HEALTH CARE REFORM AND THE STUPAK/PITTS AMENDMENT

Women’s health means rightwing stealth. At the last minute, the Stupak/Pitts Amendment was attached to the Health Care Reform Bill. This amendment violates the underlying principle of health care reform, as articulated by President Obama, that “no one will lose the benefits they currently have.” Truth is that under the Stupak/Pitts Amendment, millions of women would lose benefits they already have and millions more would be prohibited from getting the kind of private sector health care coverage that most women have today. Ie: millions of women would lose private coverage for abortion services and millions more would be prohibited from buying it even with their own money.

People are often surprised that we are still fighting this battle for freedom of choice after so long. I’m not. I’ve come to understand that anti-choice and opposition to contraception has nothing to do with pro-life or pro-fetus; it has everything to do with power and who has it. It represents a mindset that values women mainly for their services as wives and sexual partners to men and as producers and rearers of children.

Reproduction and sexuality are keys to women’s empowerment. If a woman is able to determine the reproductive and sexual aspects of her life, it means she can also control and determine many other aspects of her life. When women are robbed of reproductive health and contraceptive decision-making, they loose an essential element of what it means to be a full human being.

This is a power struggle that has existed from the very beginning of the 120-year fight over reproductive rights. Every dictator—Stalin, Ceaucescu, Hilter—has made anti-choice a central component of their agenda. The anti-choice movement has used different strategies over the decades, growing more strategic and virulent in reaction to the modern U.S. women’s movement. Granting personhood to the fetus is only the latest incarnation and now the Stupak/Pitts Amendment shows how clever the movement has become. Most folks blame the Bishops without realizing the most pernicious part of it all.

Reproductive health has to be understood from a woman’s point of view. How a woman manages her fertility comprises a whole spectrum of factors — her relations, sexual and otherwise with her partner; her economic and psychological circumstances; her status within the family and in the community; her future security. Health factors are only one among all these others and since childbearing and child rearing is a complex social and economic undertaking that affects a woman’s economic, social, sexual, and emotional life, and the life of her family and her community, this undertaking cannot be decided by a medical doctor who is weighing it from the point of view of health risks, or of policy-makers who may view it subjectively as a moral issue. This makes the woman an “object” and it dismisses her knowledge about her own body and her own life and instead of enhancing her dignity and self-respect it belittles and disempowers her.

It reflects a mindset that believes that women cannot be trusted to make decisions that will be good for their families and society; that what is good for a family and a community and a society or even a woman’s own health is something that must be determined by others who “know better” and then imposed on her.

The strategy of the anti-choice forces today is not to oppose abortion frontally but, instead, to wage an incremental assault in a long-term effort to win the hearts and minds of the American public. The Stupak/Pitts amendment is a good example.

Let’s not let this pass.

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81 Comments
  1. Women already have a choice. Have unprotected sex, protected sex, or don’t. There is your choice. Once you’ve made it, you must deal with the consequences of your actions. This my dear ladies, is called responsibility. Try being responsible for once and then there is no need for this discussion. If you don’t want to get pregnant you know what to do. Wanting abortion is like wanting to get high on drugs without killing yourself. Dumb.

    ABORTION IS MURDER!!!!

    • Can’t help but think, dear Chris, that you don’t understand women’s lives—rape, incest (one out of 4 women and girls!!!), girls being called “Bad” if they carry condums and pressured by boys to not use protection cause it doesn’t feel good and on and on.

      • No, Dear Jane. I understand fully that women are incapable of understanding that there are consequences to their actions. Or maybe they do but just don’t care. Society seems to allow women to literally get away with murder and quite frankly, I’m tired of this BS. The vast majority of abortions are done simply out of regret. Maybe if they had thought about that before sex, abortion wouldn’t be an issue. Case in point, I met a young woman a few years ago who literally brags about having 7 abortions. Now, that obviously doesn’t represent all women but it gives an example of someone trying to escape responsibility.

        I would, however, support a law that would allow abortion in the case of rape since that isn’t a choice. Maybe they should force the criminal to pay for it.

        In short, Think before you act.

    • I will state that I believe abortion is murder.

      All of the attempts by pro-choice folks are not as much for free choice as they are attempts to heal your collective and individual guilt and conscience. Many of the same folks that crusade for the rights of animals are all for abortion. A good friend of mine divorced his wife because she decided at the last minute to get an abortion. Although he tried everything to stop it, he had no rights under the law and his actions resulted in a restraining order against him. To make a long story short, she was successful in the murder of his PLANNED daughter.

