The recent Mars retrograde in Virgo involved a square to minor planet Quaoar, one of the landmark discoveries in the Kuiper Belt. Quaoar addresses family patterns — and we witnessed a political uproar over reproductive rights.
By Alex Miller
When Mars turned retrograde in Virgo on January 23, it was a no-brainer that this planet of confrontation and conflict might cause a few brawls in the arena of health care. What was less obvious was Mars’ exact square to Quaoar at 23 Sagittarius (a trans-Neptunian object, which is a denizen of the Kuiper Belt, like Pluto), and the implications that had for making reproductive issues specifically the main objective in Mars’ health care onslaught.
Mars stationed direct on April 13, and is now re-tracing the territory where it was retrograde. As a result, Mars will be repeating many of the same aspects it’s made two previous times since November, when it first entered Virgo.
Shortly after the Mars retrograde process began early in the year, Firestorms erupted over both the new Dept. of Health and Human Services regulations that would require Catholic institutions to act like everybody else and cover contraception for their employees, and the Susan G. Komen foundation’s decision to pull its funding from Planned Parenthood (which it later reversed).
Virginia GOP legislators sought to probe the bodies of women seeking abortions with state-mandated transvaginal sonograms, and in fact a state law was passed allowing them to inflict sonograms on women even if they are not medically necessary. Arizona GOP legislators mulled a bill requiring women seeking contraceptive coverage under employer-based health insurance to prove that they have a medical need for contraception beyond preventing pregnancy. South Carolina GOP leaders decided to require potential candidates to sign a purity pledge promising abstinence before marriage, fidelity after, and not to view pornography ever.