Sorry for the language, but I wanted your attention. It seems that every damn week somebody pops up and suggests we surrender on abortion "for the greater good." I'm seriously starting to believe we are under attack by trolls testing different themes on us to see what works, what makes us give up on women, families, privacy, medicine, and our own sense of right. Every time they pop up I post one of my old abortion diaries suggesting action that can be taken, so now I'll present it a little differently. It's a series of questions to post to the fucking abortion surrender monkeys that keep popping up here, all addressing one issue- what have you done, what efforts have you taken YOURSELF, before suggesting we give up who we are.
Bump.
Do you want to see what I'm talking about? Here are a few of the FASMs:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/27/17752/3984
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/25/3639/53065
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/24/74955/4742
Quite frankly, they disgust me. One thing they all lack is a single indication of anything they did before telling the rest of us to give up.
So I'll tell you some of the things I've done, my wife and I, and some of the things that I believe merit doing. If you have more ideas, toss them in. Then, when one of the fuckers shows up again, we can ask them if they tried everything else first, or if they're just trolling looking for weakness:
- Educate yourself. Read Roe v. Wade, Griswold v. Conn., S. Warren & L. Brandeis' Harvard Law Review Article The Right to Privacy, and the Constitution. Read the 9th Amendment carefully, for it is the Achilles' heel of the "strict constructionist" argument. You see, the "strict constructionists" say 'if it's not written down, it's not in the Constitution.' But the IXth Amendment says "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." In other words, other rights exist. I, for one, would argue those include privacy and the sanctity of one's uterus.
- Learn more about abortion than both sides' talking points. Find out that 15% of Medicaid patients' abortions are covered, and similar percent for private pay. What does this mean? It means there was some medical necessity in a FAR larger percentage of abortions than most people think. Insurance pays for abortion, usually, where there are serious genetic abnormalities. If you think this, too, is bad, and sound like eugenics, perhaps you should go here,
anencephalic. You should also ask yourself just who gets to make the decision to bring a tragically damaged baby into the world, one that won't live through childhood, or that will, but will burden the parents and then the siblings forever, depriving other children of attention, draining all financial reserves, and threatening an entire family. Do a little research- how many people with trisomy 21 babies, not mild mosaic Downs, but trisomy 21 or other radical genetic disorders, would have the child again if they had a choice, to see their baby suffer in horrible pain for months, years, or even decades? I've done it, and the number is pretty high for abortion, well over 50%.
How about teen pregnancy? Isn't that the bugaboo, the BIG group that must be punished? Surprisingly, less than 20% of abortions are for teenage girls. That's not exactly the image we walk around with, is it? And who are they? More important, who are their sexual partners? Surprisingly, they are usually much older. Furthermore, the older the male partner, the LESS likely the girl is to use birth control. This, standing alone, indicates a certain level of coercion, born by greater sophistication, as well as manipulation, indicated by the lack of caring about the effect on the girl. At what point do such "relationships" border on rape? In a California study, of 722 babies born to girls 10-14, 367, more than half, were with men 18 or older. So is your position that a 10 year old impregnated by a 32 year old should have the baby? Or is she, BY DEFINITION, a rape victim?
3. Actions. Do something. Join your local coalition. My wife and I not only joined the state Pro-Choice Coalition, we were involved in persuading them to change their name to the Health Access and Privacy Alliance. Why? To emphasize that there are a LOT of issues at risk other than abortion, including birth control. Did you know many states now are proposing laws allowing retailers (not just drug stores, but all retailers- no condoms at the Quick-E-Mart) to refuse to sell ANY birth control? Or to define "viablity" at 20 weeks? Or to define "life" at conception- goodbye IUD, pill, morning after pill, condoms or babies, those are your choices.
Participate locally. If your legislature is in session, see what antiabortion bills are pending in committee, then offer your expertise, or find experts, to testify. We did that, with the following result:
The issue was not directly on abortion, but DID have to do with women's health care, and the conservatives' attempts to criminalize anything which could hurt a fetus, in a move toward identifying it as a person. Here's part of the letter from the Alliance:
Last night HB 1755 died in the Public Policy and Veterans Affairs Committee when Chairman Bob Alderman declined to hold a vote on this bill which would have made it a felony for a woman to use drugs while pregnant. Two Republican members of the committee, Dave Frizzell and Cleo Duncan, joined Democrats Bob Kuzman, Vanessa Summers, David Crooks, and Scott Pelath in expressing concerns about the bill. Testimony from treatment program directors and representatives of health organizations, along with the phone calls and messages your members sent to committee members, overcame some legislators' insistence that the bill be passed out of committee and "fixed" later. The bill was good in that it served as a vehicle for educating legislators that the problem is real and that the solution is treatment, not punishment. A number of legislators and organizational representatives left the meeting resolving to working together on a bill for next session.
This is a VERY red state right now, and every little victory is a huge relief. Look to the diary above, and all the other and greater wisdom elsewhere in Kosland, for ways we can all make a difference in real life.
We also took it upon ourselves to find doctors willing to speak about the absurdity of the legislature defininig fetal viability at 20 weeks, and while it got out of committee, now it might not pass.
