this is really scary. Thanks, DT.

The link you gave won't work for me. Could you possibly post some text from the bill?

The TEA Fund: Practicing random acts of kindness to women

This is fiction, right? You've posted a snippet from some Atwood-y type, right? 'Cause there's no way this could be real...

::please God, don't let this be real::


parvum opus

wingers are so on the march.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott

Tell me that you are joking.  I live right above Indiana, and I am afraid that stupid rises.

"Have you no sense of decency, sir. At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" -- Boston Attorney Joseph Welch, taking down Sen. Joseph McCarthy.

i read and read, waiting for the punch line, sure this was some post from the onion or something.  SCARY!

Where women's voices are valued and respected... Our Word

This is what they have been working toward for 5 long years and this will be the first of many such heinous bills that must be fought. Sadly we now have a loaded judiciary because the Dems let Bush have 96% of his picks.

Do you have a link to the original article (by Laura McPhee)? I couldn't find it at progressiveindependent.com. Thanks.

Wow, if this isn't something out of a bad Sci-Fi movie, I don't know what is.  

I have raised my daughter alone for almost her whole life.  Even before her dad left, he was useless.  While I never wanted to be a single mom and thought that that would be horrible, I have since discovered that it is really good, for both her and I.  I didn't think I could hack the responsibility, but I learned that not only could I hack it, but I love it.  I make all the decisions regarding my daughter's upbringing.  No arguments about what school to attend, which, if any, religion to raise her as, what kind of clothes she should wear, whether or not to talk about sex, drugs, or teen pressures, etc.  Does she miss having a dad?  Sure.  Yet most of it stems from having had a dad and losing him, than from not having a dad now.  

I have known plenty of gay parents where the kids don't even think about having a parent of the opposite gender.  They tend to be really well adjusted kids.

My fears were unfounded.  Cypress, my daughter, is living proof that it is more than possible to raise a smart, educated, moral, compassionate, and well-adjusted kid without a father.  

This is simply frightening legislation.  Once again, I must ask, how far must we go before women realize that their freedoms are diminishing every day.  

There's a sense that people in America aren't getting the truth. - George W. Bush (Gee, ya think?)

Sec. 12. (a) Before intended parents may commence assisted reproduction, 20 the intended parents shall obtain an assessment from a licensed child placing agency in the intended parents' state of residence.

empahsis mine

What does this mean? I thought this was a draft of a law for Indiana -- is it intended to be brought to the national stage??

DF, I'm glad you posted this, but I know that I am going to have nightmares tonight -- and i'm only 1/2 way through the damnable thing.

I want something else, to get me through this, semi-charmed kinda life..
Third Eye Blind

'including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do
become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."'

Amazing they would have sent Mary to jail!

Wow... "Unauthorized reproduction"  Unbeleivable...

How long will Senator Miller wait to introduce a bill on banning "thought crime"?

to restrict abortion:

SB Bill # 76   Abortion requirements. Requires a health care provider to provide a pregnant woman with information regarding the availability of ultrasound imaging and auscultation of heart tones of a fetus before performing an abortion on the pregnant woman. Allows a pregnant woman to view the fetal ultrasound imaging and hear the auscultation of the fetal heart tone before an abortion is performed. Authored by R. Michael Young and Patricia Miller . Passed through third reading in the Health & Provider Services Committee. Amendment added to say that the ultrasound and heart tones would be made available 'if present.' Approved by Senate and sent to House. Sponsors in the House include Cindy Noe and P. Eric Turner. Oppose. Passed third reading in House on March 28 and is awaiating the Governor's signature.

SB Bill # 225 Office based sedation standards. Requires the medical licensing board to adopt rules concerning office based procedures that require certain levels of sedation. Makes a technical correction. (The introduced version of this bill was prepared by the commission on excellence in health care.) Health & Provider Services Committee amended and passed third reading and referred to House. Authored by Patricia Miller . House sponsor is Vaneta G. Becker. Monitor. Passed through both chambers and is awaiting the Governor's signature.

