This Is Why We Lose (or, Why NARAL Was Right)

Rebecca Traister wrote an Interesting article on Salon.com about NARAL Pro-Choice America's leading opposition to John Roberts, and the eagerness of women's groups and progressive men, to sell out abortion rights.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2005/08/26/womens_groups/

One quote exemplifies why liberals keep losing. Francis Kissling, of Catholics for a Free Choice, was so eager to screw NARAL that she actively sought out press opportunities to condemn them. And what was her brilliant plan for defeating Roberts? Read on, dear divas, it's masterful:

"[Kissling] said that one of the lasting lessons of the summer's rocky ride has been that advocacy groups "are going to have to make a strong, factual, intellectual case and that's how it's going to be decided." She said she thinks "groups now have a better handle on the fact that that's what they have to do, and they have more information available to them to make that case. It's not going to be easy. It's probably not going to be successful." As for her own organization, Kissling said they have not taken a public stand on Roberts. "We probably will at some point," she said, adding that she's not sure that it would matter."

Gee, facts! That's an idea! Because as John Kerry and everyone else knows, when the facts are on your side, you just CAN'T lose. So send your money to CFFC, kids, because they HAVEN'T EVEN TAKEN A STANCE on Roberts. So they're just going to be intellectual (read: ineffective, sighing, withering) about it. Equal pay, voting rights for blacks, and birth control can take a backseat.

Wake up, sheeple! JOHN ROBERTS IS THE VOTE THAT WILL OVERTURN ROE V. WADE. Make no mistake about it. And frankly I'm appalled that NARAL Pro-Choice America is the only group with the courage and the policital muscle to call a spade a spade. They're not going to quietly let him be anointed by a president-oligarch whose every single judicial nomination has been anti-choice. Kudos to NARAL for standing up to Roberts and being the ONLY opposition voice. Shame on those progressives that have basically retreated into the corner, asking only that they be spared the embarrassment of having an opinion, while Bush defacates all over our Constitution.

Let's remember that before NARAL Pro-Choice America's first ad, everyone in Washington considered the Roberts confirmation a done deal. He's handsome, he's Harvard -- why ask questions? Now, slowly, as the records are revealed showing his absolute contempt for women, people of color, non-citizens, privacy rights, et al, groups are coming around to the idea that maybe this guy shouldn't be in charge of our freedoms for the next two generations. This wellspring of opposition would not have happened if NARAL hadn't blazed the trail.

I'm impressed that NARAL's tough, smart new president, Nancy Keenan, has the class to refrain from saying, "I told you so."

Suprise, suprise! Bush's FDA breaks its promise to women

Guess what -- ladies like emergency contraception. The morning after pill. The oh-shit pill. It's easy to use, extremely safe (more so than aspirin), no side effects (15-20% experience nausea). It is highly effective at preventing pregnancy if taken within 5 days (120 hours) of unprotected intercourse or sexual assault. It has tremendous potential to reduce unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion, thus improving women's health.

But the boys at the FDA don't really care about that.

After missing last winter's regulatory deadline for deciding whether to continue withholding the morning-after pill from over the counter status, Bush's Food and Drug Administration brokered a deal with Senator-Divas Boxer and Clinton to make a decision on OTC status by September 1, 2005. In exchange, the good Senators would lift their hold on Lester Crawford's confirmation as FDA head.

Today, the agency blithely announced it would not, after all, be issuing a decision.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/parenting/08/26/morning.after.pill.ap/index.html

Despite the overwhelming recommendation of 2 Bush-appointed panels that EC be made available without a prescription. And the comment of one expert doctor who said EC was the safest drug ever to come before the committee. What's another 60 days, unless you're a rape victim who lives in an area served only by a religiously affiliated hospital. No rush.

Barr Laboratories' (Plan B's manufacturer) CEO Bruce Downey quipped, "It's like being in purgatory." Yeah, sorta, Bruce. Kind of like the purgatory experienced by women who experience a contraceptive failure and need EC.

we've come a long, way baby

but John Roberts seems to want to send us back. so, we know he hates our reproductive rights, but now we find out he opposes equal pay for equal work. Nice job, Bush. "Liberate" the women of Iraq by destroying secular government and replacing it with Islamist theocracy. And overturn two generations of progress for American women with one Supreme Court nominee.

Let's hope our Senators don't lose their cojones with all this estrogen being suppressed.