NJDC's Blog

On the 35th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade

Thirty-five years ago today, the Supreme Court proclaimed that women have a fundamental right to control their bodies.  Yet the struggle to keep abortion safe, accessible and legal has continued and never has that right been in more jeopardy. 

With the confirmation of Justices Roberts and Alito, abortion rights hang by a thread. One more conservative Supreme Court confirmation will tip the scales.  It is clear that the 2008 elections will decide whether the reproductive freedom of women in this country will be preserved and protected or denied.

It is notable that every Republican presidential contender would appoint Supreme Court justices opposed to Roe and dedicated to its overthrow.  And every Democratic presidential candidate has strongly affirmed the right of women to make this most personal of decisions.  All Republican presidential contenders would limit access to abortion services for poor women, and all Democratic contenders have committed to equal access to reproductive health services for all women.  And despite the Republican
candidates attempting to outdo each other in their proposals to limit the role of government, they all make one exception, and hypocritically demand that the government insert itself into the private medical decisions of American women.

There are stark differences between presidential candidates of the Republican Party and those of the Democratic Party.  On this somber anniversary let us remember those tens of thousands of women who have died in illegal abortions, and those tens of thousands of women today who have had access to those services challenged and cut through the actions of this callous Republican administration which has no respect for women's fundamental rights.  We must remember what is at stake in November, and vote accordingly.

Thompson Pulls a Romney

Hypocrite Mitt seems to be rubbing off on the other GOP presidential candidates. 

Fred Thompson is changing his story daily about whether or not he lobbied for a pro-choice group even though he claims to be pro-life.  Of course as a pro-choice organization, we here at NJDC would love to welcome Mr. Thompson into the big tent of the choice community, but with the religious right holding so much influence in the Republican party, we don't seem him embracing our side with open arms. 

Here's the latest on Thompson's flip flopping, courtesy of MSNBC'S First Read:

*** You Just Knew This Was Coming: When it was first reported that Fred Thompson might have lobbied for a pro-choice group, his camp first said Thompson had no recollection that he ever did such a thing. Then Thompson made some non-denial denials that reminded us of the old SNL "Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer" character. And now, voila, there’s an article about records confirming that that Thompson DID lobby for the group. In fact, he apparently spoke to a representative of the abortion rights group 22 times. But he wasn’t able to recall the lobbying effort when this was first reported? Thompson is lucky that some in the GOP base are so hungry for a candidate who at least looks like a conservative -- even if his record indicates otherwise.

Sound like anything another GOP candidate would do?  Hmm ...

GOPers Fight Over Who is Most Sufficiently Anti-Choice

Lest there be any question that the far right owns the GOP nominating process, the Boston Globe reports:

The campaign of Senator John McCain launched a new broadside against Mitt Romney yesterday over Romney's reversal on abortion, but Romney's campaign quickly hit back by saying McCain's move was borne out of desperation.

Despite Fox News' Inaccurate Reporting, Embryonic Stem Cell Research Holds More Promise than Alternatives

Fox "News" continues to be an oxymoron ...

Media Matters has an interesting piece online about Fox News' failure to report accurately about experimental stem cell research that does not use embryos.  Some unethical Republicans have tried to peddle this as an excuse to ban embryonic research and undermine efforts to cure disease (in order to score political points with the Religious Right).   

In the June 7 edition of Fox News' Special Report, Fox News homeland defense correspondent Catherine Herridge reported that opponents of a bill that would ease restrictions on federally funded embryonic stem cell research cited alternative methods, such as a new technique in the experimental stage, in which scientists were able to use skin cells from mice to develop cells that have regenerative properties similar to that of a mouse's embryonic stem cell.

But in doing so, Herridge failed to note that the technique's developers have asserted that that it will be "awhile" before they know whether or not the process can be applied to human cells. In a June 6 press release, the scientists stated that "all these results are preliminary and proof of principle. It will be awhile before we know what can and can't be done in humans." They also noted that human embryonic stem cells "remain the gold standard" and that "it would simply be premature and irresponsible to claim that we no longer need [human] eggs for embryonic stem cell research."

