It’s not to hang their nice suit jackets, that’s for sure! Here’s some straight-to-the-point activism: a cell phone company, CREDO Mobile, is mailing coat hangers to all the democratic members of the House of Representatives who voted in support of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment in Obama’s health care reform bill. (CREDO must have read our piece, “How The Health Care Reform Bill Is Screwing Over Women With An Abortion Amendment”! Right?) The coat hangers are definitely a gruesome, but clear, reminder of what some women will do when their access to abortions is restricted. So far, over 116,000 have been sent.

But how come all of the 240 politicians who voted for Stupak-Pitts didn’t receive a coat hanger in the mail? After all, democrats aren’t the only ones who voted in favor of this amendment, just to pass the health care reform bill. [CREDO Action]

The Republican National Committee’s health plan with the insurance company Cigna has covered abortion since 1991, according to an investigation by the online news site Politico. Cigna’s health coverage plan allows employers to opt out of coverage for specific items, but the RNC, which employs members of the Republican Party, did not opt out of abortion coverage. Politico broke this news story yesterday and noted that the Republican Party’s own platform refers to abortion as “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.” RNC’s leader, Michael Steele, quickly responded in a statement promising they would opt out of abortion coverage from their health insurer. 

• In this video clip, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) speaks out against the health care reform bill’s Stupak-Pitts Amendment, which limits how private insurance companies can offer coverage for abortion. More conservatively inclined Democrats voted for the House of Representative’s version of the health care bill this past Saturday night only after the Stupak-Pitts Amendment was included. The video is a little snoozy at first, but 45 seconds in, Sen. Gillibrand gets to the good stuff about why Stupak-Pitts isn’t good for our reproductive rights. [YouTube]
• Speaking of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has said today that the Senate has the 60 votes needed to block the controversial bill when it makes its way to there. Let’s hope so. [Huffington Post]

• Emma Thompson initially signed a petition calling for Roman Polanski’s freedom, but has she had a change of heart? A reader at the blog Shakesville may have convinced her to remove her name from his list of supporters. [Shakesville]
• An Illinois judge has blocked the enforcement of the state’s controversial parental notification law, which mandates that a physician inform a parent or guardian if a minor age 17 or younger seeks an abortion. The law was blocked through a temporary restraining order by the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. [Chicago Breaking News]

Have you been following health care reform? Earlier this autumn, I was rushing home from work to watch Hardball every night. Then all those “town hall” people screaming about Nazism irritated me so much I’ve mostly tuned out. But there is one health care reform issue I’ve followed closely and that is abortion coverage under President Obama’s plan. Now, if you watched Obama’s big speech about health care reform, he stated loud-and-clear that abortion would not be funded under his public health care plan. Unfortunately, nothing in politics is ever that easily explained…

• Illinois’ controversial parental notification law for minors seeking an abortion has been delayed at least until Wednesday morning as officials meet to verify that girls can waive the notification process by petitioning a judge, who has 48 hours to rule on it. The parental notification law does not give parents consent, but requires that they be notified. An exemption is made in the case of a medical emergency or if a girl puts it in writing that she was sexually abused. [Chicago Tribune]

Irene Vilar rebelled against her “controlling” husband in the most unique of ways: by having abortions. Lots of ‘em. From ages 16 to 33, Vilar said she had 15 abortions and now calls herself a recovered “abortion addict” and mother of two.

Have you ever heard of “abortion addiction”? No, me neither. But Vilar has written about her “abortion addiction” in her new book, Impossible Motherhood: Testimony Of An Abortion Addict, which describes how when she was a young woman, Vilar said she married a 50-year-old man who jerked her around emotionally, so she would skip her birth control pills just to rebel against him. Discovering her pregnancies excited and scared her at the time, a rush Vilar likened to the same kind of “high” that a “druggie” feels. Vilar also tried to commit suicide several times.

Considering how ashamed and fearful many women are sharing they’ve had one abortion, it’s pretty annoying that a woman gets a book deal for telling everybody how she’s had over a dozen. Yes, it’s Vilar’s right to have as many abortions as she’d like, and it’s great Vilar is still pro-choice after all this. But everything about Impossible Motherhood is unrepresentative of what an average women’s experience with abortion is.

