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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Everything I’m Not Made Me Everything I Am


Break free and fly, step into the light, let your mind soar to new heights of
understanding and acceptance of your fellow man.

Coming out as an Atheist is not easy for some, for me I am coming out
completely because of this column.

I am proud to say I am an Atheist who has come out of the closet.

I am coming out of the closet as an Atheist to let other non-believers know
they are not alone and encourage them to do the same. I want to show
them there is nothing to fear except fear itself.

My goal is to enlighten and inform others how Atheists see the world, how
we think and what we value.

We are moral, we are ethical, and we are tired of being defamed and
maligned for our disbelief.

An atheist is someone who is without theism, Atheists see god as a legend
or a fairy tale an imaginary being and we equate God with Pink Unicorns
and Zeus.

We don’t believe that Pink Unicorns and Zeus exist the same way we don’t
believe God exists. We can find no reason that God should be given any
more credibility than say Pink Unicorns.

Atheists lack prejudices against people of other sexes, races, or sexual
preferences. We lack the prejudices that most people have because most
of the prejudices people have are religion-based and completely illogical.

Atheists are a very diverse group of people. We are writers and poets,
teachers, scientists and philosophers, truck drivers, brain surgeons, in
other words we are everywhere and anyone. We are men and women,
black and white, gay and straight, shy and like me outspoken.

We are bound only by our disbelief; we have differing views on every

political, economic, and social issue. Our diversity unites us which should
serve as a model from which the rest of the world could learn.

We are often told that we have no morals because we don’t believe in a
god and to this I always say, “What a sad world we live when people can
seriously say that humans need to fear eternal damnation in order to do
good because then morals have become nothing more than fear.”

Humans have the idea of right and wrong imbedded in us by our own
brains, as well as our upbringing and society.

Atheists do good because it is the right thing to do, not out of a selfish fear
of eternal damnation or a need to “win points” with a deity.

We do good out of love and respect for our fellow man and the world
around us because we want to live in a world that is filled with love and
respect.

We value family, society, culture, and, of course, freedom.

There are 25 million freethinkers in this country that will not follow blindly,
we feel free to demand proof or at least a logically sound theory.

Atheists only seek the freedom for people to make their choices on their
own; we seek the freedom not to support religion through taxes, forced
participation, or special privileges of any kind.

"If you think you are horrified that I don't believe in god, just imagine how
I feel that you do!"-- Patricia Johnston

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Summer of Mercy--2011

Summer of Mercy--2011
 
   "In July of 1991, a huge black cloud moved in over Wichita, Kansas.  The people who live in the largest city in the state are used to crashing Midwestern storms… but nothing could have prepared them for the chaos that marched into town.  Without consulting the people of Wichita… the militant anti-abortion group Operation Rescue had decided to make that town their new, “battlegrounds,” and after arriving these, “good Christians,” set about developing a thunderstorm of emotional turmoil, religious extremism, and total community upheaval. "
 
20 years ago in Wichita Kansas, thousands of Christians descended upon that town because Troy Newman sent out a call to come and peacefully be a witness for life in the summer of 1991. They came to harass and terrorize George Tiller for The Summer of Mercy.
 
Troy Newman is back again here in Germantown Maryland for the new and improved Summer of Mercy which is July 30th to August 7th.
 
He did bring with him his senior policy advisor convicted felon Cheryl Sullenger. Her husband, Randall, and she both pled guilty in 1988 to conspiring to blow up the Alvarado Medical Center abortion clinic with a gasoline bomb. She served two years in prison. After her release, she relocated her anti-abortion activities from California to Kansas to Maryland.
 
The kick off rally for the event will be Sunday, July 30, at 7 p.m. at Covenant Life Church, 7501 Muncaster Mill Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20877. It will feature Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director, and Priests for Life, who is an encouraging and powerful advocate for the pre-born.
 
I guess the already-born have been forgotten?

