Speaking at a rally today, Pennsylvania State Representative Babette Josephs suggested that pro-life women are not in fact women, but 'men with breasts'. Apparently women cannot be truly women unless they support unfettered abortion.
Josephs' remarks came at a political rally sponsored by the Lancaster County Democratic Committee, in which she accused Republicans in control of the state Senate and state House of turning Pennsylvania into a "laboratory for the right-wing. They're trying all these experiments on us."
Then, she took specific aim at women lawmakers who co-sponsored the ultrasound bill, asking rhetorically, "I do not understand how a woman in this Legislature can say to herself: 'I'm not capable of making my own health decisions... but I can get elected and make them for somebody else.'
"What is wrong with these women? What are they thinking about?" Josephs continued. "Are they women? Or are they men with breasts."
This is sad on so many levels. To start, how is it that showing a woman an ultrasound prior to her having an abortion taking away her 'choice'? It provides her with more information, allowing her to make an informed choice. What is so scary about that? What is it that the folks who so vehemently call themselves pro-choice don't want her to see? Pro-life advocates are often smeared as withholding information or distorting facts in order to impose their morality on women. But what could be a better source of indisputable facts than showing a woman what is happening inside her own body?
There apparently isn't room for questions like these at Democratic rallies. Women who support measures that provide more information prior to an abortion are somehow saying that other women are incapable of making medical decisions for themselves. And then they are called 'men with breasts'. It is ironic that arguments like that still hold water.
Can somebody please explain to me how requiring doctors to let women see ultrasounds takes away her choice or provides her with 'misleading' information? Because it looks like the opposite to me. It also looks like the truth of ultrasounds is becoming harder to deny, hence the name calling. I would love to hear an honest answer to questions like these without the distractions of calling pro-life women 'men with breasts'.