Banning abortion really means banning abortion for POOR WOMEN

[K8-EEE]

This is how it used to be in the US and this is what it's like now in every country where there is, as Gov Palin wants, a total ban on abortion.

Rich and well connected women can always find safe abortion services, regardless, even if they have to travel, they can afford to.

It's the poor women who end up in the back alley. This is the reality of the situation. Even places with the most restrictive laws, DESPERATE WOMEN GET ABORTIONS ANYWAY. They just take bigger risks, wait longer, have more complications.

Palin is "proud of" her daughter's DECISION -- but her goal is, to take choice away from the rest of us. This NY Times article about a woman who ended up in the hospital AND IN COURT after a back alley abortion in El Salvador is something everyone who seriously wants to criminalize abortion in the US should read.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/magazine/09abortion.html

El Salvador, however, has not only a total ban on abortion but also an active law-enforcement apparatus — the police, investigators, medical spies, forensic vagina inspectors and a special division of the prosecutor's office responsible for Crimes Against Minors and Women, a unit charged with capturing, trying and incarcerating an unusual kind of criminal. Like the woman I was waiting to meet.

[liberal N proud]

1. Excellent point

The rich kids will still pay some doctor to quietly do the procedure.

[RainDog]

17. which is why the republican elite don't care. they'll get abortions for their daughters

no matter what.

that's their idea of "community." gated ones.

[kath]

24. Just like Bush did for his girlfriend, back in the pre-Roe era.

[PeaceNikki]

2. ALL anti-choice laws should be repealled. This is a healthcare issue.

Long, but a great read.

(PDF) http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/action/repeal.pdf

No country needs to regulate abortion via criminal or civil law. Only when abortion has the same legal status as any other health procedure can it be fully integrated into women’s reproductive healthcare.

by Joyce Arthur

The repeal of abortion laws is supported by evidence from Canada, the only democratic country in the world with no laws restricting abortion since 1988. Abortions have since become earlier and safer, and the number of abortions has become moderate and stable. Current abortion care reflects what most Canadians are comfortable with, and women and doctors act in a timely and responsible manner, with no need for regulation.

Several legal arguments help build the case for abortion law repeal. A constitutional guarantee of women’s equality can be used to overturn abortion laws, and ensure that abortion is funded by the healthcare system as a medically-required service. Freedom of religion, the right to privacy, and the right to self-defense can also be used to strike down laws. All anti-abortion restrictions are unjust, harmful, and useless because they rest on traditional religious and patriarchal foundations. Laws kill and injure women, violate their human rights and dignity, impede access to abortion, and obstruct healthcare professionals.

Solutions for Repealing Anti-abortion Laws
Here’s some suggested solutions to get rid of harmful anti-abortion laws:
* Guarantee women’s equality in countries’ constitutions.
* Collect evidence of laws’ harms, find plaintiffs, and challenge laws in court.
* Lobby government against abortion restrictions (meet with legislators, submit briefs).
* Educate media, government, health professionals, and public about the harm and futility of abortion restrictions.
* Challenge the religious basis of anti-abortion laws, and keep church and state separate.
* Change the rhetoric: Abortion is not a “necessary evil.” Abortion is a moral and positive choice that liberates women, saves lives, and protects families.
* Empower women in society by changing public policies.
* Change patriarchal attitudes about women and motherhood through advocacy and education.
* Prioritize childcare and child-rearing as a universal concern, not a “woman’s issue.”

Some of these proposed solutions are obviously very difficult and would take many years. But one has to start somewhere.

To conclude, no country needs any laws against abortion whatsoever. We can trust women to exercise their sensible moral judgment; we can trust doctors to exercise their professional medical judgment, and that’s all we need to regulate the process.

[Kitty Herder]

3. That is the truth. nt

[Iris]

4. I read an article a few months back that said drs in El Sal are reluctant to perform c-sections

even and this has resulted in deaths of both mothers and babies.

[Taverner]

5. It's the Republican Grand Scheme

Deny abortions to poor women, so they are desperate for money to support their kids.

Lower wages so people will do anything for money, including auctioning off their labor

Destroy infrastructure so that only the rich have access to information, and the poor have nothing to help them get out of their poverty

Then sell them back water and other resources at their prices so that the average American is desperate, poor, cutthroat and will do anything for the quarters they throw out of their bullet-proofed limos.

