Roundup: Hecklers and Helpers

Sometimes, it's hard to know who your friends are. That seems especially true if you are a politician, and your "friends" are anti-abortion activists.

Sen. Bob Casey (D - PA) was heckled by anti-abortion protestors as he attempted to speak at an event to raise awareness for hunger issues. Casey, a pro-life Democrat, is still under fire from his likewise anti-choice supporters for appearing "too pro-choice" during the great health care debate.

He had just thanked his wife, Terese, for introducing him to an audience in the Capitol's crowded Rotunda when three women and a man stood up, one after another, to shout that he "voted to fund abortion."

During the five-minute disruption, Casey stood and listened as one of the protesters shouted, "You say you're pro-life."

"I am," the senator said.

Capitol police escorted the protesters out of the building. A spokesman for the police said the four were not arrested but were asked to refrain from interrupting Casey. They did not go back into the building afterward.

The protesters said they were affiliated with Insurrecta Nex, the Washington antiabortion group formerly known as Operation Rescue. Outside the Capitol, the four accused Casey of selling out his constituents and his Roman Catholic faith for supporting the health-care bill and appropriations bills that they contend fund abortions overseas.

"He votes the proabortion agenda," said one of the four, Suzanne Doller of Carlisle. "He's a disgrace to his church."

Despite helping to craft the compromise that brought Sen. Ben Nelson (D - NE) into the fold on health care, it seems poor Sen. Casey still gets no love from his supporters.

Perhaps their inflexibility should tell him something about their real agenda.

GOP candidate Scott Brown, vying for Ted Kennedy's empty seat in MA, seems to have the loyal support of anti-abortion activists, despite claiming to be pro-choice:

"The pro-life movement is really excited," says John Rowe of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. Yet Brown declares on his website that abortion is a decision that should be made by a "woman in consultation with her doctor, "i.e., he's (moderately) pro-choice.

The anti-choice factions seem to have no issue here with supporting a candidate who hasn't embraced their issues (at least, not publicly), but not everyone is that lucky. Should former Congressman Ron Paul decide to run for the Republican party nomination for president again, it looks like he'll have some anti-abortion folks nipping at his heels.

If Paul runs for the presidency in 2012, "pro-lifers will be alerted in advance to his pro-choice record," said Darrell Birkey, ARTL research director. "In the last election voters thought Ron Paul was pro-life. We want folks to know the truth."

"Ron Paul is pro-choice, state by state," says the report. Paul claims that a state has the right to decide if abortion will be legal, and his "pro-life profile" compares that unfavorably to other pro-choice positions. Birkey asks, “Should a state have the right to allow slavery? Pro-lifers will be shocked to see Paul's actual record."

Looks like not all pro-life support is created equal.

Luckily, pro-choice advocates don't have to worry about ambiguity when it comes to leaders like Sen. Al Franken (D- MN). In just a short time, my senator from Minnesota has made it clear that women's health is a firm priority. And now, with yet another bill to support women serving our country, Franken has reminded us again what it truly means to be an advocate for women.

The bill would require that all military pharmacies stock emergency contraception and offer it to servicewomen without a prescription, as the Food and Drug Administration currently allows civilian woman to obtain it. Currently, servicewomen face spotty access to emergency contraception coverage, particularly in facilities abroad, even as they were recently threatened with court martials if their primary contraception failed, if they were sexually assaulted or if they simply failed to use contraception and then became pregnant. Military facilities are not allowed to provide abortion services under federal laws covering Medicaid and Medicare recipients, soldiers and federal employees.

In 2002, the Bush Administration interfered in a Pentagon effort to add emergency contraception to its Basic Formulary, which would have required that all military medical facilities keep it in stock. Plan B was initially approved for sale in 1999 with a prescription, and its manufacturer fought for nearly the entire Bush Administration to get approval to sell it over-the-counter. The Bush Administration's foot- and knuckle-dragging over the issue was spurred on by religious conservatives that oppose all birth control--and Plan B in particular-- as "abortifacients" and a federal judge ruled last year that the Administration's decisions on Plan B were strictly political and not based on sound science.

Mini Roundup: Allegedly many women are rethinking their relationship with hormonal birth control. Wisconsin is testing some new attempts at birth control using fertility awareness methods. Or, maybe it's time for that breakthrough on the man pill.

 

January 12, 2010