Posts Tagged ‘anti-choice antics’

You can’t work in reproductive health care like I have for almost twenty years without thinking a lot about the courage it takes some people to go to work every single day.

As soon as I heard about the tragic shooting of Rep. Giffords on Saturday, I thought, she must be one of us. Maybe my worldview is skewed but I’ve been on the side faced with threats and intimidations long enough to take seriously the “loners” and “weirdos” and vitriolic hate speech.

Sure enough, Giffords is one of ours. She has a 100% voting record on reproductive freedom, from abortion to birth control. She is one of our champions. And, mercifully, by all accounts, she seems to be fighting for her life like a champion.

I know Rep. Giffords wasn’t shot because she believes in a woman’s right to choose but I can’t help blaming the cacophony of dehumanizing name calling and cavalier threats that spew from the Right on a regular basis.

Whether it is health care reform or a woman’s right to choose, the opposition has generally relied on being louder and more willing to use verbal and physical attacks to get their way. Think back to the health care reform town hall meetings.

Next week’s Roe v Wade Anniversary usually sees an increase in both the opposition’s protests and attacks on reproductive health centers. Health care providers will be told to be more cautious, to keep their eyes open, to watch their backs. I can’t imagine any anti-choicer being told the same.

Just this past summer I had a conversation with a particularly pushy supporter of “Choose Life” license plates. I told her I opposed them because they require the state to collect and distribute funds to organizations that purposefully withhold legal health information (i.e. referrals or counseling about abortion) from women. She cavalierly suggested that we get our own pro-choice plates to raise funds for abortion care.  

My response, “No, your side kills our side so, no, we’re not going to suggest people put ‘choice’ on their license plates.” I’m serious.

I’ve purposely avoided reading too much of the Right’s take on the Tucson. Here’s the thing: they will never, ever, ever apologize. They’ll never take responsibility for anything they say. They never have, they never will. Look at the baseless stupidity of the “birthers.”

I’m trying very hard to believe that the assassination attempt and tragic murders this week will be a wake up call, at least to politicians, especially those who use crosshairs in ads against their opponents.

I hope Saturday’s tragedy was the culmination and not the beginning of things getting any worse. 

We’ve written several posts tracking the disturbing trend of NC county and municipal governments cherry-picking what reproductive health care services they want to cover and subsequently voting to eliminate abortion coverage for their employees. For these employees, July first marked much more than a new fiscal year. For employees in the counties and towns that voted to eliminate coverage of abortion care, yesterday also meant the first day that they were without comprehensive reproductive health care.

Check out this blog post written by our friend at Planned Parenthood Health Systems and NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina with a perspective on the divisive “wedge-issue” politics that are making their way into local governments across the state.

Today is the beginning of a new fiscal year. To many, the first day of July is primarily of financial significance. But for some municipal employees in North Carolina, today marks a new limit on their Constitutional right to choose abortion.

Vehement anti-choice state Rep. Paul Stam provoked local elected officials across the state — from Apex to Gastonia and Pitt County to Lincoln County — to remove abortion coverage from governmental employee health plans. Many municipalities made this change in their new budgets effective today. While some city and county managers made the decision to cut off benefits for their employees, others decided to put the coverage to a vote. How many of them would want their private medical issues debated in a public forum? (links added by Choice 2.0)

Read the rest of the story here. (Cross-posted from our partners at the Progressive Pulse)

In case you missed it, May marked the 50th anniversary of the birth control pill’s approval by the Food and Drug Administration. This seems like both an extremely long and an extremely short amount of time. On the one hand, it’s somewhat amazing to me that there existed a time in which birth control wasn’t readily available (though, rationally, I know this must be true)… and on the other, there seems like so much work left to accomplish on issues surrounding birth control (i.e. access, price). For an interesting perspective on some of the latter issues, check out this editorial published in the New York Times.

But, as you might expect, it’s not all fond looks back. Some groups are attempting to use this anniversary as a rallying point, as a way to convince anti-choice individuals to speak out against the evils of birth control. And birth control is pretty evil, if you weren’t already aware. Full explanations for can be found here, but here’s the Cliffs Notes version:

1) “The mentality of contraception opposes life”
2) “Contraception encourages risky sexual behavior” and leads to sexually transmitted infections
3) “Contraception only increases abortion”

The last one is kind of a doozy, isn’t it? I’d attempt to break it down a bit for you, but I don’t really understand the argument myself, so just rest assured… there’s very little logic behind it.

Regardless of the crazed individuals who want to control every aspect of a woman’s medical decisions, I think it’s important that we take a minute to appreciate what the introduction of birth control has meant to our lives. To acknowledge the (probably somewhat difficult) decision the FDA made fifty years ago. And to come together to continue to work to make birth control accessible and affordable to every one who wants it.

An employee at a Virginia elementary school has been suspended for handing out 4-inch tall plastic representations of fetuses to 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students. The principal of the school has also been placed on leave, although it seems to be unclear as to whether or not she knew the dolls were being distributed.

From the linked article:

“The teeny figures, in pink and brown, came with a “pro-life” message and information on fetal growth, according to one teacher.”

While this scenario raises a host of questions (like who actually thought this would be a good idea? or where does one even procure a large number of fetus dolls?), the thing i find most amusing/infuriating is that this person is guilty of the exact thing that the religious right routinely accuses liberals of: trying to indoctrinate children to feel a certain way about an issue.

How many times have we heard the cry from Republicans, anti-choicers, and others that “the gays” are trying to force their “lifestyle” on unsuspecting children? Or that sex ed classes are just thinly veiled advertisements for promiscuity, abortion, and Planned Parenthood? That children shouldn’t be confronted with these types of ideas and situations at such a young age? If this is true (and I am, by no means saying that it is), how is it then perfectly acceptable for anti-choicers to force their opinions and viewpoints on young children? You simply cannot have it both ways.

But to these people, indoctrination evidently only includes attempts to teach tolerance and scientific information, not blatant propaganda in the form of fetus dolls handed out to 8 year olds. I guess these types of issues are only problematic when one don’t agree with the way that they’re presented. That’s a great lesson for kids.