Offer real guidance, not here, but to people that count. I'll just repost part of an earlier diary to suggest one thing that could really be effective, given the judicial appointments coming up:
Judicial Appointment Hearings- Right now, because Bush has renominated a bunch of his crazy judges, we have some wonderful opportunities. Those hearings, and particularly hearings to replace Rehnquist, will garner a lot of press. Most of what I'm writing here is with that in mind. I believe a national conversation could be started if Democrats on the committee asked, rather than 'do you believe in a woman's right to choose,' 'do you believe the Constitution protects individual privacy,' 'do you believe the Government has a Constitutional right to listen in on conversations between a patient and a doctor,' and the big one, 'do you support overturning decisions that made it legal for a woman to take the birth control pill?' Questions could also be asked about the faces, above, such as the 12-year old- 'do you believe the Government should step in to interfere with the decisions of the parents of a 12-year old rape/incest victim?' or the anencephalic cases- 'Do you agree with the Brittel decision, or should the Government be permitted to discriminate against parents with terminally and tragically malformed babies?'
Wouldn't it be nice to see the debate framed our way, rather than theirs? Can you imagine the result when Barbara Boxer asks some old man if he intends to take away the birth control pill? Wouldn't that move the debate around a bit?
Write letters to the editor on the same thing. How many letters have you written, and how many have been published. Don't get discouraged. You might have to write 100 to get one printed- your writing skills will improve, the paper will like what you wrote, or they'll just get sick of hearing from you. Be active. I've had letters published in several papers in the last year- you can too.
Propose legislation. On the adult-little girl issue above, one thing we know is that people favor abortion in cases of rape. Change the discussion from 'irresponsible teens' to 'rape victims.' You can do this without ever uttering the word "abortion." All you have to do is propose what APPEARS to be VERY family-friendly legislation, the type the "morals" crowd couldn't shy away from, holding men responsible for their actions:
Teen Pregnancy Protection Act
An Act related to the protection of minor children from adult sexual predators:
WHEREAS unmarried teenage pregnancy is a scourge on our society, depriving our young female children of opportunities in education and employment; and
WHEREAS unmarried teenage pregnancy is a threat to our general welfare, depriving the offspring thereof of equal opportunity in life; and
WHEREAS the concept of "teen pregnancy" is a misnomer, as many of our youngest minor female citizens are actually impregnated by adult males of significantly greater years; and
WHEREAS the disparity in age, maturity, and responsibility; and
WHEREAS while hitherto responsibility for pregnancy has only been shared through child support but responsibility for the effect of said pregnancy on the lives of our minor female children has been left wanting; and
WHEREAS an adult male that impregnates a minor child has caused potential long-term detriment to that minor female child and her offspring;
BE IT ENACTED by the Congress of the United States that:
Section 1. Any adult male determined to have impregnated an unemancipated minor child shall be responsible, in addition to child support and other obligations owed the offspring of such pregnancy, for:
a. Housing, food, medical, transportation and other subsistence support for the mother of said offspring; and
b. education, as determined by the mother of said offspring to be in her best interests; and
c. other support as deemed necessary by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Section 2. Support as described in Section 1, supra, shall continue until the aforementioned offspring shall reach the age of majority.
Section 3. The Department of Health and Human Services is hereby directed to promulgate regulations to further define and describe "support" and to enforce this Act.
What else can you do? Well, if you happen to be, or know, of a woman who had an abortion early in life, esp. with a much older male, and as a result were able to move on and have a life than helped many, get on the pulpit. It's scary, but without you, others may not have the opportunity. Are you a doctor? research scientist? are you working on a cure for cancer, feeding the hungry, turning lead into gold? Would you have had that opportunity if you dropped out at 16 to have a baby? Speak up. Write letters to Oprah, make a story of it.
More? Are you part of a family that made a painful decision to abort a terribly flawed baby, to save the rest of your family? Speak up. You will certainly be targeted for great approbation, but without you, the next family might have no choice.
Change the words. Whenever anybody talks to you about abortion you talk to them about privacy, birth control, etc. Talk to them, not about irresponsible teens, but victims. Change the debate, one person at a time.
Never give up. Abortion is here to stay. The only real question is whether it will become a privilege for the privileged, and a crime for the underprivileged. Remember that, and fight the good fight.
Finally, fuck you trolls. Stop suggesing surrender, and stop test-marketing your ideas here on Kos. If you are a troll, fuck you. If you aren't a troll, stop acting like one and get out there and work, instead of coming in here and quitting, and asking the rest of us to join you.
[Update] Today the Senate Judiciary Committee starts hearing on William Myers for the Ninth Circuit. On Thursday they hear one for the 4th circuit and two District Court Judges. Here are the Democratic members of the committee. If you have contacts, or are from their State, now is the time to write a letter, asking that they grill the candidates on privacy, birth control, and the 9th amendment.
Patrick J. Leahy
RANKING DEMOCRATIC MEMBER, VERMONT
Edward M. Kennedy
MASSACHUSETTS
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
DELAWARE
Herbert Kohl
WISCONSIN
Dianne Feinstein
CALIFORNIA
Russell D. Feingold
WISCONSIN
Charles E. Schumer
NEW YORK
Richard J. Durbin
ILLINOIS
Feinstein disappointed us with Rice, but would be a great one to put these questions to the judges. I can see Feingold and Schumer doing it too. If you think it is a good idea to change the conversation from "choice v. life" to "privacy v. gov't intrustion," and that more people will side with us on the radical birth control questions, now is the time to act.