’t figure out what to with all this information. She is completely out of control and terrified of making a mistake.

New Post has been published on http://wittybitches.com/2016/07/melanie-trump-speech/

Ex-Trump campaign manager calls for 'accountability' on Melania Trump speech

CLEVELAND — Donald Trump’s former campaign manager said staff responsible for crafting Melania Trump’s speech on the first night of the Republican National Convention should be held accountable after portions mirrored remarks Michelle Obama delivered in 2008. Corey Lewandowski, who was fired in June following months of controversy including allegations that he grabbed a reporter as…

New Post has been published on http://wittybitches.com/2016/07/retail-hell-not-my-department-not-my-store/

Retail Hell: Not My Department, Not My Store

I am Luna Moonstone, and I am a wolf (demi)goddess. Those who look upon me see a woman who is beautiful, radiant, and powerful. My wisdom is infinite and my words are gospel. Those who know me know that they are truly blessed merely to be in my presence. I am divinity and perfection personified…

…All of this is contingent on me having had my coffee, however.

Catch me before my first cup of the day, and you’ll see a much different being than the one I just described. My hair’s plastered to my head, my fur’s all matted and full of knots, and I shuffle around like a zombie. Forget divine wisdom and gospel; I’m lucky if I can form anything close to a coherent sentence. Needless to say, I’m pretty careful about always keeping a steady supply of coffee on hand.

It was because of a sale on that black/brown ambrosia that I found myself at the grocery store one day during a break from my regular job as a pharmacy technician. While some grocery stores do have pharmacies, this one does not. I had to leave my own store and walk past three other businesses in order to get into this store. The employees of that grocery store wore polo shirts, jeans and sneakers, and there were plenty of them scattered throughout the store. Wearing a lab coat, khaki’s and dress shoes, there was no way anybody was going to mistake me as an employee of that grocery store.

And yet, apparently someone HAD done exactly that. The roughly 50 year old woman was clearly upset that I had been ignoring her requests for help; by the time I realized she’d been addressing me with her requests for help, she was practically screaming at me.

“Um, yes?” My tone was polite, but confused as I looked this person over, confirming that she was indeed not someone I knew. “Can I help you?”

“FINALLY!” She sounded exasperated as she practically thrust the flier into my face. “Where are these? I can’t find them anywhere!”

O.K., several problems this situation. First, I don’t work here. Secondly, there’s over two dozen items on the page, so “these” isn’t a very helpful description. Third, don’t shove things into people’s faces.

(Quick side note here; while there are many benefits to being a demigoddess, it does come with its downsides. I’m much bigger and taller than the human everyone perceives me to be, enough so that my human eyes are roughly chest level with my demigoddess self. This has the side effect of making me feel like everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE, is staring at my breasts 24/7. It also means that this woman was unknowingly trying to shove her flier in my cleavage.)

Still, I took it all in stride (while also taking a small stride back away from her). It’s not her fault she doesn’t see the demigoddess that I am. She sees the mid 20’s human male who ignored her, even if it was accidental and justifiable. There’s no reason to get annoyed or angry with her. I just have to gently inform her of her mistake.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I don’t work here.” Perfect; nice and gentle, not condescending or sarcastic. Now to just wait for her apology so I can go back to getting my coffee.

In hindsight, I should have realized I was a fool to think things would end there. She already had mistaken me as an employee of this company, despite the near impossibility that she wouldn’t have passed at least a few real employees before finding me.

“Of course you don’t work here! No one works here!”

O.K., the pissed off look and “I can’t believe you just said that to me!” tone was unexpected. Did she think I was lying to her?

“Ma’am, you don’t seem to understand. I really don’t work here.” My clawed finger tapped lightly against my name badge from my actual job for emphasis.

Her perfectly rational, well thought out response? To turn around so sharply I was barely able to dodge her stupidly huge pocketbook as it swung wildly around her arm, and threaten to report me to management for my, “Poor customer service attitude.”

At a company I didn’t work for.

Once I realized what was happening, gone was the kind, understanding demigoddess. Reporting an employee to management is just a shitty thing to do unless they truly deserve it. Too many managers will happily throw an employee under the bus or give free stuff to an angry customer just to keep the complaint from going up the corporate chain, and I’ve seen more than a few customers threaten to cause trouble just because they know they’ll score free stuff. Good managers will try to mediate or stand up for their employee, but they are few and far between.

Plus, you know, I DIDN’T WORK HERE!

