The Battle for Forced Pregnancy

Our own pompous ass, Senator Lindsey Graham, is scared out of his boots.  So it's not enough for him to brag on what a good shot he is, he has taken his fight against a potential Tea Party challenger -- that must be you, Lee Bright -- to another battle front.  He has come out with barrels blazing against... pregnant women.

I admit, in South Carolina it's a cheap shot.  But it is also true that the man has shown in the past year that there is no depth to which he will not stoop to win re-election.

May 20, 2013 Dear Friends, First and foremost, tax dollars should not be used to fund abortions.   As a strong supporter of the right to life I have again cosponsored Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-Mississippi) legislation, S. 946 the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, to establish a consistent, government-wide prohibition on abortion funding.   This important legislation would make the following policies permanent:   ·         The Hyde Amendment, which prohibits funding for elective abortion coverage through any program funded through the annual Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Act; ·         The Helms Amendment, which prohibits funding for abortion as a method of family planning overseas, ·         The Smith FEHBP Amendment, which prohibits funding for elective abortion coverage for federal employees; ·         The Dornan Amendment, which prohibits use of congressionally appropriated funds for abortion in the District of Columbia; and ·         other policies, such as the restrictions on elective abortion funding through Federal prisons.   The House of Representatives passed the bill 251-175 in the 112th Congress, but the legislation was not allowed for a vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate.   The legislation currently has 22 cosponsors in the Senate.  I am hopeful the Senate will take up and force a vote on this important legislation to the pro-life cause. Sincerely,  Lindsey O. GrahamUnited States Senator  To contact me, please click here to visit my website. Please do not respond to this email, the mailbox is unattended. To unsubscribe at any time, please click here.

 You might think that, after all his time in the Senate, he would be secure enough to continue to maintain his facade of reasonableness.  But, like Mark Sanford, I believe Graham knows that there is no sweeter deal than working for the federal government.  And no price is too great to pay to keep that job.  And these days, there is no easier target than women and children.

So while these jackasses continue to pass bills that reinforce the fact that pregnant women are vulnerable and easily controlled, prenatal care will continue to suffer, infant mortality will continue to be shameful, and the future of children born to poverty will continue to be grim.

I sent an email to Lindsey in response to his proud newsletter:

I was 21 when I was fortunate to have legal and safe abortion available to me.  I am now 62 and I am appalled that you believe God has chosen you to control the reproductive choices of my daughter.

Shame on you.

Join me in letting misogynists like Lindsey Graham know that we are out here, we vote, and we are not ashamed.

Parent v. President

A few days ago, Penny pointed out that seemingly minutes after President Obama forcefully pledged his support to Planned Parenthood and women's rights, he opposed removing age limits for above-the-counter purchase of the "morning-after" pill.

As a parent who was damned overprotective of my daughter I understand fully.  Rather than have her sit through sex ed classes that I doubted were going to be open and accurate, I opted out.  I talked to my daughter, and sometimes she was furious that I was so involved, but she also talked to me.  And I am assuming that the Obama's are such parents.

But that is not always the case.  And sadly, children get pregnant.  And horrifically, there are times when the parents are the last people in which that child can confide.

We are a nation that refuses to deal with the difficult problems, the ones that would actually improved our lives, make the world safer for our children and grandchildren.  Our legislators do a lot of grandstanding and bloviating about their moral values.  But when it comes to doing the right thing, they lately almost always do the thing that fuels their power and greed instead.

Personhood amendments abuse women by forcing them to maintain a pregnancy to term, while funds that would improve the life expectancy of infants are cruelly cut.  Civil rights for those who are not Christian are violated in the name of public safety while the right to own a gun and carry it anywhere is religiously protected.

Our children are increasingly less likely to feel secure, to have parents who have the time to spend with them when they are needed.  They are less likely to be educated in a school where there are adequate numbers of teachers and counselors who know them.  They are less likely to receive adequate sex education, and in some cases receive misinformation.

For those parents who are unable to be the parents their children trust and confide in, whether right or wrong, we need to be brutally honest about their children's -- our children's -- safety.  We need to admit that children that are -- well, children -- are having sex, and we need to admit that access to Plan B is necessary.  And then we need to keep slogging ahead to try to make a world where our children will not need Plan B or abortions.  Which is, after all, the hard part of all this.

And we need our President to do the right thing, even though it is the hard thing.

Not so fast, Agnes

I, too, was mighty pleased to see President Obama defend Planned Parenthood and condemn the state laws that are an assault on women's rights but..........

now we have this...

Obama Administration Appeals Ruling On Morning-After Pill

JOSH LEDERMAN and LAURAN NEERGAARDMay 2, 2013, 7:07 AM1520

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Wednesday appealed a federal judge’s order to lift all age limits on who can buy morning-after birth control pills without a prescription.
In appealing the ruling, the administration recommitted itself to a position Obama took during his re-election campaign that younger teens shouldn’t have unabated access to emergency contraceptives, despite the insistence by physicians groups and much of his Democratic base that the pill should be readily available.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/obama-administration-appeals-ruling-on-morning-after-pill.php

So...whatcha think?   Is Obama on our side or not?  Why is his administration even getting involved?

The story goes on to say that the President is heavily influenced by being the father of two school age daughters.  I think as President he should be more influenced by the "insistence by physicians groups...that the pill should be readily available."