[Dialogue] Emailing: Stealth Assault on Reproductive Rights - CommonDreams.org.htm

Tue Aug 5 21:06:59 EDT 2008

 <http://www.commondreams.org/> Common Dreams NewsCenter

<http://www.democracyinaction.com/dia/organizations/CD/signUp.jsp?key=1439>
Get Email

Home <http://www.commondreams.org/>  | Newswire
<http://www.commondreams.org/newswire.htm>  | Contacting Us
<http://www.commondreams.org/contactingus.htm>  | About Us
<http://www.commondreams.org/about.htm>  | Donate
<https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1493/t/105/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_K
EY=1869>  | Sign-Up
<http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1493/t/24/signUp.jsp?key=1439>  |
Archives <http://www.commondreams.org/archives.htm> 

 Discuss this story <http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-
content/themes/common-dreams/images/icon_comment.gif>  Discuss this story
<>   Print This Post <http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-
content/plugins/print/images/print.gif>  Print This Post
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/05/10824/print/>   <http://www.
referralblast.com/cs/com/co1.asp>
<http://www.referralblast.com/cs/com/co1.asp> E-Mail This Article 

Published on Tuesday, August 5, 2008 by The Nation
<http://www.thenation.com/blogs/anotherthing/341985/stealth_assault_on_repro
ductive_rights>  

Stealth Assault on Reproductive Rights

by Katha Pollitt

When pro-choicers accuse anti-choicers of being anti-contraception they’re
often taken as crying wolf - even though no anti-choice organization
explicitly endorses birth control and despite the prominent anti-choice
role of the Catholic Church, which explicitly bans contraception. After
all, goes the complacent point of view, most women, and most couples, use
some form of birth control. Opposition to it seems like something out of
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, a novel whose futuristic vision of
women’s subjection to rightwing Christian patriarchs no less a shrewd
social critic than Mary McCarthy found preposterous when she reviewed it in
the New York Times Book Review in 1986.

The Bush Administration seems bent on giving Atwood material for a sequel.
Last month, Health and Human Services issued a draft
<http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/emailphotos/pdf/HHS-45-CFR.pdf%20> of new
regulations which would require health-care providers who receive federal
funds to accept as employees nurses and other workers who object to
abortion and even to most kinds of birth control. This rule would cover
some 500,000 hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities- including
family planning clinics, which would, absurdly, legally be bound to hire
people who will obstruct their very mission. To refuse to hire them, or to
fire them, would be to lose funds for discriminating against people who
object to abortion for religious or -get this - moral beliefs.

This represents quite an expansion of health workers’ longstanding right
not to be involved in abortion. And, incidentally, this respect for moral
beliefs only goes one way. A Catholic hospital has no corresponding
obigation to hire pro-choice workers or accomodate their moral beliefs by
permitting them to offer emergency contraception to rape victims or hand
out condoms to the HIV positive; a “crisis pregnancy center” would not
have to hire pro-choice counsellors who would tell women that abortion
would not really give them breast cancer or leave them sterile. Only anti-
choicers, apparently, have moral beliefs that entitle them to jobs they
refuse to actually perform.

There are several disturbing elements to this story. One is that even as it
fades into history, the Bush Administration is catering to the anti-choice
movement’s larger agenda of making contraception harder to obtain. What
Bush can’t give them legislatively, he’ll provide administratively, in
bits and pieces, under cover of granting workers rights of conscience (the
only workers’ rights he seems to care about). Remember when it seemed just
plain bizarre that a pharmacist could refuse to fill a woman’s
prescription for emergency contraception or even the Pill? Now pharmacists
have that explicit right in four states, and possibly in five more.

