You know this story by now. The North Carolina legislature, which has been on a tear this session anyway, mounted a stealth attack on women's health. Like their brethren in Texas, North Carolina legislators magically morphed an anti-Sharia bill into an anti-abortion bill in Texas tradition, threatening to shut down all abortion clinics but one. And like Texas, it was a deep bow to their dominionist extremist Christian coalition partners.

The legislation would now allow any health care provider to opt out of providing abortion-related services, prohibit health plans offered through federal health care exchanges from offering abortion coverage, outlaw sex-selection abortions, require doctors to stay in the room during the entire abortion procedure, force abortion clinics to obtain patient-transfer agreements with local hospitals, and mandate that abortion clinics meet the same stringent standards as outpatient surgical centers.

Fck these people. No matter how high an opinion they have of themselves, they do not have the right to trample all over my rights, particularly when their entire refrain is "Love the fetus, but we're not feeding the little brat after it's born."

For all of their cries of "Liberty!" they've sure shut up about that when the old white dudes are telling young women they must have an ultrasound via forced penetration mandated by the state, when they're shutting down clinics that offer a hell of a lot more services than abortions, and when they're putting birth control under lock and key. If ever there was a group of people who don't give a damn about liberty, it's these ancient and evil hypocrites.

The craven abandon with which these despots are stripping women of rights may give them a quick rush now, but it spells their end, and sooner rather than later. For the moment at least, women have the right to vote. And I cannot think of anything that will mobilize women faster than some old man telling them what to do with their bodies.

In North Carolina, it's particularly egregious, given that the very same legislature refused the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act AND cut social welfare benefits to the bone.

Texas legislators worked very hard to limit any testimony opposing their newest effort to ban abortion and put women in the second-class line today. North Carolina lawmakers are claiming a vote against their travesty of a bill is a vote for Sharia law - as if voting FOR such a bill isn't the Christian equivalent of some arcane interpretation of Sharia law.

Give them enough time and I'm sure they'll come up with a way to behead women who seek abortions.