Lobby in Tally With Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood and the Pinellas County Democratic Party are taking activists to Tallahassee on Feb. 21.

Join Planned Parenthood in Tallahassee to combat the egregious laws our state legislators are trying to pass. More anti-choice bills are already being introduced.

Get on the bus or drive yourself. Pick up in Tampa at 6 AM for the drive to Tally. $25 per person/$5 per student!

Day's event's include: press conference with leading pro-choice legislators and Planned Parenthood advocates. Meeting in teams with individual legislators in action as they debate. Back on the bus around 4:30 PM to ride home.

Contact Wendy Grassi, Director of Public Affairs, 941-365-3913 x 1108; wendygrassi@myplannedparenthood.org

The Florida legislature is attempting to scare doctors from performing late-term abortions. SB 290 would require doctors who perform abortions in the third trimester to attend ethics classes. A second doctor would be required, in the unlikely event of the fetus being born alive. The abortion would be deemed illegal if the fetus is more the half way out of the woman's body. This bill flies in contempt of Roe vg. Wade.

SB 1374 would bar state funding from any abortion provider that performs late-term abortions. In the bill, Sen. Steve Wise makes the legal argument that abortion is illegal.

The legislature finds that personal liberty is not a licence to kill an innocent human life under any provision of the United States Constitution.

Wise's legal reasoning will play well with the Christian Right. Legally, it is a horrible argument. The federal court have upheld Roe v. Wade.

O'Reilly Brings Coulter To Discuss George Tiller

Bill O'Reilly brings Ann Coulter to talk about the Left's reaction to O'Reilly's years of hatemongering reporting on abortion-provider George Tiller.

Money quote from Coulter:

"I don't really like to think of it as a murder. It was terminating Tiller in the 203rd trimester."

O'Reilly must really need a shoulder to cry on if he is bringing Coulter on to attempt to make himself look morally just. Tiller will be the defininbg moment of O'Reilly's career. He can bring on try to reframe his reporting all he wants. The fact is as mere journalism his reporting was shit. Tiller's death brought his years of demonizing Tiller to the mainstream and the GOP and elite conservative pundits aren't coming to O'Reilly's rescue.

What the Fuck Is Wrong With Jill Stanek?

Anti-choice wingnut Jill Stanek posted photos of late-term abortion provider LeRoy Carhart's clinic on her blog. Stanek did this after the murder of George Tiller. I'm not going to link to Stanek's blog post. To understand just how bizarre Stanek is she actually believes Chinese people eat fetuses as a delicacy.

The Next Magazine, a weekly publication from Hong Kong, reported that infant corpses and fetuses have become the newest supplements for health and beauty in China. Not only is the placenta considered a beauty remedy, but also aborted fetuses are much sought after delicacies. In Guangdong, gourmet body parts are in high demand and can even be purchased through hospitals. The magazine's investigations into this form of cannibalism took them to Liaoning province.

According to The Next Magazine, during a banquet hosted by a Taiwanese businessman, a servant Ms Liu from Liaoning province on the mainland inadvertently revealed the habit of eating infants/fetuses in Liaoning province and her intention to return for the supplement due to health concerns. The Taiwanese women present were horrified.

This is the social conservative movement the Republican Party panders to.

Tiller's Death Brings Out Worst In Bloggers

Megan McArdle writes a long and bizarre post defending the murder of abortion doctor George Tiller. Authorities have captured Scott Roeder. The suspect has a long history of militia involvement and voicing his desire to kill abortion providers. The fact McArdle would want to defend the actions of such a tainted individual makes me question her common sense.

Perhaps I find the certainty of the pro-choice side so disturbing because it feels a lot like the certainty of the warbloggers in the run up to the Iraq invasion. As some of Hilzoy's commenters point out, I was myself too caught up in it, which makes me cautious of getting caught up again. The pro-choicers seem to be acting as if people who shoot abortion doctors are some weird species of moral alien, whose actions can only be understood in Satantic terms, and who cannot and should not be negotiated with, because they only understand raw displays of power. Yet it seems to me that if I were in a society that believed fervently in the personhood of a fetus, I would very possibly agree, and view Tiller's murderer the way I'd view someone who, say, assassinated Mengele.

What we learned was McArdle's judgement was horribly wrong with Iraq and now with the Tiller murder. McArdle grew up in an Upper West Side of New York City. She was educated at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania and lives in the Washington, D.C. bubble. This is a woman that has not had a tough life. McArdle views Tiller's murder and the Iraq war as an intellectual debate.

