Reproductive rights and sexual freedoms, take cover!

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  Posted by tess Thu Sep 4, 2008 9:33am PDT

  iam not at all fooled by Mrs Palin. She may dress like a woman in her go nowhere suits and that ghastly hair but she is anything but. she would subject millions of women and girls to 1950 like treatment of their bodies just because her darling daughter wants to be a mom at 17 does not mean all of our daughters should. we need roe v wade to ensure that all of our women are safe and given healthy choices when it comes to our reproductive choices. I bet she gets that daughter of hers a nanny.

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  Posted by Pinkers Thu Sep 4, 2008 10:41am PDT

  I am insulted by McCain's choice. Did he really think that every woman out there,having had their sights on Hilary, was gonna jump over to his side because he brought us a different one to choose from. This is not a new puppy and we are not amused. I feel that I did a lot of research and studying up on all the choices from the beginning. Lets face it, we did not have very many good choices. I for one was not chewing my fingernails just before the choices were cast. Now we have a serious nobody that few know anything about, yeah! Lets go shopping the deed is done and we can celebrate! Hold your horses McCain, if I don't like you I still won't like you. Thank you though for you confidence in americans making the good choices because your choice sucks.

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  Posted by BethD Thu Sep 4, 2008 11:10am PDT

  Guess who else is just as conservative on abortion as Palin? Bush! We've had 8 years of Bush and abortion is still legal. A president simply does not have the authority to overturn Roe v. Wade on their own. If it were possible, Bush would have done it. And Bush Sr. would have done it. And all the other GOP presidents since the legalization of abortion would have done it.

  Plus, McCain, while being pro-life, is a bit more liberal on the issue of abortion than is Palin.

  I'm not voting for McCain or Obama, but one's stance on abortion shouldn't be the voting point, because whoever gets elected is not going to change Roe v. Wade! This article is fear mongering, and I'm not fooled.

  There are far more important issues that the president WILL affect, like the economy and the war.

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  Posted by mabcosmic Thu Sep 4, 2008 3:31pm PDT

  I think a woman's right to choose should NEVER be trivialized or swept under the rug because it's deemed not important enough. I've heard men saying that rape isn't an issue to them because there's more important things going on in the world. To say that made me sick is an understatement. It seems women's issues have been sacrificed and the fact that it's acceptable for people to put a woman's rights at risk tells me that America has a bigger gender disparity problem than I ever thought.

  No abortion is not illegal but Bush tried to pave the way for it. Just look at his record for all the stunts he pulled trying to define a fetus with the same rights as someone already born. No, the Reps are NOT stupid enough just to out and out make it illegal - but they will incrementally take steps to tweak the system to make it a probability. And yes, I think it should be a key issue on voting because this is an issue that affects the whole of society, not just individual women.

  Abortion being outlawed will have drastic and ghastly consequences on everyone. We're talking about a country that don't even want to pay for the health care of people already born - how in the world will the rest of society be able to afford 40 million more babies and recovering mothers? Will society be willing to pay for even more women's health care since multiple pregnancies wreaks havoc on a woman's physical health? Probably not. And we all know how single women are harassed for being on welfare with seven kids - yet making abortion illegal will pave the way for such situations to start happening again.

  So really, people need to decide what it is they want. Because as a woman I'm sick to death of hearing people do nothing but criticize women but they don't either don't want to put their money where their mouth is; nor do they want to get their hands dirty and fight to sustain the quality of life that was handed to them by someone else's hard work.

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  Posted by BethD Thu Sep 4, 2008 4:18pm PDT

  Mabcosmic,

  But did Bush succeed? No! And no other republican will either. Abortion privileges are simply NOT in jeopardy, and that is the reason it is not as important as the economy or the war because those aspects are always, consistently, without fail strongly determined by any current administration. Roe v. Wade has not been overturned since it was put in place. But wars and the economy change with each administration because they have that power. THAT'S why those issues are more important when voting for president.

  And I'd like to hear this record of stunts he tried to pull to define a fetus as the same as a child. Are these multiple, varied "stunts" or was it a one time deal? I'm seriously curious.

  You know who you should be afraid of for outlawing abortion? Your state. Your state leaders have more ability to make abortion illegal or unavailable in your state (or any state) than does the president.

