I saw this guy on Sunday! He's selling his fabu sign to the highest bidder. Right now it's just over $80. I wonder how much he spent on it thou.

I saw someone with a March water bottle. Now I'd pay for that baby.

FYI - the left sidebar is under construction. I will be posting links to various march photos online.

are coming. If you have put up your march photos, please leave a comment. I want to turn the lefthand sidebar into a directory of photo albums. Big job, yes, but very much needed!

See my general blog for details.

Don't ever say I'm not flexible.

I've already purchased tickets for the Armory for Cinnamon, my gf Kat, and myself for Saturday night. BUT...some of you more hip bloggers (April, House9) will be at the punk show. Punk is not my style, as much as I may wish, but I'm willing to shell out another $10 to hang with my grrls. Even if we don't pay the cover and we all just hook up, that's fine with me. House9 & April have my cell number. So if you find them and for some reason want to meet me or Cinnamon (who wouldn't?) give me a buzz.

WOO!!!!!!

I don't have access to blogging from the march, but I'll be taking mental notes. I'm sure that my travel companion, Cinnamon, will be actually writing things down. House9 is already in DC and sending in reports.

But if you can't make it to the March and you need to know the 411, check out Women eNews. They are planning live coverage of the March.

I'm working overtime offline to prep for the March. I also purchased my tickets for the Armory party on Saturday night. Look for me & Cinnamon. I guess that's where the Bloggers for Choice Meetup will be. Leave me a comment if you plan on being there. Maybe I'll make a sign.

I think we all bitch & moan once in awhile about our periods. But we've got it pretty good here. The girls in Uganda are so lacking in proper pads for their periods that a lot of them drop out of school! Can you imagine that?

Sure, most of us ditched school cause our cramps were bad or did the "woe-is-me" act to get out of gym class, but drop out of school all together?

That's not to say that we shouldn't have better tampons or pads or lunapads or whatever, but some days it's nice to remember how far us Americans have come. And that just makes it more important that we fight for our sisters abroad.

Just a few decades ago pregnancy was the reason why girls & young women dropped out of school. Some still do. But our periods? That's just stupid. Goodness, do we need a Tampons for Africa drive now? Someone help those poor girls!

The March is Sunday!!!!

Florida State Senator Bullard was the lone Democrat to vote for a measure to ask voters on whether or not minors seeking abortions should have to notify their parents. She cited her own sexual abuse by her father as to why minors should be forced to tell their parents about their choice to abort a pregnancy.

While my heart breaks for ANY woman who had to endure any type of violence, I don't think that just because the Senator's mother was strong enough to break away from the abusive father means that all mothers are like that.

Cinnamon wrote about women who stay in abusive relationships Wednesday. I'm sure in the thousands, if not millions, of women who stay, there are instances of incest.

While Senator Bullard's mom deserves high marks for removing her daughter from an abusive situation, not every mother can or will do the same. I don't have time to dig out the stats right now, but I know that when asked, teens often say that they do involve their parents in their reproductive health care decisions, but if the law forced them to, they would rather practive unsafe sex than HAVE to speak with their parents.

Can you believe the march is almost here everyone? Yikes!!

Who isn't coming!

The March for Women's Lives Celebrity Coalition includes:

Margie Adam | Melissa Etheridge |Julianne Moore
Christina Aguilera | Morgan Fairchild | Alanis Morissette
Jennifer Aniston | Edie Falco | Kathy Najimy
Curtis Armstrong | Frances Fisher | Alyson Palmer
Elaine Aronson | Calista Flockhart | Joe Pantoliano
Bea Arthur | Jane Fonda | Mary-Louise Parker
Ed Asner | Bonnie Franklin | Adrian Pasdar
Kevin Bacon | Janeane Garofalo | Pink
Alec Baldwin | Ana Gasteyer | Martha Plimpton
William Baldwin | Indigo Girls | Doris Roberts
Meredith Baxter | Annabeth Gish | Paul Rudd
Shari Belafonte | Whoopi Goldberg | Susan Sarandon
Maria Bello | Lauren Graham | Campbell Scott
Polly Bergen | Maggie Gyllenhaal | Kyra Sedgwick
Thora Birch | Lisa Gay Hamilton | Martin Sheen
Amy Brenneman | Ben Harper | Cybill Shepherd
Betty Buckley | Ed Harris | SONiA
Jessica Capshaw | Salma Hayek | Fisher Stevens
Lynda Carter | Marg Helgenberger | Gloria Steinem
Stockard Channing | Isabella Hofmann | Julia Stiles
Jill Clayburgh | Helen Hunt | Corky & Mike Stoller
Kate Clinton | Amy Jo Johnson | Sharon Stone
Glenn Close | Kathryn Joosten | Amber Tamblyn
Cindy Crawford | Ashley Judd | Mary Testa
Sheryl Crow | Catherine Keener | Charlize Theron
Alan Cumming | Carole King | Uma Thurman
Tyne Daly | Swoosie Kurtz | Heather Tom
Blythe Danner | Christine Lahti | Stanley Tucci
Kristin Davis | Sanaa Lathan | Kathleen Turner
Ossie Davis | Sharon Lawrence | Ted Turner
Dana Delany | Lisa Loeb | Sarah Weddington
Laura Dern | Amy Madigan | Bradley Whitford
Ani DiFranco | Natalie Maines | Alfre Woodard
Illeana Douglas | Wendie Malick | Thom Yorke
Denise Dowse | Joshua Malina | Amy Ziff
Fran Drescher | Camryn Manheim | Elizabeth Ziff
Kirsten Dunst | Frances McDormand
David Eigenberg | Ewan McGregor
Hector Elizondo | Marilyn McIntyre
Emme | Sarah McLachlan
Eve Ensler | Moby
Giancarlo Esposito | Demi Moore

