reproductive rights

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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What it all boils down to is this: Abortion is never an easy choice. Ever. It’s not made lightly, on a lark, for fun. It’s life-changing, one of those turning points that you never forget, a moment where you stand on a crossroads. You pray to whatever gods you believe in, and you do the best you can for yourself, your partner, and your unborn child, and then you do whatever you have to do to never ever be in that situation again. And you go out and fight to make sure that other women still have the same choices that were available to you when you needed them. And you go home at the end of the day and hug your family.

January 22nd, 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. I'll be Joining NARAL and others across the blogosphere in Blog for Choice Day.

I used to spend my weekend mornings reading the newspaper. In fact, for about 20 years, I read the News and Observer nearly every day. Then back in January of 2006, at a time when the newspaper was more delusional than usual, I found this editorial about Supreme Court nominee Alito that quite nearly took my breath away:

But it's significant that unlike some earlier Supreme Court nominees, Alito interprets the Constitution as providing a right to privacy, which undergirds the Roe decision. On a different level, Alito proved himself a patient listener during tense moments in the hearings. That quality, along with the respect he has earned among colleagues on the bench, are reasons to hope he will continue to decide cases on the law and the facts, not on any agenda.

Having watched every minute of the Alito hearings, and finding absolutely no evidence that he believes there is a right to privacy in the Constitution, I used that opportunity to finally cancel my subscription to the paper once and for all.

As it turns out, I was right about the disastrous impact of George Bush's Supreme Court, which is now considered to be just another arm of the Republican Party, and I fear it's going to get worse before it gets better.

She Should Run is a project of the Women’s Campaign Forum. It's purpose is to provide resources for potential female candidates. According to the website, studies show women are more likely to run for office if they are asked to run. She Should Run is a public invitation, backed up with practical advice. Visit the site here: http://www.sheshouldrun.com

In a ruling yesterday that all sides of the abortion debate agree has changed the legal landscape of this issue, the Supreme Court voted by narrow majority to uphold the 1993 federal Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.

CNN’s Washington Bureau described the decision thusly:

The sharply divided 5-4 ruling could prove historic. It sends a possible signal of the court's willingness, under Chief Justice John Roberts, to someday revisit the basic right to abortion guaranteed in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case.

As many of us at BlueNC are probably aware, the Supreme Court has historically held that the life and health of the mother is a critical determinant in upholding or overturning abortion laws.

Here again, CNN sums it up for us:

The legal sticking point was that the law lacked a "health exception" for a woman who might suffer serious medical complications, something the justices have said in the past is necessary when considering abortion restrictions.

On April 18, 2007 our Bush-ified Supreme Court threw history out the window.

More below the fold

With so many fundamental American freedoms under attack, it's hard sometimes to know what matters most. That observation points to the strategy of the Party of Torture, which works every day on every front to control our lives and strengthen its power.

At the top of their reactionary agenda are two radical goals. First, taking cues from their alter-egos in radical Islam, they seek to redefine America as a born-again Christian nation where the line between government and church dissipates into oblivion. And second, they want to outlaw abortion.

In North Carolina, no organization is doing more to sustain a woman's right to choose than Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina. My wife was chair of their board last year, and yesterday we hosted an event for 150 people at our house to build interest in their work and mobilize supporters for the next round of assaults on freedom and choice.

This e-mail from The Political Junkies speaks for itself:

In the four years that The Political Junkies has published, this is the first time that we have felt is necessary to write North Carolina readers individually, But, on Tuesday night NC Democrats could be asking, “What happened?”

One critical seat on the North Carolina State Supreme Court is at stake Tuesday. Two Democrats, in a four candidate “non-partisan” field, are vying to make the November “non-partisan” general election.

TPJ has endorsed JUDGE ROBIN HUDSON.

The e-mail goes on to say what I've been asserting all along:

The other Democrat is Bill Gore, but Bill Gore is not a Democrat as most in our Party view a Democrat. He is openly running on a right wing agenda that competes with any radical Republican. Gore has unabashedly demonstrated that he is a strict constructionist, who does not believe in the separation of church and state, and who would vote against Roe v. Wade, which recognizes a woman’s reproductive rights.

[Lance: I front-paged this because it raises questions that need answering—is Gore advertising deceptively? Or what? Max, can you chime in here?]

I just got this e-mail from an entity called "Rachel for Supreme Court Committee" But, guess what?

When I clicked on it these were the first words I read:"VOTE BILL GORE on MAY 2" So I looked up Bill Gore.

You can go here to read his answers to a questionnaire by the Family Policy Council. Go here to read how he compares to the Republicans he's running against.

If you don't wish to follow the links, let me tell you that the only way he differs from the two Republicans in the race is that his favorite Supreme Court Justice is Roberts instead of Scalia.

NC Senate candidate and 3rd-string Jesse Helms wannabe Nate Tabor still doesn't get the difference between an honest policy discussion and demagoguery. Today's opportunity to cherry-pick the facts and practice the politics of fear is provided by the North Carolina Conservative, where Tabor is found trying to make hay over the safety of the abortion drug, RU-486 (which is not the same thing as the morning after pill). At the heart of the polemic is the fact that the drug has been linked to several deaths (different sources vary, but the number is somewhere between 5 and 10).