Anti-Choice Movement Changes Message/Tactics

The New York Times is reporting that

....[L]ast month’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act marked a milestone for a different argument advanced by anti-abortion leaders, one they are increasingly making in state legislatures around the country. They say that abortion, as a rule, is not in the best interest of the woman; that women are often misled or ill-informed about its risks to their own physical or emotional health; and that the interests of the pregnant woman and the fetus are, in fact, the same.

As usual, however, the pro-life movement continues to abort intellectual honesty:

"Informed consent is really a misleading way to characterize it," said Roger Evans, senior director of public policy litigation and law for Planned Parenthood. "To me, what we’ll see is an increasing attempt to push a state’s ideology into a doctor-patient relationship, to force doctors to communicate more and more of the state’s viewpoint."

Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, said, "It’s motivated by politics, not by science, not by medical care, and not for the purposes of compassion."

The Guttmacher Institute, a research group and an affiliate of Planned Parenthood, said recently that "a considerable body of credible evidence" over 30 years contradicted the notion that legal abortion posed long-term dangers to women’s health, physically or mentally.

Correction to Blog Entry and Email on Choice Supreme Court Decision

My apologies for the following error in a previous blog posting and an action alert email we sent out.

I wrote that the late term abortion ban does not offer protections for the life and health of the mother. While I was correct in asserting that the ban does NOT offer "health of the mother" protections -- and a strong case can be made that this put's a woman's life in danger -- the Washington Post reports the following: "It [the ban] does, however, provide an exception to save the woman's life."

I apologize for the confusion.

With Obama Announcement, five of six Democratic presidential candidates confirmed to speak at NJDC conference

NJDC announced today that Senator Barack Obama will speak at our Washington Conference, to be held April 23-25, 2007. We’ve previously announced that Senator Joseph Biden, Senator Chris Dodd, Senator John Edwards, Governor Bill Richardson, DNC Chairman Howard Dean, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Israeli Ambassador Sallai Meridor will be joining us.

Click here for more information and click here to register.

A tentative schedule is available here.

 

Radical Right Wingnut Group Determined to Sway Election

The Christian Coalition, an extremist, radical right wing group which has been engaged in a long campaign to blur the separation between church and state, promote extremist Republican candidates, and preach hate against gays and lesbians, has pledged to work overtime to sway the 2008 elections. 

Writes the Associated Press:

"The coalition is trying to resurrect its once-vaunted influence at a time when religious conservatives are struggling to find an acceptable candidate among the leading contenders for the 2008 Republican nomination."

Just how determined to the Christian Coalition to continue the radical right's dominance of the Republican party?  Here's the Coalition president's explanation of why her organization holds sway on the GOP's platform committee:

(It) is important for us to be on the platform committee because we can have a voice. We can make sure that the platform stays intact _ that the liberal or moderate Republicans don't change it.

http://www.njdc.org/issues/detail.php?id=657

click to register

Church and State, Choice, and Domestic Terrorism

TAPPED:

THE FORGOTTEN TERRORISM: Garry Wills's fine recent New York Review of Booksarticle about the Bush administration's systematic evisceration of the separation of church and state recalls this important story:

After his nomination but before his confirmation, Ashcroft promised to put an end to the task force set up by Attorney General Janet Reno to deal with violence against abortion clinics -- evangelicals oppose the very idea of hate crimes. The outcry of liberals against Ashcroft's promise made him back off from it during his confirmation hearings. In 2001, there was a spike in violence against the clinics -- 790 incidents, as opposed to 209 the year before. That was because the anthrax alarms that year gave abortion opponents the idea of sending threatening powders to the clinics -- 554 packets were sent. Nonetheless, Ashcroft refused for a long time to send marshals to quell the epidemic.

And although this has also been largely forgotten, the fake anthrax attacks were mild compared to the terrorism used against abortion clinics prior to the passage of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. (In 1991 alone, there there were were 2 cases of murder or attempted murder of abortion providers, 9 bombings/arsons (or attempted bombings/arsons), 83 cases of invasions, assault and battery, vandalism, death threats burglary or stalking, and 3,885 arrests at blockades.) The importance of federal enforcement in this area couldn't be clearer.