Happy Hump Day, badgers!

I can’t believe we’re already six months shy of the 2012 presidential election. While it’s tough to predict who the Republican nominee will be just yet, one thing’s for certain: If a Republican gets elected in November, women in the U.S. are seriously, seriously fucked.

In response to the recent wave (tsunami?) of extreme-right wing policies dictating what a woman cannot do with her body, Soraya Chemaly wrote an outstanding article for the Huffington Post titled, “10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts.” I want to summarize her work here because I believe it’s absolutely crucial that all women, especially women of reproductive age, are fully educated on exactly how Republicans plan to restrict women’s fundamental human rights if elected. Plus, this article is one of the first I’ve read that cuts the bullshit, simplifies the politics and gets straight to the point.

Chemaly begins her article by citing that women, as human beings, have the following human rights: the right to life, the right to privacy, the right to freedom, the right to bodily integrity and the right to decide when and how to reproduce.

Next, Chemaly goes on to discuss, as the title reveals, 10 proposed laws governing women’s bodies that are literally unbelievable. She talks specifically about two bills that have made headlines recently across the country:

“Making women carry still-born fetuses to full term because cows and pigs do.”

Here, Chemaly is referring to Georgia Rep. Terry England’s recent bill proposing that women carry dead fetuses to delivery like some animals do. A mother of twins, Chemaly rightly points out that if one twin is a stillborn, carrying it to term not only endangers the other twin, but puts the mother’s life at risk as well.

Here’s what pisses me off the most about this law: No law-proposing man will ever have to give birth. No male Republican will ever have to decide, after months of feeling a child grow inside of him, whether or not to carry that child to term. But they insist on telling women that we can’t make that decision.

What the fucking fuck?

“Forcing women to undergo involuntary vaginal penetration … with a condom-covered, six- to eight-inch ultrasound probe.”

In response to a bill recently proposed in Virginia (and currently being considered in Pennsylvania) that would require a woman seeking an abortion to undergo a penetrative vaginal ultrasound, Chemaly argues that “trans-vaginal ultrasounds undertaken without a woman’s consent are rape according the legal definition of the word,” arguing that this “constitutes torture when used, as states are suggesting, as a form of control and oppression.”

Torture and rape. Republicans are proposing to torture and rape women. Their own women. Their mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, friends, granddaughters and lovers.

I agree with Chemaly when she points out, “Women have the right not to be raped by the state.”

Simply put, these laws, and the many others surrounding women’s human rights, are absurd. Fortunately, many Republicans have called attention to the horror of these laws by refusing to support any and all of the Republican nominees (for more info, visit republicansforobama.org).

But the craziest thing about the recent wave of laws restricting women’s rights, in my opinion, is the fact that millions of women support these men as presidential candidates.

The bottom line: Both women and men need to be fully educated about just what the Republican candidates are proposing to do to women’s bodies when it comes time for us, collectively, to choose our next president. It’s absolutely crucial that we as voters are fully informed about these laws so that we can stand up to the men (and women) who are proposing, essentially, to torture and rape women, and then stamp that act with government approval.

Mary is a senior English and international studies major. Send her your questions and comments at [email protected].