Confirmed speakers include:

Father Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for Life. Father Frank A. Pavone (born February 4, 1959) is an American Roman Catholic priest and pro-life activist. He is the national director of Priests for Life. He also serves as the Chairman and Pastoral Director of Rachel's Vineyard. He is the President of the National Prolife Religious Council, an umbrella groups of various Christian denominations working to end abortion. He also serves as the Pastoral Director of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign.

Joe Scheidler
, Director, Pro-life Action League. Joseph M. Scheidler (born 7 September 1927) is a noted American pro-life activist, National Director of the Pro-Life Action League, former Benedictine monk, and named defendant in the NOW v. Scheidler litigation, a 19-year saga which was ultimately resolved in Scheidler's favor by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2006. He is known as the "Father of Pro-Life Activism". Scheidler lives in Chicago with his wife Ann, and has seven children and nineteen grandchildren, many of whom are involved in his organization.

Star Parker, Columnist and President of the Center for Urban Renewal Education, (CURE) Star Parker, an African-American Republican with Tea Party ties and frequent Fox News appearances. Parker made headlines for her personal life story of rising from poverty, drug use and several abortions to eventually find religion, reject welfare, earn a college degree and start her own non-profit organization. Her campaign gained support with endorsements from notable conservatives like former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. As a black female, supporters hoped she would be able to capture normally Democratic votes in the diverse district that encompasses Compton, Carson and Long Beach.
Wendy Wright, President, Concerned Women of America Wendy Wright is a creationist who is president of Concerned Women for America. Her advocacy is for "legislation and international policies that are beneficial to women and families." Her job at the CWfA is "brief[ing] congressional and presidential staff on pro-family issues, and train[ing] grassroots activists."
Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director, Christian Defense Coalition Patrick J. Mahoney is a nationally known Christian social and political activist, and an ordained minister in the Reformed Presbyterian Church.  Reverend Mahoney works in Washington, D.C., and resides in Fredericksburg, Va., with his wife Katie.  They have three grown daughters: Tara, Kaitlin and Dillon.
Troy Newman, President, Operation Rescue Troy Newman (born 1966) is an pro-life activist. Born in Anchorage, Alaska, Newman was adopted as an infant and raised in the Southern California area. He is the president of Operation Rescue, known before 2002 as Operation Rescue West, which is currently based in Wichita, Kansas. According to his bio on the Operation Rescue website, current OR president Troy Newman is responsible for using “innovative new tactics” to close abortion clinics.
While I’d take anything OR says with a big ol’ grain of salt, Newman is responsible for one particularly gruesome tactic: the “Truth Trucks.”

“We are excited at the overwhelming support for this event in the pro-life community. It promises to be a powerful time of prayer and public witness. We encourage all who can to join me and this all-star line-up of pro-life heroes in Germantown from July 30 through August 7 for nine days of standing in the gap for the babies,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

I guess Troy Newman is not the least bit concerned about the already born children that were left behind when George Tiller was murdered.

However they do plan on staying awhile so perhaps I will go and ask them that since neither Cheryl nor Troy will even talk to me on the phone.

Germantown, MD – Operation Rescue and the Maryland Coalition for Life announce that an office space has been placed under lease directly across the parking lot from LeRoy Carhart’s late-term abortion business in Germantown, Maryland

“Locating an office like this across from the most notorious late-term abortionist in the country was a high priority for us. We wanted to do more than just ask women not to abort their babies. We wanted to provide them with practical assistance, spiritual guidance, and true friendship so that abortion would no longer be a consideration. This office will do all of that,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman.

"The new pro-life center will not be a place where protests and pickets take place, but will focus on helping women and on prayer. However, hundreds of pro-life supporters will continue to maintain a peaceful First Amendment presence on the public sidewalk outside the business park where the abortion business and the pro-life Center are located."

The First Amendment does work both ways as this protest in San Francisco shows.

I do believe we should thank Troy Newman when Obama is elected in 2012.




