On May 31, 2009 an anti-government, self-appointed moral crusader with a gun named Scott Roeder killed Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas. The Nation’s Jessica Valenti weighs in on the shit treatment of women in the U.S. three years later:

I wonder, if Dr. Tiller were alive today, what he would think about the unwavering attack against women’s reproductive freedom and bodily integrity—if he could ever of imagined that American women would still not just be fighting for the right to abortion but for birth control. Or that there would be a national debate on whether or not it’s appropriate to call a woman who wants contraception coverage a “prostitute.” I imagine that even for a man who had seen a lot of misogyny in his life, the current climate against women would be shocking.

Since Tiller’s murder, the legislative agenda against reproductive justice—and common-sense decency—has been staggering.

We’ve seen mandated ultrasound laws that not only put an undue financial burden on women seeking abortions but that also require patients to be penetrated against their wills in order to procure a legal medical procedure.

Last month, Arizona passed a handful of anti-choice legislation—including one that defines pregnancies as beginning two weeks before conception. In Ohio a fetus “testified” in favor of an anti-choice law. The useless piece of meat surrounding the testifying fetus—what some call “the woman”—was silent.

A bill proposed in Georgia didn’t want to just outlaw abortions—why aim so low?—but also would mandate that women who have miscarriages be investigated to make sure that there was “no human involvement whatsoever.” Women whose miscarriages were found to be suspect could face life in prison or even the death penalty.

Story here. Read to the end. It has a good closing paragraph.

Saskatchewanians should care. There are religious fanatics in this province who want the same kind of laws brought here. They have support — eight Sask Party MLAs attended their rally a couple weeks back. You can read about that in John Cameron’s cover story last issue.

(Back to vacay.)