Bernie Sanders Struggles to ‘Champion Women’ like Hillary Clinton

[ProudToBeLiberal]

So why would Planned Parenthood, Human Rights Campaign and NARAL Pro-Choice America endorse Clinton? Why wouldn’t they just sit on the fence until the general election? “If you have 100 percent Planned Parenthood voting record, 100 percent pro-choice voting record, there are people who are asking, why is the leadership not either supporting Bernie Sanders or why are they, you know, opposing him?” Sanders asked Monday night. What more do they want from him?

Good question, and NARAL had an answer. “Senator Sanders once again highlighted the difference between an ally and a champion,” Kaylie Hanson, NARAL Pro-Choice America National Communications Director, said in a statement about the Town Hall. “His voting record is sufficient, but it doesn’t make him a champion for women. That champion is Hillary.” Cecile Richards has echoed that sentiment: “We have a lot of friends in Congress, but we have one true champion,” she said.

Clinton has championed abortion rights as central theme of her campaign to be the first woman president, while the Sanders campaign has been largely focused on fixing systemic income inequality and campaign finance reform, sometimes at the expense of other priorities. “Once you get off of the social issues—abortion, gay rights, guns—and into the economic issues,” he told Rolling Stone last year, “there is a lot more agreement than the pundits understand.”

That quote—offered early in the campaign—has been widely interpreted to suggest that Sanders has ranked his political priorities, and that “social issues” like abortion could take a backseat in the Bernie revolution. “We can’t afford a Democratic nominee for president who treats abortion rights like an afterthought,” wrote Emily’s List president Stephanie Schriock on Friday. She went on to accuse Sanders of treating reproductive rights like “extra credit,” and noted that Sanders doesn’t mention anything about abortion, contraception, or reproductive care anywhere in his entire health plan.

More at http://time.com/4192885/bernie-sanderss-abortion-hillary-clinton/

[frazzled]

2. Are you kidding???

Where have you been these past years?

[frazzled]

8. and it has been consistently eroded since that time

A number of states have all but made it impossible for clinics that perform the medical procedure to exist. Others have imposed onerous, intrusive rules on women.

I can see you don't care about these issues. That's fine. Just don't think all will right itself when the billionaire class is eliminated by the revolution. There will still be huge issues of inequality across the spectrum.

[frazzled]

20. You clearly have no respect for women

and the very real issues that face them. So don't preface your comments "with all due respect."

[ProudToBeLiberal]

10. Uhhh, have you been living under a rock?

States like Texas are passing laws that make it harder for abortion clinics to remain open. Abortion may be legal, but the access to these facilities is getting harder and harder. Many clinics have been forced to close down because of these draconian laws that states are passing.

Then there were also the whole thing about Congress defunding Planned Parenthood...

[DURHAM D]

3. I think you took a wrong turn. nt

[DURHAM D]

7. I know you are just here to play.

Are you at the coffee shop or library today?

[zazen]

13. the problem is that it's being regulated and defunded out of practical existence

So SCOTUS doesn't really have to touch it. The state GOPs just go about putting so many regulations on abortion services that they become inaccessible to women without the money and connections to get a "DNC" with their private gynecologist.

Here in NC they've added mandatory delays, imposed a stunningly invasive, insulting requirement to have your ultrasound mailed to a state agency, and added hospital-like regulations to abortion providers. Add to that the benefits that anti-choicers get from maniacs who threaten and/or kill providers and their staffers. . .

[tammywammy]

23. It's unnecessary and only required to shame women

[tammywammy]

14. If it was settled then why are GOP legislatures actively passing laws to shut down clinics?

SMH.

[tammywammy]

11. Are you kidding? There's a huge threat from the GOP

They're actively passing laws to shut down abortion clinics.

[zazen]

6. HRC proudly defended throwing hundreds of thousands of mothers off of welfare

She called it moving from "dependency to dignity"--making them put their kids in cheap childcare or leaving them with whomever to work minimum wage jobs.

I don't think that's "championing women:" it has hurt women, especially minority women.

Impoverished, and after the welfare gutting, physically exhausted, women have many fewer options when it comes to controlling their bodies, escaping domestic violence, and getting adequate healthcare and education for their kids. Stir in racism in salary, hiring, a for-profit prison system siphoning off Black males, and problematic law enforcement response to your needs . . . and you have the disasters you have in many pockets of urban America.

Nit-picking from a NARAL exec that Bernie didn't answer a question precisely to showcase her organization and current anti-choice threats is really insensitive to the larger realities of women's lives.It's not like he in any way is anti-choice.

