Which folder? Humor or Politics?

 

The mis-named Women's Health Protection Act of 2021

This is the Leftists' reaction to the Texas Heartbeat Law. If enacted, the Women’s Health Protection Act would endanger essentially all state-level abortion restrictions, existing state and federal conscience protection laws, and various provisions limiting taxpayer funding for abortions.

H.R.3755 - Women's Health Protection Act of 2021--The most anti-life, anti-woman piece of legislation ever proposed by loyal, devoted Catholic Speaker Pelosi. It uses every intersectional and CRT term you can imagine. It lies about Black women, who bear the brunt of abortions. This Act which has "women" in the title, uses "person" more often in the language than women. Since only women have babies, it ought to be tossed just for that reason. Not once does it mention the ghoulish methods used to kill late term babies or the selling of their body parts.

"To protect a person’s ability to determine whether to continue or end a pregnancy,"

"for the preservation of the life or health of the person who is pregnant."

"access to abortion services is critical to the health of every person capable of becoming pregnant. "

 
"This Act is intended to protect all people with the capacity for pregnancy—cisgender women, transgender men, non-binary individuals, those who identify with a different gender,"

"unduly burdening people’s personal and private medical decisions" [seems that doesn't matter for the jab where the power of the feds can force you out of your job]

"where a person’s life and health is at risk" [but not the little person who matters the most--U.S. is one of 4 countries in the world where a baby can be aborted on the due date]

"Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize any government to interfere with a person’s ability to terminate a pregnancy" [at any time for any reason, and no previous care before termination is required]

"affect a person’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy," [there is no such right in the Constitution]

This is NOT HEALTH. This is legalizing murder and shifting more power to the federal government than it already has.

More Radical Than Roe: House Abortion Bill Would Repeal Existing Laws, Prohibit Future Pro-Life Laws | The Heritage Foundation

Stay awake, not woke.

Normally, I wouldn’t be reading Refinery29, a digital media source established in 2015. It’s owned by something called Vice Media which in turn is Disney, A & E, and other media investors.   It’s for young fashionistas in New York. But then, it’s the modern version of Woman’s Day or Ladies Home Journal which influenced women of the last century with heath and fashion while being obedient to the needs of the marketing department. 

One of the founders and CEOs Christine Barberich  (the other 3 are all males) resigned in June because a minority employee had said bad things about her and the toxic work atmosphere on her Twitter account. Twitter users can say anything and the accused is toast.  Twitter has so much power it has silenced the President of the U.S., and because it is a private company, freedom of speech does not apply.  Maybe you think that’s great because you don’t like the president.  Just keep in mind there is someone out there who doesn’t like YOU too, maybe an ex-, or a member of your club, or even an adult child. The laws about employee and management put in place over the years to protect you, don’t apply to gossip and whispers on social media. Your union or employer will not protect you if the charge (no hearings or trial) contain the magic word, RACIST.  You could have your life’s purpose and meaning closed out and cancelled by Twitter.

But back to Refinery29—why was I reading a digital style magazine for shallow, young New Yorkers? Because it was quoted in the Ohio State University  “OSU HealthBeat” which I received in e-mail. Elizabeth Gulino in Refinery29  was quoting in “The COVID-19 Vaccine Won’t Make You Infertile” the OSU Iahn Gonsenhauser, MD, chief quality and patient safety officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.  Then HealthBeat also linked to two other articles that quoted R29 which quoted an OSU doctor. This raises R29’s credibility as a serious journal, and OSU’s appeal to the younger set. A two-fer.

Here’s the kicker (I actually did some further research on this issue, and completely agree with Dr. Gonsenhauser who is quoted in many other popular websites.)  Refinery29 is so woke and so alert to every possible misstep of intersectionalism, it has begun to cancel women by referring to “pregnant people.”  You may skip right over that when you read about pregnancies (the way God designed the plan for males and females to procreate).  That change has moved into the language and fanciful unscientific beliefs because of women calling themselves men while still hanging on to all their lady parts. It’s along the same line as Pelosi destroying the “gendered family.”  It’s all about cancelling women and their uniqueness.

