That fact that anyone thinks that woman could be a good spokesperson for anything is funny, sad, and terrifying at the same time.

"Our fertility is precious to us."

Speak for yourself, nutball. And I'm sorry, but I happen to think that women have more going for them than the ability to make babies. There are other ways to contribute to society, no?

But I'm a radical liberal, so don't mind me.

Does this mean that Leslie "Batshit" Unruh is offering to feed, clothe, educated and otherwise care for all of these babies?

What? You mean she's just another fucking hypochristian? Get right out of town!

that. woman. is. terrifying.

also...i also enjoyed the" you don't mind 13-year old girls popping birth control pills like chicklets", part.

My response to that is, "Would you rather have 13 year old girls popping birth control pills, or popping out babies?"

This poor woman is somehow expected to stop teenage girls from having sex, because apparently stopping them from getting pregnant isn't sufficient. Is she now the mother of every teenage girl everywhere?

With that suit, flower, fake hair, and annoying voice, how is anyone taking this woman seriously? Especially when she keeps repeating "big pharma" in that manner.

Just when I think I've seen it all, more batties crawl out of the woodwork.

Props to Mary Alice Carr for looking and sounding professional and like she knows what she's talking about. Batty Big Bird could learn a thing or two from her.

The most telling thing was when the anchor said, "Are you worried that young girls are going to have an active sex life WITHOUT the threat of pregnancy" (emphasis mine)

Every blogger are feministing, feministe, and pandagon (and probably a lot of others I haven't gotten around to reading yet) have been constantly saying that the right isn't about saving innocent babies but about controlling women's sexuality, how Mary Alice Carr let that slide by without a comment is sad because it's the bullseye with that the right is REALLY trying to do: control women, especially young women, with their sexuality.

He specifically says, "without the threat of pregnancy" which means that pregnancy is what's being used to keep women in check.

And gawd damn, why on earth is a crazy person like Unruh allowed access to a public forum? The only thing she can keep repeating is "it's against god" and "we should love our fertility" and that there is a war on women and babies in this country. No one is forcing women to NEVER have kids and she can't wrap her feeble little mind around that.

Oh, and props to Faux News for finally taking the rational stance for a change.

Oh yeah, does anyone know how many kids does Unruh have herself? If she loves babies so much it would follow that she'd have a lot of them, either naturally or through adoption right? Or is she speaking for all other women besides herself?

also...i'm tempted to make a t-shirt that says "i'm a soldier in the war on children"

Jesus Christ, what a scary woman. It's ridiculous to say that NARAL and Planned Parenthood are brainwashing people into taking birth control. I take the pill because I don't want to get pregnant. Nobody's forcing me to do it. I suppose I just don't value my femininity and fertility because I don't want sex to result in babies right now.

She would probably also say that I don't value my body and my purity. yeugh.

Not to mention that she's freakin' rude. Mary Alice could barely get a word in without Leslee speaking over her about babies and fertility and "femininity" and crap like that.

That Unruh seriously sounds like shes in heat. The whole "better contraceptives = less unwanted pregnancies = less abortion" point should have been enough to shut any sane person up in my opinion.

Oh shit I forgot, thats "big pharma" bustin through the windows right now to force feed women their contraceptives.

The past couple of hours have been pretty weird for me, so I think Ill just put a bag over my head for a while and face the corner of the room.

WE WANT BABIES! Must refer to Unruh and the mouse in her pocket.

Also - her entire implication is that women are being forced to take BC which is, of oourse, totally bat shit crazy.

As someone already said, I love how un professional Leslee looked compared to the well groomed, calm and intelligent looking woman next to her. I don't feel that Fox news was that great. The newscaster let Leslee talk over Mary Alice many times and she was hardly able to make a point. I also thought he was slightly attacking her with the "chiclets" comment. It is so frustrating to watch things like this cause the most annoying person always ends up being the one people hear. Yes Leslee sounded like a fucking moron but you're also going to remembver her more and unfortunately to people that don't listen well enough it will come across as "yeah that one woman was annoying but I don't remember the other one saying anything back"

remember kids: America can be stupid...

