2009 September » Feminist Peace Network

Thank goodness I’ve reached menopause because no amount of Midol is going to cure this case of cramps:

“And those are going to be increased taxes on numerous things, which are included in the Baucus bill, by the way. And such things that are considered medical devices in class two and three, but those are things like contact lenses and solutions, hearing aids, thermometers, diabetes test strips, oxygen bottles, wheelchairs, condoms and tampons.”

H/t to Political Carnival who wonders if this will be a monthly event. The Granny Death Panels didn’t work and they think this will? The image of millions of women who can’t afford tampons walking around without them is however an awesome case of seeing red.

What has it come to in this country where we get our news on Comedy Central and our entertainment on Fox News? Are we to go out and make a run on the tampon supplies? And at what point are we going to say that no it isn’t okay to make stuff up and pawn it off as fact especially when that fiction does harm as this faux healthcare drivel is doing? If corporations have the same rights as people could we not charge them with a crime? Sedition comes to mind. Period (a sentiment stolen shamelessly from the Political Carnival post).

And because I can’t resist, here is a tampon wreath I created in my pre-FPN days. It won a Best Use of Materials award in a show called The Flow.

The following is a poem by Susan Hawthorne, publisher of Spinifex Press that she wrote several months ago, “about the proposed mining of Liverpool Plains in New South Wales. It is rich farming land and underneath it runs a coal seam.”

Hawthorne has been attending a conference on climate change in India while she is on a literary residency where she is writing poetry about cows and has been blogging about her trip at Susan’s Cow Blog. As she says about why she posted this poem that doesn’t quite fit the theme of the blog, “I know, I have veered away from cows for the moment but it’s all connected. Indeed, the use of cow dung in India to keep the soil in good shape is not far off these same issues.” Indeed. Without further ado, Susan Hawthorne’s wonderful poem:

armour dp225

she dreams of making armour for the earth
a helmet to prevent the drillers from beginning
a breastplate so they cannot cut open her heart
greaves to stop the underground lines
breaking through to the water table

it confounds her that anyone would want
to mine Liverpool Plains
to make the earth a corpse to strip
back the muscle layer by layer
to let light in under all that rich deep earth
to groom her for profit burn coal embers
in the asthmatic air the heat increasing
to burn away everything for the emptiness
of waterdrained lungdrained flatlands

Let them eat coal not food.

Last week, it was pointed out that in some states, our so-called health insurance companies are allowed to consider domestic violence a pre-existing condition. As Think Progress points out, having had a cesarian section can also be considered a pre-existing condition. Never mind that the U.S. has a sky rocketing c-section rate and that said c-sections are often performed for reasons other than because of medical necessity, such as soaring malpractice insurance rates.

If that doesn’t make you fume, check out Anthem’s explanation as to why c-sections are a pre-existing condition:

“The point of insurance is to insure against catastrophic care costs. That’s what you’re trying to aggregate and pool for such things as heart attacks and cancer,” said an Anthem Blue Cross spokesman. “Having a child is a matter of choice. Dealing with an adult onset illness, such as diabetes, heart disease breast or prostate cancer, is not a matter of choice.”

OH NO! ! It looks like we’re being accused of making reproductive choices again!

On the one hand you’ve got the faux family values folks telling us that we are baby killers if we exercise the right to end a pregnancy and we also have the insurance companies sticking us with the risk of going bankrupt if we have a c-section. Some choice.

And women are bearing all of the financial risk why? And what about pregnancies where the mother would have preferred to get an abortion and couldn’t? And what about pregnancies that are because the parents didn’t understand about contraception because they attended a school with abstinence only sex ed? Does this spokesperson comprehend that the “choice” to have children is how the human species propagates?

This isn’t about choice. It is first of all about insurance companies being out to insure one thing only–their profits, at the expense of the health of the citizens of this nation and secondly that there are not adequate laws protecting women from misogynist profiteering that violate their human rights. Full stop. Enough. We need single payer universal healthcare now and we need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and CEDAW to insure that these horrifying practices end immediately.

Via Stabroek News (Guyana):

Two weeks ago, an international delegation of human rights and feminist organizations representing countries from Latin America, Canada, Spain and the United States, traveled to Honduras on a fact-finding mission during Women’s Human Rights Week, to document the violation of women’s rights in the context of the coup of June 28 that deposed democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. Between August 17-21, they interviewed women and members of various organizations involved in resistance to the coup, and took testimonies from victims of military and police brutality. The delegation, consisting of activists, journalists, researchers and legal experts, was convened by a number of organizations in and outside of Honduras: Honduran Feminists in Resistance; Feminist Radio International Endeavor (FIRE); Just Associates (JASS), Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equality; and the Nobel Women’s Initiative.

In their preliminary report, the Observatorio de la Transgresión Feminista (Feminist Transformation Watch) noted the central role of women in daily street marches and demonstrations rejecting the de facto regime of Roberto Micheletti and calling for the return of President Manuel Zelaya. They noted the increasing use of violence by the military and police against demonstrators, and that women were being targeted in specific and all too predictable ways. One news report described acts of sexual aggression against women, “ranging from verbal obscenities and threats to women being grabbed or beaten with batons in their buttocks, to torture and rape in detention”. In one reported incident, women who were demonstrating outside the Institute of Women against the policies of the newly installed Minister of Women (who has refused to hear any complaints of the violations of women’s human rights following the coup), found themselves on the receiving end of the baton wielding military who she called in to dismantle the protest. Given the fact that so many of the testimonies have implicated the military and police as perpetrators, women have been understandably reluctant to file reports. In a situation that Guyanese can surely sympathise with at present, what do you do when those entrusted with the ‘legitimate use of force’ and with people’s security and safety are among those that you fear?

The preliminary findings also noted that the Special Prosecutor for Women confirmed that 51 women were murdered in July alone, the month immediately following the coup, an increase in woman murders of at least 60%.

Via the Women’s Health Policy Report:

FDA found manufacturing violations at two of Evenflo’s Ohio plants during inspections in January and February. Evenflo failed to “review and evaluate all complaints,” according to FDA, and also failed to “establish medical device reporting procedures.” Eighteen of 37 complaints about the products — including at least three from women who say they were shocked while using the pumps — were not investigated by the company. An Evenflo spokesperson said that the company is working with FDA to address the agency’s concerns.

Thanks to Abigail’s worried Great Grandma for passing this along!

Feminist Peace Network

Bloody Hell–Healthcare Reform Will Not Increase The Tax On Condoms and Tampons

Susan Hawthorne: Coal, Cows, Poetry And Connection

Health Insurance Companies Say C-Sections Are A Pre-Existing Condition Because Having A Child Is A Choice

OH NO! ! It looks like we’re being accused of making reproductive choices again!

The Disheartening But Predictable Violation Of Women’s Rights In The Context Of The Honduran Coup

Major OUCH!! Women Say They Were Shocked By Breast Pumps

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