Jezebel 
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New York, 1:11 AM
Mon Nov 30
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/12/09
"Are you gonna sit there and tell me Mr. Gasbag/Mr. Congressman that that little clump of cells is a sacred treasure which must be saved at all costs and then turn around and say that providing healthcare for that clump of cells once the cord is cut is fiscally irresponsible and that the little bastard is now on its own?"
I thought it summed it up quite nicely.
as an aside- is this okay? As far as posting quotes from other sites? I don't want to be a worstie... #abortion
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A lot of people are refusing to actually look at this amendment for what it is, and instead concentrate on the notion that public funds shouldn't go to anything the public doesn't (by a majority, apparently) agree with. Which is all well and good until you realize that's insane. If this amendment was about refusing to cover heart surgery because half the people don't agree with organ transplants on a moral level, I doubt anyone would think that was acceptable.
This is about abortion. It's not about how public funds should be used or the acceptable role of government or whether tax money should go to things we personally don't like. It's about finding whatever way they can to chip away at choice. And in this case, effectively doing away with it for anyone who doesn't have means. It might as well be the Poor Women Don't Get to Have Choice Amendment.
This effectively says we will cut funding, and therefore access, to a legal medical procedure if enough people don't think you should have it on personal moral grounds. That should be terrifying.
We should be deeply worried about anything like this, especially when it's a redundancy (Hyde already severely restricts federal funding of abortion). Like the 'Partial birth" abortion ban, these things are not done in a vacuum.
This healthcare plan is not so incredibly awesome that it's worth throwing poor women's personhood and uteruses under the bus. #abortion
11/12/09
Senate Dems: Quit pandering and make good on your promises. If you fuck us on healthcare by watering-down everything relevant, we will not forget it. Cowards. #abortion
11/12/09
They are not dithering but choosing to let bigotry beat back the basic rights of women and girls. My God, the assholes cheered the passing of the insurance "reform" bill! The House Democrats high-fived each other over a "health care" bill that would, in effect, deny medical care to women and girls even when our actual health is on the line!
They'll never change until they realize: you fight and win on gender rights or you get kicked the fuck out. I'm tired of being held hostage by people who, by the very fact they are holding me hostage, never intend to save me anyway. It is the public servant who should feel the heat, not the citizen.
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see this excellent article [mypage.direct.ca] #abortion
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If after the bill's passed and he's flying sky high on approval ratings and Dems are about to wipe the floor in the 2010 elections and THEN they're like 'psh abortion whatevs' I'll be pissed. I wish people would aim as much vitriol at the Americans who keep reelecting these buffons rather than at the 1/3rd of the governmental branch that promised not to be like George Bush and do whateverthefuck they please. #abortion
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@WashingMyHair: If it gets the rest of America health care, to me it's worth it. Governmental funding for abortion is nearly nonexistent and there's hardly a guarantee that the amendment will stand in the final bill anyway now that Obama has expressed disapproval. I'm a pro-choice individual who only got health care 4 years ago and firmly believe this is MORE important than having the perfect feminist bill. #abortion
11/12/09
I think that's short sighted, honestly. Access to choice should be a fundamental aspect of a public healthcare option for women. Hyde already limited federal funding, so not only was this redundant, but it's an active restriction of access to a legal medical procedure masquerading as a funding measure. That incredibly dangerous.
I don' t think anyone is arguing about this being the perfect feminist bill. Unless it was actually universal healthcare, that would be impossible.
But letting reproductive choice be something only those with means can afford because we let it go in the public option is irresponsible. It's precisely because poor women who can't afford healthcare also need access to this procedure that this matters so much. Otherwise we're allowing moral outrage to dictate the ability for other women to have body autonomy.
It's not worth it. #abortion
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11/12/09
If the administration had tried to muscle anything through immediately and they would have been shut down so hard by both Republicans and the media. At least the American public has had several months to watch the Republicans flail in the wind, exposing them for the party of 5 year olds they are. Public support of the bill has INCREASED as this charade has gone on, it did not start out high at all. #abortion
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Yes. #abortion
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It would have been nice if they would have at least linked public plan to Medicare. Costs are aimed approximately at moon-trajectory right now. You can stay ahead of the cost curve with tax hikes as long as you can, but... #abortion
11/12/09
You can exercise your library card or continue to get funneled into these games. The Democrats control the executive branch and both houses of Congress, we're in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and the prior administration has been thoroughly repudiated! Maybe their "inaction" or "wimpiness" is something else? #abortion
11/12/09
Obviously--I am painting with a very broad brush, and not all straight women are like this. And I'm also not saying that lesbians don't need access to abortion--of course they do. I'm talking about a lack of reciprocal solidarity.
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It's all about trade-offs. and this health care is a huge political calculation in trade-offs. and honestly--the prospect of health care reform and a public option far outweigh this amendment, in my admittedly cynical and bitter state of mind, post California and Maine.
11/12/09
Because black men could vote as of 1870 or so--it was part of Reconstruction (I mean, at least legally-- black people actually being allowed to vote is a whole other thing that didn't get resolved until, amazingly, the 20th century). Early suffragists and abolitionists were together, but they ended up getting split up my the dominant group (white dudes), who were like--we can do one or the other, people. Either black men are considered human, or white women (black women are SOL), but certainly not both--civilized society just isn't ready for that kind of social change! Let's wait until each state can decide for itself who is a person deserving of equal rights, because certainly these progressive judges and federal politicians are taking away states' rights to determine who gets equality and who doesn't!
Sounds similar, eh? The factioning off of oppressed groups, pitting them against each other, is part of the status quo's way of keeping all groups down. Can you imagine if everyone who wasn't a rich white dude just got together and was like "fuck you rich white asshole! I want my rights and I want them now!" Maybe things would change more quickly. But as it is people feel like they have to choose--I can be a feminist or a gay activist or a race-equality activist but I can't be all three! or, x is more important than y so fuck y I'm going to concentrate on x!
It's just playing right into their hands. If we want actual social change, we need to stop letting them split us up, we need solidarity. #abortion
11/12/09
11/12/09
I can't remember what happens on the show, but I remember watching it and realizing just how powerless I am to actually do anything about the slow erosion of women's rights. The republicans are clearly not interested in women-as-humans, so that's not an option. But the ones who are supposed to be for abortion, pro-women-as-people, pro-women's rights, are just fucking us over. And we can't do a fucking thing about it. Don't vote for Obama? Even if you vote for a more liberal candidate, it's basically like voting for a republican. Like everyone who voted for Ralph Nader instead of John Kerry, and they were accused of letting Bush win. It's like--I don't want someone as centrist as Barack Obama as my president. He's a perpetual capitulator, he's not going to get rid of women's rights, but he's going to let women's rights disappear and get killed by those he wants to bi-partisan with. But I don't actually have a liberal, progressive option. I have crazy-fucker-conservative, or centrist. Those are my options.
Seriously if I could live in this world without being a member of a country, I would. I seriously want to give up my American citizenship in protest. But there's nowhere for me to go. #abortion
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[www.actblue.com] #abortion
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She was winning more voters, but then the Obama/Pelosi contingent, with the DLC, awarded her delegates, and disputed delegates to Obama and forced her out of the race.
The Democratic party is not the party of women. They take us for granted year after year, as they pretend to pander to us. I'm voting Green until they stop pushing candidates like Obama over candidates with principles. #abortion
11/12/09