Not to mention that, according to her, taking birth control means you won't ever be able to have babies.

meh - whenever i am any sort of hormonal BC, i don't have a period anyway. it doesn't bother anyone, not even my doctors.

Coleen - make the shirt! i'll get one!!! those would rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!

meh - whenever i am any sort of hormonal BC, i don't have a period anyway. it doesn't bother anyone, not even my doctors.

Coleen - make the shirt! i'll get one!!! those would rock!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd buy a shirt, too Colleen. Wasn't there a post on this site about someone looking to make shirts with slogans exactly like that? She was asking for suggestions.

MORE BABIES!!! MORE BABIES!!! You can have all of the crazy ass fundamentalist babies you want, Leslee. Just keep your little zombies far away from the rest of us.

I think Unruh is absolutely right!

I mean, for years I've been forced to take these pesky contraceptives just so I could finish college, go to law school, and try and start a promising career. All I've ever wanted to do is have babies (WE LOVE BABIES!) but dammit, big pharma has been force-feeding me these pills for years.

* sarcasm off *

Seriously though... what is UP with this crazy freak? It's obvious that she's under the mistaken impression that a woman's most valuable asset is her fertility--that is, ability to generate more men or more bitches (I use this in the breeding sense.)

Also, what's up with using pregnancy as a threat to women? I thought it was supposed to be so friggin precious.

Cavuto's last question was great.

I love how conservatives and older people in general have a fear of women, and really men to, having "very active" sex lives.

As a person who chooses to have a "very active" sex life this complaint always makes me chuckle.

yeah...I really liked how each time the crazy one spouted off about something, Mary Alice was given about 2 seconds to rebut it before the host turned back to Leslie.

And contraception is unnatural and evil and you don't want it any way. Really. Just remember that, it's for your own good. /snark

Wow, just wow. This is why I wish they did news clips on MST3K.
I want a "war on children" t-shirt! It would go well with an "I hate your freedom" shirt.

I am the Mary Alice Carr on the show and I wanted to respond to UltraMagnus' comment that I let the comment from Cavuto slide when he bascially said that we need the threat of pregnancy to keep us ladies in check.

It's so hard on these shows, especially with some rude person going OFF in your ear about 'big pharma' to really hear everything and say all the witty and smart things you wanna say.

I just want to say here that I totally was thinking what UltraMagnus wrote but I couldn't really formulate it and get it out in the .10 seconds I had! But, agreed, agreed, agreed.

And we should all hope they have Leslee on more often because she makes me and the rest of us look so calm and moderate. Which of course, we are.

Thanks for the props, all.

MAC,

Thanks for posting. I hope I didn't come off as mean, sometimes I get really overzealous in wanting people to talk some sense (if that's at all possible) into these people. And you were on FOX news so I applaud you for even bothering to go on. I realize it can be hard to hear and yeah, Unruh was saying some really crazy things that you weren't getting to respond to.

You did an awesome job though.

Nope, not mean at all. I always re-watch and am like, damn, I should have just railed her for that one! How did I miss it!?

So Leslee wants more babies? Let's give them to her -- sing it with me, everyone!

Tanya lived for
Revolution
Wanted to overthrow
The state
She had fifteen
Commie babies
Phyllis Schlafly
Ain't that great?

21stCenturyMom:

WE WANT BABIES! Must refer to Unruh and the mouse in her pocket.

LOL, I said the exact same thing to my husband when we were watching the clip, only change "mouse" to "frog." "'Our fertility is precious to us'? Who's us? Does Leslie have a frog in her pocket or something?"

Colleen - You've got my money for one of those shirts too.

It's scary to me, this new "pro-women" stance the antis are taking...somehow having the option to take contraceptives, or to have an abortion is "controlling" women, is "bad for women." Fertility = femininity, and taking that away makes us less of women?

Keep an eye out for this, ladies...it's scary, and I've got this feeling like it's going to rope in some of those who are in the gray on pro-choice issues...

Also, bridgetka...I hear Gollum's voice coming out of that fat toad's mouth. "my fertility...my preciousssss."

"My response to that is, 'Would you rather have 13 year old girls popping birth control pills, or popping out babies?'"

Some fundies actually would prefer 13-year-olds popping out babies.

"This poor woman is somehow expected to stop teenage girls from having sex, because apparently stopping them from getting pregnant isn't sufficient. Is she now the mother of every teenage girl everywhere?"

...or now the mother-in-law of every teenage girl everywhere and expected to keep all of them in the house?

Anyone else freaked out by the ortho-tri style BC pills being obsessively popped...popped...popped in the background? What weirdo made that stock footage?

I think Leslee Unruh is the best form of birth control.

And I like how Cavuto called pregnancy a threat. So pregnancy isn't as great as pro-life nuts want us women to believe. Shocker!

Wow. I know it's Fox News and you do expect a certain amount of ridiculousness, but what on EARTH was all that about? Why did the anchor only challenge the NARAL representative and not that crazy talk-a-tron?

Oh, dang. I just read the PP piece on her. Her home for pregnant single women and girls reminds me an awful lot like a Lifetime movie I saw. Maybe the one with Winnie Cooper?!?!

Well then, if Leslie wants more babies then she should become on of those quiverfull women.

I hate when conservatives argue against birth control thinking that it increases promiscuity.

"Would you rather have 13 year old girls popping birth control pills, or popping out babies?"

Apparently they do, we have to remember, when it comes down it, these people are anti-sex. Because having a baby should be punishment for having sex.

Unruh and that anchor should hold hands and take a trip to my hometown, Imperial Valley and "Oooh" and "Ahh" at all the teenage girls with their babies, heck, maybe adopt some of them.

Back in junior high our sex education was based on abstinence and we were all pretty much told that the pill is the devil and that if you have sex you are dirty and will get AIDS and die.
The result, several girls in my generation living with their parents taking care of babies either single or sometimes married to some guy in the military who is off someplace else "fighting and defending our nation."

So yes, Mr. Anchor, I think popping in pills like chiclets is better than popping out babies and being deprived of the possibility of going to college and becoming professionals that contribute to the betterment of society.

Unruh needs to realize that she cannot speak for every woman because first of all, not all women believe in God and secondly, some of us want to have babies, some of us don't, we're a very heterogenous group.

Mary Alice Carr, stay classy, you were great and I can't imagine how hard it must have been to make coherent and educated statements in the midst of all the BS being said.

It's amazing how Leslee can say things like "We need to control our bodies!" when she is totally against something that would allow women to... uhm... control their bodies.

I love this idea that many anti-choice people have about pro-choicers and Planned Parenthood having a "war on children" and how they make women not have kids.

This girl in my class, who is pro-life, is completely convinced that the women who have abortions are brainwashed by Planned Parenthood. She can't wrap her mind around the fact that some women freely CHOOSE their abortions and want them.

Oh, and speaking of someone coming for someone else's babies:

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=456716

"Born-again flamingo's two loving daddies

"When a newly-hatched flamingo chick was abandoned by its mother and father, the search for surrogate parents did not take long.

"Carlos and Fernando, the only gays in the bird sanctuary, were the automatic choice.

"The pair have already brought up three chicks after snatching eggs from other (mixed) couples at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.

"This time they were to have one of their own.

"For flamingoes, as for humans, bonding with baby is vital. The parent birds need to hear cheeping from within the egg then see the chick hatch.

"So staff at the trust placed the abandoned youngster in a broken egg, taped it up and placed it in Carlos and Fernando's nest. Soon afterwards it emerged good as new.

"WWT spokeswoman Jane Waghorn said: 'Fernando and Carlos are a same sex couple who have been known to steal other Flamingos' eggs by chasing them off their nest because they wanted to rear them themselves.

