Wednesday, November 24, 2004
government declares war on women
This is it, ladies - the war on our rights has clearly begun.
Congress has approved the spending bill which contained an anti-abortion clause. The full implications of this are not yet completely understood, but it makes it likely hospitals receiving federal funding can refuse to provide abortion services or even to refer women to potential providers. Insurance companies and health clinics are also included in this despicable attack on women's rights.
As an editorial in today's Boston Globe points out, doctors already have the right not to provide an abortion if they object - extending this to hospitals, clinics and insurance companies only serves to limit access to a medical procedure that is - at least for now - still legal in this country.
The anti-women, anti-choice Repugnicants just further slimed this country and our rights by attaching this rider onto the omnibus spending bill.
The party of moral cowardice obviously decided that they couldn't face actually bringing this up again as a proper bill and having a proper debate about its merits (especially since all prior attempts to do get it passed have failed), so they sneaked it right up the back door.
Ladies (and gentlemen), our government has just given us the clearest signal possible that it's going to be all-out warfare on our rights for the next 4 years while the travesty of what used to be a democracy languishes under King George's control.
It's not enough that our government is hurting millions of women abroad with the global gag rule... our elected leaders are obviously bringing the battle home. And make no mistake, it is a war on women, led by religious leaders such as Jerry Falwell who this week referred to the National Organization of Women as the "National Order of Witches".
By their words and actions this week, Falwell and many of our elected officials have demonstrated their disrespect for women and have spit upon our struggle against being treated as second class citizens in our own country.
Now is the time to get active... I'm planning to rejoin Planned Parenthood as a member (and maybe to give memberships to friends as Christmas gifts). I challenge all progressive women and men out there to do the same. It would be intolerably un-American to allow the government to control our bodies and our right to our health and liberty.
I also call on you to talk with all your Libertarian-leaning friends to point out this and other transgressions against Americans in this spending bill. Despite their lip service to smaller government, the Republicans are very clearly not the party that wants less government control over Americans.
Our government, with the blessing of religious freaks such as Falwell, is trying to get in your hospital room, into your tax returns, and into your bedrooms to make sure that you aren't exercising any legal freedoms that they don't agree with. That is not freedom - that is fascism.
And it won't stop with this spending bill.
¶ 10:28 AM
This is it, ladies - the war on our rights has clearly begun.
Congress has approved the spending bill which contained an anti-abortion clause. The full implications of this are not yet completely understood, but it makes it likely hospitals receiving federal funding can refuse to provide abortion services or even to refer women to potential providers. Insurance companies and health clinics are also included in this despicable attack on women's rights.
As an editorial in today's Boston Globe points out, doctors already have the right not to provide an abortion if they object - extending this to hospitals, clinics and insurance companies only serves to limit access to a medical procedure that is - at least for now - still legal in this country.
The anti-women, anti-choice Repugnicants just further slimed this country and our rights by attaching this rider onto the omnibus spending bill.
The party of moral cowardice obviously decided that they couldn't face actually bringing this up again as a proper bill and having a proper debate about its merits (especially since all prior attempts to do get it passed have failed), so they sneaked it right up the back door.
Ladies (and gentlemen), our government has just given us the clearest signal possible that it's going to be all-out warfare on our rights for the next 4 years while the travesty of what used to be a democracy languishes under King George's control.
It's not enough that our government is hurting millions of women abroad with the global gag rule... our elected leaders are obviously bringing the battle home. And make no mistake, it is a war on women, led by religious leaders such as Jerry Falwell who this week referred to the National Organization of Women as the "National Order of Witches".
By their words and actions this week, Falwell and many of our elected officials have demonstrated their disrespect for women and have spit upon our struggle against being treated as second class citizens in our own country.
Now is the time to get active... I'm planning to rejoin Planned Parenthood as a member (and maybe to give memberships to friends as Christmas gifts). I challenge all progressive women and men out there to do the same. It would be intolerably un-American to allow the government to control our bodies and our right to our health and liberty.
I also call on you to talk with all your Libertarian-leaning friends to point out this and other transgressions against Americans in this spending bill. Despite their lip service to smaller government, the Republicans are very clearly not the party that wants less government control over Americans.
Our government, with the blessing of religious freaks such as Falwell, is trying to get in your hospital room, into your tax returns, and into your bedrooms to make sure that you aren't exercising any legal freedoms that they don't agree with. That is not freedom - that is fascism.
And it won't stop with this spending bill.
¶ 10:28 AM