  Silver lighting bolts crackled about my clenched fist as I pondered how exactly this moron would suffer for her stupidity and anger. Should I fry her body and soul with my divine wraith? Have the very ground open up and let her fall into the depths of Hell? Or perhaps I need not dip into my goddess powers at all; I had several nearby cans that would make good projectiles to bean her in the back of the head with. There were so many violent, tempting ways to enact my vengeance…

  … Or I could do nothing. I could simply allow her to wander off and look for that manager. She’ll probably look for someone dressed just like me to complain to about her experience, wandering all over the store. And like Sisyphus trying to roll a boulder up a hill, this idiot with a shopping cart will have an equally impossible task. By the time she realizes her mistake or somehow finds a manager, I’ll be long gone. At best, she’ll realize what an incredible moron she is and feel rightly stupid for what she did. At worst, she’ll look like an incredible moron trying to describe to a manager an employee who doesn’t look anything like any of his employees.

Yeah, that sounds just fine. I released my divine wraith harmlessly and quickly found my last can of coffee, making my way toward the registers. I stepped into line behind the only other customer on the 6 items or less line with my four cans of coffee. I should be out nice and quick, or I would be, if the moron in front of me didn’t have at least ten items.

Sigh; my work is NEVER done…

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New Post has been published on http://wittybitches.com/2016/06/hypocrisy-pro-life-legislature/

Hypocrisy Thy Name Is 'Pro-Life' Legislature

Thinking about the “pro-life” movement probably brings to mind zealots like the Westboro Baptist Church or 19 Kids and Counting‘s Duggar family. People who’ve made it their life’s mission to ban abortion altogether. However, the real work of the U.S. anti-choice movement isn’t not on T.V. or through picket lines but rather in the courtrooms of America via pro-life legislature.

That’s also where you’ll find its most blatant hypocrisy.

New tricks, old game

The latest way anti-choicers are to impede upon a woman’s Constitutionally protected right to terminate a pregnancy? Instead of trying to ban abortions outright, lawmakers are going after the dilation and evacuation, or D&E procedure. The D&E is the safest method to use for abortions performed past the first trimester and the only legal option for pregnancies past 14 weeks still considered safe.

It’s also a procedure they had no problem supporting a decade ago when they fought to ban another well-known abortion procedure, but we’ll get to that later.

What is a D&E?

Let’s be clear; dilation and evacuation is a necessary, life-saving procedure that’s only used in a small percentage of abortions. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),

Few abortions were performed after 15 weeks of gestation; 4.3% were obtained at 16–20 weeks and 1.4% were obtained at >21 weeks.”

D&Es are also performed in cases of incomplete miscarriage (as per the WHO), and according to our very own United States Congress, the procedure carries a significantly lower maternal mortality rate and is therefore “much safer” than other available alternatives.

Morbidity trends indicate that dilation and evacuation is much safer than labor induction procedures, and for women with certain medical conditions, e.g., coronary artery disease or asthma, labor induction can pose serious risks. Rates of major complications from labor induction were more than twice as high as those from D&E.”

Congressional Record, V. 149, PT. 4, February 25, 2003 to March 10, 200

Still, certain legislators and lobbyists are using inflammatory language and dishonest rhetoric to demonize the procedure.

Image via Flickr/Billy Verdin /Creative Commons

Mary Spaulding Balch, from the National Right to Life Committee (or NRLC, an anti-choice hate group), has repeatedly described the procedure as “dismemberment abortion,” which is just a new spin on the old “partial birth abortion” spiel you might remember from the 1990s.

All told, at least 15 U.S. states have proposed legislation designed to ban the dilation and evacuation procedure. Laws were already passed in both Oklahoma and Kansas but are currently on hold pending litigation.

Not An Easy Decision

Truth be told, the D&E procedure isn’t pleasant. The thing is, chances are someone going through with it didn’t decide to terminate their 15+ week pregnancy on a lark.

The vast majority of late-term abortions are performed because either the life of the mother is at stake or the fetus is profounding compromised. As was the case with this Reddit user who posted an AMA (ask me anything) titled, “Today I terminated my pregnancy at 23 weeks. AMA;”

[A]n amnio confirmed triploidy, a chromosomal defect that is incompatible with life,” she writes. “Our little girl had 69 chromosomes instead of the normal 46, contributing to Dandy Walker Syndrome, a diaphragmatic hernia, and severely stunted growth. She weighed just 8oz. Normal weight for a fetus at 23 weeks is just over 1lb.”

Because she lives in Ohio, a conservative stronghold (and my former home state), this redditor could find only one doctor in the area willing to perform a D&E. Even with a willing medical professional, permission still needed to be granted from the CEO of the Catholic hospital where the doctor worked. No, not a presiding medical doctor, but the CEO who may very well have no official medical training.

