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Alegre's Corner
We're not finished folks - not by a long shot!

More Obama Weasel Words on Reproductive Freedom

by: campskunk

Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 23:39:43 PM EDT


Obam released (well, technically, he had his wife present) the "Plan to Support Working Women and Families". Most of it is pie-in-the-sky unfunded mandates - well, except for health insurance for women, that's certainly not a mandate in Obamaland. Here's a link to the pdf, but for some reason it's just an image, not an actual pdf text document. Here's the pie-in-the-sky list of topics covered - pretty vague, especially about how all this stuff will be funded:

  1. Fight for pay equity
  2. Making Work Pay for Working Families
  3. Increase the Minimum Wage to $9.50 by 2011
  4. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit
  5. Provide a Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to an Additional 7.5 Million Women
  6. Create Automatic Workplace Pensions
  7. Expand Retirement Savings Incentives for Working Families
  8. Expand Family and Medical Leave Act
  9. Encourage States to Adopt Paid Leave
 10. Expand Paid Sick Days to 22 Million Women
 11. Protect Against Caregiver Discrimination
 12. Expand Flexible Work Arrangements
 13. Expand High Quality Afterschool and Summer Learning Opportunities
 14. Fix the Nation's Health Care System
 15. Ensure All Children Have Health Insurance
 16. Fight Cancer
 17. Supports a Woman's Right To Choose

campskunk :: More Obama Weasel Words on Reproductive Freedom
Number 17 caught my eye, so i grabbed an image of the text:

Umm... so what is he actually going to DO to "support a woman's right to choose"? We certainly aren't promised anything in THIS document... which is probably exactly what he plans to deliver.

If you examine the text, looking for what his "plan" is, you'll find... NOTHING. No initiatives, no pending legislation, no court challenges he's supporting, nothing. Benign neglect isn't going to cut it, but that's what we're looking at here.

Instead of concrete proposals or even a promise to pick judges who won't further erode womens' access to reproductive health care, it's a laundry list of past legislation that he was peripherally involved with. He "supported" legislation.. .when he wasn't voting "present".  Sometimes, he even went as far as to co-sponsor something. Whoopee. Nothing about doing the committee work and markup necessary to get legislation passed.

My disgust is complete with the last sentence. After all the whining at the beginning of the section about how he understands that abortion is a "divisive issue" and his "respect for those who disagree" with him, I didn't expect much - and I wasn't disappointed. Notice the weasel words in his "Barack Obama opposes late term abortions, but believes that there must be exceptions for the life and health of the woman". "Late term" is fast migrating from third trimester to anything past first trimester in the Obama lexicon, but he's not going to say that. He uses the Bush/Rove tactic of redefining things the way he wants them to be to obfuscate what he means by "late term". Also left out is his recent statement that mental distress won't qualify as a consideration for the mother's health, a position which places him in agreement with Justices Thomas and Scalia, and to the right of the other seven justices on the Supreme Court. Health is physical health only in the New Obama Dictionary, but if people are confused or misled by his generic use of "health", well, that's fine with Obama.

Look for more blue smoke and mirrors as the campaign progresses. If Obama gets the nomination, by November you'll have no idea what you're voting for.

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He stole the rest from Hillary, so he needs (0.00 / 0)
to get his hands on her details.  He had his wife introduce this?  Lovely.  Long live the patriarchy.

Yes, more anti-choice rhetoric.  Again, change conservatives can believe in.


Medicare for All is Civil Rights


No his wife just stood silently. Great. (0.00 / 0)
He is rolling back women's rolls the way he uses his wife while he's in the bully pulpit.

[ Parent ]
Just an Afterthought (0.00 / 0)
It only took him 19 months to pull together this empty shell of a plan and its only because he's scared sh#tless that we wimmin-folk are foing to stay home in Nov.

NOTE to BHO:  TOO LITTLE TOO LATE man!

Invest in Women - Change the World
http://twitter.com/alegrescorner


[ Parent ]
That Futher-Mucker Lost Me @ However (0.00 / 0)
He's supposed to be a DEMOCRAT for feck sake!  As far as my right to self-determination and reproductive freedom, there IS NO "HOWEVER" dammit!

What a fecking @s...  Ahh heck never mind.  You guys know what I think about BHO and choice by now.

Invest in Women - Change the World
http://twitter.com/alegrescorner


Tim Kaine has a 'faith-based opposition to abortion' (0.00 / 0)
and he's heavily floated as Obama's veep choice.
Tim Kaine:
*  Promote abstinence; ban partial-birth abortion. (Nov 2005)
* I have a faith-based opposition to abortion. (Nov 2005)

And today is this oped: Why Obama Seized the Faith-Based Mantle.  


I don't give a crap if Kaine has a faith based reason (0.00 / 0)
to oppose women's rights.  So the muslim extremist.  That's no excuse.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights

[ Parent ]
I mean this comment in no disrespect to muslims (0.00 / 0)
who believe in women's rights.

