Sometimes, I Wish the Tent Was a Little Smaller

>> Tuesday, November 03, 2009

You probably won't be surprised that some members of Congress are trying to use the necessity of health reform to not only continue to exclude abortion from the funding given to most ordinary medical procedures, but to prevent individuals from getting insurance that covers abortion on the private market if they're eligible for subsidies. What may surprise you is what party the members of Congress the latest group trying to do what they can to limit reproductive freedom to affluent women belongs to:


While House leaders are moving toward a vote on health-care legislation by the end of the week, enough Democrats are threatening to oppose the measure over the issue of abortion to create a question about its passage.

[...]



"I will continue whipping my colleagues to oppose bringing the bill to the floor for a vote until a clean vote against public funding for abortion is allowed," Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said Monday in a statement. He said last week that 40 Democrats could vote with him to oppose the legislation -- enough to derail the bill.

There's a bizarrely widespread myth -- often accompanied, to this day, by crying about the fact that Saint Bob Casey wasn't able to use a platform at a Democratic convention to speak out against fundamental party values despite the fact that he didn't endorse the party's candidate -- that the Democratic party is monolithically pro-choice and brooks no dissent on the issue of abortion. To which I can only respond: if only! For example, Bart Stupak -- the ringleader of the faction that apparently would prefer no health care reform at all to women obtaining even private insurance that covers the procedure -- sports a nifty 0% NARAL rating.

And while I wish I could say that this downgrading of women's rights by some Congressional Dems was just an isolated instance, as Chart reminds us that's not actually the case.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

About This Blog

  © Blogger template Simple n' Sweet by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP