The War on Women continues: IRS to audit your reproductive choices?

Here they go again: just when you thought H.R. 3 – the bill that became notorious for initial language that would redefine rape – was bad enough, it gets worse. As reported by Nick Baumann in Mother Jones today, the passage of the bill would result in the IRS having to audit the reason for a woman’s abortion. Baumann writes: “To ensure that taxpayers complied with the law, IRS agents would have to investigate whether certain terminated pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. And one tax expert says that the measure could even lead to questions on tax forms: Have you had an abortion? Did you keep your receipt?”

Where to even begin, when H.R. 3 embodies all the hypocrisy, misogyny, and cruelty of the GOP’s war on women? First, let’s say you’re a rape or incest survivor who terminated the pregnancy that resulted from your assault. Now not only do you have to relieve the trauma of your experience, but you need to show “proof” to an IRS agent? That’s just unspeakably cruel and burdensome. The same goes if you terminated a pregnancy to save your own life.

Beyond the terrible intrusiveness and callousness toward women that H.R. 3 shows, it also demonstrates a complete disconnect in Republican ideology. They claim to be the party of limited government, of personal liberties – except when it comes to a woman’s body and what decisions she makes for her own health and life. This simply reeks of hypocrisy and the fact that the GOP just won’t own up to their real agenda: restricting women’s rights and choices to the most extreme degree.

Fed up with this anti-woman agenda? Sick of the constant assaults by the GOP? So are we. We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore. Join us in stopping the war on women.

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