MS Senate’s Sneak Attack on Teens, Families
Planned Parenthood writes:
Last week, we defeated the Child Protection Act (which was really a teen endangerment act) in the House, and now the Senate has put the language from that bill in as an amendment on another bill - HB 520.
HB 520 punishes parents for having trusting relationships with their teens and pits family members against each other. The possibility of family members suing each other because one tried to help a teen relative access safe health care could tear Mississippi families apart.
HB 520 creates an unconstitutional burden on teens. Minors without parental involvement may well have to go to court to obtain judicial waivers of two states’ laws: Mississippi’s and the state’s where they are obtaining an abortion, requiring the minor to go through two legal procedures in two states’ courts. This will delay minors’ abortions, creating unconstitutional burdens on their right to privacy and their right to travel interstate to seek medical care.
HB 520 infringes on First Amendment rights. The bill could inhibit the provision of factual information to minors about the services provided by out of state health centers as providing such information potentially could be viewed as “assisting” or “aiding” a minor to obtain an out of state abortion.
By traveling to a neighboring state, Mississippi teens are not evading parental consent requirements. In fact, every state surrounding Mississippi already has a parental consent law with which women seeking an abortion must comply.
HB 520 completely ignores geographic and economic realities. Out of state travel is often the simplest and least financially burdensome way for women to obtain needed medical services.
The mandatory reporting requirements of HB 520 expands reporting to include instances where teens are involved in normal sexual activity with other teens.
HB 520 removes the ability of health professionals, clergy members, teachers and childcare providers to make judgments as to whether teens are engaging in normal sexual activity and instead mandates that they report a wide range of sexual behaviors.
Please send emails or call:
Rep. Willie Bailey, Judiciary B Committee Chairman, phone: 601-359-1541
Speaker of the House William McCoy, phone: 601-359-3300, and
Your own legislator
Ask them to oppose the mandatory reporting requirements and abortion restrictions in the amendment to HB 520 because they are a threat to the health of Mississippi teens.
Please send your emails or make your calls immediately to help defeat this bill. It could receive a final vote as early as Friday morning (tomorrow) and could be on the Governor’s desk tomorrow if we don’t act now!
Distribute far and wide, please.
Filed under feminism, politics, pro-choice | Comment (0)Signs You’ve Become a Complete Food Dork
Jackson got a Fresh Market, and we inspected it yesterday. I’d gotten spoiled by all the Whole Foods locations in Atlanta, and lamented not having access to sashimi grade fish, a bakery with real buttercream, European Butter, fresh mozz, etc.
I wandered around in sensory overload, numbed by Easter Egg radishes, blown away that they, too, thought there were greens other than Collards fit for eating.
Soon, we’d walked past the bakery and gelato, and Matthew (with an understated flourish) gestured towards the cheese section. To be fair, our local Kroger has a surprisingly kick-ass cheese station, but there are a few things pointedly missing from their assortment.
That’s when I saw it. Directly behind my dear husband’s hand, there was a huge wheel with a particularly distinctive font decorating its rind.
Locatelli.
I could lie and say I was excited.
To be entirely honest, I jumped up and down, flapped my hands and squawked in such an unseemly fashion, people must have thought Matthew proposed to me with a gigantic wheel of cheese. Lottery Jackpot winners comport themselves with more dignity and grace. Matthew, bless him, did not suddenly pretend I was some cheese-fetishizing maniac stranger.
When I am gone from this world, I hope I am remembered as the girl who’d turn somersaults for a fine wheel of cheese.
Filed under food, geek | Comments (8)Words Cannot Possibly Contain My Glee
But imagine this little post is peppered with rapid hand-flailing and exclamation points.
Joss Whedon is making another musical.
Joss Whedon is making another musical with Neil Patrick Harris.
Joss Whedon is making a musical with Nathon Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris.
Joss Whedon is making a short-form musical with Nathon Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris and it’s called DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-A-LONG BLOG.
Ahem. It also includes the utterly adorable geekgirl/wee Slayer Felicia Day.
Links here, here, here and here.
Filed under fangirl | Comments (2)Migration
I decided to move the majority of my writing from LiveJournal to a proper blog because I disliked the idea of a company being able to censor my opinions, or topics that made their Board of Directors uncomfortable. I, too, am uncomfortable, because I’ve had a LiveJournal account since 2001, and the thought of hauling myself away from the torrent of words leaves me feeling “friend”less and naked.
The community at LiveJournal is incredible, and I’ve forged many valuable friendships through the site. I’m still going to be reading, and possibly cross-posting. Has anyone found a decent feed reader that handles LJ permissions well?
Jill was kind enough to create a Syndicated Account for this blog, so those of you who want to keep up with me via LJ are free to do so. Just, PLEASE, comment here (and use OpenID, because it’s both easy and awesome.)
Filed under general | Comments (5)My 35th birthday is bound to scar me, so why not on my own terms?
In my twenties, I was too busy making a mess of my life to become terribly self-aware. I’ve been thinking about 35, and how I keep getting braver, wilder and gutsier as I age.
I will probably have another one of those Birthday, Observed kind of weekends, because it’s likely that weekend will be swamped. One thing is certain, though: It’s been a little over eleven years since I got my first tattoo. I still love it. When I lived in Atlanta, even on the ferry to Clare Island in Ireland, I would run into people with beautiful art and ask where they got it done, and it was always the same artist (Collette at Holy Mother, FYI.) Driving to Atlanta is really expensive and time consuming, especially considering I’d want to be hanging out with people, not sitting in a tattoo parlor. I’ve been sulky and mopey b/c I’ve had a project planned for a while now, but I just couldn’t find a local artist whose work I really liked.
Enter Erica Flannes
. I am completely certain she’s my girl for the next project.
So if you’re the sort of person who was contemplating getting me something for my birthday, even an LJ virtual gift, please consider donating to my SuperRadTattooFund. Not only would you be giving me something I really want, a little bit of you will be with me always.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comments (3)