Abortion Rights


Abortion

The Liberty we recognize today, stands so immensely tall, proud, and strong, it’s message of glowing hope and freedom travels through the minds of the world, and resonates, drawing individuals who suffer under tyranny to our shores in our third century still.  We are the flagship of freedom in a sea of that tyranny.

An example for the world.  Women shall not be subjugated in this country.  They will not tolerate it.  Neither will men, as we all are determined that no one regardless of their attributes be denied the inalienable rights so well articulated.

Our Republic evolves and continue to create the most optimal society. We prove over time, people can govern themselves. There is no other option.

Liberty in her Statuesque form stands literally in concrete and steel, on the impervious massive pedestal of righteousness. She stands as a metaphor, and as an image, enduring, and indelible, unknown to few, celebrated worldwide.

Roe v Wade is in the company of the most important decisions that the Supreme Court has accurately ruled upon.  The decision reaches back through the historical events that were the maturation of our Republic. Now, again, a precedent etched in the Granite of Freedom, IT WILL ENDURE.  It is in our self governance, our own implicit contract with society, the binding of freedom, that we are in comfort that the flaw has been fixed, and shall stand. We will continue this effort on all fronts, tearing down any barriers as we find them.

The sentinels of freedom shall never be unaware of attack. The guard never let down.  There is still work to be done, and it shall. We are a Union of self governance that proves to the world that it can be done. There is no other choice, except the choice to abide by the laws we construct for ourselves.   And we take comfort in that knowledge.

Rejoice on this blessed day the Anniversary of Roe v Wade.  As few in this world have what we do, as we routinely do not even notice as we journey though our lives in freedom.  Freedom to control our own bodies, and make our own decisions.

The old notions will die off as they have over the generations, and freedom will endure and the people of our nation will cradle in that joyous comfort.

pro-life-cartoonIs there a single prolifer that can opine on their position?

We cannot seem to find one that can make any argument without using profanity, or fallacious logic.

Please, there must be one amongst you.

The Pro Choice individuals have extended themselves intellectually, with culture and grace, please meet that challenge.

Are all pro Lifers from Kentucky and Alabama? Are they terrorists? They have killed in the name of not killing.

They denigrate the women’s body to a subordinate of man and blastulas.

Ms. Sanger.

If you are unfamiliar with her please review her story.

This is not the place to regurgitate what is readily available throughout the web.

Choice. Persecution. The decision of others to legislate what a free minded, with all the liberties granted her by our founders.

If you are ProLife.

Please opine on all the cases where you would allow a women to make her own choice.

Rape by a father at 14?

Cervical Cancer?

A tubal pregnancy.

Instead of all the pro life rhetoric. Please address the difficult questions so we can find a common ground.

Remember the horrors of our historical mistakes on these issues.

How soon we forget.

Get educated.

Throughout the history of our nation every election has seemed monumentily important. Think back on all the slogans of every past election are they really all so different.

This author is not a historian so the question is rhetorical.

I urge an objective look at the records of the two very decent individuals running for office. I believe them both to have integrity in their convictions and a desire to do what is right. I grant them that.

My friends and fellow Americans it is now time to have the courage to follow your convictions and make a choice. A choice which may determine your choice and opportunity to govern your own body.

That is as serious as it gets.

Look back on 8 years and reflect.

Please make your voice heard. Vote.

Who would you vote for today?
( polls)

Brownback’s Backdoor Abortion Bill?

Senator Sam Brownback is not well-known outside the state of Kansas. You’re likely scratching your head trying to figure out why you recognize his name. Think back to very early in the Republican race, when the debates were populated by 11 different candidates. The guy on the outer wings, the one who said that he didn’t believe in evolution and that he’d like to see Roe v. Wade overturned, the one with the curly hair and the Kansas drawl, that’s him.

Sen. Brownback is known for his extreme conservatism. It’s not just fiscal restraint and state’s rights with this guy. He has members of the far-right going, “wow, this guy is hard-core.” Not surprisingly, Sen. Brownback is thoroughly anti-choice. He does not believe that there are any circumstances under which a termination of pregnancy is acceptable, not even in cases of rape or incest. So it’s not a shock that he’s introduced another bill regarding abortion. The knee-jerk reaction is to assume that any bill coming from Sen. Brownback regarding this issue is inherently flawed and a thinly veiled effort to undermine women’s rights, which is why everyone who has read the bill or anything about it is finding themselves a little confused, because that’s not what this bill is.

Here’s what the bill does:

For women and families whose prenatal testing has indicated that the fetus has a genetic disorder, physicians will be required to provide “access to timely, scientific, and nondirective counseling about conditions being tested for and accuracy of such tests.”