"'They were rather good at sitting on eggs and hatching them so last week, when a nest was abandoned, it seemed like a good idea to make them surrogate parents...'"

I think popping in pills like chiclets is better than popping out babies and being deprived of the possibility of going to college and becoming professionals that contribute to the betterment of society.

OK, hopefully I'm not derailing too much, but that sort of rubs me the wrong way. I think that all people should have the opportunity to go to college if they want to (i.e., teenage girls probably should *not* have kids because it typically narrows their options), but being a college grad and professional isn't everyone's life ambition, and what you said kind of comes off like only college grads are contributing to the betterment of society.

I know that is probably not how you meant it by it at all, but I come from a blue collar/farming family and can't help but take it as sort of a 'looking down your nose at' people who don't/can't do that.

I'd also like to add to BabyPop's comment. Having a child before college does not always (and in a perfect world, never would) mean that the possibility of going to college and/or having a good career is lost. As BabyPop pointed out it does make a lot of things more challenging, but becoming pregnant at a young age (while certainly not preferable) does not necessarily mean that one's life is over. That being said, I realize you didn't mean it that way, I just thought it was worth mentioning.

And back to the thread, Leslie Unhinged is a nut. My seven year old has made more impressive arguments as to why she doesn't need a bedtime. If that's the best spokesperson for the anti-birth control crowd, then I'm going to sleep a little easier tonight.

Generally, people who use birth control are people who don't want to have children right at the moment, so yeah, I'm a big supporter of people on birth control NOT having babies.

People who DO want to have babies right at the moment generally do NOT take birth control pills (except in the context of an IVF cycle, but that's a whole other kettle of fish), so I just don't know what the fuck that blond wigged freak was going on about. If you're not taking birth control pills already, the existance of a different kind of pill is not going to impact you one little bit, so this is a non issue for her side.

If she wants "More babies, more babies!" she can jolly well have them herself, but that doesn't mean she gets to direct uterine traffic for others.

“It's amazing how Leslee can say things like "We need to control our bodies!" when she is totally against something that would allow women to... uhm... control their bodies.�

Exactly. It’s right-wing Newspeak. And I think it’s dangerous the way she verbalizes her restrictive agenda as being some kind of pro-active empowering effort.

To varying degrees, if you listen to right-wing demagogues, I think you will spot this trend, regardless of the topic, of describing something in terms that are completely different from what is actually taking place. (i.e. legislation with questionable patriotic credentials = “Patriot Act�)

It’s like Orwell is being studied as a how-to guide.

Good job MAC. That’s a tough “away game�.

Interesting how the hard right wing sends out caricature blonde bimbos to defend their stance that women only exist to repopulate their ranks. I'm surprised she didn't argue that females are second-class citizens who don't deserve any relief from their fertility!

No more babies for me!

Few people know that "we love babies" is not the first tag-line she considered using in this tv spot. Ahead of it on the list were:

"We like to take puppies to them mall in our purses."
"We think sweater vests look sophisticated."
and
"Kittens are fuzzy"

But she decided these were too insipid.

Leslie doesn't want your babies.

(Cue creepy devil voice and scary music.)

SHE WANTS YOUR SOUL!!!

No matter how often I see this sort of thing, it never ceases to amaze me how people will go on tv (and be allowed to go on tv!) to simply lie. They literally sit there and spit out false information.

"Once you start the drug you won't be able to have children...it causes fertility problems." THAT'S JUST PLAIN WRONG. And you KNOW she knows what she's saying is wrong. And it's disgusting. These are the same kind of people who like to toss around that "emergency contraception is an abortion pill!" argument. Which is...not even close to true. And STILL people are allowed to get away with these purposely misleading/outright wrong talking points. Ugh.

What I can't figure out is why this is even getting play in the media. The Pill has been around for what, 50, 60, 70 years? It's repackaged to do something it's always been capable of, and somehow this is news. The stories I keep seeing make it sound like this Pill will eliminate all women's periods forever.

