“#dearjohn” and Republican hypocrisy over rape and abortion; the rights of Egyptian women and girls in a post-revolution Egypt; and Utah’s unbelievable proposed bill for college-age women in the state.

• Have you “#dearjohn”-ed yet? It’s a twitter campaign started by Sady Doyle, the amazing young woman behind the Julian Assange/sexual assault/Michael Moore social media campaign, #MooreandMe. This time, the campaign aims to raise awareness about the insidious and misogynistic nature of Rep. Chris Smith’s anti-legal abortion bill  – which also seeks to re-define rape and bar Medicaid insurance coverage of abortions for women and girls who are pregnant as the result of rape (and don’t want to carry the pregnancy to term). The #DearJohn hashtag refers to our lovely Speaker of the House John Boehner who says he’s making it a “priority” to pass Smith’s cruel legislation. Add it to your call to your own representative to vote against the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”!

• The Revolution in Egypt is a feminist issue. Women and girls are playing critical roles, on the streets. But how women and girls will fare in Egyptian society after Mubarak’s government is out and a new one put in place, is still an unknown. 

• The Washington Independent reports that freshman U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, who opposed the pre-existing condition provision in the new health reform law, will chair the Subcommittee on Health and Technology charged with…implementation of the new federal health reform law!

• Hmmm. Let’s say you’re a legislator in Utah. And you’re vehemently against the new heatlh reform law because it forces Americans to purchase health care coverage. And you’re faced with needing to cut your state’s Medicaid budget. You see that a percentage of Medicaid funds go to cover birth for low income women (of course). You think: a) I should check with the public health experts regarding how best to reduce the number of Medicaid funded births? (ie, Guttmacher Institute – which is done extensive research and analysis over many years which shows that providing contraception and comprehensive sex is is a sure fire way to reduce unintended pregnancy!) or b) I ‘ll force all college-aged women in our state to purchase maternity care coverage because some of these young women use Medicaid to cover childbirth if they get pregnant as students (and they may be low income and they may not be – we don’t know). If you chose “b” you’re right! I think all Republican bills related to women’s health should just be titled “HYPOCRISY.”