      Abortion is legal and cannot be denied at this time. Too bad.

      I lead a platoon that deployed to Iraq. There were nine women in my platoon with two of them being married. Just before deployment, four of the nine got pregnant: One married, and three single. We deployed without them and learned that shortly thereafter all three of the single soldiers got abortions. This fact could not be hidden from our command for long and they were prosecuted not for getting abortions, but for intent to undermine the readiness of the unit.

      I find that a lot of men out there that support abortion really could care less about the rights of women. On the contrary, there interests are self serving. What they are really interested in is that they no longer need to be held accountable. Sounds great right? All the sex you want with as many partners as you want and no accountability. Women become nothing more than sexual conquests in the minds of many men. Just another pleasure toy.

      I would say that it is not to be expected that the woman a young man decides to marry is a virgin. Most likely some other young man has already been there. That special moment of marriage is not so special anymore as the consummation of the marriage is cheapened. Any woman that would even consider saving her virginity for marriage is considered a prude and an outcast by there peers. Is this what we consider socially positive evolution?

      Thanks to abortion, men have an easy way out of any commitment and both sexes are now free to be as promiscuous as they want from very young ages. STD’s among our youth is gong through the roof.

      In my opinion the evidence is clear: Abortion facilitates this behavior. The percentage of abortions performed because of rape and incest is insignificant when compared to those performed for convenience. You can hide your head in the sand but the fact remains that abortion’s primary use is just a form a birth control that allows men and women to no longer be accountable.

      Abortion facilitates rape and incest.

      An internet predator grooms an underage girl and they eventually have sex. She gets pregnant and off they go to the Planned Parenthood abortion mill.

      Same scenario for the father, uncle cousin or brother that commits incest.

      So is this fact or fiction? Has it happened and how prevalent is the scenario described? Decide for yourself:

      http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2009/03/planned_parenth_49.html

      The morally corrupt in our society will use sophistry to support defend the indefensible and intentionally mislead.

      We fight for trees.
      We fight for animals.
      Who is fighting for our children and our species?

      Now for the statistics:

      http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/policy/abortion/abreasons.html

      Pretty damning stuff.

      The bottom line is very logical:

      http://8e.devbio.com/article.php?id=162

      1. When life begins is hotly contested by reputable scientists and philosophers.

      2. Being that the jury is still out on the issue we cannot proceed with abortion rights and should err on the side of life.

      Because we live in the United States there is this thing we have called the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We are a country of guaranteed individual rights and since it is not only the woman to be considered but that of a child as well, then the support for abortion weakens to the point of being indefensible when considered in this context because the beginning of life is still not in agreement among our greatest scientists and philosophers. Since we are debating life here, the decision should be in in support of life.

      This is horrific and I can’t believe it is legal:

      Intact D&E
      Usually, preliminary procedures are performed over a period of two to three days, to gradually dilate the cervix using laminaria tents (sticks of seaweed which absorb fluid and swell). Sometimes drugs such as pitocin, a synthetic form of oxytocin, are used to induce labor. Once the cervix is sufficiently dilated, the doctor uses an ultrasound and forceps to grasp the fetus’ leg. The fetus is turned to a breech position, if necessary, and the doctor pulls one or both legs out of the birth canal, causing what is referred to by some people as the ‘partial birth’ of the fetus. The doctor subsequently extracts the rest of the fetus, usually without the aid of forceps, leaving only the head still inside the birth canal. An incision is made at the base of the skull, a blunt dissector (such as a Kelly clamp) is inserted into the incision and opened to widen the opening,[8] and then a suction catheter is inserted into the opening. The brain is suctioned out, which causes the skull to collapse and allows the fetus to pass more easily through the birth canal. The placenta is removed and the uterine wall is vacuum aspirated using a cannula.[9]

      Since the PETA folks force us to confront how we treat animals, then turnabout is fair play regarding the horrific abortion procedures.

      If you believe in God, I would not want to be in your shoes on judgment day.

  2. Enjoy reading the varied comments and views after your blog but when some get off the subject with name-calling and character attacks, it nullifies their arguments and ceases any respect the reader may have.

  3. Ms. Fonda,

    See my reply to Matt. And by the way, why is it that the same people who oppose women’s right to choose so often also oppose contraception and the pubic programs that makes it easier for poor women to feed and raise healthy children. As we say, they believe life begins with conception and ends with birth.

