The War on Pregnant Women

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As if pregnant women didn’t have enough to worry about, Congress is doing its best to deny them health care.

Yup, incredibly, the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed HR 358, which would allow hospitals to refuse to provide a woman lifesaving, emergency abortion care — even if she will die without it.

“This is not an isolated vote; it’s part of an ongoing agenda that we must fight every day. In fact, the ‘Let Women Die’ bill is the seventh vote on choice taken in the House this year. It is yet another example of just how out of touch anti-choice politicians are with the country’s values and priorities,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

It’s no different on the state level. Newsweek reports “State lawmakers in the U.S. passed more than 50 measures in the first half of 2011 restricting abortion and undermining family planning.” So what if the public cares about jobs, jobs, jobs — politicians need to earn their pro-life merit badges, pregnant women be damned.

A truly frightening kick in the belly to pregnant women is the “personhood” movement which seeks to redefine zygotes as humans in all 50 state constitutions. Sounds harmless enough, right? Consider the fact that about one-third of fertilized human eggs are expelled (i.e., aborted), often before the woman even realizes she’s pregnant. That means millions of dead “children” in the U.S. requiring a coroner’s review.

A fertilized egg is the same as a human? The only way to enforce such a bizarre and irrational law would be to require all women of child-bearing age to submit to monthly pregnancy tests. Gee… what a way to create a fascist state, pro-lifers.

As if morning sickness, sleeplessness, gas, swollen ankles, leering strangers, worrying about getting fat and I-hope-it’s-a-boy jerks aren’t enough, the pregnant woman has money worries. If she works for a small company, there’s a good chance she will be “let go” for getting pregnant. If she doesn’t have a job, there’s virtually no chance she’ll get hired. If she’s single, odds are she doesn’t have health insurance. She’s lucky to keep her job at all and most likely will get no paid maternity leave.

In other words, pregnant women are screwed. Oddly, this is a uniquely American phenomenon. Out of 168 nations in a Harvard study, 163 had some form of paid maternity leave, “leaving the U.S. in the company of Lesotho, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland,” according to USA Today.

If you know a pregnant woman, please be kind to her. It ain’t easy perpetuating the species, but someone’s got to….