I love Katha Pollitt. She was the primary reason I started paying real attention to “The Nation” years ago – why I gladly handed over my cash for a subscription. But lately, I lost track of her, and honestly haven’t been reading anything by her. Her current column on the fact that the Dems owe the pro-choice camp for backing off on health care put an end to that lack of attention.
While I agree with her contentions, and most of her wish list, I couldn’t help thinking that I’ve heard this refrain before. Historically, women have backed down in the political arena for what they’ve considered good reasons at the time. The result has been that women end up being last in line when it comes to reaping political gains. It is highly unlikely that anyone on the Hill or in the White House will think twice about rewarding NARAL or Planned Parenthood for staying out of the fray once it became clear that screwing women over was on the menu for the conservative men, regardless of party affiliation. They gave up their fight for the supposedly more important battle for health care reform in general. It’s nothing new. Women backed down on the fight for suffrage back in the 1800′s, for the more important battle against slavery. And that left women without the vote until a group of women decided they wouldn’t back down simply because our country was at war – back in the day when protesting against the government in wartime could be considered the equivalent of treason. It was historic, and beyond getting women the right to vote, it also left the door open for future protests in wartime – even against war in general.
So, I agree with Pollitt that the Dems owe the pro-choice/feminist movement, don’t expect to see them do a damn thing about it, and disagree with the entire situation in the first place. We’re making history now, right? While it might seem nice to say that the women backing down made health care reform possible, it is not a victory on any level. Every time I see one politician or another saying “well, it’s not what I really wanted, but I’ll vote for it anyway” – the common refrain lately – I keep thinking then don’t vote for the damn bill, and fix it. It’s not been about health care reform for a long while now – it’s about saving a presidency, pure and simple. Well, bluntly, I don’t give a damn about the President. I want health care reform that’s done right from the beginning – not a stepping stone that will need to be “tweaked”.
And I want a pro-choice/feminist movement that doesn’t give a damn about anything else but their own goals. I don’t want this apologetic, hide from the public eye BS that I’ve been seeing for years. There have been a few exceptions to that, but that’s not good enough. The exceptions should be the apologetic ones. I’m tired of seeing the movement play nice. I’m not talking about taking on the borderline violent tactics we see from the “Christian” right. I mean let’s stop pussy-footing around the truth. Everybody knows that the anti-choice movement doesn’t give a damn what happens to all those babies once their born – they just want to make sure women don’t have a choice. Call them on it. They claim that they’re for fiscal conservatism, so make them explain how they plan to pay for thousands of unwanted children. Unwanted children end up abused, needing public, educational, and medical assistance – unless they happen to get lucky and end up being adopted. But the reality of that situation is that American couples looking to adopt go overseas for orphans if they can afford to, primarily because the farther away the biological parents are, the less likely they’ll end up fighting in court later to keep their kids.
Let’s be honest here. While many people might say that they care about a woman’s right to choose – or her rights in general – it gets trumped far too often by the anti-choice camp because they get to play on people’s emotions about innocent children. Now, if the CBO can sit down and play with the numbers to figure out how health care reform can cost billions, but save trillions, I think someone can sit down for NARAL and Planned Parenthood and figure out how much building orphanages and foundling hospitals, increasing child protective services nationwide, increasing welfare, and possibly building more prisons would cost. Stop letting the other side define the situation. Make them explain to the public what will happen once those innocent babies grow up – and what happens when many of them probably aren’t so innocent anymore. I think they might not find so many supporters once the people really think about what the potential financial and societal tolls would be. So there’s part of the ugly truth, but I think I’d probably drop dead of a heart attack if I saw that coming out of NARAL or Planned Parenthood in a very public and official way. Sure, it might get whispered from time to time. Isn’t it time to start shouting it?
And please stop talking about the right of women to not end up dead from botched abortions. Yes, it’s another ugly truth, but it’s not effective. Why in the world do you think that the eff’ed up idiots claiming that you don’t have the right to control your own body would give a damn if you died? Get it straight. They’re out there following that biblical order to “go forth and multiply”, and hoping that they’ll breed your kind out. The more kids they have, the better to fight against you in the future. I sometimes think that they wish they could promote the use of birth control – selectively – as in giving it away for free to all those nasty feminists screaming for reproductive rights. They can’t get away with that much hypocrisy, so they just hope that your kind becomes extinct.
So, the Dems owe the pro-choice movement. Asking nicely doesn’t cut it – history has proven that time and again. Maybe it’s time to go back to some of the old tactics. I’ve got a sewing machine, and can make the banners with the demands. Who’s up for picketing the White House and the Hill until we get what we want?
Tags: Feminists, Katha Pollitt, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Pro-choice, Reproductive Rights, The Nation
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