{"id":1347,"date":"2004-07-27T20:09:00","date_gmt":"2004-07-27T19:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/2004\/07\/27\/abortion-and-right-wing\/"},"modified":"2015-06-19T00:26:02","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T23:26:02","slug":"abortion-and-right-wing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/2004\/07\/27\/abortion-and-right-wing\/","title":{"rendered":"Abortion and the Right Wing"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s an urban legend<\/a> going around right now that political wife Heinz Kerry donated money to extremely radical leftist groups like “Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League, and the Abortion Action Project.” It’s not true. But first, let’s note that George Bush the elder donated a lot of money to pro-choice organizations before he fell in with Regan. Second, I’m highly concerned about the idea of Planned Parenthood as a radical organization. Abortion is a constitutional right. Planned Parenthood does not just provide women with (constiutionally protected) abortion services, it also provides them with other healthcare as well.<\/p>\n

There is a compelling argument that the anti-abortion movement has a lot more to do with limitting women than with protecting fetuses. For example, conservatives are wont to grant exceptions in the case of rape or incest. Women can get abortions as long as it’s not thier “fault” for getting pregnant. Otherwise, it’s a just punishment for their actions. Furthermore, miscarriages are not treated like deaths. Fetus don’t have funerals, they don’t have names, they aren’t counted in the census and they aren’t dependants on your tax forms. You legal age starts from zero at birth, not conception. In no way is a fetus legally a person. The argument about where life begins is a religious argument, but most religions, similarly, are inconsistent. Fetsus are still unnamed, unbaptised and unmourned should they miscarry. No religion that I can think of has a system in place that recognizes fetuses. Also, many religions support exception for when the women is “innocently” impregnanted. Pregnancy is a punishment for illicit sex and a natural consequence of non-ellicit sex. Women should not have agency to control reproduction. And this is why Planned Parenthood is under attack, as much for their non-abortion activities as their abortion ones. Religious right wing reactionaries have increasing taken stands against birth control. Thi is true of some protestants as well as the long standing anti-birth control position of the Catholic church. It seems like birth control is a sensible way to limit the number of abortions performed. If people can prevent accidental pregnancies, then they are much less likely to terminate pregnancies. But birth control gives women agency. Women’s health clinics give women agency. A healthy, informed woman is problematic to reactionaries. These same men who will willingly take thier girlfriends to get abortions want to prevent their wives, daughter, girlfriends and the unwashed masses from making thier own choices. Agency belongs to men, not women.<\/p>\n

Privacy<\/h4>\n

However, there is an attached concern to overturning Roe vs Wade<\/em>. The supreme court ruled in that descision that Americans have a right to privacy. Abortion cannot be outlawed because it would be government intrustion in a private matter. A right to privacy is a protection against all kinds of government spying. roe vs Wade<\/em> not only represents female empowerment, it’s a roadblock against having a full police state. Total Information Awereness, TIPS, and Homeland Security projects are impeeded by this constitutional right. If Roe vs Wade<\/em> says that prosecutors can’t look at your medical records to see why your fetus disappeared, then they can’t snoop around them at random.<\/p>\n

Lanuage<\/h4>\n

Through excessive reptition, reactionaries somehow turned “liberal” into a dirty word. It is imparative that they not be allowed to also do this to abortion. Right now, a vast majority of Americans, especially young Americans, are in favor of the legallity of abortion. If the right wing successfully demonizes the term, well, opions will change and you can kiss your rights and your privacy goodbye.
\nThe best way, I think, to fight their over the top rhetoric is to mock it whenever possible. “Abortion on demand!” why, yes, that would be terrible! Imagine if we could get other medical services on demand like wisdom tooth removal or apendectomies! Conservatives are in favor of liposuction on demand! have they no shame??<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s an urban legend going around right now that political wife Heinz Kerry donated money to extremely radical leftist groups like “Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League, and the Abortion Action Project.” It’s not true. But first, let’s note that George Bush the elder donated a lot of money to pro-choice organizations before … Continue reading Abortion and the Right Wing<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3598,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions\/3598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.celesteh.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}