The Most Pro-Life Man In America

The freedom to choose is being taken away from American citizens at an alarming rate. If you can’t see a connection between taking away a woman’s right to choose with other choices that are being taken away such as defunding Head Start, defunding education and defunding Planned Parenthood then hopefully I can show you that they are all connected.
The Most Pro-Life Man in America: George Tiller
George Tiller often wore a button that simply said: Trust Women. He also seldom went in public without a bullet-proof vest.
One part of Tiller’s abortion practice — that which he was most reviled for —involved later (post-24-week) procedures, typically for women whose wanted pregnancies had gone horribly wrong, either because of serious or lethal fetal anomalies or grave health conditions of the women themselves.
A woman cannot just suddenly decide in her 24th week of pregnancy that she no longer wants the child she is carrying because late-term abortions are strictly limited by the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court Decision via state law. Since late-term abortions are so closely regulated if she did suddenly decide she wanted an abortion she most likely would not be legally able to obtain one.
Most states leave it up to the physician to determine if a situation meets the criteria for a late term abortion such as: preserving the life and health (physical and mental) of the mother or if the infant would not otherwise be viable. So one should realize according to this criterion and the strict legal restrictions on late term abortions that there are probably extremely few cases in which a woman wakes up one day in her 24th week of pregnancy and decides to get an abortion especially considering that it is a painful surgical procedure.
George Tiller had a pivotal turning point in his life -- the day he decided he wanted to save women’s lives was the day he sentenced himself to death. George Tiller was killed because he was pro-life, he was pro-women, and he was pro-family.
In July 1970 he planned to start a dermatology residency. Tragedy struck George Tiller on Aug. 21, 1970 -- his parents, his sister and his brother-in-law were killed in an aircraft accident. His sister gave him the gift of life in her will: She entrusted her 1-year-old son to him.
George intended to go back to Wichita only to close up his father’s family practice and then start a dermatology residence. When he went back to close up his father’s practice, he heard about a woman who had died from an illegal abortion.
It’s common knowledge that you should not make a life-altering decision after you lose a loved one because you are not thinking rationally. George Tiller just lost four loved ones -- was he thinking rationally or was his thinking clouded by grief?
George Tiller had just lost his entire family. He had also just become a father to child that was left motherless because of an unfortunate accident. Perhaps he wanted to ensure that no one would ever have to feel the same grief he did, that no child, no family, would be left motherless simply because she could not access a lifesaving medical procedure.
In 1868 Kansan criminalized abortion with the exception to save a woman’s life. In 1970 the legislature revised the abortion laws to preserve a woman’s life or her physical or mental health or in cases of rape or incest or when a child would be born with a disability.
George Tiller’s father was not breaking the law he was providing a service to women that the law said he could provide.
George Tiller then became the most wanted man in Kansas for the skills he possessed in taking care of women. What set George Tiller apart from other abortion providers? what did he provide that others did not?
He performed the same procedures, just later in the pregnancy. Extracting a late second- or third-trimester fetus from the cervix is much more challenging than an early abortion. Because post-viability abortions are relatively rare — representing about 1 percent of the procedures nationwide — Tiller was among a handful of doctors who had significant experience in the area. His expertise and visibility eventually made him a one-man national referral center for post-viability abortions.
Kansas also leaves the question of viability up to the attending physician but limits post-viability abortions to cases involving "serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function."
Dr. Tiller was shot to death in Wichita Kansas, May 31st, 2009. He was handing out the church bulletin in the foyer of his longtime church, when Scott Roeder, an abortion opponent, shot him once in the eye with a handgun and then drove away.
A week before the shooting the Tiller family spent the week in Disney World. George wore sandals with white ankle socks and too much sunscreen. Little did he know that this would be the last week he would ever spend with his family ever again. During that week he did not need to wear a bullet-proof vest because he was just being a normal man enjoying his family.
Dr. Tiller’s wife, Jeanne, a member of the church choir, was inside the sanctuary at the time of the shooting. An usher came in and told the congregation to remain seated, and then escorted Mrs. Tiller out. When she got to the back doors her anguished screams filled the church.
Jeanne Tiller’s nickname for George Tiller was “buddy” because they had been best friends for 45 years. Now her best friend, father to her children and grandfather to her grandchildren was gone.
Family members, including 4 children and 10 grandchildren, issued a statement through Dr. Tiller’s lawyer, which read in part: “George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality health care despite frequent threats and violence. We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere.”
All life is precious, even life that does not agree with you.
 