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  Posted by mabcosmic Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:23pm PDT

  http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/11/12/abortion/

  I should also note that South Dakota was the first state to briefly ban abortion while Bush was in office. Hmm, coincidence? I think not.

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  Posted by BethD Thu Sep 4, 2008 5:54pm PDT

  You show me a five year old article and think that will prove your point? It seems to prove mine even more. Abortion is still completely legal.

  Late term abortion is a different ball game from early term abortion. Late term abortion is a terrible, loathsome act plain and simple. There are many abortion advocates who agree that late term abortion SHOULD be illegal (including Barack Obama), and they aren't afraid that ending late term abortions will eliminate all abortions. So the fact that they're against late term abortions and seek to end them does not mean this is a step to making abortion illegal.

  The law wanting to prosecute those who are responsible for the deaths of an unborn child makes total sense to me. A man and woman aren't 7 months pregnant with a fetus, decorating a nursery for a fetus, and getting ready for a fetus shower where she can get gifts for the day it becomes a baby. In medical terms, yes. But only in medical terms. A woman is carrying a child, bonding with a child, and feeling a child kick inside of her. When she gets hit head on by a drunk driver and her child dies, this should be prosecuted as a separate death because to that family it WAS a death. You see what I mean? This isn't a direct attempt to end abortion, it's an effort to give families at least some sort of peace that their child was not born because of a drunk driver who can now be prosecuted just as if it were an infant on the way home to the hospital. There's a strong hypocrisy in this sort of thing NOT being a crime when you think that the drunk driver could get away clean if the accident happened on the way to the hospital for the woman to give birth but be charged if the child was killed when they were taking the infant home from the hospital. This is what the law is about. Respect for the hurt caused the families, and as we see it hasn't led further than this.

  I'll address the rest of this article later, but I am going to watch a movie with my husband now.

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  Posted by BethD Thu Sep 4, 2008 6:53pm PDT

  The global gag rule has been repealed since that article was written. A democrat and a republican both sponsored legislation to have it repealed. This is evidence of our country's checks and balances, which of course are in place to prevent presidents from having the power to do something outrageous and crazy like ban abortion.

  One thing this article made perfectly clear is that, whoever is President, the states still have the overall say in abortion's legality, and, in the case of Austin, TX, anti-abortion groups still have the ability to stop abortion clinics from coming in. This would happen whether we have VP Palin or VP Biden.

  This is not a bad thing. The rights should lie with the states and with the people, even if they're rights we do not like. Studies show that countries where abortion is illegal actually have HIGHER abortion rates and more injuries and deaths linked to abortion (of course!) than countries where it is legal. Now, the dangers of illegal abortions are not surprising, but it is surprising that making abortion illegal seems to raise the numbers. I told this to a anti-abortion group representative and he didn't believe me. His loss. The numbers stand.

  I don't think abortion should become illegal, but I really do not think that the president is going to be able to make any significant changes in the matter.

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  Posted by badgerdog Fri Sep 5, 2008 7:53am PDT

  I'm appalled that any woman in her right mind would vote for such a candidate. Whether it was a man or a woman (although the fact that it's another woman does seem to make it decidedly worse). How can other women want someone in office who would so easily and adamantly take away rights that we've worked so hard to get. She blatantly has her own agenda and cares not about other people's beliefs. Apparently, she thinks all women should either be breeders or have no sex at all. I'm horrified by McCain's choice. As a woman, I'm disgusted by her.

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  Posted by SP Fri Sep 5, 2008 8:37am PDT

  AMEN!! I too am appalled by McCains choice-He does think all the Hilary supporters will jump ship and I am not an Obama fan but at this moment he is looking like the best choice-He is not making a mockery of the "American Family" shoving in our face the pregnant teenager and her boyfriend-Palin may need to spend alittle more time at home being a mother to her children since the values she touts on stage are not the same as she has in her home!!! Furthermore lets concentrate on the USA economy and healthcare for all not just the special needs children!! And lets bring our troops home safely-war is not the answer but we are in Iraq so be cautious and bring our troops home in a safe manor!!Lets get back to politics and why we have these rights not who wears designer dresses and heels or who is pregnant and who wears "that hairstyle or those glasses" lets focus on more important issues not the latest fashion!!

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