March 31, 2005

Abortion prevention and Democrats

I found this post, about tolerance for abortion among Catholics, quite heartening. Until this, at least

The Prevention First Initiative coupled with a position on prohibiting late term abortions except when required by the health of the mother neutralizes GOP attack lines .... [my emphasis]

Bullshit. Better sex ed and easier access to contraception for teenagers? Great. Working harder to prevent rape? Fantastic. Acting as though anyone knows better than a pregnant woman whether to continue her pregnancy or not? Completely unacceptable.

The Democratic party needs to stay the hell away from any restrictions on abortion rights if they don't want to marginalize feminists.

3 comments:

MosBen said...

I'm not sure marginalizing feminists would be a death knell for the party. Not that I think they should do it, but I just don't think feminists carry quite enough clout to threaten the party into doing what they want.

Noumena said...

No, and neither will be marginalizing other 'minority' groups. But it's still not something that should be done.

I'm not talking political strategy here. In fact, the Democratic party could do quite well following Armando's complete suggestion, because most Americans don't have a strong opinion on late-term abortions. I'm talking about what core values the party should embody, and a genuine respect for 'women's issues' should be one of those values. I don't think this genuine respect for female reproductive autonomy is compatible with supporting a ban on certain types of abortions. Individual Democrats might vote in favour of such bans, as is their right, but it should not be the official view or strategy of the party as a whole.

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