Pro-life bill naive and dangerous to women

This is hidden behind a subscriber wall. In the interests of education and debate I am posting the complete column.


Abortion bill will force women into the shadows

By Lisa Falkenberg

“"Yes. I do want to end abortion," state Sen. Dan Patrick told a Houston Chronicle reporter Thursday.

And with those words, Patrick, the father of the infamous sonogram bill and recently announced GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, confirmed the real motivation behind legislation the Senate considers today to drastically restrict abortion rights in Texas.

Of course, Patrick was quick to follow up, for cover-your-butt purposes in case of future litigation: "This bill is not about that."

I suppose the bill isn't about the good senator's political prospects, either.

But Patrick's comment confirmed something else: the tragic futility of the "pro-life" movement. In reality, almost every single one of us would like to end abortion, or, more accurately, the circumstances and tragedies that lead to abortion.

We'd love to live in a world where every pregnancy is planned, every baby is wanted and healthy and loved enough to thrive in this hard world.

We live in reality, though. And the reality is this: No law, no vote-hungry politician, no movement of well-meaning citizens (and yes, I do believe most of the pro-lifers are well meaning), will ever end abortion.

A pastor who attended the Austin news conference where Patrick made his remarks was quoted saying "abortion began in Texas, and I pray it ends in Texas." Of course, abortion didn't begin in Texas. It was legal in some states years before the landmark 1973 Texas case Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide. But as long as there has been sex, there has been unplanned pregnancy. And as long as there has been unplanned pregnancy, there has been abortion.

Our best hope is to keep it safe, legal and rare.

Heading to disaster

Bills like the one Patrick and other GOP leaders are pushing threaten that endeavor to its core. Instead of supporting legislation that could really reduce abortions - by, say, adequately funding family planning services so poor women have access to birth control - so-called pro-lifers pursue an agenda that chips away at rights intended to protect women.

Let me step back. With this column, I'm breaking an important rule never to address the fundamental merits of abortion rights. After all, we had that debate 40 years ago, didn't we? And the highest court in the land deemed abortion a constitutional right of all U.S. women. But another reason I avoid it is because the debate itself is futile. If you feel strongly about it, you can't be swayed. This column won't change your mind.

Most people don't pick a side based on logic, or even information. They decide based on their gut, their emotions. Some are convinced by testimonials like the kind we've heard recently in legislative committee hearings from women who regretted their abortions and experienced trauma afterward. Some are compelled by religion or personal circumstances or by images of vulnerable, though not-yet-viable fetuses.

And many of us who believe in abortion rights are not unmoved by all of this. We are not comfortable with the idea of aborting a 20-week pregnancy, even if the fetus hasn't yet reached viability. We can count the fingers, same as anyone.

But we also know Republican lawmakers won't stop with 20 weeks. Next time, it will be 18 weeks. And then 16. And we know that criminalizing abortion, or restricting access to it, won't alleviate the trauma. It will create more. It may send a desperate woman to the border to buy abortion pills in open-air markets. It won't save the fetus. It may just cost the mother her own life if she's desperate enough to turn to the back alley for help.

In 1965, illegal abortion accounted for 17 percent of all "reported" deaths attributed to pregnancy and childbirth that year; the actual percentage was much higher, according to the Guttmacher Institute. And in the early 1970s many women had to travel thousands of miles to other states for abortions, risking the women's health and resulting in later-term abortions. After abortion was legalized, women's deaths plummeted and the proportion of abortions done early in the first trimester rose dramatically.

No gray area

Over the past couple of weeks, I've read so many emails, fielded so many questions about how I can believe the way I do on this issue. They see the issue in black and white. Life and death. And they can't see the gray.

Here's the gray. As a mother of two beautiful daughters, I have marveled at those sonogram images with tears in my eyes. I have strained to count the fingers and make out the grainy faces. I was so blessed that my girls were both born healthy, blessed that they were planned, blessed that I have a loving, supportive husband to help me raise them, blessed that we have jobs that enable us to care for, feed and clothe them.

Not everyone is so blessed. And for those women, there should be a choice. And it should be hers, her family's, and her God's - not her government's.

The pro-life goal of "ending abortion" is noble, but also naive and dangerous. It won't save babies; it will endanger the health of mothers who will be forced into the shadows to access their right to choose.”

Delusions of Populism - NYTimes.com

The GOP has hit upon a new slogan and a new metaphor to get more working class white voters - Libertarian Populism.  It's bunk but has a lot of appeal to mainly rural mainly young voters who have been bombarded with stories for years to hate and distrust government.

Another End of Crawfish Season

Saying goodbye to crawfish season at Wild Cajun | 29-95 | a Chron.com blog

You can also catch these at Baytown Seafood - the seasoning is a bit different.

TIME Magazine Just Doubled-Down on Joe Klein’s Inaccurate, Anti-Atheist Statements

TIME Magazine Just Doubled-Down on Joe Klein’s Inaccurate, Anti-Atheist Statements

 Joe Klein has always been overrated and a liar.  

Big Lie: America Doesn't Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World...We're Ranked 27th! | Alternet

Big Lie: America Doesn't Have #1 Richest Middle-Class in the World...We're Ranked 27th!

The American middle-class is getting poorer compared to the other advanced countries.

Republican conservative policies to blame.

Texas Democrats complain about ethics, maps, GOP

Chaos on redistricting as the GOP dominated legislature votes guarantee court cases will continue.

Bay Area Houston: Still paying for the toll roads

 
How conservatives sneak in tax increases - toll roads that have been paid for get escalating tolls.
 
Bay Area Houston: Still paying for the toll roads
 
 

The Failed - and Racist - War on Pot - The Progressive

Oh Wow! Flashback to GeoCities

http://wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/content.php?theme=2&music=9&url=elemming2.blogspot.com#.UaMvYNLVDTo

After declaring Satan is real Alex continued...