HB Bill # 568 Ambulatory outpatient surgical centers. Specifies that a birthing center and a facility that performs abortions are included in the definition of an ambulatory outpatient surgical center. Excludes a physician's office from the definition of an ambulatory outpatient surgical center.   First reading: referred to Committee on Health and Provider Services.   Authored by Patricia Miller.

And now Miller pushes for criminalization of "unauthorized reproduction."  For self-described "pro-life" Dems, here's yet another chance to catch the clue train: being "pro-choice" isn't the same thing as the promotion of abortion.  

The TEA Fund: Practicing random acts of kindness to women

But we're not supposed to call them NAZIS?! Bullshit. I'm so sick of these fascists I can't see straight.

The next time some guy asks you where all the women bloggers are, tell him What She Said!

Tell me again how we're not supposed to be all that concerned about reproductive rights.

The concept of passing a law forbidding a woman to have a child--or requiring a woman to have a child, for that matter--should, in any civilized world, be unthinkable. Unauthorized reproduction? How fucking chilling is the idea that anyone should need governmental authorization to reproduce?

I suppose the next logical step is a bill outlawing unauthorized sex, and they'll develop a combination chastity belt/electronic monitoring device as an enforcement tool. Folks, welcome to the world of Vaginacam!

Fuck these fucking fucks! It's way past time to chase these sex-obsessed Taliban freaks back to the slime pools that spawned them.

"As a woman, I have no country. . . . As a woman, my country is the whole world." --Virginia Woolf

This will categorically bar gays from using any kind of assisted reproductive technology in the whole state of Indiana.

We must gather our Pilgrim Outfits and stock up on Scarlett Letters.

On a personal note I'm glad I'm 53 and past my reproductive years because if I did today what I did back in the 60s & 70s (make love not war) I'd be fodder for the Christian Right.

However maybe a law against unsuspecting mates marrying alcoholics/drug/porn/gambling/greedy addicts might not be such a bad thing...

"Time is for careful people, not passionate ones."

OMFG I thought it was satire at first.

is on the march.

Obama is a Patriot

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette also has the story:

Click here.

So, I slept without nightmares last night, or if I had them, thankfully, I don't recall, but I have been thinking about this all morning.

Let's say that this was law back in '99 when I became pregnant. And let's put aside the obstacles that an unmarried woman has with finding prenatal care through medicaid while working 3 jobs and going to school....

I go to my doctor and she has two choices: either take my word for it that I became pregnant through sexual intercourse or refuse to provide care because I cannot give her a "gestational certificate" that proves my intentions as a parent.

If she chooses the former, it seems that she is putting herself at great professional risk on my behalf. Becuase who knows, I may be a "rouge" surrogate who leases out my womb to the highest bidder!!

If she chooses the latter, I am SOL because I am unmarried and cannot convince the court to allow me to be an "intended parent" -- am I missing something here or is that the way this scenario would play out?

I want something else, to get me through this, semi-charmed kinda life..
Third Eye Blind

is a big buddy boy of the chimp's. So the idea that Indiana, a reliable red state, would be a test run for this is pretty reasonable.

If I had my life to live over, I would do it all again, but this time I would be nastier -- Jeannette Rankin

We are entering the dystopical reality of "The Handmaid's Tale."

"I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or prostitute." ~ Rebecca West

while that's still "legal"

Or we can get really pissed off and declare WAR on the Talibaptists and the Democratic "leaders" who remain silent.

I seriously thought this was satire. This shouldn't be discussed it should be smashed.

Fuck Bush and all who support him and what this country is falling down into. Fuck them all. How many rights are we going to see shat away before we get really pissed off?

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace. - Jimi Hendrix

Yikes!!!  Just take it all now!!!  Is there nothing beyond their attempted reach?

Fear will keep the local systems in line. -Grand Moff Tarkin Survivor Left Blogistan

The state of Indiana has noted that 90% of all women have left the state. Elmer Quigly, Evansville, noted that he hasn't had a date in several years, and has to go to Kentucky in order to view women.

--Don't ask others to do, what you are unwilling to do yourself.

