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Note that he said he "trusted" women to make those decisions?
Yes, he trusted them to make decisions about abortion in consultation "with their doctors, their families and their clergymen."
Yet, none of those other parties would be carrying that pregnancy. And, we know from experience that women also bear most of the responsibility for raising children, no matter what lip service men choose to pay.
Nor did the then-candidate discuss the reasons for that one percent or so of procedures being questioned, most likely, late term abortions, which are done for therapeutic reasons, and most often to save the life and/or fertility of the woman, who may suffer complications, if forced to carry a risky pregnancy to term. Do you suppose he’s even seen the reports showing that we rank near the bottom of industrialized nations on both infant and maternal mortality? Forced maternity, but without either proper or adequate maternity care? Where are we living… in one of Margaret Atwood’s dystopic novels? Please, tell her to stop writing them. They just come true…
I’ve often quoted Obama on this specific statement in the video above, but this time I decided to look for the video on YouTube. There’s nothing like actually seeing and hearing him say those words. Even though he does not really mean them. Please note that his voice and his lips are in synch… no overdubbing here.
This statement is one of the reasons that I knew then that Obama didn’t really "get" it… that he was just trying to use his rhetorical ability more effectively than GWB used his.
Still, I voted for him in the general (but Hillary in the primary)… otherwise, it would have been McCain. I probably would not make a similar choice in the future. I might choose, instead, to vote only as high up the ticket as I felt comfortable.
Compare Obama’s complicated statement with Dr. Tiller’s much simpler "Trust Women."
And, today, we learned that from the bubble of the White House, Obama decided to issue an Executive Order that may actually restrict abortions more than the Hyde amendment… and that he released its text to the media without even the courtesy of first showing it to the relevant stakeholders.
Clearly… the President of the United States does not trust a bit more than half of his constituents.
I’m thinking we need two presidents in this country… a man and a woman, one for each gender. Clearly, women have not been adequately represented since the very beginning of this republic.
On an earlier post of mine, ubetchaiam suggested that I read "The Disappearance," by Philip Wylie. I’ll be looking for it real soon.
18 Comments
We trusted (past tense) Obama too, KarenM. That’s all over. He punked us, on this and just about everything else. Turns out this Democratic administration is just as bad as its Republican predecessor. Maybe worse because at least W pretty much told you what he’d do before he did it.
I agree, fflambeau, that this time it really is worse.
(I’m not quite finished editing yet… a few more details needed.)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/01/25/article-1127428-032E203D000005DC-863_468x384.jpg
This was a cover pic on Ms. Magazine.
punked!
I guess he punked Ms. Magazine, too? What a farce!
It was clear from the get-go that Obama was going to punk everybody when he voted for the FISA Bill, for continued funding for our war on Iraq, and his promise (that he’s definitely kept) to escalate, expand and extend our war on Afghanistan.
That FISA bill was a real eye-opener. Hillary, btw, voted against it. By the time the election rolled around, though, it was Obama or McCain. Sophie’s Choice, translated into modern day.
Great diary KarenM
It just keeps getting worse and worse with Obama and his Democrats. Social Security ‘reform’ will be next.
Thanks, fflambeau! This issue is very personal for me.
I saw what “forced” childbirth did to my mother, who had six children in ten years, because she was not allowed birth control. Her body paid the toll. At 56 (57 in July) I am already older than my mother was when she died at 55.
A few years ago, I read in an Australian newspaper about the way that bearing children spaced too closely together wreaks havoc on a woman’s body. It was not news to me.
And, I read a lot of Jane Austen, over and over, because there is so much of substance to women in her work, and so many women died during that time in childbirth, that men often had more than one wife, in order to produce more heirs.
Despite my age, I cannot let it go.
Truly, Obama does not seem to understand that you cannot lead a country in a bipartisan manner. You have to take some stands. I detested Bush, but even he understood that. Obama was elected for very specific reasons, none of which he has chosen to honor.
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear politicians will say anything to get elected.
Clearly, Obama will… but I can’t see it working for him a second time.
Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.
Ian Welsh had a good piece here.
Early on, I saw Obama’s continuation of Bush 43 policies as a problem and wrote about it somewhere else back in April 2009, a scant three months after being sworn in.
Oh well, I’ll actively work against him from here out.
Like I said, we have one corporate body with a Blue arm and a Red arm. No difference.
Thanks for the link!
Same here.
I guess we need to start going Green.
An Executive Order is the ultimate Paternalistic, Authoritarian method of enforcing the will of the Unitary Executive on The People.
Thanks for writing this, KarenM, depressing as it is. :-{
It is harpie, but this one is primarily on only one half of the population.
Another post from Ian Welsh:
Not to re-fight the primary wars or anything, but Bonnie Grabenhofer who was president of Illinois NOW in 2008 had this to say about the present votes that Obama cast in the Illinois Senate on bills that affected access to abortion:
The e-mail quotes Bonnie Grabenhofer, the president of Illinois NOW, as saying that voting present on those bills was a strategy that Illinois NOW did not support, and adding: We made it clear at the time that we disagreed with the strategy. . . . Voting present does not provide a platform from which to show leadership and say with conviction that we support a woman’s right to choose and these bills are unacceptable.
We were warned.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/04/AR2008020402980.html
Thank you for that comment! It appears to confirm what I’ve thought all along about Obama and women’s reproductive health issues.
He doesn’t really trust women… unless they also consult with their husbands, doctors and clergymen.