Female Trouble--To John Waters

++As of last night,in 2013 alone there have been 625 bills around the country to regulate women's bodies. There have been none for men's bodies, although a women legislator in Ohio wanted to introduce a law that before a man could get viagra, he would have to have a stress test, a medical exam, and a note from his partner he was impotent. 

++Last night North Carolina remains committed to destroying all gains it has made in the last twenty years by slipping an anti-abortion law onto a bill outlawing Sharia Law. This is another one of the pro-life stunts--imposing onerous license requirements for doctors and bizarre architectural mandates on clinics. Between Virginia and North Carolina, it seems anti-abortion people want to stimulate the construction trade.

++Surrounded by all men, John Kasich of Ohio signed his budget into law, including another strict anti-abortion law. The whole purpose is to lay the groundwork for a presidential run. A rape counseling law makes it illegal for a victim to be informed about choices including abortion.

++Another Governor checking his anti-choice credentials is Rick Perry in Texas as the special session of their Senate has been convened for the sole purpose of restricting access to abortion rights.

++Trying to protect himself from the fallout of his support for immigration reform, Senator Rubio will introduce into the Senate a draconian anti-abortion bill.

++Nate "The Great" Silver says polling on abortion bills is tricky. Huge majorities of the public believe abortion should be legal for the first trimester, a significant drop-off occurs for the second trimester, and a further erosion of support for the third trimester. Only 1.5% of abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute, occur in the second trimester. But the second trimester extends beyond the current state 20-week limits. 

**The ultimate aim of these states are to make it physically impossible for women to get abortions within state limits. The dramatic shrinkage of clinics in Texas after the new law wipes out the viability of those clinics in west and central Texas. 

**Andrew Sullivan argues the Catholic Church should be tolerant of same-sex marriage since it lives in a society of divorce, which is the only thing Jesus prohibited. I would argue like George Carlin that they should support same-sex marriage because gays and lesbians have the lowest incidence of abortion in the country. Natural allies, no?

** Women's reproductive health is going to be under even greater threat as we move toward the 2014 elections. The next issue up will be the availability of contraceptives for unmarried people. The American Taliban knows no limits.