Some more thoughts on abortion

Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum (Photo credit: Gage Skidmore)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away I wrote a blog post about abortion.  Almost every day and absolutely every week, this old post gets hits.  Not sure why but if you, dear reader, are one of the people who has read that post this week, please let me know what you thought.

The gist of it, if you don’t feel like reading it (though, you can find it here) was that access to abortion services is already severely limited in the country to the point where doing things like overturn Roe v. Wade isn’t even necessary.

The past few weeks contraception has made headlines.  This started when Rick Santorum‘s biggest funder made comments about how “in my day women put an aspirin between their knees.”  Santorum, while saying he could not be responsible for every “off color joke a supporter makes” also made comments about how contraception is basically responsible for a host of society’s ills and problems.  Truthfully, I agree that Santorum is not responsible for everything a supporter says but when their statements so clearly echo a candidate’s own words and opinions, well, that’s another story.

After that, Virginia nearly passed a law — and Governor McDonnell was very supportive of this at first — that would require women get a vaginal probe sonogram before having an abortion.  The Senate added an amendment to a transportation bill that would let employers choose what medical services their employees could get based on their sense of morality.  All of this led some to wonder: What year is it?  Are we still in 2012 or did we somehow get transported back to the 1950s?

English: Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh

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This week has been no less strange.  Rush Limbaugh went after a Georgetown law student after she testified in Congress about a friend of hers who used contraceptive medication to help her deal with ovarian cancer and it was super expensive so she needed her insurance to cover.  Rush, always eager to get his facts right (he once wanted to give out Senator Feinstein’s phone number when I worked for her and gave the wrong one, he gave a committee number insteadthis was an easy fact to get right) said the student was a slut for using so much birth control as if you take a pill every time you have sex.

What the hell is going on here?  Didn’t we decide these things years ago?  How do committees have hearings like Darrell Issa did on reproductive health without including women?  Why are we suddenly so interested in getting into women’s private lives?  What happened to Republicans who were for less government intervention in people’s business?

This is where I am going to sound crazy and I know I am so there is no need to tweet or email me about it.  I know, I have met me.

Supporters of Planned Parenthood

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Since college, when I was very active in the campus pro-choice activities, I have had an idea — almost a fantasy — that we can bring pro-choice and pro-life people together and actually prevent abortions.  I am in the make abortion “safe, legal and rare” camp.  No one I know likes abortion (I am sure some people do, there are always a few people who like something).  Pro-choice is not pro-abortion.  It is pro-let women have control over their own bodies.  At the end of the day, for instance, the people at Planned Parenthood and the people who hate Planned Parenthood actually want the same thing; to prevent abortion.  Planned Parenthood, also in the news recently when the Susan G. Komen foundation wanted to publicly distance themselves from it and then had to reverse that decision in an equally public way, does a lot more than provide abortions.  It is not the abortion factory that some think it is — abortions account for only three percent of what they do.  Read that again — three percent.

I had forgotten about my fantasy that pro-choice and pro-life people could come together until I heard Joe Scarborough — and I am convinced that when I had knee surgery years ago, the cadaver bone that was inserted into my leg had to be a Republican because that is the only way I can explain why I like him so much — said.  He said that the recent talk about contraception from Santorum et al was very scary to her and her very pro-life friends.  The GOP was taking things a few steps too far.  You can read some of this here.

This, I think, shows me that maybe it’s time for the forum I was thinking about so many years ago.  What do you think?


Things I do on purpose

speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on Februar...

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Most of my closest friends can tell you that my actions don’t always make the most sense.  Not to them or even to me.  I don’t spend as much time as I do on the treadmill for my health (really) or even to lose weight, though those are both good things.  I do it because I like to.  And once on, I cannot stop until Morning Joe is over but that is a topic for a different therapy session.

There are a few things that I love to do that I can explain, however, and they include writing and working in politics.  I connect the two because of a piece I read today about Rick Santorum‘s ad guy in the Daily Beast.  The article about John Brabender has a quote from a friend of his that says he “didn’t care if [a client] were Democrat or Republican. They could have been communists, just as long as they were able to pay the bills.”  It continues to say that Brabender is motivated more by a hatred of bad, political ads rather than a commitment to an ideology.   Both sentiments bother me but the latter got me thinking about my recent post about grammar.  I don’t write because I hate bad writing, I write because I love self expression. (And I could go on a tangent about I feel about people who define themselves by what they oppose but that is also a subject for another day.)

A few months ago, I went with a friend to see The Ides of March.  Normally, I avoid political fiction of all kinds because I like to escape my reality every now and again (it’s the reason I never liked West Wing — though I am glad I saw it because I liked it).  Once I got past my nit-pickyness about the particulars of presidential campaigns and the world of politics, I had only one real issue with the film: I felt like a prostitute when I left.  Presidential primaries are a lot like family squabbles, they may get nasty but everyone ends up on the same side at the end.  That’s always been my experience — I didn’t start the 2004 campaign working for John Kerry, for instance, but that’s where I ended up.

Campaigns are not like other employers or clients.  They consume your life for the duration.  At least that has always been my experience.  These are not 9-5, 40 hour a week jobs.  They are 24/7,” you’re on when we need you on” jobs.  I love them but the idea of working for someone that I couldn’t vote for, well it wouldn’t happen.  For the record, I know that money does motivate some people more than it does me (and that’s NOT me saying it shouldn’t).  I worked briefly at a PR firm and they wanted me to work on a project that I had serious problems with.  After a half a day of this, I ground my teeth so badly in my sleep that I broke a back molar and it had to be pulled.  I never had it replaced to remind me of how badly that job made me feel — I also quit the day after.