Like one at Ohio hospital Mercy-Health Cincinnati, for example. According to LinkedIn, their newest CEO Mike Garfield has a BA in business from Furman University and a Masters in healthcare administration from Tulane but no actual medical training whatsoever.

Thankfully the pregnant redditor was allowed to have the procedure, after her doctor explained that allowing her fetus to “pass naturally” would be a danger to her health. But the ultimate choice should have been between the patient and her physician, not left up to some CEO with no training on the matter. 

In 1995, Tammy Watts, who was nearing the end of a planned pregnancy, had a D&E performed after a routine sonogram revealed that her fetus had Trisomy 13, also known as Patau Syndrome. Trisomy 13 is a severe chromosomal abnormality that causes grave birth defects.  More than 80 percent of infants diagnosed with it die before their first birthday. Almost none live to adolescence.

Chipping Away At The Right To Choose

Original image via Flickr/ richelleantipolo /Creative Commons with added quote

Some experts have argued that the newest round of anti-choice bills and pro-life legislature won’t pass scrutiny from Constitutional scholars. The law is clear; in order to be Constitutional an alternative options must exist for women to choose. The right to choose is written into the very fiber of the law.

The two main rules that determine the legality of an abortion law are;

Abortion is legal until the fetus is deemed viable (Roe V. Wade/1973)

Accessing abortion can’t place “undue burden” on the mother (Planned Parenthood v. Casey/1992)

This is all well and good, but what do “viable,” and “undue burden” actually mean? This isn’t always clear. In the U.S., the interpretation of these terms is left to whoever brings forth a bill. This means it’s almost impossible to predict which laws will pass Constitutional muster and which ones won’t.

In case you still think women’s rights advocates are being alarmists, this type of smear campaign has already been successful with another rarely used abortion procedure; the “intact dilation and extraction,” or IDX method. Also known as the infamous “partial birth abortion” procedure mentioned earlier.

The abortion procedure that wasn’t

The so-called “partial birth abortion” method was developed in the 1970s as an alternative to the instillation or labor induction techniques that were previously used. For those of you paying attention, these are the more dangerous methods mentioned in the congressional records above.

The IDX differs from the D&E in a number of ways. With IDX an intact fetus is removed from the womb whereas the D&E relies on dismemberment for removal. IDX is  also likely easier on the patient as it’s less psychologically triggering to expel an intact fetus and it can also be performed on women 20-26 weeks pregnant in a regular doctor’s office under local anesthesia, rather than a hospital.

Sounds like the IDX procedure is actually less invasive and “brutal” than the D&E, right? You might be asking why is one basically banned while the other is just now hitting anti-choice radar?

I’ll get to that in a moment.

Abortion Deja Vu

So, what did our benign overlords in Congress have to say about “partial birth abortions?” Well, according to the same 2003 Congressional Record from above,

We know that there is no such technique as “partial birth” abortion, and we believe this legislation is a thinly-veiled attempt to out-law all abortions. Those supporting this legislation seem to want to confuse both legislators and the public about which abortion procedures are actually used.”

Still, at least 19 states passed laws banning procedures marked as “partial birth abortion.” In 2000, the United States Supreme Court ruled that laws banning “partial birth” abortion procedures are unconstitutional unless provisions were included for cases where the mother’s life in danger.

The Supreme Court was persuaded to uphold such a ban in Ohio because their version included a provision for an alternate, life-saving abortion option . That alternative option?

The Dilation and Evacuation procedure, aka the D&E.

According to the Supreme Court, this didn’t violate Constitutional law since the D&E option meant it didn’t create “undue burden” on women needing a second-trimester termination. Now dozens of states are fighting to ban this option, even though the method was perfectly acceptable when it was used to justify banning the IDX procedure over a decade ago.

Hypocrisy, thy name is ‘Pro Life’

Feature image via Flickr/ qwrrty / Creative Commons cropped with added quote.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), both the Oklahoma and Kansas anti-D&E bills use the same type of hyperbolic phrasing that was used against the IDX method. Phrasing like, “slicing, crushing, or grasping a portion of an unborn child’s body, or “ripping babies apart limb from limb.”

The language is meant for shock value and to vilify abortion providers and their patients.

Which seems odd, since anti-choice crusaders didn’t seem this squeamish back in the early aughts when they used the same procedure to justify a ban on the IDX procedure. Reminds me of something my grandfather’s friend Dr. George Tiller once said,

Make no mistake, this battle is about self-determination by women of the direction and course of their lives and their family’s lives.”

It seems to me that if the so-called “pro-life” movement really wanted to save the unborn they would fight against any and all abortion procedures instead of leveraging one to get rid of another. It’s almost as if this whole situation isn’t about abortion at all, but rather about taking away a woman’s bodily autonomy.

Imagine that.