Defunding Head Start: A Family Value

Before I vote for any candidate, I watch and listen and I research them thoroughly. I not only find out where they stand on the issues I find out if they live by what they stand for.
Why would I vote for a candidate that doesn’t live by the values that they stand for? Why as a woman would I vote for a candidate that doesn’t hold the same core values as I do?
I’m talking core values; do they hold dear what I hold dear?
Do they value life, do they value education, and do they value my children, most importantly do they value freedom? If they have not proven to me that they have those core values I will not vote for them.
I was a Republican at one time and in a way I still believe in the Republican core values but when I became a parent I switched my party and became a Democrat because first and foremost I value my children, their lives, and their education and I want my children to have the freedom to choose who they can become.
When you vote with your values and not your pocket book I can guarantee you, you will never have voter’s remorse because you have done your research.
When you vote with your pocket book, you end up voting against your own core values, you end up voting against your own child’s freedom to choose who they can become.
Yes, when you vote Republican, and I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you are voting against your already-born child’s best interests.
Defunding Head Start is one of the most economically unsound decisions that a society can make and Blaine Young and the county commissioners have made that decision and have devalued your child’s freedom.
Blaine Young said the program was expensive. "Spending $16,000 per child is a little excessive," he said. Excessive he says, really? Sorry, but I must respectfully disagree.
What Blaine Young has forgotten is, all-ready born children are our future and he should invest in them first and foremost. When is investing in a child’s freedom not a worthwhile investment? WHEN? 
FACT:
When you invest $1.00 in a Head Start child the society they live in receives nearly $9 in benefits. These benefits include increased earnings, employment, and family stability, and decreased welfare dependency, crime costs, grade repetition, and special education.
So in a way Blaine Young just lost $144,000.00 in revenue per Head Start child and if you multiply $144,000.00 by how many children attend Head Start in Frederick County how much did he just cost the taxpayers of Frederick County?
There are 282 3- and 4-year olds in the county Head Start program this fiscal year which if you multiply 282 by $144,000.00 equals $40,608,000.00. To me that looks like a pretty awesome return on a $9 investment.
So did Blaine Young just cost you the taxpayers of Frederick County $40,608,000.00?
I thought there was a budget deficit? Yes, I know the benefits are not immediate and this is just an example but still….
I actually think society receives much more than $9 in benefits because not every benefit can be measured monetarily.
Blaine Young actually did save the taxpayers $4,512,000 by defunding Head Start but he has actually lost $36,096,000 in social values and benefits.
See what happens when you vote with your pocket book and not your values?
Republicans are supposedly pro-family. Families benefit greatly from Head Start also because they are family oriented and focus on parental involvement and training. Families that are involved in Head Start saw their family income grow by more than 51% and their reliance on public assistance was greatly reduced. Less people on the welfare rolls, that should make any Republican happy.
What an interesting concept -- enabling others to enable themselves so they can in turn can enable someone else. Pay it forward always works.
Studies have shown that at-risk children without quality preschool were 70% more likely to commit violent crimes, and have lower graduation rates and higher drug use. Multiply those costs by 282 children and it would probably be over a billion dollars that it would cost society.
A Head Start child gives back $9 in benefits to society; an uneducated child can cost society millions of dollars.
This in turn, if you stop to think about it, means that an educated society is a free society and an uneducated society is an imprisoned society.
That is why I vote with my values and not my pocket book, because I value my child's freedom to choose his future.




