Abortion

From David Waldman via Ezra Klein:

The problem with leaving the decision up to the states, he says, is that it doesn't go far enough. "I think states should leave the abortion question up to the counties," he explains. "Then I think counties should leave the abortion question up to municipalities. Then the neighborhoods should leave the abortion question up to each block." And each block, as you might have guessed, should leave the abortion question up to each household.

Funny how conservatives always talk about keeping government out of our lives, yet when it comes to the lives of women they want the government very much in it.

Things are looking more and more uncertain on the House side when it comes to the new health care bill coming out of the senate. Reps. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.), the co-chairs of the 190 member strong abortion rights caucus are question the Constitutionality of the new anti-abortion language:

As the Co-Chairs of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, we have serious reservations about the abortion provision included in the U.S. Senate’s health care bill," the lawmakers said.

"This provision is not only offensive to people who believe in choice, but it is also possibly unconstitutional," DeGette and Slaughter added. "As we have maintained throughout this process, health care reform should not be misused to take away access to health care."

Add to that the fact that NOW, NARAL and the Center for Reproductive Rights have now all come out opposing the bill, this will spell a lot of trouble for the bill, especially when it comes time to vote on the final conference.

As far as what would be unconstitutional about the provision, I’m not really sure, but Slaughter and DeGette are promising a fight:

DeGette and Slaughter had previously warned that if the final healthcare bill were to include restrictions on abortion spending, they would lead the Pro-Choice Caucus against the bill.

"The more than 190-member Caucus will review this language carefully as we move forward on health care reform," the two said.

Given the 220-215 victory the original House bill saw, this puts acceptance of the conference bill in big peril.

There is still the “ping-pong” option, where the Senate bill becomes the final bill, bypassing conference. The White House has said they don’t want that option and the House appears ready to fight it. In all honesty, such a move would become a cattle call of corruption against Democratic leadership, especially in the Senate. That means it is less likely to happen as it would make Reid’s re-election chances that much more complicated.

So to anyone who thought this thing was over, sorry. We got a long way to go with a very uncertain future.

Ben Nelson’s woman hating bill was just defeated in the Senate 54-45. Now the big question – will Nelson side with Republicans and filibuster healthcare like he has threatened? Any Democrat that does that should lose their chairmanships – PERIOD.

Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), one of the pro-life Democrats, is dropping hints that he will oppose the Stupak amendment in the health care bill:

Senator Casey has been a vocal supporter of health care reform and voted for the HELP Committee bill in July. He supports the public option to increase competition and reduce costs. And he is offering amendments to improve health care for children. Senator Casey thinks that health care reform should not be used to change longstanding policies regarding federal financing of abortion which has been in place since 1976.

He continues to work with his colleagues in the Senate and with the White House to ensure that the Senate health care reform bill protects existing federal and state conscience protections, existing state abortion laws and contains strong language to prohibit federal funds from being used to fund abortions. He voted for amendments in the HELP Committee that would maintain neutrality on abortion. Until Senate bill language is released it is premature to discuss next steps.

Hopefully Casey has opened the door for other pro-life members of Congress to give opposition to the Stupak amendment.

Yesterday we found out that employees of the Republican National Committee were able to have abortions and it was covered on their employee healthcare plan. This latest case of extreme hypocrisy from the right has sparked a new civil war. The following was posted on the popular right-wing website RedState:

Let’s keep this simple.  Word got out today via Politico that the RNC’s health care package for their employees covers abortions. At the risk of belaboring the obvious, if you at any time have donated to the RNC since 1991 (when this policy apparently took place), some incremental portion of your donation went to the administrative costs of running the RNC, including employee salaries and benefits packages. Part of “benefits packages” in this context is apparently a health care package that pays for abortions.

For thirty years, we have fought tooth and nail to prevent our tax money from being used to pay for abortions. Turns out, we were apparently doing it through donating to the political party that was ostensibly on our side.  This betrayal is so fundamental to the majority of people who donate to the RNC that it’s almost unspeakable.  I have no doubt that many of the staffers there will miss the point, so allow me to make it clearly: you have caused every person who donated to support your livelihood to become involved in what they perceive to be a grave moral evil.