Goodness...I just got chills reading all those names!!

Now after all you ladies have stopped ouching from the mere thought of your cervix cut, please read the following report:

In The Courts | Doctor Testifying for Federal Government Says Banned Abortion Procedure Never Necessary To Protect Women's Health
[Apr 08, 2004]
Dr. Curtis Cook -- a Grand Rapids, Mich., physician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies -- on Wednesday in federal court in Lincoln, Neb., testified that so-called "partial-birth" abortion is never necessary to protect a woman's health, the Omaha World-Herald reports (Tysver, Omaha World-Herald, 4/8). The federal government in three separate trials is defending the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act (S 3), which outlaws procedures in which a physician "deliberately and intentionally delivers a living fetus" to the point at which either the head -- or if in a breech position any part of the torso above the navel -- is outside the woman's body "for the purpose of committing an overt act of killing" the fetus. Immediately after President Bush signed the measure into law in November 2003, federal judges in New York, California and Nebraska issued temporary restraining orders to prevent Department of Justice enforcement of the ban. The judges issued the restraining orders in response to lawsuits filed by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the National Abortion Federation and the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of four abortion providers. Each of the lawsuits alleges that the law is unconstitutional because of the absence of a health exception. In place of a health exception, the law includes a long "findings" section that documents medical evidence presented during congressional hearings that, according to supporters of the law, indicates that the procedures banned by the law are never medically necessary. Supporters of the ban say that the law will prohibit one specific procedure, known as dilation and extraction, or D&X, which is generally used for second- and third-trimester abortions. However, opponents of the law say that its language is so broad that it bans other, more common types of abortions (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 4/7).

Cook Testimony
Cook, who does not perform elective abortions and was called by DOJ to testify, said that the procedure covered under the ban poses more health risks to the pregnant woman than medically induced labor, in which a pregnant woman is given drugs to stimulate labor and the fetus is expelled through the vagina, the World-Herald reports. Cook also said that medically induced labor is safer than the banned procedure because it involves fewer medical instruments, such as forceps, which potentially can damage the cervix, the World-Herald reports. Cook, who opposes abortion except in cases when a woman's health is at risk, said he is concerned that women undergoing partial-birth abortions are not monitored during the two or three days before the procedure when their cervixes are being dilated, according to the World-Herald (Omaha World-Herald, 4/8). "There are better, safer options available," Cook said, adding, "I know of no such condition ... that would warrant [performing the banned procedure]" (AP/Washington Times, 4/8). Cook also testified that fetal viability occurs increasingly earlier with medical advances, adding that he believes fetuses currently can be considered viable at 23 weeks gestation, the World-Herald reports. U.S. Judge Richard Kopf, who is presiding over the Lincoln trial, asked Cook what he would do if he were performing an abortion and the fetus's head became stuck in the woman's cervix. Other doctors have testified that in such a situation it is necessary to collapse the fetus's skull to protect a woman's health, the World-Herald reports. Cook said that he would not collapse the fetus's skull but rather give the woman drugs to relax her cervix. If the drugs did not have the desired effect, Cook said he then would cut the woman's cervix[emphasis mine], the World-Herald reports. The Lincoln trial is expected to conclude on Friday, the World-Herald reports (Omaha World-Herald, 4/8).

You gotta watch this. It's too funny!

And it's a reminder that we're marching for more than just reproductive choice.

If you have any special needs that need to be addressed at the march, please see the march website. You can sign up for a trolley instead of walking or being pushed in a wheelchair. You can also sign up for a chair if you cannot stand for the rally. You must register in advance!

See you in DC!

So you're not planning on going to the march yet? Need a kick in the butt? How about this? You'll be missing out on all the fun. Look at what has happened in the past. Don't you want to be there?