You don't have to be a feminist to demand equality

[JoB]

It is so easy to miss the point in the argument over abortion.

Billboards would have you believe that this is all about killers.. killers of untold thousands of unborn babies in the most brutal way possible.

That may inflame emotions.. but it’s not the truth.

The abortion debate is about women’s right to control their own reproduction.

It’s dead simple. Women can’t be equal as long as someone else gets to decide whether or not they can terminate an unwanted pregnancy… regardless of the circumstances.

And abortions aren’t the only target. Birth control pills and IUDs terminate pregnancies too.

think for just a minute how your lives…

male and female..

the lives of families as well as those of single women..

will change if the only pregnancy prevention choices are condoms, the rhythm method or sterilization.

This isn’t about abortion…

it is about choice…

it is about family planning

the current legislation being considered in our nation’s capitol goes even further…

it would deny poor women access to preventative healthcare.

Planned Parenthood is the primary source of preventative health care for our nation’s uninsured or underinsured women… they provide pap smears and cancer screenings unavailable elsewhere.

Denying them the funding that is used to support small town clinics actually increases the public cost of their health care.

You may think calling this a war on women overstates the issue… but the health and welfare of our nation’s women .. and the children they give birth to.. depends on the availability of primary healthcare…

I am not pro-abortion.

I am pro choice..

there is a difference

Lets not lose sight of the big picture…

if the Equal Right Amendment had been ratified…

the current round of punitive legislation towards women would not even be possible…

It’s time to draw a line in the sand..

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/get-involved/online-day-of-action/online-day-of-action.html

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[JoB]

so sad this didn’t find wings.

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[anonyme]

Me, too. JoB, you make some excellent points. Expect this issue to be dragged to the forefront for it’s divisive hysteria value as the campaign year begins. Funny how we don’t really hear about it otherwise, isn’t it? This is an issue of privacy and a woman’s right – not to choose abortion, specifically – but to choose what happens to her own body. Ironically, the same political lobbies that would deny a woman the right to choose would also deny access to health care for the mother (including birth control or pre-natal), or support for the child after birth.

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[redblack]

i actually tried to craft a reply to this yesterday, but was struggling because you’ve pretty much said it all.

as a man, i do what i can – like donate to NARAL.

but more importantly, i think you should know that “i got your back.”

then again, this isn’t about me.

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[2 Much Whine]

This is a tough one JoB. I think the topic is too controversial for many people and an entry (or a series of postings) in a blog (even the best blog in the world) will not likely change an opinion one way or the other. But, just to stir the pot a bit. . . . .although I agree 100% with a woman’s right to choose, and I don’t believe men should have a say one way or the other on her ability to control her body, I would argue that equality does not enter into the equation. If a woman gets pregnant, she and she alone has the right to terminate that pregnancy. If the woman wants the child she can have it. If she doesn’t, she can terminate the pregnancy. The man has no equal say in the process. If the man doesn’t want the child and the woman does, guess what happens. There is no “equality” in that decision making process. Of course, in a perfect world, every child is wanted and the issue becomes moot but this world is far from perfect so there are men that have been paying child support for 18 years for a child they didn’t want and they had no say at all as to whether the child should or should not have been born. I realize it was usually at least 50% their fault for creating the baby in the first place but whether the baby is born or not is 0% their decision. Is that right? Is that wrong? It is what it is. Please note that no snarks were harmed in the creation of this message.

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[2 Much Whine]

I just re-read your post and I apparently missed the point. I think the reason the posting didn’t find wings is because it is hard to disagree with the notion that cutting funding to Planned Parenthood is just wrong. At least it is hard for me to disagree. Maybe some of our “red” neighbors might have different thoughts. I guess what I’m saying is that I agree with the principles of your post but just felt like being feisty with throwing out a little bunny trail of sorts.

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[Cait]

Job… we may not agree on everything but the lack of feedback on here doesn’t surprise me. You managed to say it all. NO argument here. You preach it, sista.

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[JoB]

2 Much Whine…

it is easy for me to show you in terms of what is happening today where a lack of equality hits the proverbial pavement…

even if you believe that abortion is wrong…

and you believe funding basic women’s health care through planned parenthood makes more funding available for birth control and abortions..

after all.. it is already illegal for them to use govt funds to provide abortions..and i think birth control..

it is difficult to believe that the personal conscience of a pharmacist gives them the right to deny filling a legal physician’s prescription for a patient…

and yet in many states… the law states that the rights of the pharmacist to uphold their moral convictions trump the rights of the patient to access to legally prescribed medications.

In some states the “conscience law” specifies the morning after pill… but in others it is a more general law covering birth control medications and in some it doens’t specify the medication at all.

Whose rights are more equal here?

I understand that a case could be made that this is not sexual discrimination because the pharmacist could be a woman…

but the medications denied are pretty much exclusively those whose only purpose is to prevent a viable pregnancy…

the huge irony here is that viagra.. the hours before pill… designed to enable men to maintain an erection and thus to create pregnancy… cause no moral qualms at all.

this is clearly discriminatory legislation…

which can’t be challenged on the basis of equality

because the Constitution of the United States did not make women equal citizens… in fact, it had to be amended to allow them to vote.

