I want to thank Mr. Akin for his remarks.

I want to thank him for demonstrating that the anti-choice movement is so often divorced from scientific facts, like when they claim that the uterus contains a magical anti-rapist semen force field, or when they claim that there’s a causal relationship between abortion and breast cancer. It is not, in fact, “really rare” for rape to result in pregnancy, unless you think that something that happens 32, 000 times every year is “really rare.”

I also want to thank him for revealing the contempt and mistrust that lies at the heart of so much anti-choice rhetoric. The contempt for women who have sex for pleasure and accidentally get pregnant. The mistrust of women that feeds the belief that we lie about being raped so we can get abortions, and the mistrust of women that justifies the idea that we don’t know when we’ve been raped and that politicians get to decide that for us.

I want to thank him for demonstrating the complete disregard for women that is necessary for a person to want to ban abortion. Notice that in his response, he mentioned the hypothetical rapist, and the “child,” but he didn’t mention the woman. The woman who has been raped and is now pregnant and will now be forced to give birth to her rapist’s baby because the government says so. Because what she wants isn’t relevant in this situation.

I want to thank him for exposing the fact that Republican men feel absolutely no need to have an knowledge of science, reason or facts before preparing to make uninformed, irresponsible and painful laws about women’s health. I want to thank him for making it clear that we cannot ignore their disregard for women any longer by pretending it isn’t as bad as we think. It is every bit as bad as we think.

Since Rep. Paul Ryan was chosen as Mitt Romney’s running mate, I’ve sent out tweets noting that by picking Ryan, Romney has doubled down on his dangerous stance on women’s health. I included links to articles describing Ryan’s abysmal record on the issue.

This being Twitter, supporters of Romney and Ryan responded. But rather than defend Ryan’s record,  they instead accusing me of making it up. This reaction of disbelief continued even after the spread of an internet meme and campaign trail pranks began drawing attention to Ryan’s positions.

 Maybe that’s not surprising: Ryan’s record on women’s issues is so far outside the mainstream that many find it unbelievable.

If you find all of that unbelievable — and dangerous — you’re not alone.  But that’s the problem.  If voters assume no one could be that bad, and don’t learn the truth about Ryan’s record, Romney/Ryan will have the opportunity to put their vision for women’s health and economic security into action. That’s why we have to spread the word. By November, Ryan’s record shouldn’t be unbelieved, or unknown.

-Sandra Fluke at msnbc.com

I am pretty cynical, but I was definitely surprised by the extent of Ryan’s anti-woman voting record.

The decision to create a rule that would cut funding to Planned Parenthood, according to these sources, was driven by the organization’s new senior vice-president for public policy, Karen Handel, a former gubernatorial candidate from Georgia who is staunchly anti-abortion and who has said that since she is “pro-life, I do not support the mission of Planned Parenthood.” (The Komen grants to Planned Parenthood did not pay for abortion or contraception services, only cancer detection, according to all parties involved.) I’ve tried to reach Handel for comment, and will update this post if I speak with her.

The decision, made in December, caused an uproar inside Komen. Three sources told me that the organization’s top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board’s decision to cut off Planned Parenthood. Williams, who served as the managing director of community health programs, was responsible for directing the distribution of $93 million in annual grants. Williams declined to comment when I reached her yesterday on whether she had resigned her position in protest, and she declined to speak about any other aspects of the controversy.

In addition, Colorlines reports that Komen’s site was hacked earlier this morning. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood donations have surged enough to nearly replace Komen’s funding of $600,000 a year. Read more about the background of Susan Komen’s public relations nightmare here.

Call me cynical, but I think this kind of outrageous demonstration of the extent to which the right will allow a fetus to stand in the way of all women’s health is exactly what a lot of women needed to wake up. I hope that many women, especially young women, are starting to see that fighting constantly for rights we’ve had for years is not really optional in this political climate.