    Because statistics prove that contraception does not work. Period. Do the math.

    Not to mention that it is the pro lifers and Christians in this world that offer women a real choice. We, not you, offer pregnancy care centers where women can go and get the help they need to raise their children. Our parish alone, raised $15,000.00 last month for just this purpose. What have you done to help the children that are here when they come out of the womb? What do you do to help woman make the choice to KEEP their children.

    It amazes me that you accuse us of wanting power and nothing else and then include this in your post:

    Reproduction and sexuality are keys to women’s empowerment. If a woman is able to determine the reproductive and sexual aspects of her life, it means she can also control and determine many other aspects of her life. When women are robbed of reproductive health and contraceptive decision-making, they loose an essential element of what it means to be a full human being.

    Seems to me that it’s YOU, not us, that is fighting for “power”. We’re just trying to save lives.

    You also say:

    It reflects a mindset that believes that women cannot be trusted to make decisions that will be good for their families and society; that what is good for a family and a community and a society or even a woman’s own health is something that must be determined by others who “know better” and then imposed on her.

    and two minutes ago you said:

    girls being called “Bad” if they carry condums and pressured by boys to not use protection cause it doesn’t feel good and on and on.

    Seriously? Which is it? Women can be trusted to make their own decisions or they won’t use a condom because they are afraid of being called bad? Can they decide what to do with their own bodies? Or do they forgo condoms cuz the “guy says they don’t feel good”…honestly, do you even read your own posts?

    Then you say:

    Can’t help but think, dear Chris, that you don’t understand women’s lives—rape, incest (one out of 4 women and girls!!!),

    LOL…Please, one out of four women does NOT become pregnant from rape or incest, so please don’t mix fruits. You don’t need an abortion is you ain’t pregnant. You want to stop rape and incest? Great. But don’t use phony statistics to do it. One out of four women does NOT need an abortion due to rape or incest…

    And exactly what good does it do to give a fourteen year old that is impregnated by an adult male an abortion if she doesn’t tell anyone? How does this “help” her? She doesn’t have parental support. The guy gets to continue his illegal behavior…btw, is this the same mature, responsible, able to make her own decisions girl that didn’t use a condom because they are baaaad?

    You’re killin’ me. Honestly. How old are you now? And you’re still stamping your feet and crying “I want, I want”…you may be growing old, but you ain’t grown up!

    MY BODY MY CHOICE…Keep your hands off my Health Care!

  4. Jane you need to join the 21st century. I don’t think girls have been thought to be “Bad” if they carry condoms since the 1950s. Besides that who cares what other people think. Why don’t you try empowering women instead of removing responsibility from them. As for rape, incest and cases of the baby threatening the life of the mother it is a perfectly acceptable medical procedure. Maybe you should do a little research into Planned Parenthood. Margaret Sanger was an advocate for eugenics believing the best way to get rid of poor black people was to allow them the CHOICE to have and abortion. This is closer to Hitler than your analogy.

  5. Wow. And oh my goodness gracious.
    Imagine what the world would be like if life were in reverse. And men got pregnant instead of women almost every time they had sex with a female. Even using “protection” as that doesn’t always work. The resulting chaos is such an interesting thought.
    And why are so many people so concerned about what someone else does with his or her body?

  6. I really don’t question the motives behind why you have a certain position. Is it possible to discuss this issue w/o questioning the motives of those that disagree. I am sure you would agree that the law has a right to stop a mother or father from beating their children. In believing that the law has a right to prevent abortion, I believe that, just because the child has not come out of the woman, does not mean that the child has no legal rights. Should a society permit the killing of human beings. This is a moral question that should be faced honestly and not avoided by focusing on the motives of others. In opposing abortion restrictions, one is saying that the law should not prohibit the killing of certain children.

  7. Instead of reproductive rights how about we start paying attention to reproductive responsibility then there wouldn’t be any so called “need” for abortion.

    There’s too many ways to not get pregnant for someone to get pregnant if they don’t want to.

    HURRAY for the Stupak/Pitts Amendment!

  8. Ahhh, thanks Scott. I was wondering, too!

  9. Thank you, Jane, for sticking up for womens’ rights, even if it is not the popular opinion. So glad to read that it’s pinhead BO who directed all these folks here. I’ve been reading and enjoying your blog for months and wondered how the heck they even found your blog; now I just wonder why they would even take the time to type in their opposing view. And the insults. Wow. Sure wish these folks would invest more of their time in helping the babies and children already in this world who are suffering so greatly.

