We Have Choice
Posted: February 8, 2012 Filed under: just because | Tags: contraception, Human Rights, pro choice, religion, women's reproductive rights 36 CommentsWe’ve watched the Republicans flail in all directions, trying to find a message, a mission, an issue to drive them to victory in November. It’s
been tough going for the GOP with less than stellar candidates and the endless circus ride the public has witnessed. Now down to four ‘iffy’ wannabes, attention has focused on flaws, egos, missteps and gaffes. Uncle Newt appeals to the confederate South. Ron Paul is loved by the Ayn Rand aficionados. Reptilian Rick Santorum cheers and warms the cockles of the Religious Right. And Mitt Romney. Poor Mitt is loved by virtually no one.
So, I can only imagine the excitement with the new-but-old controversy boiling over birth control and reproductive freedom. The right to choose. It sticks in the craw of the Republican Party, even as the loudest voices scream about liberty and individual rights. This isn’t a question of abortion at this juncture. We’re talking about the basics: contraception, the freedom to choose how many children we have and when we have them. And privacy. A woman’s right to decide these things herself in the privacy of her own space, heart and mind, with or without a husband, with or without government or religious leaders telling her, demanding she turn one way or the other.
To listen to the likes of Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and the faux religious warriors, one might think that all religion, but particularly Christianity, has been put on the rack, whipped into humiliating submission or fed to the lions for the vile amusement of secular humanists.
Enough with the lying! Enough with the bully pulpit exhortations with the emphasis on ‘bully.’
Demanding equal access to healthcare, expecting reproductive freedom and sexual/gender equality is not a Satanic plot. It’s what reasonable 
people do and think. We are not living in the Middle Ages [though I suspect many fundamentalists think of the era as ‘the good ole days]. If anyone doubts the politicization of women’s healthcare issues, please review the past week’s headlines, the unseemly expose of the Komen Foundation, more concerned about dissing Planned Parenthood than serving lower-income women with breast screenings. Or the manufactured outrage of the Catholic Church hierarchy and their mouthpieces, who [sputter, sputter] decry the Administration’s insistence on equitable healthcare service as a vicious attack on religious freedom.
Really? Twenty-eight states require organizations offering prescription insurance to cover contraception. Ninety-eight percent of Catholic women use birth control and many Catholic institutions offer the benefit to their employees.
Let’s review some recent statistics:
Two-thirds of Catholics, 65 percent, believe that clinics and hospitals that take taxpayer money should not be allowed to refuse procedures or medications based on religious beliefs. A similar number, 63 percent, also believe that health insurance, whether private or government-run, should cover contraception.
A strong majority (78 percent) of Catholic women prefer that their hospital offers emergency contraception for rape victims, while more than half (55 percent) want their hospital to provide it in broader circumstances.
Yet despite these numbers, the Church, the Religious Right and the heat-seeking Republican establishment are foaming at the mouth, waving mummified fists in righteous indignation.
Make no mistake. This is an old war. I wrote about the struggles and absolute determination of Margaret Sanger a few days ago. She fought these battles. The arguments were identical; the accusations the same. She fought the religious establishment, she fought the righteous, small-minded moralists 100 years ago. If anything this should be a wakeup call: the defense of reproductive rights, which are basic human rights, need to be taken seriously, day-in, day-out. Freedoms gained can quickly become freedoms lost. Gender equality, which is a matter of civil rights, should be supported with voices and votes pitched against the ugliness of bigotry and discrimination.
This is a power play wrapped in thin prayer and religious dogma. It’s a desperate attempt by traditional religion to regain ground lost to modernity, a world where the old stories and myths have lost their power, their ability to control by fear, a world in which human dignity applies to all our members, a world where the mysteries of the Universe and our place in it is far grander than our words and imaginations can conjure.
We have choice. We always have. It’s time to put away childish things and become accountable, rational adults if we’re ever to deal with the problems facing us. We can fearfully grasp the old ways, allow ourselves to be drawn into self-limiting dictums. We can argue how many angels dance on the head of a pin with religious fanatics and the politicians who love them.
Or we can say, ‘No!’ We have that choice.
peej
Carissa
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
be prepared to be shocked and to want to send Santorum to the Taliban so they can all have a kumbayah moment in their shared iron age frame of mind
And if the GOP runs with this? Say goodbye to the Republican Party [don’t let the door hit you on the way out]. Rick Santorum and Ron Paul and all these pols and their followers belong to Age that has come and gone.
They just don’t know it yet.
One of the items there is that he’s “not afraid” to question the theory of evolution. That’s like bragging you don’t believe in gravity. Some of these guys must really be afraid of losing their power to actively embrace such idiocy.