Additionally, the bill would create a nation-wide list of families who are willing to adopt children with special needs and referral to support services, including a national clearinghouse of coping resources.

While he may be getting cheers from some, Sen. Brownback’s efforts smack of an inability to grasp the difficulty of the heartbreaking choices some families must make. A diagnoses of Down Syndrome does not always mean that a family will give birth to a living child with Down’s. What it can mean is that the disorder is such that their baby will die from Down’s. The same is true for many genetic and chromosomal disorders. There are degrees of severity and some of them simply are not compatible with life.

The spirit of this bill is laudable, anything that allows women and families to make the decision that is best for them is a step in the right direction. But one step doesn’t get you to a destination. If Sen. Brownback is serious about reducing abortion, then it’s time to focus on the causes and impact of unplanned pregnancy. In fact, knowing Brownback’s typical M.O., one has to wonder if this is an attempt to lull everyone into a false sense of security before tacking on a bunch of amendments that undermine a woman’s right to choose.

Sen. Brownback says that this bill is an effort to promote the “culture of life.” But the so-called “culture of life” has to be about more than preventing abortions, it must be about making it easier to access information, birth control and the resources parents need to raise children in today’s world.

The fact is that the “culture of life” is not being promoted in this country, period. Families are not guaranteed paid medical leave, not all women can access the preventative health care necessary to decrease and detect birth defects, students are not given honest and thorough sex education, and when given the chance to cover low-income children for healthcare, the Congress (Sen. Brownback included) said “no.”

What are we to make of a culture that focuses more on the pre-born than they do the pre-schooler? There must be a broad and sweeping overhaul in how this country deals with issues like poverty, health care and education before anything can be done to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and abortions.

It is obvious that the Florida legislature mounted a multi threaded attack on reproductive rights this week. 

It started by the passing of legislation requiring an ultrasound prior to an abortion and coupled to more egregious terms.  

Terms that are simply rejected by the vast majority of Americans, and over 99% of Nobel prize winners.

That is defining human sentient life equivalent to a full experienced adult at the moment of the meeting of the one cell sperm and the one cell egg whence they fuse and form one slight larger one cell.  Thus a women who was desirous of an abortion must then pay for an ultrasound procedure and  mandated to view the ultrasound image. This would be done before having the abortion, again mandated by the bill passed by the House chiefly divided in a partisan fashion.

The puritanicals and misogynists are truly still lurking among us in droves. Must they die of old age until the generation of rational thinking adults are able to work their way through the political quagmire?  

Oddly also the vast majority of conservatives supprting the measure were older men greyed from age, apparently not from wisdom or a connection to the community.   

The Republican-led chamber also endorsed a “fetal homicide” bill that would create a separate murder charge for anyone who caused a pregnancy to be terminated through an act of violence against a pregnant woman.

This absurdity missed the slew of reasons women may opt for an abortion for very reasonablke reasons, that well over 95% of Americans support. A very limited example include, women with cancer, women with pregnancies in their tubes, women with life threatening heart anomalies (and all other threats to their life) that carry with them a near certain death sentance if they are to remain pregnant through their term of 40 weeks.  

This is well documented in the peir reviewed medical literatue, and is not disouted among proffesionals of either side of the issue to any measurable degree.  The list goes on and on.  

Many of these situations the Abortion Pill could easily solve the end of the pregnancy and save the mother’s life. There are numerous places a women in need of abortion may find an office that perform Abortions safely, securely, privately with respect and confidentiality.

Democrats argued the abortion bill and it’s terms were simply a government invasion into an obvious private health matter.The House’s ultrasound mandate (HB257) requires women who desire abortion to pay for the scans without any assistance, this is a major burden the government would be placing among lower socioeconomic women.

Costs for an ultrasound have great variance and are often a few hundred dollars, stated by an expert testimonial.The measures once again, are micromanaging the method by which a doctor takes care of their patient without regard to the doctor’s experience or training.  

Doctors practice differently because of a number of reasons.  The legislature rarely attempts to micromangae doctor methods of practice except when dealing with abortion care.  The well known safest procedure done in the world, when it is legal.  When it is illegal, women still get abortion, but because of the illegality have to have them performed in areas that are often dangerous and simply just a few decades hospital wards were willed to the brim with women suffering, dying,  and losing wombs to complication because abortion was illegal.  Once again this another fact that is not disputed.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” said House Democratic Leader Dan Gelber, of Miami Beach. “Just to constantly second-guess and challenge a woman who makes what I imagine is one of the hardest and most difficult decisions a person has to make. In that sense, it’s an offensive bill.”  

