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The election of Tea Party candidates and extreme GOPers in 2010 is having its consequences as they begin to legislate their 18th century view of women. With the recent Komen Foundation assault on Planned Parenthood, many GOP-controlled states introducing medically-unnecessary,"trans-vaginal ultra-sounds" anti-abortion laws, and Santorum as well as Senators Rubio and Blunt speaking out against mandatory contraceptive coverage in medical plans, many women feel under attack.
But I didn't realize how angry they are: I was a little shocked to read the following new poem by Marge Piercy, the highly-acclaimed American poetess, full of rage at the Republicans for trying to control her body:
Ethics for Republicans
by Marge Piercy
An embryo is precious;
a woman is a vessel.
A fertilized egg is a person;
a woman is indentured to it.
An embryo is sacred until birth.
After that, he/she is on their own.
Abortion is murder. Rape,
incest are means to an end:
that precious fertilized egg
housed in an expendable body.
Let us make babies and babies
and babies; chlldren are something
else, probably future criminals,
probably welfare cheats whose
education hikes taxes. You
can freely dispose of them.
Pollsters are seeing a political cost for all this GOP women-bashing and Tea Party over-reach on social issues. Look at the latest polls in Virginia, after the GOP introduced the infamous trans-vaginal ulta-sound law in that state's legislature. Women are pissed...
I understand this. For decades, gays have been bullied by social conservatives, who now make up over 50% of GOP voters. That's why I argue that gays, women, and other minorities must stick together -- our collective independence and freedom threaten the prevailing social order created by conservative mostly heterosexual men. Together, we are winning these culture wars...but often it is messy and ugly work.
And it is okay to be angry!
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