Listen to what they're saying:
Angry Mouse in Daily Kos:
My autonomy is not about your religious beliefs. My autonomy is not about your "concerns." My autonomy is not about your arbitrary belief that rape victims are entitled to reproductive health care, but women who "use it as contraception" or "change their minds" or "forget to use birth control" are somehow not entitled to reproductive health care.
I refuse to argue the minutia anymore. I refuse to beg for the right to be a full and equal citizen. I refuse to be taken for granted by the Democratic party, who tells me I have no choice but to vote Democrat in elections, and then congratulates itself for its big tent when it comes time to vote on legislation.
Don't tell me how you feel about abortion. I don't care how you feel about abortion.
Tell me how you feel about my rights. Tell me whether you believe I am a full and equal citizen. Tell me whether you really believe the Democratic party stands for women.
It is time for every member of the Democratic party to answer one simple question:
Do you believe in equal rights for women?
Jane Hamscher, in Huffington Post:
Democrats in Congress have just proudly signed a deal with the Catholic bishops which allows a bunch of old men who have spent the better part of the last century avoiding their own sexual issues to dictate access to abortion services in the House health care bill.
No tax dollars were going to go to pay for abortions, mind you, but now insurance companies that participate in the exchange can't even cover them, thanks to Democrat Bart Stupak. FDL's Jon Walker explains how it works:
If the insurance companies offering plans on the exchange are not allowed to turn down any customers, it means no basic insurance plan on the exchange could cover abortion. There would be no way to prevent that at least one of the plan’s customer would be be using affordability tax credits to help purchase the plan. So the effect is no plan sold on the exchange could offer abortion coverage as part of its basic package.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/naral-and-planned-parenth_b_349596.html&cp
MY question is: Is this even constitutional? Can women's rights be dismissed so completely and with no problem to anyone other than women facing heartbreaking choices?
I think Obama really should have concentrated on doing something like FDR did--putting people to work on projects restoring the infrastructure. JOBS JOBS JOBS. Instead, we have this steaming pile of crap they are calling a "health care" bill. It has nothing to do with health and even less with care. All that will remain is the bill.
We need a plan. There is no way to get a really good plan, and that is not Obama's fault. It is the fault of the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies combined with our system which bestows a heavy advantage on rural, so-called conservative, areas and lessens the voting strength of populous urban areas. If we really had a one person one vote system we would have not only a single payer health care plan, we would have gun control, abortion rights, mass transit, sensible energy policy, and so on.
ReplyDelete20th Century: Good point about one person=one vote! we can dream...can't we?
ReplyDeleteI just want to ask those right wing nuts that claim they want government out of their lives why they can't see that the Stupid Stupak amendment is putting the government in the lives of women. The hypocrisy of these zealots is astounding.
ReplyDeleteWhat Darlene said, I can't say it any better.
ReplyDeleteWhat we feared has come to pass: the progress we made for a woman's right to choose has erased history for young women. Until the ease of obtaining birth control (also opposed by the Catholic church) is gone, until it is very difficult to obtain an abortion, we will continue to see choice for women eroded.
ReplyDeleteWhat we really need is a radicalized women's movement but we have over-professionalized organized feminism to a frightening point.
Yes, bring back CCC camps (or something similar) to employ our desperate population rather than giving more money to bankers!