Bureaucratic rules and regulations may seem arcane- how many nurses who
think the Pill “kills babies” want to work in family-planning clinics?
Actually, they have far-reaching effects. For example, the HHS regulations
could invalidate state laws requiring hospitals to offer emergency
contraception to rape victims. Moreover, the importance of regulations goes
way beyond the actual number of people they affect directly. They shape
both how we think of rights and how we decide what normal behavior is. As
it becomes more accepted for health care workers to inflict their moral
judgments on patients, and customers, the burden shifts onto women seeking
care. Instead of asking “what gives the pharmacist the right to refuse to
fill her prescription?” and “Why should a birth-control clinic be forced
to employ a nurse who won’t give out the Pill?” the question becomes
“why can’t she go to another drugstore or come back to the clinic another
day”?

As the blogger Amanda Marcotte argues
<http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/07/28/the-pill-lifestyle-drug-or-
medical-necessity> , antichoicers know they can’t ban contraception, but
they can redefine it as a lifestyle drug, a luxury, rather than a medical
necessity that gets a lot of credit for modern women’s good health and
longevity. Amazingly, Bill O”Reilly is not the only person who thinks
health insurance plans should pay for Viagra but not for the Pill. If you
can’t afford birth control, just don’t have sex, you hussy! The next
Administration may not find it so easy to turn this mindset around, and if
McCain wins, I doubt it will even try. McCain himself, as I’ve noted
before, has a longstanding record of votes against abortion and birth
control - 125 out of 130 votes in Congress and Senate. The man has a O%
rating from NARAL. That he is widely regarded as a “moderate” on
reproductive rights is truly incredible.

Another dangerous feature of the proposed rules is that they redefine
contraception as abortion. Standard medical authorities define abortion as
something that takes place after you become pregnant, that is, after a
fertilized egg implants in your womb and sets off a cascade of physical
changes in your body. The HHS draft changes all that. It defines abortion
as “any procedures, including prescription drugs, that result in the
termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and
natural birth, whether before or after implantation.’” According to these
rules, you can have an “abortion” without even being pregnant. (The
Pill,emergency contraception, and the IUD mostly work by preventing
ovulation and fertilization, but anti-choice advocates argue that they
prevent implantation, and it is not yet possible to say with 100 percent
certainty that this never, ever happens.) These are the knots we get tied
up in when religious ideology replaces sound science.

Don’t let the Bush administration take away women’s right to get legal
reproductive health care in a timely and respectful fashion. Support
Hillary Clinton and Patty Murray, who are leading the fight in the Senate
by emailing your senators here
<https://secure.prochoiceamerica.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserActi
on&id=3263> . Better yet, send them a real letter, on paper. As for
Congress, So far only 104 Representatives -fewer than one in four -have
signed a letter protesting the changes. Call or write yours and demand that
they join you in the 21st century.

UPDATE: More info, including lists of Senators and Representatives who’ve
signed on to letters opposing the new regulations here
<http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2008/07/31/fight-bushs-proposed-
antibirth-control-regulations> .

Pollitt’s writing has appeared in many publications, including The New
Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, Ms. and the New York Times. her most recent
collection of Nation columns is “Virginity or Death!
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/081297638X?tag=commondreams-
20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=081297638X&adid=1RBRGAPVWDBJ8
FSMFSEY&> .” Her volume of personal essays, Learning to Drive and Other
Life Stories <http://www.amazon.com/dp/1400063329?tag=commondreams-
20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1400063329&adid=06QRK2R1N32S5
PXVSGYB&> , has just come out from Random House. For more, visit her web
site at www.kathapollitt.com.

Copyright ⓒ 2008 The Nation

These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and
discover new web pages. 