[K8-EEE]

9. It's true -- plus big, poor families can supply more soldiers

for the Oil Wars.

[Taverner]

10. Yes, definitely

But part of why they are denying Global Warming publicly is because they secretly know its true. They also want a scorched Earth so that they can control all food production, so only they can sell you food. Likewise, natural disasters make more middle class folks poor (just see Katrina) - which is EXACTLY what they want.

They never liked the Middle Class - in fact they hate us. We're too educated for them, and we vote. They would love to turn back the clock to a world where there was no G.I. Bill, no Great Society, no New Deal, no Fair Deal. Just their deal.

[depakid]

6. Does anyone doubt that some southern and lower midwestern states

wouldn't behave very much like El Salvador?

[K8-EEE]

7. With the GOP's SUDDEN concern for "privacy" do they want "vagina police?"

like in El Salvador -- women are afraid to have med services even after spontaneous miscarriages because they might end up in jail.

[Wapsie B]

8. The daughters of the wealthy and well-connected

will be flown out of the country for a "vacation" should an unwanted pregnancy ever occur. The little people will have to fend for themselves.

[avaistheone1]

29. or wealthy women can discreetly have D&Cs in their doctors offices as they always have done

while their poorer sisters do not have that option.

[Cleita]

11. Women are just brood cows to ideologues like the Republican men but

until women realize this and fight it on this basis, abortion as a wedge issue will continue to be a cash cow to them.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

12. There are poor women now with Roe that still don't have affordable access to abortion.

They have to travel in order to get to clinics as many have been pressured to close. If Roe is overturned, more will suffer.

[K8-EEE]

13. Do Republicans want an "active law-enforcement apparatus" for our uteruses?

Is that part of their "small government" and "freedom" agenda?

[rubberducky]

14. Desperate women will do desperate things.

No more needless deaths because the religulously insane have decided what we MUST do with our bodies. Who are the loudest voices against abortion?? Stepford wives and the men of the religous right. I truely believe in my sig line. My heart hurts for women who believe they are only a womb.

[K8-EEE]

15. What's the difference between Palin's ideal abortion laws & Saudi abortion laws?

Let's see:

1) Abortion is exactly the same as murder
2) If you have an abortion, you're a murderer
3) Capital punishment is OK with God for murderers.

In Saudi Arabia I've seen where nurses assisting a D&C (which could be for other reasons beside pregnancy) are beheaded!

[mzmolly]

21. Horrible!

But they're our allies so, SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

[blossomstar]

16. It's like women's rights have REGRESSED 100 years!

[Mandate My Ass]

18. Poor women make cannon fodder for rich men's wars

That's why they must be stopped from having abortions.

There are other unsavory reasons as well but that's the main one. :grr:

[K8-EEE]

22. Exactly! And poor people mustn't have too many choices, in general

Otherwise they'll get educated and stop being a pawn to the masters.

[CLG_News]

19. EXACTLY!!

n/t

[mzmolly]

20. Agreed! I'm of the "Safe, Legal and Rare" notion < via funding prevention programs

like those that Palin opposed.

[riverdeep]

23. That's the legacy of Catholicism in the Southern Hemisphere.

It's caused untold suffering by warping views.

[slackmaster]

25. The situation before Roe was a fucking mess

We do NOT want to go back there.

The thing is, the anti-abortion extremists want to go farther and make a federal issue of it.

[libodem]

26. Exactly

I wish statistics were available for abortions for the higher income women in the country. I 'm sure there ar many quite D&C's for uterine lining problems. The poor are condemned and punished for moral transgressions. The rich get off scott free. There is a two tiered system in the class divisions. One for the rich and one for the poor.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

27. Quite true

In the days before Roe v. Wade, a few countries in Europe and a few U.S. states had legalized abortion. During my freshman year, we all gossiped about an instructor who had taken a long weekend in London (yes, the one in England), the week after she had run out of one of her classes to throw up, and later, I had classmates who took quick trips to New York or Colorado.

[Nikki Stone1]

28. Exactly.

Great post!

[ColbertWatcher]

30. It's another way to take health care (any health care) out of poor communities.

Abortion is about who is having sex and whether doctors can do their jobs.

The GOP has so successfully confused the subject to the point that no one can see the big picture much less the consequences.

Thank you, K8-EEE, for some much needed perspective.

Now, let's just hope the freepin' lurkers get their collective heads out of their asses.