Abortion opponents going for 'fresh angle'

[Kerrytravelers]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060208/pl_usatoday/abortionopponentsgoingforfreshangle


Abortion opponents going for 'fresh angle'

By Joan Biskupic, USA TODAY
Wed Feb 8, 7:06 AM ET

Samuel Alito's confirmation to the Supreme Court put a national spotlight on abortion and on whether the conservative federal judge might be part of a legal avalanche that eventually topples Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal nationwide.

<snip>

"It's humanizing the unborn," says Daniel McConchie, vice president of Americans United for Life, a group that opposes abortion rights. He says "fetal pain" bills are "a fresh angle on (what) a lot of people think is an old topic. It puts a new face on an issue."

<snip>

Denise Mackura of Ohio Right to Life says her group has not endorsed a bill to ban abortion and instead is pushing for more restrictions.


"In any legislative attempt, if you fail, that sends another message," Mackura says.


The sponsor of the Ohio bill, state Rep. Tom Brinkman, says, "They might be right that this is not the time at the Supreme Court. But my feeling is, let's move straight ahead and start this lengthy process. We'll see what kind of support we get in the end."


Abortion foes also acknowledge they face another obstacle: Polls consistently have shown that about two-thirds of Americans believe that abortion should be legal.









And here we go with another round of ignoring the will of the American people.

[LiberalGuy000]

1. it's crap, as usual

And it's a shame that the American people don't care enough to rise up and say, "Enough already!"

I'm ready for the country to split up. Wouldn't bother me a bit.

[icymist]

7. The country splitting apart is not going to happen.

Nope, I don't see this happening. More likely, the sheeple will follow blindly along with whatever administration says it must do. Yeah, That the American people are rising up....but, in spots and blotches, that ultimately don't matter.

[realisticphish]

2. Abortion foes also acknowledge

that they're wrong; this may be another obstacle they need to face :evilgrin:

[Erika]

3. Now what punishment is the American Taliban Rightists

going to inflict on women who go ahead with an abortion?

Will they just simply bypass the woman and tell the doctors they can't perform an abortion? Cluckers.

The religious right needs to just come out and say that under their rule and their W appointed appendages, that the theocratic govt will take over the woman's body and the woman's freedom of choice be damned.

[HuffleClaw]

4. that seems to be the plan

they are trying to set legislatvive precedent for the eventual supreme court challenge i think. it won't be about a 'woman's right to choose', they'll frame it as a health/safety issue or something.

[Erika]

5. They might try but this is not the 50's where women had

little political say or economic power. Women don't need right wingers making their health choices and decisions for them.

[TaleWgnDg]

6. Look at it this way. If the anti-abortionists continue to

.
Look at it this way. If the anti-abortionists continue as they have, that is, to nibble away at Roe v. Wade as they've done (and quite successfully too), then why should anti-abortionists want to over-turn Roe? You see, if Roe is over-turned in its entirety then there will be a backlash. It will unite people to push congress for a federal law to re-instate Roe v. Wade. I can guarantee it! And, it may devolve the rightwing religion-into-law anti-abortionists from the Republican Party too. Or at least their voices will be somewhat silenced due to the out-pouring of mainstream Republican voices who want to retain Roe and its freedom of choice for women's autonomy.

______________________

edited to add: For those unknowing, abortion is almost unavailable in most of America. Yes, this is true. As I stated above, the anti-abortionists have been very successful since 1973 when Roe was first decided. It's the silent nibbling away at Roe over the years that goes w/o response from mainstream America. Why should anti-abortionists ruin it with a loud thud and the shock effect if Roe gets tossed? Most importantly, do you really think that corporate Republicans (who are using these religious anti-abortionists) want to over-turn Roe and feel that backlash?

[REP]

8. Should Be "Liars Going For Fresh Lies"

Most abortions done in the US are done within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, when the fetus is incapable of feeling pain or anything else. Women, however, are capable of feeling pain, fear, distress and a whole range of feelings and emotions that pro-liars don't give a crap about.

Will women contemplating childbirth be told how much that hurts, what complications they could face and the financial and emotional costs of raising a child (or the psychological damage of surrendering one to adoption)? No?

Woman? What woman?

[fasttense]

9. Let's humanize women.

"By the mid-twentieth century, both proponents and opponents of abortion reform agreed on three central propositions.

First, illegal abortionists were thriving. Criminologists found that abortion had become the third most lucrative criminal enterprise in the United States, surpassed only by gambling and narcotics. One investigator determined that some expert abortionists were performing as many as forty-five abortions a day and between four and five thousand abortions a year.

Second, the omnipresence of illegal abortion had created a substantial maternal health crisis. Doctors and lawyers described criminal abortion as a "hidden social canker," "a festering social ill," and "one of the major medical and social problems of the nation." "Driving abortion underground," commentators pointed out, "the statutes have brought it about that abortion performed by the women themselves, by incompetent midwives, or by doctors who, even though they may be skilled, must operate with a secrecy which precludes the subsequent attention to the safest performance of the procedure."

Third, and most important, significant statutory restrictions on abortion were unenforceable. "All efforts to control the incidence of criminal abortion by legislation," public health specialists concluded, had "resulted in failure." A 1963 law review article noted that "our nation's abortion laws have admittedly kept legal abortions to a minimum, just as the eighteenth amendment virtually eliminated the legal consumption of liquor." Nevertheless, the author continued, "the abortion enactment have been no more successful in preventing abortion than the eighteenth amendment was in eradicating drinking."

Many police officers and prosecutors "share the widespread belief that the abortionist is in fact performing a useful service" and preferred spending their scarce resources preventing what they and their communities regarded as real crimes. The few prosecutions that were instituted faced jurors unwilling to convict abortionists and judges unwilling to impose severe sentences. Anti-abortion advocates complained that "even the most outrageous abortionist" could not be convicted in a jury trial. One juror refused to convict a well-known abortionist because there was "nobody in Schuykill County that the doctor hasn't helped.""

http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/rethink.html

[area51]

10. pain

So what about possible fetal pain? Some adults in this country are forced to live w/intractable pain. Anti-abortion psychos aren't respectful of life; just the opposite. I hope pro-choice groups are pointing out their hypocrisy. I hope they also mention that banning abortion will lead to tax increases due to all the unwanted children being born.

[RC]

12. Haven't you heard?

They are also shredding the safety nets so there will be less help available for these kids.

[tecelote]

11. Right to Life

Where a three week old fetus and a brain dead women are more important than our sons and daughters fighting in an illegal war.

[wicket]

13. well said

:thumbsup:

[Kerrytravelers]

16. Exactly. Well said.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. A 24-hour old zygote feeling pain is pushing it . . . n/t

[robbibaba]

15. The awful irony is

that the vast majority of abortions are spontaneous and many of these are unwanted. They are mostly caused (I'm pretty sure this is true) by chemical and radiological pollution. I'm sure that I've read about this, but I don't have any links, sorry.
I'm also sure that Alito especially is a champion of removing oversight and regulation of his corporate pals. Less regulation equals more environmental contamination equals more spontaneous abortion. No?
If only the anti-choice crowd had enough brain cells to get this.
I've been wondering, by the way, where exactly in the bible it talks about embryos and fetuses? Where does it spell out this whole 'life begins at conception' business? Did those folks even understand basic biology?

[Kerrytravelers]

17. They think the world is only 5,000 years old and gay is a choice.

No. They don't understand basic science AT ALL!

[Javaman]

18. I'm just waiting for the news headline...

"fetus talks from womb".