*	
<http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Farch
ive%2F2008%2F08%2F05%2F10824%2F&title=Stealth+Assault+on+Reproductive+Rights
> Digg 

*	
<http://del.icio.us/post?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Farchive%2F2
008%2F08%2F05%2F10824%2F&title=Stealth+Assault+on+Reproductive+Rights>
del.icio.us 

*	
<http://www.newsvine.com/_tools/seed&save?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.or
g%2Farchive%2F2008%2F08%2F05%2F10824%2F&h=Stealth+Assault+on+Reproductive+Ri
ghts> NewsVine 

*	
<http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Farchive%
2F2008%2F08%2F05%2F10824%2F> StumbleUpon 

*	
<http://myweb2.search.yahoo.com/myresults/bookmarklet?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.com
mondreams.org%2Farchive%2F2008%2F08%2F05%2F10824%2F&=Stealth+Assault+on+Repr
oductive+Rights> YahooMyWeb 

*	
<http://technorati.com/faves?add=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Farchive
%2F2008%2F08%2F05%2F10824%2F> Technorati 

 Discuss this story <http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-
content/themes/common-dreams/images/icon_comment.gif>  Discuss this story
<>   Print This Post <http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-
content/plugins/print/images/print.gif>  Print This Post
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/05/10824/print/>   <http://www.
referralblast.com/cs/com/co1.asp>
<http://www.referralblast.com/cs/com/co1.asp> E-Mail This Article 

28 Comments so far 

1.	

	overkill August 5th, 2008 2:10 pm 

	As I recall the Catholic Church said nothing abour birth control
until it was out bred in Italy by the Protestants. It was a political ploy
to breed more Catholic voter from poor Catholic cows.
This whole “Christian” thing has gotten so out of control that I think we
must save ourselves by banning the practice of Christianity.

2.	

	Siouxrose August 5th, 2008 2:50 pm 

	For any males reading CD, if you think we women are using hyperbole
to describe the sexism in American society, HERE (this article) is proof
that those that would control us are alive, powerful, highly deluded and f-
king dangerous!

	Mars rules is also about men having power OVER women. I believe the
hatred that fuels war began with what I term the “great wound.” To me
it’s the Biblical nonsense about original sin, a pseudo spiritual means to
create a rift between men and women.

	The supreme triumph of Mars (which took place when Pluto, what
astrologers refer to as its upper octave, had just been discovered) has
been the atom bomb… and when it was loosed over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
August of l945 it became a satanic challenge to the God of Creation.
Consider the adage, “Let no man tear asunder what God hath joined
together.” I see a poetic analogy between Adam and a-tom, and the split of
MATTER has also exacerbated all that divides the tribes of mankind. In
addition, the violence against women has been rampant… from rape as an
“act” of war, to the covert misogyny of fundamentalist Christianity and
its Catholic cousin, to the Arab degradation of the female in “honor
crimes,” to the brutal use of clitorectomy to control women’s sexual
pleasure, to the dowry murders in India, to the statistic that about 50% of
women worldwide would KNOW violence at the hands of a male during their
lifetime. Look to the US military, the ultimate Mars club, and note the
levels of domestic abuse there, and of late, via its dark brother
Blackwater, the charges of rape by women who for their own bizarre reasons
identify with Mars and seek military careers to “be all that they can
be.” Not.

	When men patronize ME in this forum, suggesting that I am creating
antipathy, it’s just a polite way of silencing something that is very
pervasive and very painful to any thinking, feeling woman. Until the very
NOTION of Deity is seen as a hybrid of Divine masculine AND Divine feminine
attributes, the subliminal is that men are closer to god, and therefore
have some kind of divine authority to do as they please. It’s not been
long ago that women were seen as property, and global sex trafficking/slave
trade (as a recent CD article tragically explained) is still ongoing.

	In this 21st century it is SO important that we all learn to relate
to the “Namaste” concept, which means “I behold the God/Goddess essence
in YOU.” There is no other way that life can be seen as precious, and
given the money and resources devoted to war & the means to kill, with
repurcussions killing nature everywhere, consciousness must alter. It
begins with how we behold LIFE, not that men should be given the power to
control women or the birth canal, but that men support, honor and show
respect for women and their choices. (When couples are involved in loving
bonds, obviously the choice of birthing a child or otherwise falls to both.)

3.	

	alaskamaid August 5th, 2008 2:53 pm 

	This article is wrong about the IUD - it mainly prevents
implantation, it does NOT prevent ovulation and the only way it can prevent
fertilization is by creating a low-grade ‘infectious state’ in the
reproductive tract. I found that out the hard way many years ago while
using an IUD and took antibiotics for a bladder infection; no one told me
to beware that one of the ’side effects’ of taking antibiotics might be
pregnancy !

