"Never A Good Time to Say No"


I could not agree more with this sentiment:

This is the argument made over and over again: If the repro rights activists would just stop agitating about the pro-life Dems, we could get majorities, and things would improve for women and men everywhere. I get that argument. Most days, I believe it. And then I wake up to a Democratic majority that will only pass progressive healthcare legislation if it includes antiabortion provisions.

These trade-offs build on each other. Stupak did not happen in a vacuum. It's part of a larger cycle. Is this the moment to stand up and say "no"? How could I say it is, especially when I am all too aware that if pro-choice Democrats were to revolt over this issue, they would be vilified and further alienated from a party that already allows the erosion of reproductive rights? We choose to play nice, our party trades on our freedoms. We choose to object, our party resents and blames us for failure. It's not exactly a bright set of options for anyone who has gotten into this quandary simply because they fervently believe that the rights of half the population to control its own reproduction are fundamental to full and equal participation in our democracy.

As I have noted in countless posts from multiple nations: when women are emancipated from the clutches of religion progress happens. And yet in America we are sliding backwards. At some point all of us have to stand up and say no more. And I don't see an issue that affects fully half of our population as one critic put it:' the same of sh&*^&%.' So, when are we going to heed the voices of fully half our population? Too add injury to insult, how's this for coverage:

None of the bills emerging from the House and Senate require insurers to cover all the elements of a standard gynecological "well visit," leaving essential care such as pelvic exams, domestic violence screening, counseling about sexually transmitted diseases, and, perhaps most startlingly, the provision of birth control off the list of basic benefits all insurers must cover. Nor are these services protected from "cost sharing," which means that, depending on what's in the bill that emerges from the Senate, and, later, the contents of a final bill, women could wind up having to pay for some of these services out of their own pockets. So far, mammograms and Pap tests are covered in every version of the legislation.

I guess this is what's meant by a 'sense of victimhood,' eh?


Sean Paul Kelley November 11, 2009 - 2:52pm

The fundamentalism of so many Americans never ceases to shock.

kovacs November 11, 2009 - 5:14pm

It will take at least another 20 years until there are as many women in top positions as the are men (we got to wait until the existing old farts die off and with them their old boys networks), I don't see a systematic attack on women's rights being perpetrated in the US. I just don't see it, especially when compared to most other countries. Look, as a simple example, I know many women who spend half of their time in civilized Switzerland or Italy and half in the US. There is no comparison between the sexism in those two countries and what we have in the US. Employers and colleagues there can get away with levels of sexism that would get them fired in a second here. If you are saying that we are ALL getting screwed here more than citizens in Switzerland, than I'd agree with that (Italy, not so sure).

creativelcro November 11, 2009 - 7:19pm

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