What the heck is the "Susan B. Anthony List"?

[yardwork]

I just got a recorded phone call from someone with a heavy southern accent calling himself "Dr. James Dobson" (a common name in the south) urging me to vote for "pro-family" candidates who "support the rights of unborn children."

I got a very similar recorded message from Senator Elizabeth Dole earlier this week.

The messages end by saying that they were paid for the "Susan B. Anthony List and not authorized by any campaing or any candidate." They're obviously pushing Bush.

I've never been a registered Republican in my life. I've contributed to pro-choice organizations, never to anti-women's rights groups. I live in a heavily Democratic area.

I conclude that these pre-recorded calls are blanketing North Carolina. Any other states?

It really ticks me off that they are using Susan B. Anthony's name for the group. I'd like to know more about this. Anyone know?

[Cerridwen]

1. I'm off to google - I'll post if I find anything interesting. n/t

[Philostopher]

2. Dobson's an evangelical Christian 'star.'

Google "Focus On The Family" -- he's a right-wing Christian organization celebrity of sorts. Writes books about how Christians ought to raise their kids. Some of the things he recommends make 'Oliver Twist' seem like Disney World.

Don't know anything about the Susan B. Anthony foundation, but Dobson's part of the 'Talibornagain' wing of the Republican Party.

[candy]

3. Dobson's on TV a lot!

[MnFats]

4. Dobson runs "focus on the family" a right-wing Christo-fascist

ministry of the air that constantly bashes gays, liberals etc.
he is nuts.
but he has a lot of pull with right-wing Christians.
he also takes a lot of their money.
based in fla., i think . or is it colo?

[RevCheesehead]

7. Dobson is big-time P-NAC!!! BEWARE!!

He's based in Colorado, and his right-wing extreme evangelical crap is beyond pale. People see him as a religios leader, but HE HAS NO THEOLOGICAL status!

It's organizations like "Focus on the Family" which is under investigation of violation of tax-exempt status, mostly because they are more of a corporation (evil empire) than a religious institution.

Whenever I get his stuff at church, I toss it immediately.

[Warpy]

5. A quick Google turned up

"The namesake of the Susan B. Anthony List was an outspoken opponent of abortion, referring to it as "child murder." Anthony's colleagues were united with her in this position."

http://www.sba-list.org/index.cfm/section/about/page/earlysuffragists.html

Don't be too shocked, since a lot of the early feminists were opponents of abortion, which was an appalling procedure that usually managed to kill the woman as well as the fetus and which was generally forced upon women by shamed family or by their pimps.

Since these scumbags are against ALL womens' rights, yes, it is shameful that they've abused Anthony's name to shill for pubbies.

[pnorman]

6. Quite a few 'hits' on that so-called "Susan B. Anthony List".

Here's one: http://newmediasphere.blogs.com/nms/2004/09/susan_b_anthony.html

pnorman

[Cerridwen]

8. More right wing distortion and appropriation of women's

rights advocates, their writings and their intent; taken out of context of the time, circumstance, and history of the women's rights movement.

They conveniently leave out the criticism of the men of the time and the fact that women didn't have an equal voice in their own lives.

From one link I looked at:

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blanthony.htm

In her writings, Susan B. Anthony occasionally mentioned abortion. Susan B. Anthony opposed abortion which at the time was an unsafe medical procedure for women, endangering their health and life. She blamed men, laws and the "double standard" for driving women to abortion because they had no other options. ("When a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is a sign that, by education or circumstances, she has been greatly wronged." 1869) She believed, as did many of the feminists of her era, that only the achievement of women's equality and freedom would end the need for abortion. Anthony used her anti-abortion writings as yet another argument for women's rights.

[WI_DEM]

9. It's a right wing group

[Dogmudgeon]

10. Dobson and Anthony

James "Spanky" Dobson is a notorious right-wing fanatical "Christian psychologist", Focus on the Family founder, and Council on National Policy member who made his name in the movement with a series of books instructing parents in the finer points of whipping their children for maximum Biblical pain and fear, in the name of Christ. Dare to Discipline was his breakthrough book.

Many Christians have taken issue with Dobson, including the "liberal" evangelical Peacemakers ministry.

Susan B. Anthony, like many early feminists, was anti-abortion. Most of them felt that abortion was bad, because in a socially just (read: "socialistic") world, women would not be compelled to abort. So their anti-abortion statements are now being used with the same cheap irony the neo-Cons have come to love.

--bkl