D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray and 40 other protesters—including members of the city council—were arrested by Capitol Police on Monday after they blocked Constitution Avenue near the Capitol in protest of aspects of the budget deal reached by Congress which limit the city's autonomy, specifically prohibiting the use of DC public funds for abortions.

Twelve hours until the government shuts down, people! Actually eleven hours and some minutes! Progress was made last evening, however. The only inflexible issue that hasn't been negotiated out, according to everyone, is the few hundred million dollars in federal subsidies for Planned Parenthood.

If a government shutdown happens, it'll be because Republicans are demanding policy restrictions in addition to spending cuts before agreeing to fund the government through September. These policy restrictions would target abortion providers and seek to limit the reach of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Arizona legislature, which long ago decided to focus its energies almost exclusively on Problems That Do Not Exist, has finally turned its eye to the terrible non-epidemic of racially-motivated abortions. Yes! The crazy-eyed skinhead state just made it a felony to "knowingly perform or provide financing for an abortion sought because of the race or sex of the fetus or a parent's race."

Rep. Chris Smith is the House Republicans' go-to "abortion guy." He's behind the rape-redefining No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. He gets in fights with congresswomen who have had abortions. But it's not enough for Chris Smith to merely focus on domestic abortions. He also has to fly to Kenya, on taxpayer dollars, to ensure there aren't any abortions there either.

Georgia Republican Rep. Bobby Franklin thinks miscarriages are actually secret murders and that paper money is a fraud. And he gets a lot of support for those positions. In fact, according to his home answering machine, everyone who calls him is a supporter!

South Dakota's governor signed a law yesterday requiring women to wait 72 hours after seeing a doctor to get an abortion. By contrast, the 48-hour waiting period to buy a handgun was repealed two years ago.

One of the House Republicans' budget cuts that got the most attention while they were crafting their spending bill for the next six months was the elimination of all federal funding to Planned Parenthood. The organization, which provides women's health and family planning services up to and including scary abortions, was obviously a popular target for the Republicans to satisfy their base with. Go to any conservative protest, over health care reform, taxes, Mexicans, whatever, and the anti-abortion folks are always the last ones there, screaming and hollering deep into the night.

Sen. Rand Paul had a powerful line of questioning today for Kathleen Hogan, the deputy assistant energy secretary for efficiency. In a hearing about renewing appliance efficiency standards — hint: Rand Paul does not want any — he meandered about regulations for light bulbs, washing machines, and most importantly toilets. Why is Rand Paul forced, assuming he is, to buy useless energy-efficient products, when women aren't forced to carry all of their pregnancies to term? This is what Rand Paul argued.

Elections really do have consequences, just like people keep saying! Take the suddenly super-Republican empire that is Ohio. What would a hypothetical Democratic leadership be doing in that statehouse right now? Probably hiding under their desks, looking for welfare money. Which is much better than what the current real life Republican leadership is doing today: Giving two ladies ultrasounds during a hearing over an anti-abortion bill.

This is not surprising, and yet: The House has passed an amendment to the continuing budget resolution it's finalizing that would block all federal aid to Planned Parenthood. Even though providing abortions is a small part of what Planned Parenthood does—and is isolated from federal funds within the organization's structure, by law—the amendment passed 240-185. So does this mean abortion is over forever?

The House Republicans' top anti-abortion guy, Rep. Chris Smith of the lovely No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act fame, was reading some graphic details of abortion cases in the chamber last night. This is America's National Bedtime Story routine, now that Republicans are back in power, and it should continue even after they've defunded Planned Parenthood.

After reading that Justin Bieber favors Canadian-style health care, Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) went boldly where no member of Congress had gone before:

Justin Bieber, mop-topped wunderkind of the wooded north, fell into a political booby trap at the hands of Rolling Stone, declaring himself pro-life and pro-Canada: "You guys are evil. Canada's the best country in the world." Uh oh.

Killing a doctor who performs abortions could soon be legal in South Dakota — that is, if a bill passed out of committee in the state House of Representatives on Monday, which makes it a "justifiable homicide" for someone to kill anyone attempting to harm an unborn child, becomes law.

Anti-abortion activists are busily stoking the lie that Planned Parenthood "aids and abets" sex trafficking, because an undercover camera crew caught some counselors advising purported minor prostitutes—and their pimps—on how to obtain abortions. There's nothing wrong with that.

House Republicans have given up on their quest to determine which types of rape-induced pregnancies should be eligible for federal abortion funding. "Forcible rape" has reverted back to "rape" in their impending abortion bill, which is still obviously very radical.

The Republican-controlled House is considering limitations on federal funding for abortion that could be a crown jewel of the leadership's attempt to show constituents there's a new, socially conservative sheriff in town — if anyone was willing to discuss it.

A new study that examined how frequently women sought mental health care before and after childbirth and abortion indicates that having a baby may, in fact, be more traumatizing to women than having an abortion.

Give them credit: It's only January, but the new Republican-controlled House is already obnoxiously redefining "rape" in pieces of legislation. Under their plan, only abortions from "forcible rape" would be eligible for government funding, instead of the much simpler "rape."