Sunday Afternoon Mix--Part II--Looks like once a Feminist always a Feminist.

Click here to add your name to this petition to the House of Representatives: "Women serving in the military deserve the same health care protections as every other federal employee. Don't block abortion access for raped soldiers in the final version of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Bill." Stop the House from blocking abortion access for raped soldiers. Dear Reader, I am passing on this e-mail in its entirety because it is to important not to. After all, it does not matter whether we agree or disagree with the wars or not, we Americans owe all of our support to all of the American Military, Especially I myself as a former Enlisted Woman, which is why I have added My Blog to this cause--> This is shocking, even for our U.S. Congress. If a female employee of the U.S. State Department is raped while serving abroad in Afghanistan, her federal health plan will pay for an abortion should she become pregnant. However if a woman serving abroad as a member of the U.S. military is raped, her military health plan will NOT provide for an abortion if she becomes pregnant as a result of that violent and reprehensible act. According to a recent report from Mother Jones,1 the Pentagon has an even more drastic policy on access to abortion than the Hyde Amendment which bans the use of federal funds for abortion care unless a woman has been the victim of rape, incest or she could literally die unless she her pregnancy is terminated. This disparity is so unsettling that the Senate Armed Services Committee recently passed a proposal that would fix this loophole in federal law on a rare bipartisan vote. But the extremists in Congress will almost certainly strip this proposal from the National Defense Authorization Act when it comes up for a vote in the House. The only way we can hope to stop it is with massive public pushback. Tell Republicans and anti-choice Democrats in the House: Don't block abortion access for raped soldiers. Click here to sign the petition. According to Kate Sheppard's report in Mother Jones,2 there are 200,000 women serving on active duty in our military and in 2011 alone there were 471 reported instances of rape. But with the Pentagon itself estimating that only 13.5% of rapes are officially reported, that means around 3,500 service members are raped per year. Women who are serving on military bases abroad can't simply go to their local Planned Parenthood should they seek an abortion after finding themselves pregnant as a result of rape. And if there hasn't been a formal finding of rape, a rape survivor in the military can't even pay to have the procedure done in the medical facility on base. Many women serving in our armed forces are stationed in foreign countries where safe abortion care is not easily obtained outside our military bases. And it may not be possible or affordable for a raped woman soldier to travel to the United States in order to receive the care she needs. Our policies need to be reformed to ensure that women in the military who have been raped have access to the medical care they need. As Senator Jean Shaheen who introduced the proposal change to this heinous policy explained to Mother Jones, "Most of the women affected here are enlisted women who are making about $18,000 a year. They're young, they don't have access to a lot of resources. Many of them are overseas." Tell Republicans and anti-choice Democrats in the House: Don't block abortion access for raped soldiers. Click here to sign the petition A handful of Republicans in the Senate realized that protecting rape survivors is not a partisan issue and joined Democrats to pass this bill out of committee and work to provide relief to women in our armed services. But their colleagues in the House will not join them in helping to pass this much needed bill unless we force them to take action. We need to tell Republicans as well as anti-choice Democrats in the House (including the so-called Stupak Democrats who voted against women's reproductive health in the Affordable Care Act)3 that we cannot let this policy stand. CREDO is a staunch supporter of a woman's right to choose and we will continue to work for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. But until then, even in our polarized Congress which is packed with anti-choice zealots, there are some lines that Republicans and anti-choice Democrats should be very afraid to cross. This is one of them. We cannot stand by and let women serving in the U.S. military be subjected to a stricter standard for abortion access than the already horribly restrictive Hyde Amendment. Click below to sign the petition: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/militaryaccess/ This is one we can win if enough of us speak out. Thank you for taking action. Becky Bond, Political Director CREDO Action from Working Assets 1. House GOP Blocking Abortion Access for Raped Soldiers, Mother Jones, June 13, 2012. 2. ibid. 3. Many Previously Pro-Choice Dems Voted for Stupak Amendment, FiveThirtyEight.com, November 9, 2009 Thank You For Your Time and  Consideration. "War on Women" Takes Its Toll:  Mississippi's Last Abortion Clinic  Under Threat   The nationwide assault on reproductive and abortion rights that effects everyone with sexual health needs (so, that's everyone, pretty much!) and has come to be known as "The War on Women" may claim its first state as a victim soon. In Mississippi, the final abortion clinic left is fighting for its survival after an effort by Republican lawmakers. Bloomberg reports: Beginning July 1, all abortion-clinic physicians must have admitting privileges at a local hospital under a law passed by the Republican-led Legislature and signed by Republican Governor Phil Bryant in April. At the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state’s sole remaining clinic providing elective abortions, none of the three physicians who perform the procedure has been granted those privileges.    Read more    This is why more and more the Christan Right-Wing are earning the nicknames that they are now receiving. Well, actually in my case, it were my former bosses who inspiried me to come up with--'Holy Ghost Filled Pain in the A$$' but others have coined--The Christian Taliban' and 'The Religious Reich'. Among other reasons are terrorist actions such as these and other issues, such as a servere lack of control of their members, who seem to free to break any and every law that they dislike--any and every law of Caesar's. After all, IF there wasn't so very much-->   Why Is There So Much God in  America's Politics?   Presidential candidates have used religion to attack each other for centuries. An expert explains why. READ MORE We need and must get Religion out of politics because all I have seen the unholy alliance accomplish was to turn more and more people away from Christianity. We need and must get Religion out of politcs before we have turned an entire generation of American young people completely out of the Church.