DeFunding Planned Parenthood

A recent study by the Guttmacher Institute, a leading reproductive health research and advocacy group, estimates that unintended pregnancies cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $11.1 billion a year.
$11.1 BILLION a year is what unintended pregnancies cost the U.S. taxpayers. Do the Republicans who are running on fiscal conservatism know this? Now I realize that $11.1 billion a year is like throwing an ice cube into ocean when it comes to the deficit but…
Also, aren’t the Pro-life religious Republicans trying to prevent abortions as well? And to prevent abortions, the most logical thing to do would be make sure men and women have affordable access to information on family planning and birth control, right?
Mitch Daniels (R) Governor of Indiana had not planned to cut funding to Planned Parenthood -- it was not part of his legislative agenda, but since he cares more about his standing with the “social conservatives” then whether women and men can have access to health screenings, family planning and birth control information, he decided to defund Planned Parenthood.
Mitch Daniels is cutting off $1.4 million in Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, money they need to provide cancer screening and other general health services to 9,300 Medicaid clients, both men and women, in its 28 health care centers across Indiana only four of which provide abortions.
Since Mitch has cut off state and federal funding to Planned Parent he is not in compliance with federal regulations and his entire state could lose all federal Medicaid funds.
I also wonder if Mitch Daniels knows that over half of the Indiana births are financed by Medicaid at a cost of $11,250 per birth. Since he has set his state up to lose all of its Medicaid funding how will these births be paid for?
Medicaid does not allow states to stop beneficiaries from getting care they need — like cancer screenings and preventive care — because their provider offers certain other services.
The changes are subject to federal review and approval, and administration officials have made it clear they will not approve the changes in the form adopted by the state.
Most of the money at stake is federal. The federal government pays about 66 percent of the cost of most services covered by Medicaid in Indiana, but for family planning the federal share is 90 percent — an indication of the importance historically attached to such services by Congress.
Mitch Daniels and the most pro-choice state in America have drawn a line in the sand and are willing to lose $4 BILLION in Federal Medicaid Funds.
How is giving up $4 BILLION in Federal Medicaid Funds considered pro-life when those funds are used to help bring unintended babies into the world and keep already-born people alive?
Latest news about Indiana:
Feds support Planned Parenthood in defunding case
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The U.S. Justice Department entered the court battle over a tough new Indiana abortion law that disqualifies Planned Parenthood of Indiana from the Medicaid program, siding with the organization in its request Thursday for a court order blocking the statute as unconstitutional.
In a brief filed electronically after the close of business, Justice Department attorneys said U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt should grant Planned Parenthood's request for an injunction because it blocks Medicaid recipients' freedom to choose the provider of their choice. The law signed May 10 by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels cuts off Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood because the organization provides abortions.

