The horrific gang rape of an 11-year-old girl by 18 men and boys in East Texas recently made news not only for the unspeakable act of violence but also because of the clumsy reporting by the New York Times.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before this crime was exploited by politicians. According to the Broward Palm Beach New Times, during a Florida Legislature subcommittee hearing on HB 61, the “sagging pants bill,” which includes dress code regulations for public school children, GOP Rep. Kathleen Passidomo shared this insight with the subcommittee:

There was an article about an 11 year old girl who was gang-raped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed up like a 21-year-old prostitute. And her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it’s incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn’t happen to our students.

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The Georgia Uterus Police are soooo two weeks ago.

Remember H.R. 3, the GOP’s “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion” bill?  You might also know it as the “When is Rape Not Rape” bill? Although for more than 25 years the Hyde Amendment has prohibited the use of federal money for abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or the life of the woman, the new bill would forbid using any tax benefits (i.e. deductions or credits) to pay for health insurance that covers abortion or to pay for abortions themselves.

On Wednesday, Thomas Barthold, the Chief of Staff of the nonpartisan Joint Tax Committee testified to a House subcommittee that under H.R. 3, the Internal Revenue Service, when auditing individuals who may have used their own money from Health Savings Accounts to pay for an abortion, would require documentation from said taxpayers proving the abortion was from a pregnancy caused by rape or incest.  If a taxpayer who used such a benefit were to be audited, Barthold said, the burden of proof would lie with the taxpayer to provide documentation that her abortion fell under the rape/incest/life-of-the-mother exception, or that the health insurance she had purchased did not cover abortions.

It appears that the GOP’s concern with cutting taxes and taking on the so-called jackbooted thugs of the IRS does not extend to getting the jackboots off of  the lady-bits.

[Think Progress and apologies to the late George Harrison]

Rand Paul, Master Logician: “I think there should be some self-examination from the Administration on the idea that you favor a woman’s right to an abortion, but you don’t favor a woman or a man’s right to choose what kind of light bulb, what kind of dishwasher, what kind of washing machine.” [TPM]

In today’s edition of the GOP pissing on women, Republican Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin has introduced H.B. 1 in the Georgia Legislature, which, along with outlawing abortion, requires that all miscarriages (which the bill calls “spontaneous fetal deaths”) be reported to the local county registrar within 72 hours, along with documentation that the miscarriage occurred with “no human involvement whatsoever.”

If a woman cannot prove sufficient facts or details as to the circumstances of her miscarriage, investigators may obtain information from “relatives or other persons acquainted with the facts” to determine whether the miscarriage occurred naturally.  Any “fetal death” that cannot be proven to have occurred without “human involvement” will be classified as a felony offense. Along with ignoring Roe v. Wade, let’s just ditch the whole concept of innocent until proven guilty.

Franklin has previously introduced legislation abolishing paper money in the state and outlawing income taxes, so he has a track record of far-right teabaggery.

The House of Representatives has voted 240-185 in favor of Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment cutting off funds for Planned Parenthood.  The organization’s more than 900 clinics receive approximately $75 million a year in Title X funds to provide birth control, STD treatment, and cervical cancer screening to several million low income women each year.  The organization receives additional federal funds through Medicaid reimbursements for serving poor women.  No federal funds have gone to abortion since the Hyde Amendment was enacted in the mid-70s.

UPDATED: Couple of kick-ass speeches by female CongressCritters are posted after the jump.

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A judge in Italy has ordered Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to stand trial in April on charges that he paid an underage girl for sex, and then abused his office by interfering in a police arrest of the young woman. The trial will be heard by a panel of three judges — all women.

[NPR: Berlusconi to Stand Trial in Prostitution Case]

On this day 38 years ago, the Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Roe v. Wade, holding that women have a privacy interest in the decision whether to bring a pregnancy to term, and thus ending an era of back-alley unsafe and illegal abortions.  (LBJ also died on January 22, 1973, but that news was overshadowed by the Roe decision).

In the intervening four decades, the Court has limited its decision. Access to a full spectrum of reproductive health services, including abortion, is limited by geography and state laws.  Despite ongoing efforts by politicians, primarily Republicans, to further limit women’s access to abortion, 62% of Americans oppose overturning Roe. In fact, one out of three women in the United States will have an abortion at some point in her life. Read more »