The assumption of equality is a beautiful thing

but it won’t stand up in a court of law :(

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[AlkiRagdoll]

This post is to the men and women that have children between the ages of 12 and 35. You need to teach your kids about what life was like for your mother and grandmothers. I meet too many young(er) people that have no idea about womens’ rights and inequality. I hear too many teens and young adults take forgranted all that my mother and grandmother fought to move toward equality. Recently, I was apalled to hear my cousins two young 20s kids call each other the N word, and the daughter say that she shouldnt earn as much as her younger brother…. I have have no children, but try to communicate these issues to others, but find it so frustrating that most are not interested — and have heard “it doesnt apply to me”.

…

If you believe in these issues, when was your last donation to Planned Parenthood, NOW, or NARL?

..

We are still so far away from true equality, as evidenced by the continued afront on banning abortion and the lack of credible women professional and political leaders. Like others, I am anti abortion (for me) — but also pro choice for everyone. You can argue all kinds of morality about abortion, but my right to choose should prevail. Choice for our reproductive rights is only one part of it. As long as the religous right feels that the abortion should be banned and worse yet, that the woman is subservient to the husband, women will never be equal. Unfortunately, we women are our own worst enemies. Think about learning to band together, teaching our children (particularly our daughters) more thoroughly about the issues, and fighting for equality – until then, it will remain outside our grasp.

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[maude]

I wanted to reply yesterday, too, but all I could have mustered was, “Yeah, what JoB said”. Lame.

How do you suppose it is that women comprise over 50% of the population but we are still not universally equal? By shear numbers we ought to be able to demand it, no?

I suppose you take away enough women with religious beliefs against abortion and that does us in. Or the women who think they’d never consider it an option so maybe you shouldn’t either.

Besides, it’s not like that’s the only function of Planned Parenthood, for crying out loud.

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[celeste17]

I signed up with planned parenthood when all this hit the news a few weeks ago. I receive updates via email and got one this morning. They have an open letter to representative Bohener for concerned citizens to sign. here is a link http://tinyurl.com/3mvn7qz

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[JoB]

since the powers that be who control our nation’s media are far more likely to publicize a handful of people who chain themselves in front of Harry Reid’s office instead of hundreds of pro-choice demonstrators…

http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/get-involved/offline-actions/lobby-day-april2011.html

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[JoB]

AlkiRagDoll…

i feel like such an old fart when i say..

“when i was a young woman”

but..

when i was a young woman

women died from illegal abortions

the children they didn’t abort languished in children’s homes

a woman needed her husband’s permission to work

or to own property

or to make decisions about her children’s welfare

yes.. we have made a lot of progress

but not so much that what a woman is wearing isn’t reported along with her sexual assault.

or that women have the same opportunities as men

or that women are paid the same as men for the same job

or ….

it’s time for women.. and the men who love women..

to just say no.

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[JoB]

and past time for me to say thank you for restoring my hope.

you can feel very lonely in the midst of silence.

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[datamuse]

And abortions aren’t the only target. Birth control pills and IUDs terminate pregnancies too.

Actually, this isn’t quite true. Both of these things work by preventing implantation, as does the morning-after pill (which is just an extra large dose of birth control, and not, as some would have you believe, RU-486, which is the abortion pill). For instance, if you get pregnant while taking the pill (which can happen, though the likelihood is small), you can continue to take the pill and it won’t terminate the pregnancy.

That said, JoB, I agree with you. The real issue here from my perspective is that the proponents of defunding Planned Parenthood are not being honest. Funding Planned Parenthood does not fund abortions. No federal funding may be used for abortions, as per the Hyde Amendment. But defunding Planned Parenthood does rob women (and men!) of needed services such as contraception, STD screening and treatment, prenatal care, cancer screening, and pregnancy tests. For some people, Planned Parenthood is the only health care they receive.

Using the budget process to legislate ideology is reprehensible when either side does it, but it frankly staggers me that the representatives of one side of the debate appear willing to deny needed health care to millions of people, much of which is preventative and therefore cheaper than the eventual outcomes if such care is not provided, in order to score points with people who believe that their taxes are funding abortions.

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[marianne]

All of What JOB said.

I must admit that I am flabbergasted to see this all-out assault on Planned Parenthood and women’s reproductive choice. If you had told me as the teenager I was in the 1970’s that Congress would be trying so vigilantly to shut down Planned Parenthood I would have thought you were crazy.

Sad testament to the state of things these days. What hole did all of these short-sighted ingnoramouses crawl out of and how did they get so far??????

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[redblack]

<rant>

here’s the thing that rubs me the wrong way:

why do evangelical/christian men vest themselves so heavily in this debate? they seem to be the [expletives] who ensure that this is a perennial issue in american politics – when it shouldn’t be a political issue at all.

</rant>

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[datamuse]

Because they haven’t gotten over the removal of obedience as a standard inclusion in the woman’s portion of the marital vows?

