Category: Abortion

K-Lo Slams Contraceptive Culture

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Too many conservatives nowadays are unwilling to take on the cultural issues that underly much of the debate over public policy, so kudos to Kathryn Jean Lopez for directly addressing the accusation that Republicans, by seeking to defund Planned Parenthood, are “waging war on contraception”:

The debate in Congress was given momentum by the Live Action investigatory videos, which raised significant questions about what exactly Planned Parenthood is doing; but the rest of us need to discuss why we’ve let Planned Parenthood step in as a mainstream Band-Aid, throwing contraception and even abortion at problems that have much more fundamental solutions.

Lopez concludes:

As evidence of the reckless and dangerous callousness at institutions supposedly dedicated to women’s health — failure to report the sex trafficking of minors, failure to report child abuse — continues to emerge, we can’t afford to lose sight of another, more fundamental conversation that we’ve got to have, among friends, in our homes and churches — a talk about what it means to be human.

The “Republican war on contraception” rhetoric — recently employed by Amanda Marcotte at Slate and Amanda Terkel at HuffPo  — gets translated by the New York Times into a “Republican war on women”:

Republicans in the House of Representatives are mounting an assault on women’s health and freedom that would deny millions of women access to affordable contraception and life-saving cancer screenings and cut nutritional support for millions of newborn babies in struggling families.

Understand the fundamental premise being expressed by this rhetoric: Access to contraception is such a sacred right that access must be subsidized by taxpayers, and any opposition to such a policy is contrued as inherently hostile to women. This worldview makes contraception the essence of womanhood, a belief that is not merely unnatural, but is in fact anti-nature, because from the standpoint of human biology, reproduction is the entire purpose of sex.  Continue reading K-Lo Slams Contraceptive Culture →

‘Disgusting’ Childbirth?

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Megan McArdle hasn’t had any babies yet, but she knows women who have:

The women I know who have given birth, whether pro-life or pro-choice, do not romanticize it. They speak, of course, of the miracle that it is. But they also speak, often rather too frankly, of how difficult and often disgusting the process is. If a substantial number of pro-lifers are women who have given birth–and they are–then we pro-choicers can’t simply tell ourselves that it’s because they haven’t really thought about what birth entails.

Pundette is a mother of seven and permits her husband to respond to McArdle:

So this is what is at the bottom of the pro-choice argument — they are “disgusted” by pregnancy and birth? I thought it was supposed to be the crazy fundamentalists that hated the human body and feared sex. How sick do you have to be to be revolted by the process that brings new life, that brought your life, into being?

What accounts for these differences in attitude? Anti-natalist sentiments are a natural byproduct of the Contraceptive Culture, which propagates the belief that sex without pregnancy is normal, and where pregnancy is considered a rare medical anomaly.

This way of thinking — nowadays so common that we don’t even recognize it as an ideological phenomenon — is an inversion of nature.

From a strictly biological point of view, procreation is the only purpose of sex. People who like to condemn conservatives as being “anti-science” because we don’t go along with the global-warming crusade ought to be asked to explain why they are so hostile to the scientific purpose of sex, i.e., making babies.

Ah, but for the past half-century, Big Science has been in the business of preventing childbirth, you see. So the anti-baby industry has diligently promoted all the arguments and attitudes necessary to the marketing of contraceptive products and services. And this marketing campaign — for that’s what it was — has succeeded so phenomenally that the Contraceptive Culture is now nearly ubiquitous, and people don’t even stop to ask themselves: “Why do we think this way?” Continue reading ‘Disgusting’ Childbirth? →

‘Raymond Noodles’?

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I’m pretty sure it’s pronounced Rah-men noodles, but whatever. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) thinks it’s terrible that kids have to eat them because they don’t have Planned Parenthood:

I just want to tell you what it’s like not to have Planned Parenthood. You have to give your kids ramen noodles at the end of the month to fill up their little bellies so they won’t cry. You have to give them mayonnaise sandwiches. They get very few fresh fruits and vegetables because they’re expensive. It subjects children to low educational attainment because of the ravages of poverty.

What’s shocking about this argument is not merely the astonishing assertion that poverty is worse than death — for that is the essence of Rep. Moore’s argument — nor is it her assertion that “low educational attainment” is a necessary corollary of “the ravages of poverty” (as if no poor child ever succeeded in school).

Rather, what is so shocking is that this argument is being made by Gwen Moore, who is herself the eighth of her parents’ nine children. If Rep. Moore believes that her own life has been of some benefit to humanity, shouldn’t that give her pause before making an argument on behalf of Planned Parenthood? 

Michelle Malkin suggests that Ramen noodles are now the official pro-life food. (My personal favorite recipe: Add a slice of cheese and imitation bacon bits.) Sister Toldjah says Rep. Moore demonstrates the bankruptcy of the abortion cause.

Rep. Moore engages in the emotional-personal-anecdote mode of arguing public policy that liberals love, especially when they can get a Designated Victim to tell the heart-wrenching “just so” story. (Ann Coulter wrote an entire book about this phenomenon.) And sometimes liberals tell heart-wrenching stories just for the sake of telling heart-wrenching stories.

During this week’s debate over Planned Parenthood funding, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told such a story about undergoing a D&E procedure after she suffered a miscarriage.

Speier’s story was a complete non sequitur. She wasn’t describing an elective abortion, and the procedure wasn’t performed by Planned Parenthood. Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) had just described a second-trimester abortion, and Speier evidently decided to introduce her own obstetric history into the debate, without regard for its actual relevance to the issue at hand.

Liberals do this sort of thing all the time, of course: One minute you’re having a discussion about the Second Amendment, and next thing you know you’re being blamed for the death of some innocent bystander who got gunned down in a drive-by shooting: “If it weren’t for you right-wing gun nuts, little 8-year-old Juan would be alive today!”

As if you, personally, had supplied weapons to the MS-13 gangsters who shot little 8-year-old Juan. (And no fair, by the way, using this situation to talk about our nation’s broken immigration policy as a contributing factor to crime.)

Hijacking debates with heart-wrenching stories is so habitual with liberals that they apparently don’t even care whether the anecdote is germain to the argument. So we have Rep. Moore telling her Ramen noodle story and Rep. Speier telling her miscarriage story, and liberals expect us not to notice that their stories have no relevance to the legislation that was being debated.

Republicans weren’t trying to outlaw Planned Parenthood, nor did the bill have anything to do with obstetric services to women suffering miscarriages. This was a debate about whether Planned Parenthood should receive taxpayer money, period.

Liberals purposely sought to confuse the issue, just as they seek to confuse the issue when Republicans who propose cutting taxpayer funds to PBS are accused of hating the Muppets.

By the way, this blog is not federally subsidized, so if you don’t hit my tip jar, I might be forced to feed my six kids Ramen noodles.

Or maybe even “Raymond noodles.”

Ten House Democrats Join GOP Vote for De-Funding Planned Parenthood

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And seven Republicans voted “no” so that the final vote was 240 “yes” (for de-funding) and 185 “no” (against de-funding).

UPDATE: Steve Ertelt at Life News:

The fight to stop Planned Parenthood funding is not over as the amendment is part of a continuing resolution bill needed to fund the federal government and the funding apparatus still faces Senate action and likely conference committee action — which could ultimately leave the amendment out of the final draft of the bill that goes to pro-abortion President Barack Obama.

Michelle Malkin has more. There seems to be some confusion as to whether nine or 10 Democrats voted “yes.”

UPDATE II: Still no roll call results yet, because debate over the continuing resolution and a long series of amendments is causing a serious logjam:

The passage of the Planned Parenthood defunding measure, sponsored by Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), came after the House debated the amendment for almost three hours Thursday night.

The House could be in session all the way into Saturday morning.

UPDATE III: Shane Vander Hart quotes Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List: “[Defunding Planned Parenthood] must be a top priority in the Continuing Resolution battle. Taxpayers have strongly rejected their complicity with Planned Parenthood in the sex trafficking of underage girls.”

UPDATE IV: Ken Shepherd of Newsbusters chronicles the neutral objectivity of ABC News.

UPDATE V: Cubachi has video of Mike Spence’s speech last night:

Much more at Memeorandum.

UPDATE VI: You may have heard of this guy, who used to be kinda important:

UPDATE VII: Nowadays, Ace of Spades is far more important. If he was to link a brother, you’d notice the traffic. Just sayin’ . . .

Democrats Believe Secret to Winning Back Congress Is … Pro-Abortion Voters?

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Dave Weigel at Slate has the lowdown on their strategy:

The man in charge of taking back the House for Democrats is talking about rape. When the Republicans took Congress, says Rep. Steve Israel, a New York Democrat, they didn’t focus on creating jobs. “They focused on redefining rape.”
He’s referring to the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, the first of several bills Republicans introduced to chip away at the unpopular bits of “Obamacare” . . .
“We need to bring out 9 million independent voters,” Israel explains. “If you do a geographic analysis of them, they live in about 37 fairly suburban, moderate districts across the country. Those 9 million independent voters, in those 37 [districts], elected Republicans because Republicans said that they would, on Day One, focus on revitalizing jobs. And what did they do on Day One? They redefined rape. That is not what those independent voters expected from the new Republican majority.”

And guess which target is at the top of the DCCC’s list?

The new members include lots of people who took over suburban districts that had been trending more liberal. The Republicans who won, in most cases, didn’t run on abortion. They got pro-life support—the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List endorsed 14 Republican congressional candidates who took over Democratic seats. But Democrats remain convinced that the new class was never smoked out.
Take Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle, R-N.Y., one of the Democrats’ favorite examples. She started in politics as a spokeswoman for Operation Rescue in the 1980s. She didn’t hide this fact, but when she began running, she said she’d “be really careful not to make this a referendum on abortion.” Her opponent, incumbent Rep. Dan Maffei, tried to make abortion an issue. He lost. And when Buerkle got to Congress she immediately became a prominent pro-life advocate.

Regular readers here know all about Ann Marie Buerkle. Barely two weeks before Election Day, a poll showed her trailing by 12 points, but she won by 567 votes and was the last Republican to clinch victory in the historic mid-term election.

Buerkle is a member of the important House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and, as one of her constituents said in a letter to the editor, she is fighting against regulations that business leaders “believe are hindering job creation.”

No GOP freshman is more vulnerable. None will be attacked harder in the 2012 campaign. In fact, Democrats are already running attack ads against her. And the only way she can fight back is if the people who helped get her elected will give now to help fund Ann Marie Buerkle’s re-election campaign. Every $25 or $50 helps.

It’s a Good Day for Bieber Blogging

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Not that there’s ever a bad day to blog about Justin Bieber, but it’s not every day that a Bieber story turns up on the Memeorandum feed:

“I don’t think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them,” Bieber says. . . .
The Canadian-born Bieber never plans on becoming an American citizen. “You guys are evil,” he jokes. “Canada’s the best country in the world.” He adds, “We go to the doctor and we don’t need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you’re broke because of medical bills. . . .”
He does have a solid opinion on abortion. “I really don’t believe in abortion,” Bieber says. “It’s like killing a baby?”

OK, so he’s anti-American, pro-socialized medicine, and anti-abortion. Maybe someone could explain to him that socialized medicine pays for abortion. But since it’s killing “evil” American babies, maybe he’d be in favor of that.

Next time I get ragged about my shameless traffic-whoring, remind me to point out that such eminences of liberalism as Ezra Klein, Think Progress and Alan Colmes couldn’t resist the chance to get some of that easy Bieber traffic.

So now I’ve blogged about Bieber, which means it’s time to go take a nap and let the traffic come rolling in. Life is good.


‘How Many Girls Have to Die?’

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Liberals obviously want this story to go away, but the abortion industry has got too much innocent blood on their hands, and Americans are tired of being taxed to pay for this shameful criminality. Dr. Charmaine Yoest of Americans United for Life:

“It is time to hold Planned Parenthood accountable for their seedy business practices,” said Dr. Yoest. “For too long, they’ve lived off the American taxpayer with little or no oversight. In the last week alone, we’ve seen proof in Philadelphia that women’s lives were at risk while officials turned a blind eye to what goes on at an abortion clinic. Then we saw video of a Planned Parenthood clinic manager in New Jersey talking about how to manipulate the law to cover up the abuse of underage girls captive in the sex trade. Today we see video from Virginia of possible misconduct in a Richmond Planned Parenthood clinic.
“How many girls have to suffer and die before we investigate the abortion industry? At some point, substandard care for women becomes criminal.” . . .

Read the whole thing.

Media Shocked — Shocked! — To Discover That Ann Marie Buerkle Is Pro-Life

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Da Tech Guy and The Lonely Conservative call attention to the latest “news” from those pillars of journalistic objectivity at the Syracuse Post-Standard:

After steering clear of abortion politics during her campaign last year, U.S. Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle is now seizing chances in her first month in office to change federal laws as “an advocate for the unborn.”
Buerkle led abortion protests in front of Syracuse doctors’ offices more than 20 years ago. When she launched her run for Congress in 2010, Buerkle said abortion was not the issue that would define her, nor would it be a priority of her campaign.
In the past week, her opposition to abortion has regained its status as a high priority as she joined House Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans in launching quick actions . . .

Among these shocking measures was her giving a speech in Congress, giving a speech at the March for Life, and signing on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, which affirms the Hyde Amendment policy that has been federal law for more than 30 years, but which the Obama administration and the Pelosi Congress sought to evade. This gives the Syracuse Post-Standard an excuse to quote “The Only Good Baby Is a Dead Baby” crowd:

Abortion rights supporters say Republican efforts would radically limit access to legal abortions.
“The bill goes far beyond any other proposal ever introduced in Congress to take health care coverage away from women,” said Betty DeFazio, director of community affairs and public policy for Planned Parenthood of the Rochester/Syracuse Region.
She said the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” proposed by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and co-sponsored by Buerkle and 160 other Republicans, would effectively end insurance coverage for almost all abortions – including people who have private insurance coverage.
“Rep. Buerkle was elected to Congress because she promised to create jobs, but instead, one of her first acts is to co-sponsor and champion a bill that takes away health insurance benefits that the majority of women currently have,” DeFazio said.
Buerkle’s actions on the issue also alarm Karen DeCrow, of Jamesville, the former national president of the National Organization for Women.
“This district does not share her views on birth control, sex education, family planning and abortion,” DeCrow said of Buerkle. “She has a different view.”

Remember that it was the Post-Standard which devoted its Oct. 17 Sunday front page to a poll that predicted Buerkle would lose by 12 points. And as The Lonely Conservative points out, an ad by her Democratic opponent calling attention to Buerkle’s pro-life record may have made the difference in her victory.

It’s not too soon to start giving to Ann Marie Buerkle’s 2012 re-election campaign. Every $20 or $50 helps.