Posted by
Shogrensus on Thursday, April 19, 2007 11:17:44 PM
After Elisabeth tries to explain this was a bi-partisan effort Rosie explains:
***
Rosie: I don’t think its partisan, I think it’s women. I think Women: we are half the population and we can have our bodies legislated by the government. If men could get pregnant abortion would be a sacrament
Elisabeth: but I think we have to be careful. This is not
Rosie: Gloria Steinem
Elisabeth: this is not a ban on abortion. What happened yesterday was actually probably more representative of what the majority of Americans want. We are in a country where people, not myself because I am anti-abortion-
BW: How do you know that it is what the major
Elisabeth: I think that people want their right to their abortions. Women want the right to their own bodies in this country
Rosie: yes that’s right women’s reproduction freedom
Elisabeth: right but they most of the people, 2/3 of this country do not want partial birth abortion to be legal so it’s representative of our country
***
IN 2002, a Gallup study found that 53% of Americans thought abortion was morally wrong.
If the American people had to listen to the description of the partial birth abortion procedure as outlined in the Court's ruling yesterday there would be virtually no support for it.
The far left uses rhetoric to try to scare women into thinking that the Court has just given the government carte blanche to interfere in a woman's total right to reproductive freedom.
This Court decision is narrowly defined because the Act is very narrowly defined. Roe is not really even at issue in this case. The federal law that the Court upheld only addressed a specific version of the partial birth abortion procedure. Doctors still have the ability to perform partial birth abortions, as long as the fetus is dismembered in the womb or killed before either the head delivers in a head first delivery or the upper half of the body is delivered in a breach delivery.
Few people, men or women, will stand to publicly justify a partial birth abortion. Even the politicians who speak out against the Court's ruling are often careful to avoid talk of the actual decision. Instead they speak in general terms about lost rights, which really weren't lost:
On the Planned Parenthood website:
"Donate now as Planned Parenthood mobilizes in response to the Supreme Court's reckless decision to uphold the federal abortion ban — a ban that tells women that politicians, not doctors, will make their health care decisions for them."
***
Eve Gartner, Planned Parenthood Federation of America deputy director of litigation and law:
"Today the court took away an important option for doctors who seek to provide the best and safest care to their patients. This ruling tells women that politicians, not doctors, will make their health care decisions for them."
***
On the NOW website:
"Not since Bush v. Gore has the Supreme Court made such a political decision, or one that so completely distorts the law and disregards the U.S. Constitution. Five justices, including Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito — both installed by Bush and a Republican-majority Senate — ruled that the law does not violate a woman's constitutional right to an abortion."
***
Mai Shiozaki, National Organization for Women spokeswoman.
"NOW is fiercely against the Court's ruling which puts a woman's health at risk."