I heard it said long ago that the difference between
Liberals and Conservatives is that Liberals want to liberate people and control
corporations while Conservatives want to liberate corporations and control
people.
Like any broad statement, there are lots of exceptions on
both sides.
But it does largely describe today’s Conservatives.
While insisting that (millionaires, billionaires, the top
1%, the Rich, those making over $250,000/year – pick your term) should not see
their taxes go up in these economic times, while insisting that Corporate Tax
rates are too high in a period of record corporate profits and a surging stock
market while many very profitable Fortune 500 companies pay little or even no
Corporate Income tax, these same Conservatives have decided that what they
really need to be focused on is Women’s Reproductive Health.
While unemployment and budget deficits remaining
frustratingly high, Conservatives across the nation, at both the Federal and
State level have decided that what they really need to address is Contraception
and Abortion and other issues of Women’s Reproductive health.
I have lost count of how many states have passed laws
deliberately designed to make abortion, a procedure that is both safe and
legal, as hard to get as possible. You
almost have to give them credit for a high degree of inventiveness in their
cruelty. They act like women do not
already face an incredibly difficult choice of whether or not to terminate a
pregnancy. They act like women are just
getting all these abortions on a whim without much thought or personal torment
or regrets. It’s like Conservatives
think that women facing this choice do so happily and glibly.
I want people to read my blog so I won’t include my
uncensored opinion of these Conservatives and their insistence on their right
to force the government into the middle of this incredibly difficult choice. Suffice it to say, I hold these Conservatives
in the highest disdain.
So women who are already facing a choice that most of the
realize will be life changing, that most of them realize will come with regrets
either way, now have to run a gauntlet of new laws in order to be allowed
control over their own bodies.
It started with waiting periods. Some states passed laws that required women
wait an arbitrary number of days between before they could get an appointment
for the procedure.
Some states now require that a woman get counseling from a
state approved (and anti-abortion) counseling organization. In one state, that provision went into effect
yet there were none of these counseling organizations licensed to do this
counseling.
Many states have changed the laws regulating clinics that
perform abortions to make their operations much more expensive. There is no medical reason for the new laws,
they just want to make it harder and harder for these clinics to operate.
Then some states started requiring the women get ultrasounds
before being allowed control over their own bodies. They had to look at the developing fetus or
listen to its heart beat. All designed
to make an incredibly difficult decision even harder and more painful. There is no medical reason for these test, and
the women are required to pay for these tests themselves, raising another
barrier to women controlling their bodies.
And now the latest outrage is laws in a number of states
requiring that women have physically invasive procedures. They are required to pay a doctor to stick a
trans-vaginal ultrasound probe into their vagina though they are not actually
required to look at the screen.
Really??
And it’s just one or two states, there are literally
hundreds of these offensive laws being proposed in legislatures across the
country and dozens of them are going into effect, all designed to make what is
already a hard decision harder and more expensive and make it last longer.
And their next target is Contraception. Senator Santorum, while running for President
stated his personal opposition to Contraception. Several states have proposed what are called
Personhood Amendments that would attach the rights of personhood to the human
embryo at the moment of conception. This
law would, among other things, have the effect of banning all hormonal
contraception, the most widely used and most reliable form of contraception.
It will get worse unless we can throw these people out.
This is their idea of Small Government?
In these hard economic times, this is what Conservatives are
focused on. It’s as amazing as it is infuriating.
And it gets better.
Conservatives have now decided that Planned Parenthood is
evil.
It started with a lie.
A lie told on the Floor of the United States Senate.
A Conservative Senator went on the Floor of the United
States Senate and stated as if it was a fact, that abortions were 97% of what
planned Parenthood does. The real number
is like 3%. When confronted with this
gross discrepancy, this Senator’s office issued a statement that what he said
on the Floor of the United States Senate was, and I quote, “not intended to be a
factual statement”. Nice use of a
thesaurus. His office released a
statement admitting that he LIED.
But now all of a sudden, Planned Parenthood was a target of
these demented people.
90% of American women will make use of one Planned
Parenthood service or another in their life time. From Mammograms and other cancer screening,
to contraceptive services to counseling, Planned Parenthood has been serving
women in America but now these small government conservatives have decided that
it’s evil and needs to be stopped.
Several states have stopped funding Planned Parenthood clinics. They tried to get a federal funding ban and
failed. One conservative woman led the
Susan Komen Foundation down this path and the foundation stopped its funding
for Planned Parenthood. I am happy to
say that particular attack on Planned Parenthood failed. In response to that move, many people made
increased donations to Planned Parenthood, far more than the funding the Susan
Koman Foundation was taking away, and money stopped flowing into the Susan
Komen foundation and donors took their money elsewhere.
Some other these (unprintable) people have even decided that
the Girl Scouts are evil because of their supposed link to Planned Parenthood
and Girl Scout organizations around the world.
And this is their idea of small government.
