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A lone protester makes a stand before the arrests go down. (Photo: TBD | Date: May. 04, 2011)

D.C.'s WOMEN (and men [a hundred of them anyway]) gathered yesterday to protest the federal government's encroachment upon the voting and/or reproductive rights of District women and girls. "Let me tell you what was shocking to me," Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander told supporters. "Everyone heard about the D.C. 41 getting arrested, but they tried to reduce it, to why are these people getting arrested for abortion rights? . . .We're fighting for all rights in the District of Columbia . . . they try to reduce everything." Laura MacCleery, Director of Government Relations for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that the federal meddling was absolutely "about abortion," and not about "taxes." The House passed HR3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, during the protest.

MORE ON THE BILL:

WHO VOTED FOR HR3? Sady Doyle breaks it down: "please excuse Mother-Jonesy language about 'House Republicans.' Because, yes! Republicans are very ideologically misguided! I believe you wholeheartedly! But also, factually, WE KNOW THERE ARE DEMOCRATS WHO SUPPORT THIS BILL AS WELL? I get the need for concise language. But also, we run the risk of just partisan stirrin’-up-the-masses stuff when we say 'House Republicans' when what we mean is, 'House Republicans, who are mostly dudes, and also one or two super-extreme Republican ladies, but also Democrats who are dudes as well, so basically: House Dudes."

SEX = DEATH. Amanda Marcotte on the bill's effects: "The bill attacks the lives of pregnant women in two major ways. First of all, the bill will force all insurance companies in the country to drop abortion coverage. For women getting first trimester abortions of choice, this will be a burden, but since this is more of an attack on women who already have insurance, they're likely to be in a slightly better financial situation than the women who get screwed daily by the Hyde Amendment, and therefore more likely to be able to get the $500 together for an abortion. . . . Not so for women who are 20 weeks along, develop eclampsia or cancer, and need an abortion or they'll die. That procedure can costs thousands of dollars, well out of the reach of many women who need it. So they'd be screwed."

AARON SORKIN needs to find a new kind of woman.

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