Unsafe abortions kill 70,000 women each year, according to a recent study of 197 countries by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute. The three-year study also found abortions are happening in countries where they are legal just as often as in countries where they are illegal—despite the fact that 40 percent of the world’s women live in places were abortion laws are strict. Said Sharon Camp, Guttmacher’s president:

‘‘Legal restrictions do not stop abortion from happening. They just make the procedure dangerous. Too many women are maimed or killed each year because they lack legal abortion access.”

Cupcakes! Who doesn’t love cupcakes? Makes me think of Sex and the City ... birthday parties ... sugary frosting ... abortion.

Wait ... wha?! Unless this is a big joke and I am just very gullible, Cupcakes For Life is a website that’s celebrating National Pro-Life Cupcakes Day today by staging a birthday party for the unborn babies of abortion. Cupcakes For Life suggests you bring a tray of cupcakes in for a group of people who, naturally, will ask, “Cupcakes! Whose birthday is it?” Then you, the cupcake baker, are supposed to say, “It’s no one’s birthday. These cupcakes represent the 50,000,000 children who weren’t allowed to be born, who never had a birthday.” The helpful “cupcake ideas” page offers suggested frosting slogans, like “Thou shalt not murder” and “abortion kills.” 

• Out of concern for their safety, young OB/GYN students admit to reconsidering whether or not they’ll do abortions after the recent murder of Dr. George Tiller, a physician in Kansas who terminated pregnancies. “Our doctors are graying and are not being replaced,” the president of the National Women’s Health Foundation has said. [Washington Post]
• Ex-schoolteacher Tiffany Sheperd, 31, has turned to porno after bikini pics got her fired from Port St. Lucie High School in Florida. Shepherd alleged she sent out 2,500 resumes after getting canned last April and has not been hired for a teaching position anywhere. In her new career, Shepherd’s stage name is Leah Lust and she has filmed five flicks, including one called “My First Sex Teacher.” [NY Daily News]
• The attorney for Rifqa Bary, the 17-year-old who ran away from home in Ohio to Florida because she fears her Muslim parents will kill her for converting to Christianity, filed a court memorandum requesting that the girl not be forced to go home. Bary has said her father threatened to kill her and her mother threatened to send her back to her home country of Sri Lanka after they discovered she is a Christian, although both her parents have denied the claims. Presently, the girl is living in foster care. [Fox News]

• The only abortion clinic in North Dakota wants thwart a state law requiring them to show a pregnant woman an ultrasound 24 hours before her abortion is scheduled. [Feministing]
• Two Democrats, Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT) and Rep. Tim Ryan (OH), introduced a bill today seeking “common ground” on abortion, called the “Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act.” The politicians hope they can reduce the number of abortions by sending more moolah towards preventing unplanned pregnancies, especially among teens. [Hartford Courant]
• Shanghai, one of the largest cities in China, are encouraging parents to have two children instead of following the one-child policy encouraged throughout much the country. Men have been favored in the culture, so if parents can only have one child, they often prefer to have a boy. As a result, the population is out of whack, with more men than women. [BBC]—Will Chinese girls be considered more valuable, or will they still be treated like second class citizens?

• Taxpayer money might pay for abortions under Obama’s proposed health care plan, according to Peter Orzag, the White House budget director. However, Orzag added that using taxpayer money that way could be so controversial that a decision has not been made about it yet. [NY Times]
• Rep. John Adams of Ohio introduced a bill in the state legislature last week which would require written consent from the father before an abortion can be performed. If the mom doesn’t know the father’s identity, the abortion would not be allowed. [Feministing] — Hmm, wonder if a woman has to get “permission” if she is raped, too?

A lot of people are happy that Barack Obama nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, but Emily Bazelon from Slate found someone in particular who is pretty psyched: the only woman presently sitting on the Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Ever since Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retired three years ago, Ginsberg has represented the XX chromosomes on the most important bench in the country with her colleagues—eight men. She spoke with Bazelon for the New York Times’ Sunday magazine about why the Supreme Court should have more women on it, why women might judge differently than men do, and her concerns about reproductive rights and the legality of abortion.

We collected nine bits of Ginsberg-ian wisdom, after the jump.  [The New York Times Magazine]