If the “fetal homicide” bill passed the Senate and became law, anyone who caused a pregnancy to be terminated by assaulting or killing a woman could be prosecuted for murdering the “unborn child” — even if they didn’t know the woman was pregnant.The bill also would apply to drunken drivers, who could be charged with vehicular homicide for causing a pregnancy to be terminated in a car accident.

“It elevates a fetus and an egg, frankly, to the status of an adult person,” said Adrienne Kimmell, executive director of Florida’s Planned Parenthood affiliates. “The purpose of this bill is to create tension with Roe vs. Wade. It’s a chipping-away strategy we’ve seen for years now.”

In this opinion, the imbicilic articulation from the Bill’s sponsor Rep. Ralph Poppell, stated that a fetal homicide bill is an attempt to “curb crime and save lives.”

Clearly it is just another attempt to harm women and march the limitations of reproductive, and private personal matters into the hands of those elite that show no regard or connection to the intelligent women who are quite capable of making decisions and managing their own bodies without a strange antagonistic man’s interference and intrusion.

Addressing reporters on March 13, 2008, Lt. Gov. and soon-to-be Gov. David Paterson said that this mechanism is not the one by which he would have wanted the top job. It was his first public address since Gov. Eliot Spitzers official resignation.

“This is not the way I would want to aspire in my career. It’s a very ironic feeling, and I just have to try and do my best,” he said on AM radio from Albany.
He stated he wanted to five-day transition period before taking the oath on Monday. This would enable him to get up to speed on state business.

“We needed to get the state back to work. And we needed to have our government functioning,” he said. “We needed to show that to people Monday.”

With Spitzer’s resignation, the fight over Abortion Rights continue, including the Abortion Pill and The Morning After Pill.

The New Yorkers For Parental Rights is already urging soon-to-be Gov. David Paterson to reject Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s attempt to adopt the Reproductive Health & Privacy Protection Act (RHAPP).

Most suspect Gov Paterson to be as reasonable in regard to the protection of the right of women to have access to abortion and other women’s health related issues.

One can only hope that Gov. Paterson will continue the struggle for abortion rights and protect the access for women to abortion providers of their choosing.

by

Peg Johnston 

At my abortion clinic we often tell patients, “Sex is designed to get you pregnant,” the corollary of which is that “Sex makes us stupid.” In our conversations with patients we are trying to acknowledge that there are universal biological imperatives going on. It’s also a way of humorously admitting that it is a human condition that those sexual urges sometimes make us take risks that we never would in a rational moment.

The bombshell that exploded in NYS Governor Eliot Spitzer’s face today that he was a client of a high priced prostitution ring, carries the same message. It’s hard to believe that this squeaky clean politician who is tough on crime, has a lovely wife and family, and had a promising politicalcareer, would blow it all over something so stupid. But, we listen to similar stories everyday.

This controversy will undoubtably bring out the worst in Puritanical America. And it won’t be just political opponents of Spitzer—or Democrats—that will be capitalizing on his sexual indiscretion. All of the “soccer moms” that were so bitter toward Bill Clinton for exposing their kids to public discussion of “blow jobs” will be outraged again.

There are other countries—in Europe, for instance, that would greet this news as not worthy of news. They think it odd that Americans are so intolerant of sex and the sexual eccentricities of our leaders. (Of course, there are other, fundamentalist countries where the woman involved would be stoned to death.)

I would love to see this latest unfortunate controversy spark a discussion about our need for sex, about sex and power, for risk taking around sex, for what that might mean about someone’s character or ability to do a job. I would like to think that such a discussion would get more people to understand that humans are sexual, sometimes against their more rational interests. And that this discussion would increase our compassion for everyone, including women who have sex, with or without their spouse, with or without birth control, and get pregnant.

But I doubt it. People are too busy pretending that other people are stupid and they have never taken risks around sex. BS! They’re just lucky.

The author has been an abortion provider for over 20years and has written on abortion politics extensively.

Why I am Voting for Hillary
by Mary Quinlan

I didn’t start out as a Hillary supporter and in fact, I was hoping that she would not run. I thought, “It is really enough to be a good senator, a la Ted Kennedy” and the prospect of having her “out there” and vulnerable to the vicious attacks was more than I wanted to think about. Also, my stand on issues is far closer to Dennis Kucinich than middle of the road Clinton.

But I decided to open myself up to Hillary Clinton on a different level. First, I tried to look at the big picture of what’s going on in the world today: the disastrous lack of diplomacy that has left us the most hated country this moment; the mess in Iraq and Afghanistan; the downward spiral of our economy and the huge national debt; the danger our personal liberties and the Constitution are in; the rapid deteriorization of the environment; the widening inequities in this country and in the world.