Armed and Liberal

I have been doing a lot of looking into guns recently and this is a good article.

What Gun To Purchase: Consider the 9mm Pistol for Self-Defense?

The sections on hollow points and practice are well considered.

What Gun To Purchase

I also recommend a Glock 9mm.

Why Glock, why 9mm - one person's experience.

USA All government spending vs. GDP

There is a two year lag between election and presidents being responsible for all of the budget.  Bush was appointed by the Supreme Court following the 2000 election and took office in 2001 under a budget of the House and Clinton administration.  Similarly Obama took office in 2009 but the 2009 budget was Bush's and Congress's final act. I urged Obama to have nothing to do with it, the FDR policy, but begin a clean sweep after he took office as Republican's would claim his support for the proposals and helping Bush pass it would let them claim it was his. That is exactly what they have done.

Here is the share of all government USA spending as percent of GDP.  2010 to 2013 is under Obama's leadership.

How to get rid of the National Debt

Thom Hartmann Debunks INSANITY of Supply-Side Reaganomics! (Video) - Americans Against the Tea Party

Thom Hartmann Debunks INSANITY of Supply-Side Reaganomics! (Video) - Americans Against the Tea Party

A true progressive with an intimate understanding of economics, Thom Hartmann is one of our go-to guys for explaining how TEApublican policies have completely destroyed our economy time and time again.

Thom introduces his video this way,

“Get your pencils ready! I’m giving a crash course in economics. ·The economy is one big interlocking circle, but let’s begin at the most important point. First there’s demand. Paychecks, needs, desires.”

Demand creates jobs.  Help the people and they will demand new and better products.  Increasing supply without demand doesn't work.

Move Over Simpson-Bowles…There’s a New Plan in Town

Move Over Simpson-Bowles…There’s a New Plan in Town

A very Clinton like plan not very complicated.  Current policy is current taxes, current law is what happens after the temporary Bush tax cuts go away.

From The Center for American Progress which drew upon some of the Clinton policy experts. 

Here are the details PDF.

Naomi Klien seems radical to many in the US, she's just from Canada

"I actually had a child five months ago in a public hospital and never got a bill. Seems pretty amazing."

Move to Facebook going well

More and more followers. Ran an advertising campaign for Obama in swing states in what seemed like persuadable demographics with 98,000 favorable impressions the last week.

Just wrote a comment on Ace of Spades blog where he is shocked, shocked that The Romney campaign is lying and saying their untested GOTV day of the election campaign didn't totally fail.

Might as well add it here.

Imagine that, a campaign known for unprecedented lying is still lying. Meanwhile I had the loosest* connection to the Obama campaign and received email and Facebook messages election day about contacting particular friends on Facebook in battleground states and see if they had voted yet.
* I was running my own Facebook adv. impression campaign in toss-up states to likely women persuadable voters using the photo of Obama hugging a women standing beside Christie (Real Bipartisanship) or the granddaughter of Ike and her intelligent reasons she couldn't vote Republican this year. Don't know if I motivated anyone to get out and vote but 98,000 favorable impressions couldn't hurt.
Those of us who listened, watched and read from the reality based community were not surprised at all by the election results.
Far from the mainstream media being biased it was the "Fair and Balanced" media that were severely biased and did not inform their viewers but kept them riled up with propaganda instead of facts.
If you were surprised, it seems you were very surprised, please reflect on your choice of media and add some balance and perhaps you won't be fooled again.
We actually would like rational opponents with real facts to debate how to solve problems, not those we have to contact when the real world finally unmistakably intrudes to just say "We told you so."

Go to my Facebook page for frequent news and comments for liberals and anti-authoritarians.

http://www.facebook.com/EasterLemming

Daily Kos: Give Google a Medal

Click Google or where it asks or enter "I want to vote" to get where you are supposed to vote.

Daily Kos: Give Google a Medal

Alternate Universes

For most polls this election has a simple story. Obama lead from the beginning, had a bad first debate where suddenly Romney seemed credible and they were tied, and Obama has been inching and trying to claw his way back up and now leads by less then a point.

This is shown by all nearly all polls. I am only going to exclude two pollsters out of dozens to show this.

There are two pollsters who have strong Republican leanings and were not very accurate in the 2008 and 2010 elections compared to others. Rasmussen is known as a Republican lean poll and is the only one who excludes cell phones and weights its polls according to what it thinks the turnout by party will be. Gallup has a long history but has become very conservative and has been criticized for recently overweighting the South on national polls, some wrong methodology, and using a likely voter model that induces big swings that makes sure that Gallup polls are often talked about. Unfortunately because of their conservative bias and frequency these are the pollsters Republicans and conservatives almost exclusively use, when they aren't criticizing all polls and not recognizing the science behind polling.

Here is the conservative poll story using just Gallup and Rasmussen. The polls varied often after Romney got the nomination with both sides having leads until early summer where Obama got the lead and kept it until the first debate. After the first debate Romney took the lead has been increasing his lead almost daily until it is now four points.

Because of their methodologies and recent history I go with the average of all the other pollsters and think the Gallup and Rasmussen polls have it wrong.

Surprise! A Romney adviser is lying about ObamaCare

Run Everybody! Avik Roy is Coming!

Someone paid by the Romney campaign promotes himself as a healthcare expert and goes on popular website to write articles about how expensive Obama is going to make insurance.  Just carefully reading his latest articles, coincidentally aimed at very close swing states, should reveal to anyone his blatant lies.

This link at a non-profit goes into a bit more detail on how Avik Roy transforms a 1 to 3% cost increase into a 55 to 85% increase.

Please hurry and let Romney's Lying Express be over.