“There is limited data about the safety of receiving COVID vaccinations during pregnancy. Pregnant people are typically excluded from clinical trials due to concerns about harming the fetus (although many argue that keeping pregnant people out of trials leads to their health needs being underrepresented). Twenty-three of the participants in Pfizer's trial became pregnant over the course of the study, but that's too small of a sample to tell us much. Dr. Olulade says that people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to become pregnant [paraphrase] should talk to their doctor before getting the vaccine (everyone should!). "Ultimately it’s about weighing the risks of the unknown when it comes to the vaccine in pregnant women [direct quote] versus the known dangerous risks of COVID."

You and I are awake, not woke.  We know that pregnant people are women, and that people who are pregnant or breastfeeding are women. Every time you read about “pregnant people,” or see an adjective in front of the word “justice,” you are being manipulated. When the kettle heating the water to boil the frog for dinner gets hot enough, it’s too late for you to jump out and save yourself.

Update:  Facebook gave me a black mark for posting this link to my own blog (owned by Google) to my FB wall.  I'm directly quoting a source that quoted an OSU doctor speaking on Covid, yet Facebook fact checkers find my opinion about being woke objectionable.

Joan’s new great grandchild, guest blogger

“Our granddaughter is a few weeks pregnant - still in the first trimester. She had tests this week that tell doctors what gender that baby is, whether he/she has any abnormalities such as Down Syndrome, Cystic Fibrosis, etc., and whether the developing body parts are developing normally. His/her gender is part of the basic structure of this little human being. Nobody is “assigning” a gender or forecasting his/her humanity. The doctor doesn’t say, “The clump of cells that might be his head is forming normally.” They say, “The baby’s head is normal size and shape.” This baby IS already who he/she is. Just sayin’ “

Two months ago

Where were you 2 months ago? Sept 8. Looking back at my diary, I see it was a quiet, peaceful Sunday, good church service and we were getting back into our fall routine after a great summer at Lakeside. Not a thought about brain cancer and how our lives would change forever in a few weeks.

And where were you 2 months before you were born? I was living a very quiet, peaceful life in my mother's womb, kicking and swimming, and so were you (different years and different mother, of course). Mom was 27 and chasing after my 2 older sisters. I don't know if we--all of us--were living at 203 E. Hitt St., not sure I ever asked when they bought the home I remember. The newspapers were full of the growing tension in Europe caused by Hitler who in a few weeks, about the time of my birth, would march into Poland, but the U.S., including FDR, was still planning to be neutral.

Two months before you and I were born we were the same persons we are today, just smaller. Yet there are women walking into "clinics" today, November 8, who have changed their minds and will kill their babies who could have survived outside the womb. “Oh, but that's rare,” you say—“It's a woman's right.” OK, name the figure, the number of babies, that is acceptable to you. 50? 100? Perhaps 1,000? Pick a number.

And remember, once you too were counting down 2 months to launch.

Why the women in white who cheered and chanted are so frightening

“I've spent the majority of the day today, as I do every day these days, feeling my unborn baby move. But today, I've been more in tune to the precious life that's growing inside of me. I feel her rearranging herself, kicking, and trying to get more comfortable. I feel her hiccups. I feel her react to different things I eat. Especially if it's cold or if it's chocolate. I feel her respond to her daddy's hand on my stomach or his voice talking to her. I feel her respond to music I play. I feel her excitement when she hears her sisters playing and laughing. I feel her stillness when things are chaotic, listening to hear what's going on. I feel her. Living. She's a living, breathing life. Right now. In my womb.

Last night, I sat and listened to the POTUS ask congress to put an end to late term abortion. LATE TERM ABORTION. As he spoke, half of the room erupted in standing applause. The other half is what completely perplexed me. I watched in horror as Nancy bit whatever it is she bit in her mouth the entire night. I watched as Chuck smirked and smiled about the murdering of babies at full term, in the birth canal. And I watched as the women in white sat stone cold silent, arms crossed, grimaces on their face, seemingly in opposition of this request.