The Audacity of the Hypocrisy of the Religious Republicans

Does the religious, Pro-life arm of the Republican Party really think that if they outlaw abortion that a woman will just happily skip down the yellow-brick road through nine months of pregnancy just because they have cut off all her access to a safe legal medical procedure?
I thought we lived in the land of free, home of the brave? Why is our freedom to choose being stripped away by cowardly men that want us to live by their 1800s patriarchal Victorian rule?
How is it that the Republicans who want less government have no problem with the government taking away a woman’s freedom to choose what happens to her own body?
Do the pro-life Republicans think they can cut off a woman’s access to a safe legal medical procedure and she won’t find an unsafe illegal way to no longer be pregnant?
Seriously, you can’t force a man to do anything he does not want to do so why would anyone think you can force a woman to do something she does not want to do?
Well, actually. they can force a woman to carry her pregnancy full-term.
When Medicaid funds are restricted, one in four low-income women are forced to carry their child full-term.
The Pro-Life religious Republicans will say that at the end of ninth months if the woman does want the child she can put the child up for adoption, but the pesky little detail they fail to mention is the millions of children who are already waiting to be adopted. Why aren’t the Republicans enacting legislation to help those already born children?
Imagine if all of the energy and money they spend fighting abortion was spent instead on the priceless children they say need saving so much -- you know, the ones that are already alive and parentless.
However, pro-lifers are aware of the fact that there are millions of unwanted children awaiting adoption, and, as I write this blog, who remain UNCLAIMED: in fact UNICEF estimates that there are 210 million orphans in the world right now. If they have not found parents yet what makes the pro-life religious Republicans think that another baby would have a better chance?
Imagine if all of that money they spent on all of those billboards and flyers and campaigns were either spent on adopting or donating to places that are overrun with orphaned children. Then perhaps these so-called pro-life religious Republicans would gain a modicum of credibility with me.
Also, have the pro-life religious Republicans forgotten about the one million homeless youths in America and that the number one factor resulting in a child being homeless is physical or sexual abuse? When are they planning on stepping in and caring for these already-born children as well? Where is their legislation to help these children? Not seeing any so far.
The pro-life religious Republicans are hypocrites to the highest degree -- they want to protect the unborn but have not done one single thing to protect the already-born; they have the audacity to take away my freedoms and my choices and the hypocrisy to do it under the guise of protecting life.
It just astounds me to no end.
 

916 More Reasons to Not Vote Republican

Trying to understand why any women would vote Republican can be hard to wrap your mind around because voting Republican is voting against your own best interests. Why would any women give up her rights, her choices, and her freedoms? Why would any woman want to go back in time before Roe v Wade?  
Why would a woman cast her vote for any Republican when all they have done in the last 5 months is introduce 916 pieces of legislation all geared towards trying to take away her access to choose a safe legal medical procedure.
In 15 states the measure became law.
For example: In South Dakota if a woman wants to obtain an abortion she has to now wait 72 hours instead of 24, not so good if your life is in danger, or if you have been raped and you just want to rid your body of your rapist’s DNA so your mind and body can begin to heal. Also you have to receive counseling from a pregnancy crisis center while you wait those 72 long agonizing hours. The pregnancy crisis centers in South Dakota are tied to a specific anti-abortion agenda and will use the woman’s appointment to impose their own Christian agenda.
Then before you have the actual legal medical procedure you have to be counseled by the doctor who will perform the procedure on all of the risk factors related to abortion complications, the information will contain data from as far back 1972, which is scientifically flawed.
Abortion is one of the safest surgical procedures for women in the United States. Less than 0.5% of women obtaining abortions experience a complication, and the risk of death associated with abortion is about one-tenth that associated with childbirth.
In Utah they are requiring the health departments to develop new regulations governing abortion clinics; they want to revise the law so that if you are a hospital employee you can refuse to participate in any way, in a safe legal medical procedure. Utah wants to limit abortion coverage in all private health plans, including plans that will be offered in the state’s health exchange.
In Mississippi they revised the sex education law to require all school districts to provide abstinence-only sex education while permitting discussion of contraception only with prior approval from the state.
In addi­tion to these laws, more than 120 other bills have been approved by at least one cham­ber of the legislature, and some interesting trends are emerging. As a whole, the pro­pos­als introduced this year are more hos­tile to abortion rights than in the past: 56% of the bills introduced so far this year seeks to restrict abortion access, compared with 38% last year. Three topics—insurance coverage of abortion, restric­tion of abortion after a specific point in gestation and ultrasound requirements—are topping the agenda in several states.
How many more times do women need to be kicked in the uterus to realize that Republicans have no regard for them or their well-being, because if 916 pieces of legislation are not proof enough then I don’t know what is?
Let us not forget that between the 1800’s and 1973, abortion was illegal in all or most U.S. states, and many women died or had serious medical problems as a result. Women often made desperate and dangerous attempts to induce their own abortions or resorted to untrained practitioners who performed abortions with primitive instruments or in unsanitary conditions. Women streamed into emergency rooms with serious complications - perforations of the uterus, retained placentas, severe bleeding, cervical wounds, rampant infections, poisoning, shock, and gangrene.
Republicans regressive politics have taken women’s rights back to the 1800’s. And you thought women had "come a long way baby" ... Dream on, because the message the Republicans seem to be sending is "Die Women Die."



