By Jeff Fecke, Blog of the Moderate Left -- moderateleft.com
October 5, 2007 - 3:30pm
A yearly campaign created by Advocates for Youth for communities around the country encourages parents/caregivers to talk to their children about sexual health.
"Irrational." "Hypersensitive." "Hysterical." The tone of comments on Daily Kos around the abomination known as the Stupak-Pitts Amendment is: "Calm down, little lady. Get real. Be adults. Doncha know how politics really works?"
Is a Senator who says she's pro-choice short-circuiting efforts to beat the Stupak Amendment in the Senate by conceding the point less than 48 hours after the disastrous vote in the House on this amendment? Is she signaling for the White House?
The Stupak Amendment potentially goes farther than any other federal law to restrict women’s access to abortion. The claim that it only bars federal funding for abortions is simply false.
By banning private insurers in the public exchange from covering "abortion services," the Stupak Amendment will affect women with incomplete miscarriages. Like the one I faced last month.
The Stupak-Pitts amendment would actually result the loss of abortion coverage many women already have because it prohibits the new private insurance market as well as any possible public option from providing such coverage.
This is only the first salvo in the bishops’ campaign against women’s health. Just imagine for a moment what healthcare will look like when the bishops are finished.
Our biggest defeat since 1973 was enactment of the Hyde Amendment and the lack of an uncompromising commitment to overturning it. If nothing else, we must now make overturning Hyde the single objective of our movement.
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops apparently now runs the US government, aided by "faith-based advocacy groups," the House Democratic Leadership, the White House and members of the Senate. If you didn't know before, you know now.
None of the bills emerging from either the House or the Senate require insurers to cover all of the elements of a basic gynecological "well-woman" visit leaving out essential care such as pelvic exams, STI counseling and - yes - birth control.
Notorious anti-abortion activist Father Norman Weslin was among a dozen protesters arrested by U.S. Capitol Police outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district office Thursday at a raucous protest against the health reform bill.
House Democratic leaders will allow an up-or-down vote on an amendment
blocking any money in its healthcare overhaul from funding abortions,
risking the votes of members who support abortion rights.
A vote originally set for tomorrow on the House health care bill may be delayed until next week, even after months of drama to arrive at this point. And to get to yes, Democrats are set to make another compromise on abortion care.
Following up on a June surprise, Michigan House Speaker Pro Tem Pam Byrnes on Wednesday announced she had introduced legislation to roll back a 2004 constitutional amendment which bans same-sex marriage in the state.
Only time will tell how this this week's election and phase of ultra-conservatism among Republicans will play out. What do you predict--and how should pro-choice, pro-reproductive justice advocates respond? Let us know.
Today, President Obama repeated one of the most tired excuses the Democratic party has to its failure to be truly pro-choice. The famous "This is a health care bill, not an abortion bill" excuse. Mr. President: Abortion is health care. It's women's health care. And we need you to say that.
Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus and a leader of efforts to defeat the Stupak Amendment in the House health care reform bill last Saturday is now collecting signatures of House members who are vowing to vote against reform unless the language is stripped.
Pro-choice Democrats in the House of Representatives are fighting against the anti-choice Stupak Amendment that rolls back women's rights in order to pass health care reform legislation.
