Today in Your Feminist Backlash

[Content Note: Misogyny in myriad forms.]

1. Recounting yesterday's news: The Obama administration is officially partnering the US government with Curves, whose CEO is virulently anti-choice; the Republican Pennsylvania Governor says women et. al. can "close their eyes" during mandated transvaginal ultrasounds; 55% of all reproductive-age US women now live in a state hostile to abortion rights; the Republicans don't want to support the Violence Against Women Act if it includes queer and migrant women; and Bill Maher's not a misogynist—he's just a pottymouth.

2. The state of Texas has lost its entire Women's Health Program, 90% of the funding for which came from the federal government in the form of Medicaid, because Republican Governor Rick Perry implemented legislation that "disqualified Planned Parenthood from participating in the program because some of its clinics provide abortions, even though no state or federal money can be used to pay for those abortions." Thus Texas broke federal Medicaid rules "by discriminating against qualified family planning providers," forced the Center for Medicaid and State Operations to cancel their contact with the state, and now potentially leaves 130,000 low-income women a year without access to cancer screenings, contraceptives, and basic health care.

3. The Catholic Bishops have announced they're going to make defeating birth control coverage in the preventive care package of the Affordable Care Act their top priority. Ha ha good thing President Obama made that compromise to accommodate their concerns! Anyway: "The US Conference of Catholic Bishops also announced plans to launch a broader campaign against state and local laws that they believe infringe on religious freedom, including restrictions limiting the rights of religious groups to use public schools as place of worship and those that limit religious organizations on college campuses." Obviously fighting rape victims one-by-one to deny them restitution is on the list, too.

4. In other Catholic Bishops news, Reuters reports that the Catholic Bishops pressured Komen to rescind their funding of Planned Parenthood. Quelle surprise! It's so neat how invested the Catholic Bishops are in undermining women's health! JUST LIKE JESUS WOULD DO!

5. Michelle Goldberg takes a look at the new frontier in abortion legislation: Allowing doctors to withhold information from their pregnant patients if they believe the information might result in their terminating the pregnancy. It's a particular irony, given that, at the same time, "women have a right to all the information" is being used to justify mandatory ultrasound legislation.

Of course, looking for intellectual and ethical consistency in the "pro-life movement" is the biggest waste of fucking time on the planet.