Hold on to your uterus, Frieda, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.

Earlier this week, Florida legislators passed a largely Republican-endorsed bill that would require women seeking abortions in their first trimester to have a mandatory ultrasound, and forcing them to see the images and listen to a doctor give a detailed description of the fetus’ development. Doesn’t sound so bad, right?

Who can argue with the fact that domestic terrorism–when it’s authored by white men and directed toward a fundamental right of women–is operationally successful in the United States?

No one can. Dr. George Tiller’s clinic in Wichita, Kan. has closed. Apparently permanently.

I am bending your Wordsmoking ear again today about this issue because of the recent turn of events in Wichita and this admirably honest commenter’s thoughts in my last Wordsmoker post about the forced birth movement in the United States:

The reason that I still believe this to be my business is that I believe that a fetus should be treated as a human life and I feel compelled to protect it. I believe that laws permitting abortion are essentially unjust and so I believe that I must take action within the democratic process to change them.

I think all of us, regardless of which side of this issue we’re on, can appreciate a clear and elegant statement of ideals. So thank you, commenter. I can only hope that I am equally clear as I state the following:

A few months ago, I penned a Wordsmoker post celebrating the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade in which I coined the term “forced-birth movement” to describe that tiny minority of people in the United States that doesn’t believe in a woman’s right to make her own reproductive choices.

Since then, tragically, one of the only doctors who was willing to perform late-term abortions in the U.S, Dr. George Tiller, was assassinated by a member of the forced-birth movement.

I can honestly say that I felt physically ill when I read that news. As MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow has stated repeatedly on her nightly news magazine over the past week, the forced-birth movement is a domestic terrorist operation that has been largely successful in meeting its goals.

It’s just a fact that almost nothing gets you murdered more quickly in the U.S. than running an abortion clinic.

Today, I’d like to talk to you Wordsmokers, Wordjokers, and, of course, Wordtokers about human rights and human dignity.

I have struggled, perhaps like many of you, to obtain those precious things–rights and dignity–for myself and others in my own very small way during what will ultimately be my own very small lifetime. I know, therefore, that Thursday, January 22 was the 36th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.