	IUD’s are stupid and and dangerous devices best left on the
doctor’s supply shelf. 

	We take the Pill for granted and that’s okay but it never felt
right for me. Women have been taught to think very dismissively about
barrier methods, mainly because there’s no money in them. I have been
using a Dumas cap (from England, like a diaphragm only a much better fit)
for many years now, with fresh aloe gel rather than toxic commercial
spermicides. One hundred percent success rate ever since our son was born
almost 21 years ago. Naturally, you do have to use it, but it’s no big
deal, no bigger at any rate than expecting men to use condoms. Cost : a one-
time fitting and nominal cost for cap, plus the occasional cost of buying a
fresh aloe plant (always hold for several months before using in case the
plant was treated with toxic pesticides etc. before you bought it). The
real irony is that this simple, safe, money-saving method could be used in
any country and in any time period, including long before our own time. 

	Why continue to feed into the pharmaceutical companies’ greed
while hormonizing our bodies in unnatural ways when it’s so easy to make
an end run around the whole issue ? 

	Which is not to say that Plan B emergency contraception should not
be widely and readily available at nominal cost, because it should be, but
potential users should be strongly advised that it is for Emergencies Only.
This would be readily understood if we were more in tune with our own
bodies, but naturally that too is not a desirable attribute as far as our
controllers are concerned . . .

4.	

	Amused August 5th, 2008 2:57 pm 

	Abortion without being pregnant… One can imagine the inquisition
being not far behind…

5.	

	Rockerbabe1 August 5th, 2008 3:12 pm 

	Siouxrose: you go girl! You are hot today. . .good going; couldn’t
have said it better myself!

	alaskamaid: One of ther reasons we don’t have some of the BC
methods employed in Europe and Asia, is the political climate and the FDA. 

	IMPEACH DUBYA AND DICKIE NOW!

6.	

	Veracity ♥ Presence
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/05/10132/?jal_edit_comments#com
ment-317806>  August 5th, 2008 3:28 pm 

	S I O U X R O S E,

	You definitely do GO GIRL.

	What I might add, is that VIOLENCE TOWARD WOMAN is

	prototypical of ALL VIOLENCE, in that 

	it is the intrinsic permission to violate EVERYBODY

	______ w i t h _ o u t __ P O W E R ______ , 

	especially to those under-represented, disenfranchised, ethnically
diverse, and for ALL of poor of this world.

	We
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/05/10132/?jal_edit_comments#com
ment-317806> completely agree about NAMASTE, as that perspective is the
great leveler of ALL hypocrisies.

	Namaste ≪ Presence ≫
≪ We must be the change we wish to see in the world ≫ - Gandhi
≪ There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s
greed ≫ - Gandhi
≪ We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at
peace with itself ≫ - ML King

7.	

	TheLorax August 5th, 2008 4:15 pm 

	There is so much religious hypocrisy. Catholics will preach up a
storm about how “life begins at conception” blah blah blah.
Then they have a miscarriage at 3 months. Do they have a funeral? No way.
Hypocrisy.

	This is not really about “life” it’s about control. Women have
always been under attack worldwide. Women couldn’t even vote in this
country until after World War I. All world religions restrict and diminish
women’s importance. That’s why it always makes me laugh when I see a pro-
life sticker on a woman’s car. It’s no different than a “bring back Jim
Crow!” sticker on a black man’s car. It’s moronic.

8.	

	Kernel August 5th, 2008 4:34 pm 

	These new proposed rules for women to put up with are no surprise,
as we all know GWB was for abstinence ever since he was a cheerleader in
college, so he never even had to consider birth control.

9.	

	Nietzsche August 5th, 2008 5:06 pm 

	I read “The Handmaids’ Tale”. Fiction, but not different in
philosophy from present reality.

