In 1995 book Jeb Bush suggested that public shaming and ridicule were good ways to keep women from having babies out of wedlock.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Public shaming would be an effective way to regulate the “irresponsible behavior” of unwed mothers, misbehaving teenagers and welfare recipients, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) argued in his 1995 book Profiles in Character. 

In a chapter called "The Restoration of Shame,” the likely 2016 presidential candidate made the case that restoring the art of public humiliation could help prevent pregnancies “out of wedlock.” 

"One of the reasons more young women are giving birth out of wedlock and more young men are walking away from their paternal obligations is that there is no longer a stigma attached to this behavior, no reason to feel shame. Many of these young women and young men look around and see their friends engaged in the same irresponsible conduct. Their parents and neighbors have become ineffective at attaching some sense of ridicule to this behavior. There was a time when neighbors and communities would frown on out of wedlock births and when public condemnation was enough of a stimulus for one to be careful." 

Bush points to Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, in which the main character is forced to wear a large red "A" for "adulterer" on her clothes to punish her for having an extramarital affair that produced a child, as an early model for his worldview. "Infamous shotgun weddings and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter are reminders that public condemnation of irresponsible sexual behavior has strong historical roots,” Bush wrote.

Well good to know that if we elect Jeb Bush to the White House that he will try to bring back the public shaming of women.

And seriously how does a guy like this have the nerve to write a book with the title "Profiles in Character?"

Seriously fuck this guy and everything he stands for!

First post in today's "War on Women Thursday." Let's start with Christian hypocrisy shall we?

Courtesy of the ACLU: 

Today, we filed suit in federal court on behalf of Jennifer Maudlin, a single mother who was fired when her employer learned that she was pregnant. Jennifer's employer – a religiously-affiliated community organization called Inside Out – says that it fired Jennifer for violating its unwritten rule against non-marital sex. 

What happened to Jennifer amounts to discrimination based on pregnancy status and gender. Why? Because Inside Out learned about its workers' sexual lives by looking at its women workers' bellies. In fact, Jennifer and other women workers who became pregnant had to hide their bellies for as long as possible because they were terrified of being found out and fired. Unmarried men who had sex, and even those who became fathers, had nothing to fear, because – of course – their bellies wouldn't give them away. In Jennifer's workplace, pregnancy became a "scarlet letter," marking unmarried employees for termination. 

The treatment of women workers at Inside Out also subjects women workers to mistreatment based on sex stereotypes. When a person can be thrown out of work because she decides to – or must – take on motherhood alone, what are we as a society saying about her? That she's unworthy of any further association with her coworkers? That she's unfit to participate in economic life? That she doesn't deserve to be able to eat, or pay rent, or buy gas? 

Add to that the effects of such discrimination on the children. At least half of children growing up in the U.S. today will spend some if not all of their childhoods in a single-parent family. Single parent families have the highest poverty rate in the country, and the highest rate of lacking health insurance – which in the U.S. is usually provided by an employer. We'd be kidding ourselves to think that employment discrimination against single mothers leaves kids unharmed.

So let's get this straight. 

These are the same people who stand on street corners waving pictures of shredded fetuses and attempting to shame every woman walking into a family planning clinic by screaming "Murder" at them. And yet when that young lady is an employee and they feel her pregnancy reflect poorly on their "holier than thou" image, they have no qualms about saying "Pack your shit slut, you are out of here!"

Gotta love those Christian values.

If they were really Pro-Life they would do everything they could to help their female employees get whatever services they would to make sure the baby is born healthy and that he or she is well cared for after they were born.

You know like any caring human being who was not being directed by ancient superstitions would do.