The RNC’s defense thus far seems to be excusable negligence; blaming it on some (surely departed) staffer who checked a box almost 20 years ago, and whoops, we weren’t careful enough. So sorry. It won’t happen again.

The post then finishes with:

IF YOU HAVE DONATED TO THE RNC AT ANY TIME SINCE 1991 CALL THEM AT (202) 863-8500. GET NAMES. DEMAND REFUNDS UNLESS THE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE ARE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. IF THEY DON’T HEAR DIRECTLY FROM YOU THEY WILL DO NOTHING.

Then on the other side of the firing lines you have people like Allahpundit from HotAir putting on his tinfoil hat to spin this great big of conspiracy theory goodness:

I wonder how this story happened. Did a couple of lefty insurance agents at Cigna leak it to Politico unbidden or did Politico go calling around at Cigna until it found a pair of lefty insurance agents willing to leak?

Even if that did happen, isn’t it a good thing? I mean the Republican Party has stood on the side of opposing abortion for decades. You would think at right winger like Allahpundit would be thrilled that this was exposed to that the RNC can be pressured into actually “valuing life”. Instead he doesn’t complain about the RNC doing it, just that it was found out. Apparently Allahpundit is a pro-choicer.

This is another fun war to watch, and I hope the talking heads question some of the higher ups in the RNC, past and present, about this. Simply ask them how they could provide abortion coverage to their employees while campaigning on the issue of opposition to abortion. I’m sure that would happen if the tables were turned and it was leaked out that the DNC was helping to support pro-life causes, so let’s keep the playing field level and question these individuals.

My God you can’t say hypocrite loud enough when reading this:

The Republican National Committee’s health insurance plan covers elective abortion – a procedure the party’s own platform calls “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.”

Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.

So the only way a woman can have abortion covered by insurance is to go work for the RNC? If we ever had a reason to strip that awful Stupak amendment, this is it. Any Republican that opposes also needs to be called out on it.

Ok – I can except this. Of course it has to come with a condition. There can be no federal funding for boner pills. Given the nature of our new public option it will mostly be used by people who aren’t that financially off. Do they really need to be reproducing anyways? Wouldn’t these pills just compound the need for abortion?

Oh and some 60 year old man who can’t get it up can’t claim that as a medical condition. If he can’t get it up – oh well. Either come up with the money to buy the pills or suffer.

Sounds like a fair compromise, doesn’t it?

From HuffPo:

Anti-abortion activist Lila Rose said at last weekend's Value Voters Summit that as long as abortions are legal, they should be "done in the public square," thus disgusting people into action. And then "we might hear angels singing as we ponder the glory of conception."

Sure I’ll get behind this idea, but only if it is coupled with this one. These wingers that are such war hawks get to go into theater and recover the remains of our soldiers killed in duty. Also they get to be present when the family is informed of their loss. Let them see the gruesome results of their love for war.

I never heard of “April’s Mom”, but apparently she was someone the pro-life right wing was getting behind. A young, expectant mother who was told her baby was mentality ill yet decided to give birth. She blogged about the decisions and raising the child.

Only one problem.

It was a lie. 26 year old Beccah Beushausen who became entangled in her web of lies:

She had expected only a handful of friends to read it, but when her first post got 50 comments, she was hooked.
"I've always liked writing. It was addictive to find out I had a voice that people wanted to hear," Beushausen said.
"Soon I was getting 100,000 hits a week, and it just got out of hand," she said. "I didn't know how to stop. ... One lie led to another."

Apparently Beushausen actually did lose a son in 2005 and is a pro-lifer, but her latest story was just that – a story.

And sorry wingnuts, but this isn’t a crime. If we wanted to prosecute bloggers for lying then the entire right wing blogosphere would be non-existent.

Since the assassination of Dr. Tiller the right has been on a rampage. They are even taking to public airwaves to praise the assassination and, in some cases, promote more. Rachel did a great rundown of this lunacy last night.

I really hope the feds are listening to these idiots out there and end up hauling them in for questioning. They are using public airwaves to push for people to violate the law of this land. That alone is illegal.

Yesterday a right wing extremist shoots and kills a doctor who provides abortions. Greg also reminds us that it wasn’t that long ago the right was in an uproar over a DHS report talking about right wing extremists:

One passage from the DHS report that provoked nonstop outrage said that right wing extremists “may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.”