	I agree that this is not about morality but about control.
Everything in this subversive plot against the government called the Bush
Administration is about control: deliberate creation of extreme poverty;
more and bigger prisons; more harsh, punitive, and restrictive laws being
proposed every day.

	Congress is composed of a sick bunch of bastards. They haven’t
done a damn thing all session, so now they hope to woo the voters with the
old “tough on crime” message.

	What about crime in government and corporations? 

	I can’t believe people who are poor themselves still swallow the
lie that all our problems are a result of government give away programs to
welfare queens, pampered prisoners, and people too lazy to look for work.

	Poverty doesn’t cause crime they argue; crime is a consequence of
moral decay.

10.	

	Siouxrose August 5th, 2008 5:25 pm 

	ROCKER BABE & NAMASTE: Thanks for noticing (LOL). There are 2
reasons, first, it’s my birthday this week and I can feel the renewal
energies headed my way. And second, my grandson (who I now watch most days)
is away with his parents (so I have time to relate in this forum).

	NAMASTE: Excellent point about the powerless being “treated” to
violence. 

	NIETSCHZE: One reason that many workers see the welfare persons as
freeloaders is that they compare their lost time to jobs of quiet
desperation against those they IMAGINE to be living freedom, the good life.
These same persons have been long habituated to see war/warriors as their
protectors, deserving of their respect and high esteem, so they do NOT
notice the money lost to wars and today’s Blackwater scoundrels, those
that like vultures profit from the carcasses of others. Of course the fact
the media is beholden to corporations that make their filthy profits from
war explains why so few programs (apart from Bill Moyers and the occasional
joke for Oberman) EDUCATE viewers as to what these numbers consist of. So
much easier to blame the mama with 3 kids for getting her hamburger helper.

11.	

	Samson <http://www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com>  August 5th, 2008
5:26 pm 

	All crap.

	Both the Dems and Repubs face the election year problem of how on
earth do they make their two almost-identical parties seem different for an
election. So they have to create these little bs differences to argue about.

	So, first the Republicans pass this minor policy change. Now the
Dem apologists like Politt howl about it.

	But its all nonsense to distract you from the basic fact that the
two parties have nearly identical economic, tax and foreign policies. 

	Expect several more such BS issues, with much howling and screaming
about them from both sides, before the election comes.

12.	

	atheist August 5th, 2008 5:43 pm 

	I’m always amazed at how the religious hypocrites care so much
about saving the life of a fertilized egg, but they seem to give a crap
about children.

	I think birth control pills are toxic, IUDs even worse. We women
need to take control of our own bodies ! The so-called rhythm method is
very effective. Condoms are too. Or do what I did … if you don’t want
kids, have a tubal ligation.

	Isn’t male masturbation abortion ? So many half babies thrown away
so carelessly !!!

13.	

	po grandma August 5th, 2008 5:47 pm 

	Nietzsche, good points, but your third paragraph is flawed. This is
not congressional legislation, it is a rewriting of policy from Health and
Human Services - another political subsidiary of the Bush admin and his
fundamentalists. And as for the do nothing Congress - it’s hard to get
anything done when 1) the repub bastards filibuster everything, and 2) the
repub bastards commit more crimes before you get a chance to investigate
the previous crimes.

	As for the article, I’m glad my mother isn’t here anymore - this
would have sent her after the local republicans with a gun. Mom would have
been 80 last month and frequently opined that old men who “can’t get an
erection” (Mom would never use a term like “get it up”) had no business
dictating reproductive rights to women. Amen, Mom.

14.	

	GKL August 5th, 2008 5:53 pm 

	I wonder what a man would do if he went to a pharmacy to get viagra
and the pharmacist refused to fill it on moral grounds, claiming it was a
“life style” drug and not a necessity. Of course, she may just trying to
save the poor guy from going blind!

15.	