We all play the game of “If I were President I would….” but what would it take to really be President? It’s tempting to say “Not much if George W can do it,” but I think we can all agree that he is not doing it. And, as much as I respect Dennis Kucinich, for instance, (or any one of the large pack of Democrats who were running for President), I cannot really see him as being up for the job. I think the job of President really takes some intestinal fortitude, some deep and nuanced understanding of the big picture as well as the particulars, an ability to assess a situation quickly with all the best advice available. It takes real courage to take action in an uncertain and dangerous world. I never thought I would say it, but I think it takes maturity.

When I considered Hillary from this point of view, I came away more favorably impressed than I ever imagined. She is smart, smart, smart, even more intelligent than Bill Clinton; his intellect was a great part of his appeal, and the lack thereof is part of Bush’s disastrous presidency. She is tough which is reassuring both in a national security kind of way and in the inside-the-beltway-Shark-tank kind of way. Even her political calculation seems to me an asset (although not warm and fuzzy) in this climate. And, we are kidding ourselves if we think every politician is not calculating and cunning. It’s more a part of her public persona, partly because she thinks strategically, and partly because the media loves to paint her as a bitch.

I am voting for Hillary because I think we are in a really big mess, and I think she has the intellectual depth, the political acumen, and the personal strength to navigate that mess and actually change some things. Obviously I disagree with her approach on some things, but this decision is really about who can get the job done.
When I think about all the problems in the world and the high level of anti-Americanism, I am reassured that she already knows many world leaders and they respect her. In terms of reproductive justice issues, as well as broader personal liberties like habeas corpus, Clinton is solid. Although she is careful on the abortion issue, she gets that it is about real people’s lives, something most politicians do not. One thing that really impressed me is that when she was first elected Senator from NY she very quietly set out to understand the ins and outs of the Senate and connect with others on both sides of the aisle. When she was ready she very effectively got things done—help for NY farmers, help for 9-11 first responders, and help for uninsured children with the SCHIP program, the largest expansion of public health care since Medicare and Medicaid.

It strikes me that she has already studied the job of President, first hand, for 8 years. It’s not the same as being President but you certainly know the scope of the work, the possibilities, the need for restraint, and how to get things done. That persistence, willingness to compromise, and strategic leverage of power is something that takes years to understand, much less master.

It’s odd for me to think that 10 or certainly 20 years ago I would have been all about Obama and his hope message, but from my older, more experienced viewpoint now I think we need a whole lot more than hope. We need her experience, her intelligence, her maturity. The change we need is from the catastrophe of the Bush Presidency and Hillary Clinton can start slogging through his mess from day one.

And in 2012 or 2016, Barack Obama will get my vote when he has a lot more to back up his inspiring message of hope.

Politics is a dirty game. It is unacceptable, however, when those with a thorough knowledge of how the game is played, knowingly misrepresent a rival’s position on an important issue to misinform the public. That is what has been going on in the Democratic primaries, and unfortunately, Hillary Clinton is the guilty party.I’m referring of course to the Clinton’s characterization of Barack Obama as falling short of being pro-choice. If you aren’t up on the facts of the matter, I’ll lay them out briefly for you. As an Illinois state senator, Obama voted “present” seven times as part of a broad strategy devised by abortion rights advocates to counter anti-abortion bills. The Clinton camp says that his voting “present” instead of “no” means that he isn’t fully committed to the pro-choice movement. In Illinois, a “present” vote has the same effect as a “no” vote in determining if the bill passes. Should Obama have acted differently? Real leaders of the pro-choice movement don’t think so:

“The poor guy is getting all this heat for a strategy we, the pro-choice community, did,” said Pam Sutherland, president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council.

The Clinton’s have jumped on this non-issue, trying to portray Obama as not fully committed to a woman’s right to choose. It saddens me that one of our most viable candidates feels they have to resort to misleading and divisive tactics in order to win the party’s nomination. When it comes right down to it, the Clinton campaign is appealing to our least noble instinct by trying to suggest to women that they can’t be adequately represented by a male candidate. She is trying to fuel this fear fire in the heart of the female electorate, hoping that it will trump the voice of reason.If you’ve listened to Barack Obama, then perhaps you share the feeling that I have, that he is a candidate that will rise above race and gender, and inject the voice of reason into a system that dearly lacks it. I feel that I won’t always agree with his decisions, but I know that they will have integrity. I don’t feel that way about Hillary anymore.I truly believe that as it pertains to the choice issue that Obama will always protect our rights and not compromise them for political expedience. That’s not to suggest that Hillary’s likely to waver on choice issues. But there are many other issues that are of serious concern for us. As a woman, I’d rather have a politician that is going to address each issue fairly on its face, than one that might be doing what is expedient for their career . . .

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