I am reading the Crashing the Gate. I am rereading You Have the Power by Howard Dean. I am trying to make peace with the fact that our party has taken womens’ issues off the table. I am trying to understand. I am perusing the NARAL website, and sure enough what I heard was right. Ten states, including Rhode Island, are planning to join South Dakota in outlawing abortion.
I began to wonder, just how long are we supposed to not be single issue people. I know we are supposed to ban together with other single issue people, I know that. But we don’t have a leader. When someone speaks up on that issue now at most progressive forums, it is not popular.
Our Democrats understandably are being cautious on this issue. So I am putting my armor on and pointing out just what trying to compromise with these guys is getting us.
Here are the ten states:
Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
You can verify it all here at the map of states at the NARAL website.
Just for an example, Rhode Island will amaze you with the vast amount of anti-choice legislation it has going. I never thought of Rhode Island as being so conservative. Take a look.
Abortion Bans Throughout Pregnancy
Affiliation Ban
Anti-Choice License Plates/Anti-Choice Clinics
Biased Counseling and Mandatory Delay
Counseling Ban/Gag Rule
Insurance Prohibition for Family Planning Coverage
Physician-Only Requirements
Protection Against Clinic Violence-Anti
Public Facilities and Employees Restriction
Refusal to Provide Medical Services
Restrictions on Low-Income Women’s Access to Abortion
Separate Legal Status for Embryos and Fetuses
You really need to go through a lot of the states. Amazingly one of the best is Florida. There is quite a bit of pro-choice legislation pending, and no anti-choice.
And there is more. I read at another forum just how bold some of the extreme religious right in some states are becoming. It is alarming. I don’t think our Democrats, who are trying to stay neutral on this, truly get it. We have no one on our side on this issue. And the other side is not about to compromise. They have been planning this for years.
I will just post the links and the topic.
At the DFA blog I saw an article posted about an article/opinion piece written by a woman in Kansas. Here is the link. It is just unbelievable.
Birth Control Prevents God’s Work
By using contraception, you prevent God’s creative power in bringing forth new life. Sex is a complete self-giving love you pledge to your spouse within marriage, and contraception destroys the unitive and procreative qualities of sex. Pleasure is not the purpose of sex — it’s the motive or consequence.
And I saw this at Democratic Underground, about a Tennessee Democrat, a woman, with a bill to ban…..well just read the article.
The Dire Problem of Dildos in Tennessee
I have tried to believe that if these people so far on the right of the religious spectrum just kept on being more and more outrageous that they would self-implode. It does not seem to be happening.
And since there is more important stuff going on like the selling off of America, and the caving in on the Patriot Act renewal, I guess issues like this come last. Not really being too critical, I do understand that our Democrats are trying not to allow these issues to be issues at all. The intent is just not to address them.
Trouble is, the other side is just keeping on. And they don’t seem to be slowing down.
