Hillarysworld

The New York Times, along with MANY other news outlets, insists on framing its tepid objection to the Stupak amendment in terms of “abortion services.”  This morning the editors urged the Senate to “work to preserve a woman’s right to abortion services.”

Oh, please. Give me an everlasting break! During the Civil Rights Movement did the New York Times urge the legislatures of Southern states to work to preserve black Americans’ right to BUS SERVICE?? Did they urge them to work to preserve black Americans’ right to GRILLED CHEESE SANDWICHES and milkshakes? Is Rosa Parks a hero because of her efforts to preserve a black person’s right to equal bus service?

Of course not. The Civil Rights Movement, unlike the movement for women’s rights, received the respect it deserved from the mainstream media. Sit-ins at lunch counters and bus boycotts weren’t dismissively diminished down to being about the right to hold the tomatoes or to sit closer to the driver.

OBJECTION TO THE STUPAK AMENDMENT IS NOT ABOUT ABORTION SERVICES. No more than the Nashville Lunch Counter Sit Ins were about grilled cheese sandwiches. It is about respecting the Constitution and protecting each and every American’s claim to its rights — rights enumerated and rights unenumerated. THE AMERICAN CITIZEN’S RIGHT TO PRIVACY IS ENSHRINED IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. I have the right to purchase coverage for ANY medical procedure I want or need to have. I do NOT need to get permission from my congressman, your priest, or my neighbor’s husband to buy coverage for any medical procedure I want or need.

As Not Your Sweetie points out, “Stupak himself was incredulous about how easy [his amendment's passage] was and amazingly declared: ”It’s more than we thought we’d get!”

Quixote, at Shakesville, published a tattoo-worthy quote the other day:

“Rights are for all. When only some people have them, they’re just privileges. And privileges can be taken away.”

Just before I turned the laptop off in disgust and despair this morning I read this comment by BostonBoomer (she is not quoting herself in the comment but someone in the linked article) over at The Confluence:

“Women who miscarry later in pregnancy may not be covered if the Stupak amendment stays in the bill. Hospitals and doctors in general do not have terminology to classify a difference between the termination of a live pregnancy and one in which the fetus has already died. To them, a D&C is a D&C, regardless of the state of the “conception materials” removed. Regardless of how many times I made sure to mention to the staff, either for the sake of my sanity or to spare me some sort of imagined shame, that I was ridding myself of my “dead fetus,” to them, it was all the same.”

Men who want to limit our Constitutional right to privacy because of some Icky Feeling they have really need to be told by the New York Times, the president of the United States, and the US Congress to Sit Down and Shut Up! This is NOT about how icky or not you FEEL Senator Kyl or Congressman Stupak. The Constitution of the United States of America DOES NOT CARE how YOU FEEL. It also does not care how your priest or your bishop feels — about babies, about kittens, about boobies, about cervixes, about bleeding out after a miscarriage, about tampons, about Down’s Syndrome fetuses conceived accidentally by women over 45. In fact the Constitution does not care what you think about ANYTHING.  The Constitution of the United States of America was written to protect the rights of American citizens women. STAY AWAY.

CongressMEN did this, Pumas. Dudes with Roman collars and pointy hats who make a vow with GOD to remain unsullied by dirty womanhood did this. A president who is NOT a woman and NOT A FEMINIST did this. Good lord, how many different ways can I describe the way the world actually works, the fact that there really IS a concerted effort to hold women down to convince you to VOTE FOR WOMEN?

Like Harriet Tubman said, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”

Wake up, Women. Don’t be slaves.

http://pumapac.org/2009/11/10/this-is-not-about-grilled-cheese-sandwiches/