It’s an argument I’ve heard more than once.

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[AlkiRagdoll]

JoB – sounds like you and I are contemporaries. However, my message does not seem to have been understood. If women are not willing to band to gether (as another notes, we are a majority), if we are not teaching our children (girls particularly, but also our sons), and we are not willing to fight for what we need and want — then why should men support the cause? I dont see women as wanting to convince anyone about much, other than a few. I regularly lecture my cousin (whose kids I mention) that she has done her counterparts and other children a real dis-service. My mother (born in 1926) managed to get a college education, and worked (because she wanted to work) her entire adult life. She rose in her profession and was an incredible role model for me. I was taught I could do anyting I was willing to work for — and she was right, as I have achieved everything I pursued. She fought for equality, as have I, in an all male profession. I meet so few women who share that same energy. Until women are willing to work together, it is unlikely that we will be able to protect our reproductive rights. As I said, we are our own worst enemy.

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[JoB]

AlkiRagDoll…

a young woman i know once spent nearly an hour explaining to me why she wasn’t a feminist…

right after she finished complaining for twice that long about the good old boys network in her PhD program…

She didn’t connect the two.

Too many women live in total disconnect…

they say it’s not so bad… and fill their arguments with ambiguity

Ask a man if he thinks it’s good news that his wages have lowered to become closer to women’s wages

and you won’t find any ambiguity in his answer..

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[JoB]

datamuse…

“Both of these things work by preventing implantation”

i am afraid that too many in the right to life movement would think you are splitting hairs…

it seems the important factor here is whether the male sperm has invaded the female egg…

once that has happened..

any intervention is abortion…

if that isn’t a wake up call for women …

that the most important part of the process is a successful sperm..

the rest is little more than biological incubation…

something that not only any woman could do..

but should do…

nothing will.

i fear nothing will.

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[JoB]

i ran across an interesting site this morning

with a lot of very real data…

some things i had never thought of before

like sick days broken down by race and gender..

interesting reading

there is worker data buried in there that might surprise you..

like the stats for the percentage of workers covered by paid sick days…

Washington is high.. at 60% :(

http://www.iwpr.org/publications/recent-publications

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[JoB]

AlkiRagDoll…

this is for you.

i don’t think anything makes the point you were trying to make as well as self assessed opportunity served with an acknowledged side of sexual harassment…

kbr.. named top employer by female engineers…

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/04/kbr-named-top-employer-women

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[DP]

I watched two Congressional responses to the budget impasse on C-SPAN yesterday. The first was by Democratic women in the Senate, the second by Republican women in the House.

The Democratic women claimed that Republicans are using the Planned Parenthood (PP) funding issue as an excuse to push their radical social agenda against abortion. The Republican women claimed the issue was about balancing the budget and lowering the debt.

I agree with the Democrats on this one. Republicans who say this isn’t about abortion are either lying or kidding themselves.

On the other hand, there has been a little disingenuousness on both sides. Dems point to the Hyde Amendment and say that, by law, federal money cannot be used to pay for abortions anyway. Yet when a reporter asked the Democratic women whether the federal money given to PP was fungible (i.e., spendable on anything PP wanted to spend it on) they dodged the question.

For the sake of argument, let’s suppose that PP keeps a separate account for abortions, funds it with private donations, and never mixes any federal money in with it. For a moderate person, that would be good enough. But I can see how that would NOT be good enough for someone strongly opposed to abortion.

Consider that every federal dollar given to PP is a dollar they don’t have to get through fundraising . . . a dollar they can then divert from the general “women’s health” account into the “abortion” account.

I’m not strongly against abortion, but if I were, I wouldn’t want any of my tax money going to an abortion provider, regardless of what other services they provided.

I think the only way out of the moral crisis in the long term would be for Planned Parenthood to either spin off its birth control/abortion operation or to stop asking for federal money. But I don’t see either of those options happening. And so . . . the crisis continues.

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[JoB]

DP..

if an organization takes in say 100,00 dollars from private funds..

and 1 dollar from public funds…

and spends $2 on abortions

and the balance on family planning and women’s health..

why on earth would anyone assume that the public dollar was used to fund abortions when there are 999,999 other dollars without a single string attached?

better yet.. when that public dollar is allocated to supporting small town health clinics where no abortions are ever performed..

why would anyone assume that the public dollar was used to fund abortions?

that’s a simplification of the reality of exactly how planned parenthood works…

those federal dollars are the difference between keeping a smaller rural clinic open and closing it’s doors…

and btw.. those are the cheapest health care dollars we spend… in spite of all efforts to consume every dollar given by the federal government in the administrative costs of double track bookkeeping/reporting.

not only do we get a lot for our dollar..

every public dollar we spend has a matching funds deal from the parent organization that knocks the socks off any other public health dollar.

imagine that.. and organization that actually adds to the bottom line for public dollars… instead of taking profit…

i can see why those who worship at the shrine of corporate profit might think that’s unAmerican..

i just think it’s a great deal for the taxpayer.

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