Jan Brewer Demonstrates How Much She Hates Herself

Hey, what’s the difference between a company and a woman? Only one is protected under basic rights! *rimshot* Of course, I didn’t make that up myself. Unfortunately, it’s long since departed from the “it’s funny ’cause it’s true,” crack and gone round to “it’s effing terrifying because it’s true.”

What’s happened now, you ask? Well, that wonderful, lovely Arizona governor, Ms. Jan Brewer, signed a bill into law that will allow employers to interrogate women about the purpose for which they are using birth control pills. Oh, in addition, if you are using contraception for a purpose other than to prevent pregnancy, first you have to pay for it entirely on your own, then submit a claim stating its health purpose. Then you’ll probably get charged a fee for the claim.

An insurer, employer, sponsor, issuer or other entity offering the policy may state religious beliefs in its affidavit that require the insured to first pay for the prescription and then submit a claim to the insurer along with evidence that the prescription is for a noncontraceptive purpose not in whole or in part for a purpose covered by the objection.  An insurer may charge an administrative fee for handling these claims. (AZ HB 2625 Section 3M)

This bill has been months in the making – you may remember either myself or Day Glo Psycho ranting about this earlier in the year – and the main argument was that it allowed all employers to deny coverage based on religious beliefs. Ultimately, this was altered to state that only religious organizations would be afforded this “right.”

Typically, Brewer claimed this action is only protection against “Obamacare.” I cannot even express to you how much I hate that word. Do you know anything about the origins? Idiots. But I digress. As Brewer stated:

“Let’s not forget why we’re having this discussion: It’s ObamaCare that created this issue by forcing church-affiliated employers and non-profits to offer services in violation of their religious faith,” said Brewer. “With this common sense bill, we can ensure that Arizona women have access to the health services they need and religious institutions have their faith and freedom protected.”

Sooo… translation? Corporations are people too, and they have religious principles which must not be violated. Individuals citizens? Not so much. My favorite line is “we can ensure that Arizona women have access to the health services they need…” No, you absolutely are not ensuring this. If my sister-in-law and my brother decide that the two children they have is enough, and my sister-in-law ends up taking a job as an intake tech at a religious hospital, then these two things are in total conflict with each other. She’s not going to get the health service she needs.

Let’s say, one day my sister-in-law goes into work, and in blatant disregard for HIPAA, her boss asks her if she’s using contraceptives. Not wanting to lie to her superiors, she answers affirmatively. Her boss immediately begins questioning her as to the nature of her contraceptive use, and finds out that she’s taking it for – gasp! – family planning. My sister-in-law is suddenly no longer employed. You think that’s drastic? It’s already happened.

What I want to know, is how does this affect men? Since married men usually have health coverage that includes their family, it’s safe to assume this would also include contraceptive coverage for their wives. How will this affect their employment? Will they also be subject to questioning? Are their jobs at risk? Will they question  the wives instead?

It’s all just getting completely out of control. I had a chance to re-read the Handmaid’s Tale the other night, and through it, was able to pinpoint some very specific points that resemble current laws. Maybe later this week I’ll go through and parse that for you. Until then, anyone who’s looking to leave Arizona, I could always use a new roommate.

Mother’s Day isn’t ALWAYS Happy Occasion

I am pregnant with my third child, however, come December I will be a mother to 4.

At the end of the month, my stepdaughter will turn 3. We found out she even existed when she wasn’t even 11 months old. We subsequently got sued for child support… We went through the process to determine paternity to find out if he was in fact the father… He is, and through it all, I’ve never minded one bit. I grew up in a big family. He tried to give me an out, to say if it was too much that I could walk away, but I couldn’t, I didn’t. I told him that I wouldn’t leave him because he had a kid, because he loved me even though I had a child when we started dating. (He’s also always said that if we ever broke up/got divorced, my son is his lol. He loves him.)

***Back story***

He’d had a one night stand that resulted in her getting pregnant. Not to sound bitter, but all signs point to her having gotten pregnant on purpose. He showed me the emails she’d sent him, and they had never dated, they’d only ever seen each other in person twice. The first time he was with her was the ONLY time he was with her, and you can see clearly in the emails that she was trying to keep him around as more than just a cheap fuck. (Are we censored here??) She was all “crazy stalker bitch” in the emails… so much so that I laughed hysterically at the amount she emailed him compared to how often he replied.

/End

Anyhow, we quickly learned after being presented with the court order that men have NO rights when it comes to child support, and women, no matter how horrible, how destitute, how iq-below-ability-to-breathe they are, have all the rights. Otherwise, how can you explain the fact that she maintains custody, while living in her brothers apartment, living OFF welfare because she’s too stupid/lazy to work and once got fired from a video rental store because she was literally too dense to operate a cash register… While we, in our house, with our steady income, 2 siblings, dog and caring stay at home mother can’t even get visitation?

We eat healthy food, we are physically active, neither of us has a mental disorder or an addiction problem or a criminal record… the worst infraction we have is ONE speeding ticket between the two of us, acquired over 4 years ago and leaving his driving record in a couple months.

WE HAVEN’T EVEN MET THE CHILD.

Oh, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

I sent her an email from an alternate account, that clearly said it was coming from us as a couple. We made a deal when all of this happened that anything that happened in regards to her and the child was strictly a “we” situation. We did everything together, we knew all the information that was exchanged, we were and are a team.

She sent back this. (Warning… not for the strong of grammar skills…)

“Y know,,, ? y wuldnt u do this b4,,,,,!!!” (Why now, why wouldn’t you do this before?)

She did NOT send that from a mobile, she sent it straight from a computer. Once I’d recovered enough from idiocy shock to reply, I sent back something to the effect of “We think that it’s about time that the children got to know each other, we’d hate for them to grow up knowing they have a sister that they’ll never know, and we’d like to know her ourselves, and have her in our lives as well.”

The next email I got was most definitely NOT her, it was too well written, and grammar wise was 1000 times better than her previous work.. (Keep in mind, I’d spied on her Facebook page. My former-newspaper-journalist skills come in handy from time to time still… So I knew she wrote in text speak as a rule.)

The email we recieved back was more or less an  “I agree, I want (my husband) to meet (our other daughter) and we want to spend time with him.” It further went on to explicitly say that I, nor his and my other children, were not welcome to be around her and “their” daughter.

Ooooh… “HELL NO THE FUCK YOU DI’IN’T!!” is what I said.

To the computer. Loudly.

Jon came over to see what was going on, read the exchange a second time, and was like, “No. No… You belong there, and there’s no way either of us is being in her presence, not a fucking chance. I don’t trust her.”

Have I yet mentioned how much I LOVE my husband?? He meant every word.

We still haven’t met the child. We haven’t had contact with the mother in a few months, aside from sending her a portion of our money every month.

Oh! Did I mention that we WERE saving for a house, but that fund, plus a line of credit we had to take out, plus tens of thousands of our household money over the last couple years has gone into court battles and support?? Forgive me if I’m a little bitter about THAT, because you know, it’s totally superficial to want a paid for roof over my children’s heads and all…

In closing, I think I’m angry at Mother’s Day, because I don’t know one of my children. Yes, I consider her “my” child, evne though she was born of someone else’s union… It doesn’t feel… right to celebrate a day that’s so… incomplete for me.