Today I saw the best that the Republican campaign slime machine has to offer, writ very, very small. A mailer was sent out to people in the Illinois 27th Senate district with a black and white picture of a girl, crying behind a veil of rain, claiming that, at the most vulnerable time in her life, Peter Gutzmer wouldn't allow her parents to know that she is having an abortion.
"Schools need to ask permission to give our kids aspirin" but Peter Gutzmer (the Democratic Candidate for Illinois 27th) won't support parental notification. Beyond the troublesome logic behind the claim (not forcing a young woman by law to tell her parents she is seeking an abortion equals forcing the young woman not to tell her parents that she is seeking an abortion), the advertisement speaks to, once again and very locally, the trouble with today's Republican Party: they deal solely in fear.
In this case, the ad asserts that government will get between a daughter and her parents if she wants an abortion. Here they go again with the meme of the jackbooted government thug interfering where he is unwelcome, unwanted, and unnecessary. The dishonesty of the claim is crystal clear...it is the parental notification law that is government interference. What if the parent is responsible for the pregnancy? What if the parents would inflict harm on the girl if they knew she was having sex, let alone pregnant? What if, maybe, just maybe a girl would simply tell her parents on her own without big brother coercing her to do so?
Instead of addressing the problem: kids having unprotected sex; kids not knowing how their bodies work; peer pressure; access to contraception; child abuse; the GOP goes for the irresponsible wedge to stir up the old fear pot with no real solution, just fear itself.
The right of a woman to own her body is not a national issue. The United States will not overturn Roe v. Wade, the states will. The anti abortion extreme is chipping away at a woman's right to privacy, bit-by-bit, inch-by-inch. This is why local races matter. This is why we need to make a stand, shake our fists in the darkness, and say NO MORE. I will be good and god dammed if I let the wire hanger and the back alley be the killing fields for this nation's daughters.
I am not telling you anything that you, dear reader, don't already know. What you may not know is that for the first time in more than a generation, a Democrat has the chance to win this Illinois State Senate seat. A Democrat who will increase our ranks in the Illinois state house and improve the razor thin majority we have today. A Democrat who will fight tooth and nail, blood and bone for a woman's right to safe and effective health care. Pete Gutzmer is that Democrat and he needs your help.
Please go to www.votegutzmer.org and consider offering Pete your support. Thanks.