When did this happen? How did this happen? When did LATE TERM abortion become ok or acceptable NATIONWIDE? Are you telling me that not a single one.... NOT ONE, of the women in white oppose the murder of innocent blood? Is that really a democratic thing? I know a ton of people on the left who oppose late term abortion. Some of them even oppose abortion in general. You're telling me not one of our elected democratic representatives oppose it up to the day of birth? I don't get it. Do they really lack in the most basic of morals? Or, are they scared? So scared to stand and applause the life they fight so hard for in other settings, in front of their fearless leader chomping at the bit behind the podium? Are they scared of their constituents? What are they afraid of? They sure aren't afraid of the God who breathed His own breath into these unborn children, the SAME God who created them. The God who says He Himself knit us in the womb, and that He knew us before He formed us. They aren't scared of Him.

I got the message loud and clear. You wore white. You stand in unity for "women's rights"- women who agree with you at least. You cheered, chanted, and applauded your own huge accomplishments of beating out your male opponents. You are proud. You should be. You have the chance to make a difference and to speak truth, to make changes. But last night, you failed. You were an embarrassment. You were a bunch of cowards. Your silence was selfish. You were selfish. You were everything a strong woman is not. And you do not represent me.”

Sarah Dolan Cox

Murder as cause of death of pregnant women

During the Kavanaugh hearings you saw/heard unhinged women and even a few in Congress claiming women will die if Kavanaugh becomes a justice and SCOTUS is faced with interpreting the law instead of making it up or relying on feelings. Those women should know that pregnant women and new mothers are already dying--but it's from murder. And you don't hear a lot about it. (The article cited is from 2001, although there are newer ones from CDC.) First, most of these murder victims are young and black, and unless a policeman somehow factors in, you don't hear much when black men kill their pregnant girlfriends. Second, over 60% of women who have abortions are pressured or forced into it--obviously, not a good Planned Parenthood marketing slogan. And many who refuse, are killed.

"We found that homicide was the leading cause of death among women who were pregnant ... and accounted for 20% of deaths among that group, compared with 6% of deaths among nonpregnant women of reproductive age," says author Isabelle Horon, DrPH, from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who conducted a study that looked at pregnancy-associated deaths from 1993 to 1998.

Coming in second, heart disease was found to account for 19% of deaths during pregnancy.

https://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20010320/number-1-cause-of-death-in-pregnant-women-murder

JAMA. 2001;285(11):1455-1459. doi:10.1001/jama.285.11.1455 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/193666

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6628a1.htm

Unintended pregnancies in the military

Active duty women in the U.S. military are more likely (one study says 50%) to have an unintended pregnancy than civilian women in the U.S. population (7% compared to 5%). There's no shortage of insurance or education or birth control, the 3 things liberals like to site as the reason we need legal abortion. So why is this? I don't know--but I'm sure there will now be demands for the Department of Defense to pay for abortions.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/militarymedicine/74959

Does the Left publish faulty information?

How often do leftist media get it wrong? A lot. Note the corrections on this article about ultrasound which appeared in The Atlantic, "How Ultrasound became political." Jan. 24, 2017. Even the amended parts had to be amended. Do these writers know how to use Google to check ordinary facts (skipping the first 10-20 entries which are always biased)?

"* This article originally stated that there is "no heart to speak of" in a 6-week-old fetus. In fact, the heart has already begun to form by that point in a pregnancy. The article also originally stated that an expectant mother participating in a study decided to carry her pregnancy to term even after learning that the fetus was suffering from a genetic disorder, when in fact the fetus was only at high risk for a genetic disorder. The article originally stated, as well, that Bernard Nathanson headed the National Right-to-Life Committee and became a born-again Christian. Nathanson was active in, but did not head the committee, and was never a born-again Christian, but rather a Roman Catholic. The article originally stated that many doctors in 1985 claimed fetuses had no reflexive responses to medical instruments at 12 weeks. Finally, the article originally stated that John Kasich vetoed a bill from Indiana's legislature, instead of Ohio's legislature, after which the article was incorrectly amended to state that Mike Pence had vetoed the bill. We regret the errors."

