October 06, 2005

Coolest Legislator Ever

I sent out fourteen e-mails to members of Indiana's Senate yesterday regarding Patricia Miller's horrifying ART bill. Immediately afterward, I learned that Sen. Miller has withdrawn the bill. Oops. And yay! Although I was a bit embarrassed to have e-mailed all those folks for no reason, I got this lovely e-mail back from one of them:

Dear Queenie:

Thank you for your comments regarding State Senator Pat Miller's (Republican, Indianapolis) proposed legislation to establish a process by which some pregnancies would have to be authorized by the state. As you can imagine, it raised many concerns about the appropriate role of government in our lives.

As a member of the Health Finance Commission, I would have voted against this proposal. Thankfully, because of the public outcry over Senator Miller's legislation, she announced that she has withdrawn this proposed legislation from consideration. I want to personally thank you for your interest and your involvement in this important issue. I will monitor this subject closely during the upcoming legislative session in case this bill comes back in some other form.

--Senator Vi Simpson, Senate District 40

October 05, 2005

Oh, the Horror

I know I've been out of touch for a while, but things have been going along fairly smoothly on the baby front, except for the 18,000 DBTs* I had when the baby stopped moving suddenly and didn't start again for 36 hours. But all is well now.
And now I need your help. Go here and read about the horrifying new law proposed in Indiana that would ensure that no single person or homosexual person will be able to use ART to have a child. It will also require married couples needing donor sperm or eggs, or a gestational surrogate, to provide proof of their "individual participation in faith-based or church activities" to prove that they deserve to have a baby.

One of Julie's brilliant commenters, Amy E, pointed out that this law would have prevented Jesus's birth, because Mary and Joseph weren't married. Ha. You can contact State Senator Miller, the lovely author of this insanity, here. Click the "to get a list of all Indiana elected representatives" button and you should be able to find her.

Updated to include:
I just found this at Susan's In a Holding Pattern blog. Thank you, Susan...

You can contact Senator Miller directly at (317) 232-9489 or s32@in.gov. But do use the link above to contact other Indiana representatives--as I understand it, this bill has already been introduced to the general assembly, which means we need all of them to know that we want them to oppose it.

Also, from Susan, "If you live in Indiana, the next meeting of the Health Finance Commission will be held at the Statehouse on October 20, 2005 at 10 am in Senate Chambers and is open to the public." Please go!

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* Dead baby thoughts.