	Joni Rose August 5th, 2008 5:57 pm 

	I don’t know that I would call it a “stealth assault” on
reproductive rights. The Bush administration has always been quite flagrant
in its contempt for women. Really, is anyone surprised by this? From the
morons who brought us the dumbshit, ineffectual abstinence only sex
education?

	Still, we’ve taken a lot for granted for a long time. I, for one,
never thought I’d see the day when such basic rights as choosing when or
if to have a child; or having the choice to terminate a pregnancy, would be
so threatened. It’s frightening - and I’m worried for my teenager
daughter and her peers.

16.	

	evelyna August 5th, 2008 6:01 pm 

	Wow, we really are going to become a 3rd world ghetto. Without
birth control people will be populating like other poorer, non developed
nations.
What a great country-no jobs, no healthcare and now no birth control.
Maybe big insurance is tired of picking up the tab.
Even though Bush and McCain oppose birth control and abortion -their wives
are pro choice. I do not see them having 10 kids or so just to support
their husbands agendas.

17.	

	Joni Rose August 5th, 2008 6:06 pm 

	Well, we know Laura and Dubya had sex at least once to produce the
twins. Wonder what they did for birth control after that? I know if I were
Laura, I’d decline to have sex with George on the grounds that it would be
mating outside my species.

18.	

	GKL August 5th, 2008 6:13 pm 

	Seriously, Joni Rose, thinking about Dubya’s sex life grosses me
out! Yuk!

19.	

	NMlib August 5th, 2008 6:20 pm 

	atheist,
Getting a tubal isn’t as easy as you think, especially if you are a woman
who decides early on not to have children. When I was married and having
difficulty with many forms of birth control (the pill, to me, was most
reliable but caused greatest amt of side effects) I decided I wanted to be
sterilized. I knew this would be a permanent choice, and I also knew that I
didn’t want to give birth. Period. All of the doctors would say they
wouldn’t perform the procedure on a childless woman in her 20s. What if I
changed my mind? I said, “I’ll adopt.” What if something happens to your
husband and you remarry? I told them it wouldn’t matter, I still would not
want children. Yet they were willing to talk to my husband about a
vasectomy. And they didn’t ask him, what if something happens to your wife
and you remarry?

20.	

	NMlib August 5th, 2008 6:22 pm 

	Joni Rose,
Knowing how much of an intellectual Bush is, Laura probably convinced him
to have sex twice, then told him that must have been why they had twins!

21.	

	Joni Rose August 5th, 2008 6:24 pm 

	GKL,
Well - maybe thinking about Dubya’s sex life is a form of birth control
unto itself?

22.	

	Joni Rose August 5th, 2008 6:26 pm 

	NMlib,
Good one! But, I think that being intimate with that man ONCE was enough
for a lifetime. Ewwwww! Personally, I would have to be really, really drunk
for that!

23.	

	Defenestrator August 5th, 2008 6:29 pm 

	Here in Colorado, if Amendment 48
<http://www.protectfamiliesprotectchoices.org>  passes, it’s very likely
that RU486 will be illegal. It would define any fertilized egg as a human
being with full rights. Those rights would include, I suppose, the right to
remain attached to the uterine lining.

24.	

	shakker August 5th, 2008 6:41 pm 

	Opposition to abortion as a form of birth control is reasonable but
not practical. Legally, I think is dicey to enforce because only the poor
have ever been prevented from getting abortions. The rich always have
discrete safe doctors. Other methods of birth control are much more cost
effective, and some reduce disease transmission. The other methods of
control, abstinence included, must be available, understood and used. As I
learned more and more about the REAL facts of sex I was glad I had been
careful. After I was married my wife got a urine infection. The antibiotics
that cured her made me very sick and we both had to take them to make sure
we didn’t reinfect each other. I thought at the time NOBODY told me about
this. I thought that if this was one time casual sex the woman would never
have told me. You need to TRUST your sex partner, you are at their mercy!

	Several of my female relatives have been put on birth control pills
for medical reasons not related to birth control. Pharmacists need to
understand they dispense drugs prescribed by a Doctor and are not moral
police.

