Abortion and Electoral Politics Blog For Choice Day 2012

The theme of this year's Blog For Choice day is "What will you do to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012?"

Dear Voters,

Are you, along with 37% of Americans represented by the latest CBS/New York Times poll in support of abortion being generally available? Or even, along with another 37% concerned that abortion remain legal under stricter limits? Then you'd better start paying attention to the position on abortion of the candidates you elect this year! There are several bills about to enter the Senate, where if they pass, will become law.

May 4, 2011 58% of the House of Representatives voted (H.R.3) to restrict federal funding of abortion, an admittedly long standing restriction.

More worrisome however was The May 26, 2011 vote by 56% of the House that banned the use of federal funds to train physicians to perform abortion, the only legal medical procedure to be treated as such (consider for example the use of federal funds to train physicians on fertility treatments to which there are also moral obligations).

Not content to limit physicians with access to training to perform abortion, in Oct 2011 58% of the House voted to preclude individuals from using federally provided funds to purchase health insurance that included abortion coverage (The President has threatened to veto this Bill should it pass the Senate as well).

There were actually 8 votes in total affecting reproductive choice. See the voting record here (and at the bottom look at all the additional attempts to limit women's access to legal abortion!)

Want to see how your legislator is doing? Check out Naral website!

Write, call, petition, picket, do whatever it takes. if you are in the one out of three women who has had an abortion in her lifetime, please make sure that abortion remains legal for women in the future.

Very best regards, and with my fingers crossed for good luck,

Feminist Professor

Bill	Status	Last Action
	H.R. 3: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act	Passed House	May 4, 2011 5:19 PM
	S. 906: No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act	Introduced	May 5, 2011
	S. 1241: Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act	Introduced	Jun 21, 2011
	H.R. 2299: Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act	Introduced	Jun 22, 2011
	S. 165: Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2011	Introduced	Jan 25, 2011
	H.R. 361: Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2011	Introduced	Jan 20, 2011
	H.R. 217: Title X Abortion Provider Prohibition Act	Introduced	Jan 7, 2011
	H.Res. 430: Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 358) to amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to modify special rules relating to coverage of abortion services under such Act.	Passed House	Oct 13, 2011 2:06 PM
	H.R. 358: Protect Life Act	Passed House	Oct 13, 2011 7:18 PM
	S. 1374: Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act	Introduced	Jul 14, 2011
	H.R. 593: Taxpayer Conscience Protection Act of 2011	Introduced	Feb 9, 2011
	H.R. 2543: Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services Act	Introduced	Jul 14, 2011
	S. 167: Child Custody Protection Act	Introduced	Jan 25, 2011
	S. 314: Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act of 2011	Introduced	Feb 10, 2011
	H.R. 1232: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to eliminate certain tax benefits relating to abortion.	Reported by Committee	Mar 31, 2011
	H.R. 3130: Heartbeat Informed Consent Act	Introduced	Oct 6, 2011
	S. 1005: Parental Notification and Intervention Act of 2011	Introduced	May 16, 2011
	S. 1488: Hyde Amendment Codification Act	Introduced	Aug 2, 2011
	S. 121: Pregnant Women Health and Safety Act	Introduced	Jan 25, 2011
	S. 877: Protect Life Act	Introduced	May 4, 2011
	H.R. 165: To authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to nonprofit tax-exempt organizations for the purchase of ultrasound equipment to provide free examinations to pregnant women needing such services, and for other purposes.	Introduced	Jan 5, 2011
	H.R. 1319: Global Sexual and Reproductive Health Act of 2011	Introduced	Apr 1, 2011
	S. 1904: Welfare Reform Act of 2011	Introduced	Nov 17, 2011
	H.R. 1167: Welfare Reform Act of 2011	Introduced	Mar 17, 2011
	H.R. 536: Indian Healthcare Improvement Act of 2011	Introduced	Feb 8, 2011
	H.R. 2085: MARCH for Military Women Act	Introduced	Jun 2, 2011
	S. 1214: MARCH for Military Women Act	Introduced	Jun 16, 2011
	H.R. 3541: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act of 2011	Introduced	Dec 1, 2011
	S. 1484: Hyde and Related Amendments Codification Act	Introduced	Aug 2, 2011
	H.R. 364: Common Sense Health Reform Americans Actually Want Act	Introduced	Jan 20, 2011

CBS News/New York Times Poll. Jan. 12-17, 2012. (N=1,154 adults nationwide. Margin of error ± 3.
"Which of these comes closest to your view? Abortion should be generally available to those who want it. OR, Abortion should be available, but under stricter limits than it is now. OR, Abortion should not be permitted."
		Generally available	Available under stricter limits	Not permitted	Unsure
		%	%	%	%
	1/12-17/12	37	37	23	4

Blog for Choice Day 2011

Given the anti-choicegains in the states and Congress, are you concerned about choice in 2011?

