From LifeNews.com, a little info on how some of our Republican Congresscritters spend their days when not toeing the Bush line on Iraq:
Last Thursday the Susan B. Anthony List joined with National Right to Life Committee and FRCAction to present Real Women's Voices, a training conference for pro-life women activists from across the country. ... The activists also witnessed inspirational words from Congress' dedicated and courageous Pro-Life leaders: Senator Sam Brownback (KS-Sen), Rep. Mike Ferguson (NJ-07), Rep. Virginia Foxx (NC-05), and Rep. Jean Schmidt (OH-02).
Ah, so what, you say. So Brownback, Ferguson, Foxx and Mean Jean wandered off to hang out with their own for a little while. What's the difference?
One participant said, "When I came in this morning, I had no interest in political office. By the end of the day, I was saying, I have to run for something."
Yep, they're working to take people who are pro-life as a personal belief and turn them into elected officials who see pro-life as a societal belief. In short, they are working to create a crew of pro-life politicos who will work to take control of your bodies.
But maybe it's OK, because if that's what these women really believe they should get into the process? After all, aren't we all about the democratic process as much as anything?
Well, sure, if they were being filled with facts and honest arguments that might apply. But here's one of the things they are most proud of:
After a day of intensive training, activists headed off to lobbying meetings with their legislators, where they discussed the Equal Rights Amendment and the importance of adding language to make the amendment neutral on the abortion issue.
They spent their day making sure the ERA is neutral on the abortion issue. Frankly, I thought the ERA died back in the 1980s (yeah, I know it gets reintroduced but it's never really considered), but let's suppose it has a renaissance now and was brought back up.
Here's the text of the ERA:
Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
Now, I'm sorry but I can't see any reading of the text above that could in any way be construed as being pro, con or even ambivalent about abortion. It's already as abortion neutral as any single sentence in the language could be except, "Yup."
But the article says these women were meeting with "Congress' dedicated and courageous Pro-Life leaders" to discuss making sure this language was abortion neutral. The highest ranking Republicans in America are filling these unpolitical women's heads with lies, and doing it proudly.
It's just more evidence that the anti-abortion crowd is about more than preventing and illegalizing abortions. The reason why they are making the ERA into a boogey-woman is because they want to control women's lives, to prevent them from having equal rights. As long as these women are indoctrinated to believe that the ERA is about abortion, they'll be happy to fight against ensuring themselves the right to equal treatment under the law.
Brownback, Ferguson, Foxx and Mean Jean are in the middle of these mendacious, misleading efforts to twist women around in knots until they are advocating for policies against their better interests. It's possible they do this because they is honestly anti-abortion, but the effect of his actions and associations is more important than the intent.
These folks have got to go, and 2008 is the time to do it.