The day I told Muhammed I was pregnant

College graduation photo, 1961

After we married in September 1960 we lived in Indianapolis where Bob worked at Ayrshire Collieries as a draftsman and I worked at General Mold and Engineering as a secretary. Neither of us had finished college. And once married, the daughters in our family were the responsibility of their husbands, according to my father.  Forgotten today is that there was a 10 month recession in 1960-1961 and although it hadn't been that difficult to find a job in July, by December when I quit due to sexual harassment, things were looking bleak. So I decided to go back to the University of Illinois, leaving my husband in Indianapolis where he lived not with his parents, but the parents of his best friend, Tom Moir. I found a room to rent with Maude Peters in Urbana, Illinois. Bob drove to Urbana every week-end, and would leave about 3 a.m. on Monday morning to get to work.

I never really had morning sickness when I was pregnant, but within a few weeks of beginning the spring semester I knew something wasn't quite right. I was signed up for a heavy course load, with student teaching scheduled for--gasp, high school Spanish--at Urbana High School, within walking distance of Miss Peter's home.

I had walked out of the main reading room in the university library where I studied (I think I had a ride to campus with Sandy who lived above me in Miss Peters' home) to look for a pay phone to call my mother.  I  ran into Muhammed Mustafa, an Egyptian civil engineering graduate student I'd dated the previous spring.  He was a nice man, lots of fun and he tried to teach me Arabic (or so he said).  One day a girl friend pulled me aside and told me to be careful--Muhammed had bought a new suit.  So? I asked.  Well, when an Egyptian student does that he plans to get married.  I was shocked.  I enjoyed dating many foreign students--Israeli, Russian, Chinese--and was strictly a secular Christian, but marriage to a Muslim was not my intention--just "cultural exchange." So I didn't date him anymore.

Anyway, although details are fuzzy after 56 years, he noticed the sad look on my face, and I told him I thought I was pregnant and we didn't have any money and neither of us had finished school. His face lit up like a Christmas tree.  That's so wonderful, he exclaimed.  What a blessing! I don't remember, but he may have even hugged me. Suddenly, finding just one person who was happy I was pregnant (and it certainly wasn't me) and that new life would be an exciting adventure, changed my whole outlook. I called Mom, who was always her practical, sensible self assuring we would get through this. She told me my sisters were also pregnant and it looked like the babies were all due the same week in the fall.

I've been watching a lot of programs this week (from bed since I've been ill) on EWTN about abortion, women's marches, pro-choice arguments, etc.  And I realize how just a small amount of positive feedback can change a woman's idea about life within her.  It's not that I'd even considered abortion--not sure I even knew what that was in 1961--but I was being flooded with hormones, thoughts of not finishing school and bills piling up. Lucky for me, I ran into a Muslim friend instead of a feminist or pro-choicer (we also didn't have that term then, but they were lurking).

Mother and child

Zika and microcephaly

I was listening to a radio news report on Zika on the car radio Friday morning, the mosquito borne pandemic, and almost hit the curb. (It was still dark.) The announcer urged caution for "women carrying children." Truth. It wasn't a clump of cells, a fetus, or even a baby. Children. How did that ever slip past the censor?

 http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/

 "It is not known how common microcephaly has become in Brazil’s outbreak. About three million babies are born in Brazil each year. Normally, about 150 cases of microcephaly are reported, and Brazil says it is investigating nearly 4,000 cases."

 http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/health/what-is-zika-virus.html?

A new abortion clinic for Columbus area

Last week, Mervyn Samuel, a well-known Columbus abortionist, expanded his business to Pickerington, Ohio. He now has three offices in the Columbus area. Yesterday, Pregnancy Decision Health Center decided that it needs to be there to minister to the women attracted to abortion and to give the women of Pickerington a REAL choice. It will take a lot of work to get up and running. And, it will take about $250,000. So maybe you don't want to march, maybe you're just tired of the back and forth about life and choice and the value of life of the unborn. But I challenge all my central Ohio friends to donate, especially if you are a member of an adoption triad:

Pregnancy Decision Health Centers, 665 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., Suite 120, Columbus, OH 43229.

Supplements for pregnant women

In the United States medical researchers probably can’t put poor black or brown women into three groups, give them different pre-natal supplements (MMS, multiple micronutrient supplementation vs iron-folic acid using  either 60-mg or 30-mg iron formulations), and then wait to see what would happen to the babies in a few years.  But it can still be done in Bangladesh.

