Lysistrata Redux?

It is extraordinary what is happening in the United States, the land of the free.  The amount of personhood laws or invasive procedures that might be required for abortion are staggering.  But not only that the Republican front runners are championing these very restrictive measures.  Then there was the farce of the GOP restricting the amount of women who could testify at a hearing over the what should have been hilariously minor Obama led bill on insurance and contraception.

I wanted to Tweet that maybe the only people that should be allowed to talk about contraception and abortion or those most likely to use them but danger lies that way.  However, it might be useful to recognise that when men, especially religious men, are dominating the issue something has gone terribly wrong.

It really does stagger me how regressive and oppressive these laws really will be.  The most mind boggling thing is how un-representative they are and how it is the influence of very right wing religious groups. 

But why won't this go away?  Why do these bills get on the books?  Why aren't people writing in to their representatives and telling them that these sorts of right are voting issues?  Maybe they are, maybe no one is listening.  Maybe its all sound and fury and no substance (though the fact that many of these laws are being debated is frightening enough).  

If only all women (at least the vast majority of women who depend on contraception) could somehow organise and have a sex strike like in the Lysistrata - telling their boyfriends, husbands, whoever that a very limited sex life is they way it'll probably be if these laws keep getting passed.  That unless they want to support them and their vast amounts of children, this is what their future is going to be like.  It would certainly put the GOP in their place (except for maybe Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum).  Maybe it would get to men a bit more as well.  This is a women's right issue but it is also a fundmental attack on how modern society operates.  This isn't a small government GOP anymore, its a socially conservative monster.

I hope many Christians start questioning where their political and religious donations are going - are they fighting the very services they take for granted?  Are they being used to curtail the rights and freedoms that they are used to having?  

I worry about the millions of American women one day who might wake up and find their prescriptions cancelled or their planned parenthood shut down.  There's something very wrong in American politics and I can't just sit back and thank my lucky stars because I don't live in the US.  Money flows across borders and one victory can embolden.  It's all our problem, it affects the US, it affects the US policy when it comes to reproductive rights in the developing world and it will affect us, is affecting us now in the UK.  It must be stopped.