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Gloria Feldt's blog

The Democrats’ Own Trojan Horse Kicks Free

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

November 16, 2009 - 7:00am

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I am not convinced by after-the-fact reassurances that the final health reform bill will not include the Stupak amendment. That’s because the table for expanding prohibitions on abortion was set by the Democrats themselves.

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Is Adoption Reform Common Ground on Abortion?

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

July 3, 2009 - 8:00am

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Those who support a woman's right to choose and those who oppose it should be able to work together to forge common ground for policies that make adoption a genuine choice.


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Why I Didn't Write a Check for Obama Last Night

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

July 10, 2008 - 7:00am

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Obama's recent comments backing away from a comprehensive mental health exception to the federal abortion ban and supporting abstinence education are far more likely to alienate feminist voters than win over conservative ones.

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Staying Engaged Through A Campaign That Lasts Forever

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

March 26, 2008 - 8:48am

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It does matter who votes and who we vote for, and never so profoundly as the 2008 elections when it comes to the future of reproductive rights and health.


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Why Hillary Clinton Is the Best Choice for Women

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

February 7, 2008 - 8:45am

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As women who have spent our careers fighting to protect a woman's right to choose, we recognize that the next president will face serious challenges to safeguard the reproductive health of women. In our opinion, there is one candidate whose leadership on this issue is unparalleled: Hillary Clinton.


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Evangelicals Split Between Romney and Huckabee

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

February 5, 2008 - 10:45pm

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"Evangelicals haven't fallen in love with any candidate yet," said MSNBC's Lester Holt, analyzing the Republican presidential primaries. Tsk tsk.

They are dividing their votes fairly evenly three ways tonight between John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee. If I were Keith Olbermann, I might try to figure out who is worse, worser, and worst person in the race for reproductive rights. But it's such a toss-up that I'll pass on awarding that prize, so coveted by the fundamentalist hard right. . All three would overturn Roe v Wade faster than you can say "Supreme Court". But that's just the beginning of the damage each would do to women's most fundamental human rights to make their own childbearing decisions--including access to birth control--without government interference.

When I write that last phrase about government interference, I think about the late Senator Barry Goldwater--known as Mr. Conservative--would turn over in his grave. His wife Peggy was a founder of Planned Parenthood in Arizona and Barry was a staunch supporter of reproductive rights precisely because he believed such personal matters weren't the government's business. And he once said good Christians ought to kick Moral Majority founder Rev. Jerry Falwell in the ass. Republicans of Goldwater's stripe are rare as hen's teeth these days, thanks to an unholy alliance between the Republican party and the fundamentalists that was nurtured over a generation at the grassroots precinct level where control of the party mechanism begins. That's why those who think the fundamentalist right is losing steam need to think again.

Yes, everyone wants to fall in love with a candidate. But in the end, this is a group that does what all citizens in a democracy should do: the unromantic work of sustained participating in the political process. And if history is a predictor, they are likely to continue to do so in a much more disciplined way than the Democratic constituencies tend to do. So watch out. If you care about reproductive justice, be very afraid of any of these candidates. Batten down the hatches and be prepared to work very hard between now and November. Because when it comes to advancing the fundamentalist right’s goals, Tina Turner was right: love has very little to do with it.


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Women Can Make Up Their Own Minds, Andrew Sullivan

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

February 5, 2008 - 5:56pm

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For the last few days, the Internet has been buzzing with impassioned presidential endorsements by feminists, many of whom have been in or even leading the movement for decades and others who are the bright young voices of the present and the future. This extraordinary piece of cultural criticism by Robin Morgan is my personal favorite. Seems the women of America have found their voices concerning whom they do and don't support, thank you very much.

So where then does Andrew Sullivan (yes, the conservative -- though gay and HIV positive -- put those together with "conservative" for an amazing oxymoron) pundit get off in his thinly veiled misogynist attempt to instruct feminists on how to vote? Yes, the same Andrew Sullivan who acknowledged posting ads soliciting "bareback" sex and pled his right to privacy in such matters even while asserting that Roe v wade should be overturned. That Andrew Sullivan.

His punch line: One day, there will be a woman worth electing to the White House. But not this one. Fortunately, Echidne of the Snakes has written an outstanding analysis of Sullivan's warped attempt to retain his own gender's hegemony.

Here's an excerpt:

Because there is always something else that is more important than women. A war must be won before they can get the right to vote, or a depression must be fixed before women's concerns can be addressed, or a revolution must be finished first or an occupier must be vanquished, or something else equally important must take precedence. Women. Never. Come. First. I remember an interview with an Afghan man when the Taliban first came into power there. At first his daughters could go to school only in burqas and wearing gloves. Then they couldn't go to school at all. This educated man said that the time to worry about his daughters' education was to be later. First they needed to get the warring over. And so it goes. Always. In twenty years' time, when some future Andrew Sullivan gives you that very same excuse, remember this post.

Women have always tended to put others before themselves. But as those conflicting e-mails whizzing through cyberspace prove, women are thinking deeply about this election. Whatever reasons we might have for voting one way or another, let us not allow the Andrew Sullivans of the world to determine the worthiness of our decisions.


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Political Engagement, Beyond Super Tuesday

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

February 5, 2008 - 3:36pm

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Political engagement has been huge this election cycle. Gloria Feldt hopes that this engagement does not end after Super Tuesday.


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I Am Roe, and I Have Questions

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

January 22, 2008 - 4:51pm

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The elections will determine the future for all of us Roes. That's why a mortally wounded Roe v Wade's 35th anniversary requires the candidates to answer my questions in full.


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Border Crossings, Both Ways

By Gloria Feldt, www.GloriaFeldt.com

October 3, 2007 - 7:07am

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One relationship between the U.S. and Mexico is seldom acknowledged: the movement of women across the border in both directions to obtain abortions.


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