18 Democrats who oppose abortion sign letter to Dean as chair.

[madfloridian]

One of them was Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-Napoleonville, LA. It does not say who the others were. If he is going to get pressure like this, let us find a way to get our own letter to him. Doesn't NARAL have a way to send something, or some group? Will have to check.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1110697552309720.xml

Dean faces abortion pressure

SNIP..."Democrats who oppose abortion want their new party leader to respect their views. Melancon was among the 18 Democrats who signed a letter late last week to Howard Dean, newly installed chairman of the Democratic National Committee, seeking a meeting and urging the party not to pursue a strict abortion-rights position, as it has in the past. "As you know, there is a sizable number of Democrats in the House that are pro-life and pro-family, and we feel, based on the election results and our own personal observations, that we need to develop a strategy to reach out and include pro-life Democrats in national party decision-making," the letter said. Dean has already signaled that the party needs a new message on abortion. In accepting the chairmanship last month, he tried to walk a middle course, saying, "Democrats aren't pro-abortion. . . . We do believe that a woman has a right to make up her own mind about what kind of health care she wants."

He is already trying to be fair. They don't want him to set policy, yet they are sending him letters to do so.

[HockeyMom]

1. Troubling

Are they saying even though we are personally against abortion and wouldn't have one ourselves, we wouldn't try to stop (legislate) any other woman making her own choices?

I don't know. I would want assures than they WOULDN'T. Could they be coerced by either Bush or their churches (Kerry with the Communion denial)? Could be opening a Pandora's a Box with this one.

[trumad]

2. If men Congress(men) got Pregnant

They'd make a new holiday called National Abortion Day.

[Yupster]

13. I don't understand why

these pointless slaps at an entire sex for no reason are considered appropriate or even acceptable at DU.

Are these kinds of comments supposed to be funny? If they are they lose me.

Not picking on you trumad either. I've seen similar stupid generic putdowns within 100 other threads,

They all begin with "If only men had to ..."

I just don't get the urge to put down an entire sex, especially when half the time it just hangs out there and doesn't even go with the discussion. It's just kind of thrown in as a gratuitous insult.

I don't get it.

[JNelson6563]

16. Take a look at a lot of prescription drug benefits

see how many cover viagra and how many cover birth control. Now, tell me what gender is the majority of head honchos in that industry.

Get real friend, it's a man's world and if something suits men and makes their lives easier or better, it's readily available, lickety split. If it's just for women, little better than chattel, well, tough shit.

Julie

[trumad]

21. Yeah..us poor guys

always gettin picked on.

[ZombieNixon]

15. If men got pregnant, period,

there'd be an abortion clinic in every gas station.

[Yupster]

18. Geeze

when I wrote my post above, I didn't realize there was another gratuitous slap at men just two posts below.

I really don't get where the need to lash out at an entire sex comes from.

Maybe it's just that DU is a rare place where it can be done anonymously and is unfortunately considered acceptable.

[ZombieNixon]

19. I'm saying this as a man.

I think I know my own nature.

[Yupster]

20. No problem

I didn't know you were speaking for yourself. When you said "if men...", I naturally thought you were hurling your insult at men in general.

Certainly you have the right to insult your own nature all you want, but, it would have been more clear to have said "if I got pregnant... (insert insult here)". Then it would have been easy to see you were just insulting yourself, not all other men with you.

Also, I bet your nature is a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. Many people think they're weak, but when a crisis comes up, they often rise wonderfully to the occasion. I bet you would too.

[paineinthearse]

3. The article is unclear

It had been talking about US Rep. Melancon. Are the other 17 Congresspeople as well? Or just registered Dems?

If you are local, call this reporter or his/her editor. Ask for a clarification and a copy of the letter be published in the paper.

Or at a minimum, a copy of the letter so that you can post here.

This article is about C-, not up to standards we expect.

[madfloridian]

7. Very unclear. Poorly written.

Good idea about calling the paper. Anyone?

It could have been church members, citizens, anyone.

[Warpy]

4. Want to destroy the party?

Push half its members back into reproductive slavery.

Without that plank in the party platform, there is absolutely NO REASON for any woman to vote for either of the two corporate parties.

If you don't like abortions, don't have one. However, this is MY body, and MY rights are not negotiable.

[paineinthearse]

5. Warpy

:thumbsup:

[John_H]

23. Wait a socond. Should the party immediately adopt these few

people's individual ideologies? Or do only you deserve that result?

[liveoaktx]

6. Ridiculous-the party already accepts pro-life under the umbrella of

pro-choice. If these congresspersons wish, instead, to inflict their narrow view of being anti-abortion on all, why don't they just join the Republican Party?

[Nay]

8. Amen, liveoak. These 18 are already Dems, and presumably

already have the right to SPEAK on any issue at hand. I also feel that what they really want is to FORCE Dems to slowly become anti-abortion just like Repubs.

[msongs]

9. "and pro family"??? which of course means anti-gay..................

"pro family" is a fascist code phrase............

Msongs

read our paper ballot proposal for CA
www.msongs.com/vvpb.htm

[IndianaGreen]

10. "pro-life and pro-family" are the code words of the American Taleban

They call themselves "pro-Life" but support the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, many of them pregnant women and infants. "Pro-family" is nothing but a pretext for discrimination and persecution of GLBTs.

[madfloridian]

11. I emailed the paper.

I asked to learn more about the letter. We'll see.

[madfloridian]

12. Here is a petition at NARAL.

http://www.naral.org/

It is the first one under What's New.

[realFedUp]

14. I don't care what their personal views are. I want someone who upholds the

Constitution and women's right to choose their
own health and financial future is still law.

Being pro-choice is pro-life.

[tsuki]

17. Sounds like there are a lot Democrats in Congress that

resent the grassroots "hijacking" their party. Dean does not set policy, but I betcha every message from them blames Dean somehow. We don't need the Republicans to destroy the party, our elected leaders can do it quite nicely.

[John_H]

22. say to them what I say to the far left one-percenters

Suck it up. You're part of a national party which not only helps you keep coming to DC term after term, but alaso is America's only hope of saving itself. You've got to find a way to reconcile the party's position with your constituants, not the other way around."