25.	

	NMlib August 5th, 2008 7:03 pm 

	shakker,
Excellent points. Ovarian cysts are often treated with birth control. And,
would the pharmacies employing these objectioners begin refusing to sell
condoms? Hey, our local Walgreens sells alcohol (as do two grocery stores
that have pharmacies in them). Do you suppose the right-wingers who like to
drink would be upset if the clerk or manager of the grocery stores decided
they couldn’t sell them beer or wine because of their religious beliefs?
Sounds like slippery slope, but think about how far this could go…

26.	

	ezeflyer August 5th, 2008 7:23 pm 

	50 more points for Obama and freedom of choice.

27.	

	Cedar August 5th, 2008 7:46 pm 

	“MOSCOW, August 5 (Itar-Tass) - President Dmitry Medvedev has
ordered the Foreign Ministry to sign on behalf of Russia the Convention on
the Rights of Persons with Disabilities approved at the UN General Assembly
on December 13, 2006,”

	But the last I read was that George W. Bush and the Vatican have
refused to sign this convention. That’s Compassionate Christianity for you.

28.	

	munchkinpup August 5th, 2008 8:14 pm 

	All the comments are amazing, however Samson is incorrect, it is
not all “crap,” and Pollitt is hardly a Dem apologist. HHS’s proposal is
completely insane and the fact that the Bushpigs think they can actually
get away with it is more than alarming, whether it is tied to election
politics or not.
I agree with GKL about “what if” pharmacists refused to dispense viagra.
That is exactly what needs to happen.

	Also, Pollitt’s point about how the “moral” issue is totally one
sided is excellent and bears repeating:

	“This represents quite an expansion of health workers’
longstanding right not to be involved in abortion. And, incidentally, this
respect for moral beliefs only goes one way. A Catholic hospital has no
corresponding obigation to hire pro-choice workers or accomodate their
moral beliefs by permitting them to offer emergency contraception to rape
victims or hand out condoms to the HIV positive; a “crisis pregnancy
center” would not have to hire pro-choice counsellors who would tell women
that abortion would not really give them breast cancer or leave them
sterile. Only anti-choicers, apparently, have moral beliefs that entitle
them to jobs they refuse to actually perform.”

	Especially love that last sentence. So true.

Join the discussion:

You must be  <http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-
login.php?redirect_to=http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/05/10824/>
logged in to post a comment. If you haven't registered yet, click
<http://www.commondreams.org/archive/wp-register.php> here to register.
(It's quick, easy and free. And we won't give your email address to anyone.)

 	  FAIR USE NOTICE	  	
 	 This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making
such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of
environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific,
and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of
any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US
Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material
on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use
copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond
'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Common Dreams NewsCenter <http://www.commondreams.org/>  
A non-profit news service providing breaking news & views for the
progressive community. 
Home <http://www.commondreams.org/>  | Newswire
<http://www.commondreams.org/newswire.htm>  | Contacting Us
<http://www.commondreams.org/contactingus.htm>  | About Us
<http://www.commondreams.org/about.htm>  | Donate
<https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1493/t/105/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_K
EY=1869>  | Sign-Up
<http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/1493/t/24/signUp.jsp?key=1439>  |
Archives <http://www.commondreams.org/archives.htm>  

ⓒ Copyrighted 1997-2008 <http://www.commondreams.org/> 
www.commondreams.org 

Podcast Powered by  <http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/> podPress (v8.2)

 <http://www.quantcast.com/p-9bNnJVyoTrfhk> Quantcast 

  _____  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 7711 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0006.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 4006 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0007.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 173 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0008.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 1039 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0009.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 352 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0010.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 276 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0006.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 160 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0007.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 219 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0008.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 998 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0009.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 671 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0010.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/png
Size: 478 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0011.png 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/gif
Size: 35 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://wedgeblade.net/pipermail/dialogue_wedgeblade.net/attachments/20080805/3d518208/attachment-0011.gif 