Some on the right read this passage and decided it was a reference to them. Top conservative blogger Michelle Malkin warned that it meant you’re being targeted by Obama’s big brother government “if you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion” or if you are active on other issues.

This wasn’t a fringe interpretation of the report, by the way. RNC chair Michael Steele for instance, blasted the report for labeling peaceful dissenters on issues “as terrorists.” Other Republican members of Congress sounded similar tones.

Maybe we need to take another look at that report now.

Gallup released a poll today that the right is in love with:

A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.

So does that make us a pro-life nation? By reading that first paragraph you would sure think so, but let’s look at the next question:

Even with 51% saying they are “pro-life”, we still have less than 1/4 of this country who think abortion should be illegal. Doesn’t that actually make only 23% of the country pro-life?

But it doesn’t stop there. It’s not that the nation is moving towards pro-life at all. Let’s go deeper into this poll:

Look at this headline on ABC’s World Newser Blog:

Gift Certificates for an Abortion?

Sounds like something to really get the religious right up in arms – don’t it. The story they are talking about is this one, which I posted about last week.

The network of 35 clinics across the state announced it is offering holiday vouchers for basic health care services "or the recipient's choice of birth control method."

The organization decided to offer the vouchers because so many people are uninsured or are putting off health care because of prohibitive costs, said Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. Nearly 800,000 Indiana residents don't have health insurance, she said.

ABC follows their typical path of being a right-wing pandering news organization. They want people to think that all Planned Parenthood does is “kill babies”.

We are facing a possible depression in this country. People won’t have the money to go out and do things, so they need to find ways to entertain themselves. Guess what one popular thing to do is? If you said screwing then you are right. Also consider how much it costs to raise a baby today. Do we really want to see an onslaught of new babies that the parents can’t afford to raise?

I think Planned Parenthood is going to be a key ally in our fight against a failing economy.

Planned Parenthood in Indiana is offering gift certificates for health care and contraceptives:

The network of 35 clinics across the state announced it is offering holiday vouchers for basic health care services "or the recipient's choice of birth control method."

The organization decided to offer the vouchers because so many people are uninsured or are putting off health care because of prohibitive costs, said Betty Cockrum, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Indiana. Nearly 800,000 Indiana residents don't have health insurance, she said.

Of course the right to lifers are not liking this one bit:

Opponents of abortion said Planned Parenthood was making a "mockery" of the holiday season.

"The tragedy is that almost 6,000 fewer children will be celebrating a first Christmas this year because they were aborted in Planned Parenthood's Indiana clinics," said Mike Fichter, president and CEO of Indiana Right to Life.

A “mockery”! Wooo. Glad no one else does that. Remember when Jesus said “to celebrate my birth, go to stores and give your money to the rich”?

I got a feeling this is just the start of hearing the right to lifers making a lot more noise. Now that their dreams of eliminating abortion and birth control is gone, they are going to start getting a lot more vocal and a lot more nasty. Of course no one takes them serious, including the Republicans. The GOP had control of everything for years, and did nothing to help promote the right to life agenda. They just used them for votes, and the right to lifers were just suckers buying into it over and over again.

From Planned Parenthood:

Over the past 72 hours, a 21-year-old woman in Florida was raped, jailed on an outstanding warrant (for a 2003 juvenile arrest), and blocked from taking emergency contraception because a jail worker had "religious objections" to the medication. This is an absolute outrage.

According to the St. Petersburg Times,

"A doctor had given her Plan B, the so-called ‘morning-after pill' approved by the FDA, to prevent pregnancy. But Moore [her attorney] said a medical supervisor at the jail refused to let her take the second of the two pills on Sunday."

The woman was not allowed to take the second pill until Monday afternoon. For emergency contraception to work, the second pill must be taken within 12 hours. This woman was refused for 36. Only after media inquiries did the jail allow the woman to take the second pill. After surviving assault and rape, this woman was denied access to the care she needed and deserved. This is clear violation of a woman's right to make her own health care decisions.

Yet how dare those Muslim cab drivers refuse to transport people with alcohol because of "religous objections". So how much of a hypocrite was Jesus? If there really is a Hell, then everyone of these fuckers will certainly burn in it. If they don't then send me there because Heaven must be really fucked up!