Supporting the Separation of Church and State
Posts Tagged ‘Anti-Choice’
Kansas Pro-Lifers Fail to Indict Clinic
Categorized: Politics
Tagged: Anti-Choice, Feminism, Reproductive Rights
The New York Times has reported that the Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park will not face indictment. A grand jury, after investigating allegations that the clinic had violated parental notice and informed consent laws, refused to issue the indictment. Also at question was whether or not the clinic had been illegally trafficking fetal tissue.
”We are once again vindicated, as we have been any time there is an objective review of these allegations,” said Peter Brownlie, president and chief executive officer of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. ”The jury investigated all of the allegations that were in the petition that resulted in the grand jury being formed, and they found no evidence of any wrongdoing.”
Of course this isn’t going to be the end of this fight. Right wing groups tend to fanaticism so while this may be seen as a setback it will most likely just encourage them more. I expect that there are already news releases out that claim that the findings are wrong and that they will continue to press on.
”Any time a decision is different from the one they want, they will claim it’s because of some nefarious doings,” he said. ”The only people who continue to insist that there’s criminal wrongdoing are people who have a political agenda.” ~Peter Brownlie
Feministe has a great write up here that I highly recommend. I wish I had time to add more to this, perhaps I will find a chance to update it later. Anyhow please feel free to leave comments with your thoughts on this ruling.
One Million Dead! Pro-Lifers Where Are You?
Categorized: Politics
Tagged: Anti-Choice, Feminism, Hypocrisy, Iraq, Reproductive Rights
According to a new study over One Million Iraqi’s have died as a result of the Iraq war. You would expect the pro-lifers to be up in arms over this needless loss of human life. After all, according to their propaganda, every life is sacred. So where is the outrage? Where are the protesters? What are the pro-lifers doing to stop this tragedy? Oh yeah, they’re too busy taking away birth control and womens rights. Hypocrites.
Nicaraguan Doctors Fighting Back
Categorized: Religion
Tagged: Anti-Choice, Catholicism, Feminism, Nicaragua, Reproductive Rights
A couple of weeks ago William wrote a story about how the Pope had praised Nicaragua for passing a law effectively outlawing all abortions. Now the Nicaraguan doctors are fighting back after witnessing the deaths of over 80 women directly related to this quasi-ban.
WIBW.com ran this Reuters story today detailing the tragic death of Olga Reyes 2 weeks after her wedding. Olga was suffering from an ectopic pregnancy and, out of fear of prosecution, there were no doctors willing to perform the medical procedure needed to save her life in time. She suffered for 4 days before sucumbing. International medical professionals agree that with an ectopic pregnancy the fetus is not viable and immediate surgery is the only route to insure the welfare of the mother.
Women’s rights groups, including physicians, have protested Congress and demanded an immediate repeal of the ban which does not make any allowances fof the life of the mother. Evangelicals and the Catholic church support the ban saying that medical advancements make it so that a mother’s life is never at risk. Not only is this an ignorant argument, it is dangerous. Like Reyes’ situation, there are times that no amount of medical assistance can save the mother and the child, a fact that is not disputed by the medical community.
The Catholic church is so much in favor of this deadly ban that they have organized over 300,000 protesters to refute the women’s rights groups. This story scares me on a number of levels, namely that that the Catholic church can deny facts and support something that is causing the loss of innocent women. Anti-choice activists are so set on assuring that women can’t control their own health, that they ignore and even manipulate the facts in order to support their stance.
The Culture of Life
Categorized: Republicans
Tagged: Abstinence, Anti-Choice, Christianity, Gluttony, Greed, Hypocrisy, Pride
Whenever I hear a member of the Religious Right utter this phrase I have to laugh. Surely they must be kidding? No? They really believe that they are furthering life? Jesus Christ we’re in trouble.
It sounds so innocuous, wonderful, affirming. Most people want to be on the side of life. In Republican circles where it is very commonplace to find ignorant masses repeating rhetoric and sticking to ideals that they have no clue about, this phrase will get them going everytime. It lends them credence, lets them know that they are doing the “Lord’s” work.
They must then see those that don’t believe as they do and whom they oppose on many issues as being from the opposite culture, thus Liberals, atheists, gays, Democrats, and anyone else who is different are from the Culture of Death. Oooooh this sounds like we’re getting ready for an intergalactic war huh?
Not quite. Unlike our Republican friends we are willing to look beyond overused phrasing and see each side for what it truly is. When you strip away the armor of false advertising you are left with the side that wants us to give up our civil liberties in the name of safety, the side that does not want to see this nation’s children provided with necessary health care, the side that is not willing to spend an extra cent on the people of our country, the side that continuously allows corporations and the elite to feed off the backs of our working class, the side that sees nothing wrong with torturing and killing people as long as it is done in the name of their god or the war on terror, and the side that wants to continue the oppression of people with different colored skin, different sexual orientation or identity, or different religious beliefs.
Then there is the other side. The ones who wants to ensure that our children are insured, use diplomacy instead of weapons to solve international issues, promote education and knowledge to reduce the instances of STDs and unwanted pregnancies(thus abortions), make sure that our justice system is brought out of the Dark Ages and errs on the side of human life, work to bring jobs back to America so that our families can afford to support themselves, and many other life affirming values.
So which side describes themselves as the Culture of Life? The ones that in any other context would be the villains of a fairy tale. What’s worse is that they are extremely convinced that their god gives them the right to behave in this manner, to push their beliefs onto the nation as a whole. It is this mindset that has made the United States and international laughingstock and has other countries viewing us as an enemy of freedom.
The Right is exceptionally good at using language to manipulate their followers and others into believing what they want them to. It’s time that we call them on it and demand that they call themselves what they really are. The Culture of Hatred, Intolerance, Bigotry, Discrimination, Ignorance, and Murder.
Huckabee Says Abortion is Like Holocaust
Categorized: Republicans
Tagged: 2008 Election, Anti-Choice, Christianity, Feminism, LGBTQ Rights, Liberality, Mike Huckabee, Reproductive Rights
Jamie Crawford, CNN Political Ticker, reported that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee likened abortions in America to the holocaust. His exact words were, “Sometimes we talk about why we’re importing so many people in our workforce. It might be for the last 35 years, we have aborted more than a million people who would have been in our workforce had we not had the holocaust of liberalized abortion under a flawed Supreme Court ruling in 1973.”
As I have written time and again, conservative right wing republicans cannot argue with logic so they bring on the barrage of verbal nastiness. Almost everyone agrees that the holocaust was a horrible thing so equating whatever it is that they don’t agree with with either Nazi’s or the holocaust itself is a surefire way to rile up their followers. The other word that they have managed to manipulate to conjure up images of death, torment, and horror is liberal. Notice that he doesn’t just say abortion it’s “liberalized” abortion.
These semantic games that they are playing have been highly tuned to strike just the right chord in their close minded base. It doesn’t matter that logically the holocaust and legalized abortion have nothing in common or that “liberal” means “favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, esp. as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.”
Huckabee also pulled out another verbal weapon from his arsenal “God”. In the same speech he stated “I’m very tired of hearing people who are unwilling to change the constitution, but seem more than willing to change the holy word of God as it relates to the definition of marriage.”
This statement is, to me, the embodiment of what is wrong with the Religious Right. He makes it clear that he believes political decisions should be guided by religious beliefs, effectively throwing the separation of church and state right out of the window. He said this while speaking to the crowd about the necessity of conservative lawmakers to pressure for a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.
To sum up Huckabee’s apparent platform: The Christian conservatives’ idea of God and his wishes will decide the laws and anyone who disagrees are liberalized nazi’s. Nice.
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