I am aware that I have constructed my beliefs about personhood in the face of these things--like any good undergrad, I know the answer I need to reason to in order to ensure both social comfort and maximum personal freedom. I like to think that I am too rigorous a thinker to be seduced by such ephemera.

Coffeehouse debates with D.C. friends has little relevance with the real world. McArdle writes that she has pro-choice leanings. Her problem is the tone of the pro-choice movement makes them fail to understand why someone would want to murder a doctor at his choice. Excuse me, but I wonder if McArdle would feel that way if Tiller was gunned down a few feet from her.

If you interpret this murder as a political act, rather than that of a lone whacko, than this should be a troubling sign that the political system has failed. So why do so many people think that the obvious answer is simply to more firmly entrench laws that are rightly intolerable to someone who thinks that a late term fetus is a person?

McArdle's worldview is influenced by Ayn Rand and Libertarian economics. Find a feminist whom supports Rand theories? Name a good Libertarian economic idea? McArdle has a history of being and and ridiculed in the blogosphere. McArdle argues in the post her parents restrict her "autonomy by continuing to be alive." McArdle makes it clear she has no desire to murder her parents. I wonder why she even went there. It is rather morbid to write on a media blog how the death of McArdle's parents would financially benefit her. That is a sick line of thinking.

In Other News: John Aravosis is angry President Barack Obama backed down on the Homelan Security demestic terrorism report. Aravovis' logic is if Obama looked "to the future" Tiller's murder could now be used for political advantage. Aravosis' compassion is underwhelming.

Note that had Obama held firm in the face of the criticism last month, he'd be riding high right now and the GOP would be cowering in shame for having basically enabled this terrorist act. But Democrats rarely look to the future, nor do they see benefit in having a spine or doing what's right. And now a man is dead.

Remember what I wrote only a month ago about the religious right demanding the right to kill. Today, in church, they exercised that right. As they have in the past. As they will in the future.

In case you are wondering, Aravosis lives in Washington, D.C. It must be something in the Potomac River. This is America. We don't gun down people in church just because we disagree with them. The one trait McArdle and Aravosis share is neither of them give a damn about Tiller. The doctor is a prop for their political arguments and bad blog posts.

Quote of the Day

I will oppose the confirmation of Kathleen Sebelius for HHS Secy. Her ability to do the job will be adversely affected by her extreme views."

Mel Martinez

Martinez and other Republicans are attempting to kill Sebelius' nomination because of her veto of a Kansas late-term abortions bill. The bill would have only allowed a late term abortion if the woman's life was in danger.

RNC chairman Michael Steele has called for President Barack Obama to withdraw Sebelius' nomination. I am not the least bit worried about Steele mounting a serious offensive against Sebelius.

Support Choice

NARAL is asking voters to sign a petition to keep women's reproductive rights in the 2008 debate. Republicans found that even a conservative state such as South Dakota will not support banning abortion. Citizens do not support the Christian Right's agenda. Republican candidates will trip over each other to please James Dobson. They can't campaign on increasing the tax burden on the middle and lower classes.I want to see Republican presidential candidates constantly explain their position on Roe v. Wade.

The media has been running Christian Right talking points and has shown great ignorance into reporting late-term abortions. Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting noted how the media dropped the ball in reporting how the Gonzales v. Carhart Supreme Court ruling endangers the lives of poor women.

Those circumstances, according to the ACOG’s amicus brief, include the woman having certain chronic medical conditions (like bleeding disorders or heart disease) or pregnancy complications, or the fetus having certain abnormalities (such as severe hydrocephalus, a greatly enlarged head).

What Ginsburg also made clear in her scathing dissent, though it went virtually unmentioned in the media, was that young women and poor women are more likely than others to need intact D&E, because they’re less likely to be able to access abortions in a timely manner. Adolescents often don’t realize they’re pregnant or fear their parents’ reaction, and poor women may have trouble getting together sufficient money for the procedure.

The court has ruled, in effect, that all of these women will now still be able to terminate their pregnancy, but they may be compelled by the state to do so in a way that puts their health in jeopardy, against the best judgment of their doctor. That lack of health exception both endangers real women’s lives now and opens the door for further erosion of women’s reproductive rights and health in the future, whether the court reverses Roe v. Wade or not. But that reality was too often missing from media’s reporting on the subject.

Sign the petition.