I was given pre-natal vitamins (huge horse pills) as soon as I knew I was pregnant in 1961.  I knew without being told just from my upbringing that I needed to eat healthy; I stopped drinking coffee (made me sick).  I went back to drinking milk every day.  I gained very little weight.   However, in poor countries it is harder to eat better.

The surprising thing about “Effects of prenatal micronutrient and early food supplementation” research published in the May 16, 2012 JAMA is that although by age 5, the children in one group of the multiple micronutrient study were healthier, fewer of them actually made it to term. The special supplements (of any of the 3 types) had few or no benefits on birth length, weight or reducing still birth.

Mortality rates for offspring were highest among the women randomized to MMS combined with the usual invitation to food supplementation, mainly caused by asphyxia. Furthermore, this treatment group had significantly higher incidence of spontaneous abortions. The late pregnancy losses were lower in the usual invitation with MMS group, resulting in no difference in RR of total fetal loss across treatment groups.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1157489

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1157470

Nearly all of Texas’ anti-abortion subcontractors are Christian groups

This is wrong. Morally and ethically and pragmatically. It weakens the churches and prevents them from proclaiming their message of salvation to people who are poor, suffering and vulnerable.

From 2006 to 2010, the state spent $11.7 million on its Texas Alternatives to Abortion Services Program, with nearly $7 million of that finding its way to 33 nonprofits (all but one with Christian affiliations) via the state’s primary contractor, the nonprofit Texas Pregnancy Care Network, according to public records obtained by the Texas Independent.
The Alternatives to Abortion Program — funded by state and federal money — was created in the 2005 legislative session for “the development and operation of a statewide program for females focused on pregnancy support services that promote childbirth,” according to the contract between the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and TPCN.

Nearly all of Texas’ anti-abortion subcontractors are Christian groups | The Washington Independent

Whether it's pregnancy services, summer lunch programs, food pantries, tutoring and language services, housing programs, financial counseling or jobs programming, churches need to cut the siphon that leads to the federal and state governments' money tank. If we're not allowed to discuss Christian marriage with the recipient of counseling services, or tell Bible stories while the children eat lunch, then it's time to ask member Christians for more money and tell the feds to get out of your church.

Third world children are America's lab rats

Parul Christian, DrPH
Center for Human Nutrition
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
615 N. Wolfe St
Room W2041
Baltimore, MD 21205

Dear Dr. Christian,

Today I read the account of your research done on Nepalese children in the Dec 22/29, 2010 issue of JAMA.

My first pregnancy was in 1961 and I received prenatal vitamins containing iron, and I believe the need for folic acid has been known and added to prenatal vitamins since before 1990. For some years it has been known that the relationship between zinc and iron is iffy, with the benefits of each perhaps cancelling the other.

Why is it ethical to experiment on third world children when we already know the benefits of prenatal supplements, and have known for 50 years or more? The control group will remain behind the supplement group for the rest of their lives. Just looking through other studies on the interaction of zinc and iron, I see Bloomberg is supporting research on poor children in other countries. So was that the real point of this research, to show that zinc is not useful as a supplement?

Norma Bruce
Faculty Emeritus
The Ohio State University

Parul Christian, Dr. P.H., of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and colleagues conducted a study to assess intellectual and motor functioning in a group of 676 children, aged 7 to 9 years in June 2007-April 2009, who had been born to women in 4 of 5 groups of a community-based, randomized controlled trial of prenatal micronutrient supplementation conducted between 1999 and 2001 in rural Nepal. Study children were also in the placebo group of a subsequent preschool iron and zinc supplementation trial. Women whose children were followed up had been randomly assigned to receive daily iron/folic acid, iron/folic acid/zinc, or multiple micronutrients containing these plus 11 other micronutrients, all with vitamin A, vs. a control group of vitamin A alone from early pregnancy through 3 months postpartum. These children did not receive additional micronutrient supplementation other than biannual vitamin A supplementation. Through various tests, intellectual (including memory and reasoning), executive (such as processing speed) and motor function (such as manual dexterity and balance) were assessed.

