What are you doing here?

GO VOTE!

Photo Source: Empowering Girls: So Sioux Me

Post from: Blisstree

What Are You Doing Here?

Conservative single-issue Pro-Lifers waste their Presidential vote on an ineffectual abortion strategy. Not because they are necessarily wrong in their moral beliefs, but because the strategy is completely ineffective for preventing abortion.

These one-issue voters make their vote for President all about how he feels about the issue of abortion. This is completely ineffectual, and therefore quite frustrating, because the President of the United States is actually the LEAST powerful person to address the issue.

A vote for George W. Bush, for instance, equated to the prevention of not one single abortion.

A vote for George H. W. Bush equated to the prevention of not one single abortion.

A vote for Ronald Reagan equated to the prevention of not one single abortion.

A vote for John McCain would equate (whether he wins or loses) to the prevention of not one single abortion.

Why? Because Presidents have only the power to appoint a Supreme Court Justice. That is their single power on the abortion issue. They don’t get to do it at all unless one of the justices dies or resigns. Its been 35 years and conservative pro-lifers have yet to prevent a single abortion with this strategy.

There are EFFECTIVE strategies to preventing abortion.

Giving women access to healthcare in the way of Free Family Planning Clinics, has prevented 20 million unplanned pregnancies. That’s an estimated 9 million abortions prevented in the last 20 years.

Imagine how many more abortions would be prevented if every woman had equal access to her personal Ob/GYN and had the dignity of exercising responsibility and power over her own reproductive health?

We’re talking millions of abortions prevented in a compassionate and dignified way.

Pro-adoption marketing campaigns are also a very compassionate way to prevent abortion. The more we glamorize the gift of adoption, the more women will choose to carry the child to term.

Boundaries are effective. All or nothing thinking about abortion brings it to an ineffective stand-off.

It’s been 35 years, surely I can’t be the only one tired of the stand-off?

Some pro-lifers are given to extremes on the abortion issue. I totally get that you love all life, but it would be more effective to legislate certain types of abortions that you find most offensive.

For instance, I hear a lot about “partial birth abortion” as a reason for voting for John McCain. Do you realize John McCain is the least powerful person in government to do anything about partial birth abortion? Your STATE Senator and your STATE Congressperson have ALL the power to decide whether to make a law allowing or banning partial birth abortion. It’s ineffective to vote for a presidential candidate based on this issue.

Be Effective. Write state senators and state representatives a letter and get them to pass a law against partial birth abortion. Or run for office and write a bill against partial birth abortions yourself.

The fact is that the MAJORITY of people who call themselves pro-choice believe in abortion boundaries.

The Supreme Court ruled that states can’t prevent all abortion when the fetus is not viable. That word viable leaves a lot of room for legislative action in STATE Government.

Every year, and with every new scientific discovery, babies become viable earlier and earlier.

When Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, babies weren’t viable at 25 weeks. Now babies have a decent chance a living at 25 weeks, for instance. That leaves room for a lot of state legislation with every passing year and every scientific miracle of viable.

Pro-Lifers would serve their own agenda better byfocusing on the boundaries that Pro-Choicers and the Pro-Life/Pro-Choice Majority also find agreeable.

Pro-Lifers would also serve their own agenda better by not aligning with anti-contraception crazies. If you are personally against using birth control – whatever, I believe in your right to have 14 children if you want.

But, don’t. make. me. Do you realize that 16 states entertained “pro-life” bills to prevent women access to birth control last year? Pro-lifers don’t winning any sympathy from the average family by being all wacko about contraception.

Lastly, don’t discount what Roe v. Wade did for women’s physical autonomy. It was instrumental in making it illegal for your husband to rape you, which was still legal until 1979. Prior to Roe v. Wade – women had virtually no rights over their own bodies. Roe v. Wade, if nothing else, made every woman’s physical body protected as her own under the Constitution of the United States.

I don’t know a single woman – conservative or liberal, pro-life or pro-choice – who would reverse that. If we – pro-life and pro-choice alike – acknowledge how much every woman demands we must keep autonomy over our own bodies, we can make serious headway in making reasonable laws that serve as boundaries for abortion, without taking women’s autonomy back 35 years.

Birth control effectiveness has come a long way in 35 years as well. Back when Roe v. Wade was passed the pill was only around 75% effective. Our prevention methods have become extremely reliable with lots of choices and alternatives.

Abortion is at an all time low this year. We’ve never had better numbers.

With Universal Healthcare for every woman on the table we have a real chance – a wonderful opportunity – to give every woman access to her own doctor and access to contraception and that’s going to prevent more abortions than all the Supreme Court appointments John McCain could make.

Image source: Masakhanecenter.org

Post from: Blisstree

Pro-Lifers’ Self-Defeating Abortion Strategy

Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, isn’t waiting for Election ‘08 to get the Healthy Americans Act passed.

* Every American will have it

* Comprehensive – comparable to Congress.

* Portable – take it when you leave your job.

* Non-discriminatory – ban on “pre-existing conditions” and everyone gets a fair price.

* Affordable – under $40,000 income? Pay less than now. Under $150,000 pay $1 a day more for guaranteed coverage.

The act, his site says also saves $1.48 trillion through wellness and prevention.

And he says he can make it reality in only one year.

Here’s the real cost:

Families between $40,000 and $50,000 would pay about $81/year more – about $7 a month. Families between $50,000 and $150,000 would average between $327 and $341 per year more – about $28 a month.

In return for this modest increase these families would have guaranteed coverage that they could never lose, not if they get sick, not if they lose their jobs, not for any reason.

We’d be crazy not to take that deal. Why wait for elections? I want to see Senator Wyden deliver on this right now. Read the details by clicking this link.

Universal healthcare is a key component of gender equity.

Email your own representatives by visiting Congress.org and entering your zip code.

Post from: Blisstree

Healthy Americans Act

Blogher is inviting women bloggers to take part in an intitiative called Bloghers Act. I’ve responded to their request for nominations of a cause. I have asked Blogher to make healthcare in

America their pet issue for this year and posted my request at So Sioux Me . I also list 3 tangible and easy ways bloggers can influence the change. Earlier in the week I asked the question What Would Jesus Do? .

Pass it on.

Post from: Blisstree

Bloghers Act Cause