Yes in particular as a woman who had a “later” abortion, and the moves by “moderate” abortion advocates to ‘compromise” I’m quite concerned about CHOICE in 2011.

The most likely outcome of the anti-CHOICE gains is not an outright repeal of Roe, which would no doubt galvanize pro-CHOICE people the way the Webster decision did in the late eighties, but rather a gradual restriction to the right to abortion. The most likely moves regard second trimester abortions. With the frontiers of medical intervention pushing viability ever earlier, although often without regard for consequence or quality of life, seemingly reasonable people find it difficult to argue to with parsing the semantics of abortion. i.e. abortion in the first trimester but not in the second. This criteria, is of course, imbedded in Roe’s vague language about viability. However, reasonable people may differ in their criteria of “viability,” i.e. breathing independently v ventilator, eating alone v nasal gastric tube. The logistics and logic are never as clear as “reasonable” people may believe. And until you face the CHOICE yourself, you have no idea what CHOICE you would make.

CHOICE is a relative term of course. One can only make a CHOICE for example, if aware that there is a CHOICE to be made. I made my CHOICE with all due speed, within a few weeks of becoming aware of my pregnancy, but given the present climate of “compromise” I am all too aware that a woman in a similar situation in the very near future may face NO CHOICE at all.

Or rather the only CHOICE many women may face is where to obtain their illegal abortion, because if the past is any guide to the future, we can be assured that women will still CHOOSE to pursue abortions. The CHOICE we face is whether we return to illegal abortion, killing women in the process.

Because ONE OUT OF THREE women of reproductive age in the United States has had an abortion, I encourage them all to raise their voices, and their vote, to ensure that their CHOICE is still available for women in the future.

From Prochoice Thankyous

Just in time for Roe V Wade anniversary and blog for choice! What a wonderful thing! My abortion provider is my hero! My (no longer) OB/gyn is not.

I just stumbled onto your blog. I just spent some time combing through it and I think you're an incredible woman. I love that are so many of us that are strong, and brave and honest and can talk about our thoughts about experiences. The truth is, that's what we need. Honest perspectives, good, bad and ugly. as long as it's all true. That's why I'm inviting you to submit to my blog ProchoiceThankyous.com. The goal of my project is to encourage pro-choicers to send their thanks to anyone that makes abortion possible in this world. Lord knows they have to deal with a tremendous amount of shit. It's nice to show them a little appreciation. You can go to my site for more info or examples and of course you're welcome to email me. Let me know what you think.

Blog for Choice

The 5th annual Blog for Choice Day is January 22, 2010. This year's question is

What does Trust Women mean to you?

Trust Women? I am a professor who has spent most of her career preparing young women for life. I trust them, and the millions of other women in America,

to control their own futures.

to make decisions that they can live with.

to deal with politicians who do not trust women with their own reproductive choices.

Just about a year ago I began blogging about my second trimester elective abortion. I started writing because I wanted to make public my relatively rare experience, but also because I felt so isolated. Trusting other women by telling them was difficult at first. However, the more women I told, the more women I discovered who had also had abortions. I feel sad that a level of trust that allows women to voice their abortion experiences doesn't exist for everyone.

If 1 out of 3 women felt that trust and could make their stories heard, then maybe politicians would realize that they can trust women to make reproductive choices without governmental interference. Maybe the reasonable people on the "other side" would realize that abortion is an endlessly complex choice, as varied as the women who make it, and stop depicting it in such dichotomous terms.

It makes me sick when I hear the paternalistic rhetoric out of the "other side" trying to scare women about abortion or the emotional aftermath. This undercutting of women's trust in themselves is insidious and manipulative.

I cannot say that I live everyday with the choice to have an abortion because honestly I seldom think about it. I can also say that when I think about the hardest moments of my abortion, they are no easier, nor do I think that they should be. However I trusted myself then, and I still trust myself, to live with my decision to have an abortion.

"Trust women" is a theme that honors the courageous contributions and ultimate sacrifice of Dr. George Tiller, one of the rare physicians who trusted women to make the very hardest decisions about abortion. I am honored to participate in this commemoration of his legacy.

"Blog for choice" day also celebrates the anniversary of Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision on this day in 1973 that granted women across the United States the legal right to control their own reproductive lives without interference from the State. As I write this post, I am pissed that 37 years later, the "other side" believes they have the right to take the right away. The social contract, the very thing that binds us together in a government and a society, rests on the trust that an individual's rights will be protected not infringed upon. I resent the efforts of the "other side" to violate that implicit trust by forcing their religious beliefs on others.

I am proud to use my blog today to bringing attention to reproductive rights. Please spread the word as widely as you can so that the millions of pro-choice people out there can rock the blogosphere. If you have the cash, make a donation to your local Planned Parenthood, to Medical Students for Choice, or to NARAL. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance, a man once said, and that applies to the liberty to make your own reproductive decisions.