Republican War On Women

 The litmus test for any Republican today is that anything our Democratic president does, even though it may make perfect logical sense, they have to be against or they are not a true Republican.
Have you ever wondered why the Republicans decided to spend the first five months of their terms declaring War on Women? Simply because President Obama quickly made clear his strong support for abortion rights, prevention and international family planning when he was elected.
Since the 2010 election when Republicans gained the majority of the House, the GOP started a war on women’s rights and they have not offered one job bill, not one single solitary job bill which I seem to remember was the very thing they ran on and why they did gain the majority of the House.
The wolves in sheep clothes Republicans decided that climbing into our uteri was far more important than trying to get people back to work or coming up with a plan to lower gas prices. Oh no, it’s our uteri that have destroyed the country because they have been free too long.
Since the Republicans are enacting laws based on what their bible tells them and their bible tells them that only god has the power to make life and death decisions, they want to take away our freedom to choose and leave it in god’s hands.
So they came up with one redundant and totally unnecessary bill because they are using their bible to dictate policy. The H.R.3 bill, bogusly named “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” passed on May 4th was signed by all of the Republicans and 16 spineless Democrats 
What these god fearing Republicans seemed to have forgotten is that the Hyde Amendment and President Obama’s Executive Order states that not one penny of taxpayer dollars can be used to fund abortions; abortions are only covered in the case of rape or incest.
However, god-fearing Republicans don't ever want a woman’s abortion covered even if that woman was a victim of rape or incest, so they decided to redefine rape with this H.R 3 bill, which states on line 16 page 6 that a woman has to be forcibly raped to qualify for Medicaid to pay for her abortion.
The reason they wanted the word forcible in the language is that this would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible. For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by her 24-year-old uncle she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion.
Given that the bill also would forbid the use of tax benefits to pay for abortions that 13-year-old's parents wouldn’t be allowed to use money from a tax-exempt health savings account (HSA) to pay for the procedure. They also wouldn’t be able to deduct the cost of the abortion or the cost of any insurance that paid for it as a medical expense.
This bill takes women back to the time when saying no to being raped was not enough. It has redefined the meaning of no, perhaps into meaning yes in some circumstances, when a woman has been drugged or given excessive amounts of alcohol, rapes of women with limited mental capacity, and many date rapes. If you can’t actually say no then you are saying yes?
The term "forcible rape" is not even defined in the federal criminal code, and the bill’s authors don’t offer their own definition. In some states, there is no legal definition of “forcible rape” making it unclear whether any abortions would be covered by the rape exemption in those jurisdictions.
The primary sponsor of the bill is Chris Smith (R-NJ). Who doesn’t seem to have even thought this through, nor did anyone that voted on this bill.
I have been calling Chris Smith's DC office this past week asking his staff if they could find out what Chris Smith would define as a forcible rape but they have yet to find out what Chris Smith would define as a forcible rape and they don’t know either. Not surprising because there is no such as a forcible rape. All rape is forced is it not?
Even though Republicans did pull the "forcible rape" language from the pending bill, they are trying a back door maneuver to ensure the legislation achieves the same effect.
The backdoor reintroduction of the statutory rape change relies on the use of a committee report, a document that congressional committees produce outlining what they intend a piece of legislation to do. If there's ever a court fight about the interpretation of a law — and when it comes to a subject as contentious as abortion rights, there almost always is — judges will look to the committee report as evidence of congressional intent, and use it to decide what the law actually means.
So not only have Republicans redefined the meaning of rape they have given it a meaning that has no definition. Why any women would vote Republican is beyond me.