And I think I know what you are thinking; that I feel this way about Santorum’s “message guru” because I don’t like Santorum.  Well, I don’t like Santorum.  I think his social views are beyond extreme and his fiscal policy is absurd.  I think going to college is a good thing.  And no, I don’t think Satan is lurking behind every corner.  But I also think most people who go into politics do so because they want to make the world a better place. Read any of my pleas for civility in politics and you’ll see I make that point as often as possible.

Truthfully, reading about Brabender gives me the same feeling The Ides of March did and that’s why I don’t like him.

Molehills out of mountains and vice versa

In the middle of a campaign for the most important position in the country, we should be talking about the global economy, tensions around the world such as problems in Iran, Syria and elsewhere.  We should be talking about how to best prepare ourselves for the new economic circumstances our world now inhabits or how to overhaul our tax and entitlements systems.

But we are not.

The GOP presidential nominees aren’t talking about these things.  They are focused on contraception and questions of “good and evil.”  The Republican Party, seems intent on not returning our country to a more prosperous state but to a different era.  It has become normal for politicians on both sides to wax nostalgic about “the good old days.”  Those days seems always have been in the 1950s, when — by the way, the tax rates for the highest earners was at its highest level ever.   But the current crop of candidates don’t think going back to even the 50s is enough.

I get why the Republicans feel the need to return to social and religious issues, their base loves it.  Think about what they want to talk about: contraception, religious wars, gay marriage.  Really?

Newsflash:  It’s 2012, Women can vote and most use contraception.  Gay marriage will be legal everywhere in the United States during my lifetime.  Nothing you do will change either of those facts.  Just to be as clear on this as possible — you are on the wrong side of history on these issues but that isn’t the real problem.  History doesn’t care.  The problem is by wasting everyone’s time on issues that won’t be changed at this level, we fail to talk about the policies that will.  You cheapen the process.

All of this is great for the Democrats.  And I want President Obama to win.  But as good as this is for his reelection prospects, it is bad for the country.  Presidential campaigns provide an opportunity to really examine and evaluate the state of the country and the best ways to deal with the challenges we face.  These should be lofty conversations and debates not petty bickering about social issues that were settled years ago (not to harp, but nothing Rick Santorum can do will turn that clock back).

When President Obama took office, I characterized the situation he faced as his “Himalayan problem.” All problems were so large individually but it was hard to gage their enormity when clumped together.  I misspoke, this was not his Himalayan problem, it was ours.  By choosing to focus on issues that excite  one base or another at the expense of those that impact all of us, the GOP is making molehills out of our Everest sized problems and that’s unfortunate.

Who knew Sarah Palin was such a Democrat?

You have to love Sarah Palin.  You have to love Todd Palin.  You just have to love anyone with a last name of Palin.  I know I do.  I love them a lot.

Is it her ability to distill an issue to an unrecognizable soundbite that makes no sense?  Well, as much as I love that, no.  Is it her ability to grab media attention that makes her look ridiculous?  Again yes but no.  Is it the fascination the GOP has with her and her lack of knowledge about politics or world events?  No.

I love that the Palins have endorsed Newt Gingrich because he is doing more for President Obama than David Axelrod.  And while I am at it thank you rich casino guy for funding Newt and keeping him in the race.

Look, I have said this before and I guess I am about to say it again, the GOP missed the boat when they didn’t give Jon Huntsman a real chance.  Being sane does not equal being a moderate or liberal.  And I never did thank Governor Huntsman for his comment that gay marriage “doesn’t threaten” his marriage.  Good for you, I have never understood how one marriage threatens another but what do I know?  I am a liberal Democrat who grew up in New York and San Francisco.  Oh, and I like brie and chardonnay, I am a walking stereotype.

Back to the Palins.  They have both endorsed Newt, not sure why Todd thought his endorsement matters.  Then again I am not sure why CNN felt the need to send out a news alert about Donald Trumo endorsing Romney.

The bottom line is that the GOP is giving people with no real standing so much attention and it’s a good thing for the Democrats.

I’m melting, melting! Oh, what a world! What a world!

Where to start this week?

Maybe I can start with the most disturbing story since Jerry Sandusky.  WTF?  Can we all agree that no one should abuse children?  What thought process leads someone to think taking pictures of children with blindfolds, tape and/or mouths full of semen, which they thought was “magic candy” is appropriate?  Apparently LA educator Mark Berdt thought that was just fine.  I saw an official from the area say this on CNN, “They just thought they were being blindfolded and gagged as a game.”  There is so much wrong with that statement that I am not sure where to begin.  So, I’ll end my anti-child abuse rant there.

How about Mitt Romney’s compassionate nature? Recently he told a reporter, “I don’t care about the poor, there’s a safety net for that. If it’s broken, I’ll fix it.”  I am sure the nation’s poor — and some estimates have that number as being as high as 42 million Americans — will be greatly relieved to hear that.

Why do we still care what Donald Trump thinks about anything?  Rumor has it, he will endorse Newt Gingrich.  Why do we care?  Oh, right, we’re stupid.

(FYI, if you are not familiar with that quote it from The Wizard of Oz, a movie about which I have written before.  Side note: has anyone heard the story of the suicide on the set that is supposed to be in the film?  Used to scare the crap out of me.  And I was in college when said scaring took place.  Of course I am afraid of velociraptors, so clearly something is not right with me.)