The researchers found that maternal prenatal supplementation with iron and folic acid was positively associated with general intellectual ability, some aspects of executive function, and motor function, including fine motor control, in offspring in a rural area where iron deficiency is prevalent. In general, the differences in test scores between the other intervention groups and controls were not statistically significant.
http://pubs.ama-assn.org/media/2010j/1221.dtl#3

Stress, work and health--of your baby

It's been a lot of years since I was pregnant--over 40, in fact. I do remember it being a time of some stress, although not from being employed. It wasn't all that easy to get or keep a job back in the 60s if you were pregnant. Some of the protectionist employment laws (there were special lounges and required work breaks for females--thinking I guess that men and women were different, something the feminists have tried to disprove) probably saved a lot of women. I do remember running the cash register at the Green Street Pharmacy and that my legs got really tired from hours of standing. However, emotional stress is probably just as damaging. I came across the following in "Take control of your aging," by Dr. William Marlarkey of Ohio State (Wooster Book Company, 1999). He did a lecture series at our church a few years back, but I didn't go--maybe didn't want to know? But this week I checked his book out of the church library.

"A study of pregnancy in attorneys noted that working a great number of hours during the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with a greater risk of miscarriage compared with lawyers who worked fewer hours. This study of 584 attorneys compared those who worked more than 45 hours per week with those women who worked less than 35 hours per week. The more hours a woman worked, the more likely she was to report feeling stressed. Those women who were partners or associates in a law firm were more likely to report stress, as were those involved in criminal law and litigation. Facts inducing stress were political intrigue, backbiting, lack of opportunity for promotion, advancement not determined by the quality of work, and lack of respect from superiors. Working more than 45 hours a week was associated with a three-fold increase in the miscarriage rate when controlling for other factors as age, smoking, and alcohol intake. Women who drank seven or more alcoholic drinks a week in the first trimester were five times more likely to have a miscarriage." p. 128-129

I don't like the bibliography in this book. Like many books that are written for a lay audience but contain technical material, there is a bibliography at the end, but no references to it in the text. So I had to go to Google to find the source of this article--in fact, as near as I can tell, his staff missed this one for the chapter on Stress, Emotions and Health. Here it is with the abstract, just so you know Dr. Malarkey isn't full of malarkey.

Self-Reported Stress and Reproductive Health of Female Lawyers.
Original Article
Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 39(6):556-568, June 1997.
Schenker, Marc B. MD; Eaton, Muzza PhD; Green, Rochelle MS; Samuels, Steven PhD

Abstract:
We studied the prevalence and relationship of stress and working conditions with adverse reproductive outcomes in a cohort of female US law-school alumnae. A total of 584 female lawyers (74% response), aged 25 to 63, responded to a mailed questionnaire. Job hours per week was a strong predictor of job stress. In a logistic regression analysis, women working >45 hours/week were five times as likely to report high stress as those working <35 hours/week. Marriage and length of time on the job showed a small inverse association with stress. Women who worked more than 45 hours/week during their first trimester of pregnancy were more likely to report high stress at work during pregnancy. After being adjusted for confounding factors, weekly job hours during the first trimester of pregnancy showed a strong independent association with spontaneous abortion risk (odds ratio [OR], 3.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4 to 6.6). Seven or more alcohol drinks/week was also independently associated with spontaneous abortion risk (OR, 4.8; 95% CI, 1.5 to 18.1). Self-reported stress during pregnancy was positively but not statistically significantly associated with spontaneous abortion (OR, 1.4; 95% CI 0.8 to 2.3).

I mention this report because we think that being unemployed or having hours reduced is stressful, but based on what the workplace does to your emotions and body, perhaps it might be a blessing in disguise--especially if you are pregnant. But even if you're not pregnant, many things that happen in the workplace are not good for you. This layoff, cut back, job change just might save your life, or at least give you more years to enjoy your retirement when you've packed away the briefcase, locked the meeting room door, and sumitted your last report.

The Freedom to Abort Act

It's known as "Freedom of Choice" Act but that's a euphemism, because another human dies by the choice of a woman (who may in fact have no choice at all being pressured by boyfriend, employers, parents or friends). We have about 1.2 million abortions a year, but that is a slight reduction from 1.5 a few years ago, and that has feminists worried. Some women are chosing not to abort, when clearly it would be in "the best interests of society" because they are minorities, poor, not too bright, or have a terrific career ahead if unincumbered if they could be convinced to abort the life within.