Medicare for All is Civil Rights

[ Parent ]
A faith-based opposition to women's rights (0.00 / 0)
is still an opposition to women's rights.


[ Parent ]
And I for one (0.00 / 0)
am sick and damn tired of some man's "faith" being considered important about what a woman does with "her" body.

Believe any damn thing you want. Have faith in any damn thing you want. Just make sure the government and religion mind their own business and leave a woman's decision about her body to that woman.

The only other person who should have ANY input is her doctor and then only for health reasons. When will women have enough of being treated like children?  


[ Parent ]
It's worse, he promised to roll back abortion rights (0.00 / 0)
when he was running for governor. I don't know if he already did it.

[ Parent ]
You can always count on a weasel to weasel (0.00 / 0)
Now that the Corporate Democratic Party, the DNC and Corporate Media has stuck us with this weasel woman's rights are no longer human rights. Does anyone seriously believe this man would fight for Women's rights? Women are something to be brushed off his shoulder, scraped off his shoe and told that they're "likable" enough.

It is apparent that not only wouldn't he fight for women's rights it is doubtful there is any other progressive issue for which he is willing to do battle.

After all the years of progressives screaming their heads off about the wimpy Dems rolling over for the Republicans we are now poised to nominate a Weasel-worded Wimp who wants to play nice with those that would take away our rights.

I supported a hard-working pragmatic candidate that I was convinced would fight for women's rights and other progressive rights. This weasel? Not bloody damn likely.  


The Audience (0.00 / 0)
Great post, Campskunk. Obama embraces a more conservative approach to a woman's right to choose. It is clear to me that Obama's intended audience is those wanting to restrict women's reproductive freedoms.

These are the things that stood out to me as pandering to the right on the issue:

1. "However" which undercuts the first sentence stating support of Roe v Wade.
2. The mention of "unintended pregnancies" 3 times. I'm all for reducing the number of "unintended pregnancies" but, like you said, what is he going to do to make abortion safe and accessible. He mentions words like "prevention," "family planning," and "abstinence" yet nothing about abortion. "Abortion" is mentioned 2 times in a negative way.  
3. He's already established his anti-woman stance on the issue of "late term" and the "mental" health of the mother.

I wish Hillary still had the Issues portion of her presidential campaign site up. This is from her Women's Issues page on her senate site. It specifically addresses unintended pregnancies. Just notice the difference in wording and the strength of Hillary's stance on the issue.

Preventing Unintended Pregnancies

I strongly believe that every child should be wanted, cherished, and loved. For more than a decade I have worked to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies, especially teen pregnancies, and to promote policies with the goal of making abortion safe, legal, and rare. As First Lady I helped found the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, which contributed to a one-third decrease in the teen pregnancy rate between 1995 and 2005. As Senator I have fought to increase funding for Title X, the nation's only family planning program, expand states' ability to provide family planning services through Medicaid, increase awareness and access to Emergency Contraception, particularly for victims of sexual assault, and promote medically-accurate sex education that encourages young people to abstain from sexual activity. And I know that an investment in family planning is a fiscally responsible investment - for every $1 spent on family planning, the Medicaid program saves $3 in pregnancy and birth-related costs.

I went to Obama's website (painful to do) to get more information about his positions on women's issues. It was actually hard to find. At first, I didn't see "Women" on the Issues drop down menu (its on the very bottom), so I clicked on the Issues page. Nothing there. I got the impression that it wasn't there. After looking under other categories on the Issues page, then messing with the Issues drop down a few times, I finally found "Women". Is it a site design flaw or is it a strategy to appease a certain type of voter who do not support women's issues? Needless to say I didn't stay long.

Can we please have the true Democratic, Hillary Clinton, who is the true champion of Women's Rights and Human Rights.  

Alice left me in Wonderland.  


her webpage is still accessable... (0.00 / 0)
if you use the internet archive. here's the "a champion for women" page.

http://web.archive.org/web/200...

Barack Obama's election proves that any male can grow up to be president, provided he's willing to use misogyny as a campaign strategy.


[ Parent ]
HRC is a champion for women (0.00 / 0)
This is the point that Obama misses repeatedly and Hillary gets:

When it comes to each woman's ability to make the most personal of life decisions, Hillary has stood firm as an advocate for a woman's right to choose.

This is where Obama fails as well:

[Hillary] spoke out forcefully against the Supreme Court's April 2007 decision that -- for the first time in decades -- failed to recognize the importance of women's health.

Hillary continues to champion the rights of all Americans (women's rights, FISA, etc.) and Obama continues to fail, throwing our rights under the bus.  

Alice left me in Wonderland.  


[ Parent ]
"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you?re knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."
Hillary Clinton - June 7, 2008

Hillary Clinton
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