Maybe so, since Cavuto seems to think they'll be handed out to to 10 year old girls. Hey, it could those replace those little puberty starter packs they hand out - screw your first maxi pad, here's some pills! (Does anyone else remember those?)

As far as the 'shared experiences' angle on periods - or maybe that's 'celebrating fertility' - I don't know why that's being suddenly talked about either in mainstream media. Honestly, I don't care. My first period was a big deal to me. But the novelty wore off pretty fast. Why it's important to grown women (except as reassurance that MORE BABIES! aren't on the way), much less the media, is beyond me.

Crap, are my publicist roots showing? I do suspect this is the work of Lybrel's PR team....

Stanna, I'm just as confused as you are as to why this is suddenly "news."

It's almost like, as soon as the far right hears of ANY new development concerning contraception (groundbreaking or otherwise), they pounce on whatever misguiding misinformation they can muster (ha, unintentional alliteration), and use this as an opportunity to rake in your predictable "values voters" who no doubt take these half-assed arguments from your average "conservative-on-the-right-side-of-the screen" as infallible truth. Which as we all know, only helps strengthen their "feminists are baby killers!" base. :(

That blonde lady sounds like a nutcase from the fun house

I agree with Stanna and Christina - I don't understand the media. Who is writing this shit? Have any of the stories pointed out that the birth control pill can already be taken continuously, so that you don't get periods at all? And that when you have your "period" on the pill it's fake anyway? There's no ovulation! The fake period is designed by male doctors to remind women that they're only "normal" if they bleed once a month. So why the hell is this new drug so controversial? A bunch of us have been skipping our periods on purpose for years. And we're just as fertile as ever, when we choose to be.

"The fake period is designed by male doctors to remind women that they're only 'normal' if they bleed once a month."

I heard it was added in an attempt to not have the Vatican condemn it (the attempt didn't work).

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/news-articles-press/politics-policy-issues/abortion-access/leslee-unruh-6248.htm

That woman is batshit crazy. Speaking in plurals, though, she might be pregnant, and her fetus is the other she's including in the crazy. I mean, she's so pro-fertility, I wouldn't eliminate that possibility, even at her age. That woman will be pregnant at 84 years old, I bet.

(from the link)
The group believes masturbation is dangerous, and Unruh has described masturbation as "the first step to sexual addiction."

Wow. This woman is truly frightening. Sex isn't her enemy, it's orgasms she seems to hate. Oh, and children. She hates children. Loves babies, hates children. I think that's clear from her propaganda.

Okay, this is a little off the topic, but Akeeyu, can I tell you how very much I love the phrase "direct uterine traffic for others"? Fabulous. Can I use that?

I like how the questions immediately turn to 13 year old girls, as if the marketing scheme of "Big Pharma" is to get all of the spending money of the 'tween crowd. What 13 year old can afford BC of her own accord???

Colleen, I would totally wear an "I'm a soldier in the war on children" t-shirt....and I'm visibly 5 1/2 months pregnant!

Unruh's head might drop dead on the spot if she saw me in that!

I do like the way Ms. Carr every so often turns to the camera with a "can you believe this shit?" look.

I agree with Kimmy--Akeevu's "direct uterine traffic" line had me out of my chair in giggles.

Not to mention I was already a little punch-drunk from watching the video. MAC, if you're still reading this thread, you were awesome. I don't know how you kept a straight face or were so coherent in the face of that insanity.

*We want more babies!*

Um... who is the 'we' she is referring to? Dear God, if she ever hooked up with that crazy lady who goes on public air condemning everyone to Hell and applauding the Twin Towers being hit as a justifiable act of God, we're in serious trouble! I should find THAT link... that woman is equally as scary.

Just once I'd like to see a boom mic dropped on the head of the obnoxious speaker... Just once.. is THAT too much to ask?!

I love that Unruh's last name is German for "Unrest". That just fits far too well.