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In reading all the accounts from fellow pro-choice women—like Emily's from earlier this week—bemoaning
the Stupak abortion restrictions, I noticed that many of the women who
were outraged by the concessions of the health care bill used the terms
feminist and pro-choice almost interchangably. Over at Salon,
Kate Harding writes, "Feminists have been up in arms about the latest
assault on access to abortion," but if you take one look at the website
for the group Feminists for Life, one of the first things you see is the banner proclaiming "Women the Winners in U.S. House Amendment Vote" ... (Read the rest of this article in DoubleX.)
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Sunday night was when I first found out abortionist Dr. George Tiller had been murdered. But unlike Elizabeth Weil, I knew exactly who he was. I grew up in a conservative Christian family: loving my dad's lapel pin of tiny baby feet, dropping change in baby bottles to raise money for crisis pregnancy centers, and keeping up with relevant legislation. My family and I are probably a pretty good representation of 99 percent of the pro-life movement—people who wouldn't sabotage a clinic or use violence to stop abortion, but do our best with community involvement, prayer, and our votes. So I knew who Tiller was. I've prayed for him before.
I was following the lead-up to his trial for 19 misdemeanor counts all through March. Updates hit my inbox... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com.)
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Stats sweetheart Nate Silver ran abortion-rate data from the CDC and has found that states with higher numbers of people who identify as pro-life have lower rates of abortion than pro-choice states. But, this finding is somewhat deceptive. As anyone who receives Guttmacher Institute press releases knows, 87 percent of counties do not have abortion providers,
and the CDC data does not always count state of residence, only the
state where the abortion is performed. Additionally, since CDC abortion
data is self-reported by each state... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com.)
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I’ve been mulling the responses I got, via email and comments,
to my question about
why a recent Gallup poll might show a seven point jump in the percentage of
people who define themselves as prolife (from 44 percent last year to 51 percent
this year). Several theories from readers:
The Election.
I think this past year forced me to think about how I really felt. The election
has something to do with it . . . Obama’s mother also set me on a course of
reflection. As an intelligent, curious single mom who struggled to give her son the best, I could relate.
I really want to be liberal, but in my life the most tangible support as a
poor, single mother came from people who looked, acted, and talked just like
Sarah Palin. Other high-status women didn’t give me chances; they were the first
to complain when I needed time off for a sick child. Academics can write about
women’s issues but the evangelicals made sure I could afford to go to work. In
contrast, my university still doesn’t offer onsite child-care.
The Aging Population.
Perhaps when folks pass the age at which their daughters may be faced with
this decision they can more easily be moved...
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The striking jump in the new Gallup poll of people defining themselves
as pro-life—7 percentage points in one year, for a total of 51
percent—doesn't explain itself. You may be right, Hanna, that scientific advances or a truly deep shift in attitude aren't the rationale,
given that the breakdown didn't change when Gallup pinned people down
further by asking them if they think abortion should always, sometimes,
or never be legal. But the words "pro-life" and "pro-choice" have long
been... (To read the rest of this post, visit our new website DoubleX.com!)
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The storm of criticism is already brewing, but I for one want to
commend Mary Ann Glendon, a professor at Harvard and a former ambassador to the
Holy See, for refusing to accept the Laetare Medal and speak at Notre Dame's
spring commencement.
I love the eloquence of her open letter to the press explaining why speaking
alongside Obama during the ceremony is against her conscience:
A
commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and
their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the
right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre
Dame's decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops—to
honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church's position on issues
involving fundamental principles of justice.
After all the mind-bending
attempts of evangelical leaders like Joel Hunter to try and prove the existence
of some kind of secret Obama pro-life agenda,
it's a relief that Glendon at least personally recognizes the
contradiction. Not only does she personally recognize it, but it also
feels to me that Glendon has a deeper agenda that motivated the release of her
letter to the press: an attempt to force the some of the institutions and
members of the Catholic Church to do a little overdue soul-searching themselves.
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Actually, Willa, there already has been a pro-life ad that uses the same concept as the German condom ad, but for a different purpose. While the condom ad implies that your sperm could turn into Hitler, the pro-life ad, sponsored by CatholicVote.com, is called "Life: Imagine the Potential," and it sends the message that the baby you're aborting could be Barack Obama. Check it out below. Just as the "self-flagellation" in the condom ad is very German, it's so American to say that any child raised by a single mother could be president, as if Barack Obama were not an exceptional person.
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