I hope that any optimists out there who preferred to believe that the Religious Reich wasn't really out to impose Deuteronomy as the law of the land are feeling appropriately chastised now. When Buchanan announced, all those years ago, his declaration of culture war, he was not speaking figuratively.

The mere fact that this bill was drafted with the serious expectation of introducing it for debate in a state legislature, much less passing it, indicates how broad and deep the religious fifth column has become. These traitors and subversives are hell-bent on undoing the Revolution of 1776 and will stop at nothing to destroy our inherited freedoms.

---Cthulhu for President: Why vote for the lesser evil?

Would couples like me and the spouse, who have no children, be forced to reproduce or risk having our marriage annulled? After all, if the reason for marriage is to produce children (as the Religious Reich claims in their arguments against gay marriage), it should follow that people who can't (or won't) produce children shouldn't be entitled to the "privileges" of marriage...

"Mr. Bush, you do not own this country!" -- Keith Olbermann, 1/2/07

I read quite a bit of that darned thing, if not all of it. Simply horrifying.

Interesting that various people here picked up on certain elements of it -- others stood out for me.

Why on god's green earth ANYONE would want to exercise this kind of control over other people's lives is totally beyond me.  Yes, I get the ultimate adgenda, still don't understand what underlies it.

(Did you note that a donor can't be compensated for more than the costs of the procedure? -- no more egg buying...)

this is probably the most heavily linked diary in the history of BT.  Right now there are probably several dozen sites linking here.  One of them is:

http://www.zattevrienden.be/

They are mad. Stark raving mad. I keep thinking 'it must be something in the water', it just refuses to scan that people in this age would come up with this.

Seriously...I looked up many of your info and did not see ONE PERSON from Indiana.  Do you know how this law would apply to you? IT WOULD NOT.

Does someone have to explain that there is something called "Federal" law which applies to the entire United States, and "State" law which applies to your particular state.  There also is local law that applies on a county and city level as well.

This applies to INDIANA.  My god, you are all freakin' nuts.  You all scare me more than the Republicans do, to be honest.

I was rather upset about all of this myself, having emailed a bunch of people and intending to start making phone calls today. I pulled up NUVO's site to see if it was posted yet (it was), and upon reading the comments came across this piece on the Indy Star. Apparently the legislation has been dropped by Senator Miller. Her simple statement was, "The issue has become more complex than anticipated and will be withdrawn from consideration by the Health Finance Commission." I called anyway to confirm this, left a voice mail message. You might want to update the post with this information as people aren't likely to see this comment buried beneath everything else. I think everyone should still be cautious though, that this bill doesn't resurface in some other form.

I think this new legislation is great.....its a rare glimmer of common sense something more and more people seem to be lacking.

Only i think it should go further and there should be mandatory abortions for anyone breaking this law.

Good Luck Sen Miller!

Thankfully-this crazy legislation has died a quiet death in Indiana, at least for now.

Don't be surprised if at some point in the future--the beastie rears its ugly head in some fashion in Indiana or another state.

I have noted that in recent years, the conservative right has a way of floating trial balloons such as this measure in one place. If the proposed legislation is initially unsuccessful in one place--the idea stays alive and comes up either in another state or the same state in some modified form.

If those proposing the new concept legislation can create both the language of the legislation and a strategy for "selling" it in one place- like a species of a noxious invasive weed-- similar measures pop up elsewhere--often times legislation like this gets passed in a stealthy manner by tacking the thing onto something else that is non-controversial and has bi-partisan support.

This happens because sadly, very conservative Republicans are in control of many state legislatures and in spite of their claims to want to "get the government off the backs of the people," these folks seem to love to promulgate measures like this that put the chains tighter on the populace when it comes to things like sex, reproductive rights, and the like.

If you look at many measures like this that the right brings up, the language from one state to another is strikingly similar reflecting those changes necessary for each state based upon differences in the respective legislative structures.

So Indiana and America--look out--this thing is most likely not dead--it will simply come back in some other form either in Indiana or elsewhere.

Look at how quickly "defense of marriage" bills and related measures popped up in so many different states in a relatively short time period.