[beam me up scottie]

9. Bullshit. He's been championing them his entire career.

Bernie Sanders in 2012:

United Against the War on Women

The history of American democracy, to say the least, has been checkered. Our nation was founded at a time when people of African descent were held in bondage. After slavery was abolished, they were forced to endure legal discrimination for another 100 years.

When our country was formed, women were not just second-class citizens. They were third- or fourth-class citizens. Women couldn't vote or play a significant role in the political life of the nation. Women, in many cases, couldn't own property and were legally regarded as subservient in marriage. The educational and economic opportunities open to women were extremely limited. And, of course, women were unable to have control over their own bodies.

***

We are not returning to the days of back-room abortions, when countless women died or were maimed. The decision about abortion must remain a decision for the woman, her family and physician to make, not the government.

We are not going back to the days when women could not have full access to birth control. Incredibly, here in the year 2012, that is exactly what the Blunt Amendment, which we defeated last month in the Senate, was all about. The Blunt Amendment would have allowed any employer who provided health insurance, or any insurance company, the right to deny coverage for contraception or any other kind of procedure if the employer had a "moral" objection to it. While I am glad that we defeated this horrendous amendment, it certainly was a sad day in our country when every Republican, save one, voted for it.

We are not going back to the days of wide-scale domestic violence, even if 31 Republican men in the Senate recently voted against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because it expanded coverage to the gay community and Native Americans.

We are not going back to the days when it was legal for women to be paid less for doing the same work as men, even if the governor of Wisconsin recently signed a bill to repeal that state's pay-equity law.

Further, not only are we going to protect and expand those laws which deal directly with women's rights, we are going to vigorously defend the important laws and programs which protect all working people in our country -- women and men alike.

http://huffpost.com/us/entry/united-against-the-war-on_b_1464730.html

His record is impeccable:

http://www.ontheissues.org/social/Bernie_Sanders_Abortion.htm

Unlike Hillary Bernie never supported a ban on late term abortions, maybe that's why he has a 100% rating from NARAL.

CLINTON: My opponent is wrong. I have said many times that I can support a ban on late-term abortions, including partial-birth abortions, so long as the health and life of the mother is protected. I’ve met women who faced this heart-wrenching decision toward the end of a pregnancy. Of course it’s a horrible procedure. No one would argue with that. But if your life is at stake, if your health is at stake, if the potential for having any more children is at stake, this must be a woman’s choice.

Source: Senate debate in Manhattan , Oct 8, 2000

http://www.ontheissues.org/Cabinet/Hillary_Clinton_Abortion.htm

Bernie trusts women to make their own decisions.

[ProudToBeLiberal]

12. His voting record is sufficient. But that doesn't make him a champion and leader

“His voting record is sufficient, but it doesn’t make him a champion for women. That champion is Hillary.” Cecile Richards has echoed that sentiment: “We have a lot of friends in Congress, but we have one true champion,” she said.

Btw, I thought you said you won't participate in my threads anymore. I'm irrestible, huh?

[beam me up scottie]

16. He was champion enough for Gloria Steinem to endorse him and make him an honorary woman for a day.

The Time Gloria Steinem Made Bernie Sanders an "Honorary Woman"

In the fall of 1996, locked in a tough re-election fight against Republican Susan Sweetser, then-Rep. Sanders got a big boost when feminist writer and activist Gloria Steinem came to Burlington. At the time, Sweetser was running negative ads attacking Sanders' liberal positions, and so the Sanders campaign held an event to highlight his support among progressive women. An opening act, a former state senator, told the audience that "a feminist is a person who challenges the power structure of our country" and "Bernie Sanders is that kind of feminist." When it was Steinem's turn, she started off with an announcement: "I'm only here today to make Bernie Sanders an honorary woman."

In his memoir, Outsider in the House, Sanders, who went on to beat Sweetser comfortably, called the event "the nicest moment of the campaign."

Watch:

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2016/01/time-bernie-sanders-became-honorary-woman

[ProudToBeLiberal]

22. Beam me up scottie. Nt

[sadoldgirl]

21. Have you ever heard of Leaders of any

organization as being politically opportunistic?

If 80% of voters want a raise in the minimum wage
yet the Congress does not pass it,it gives you just
a small example of how that works.

The members of these particular organizations
were not asked for their opinion, or do I have
that wrong?!

[demmiblue]

19. Hillary Clinton hired Cecile Richards' daughter as her Iowa Communications Director.