MSNBC’s coverage of today’s march has been going on and on with a discussion of whether pro-life groups should have been allowed to co-host the march. I’m fed up.
1. Just because the organizers of this Woman’s March would not agree to let pro-life groups co-sponsor the march, doesn’t mean anyone is being turned away. Unlike what is apparently going on at our Canadian border where people are reportedly being asked if they are pro or anti Trump and those headed to participate in the march are being refused entry, no one is stopping anyone from participating in the march in this country.
2. How long do we have to reiterate: this not a question of pro-life and anti-life or a question of pro-abortion and anti-abortion, it is a question of pro-choice and anti-choice. To suggest that pro-choice people are not pro-life is absurd and obscene. Many (if not most) pro-choice people are not pro-abortion and would prefer the need for abortions to be as close to zero as possible. But when you advance from the point where you want to impose your personal beliefs and deny women the right to make their own decisions with their own doctors about what do to with their bodies it is anti-choice, not pro-life.
3. This is a Woman’s March — motivated by the remarkable ascendance of an egregiously misogynist national leader. And there are few issues as important to most women as the right to make decisions about their own bodies. So for any anti-choice groups to expect to be able to co-sponsor a march when their view is contrary to a majority of Americans and a vast majority of women is ridiculous. I can respect the personal beliefs of others but they shouldn’t expect me to march under a banner that seeks to deny fundamental choices to women.
4. This is such a red herring. This is not primarily a pro-choice march. So please stop changing the subject. Look at how full the streets are. This is about something different. So wake up and drop the distractions.