LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY crazyjane13)

Floating across the news tracker a couple of days ago was an article from the Record-Courier about proposed legislation to make abortion illegal without paternal consent</a>.

This is one of the stealthiest, sneakiest pieces of unworkable legislation I've seen for a while, and frankly, it smells. The requirements that are proposed would effectively ensure that almost no abortions ever get performed. It's incredibly discriminatory - a claim to not know the father doesn't cut it. The woman would be required to submit a list of "possible" fathers, and submit to pre-natal paternity testing to match the fetus' DNA against the short-list.

It also places a totally unreasonable burden of proof on rape victims - they have to prove their pregnancy is as a result of rape or incest, via police report. And unless said victim is otherwise a nun, there's always the possibility that the pregnancy occurred another way - and we're back to the paternity test idea again.

All in all, this legislation seems designed to bog down a woman's request for abortion in unreasonable, humiliating paperwork, possibly delaying any decision until after a cut-off date has been passed. (Does anyone know Ohio's stance on second trimester abortions?) This is being offered up as a "compromise" to Rep. Tom Brinkman's proposed ban on all abortion, but it seems to be a ban-by-stealth. And that makes me wonder about possible Dominionist agendas here.

The sponsoring Rep is John Adams. Do we know anything about him or his backers/favourite lobby groups??

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY crazyjane13)

An article in the Orlando Sentinel reported that a young woman had, apparently, been forcibly exorcised by her parents. During this exorcism, her father appears to have doused her with oil. Isn't that something that's characteristic of Dominionist behaviour?

The family seem to fit the bill - mother leaves tracts around her workplace targeting certain people, children are forced to make graphically detailed confessions of sin (especially sexual sins), the family regularly get anointed with olive oil during prayer sessions and a victim's advocate (who asserted the victim's right not to be assaulted) was described by the mother as a "devil's advocate". In fact, the sexual angle appears to loom large, with the mother accusing one of the police of wanting to have sex with the victim.

Unsurprisingly, the parents responded, through their attorney, that it was just a family argument.

The interesting wrinkle in all of this is that the mother of the family is a councilwoman for Edgewater City, and it looks like the Mayor is backing her up. He said 'whatever happened is personal, and he hopes it will not affect Rogers’ work on the council. He described the couple as caring parents and said Debra Rogers does a “great job” for the city.

'“A lot of people I’ve noticed turn to their religious faith when there are family problems and that’s probably what they’re doing,” Vincenzi said.'

I can't help but think there is a very real chance the victim is going to get shafted. Call me paranoid, but I've already seen how a local Council will rally round a Dominionist in trouble. Does she have any options?