4/19/2007--Introduced.
Freedom of Choice Act - Declares that it is the policy of the United States that every woman has the fundamental right to choose to: (1) bear a child; (2) terminate a pregnancy prior to fetal viability; or (3) terminate a pregnancy after fetal viability when necessary to protect her life or her health.

Prohibits a federal, state, or local governmental entity from: (1) denying or interfering with a woman's right to exercise such choices; or (2) discriminating against the exercise of those rights in the regulation or provision of benefits, facilities, services, or information. Provides that such prohibition shall apply retroactively.

Authorizes an individual aggrieved by a violation of this Act to obtain appropriate relief, including relief against a governmental entity, in a civil action.

Full Text of FOCA

"The first thing I'd do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing that I'd do." -- Senator Barack Obama, speaking to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, July 17, 2007
If you are a Christian doctor or nurse, LPN, etc., you will not be able to exercise your conscience: "Federal protection of a woman's right to choose to prevent or terminate a pregnancy falls within this affirmative power of Congress, in part, because" . . ."reproductive health clinics employ doctors, nurses, and other personnel who travel across State lines in order to provide reproductive health services to patients." And if this works like other government edicts about ethics and morality your church will not be allowed to speak out against abortion without losing it's government medical benefits for staff, government protection of pension benefits, and its tax exempt and non-profit status. All local ordinances and regulation of abortion will now be disallowed, including parental notification.

"This Act applies to every Federal, State, and local statute, ordinance, regulation, administrative order, decision, policy, practice, or other action enacted, adopted, or implemented before, on, or after the date of enactment of this Act."

Is Juno really a comedy?

The first thing that isn't funny is the cost of Saturday matinee tickets at the Lennox--$7.00--and a small bag of popcorn, $4.50. If the theatre weren't 5 minutes from our house, I'd add travel costs and call it a $20.00 date. And then there's the movie. Not funny, folks. If this is what Canada and the Academy call a comedy, I'd hate to sit through a tragedy. The cast, however, is outstanding as is the writing (Amazon.com says Cody is a former phone sex operater--is that a joke?), directing, the setting, and the graphics. Music not so much.

Spoiler coming, from a member of the Triad, so don't look if you want to be surprised. The plot is about a nerdy, smart-mouth, cursing/cussing teen who gets pregnant by seducing her best friend, a blank faced guy in her band. The sex act isn't explicit, but you certainly get the idea. We see mostly his skinny legs and his love-sick, droopy eyes because he runs track during all seasons and really loves Juno, who never lets him in on a single decision she's making about their baby. The fact that it involved a lounge chair (which she dumps in his front yard when she tells him) is a joke that must appeal to the young. I heard loud guffaws. Same with the toilet scene pregnancy test. I didn't even smile.

Juno and her best (girl) friend first pick out an abortion clinic, which fortunately she rejects while in the waiting room with really obnoxious people, and then together they find an adoptive couple in a fish-wrapper newspaper. This is why the reviewers call her whip-smart and "mature." Again, it didn't impress me.

Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner are outstanding as the mismatched adoptive couple Juno finds in an ad--he hungering for freedom and her longing for a baby. Their part of the story line is also the saddest, in my opinion. Juno will go on with her life (we hope), but that mommy will be raising a baby alone. As far as maturity goes, Juno is way more mature than the father she has picked, who initially she likes more than the would-be mother because they can talk about alternative music (I don't know the genre--what would "Moldy Peaches" be?). Are you beginning to grasp what mature means in today's films?

The one, true, "real" mother in this movie is Juno's step-mother, Brenda. Juno's own mother abandoned her years ago--part of her motivation to find a true family for her baby. The scenes between step-mom and daughter are just delightful. I really did laugh in the scene of the ultrasound, where Bren tells off the tech. Dad (J.K. Simmons) is OK--good lines, but he's about as casual as he is on "The Closer." Always seems to be playing himself.

Would I see it again? Yes. I'd like to catch some of the lines I didn't hear during the inappropriate laughing because people think it is so hilarious when a tiny 16 year old pregnant girl swears like a Marine.