Hey Pennsylvanians: Get this douchebag out of office now!

[jadedmusings]

Everyone, meet Harry Readshaw, a (supposed) Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives (36th District). Mr. Readshaw recently co-sponsored Pennsylvania's HB1077, a bill that would require women seeking abortions to undergo endovaginal ultrasounds (something that's becoming a disturbing trend of late). One of his pro-choice constituents decided to email Mr. Readshaw and let him know in no uncertain terms that not only is he terribly misguided when it comes to women and their reproductive rights, but that he has also lost her vote.

So far this sounds pretty much what probably happens with any piece of legislation to pass through any state house, right? There's a bill or a proposed bill, voters either like it or hate it, and they then decide to let their representatives know how much they like it or hate it. Oh, but that's not enough for Mr. Readshaw. He apparently was so terribly affronted that a voter--a female voter told him women are intelligent competent people capable of making their own medical choices that he personally sent her a hand-written letter. Not only that, he pulled up her name, address, and voting record and made mention of it in the letter.

I know you're thinking, "Jade, that's some real bullshit. You can't possibly be for real." And I'll tell you I wish that it wasn't real, but it happened to Amadi of Amaditalks (a pretty awesome lady I follow on Twitter).

On Tuesday, after liveblogging my read-through of Pennsylvania’s HB1077, the bill which would force unwanted endovaginal ultrasounds on most persons seeking an abortion in the state, I sent a scathing email to my state representative, Harry Readshaw, who is a co-sponsor of the bill. To be entirely fair, I dislike my representative a great deal. He’s nominally a democrat, yet he’s entirely anti-choice, he also introduced a copy of the Arizona “papers please” anti-immigrant bill in this legislative session. I don’t know why he calls himself a democrat, but he does, and I hold him accountable.

[...]

Today, I received an oversized manilla envelope from Rep. Readshaw. Inside was a printout of HB 1077, a printout of some database’s information about me, indicating where I live, that I’m not the head of the household (why/how it knows this I do not know) and a few other things about me, like ethnicity, that no elected official should or needs to know. I’m going to have to get to the bottom of that.

As if that weren't enough in and of itself, Mr. Readshaw also discloses private medical information about his own daughter's reproductive status in a particularly heinous way of saying, "If she can't have babies, why should other women get to kill them?" (I shit you not.)

Seriously, this guy needs to be kicked out of office post-haste, like yesterday. And if you're in PA and are one of his constituents, you too can email him and tell him what a douchebag he is. Or, write to him.

Representative Harry A. Readshaw
1917 Brownsville Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15210

or
Room 122 Irvis Office Building
House Box 202020
Harrisburg, PA 17120-2020

If you’re inclined to call or fax:

Call: 412-881-4208 or 717-783-0411
Fax: 412-886-2077 or 717-705-2007

And if anyone knows who Amadi should contact or where to report this to, please visit her Tumblr and let her know.

Comments

[nagaina]

Readshaw's not my douche-Rep -- mine at least has the decency not to pretend to be a Democrat -- but I have nonetheless signal-boosted this all over the place. WTF is it with conservative men dealing with their personal family issues by fucking with other people's lives through the coercive power of state law? Just a couple weeks ago, I was reading about a politician in California who opposed same sex marriage because his parents divorced when he was little -- leading me to wonder, out loud, exactly what the fuck anyone else's marriage had to do with his personal childhood trauma.

[jadedmusings]

It seems a common theme with anti-choicers and conservatives in general is that they all seem to have this paternalistic approach to everything, especially when dealing with women. As Amadi later pointed out, this guy hand wrote this letter rather than going by email or printing it up because it probably meant a staffer or an intern wouldn't have to see it and realize, "Hey, this is probably a very bad idea." He's trying to silence her via intimidation. ("I know who you are, where you live, and how you vote.")

And WTF, did that CA politician's Mom run off with the neighbor's wife or something? O_o How does his parents' divorce have anything to do with same sex marriage? Someone's reaching very, very hard.

[nagaina]

O_o How does his parents' divorce have anything to do with same sex marriage?

I don't even know -- the explanation was offered sans any sort of rationale. I cannot even grasp how the two could connect together logically or otherwise.