Ann Richards would be proud.
Not Too Far in the Future
Domestic Terrorism
A bomb was planned at the Planned Parenthood of Grand Chute, WI. For those of you who don’t know, that’s about 5 minutes from where I live.
How can a person even respond to this kind of violence that would target poor and working class women who are trying to get their health needs met in a difficult economy? How do you explain to people who would bomb a health clinic that PP clinics don’t offer abortion services in the first place? How do you respond to a group that would plan bombs and kill innocent people – theoretically, even the fetuses they say they’re protecting – and who call themselves “pro life”?
How do you respond at all?
I am at the point now where anyone who apologizes for the inflaming and incendiary rhetoric aimed at Roe v. Wade & at a woman’s right to choose is not my friend, my family, or even someone I can talk to. I understand objections to abortion; I was raised Catholic after all, & am the youngest of 6. But this language around choice, the “army of God” mentality that’s been fed to people is so hurtful, so entirely wrong and beside the point.
When will those of you who vote Republican start telling your leadership that you will not vote for them until they stop with this rhetoric and these policies that target poor women especially?
This Planned Parenthood is so easily a place I might speak at or have a student intern at. The women who go there and work there could be friends.
I don’t understand violence as a response to what is sold as a moral objection. It just doesn’t make sense.
This Week’s Progress: NJ
Not only has NJ passed a marriage equality bill through the state house & senate, but they don’t have enough votes to over-ride the governor’s (expected) veto.
That would be 8, folks.
It’s cheering to see so much progress, even while the usual misogynist bullshit comes out of the GOP.
Komen News: Not So Fast
Yay, everyone’s happy Komen changed their decision. But I am a cynical, suspicious type, and I read their statement, which says:
“We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.”
That last bit, the “while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions” just left a back door, wide, wide open. By which I mean, Komen just figured out a way to say, the next time they don’t fund Planned Parenthood, that their FUNDERS choose not to. And if they tend toward finding funders that are more conservative – which this current Director of Komen seems likely to do, Komen will have found an official way not to fund Planned Parenthood and to Pass the buck.
Pro Choice
I know there are a lot of people who think it should be that way, or who think that maybe that’s for the best. Most of us don’t like abortion. All of us, actually.I’ve never, ever met anyone who is “pro abortion”.
The deciding factor for me was that women who had money and means have always gotten abortions. It’s the poor women who can’t. Morality should not be bought so dearly. If women can get abortions quickly and easily, they get first term abortions. The more expensive and the further away the clinic, the more likely they will get 2nd term abortions. The more birth control they have access to, the more likely they won’t get pregnant.
It’s not really that hard to understand. Most of us don’t want to see second term abortions because the mother’s health is at risk and the whole conversation about when life starts gets more complicated. But you can’t force people to only get 1st term abortions if they don’t provide them with the means to do so.
Keep abortion legal and safe (which means keeping it local and inexpensive).
WI Next to Defund Planned Parenthood
Good news Monday, bad news Tuesday night: Walker is planning on de-funding Wisconsin’s Planned Parenthood, taking a note from Indiana’s governor.
First: this has nothing to do with money. The cost of additional pregnancies, cancer care, & the like, will absolutely cost more, and the governor of Indiana has already said that publicly.
Second: the government already doesn’t pay for abortions.
Tiresome, hateful, short-sighted, and arrogant bullshit.
Don’t Be Distracted: Women’s Lives Are at Stake
Egypt is fascinating and amazing and cool, and it’s easy to enjoy the good news of democracy in progress.
That said, ours is being battered here in the US.
The “forcible rape” language has not yet been removed, for instance.
And health care for poor women (Title X) is on the chopping block as an “austerity measure.” Because we all know keeping poor women from contraception, HIV tests and abortion will make for a better world. Cost effective? Not at all. Better to prevent HIV and various STIs than to have to treat them later.
Write your politicians, write Chris Smith, and tell them to cut it out.
Then, join Planned Parenthood or NARAL or some other organization that will be fighting harder than usual for women’s lives and women’s health for the next few years.
January 22nd…
… was the 38th anniversary of Roe V. Wade. This article, about how anti-choice groups targeted black women with both race and gender baiting, is harrowing but essential reading.
Keep it safe and keep it legal.