Let's Check in on the War on Women

It's been some time since I've checked in on the War on Women, and not because there hasn't been ample proof of it. Just recently, the House Republicans passed a rather gross and unscientific ban on abortions after 20 weeks gestation based on the bad science that 20 week fetus' are "capable of pain". Let's have Dr. Michael Burgess, R-TX give us his medical opinion about those fetuses

If you didn't quite catch that--he said male fetuses are purposefully putting their hands between their legs. (No wonder newborn babies can't focus their eyes, if what the nuns said was true.) Let's just leave aside that this is asinine (although not especially more asinine than when his fellow OB/GYN-trained colleague Phil Gingrey performed the Akin Maneuver , nor more asinine than when Trent Franks not only performed the Akin Maneuver, but fundraised off of it, basically saying, "How dare liberals use my verbatim sentiments against me--by the way, give me money because I meant every word!") and concentrate on...

Oh damn. I just can't get over the asinine part. A 15 week old fetus is like four inches long. It barely has a central nervous system. It is most definitely not purposefully feeling up on itself.  You know who does do purposeful stuff, though?

The woman whose body the fetus is in. She also feels pain. She can think, and make decisions. Her personhood is established. I wonder why so much of the debate ignores or makes light of her involvement with the process.

Could it be that the GOP doesn't give a merry fuck about women? Because if they did, maybe more GOP congress people would have voted for VAWA to protect the bodies of women--which sometimes even have fetuses in them! Or maybe they would realize that voting to repeal Obamacare or voting to defund Planned Parenthood would deprive a lot of child-bearing age women of access to affordable pre-natal care. They would want to ensure that women earned enough to care for themselves and their families, and not assume that women aren't concerned about income inequality. 

If the GOP was interested in having the public not think there was a War on Women, maybe they could try not actually waging battle after battle against the interests of women?  Just a thought.