Do ya’ll remember Susan Faludi’s book, Backlash? Well, this is Backlash on steroids. These guys see The Male Privilege crumbling. Their world is cracking apart and they are doing whatever it takes to hang onto the power that is their birthright. Gotta get them damn Uppity Women folk back in their place.
When people like Santorum keep failing up, I don’t know what that says about gravity. 😉
The turn out on those states has been so low that it’s likely the only ones that showed up were die hard fanatics.
Romney, Gingrich & Santorum share billing at CPAC with white nationalist hate group leader
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/39894_CPAC_Panel_Will_Feature_White_Nationalist_Leader_Brimelow
CPAC is vile enough but with the extra racists they just went completely round the bend,
They let the birchers in last year.
I think the Birchers actually were one of the sponsors last year.
Congress’ Job Approval at New Low of 10%
Even at the new record low, they’re still over rated. Polls like this one gives me hope that the general populous isn’t falling for their BS.
“Even at the new record low, they’re still over rated.”
Lol
Why White House sees political opportunity in the contraception battle
There may not be some grand compromise after all.
Well, if his campaign advisers have FAITH in polls, women may not be screwed after all. And, if they are, they’ll have protection.
Pro-Choice GOP Warns Party That Contraception Fight Will Be A Disaster
Emily’s List has a petition here: http://emilyslist.org/action/add_your_voice_protect_birth_control_for_millions_of_women/
Done. But no donation.
Signed it! Thanks for the link, Connie.
Where are the “new” Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug’s when we need them NOW?
Can you imagine their voices lifted against this trash today?
The Mrs 0bowma basically didn’t have a clue about how it used to be before the feminists started working toward waking up the earlier generation of women.
Mrs 0bowma should be in the lead — frankly I don’t know where she is except for aiming her hatred at Hillary Clinton.
Betty Ford was one of the heroes of the — if Mrs 0 hated Hillary Clinton so much that her whole aim is to be the anti Clinton — then why didn’t she follow the role model of Betty Ford?
Mrs. 0 could have been a Betty Friedan or Bella Abzug — what a damn waste Mrs. 0 education has been.
“Where are the “new” Betty Friedan and Bella Abzug’s when we need them NOW?”
Sadly…probably busy playing “Words with Friends”
(guilty myself…I just played my first actual game yesterday, and that thing is addictive!)
😉 … or is that
Margaret and Helen
This is one great blog. I love it when 80+ women use terms like asshat! 🙂
Thanks ralph. Going to add it to my blog roll.
Helen reminds me of my mother and grandmother. I read what she writes and can just see them saying it.
Hahaha! I must have been channeling these two, ralph. Thanks for the link. Although I think the outrage a lot of women are feeling right now is very similar. Maybe we’re all tapping into some female consciousness.
I enjoyed the rant. And she’s right about those damn razors!
Three wise men with extra cheese please
Reading Margaret’s post made me think that wouldn’t it be nice if we had a personhood amendment that would grant personhood to living, breathing women? These right wing crackpots want to declare a fertilized egg (even though the moment fertilization occurs can’t be determined) a person but won’t bestoy these same rights on the woman incubating this so-called person. Stand up for the Personhood of Women! Otherwise fellas, go f**k a test tube.
ralphb: I’m sure that you and I were “separated at birth” since we seem to share the same taste for these writers.
I too am a follower of Margaret and Helen and along with Charles Pierce this validates it!
Absolutely sister! When I read your comments at JWS, I love ’em and can’t wait to see the responses. Keep giving them trouble, they deserve it.
Apparently abortion rights are not just under attack in the US, but in “godless” Russia as well. http://www.npr.org/2012/02/08/146581790/in-russia-punk-rock-riot-girls-rage-against-putin
This protest was primarily anti-Putin.
Louie Gohmert: Best caribou wingman ever
Dude makes Rick Perry look almost smart and that ain’t an easy job.
JC Penneys is due thanks for standing up for their decision and for Ellen.
Washington state’s Legislature approved a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.
The State House of Representatives voted 55-43 to back the bill, which already passed in the state Senate. Gov. Christine Gregoire, a Democrat, has pledged to sign the bill.
That’s very good news. Anything done which can lessen bigotry in this country, I’m 100% in favor it.
Well, so we have a new tactic to attack the girls – if we can’t block abortions, lets make sure they can’t get support to avoid pregnancy. Boy, these right wingers are really focused or is that f__kused?
I am jsut so sick of their line of thought and the war they are waging against women 😡
Why Wall Street Should Stop Whining
Matt Taibbi, fuck yeah!