  10. Don’t let these mean spirited comments get you down! Even though I don’t agree with pro-lifers, I try to be respectful of their feelings. For some reason, the favor isn’t always returned. I’ll write my Congresswoman about this latest outrage. It kinda worked for the Lily Leadbetter bill.

  11. “Reproduction and sexuality are keys to women’s empowerment. If a woman is able to determine the reproductive and sexual aspects of her life, it means she can also control and determine many other aspects of her life.”

    Yes – and it’s a big problem that feminism is becoming polarized over the “sexuality” aspect as it simultaneously tries to organize for the “reproductive” aspect. That schizm is a huge obstacle in the way of real freedom and real power.

  12. Jane…you hit the nail on the head. I have long since believed that those who wish to clench with a tight fist the uterus of a woman do so for the sake of power. There is no lofty and laudible goal of “saving” a child…if there were, we would have fully funded programs that support the lives of young children born into poverty, or much worse, un-wantedness.

    The hypocrisy of those groups that protest, lobby, and murder doctors in the name of protecting the unborn remains one of the filthiest elements of our society. Our churches do little to care for the needs of the living children unless they conform to the expectations of that religion….which is power at its most disgusting level. Try getting help from a church without being bombarded with religious sanctimony and handouts on salvation.

    Attempting to wield power over the very private and personal right of a woman (who 9 times out of 10 provides the majority of care for that child) to decide what goes in and what comes out of her womb is tantamount to a dictatorship regime that I want no part of.

    I firmly believe that the partriachal society in which we live cannot let go of this abortion issue because they fear a lack of control. Because it’s such a personal and intimate issue, the powers that be prey upon the insecurity of a woman to do what is best for her. That insecurity stems from a life filled with religious doctrine telling her she is less than a man, societal stereotypes that place unrealistic expectations on how to look, live, dress, work and care for children, and a lifetime of inequality in the home, workplace, communities, and religious organizations.

    The latest proof of this mindset stems from the whining taking place in the educational community because women have now overtaken men as qualified applicants enrolled in higher education. There are now more women with better qualifications attending universities and colleges than men, and that scares them…because knowledge is power, and power is the ultimate weapon.

  13. Jane,
    You are as wrong on this issue as you were in Vietnam. What you and others like you fail to realize is that the vast majority of pro-life people are not anti-women. Pro-life people oppose abortion–not because we want to oppress women but because we know that pre-born babies are human–just as human as you or me. They simply haven’t lived long enough to be born. I am a pro-life obstetrician and I prescribe contraceptives and perform contraceptive procedures every day–I am most definitely not anti-women. I do not desire to keep women ‘barefoot and pregnant’ as people like you and Gloria Feldt believe. I am simply one of a growing number of people who will be passionate advocates for the youngest and most helpless among us–preborn children.

    Abortion is a racist procedure–while only 14 percent of the American population is black, almost 40 % of abortions are performed on black women and kill black babies. With over 50 million abortions now performed since Roe v Wade, that is one black baby murdered for every two black people in this country. Abortion is also a sexist procedure–most abortionists won’t “help” a woman unless she has the cash for the procedure, and then won’t be available to take care of the complications. Believe me–I have seen far too many women who have had problems after an abortion and they can’t get the people at Planned Parenthood to call them back. In countries like India and China, where women are considered second class citizens, it is now illegal for a woman to be told the gender of her child at the time of her prenatal ultrasound since far too many people choose to abort female babies. These are facts that you cannot deny–but I am sure it will be interesting to see how you try to spin them.

  14. Hello Jane,

    I came to know you and admire you as a teen in the ’70s when you were making some of the best movies ever made and were deep seated in the political tapestry, as well.

    I worked at a movie theater so I saw every one of your movies, time and time again, and relished them. That also enabled me to work the Hollywood premiere of the China Syndrome. Not long after that, you made a fundraising appearance at a theater in Fullerton after a showing of Klute. You were going to give a speech on Tom’s Campaign for Democracy. Beforehand you signed autographs. I brought my program from the China Syndrome premiere and you signed it. You liked my name.

    After the movie, you came out and sat on the stage to applause. As you began to speak, a group of hecklers stood up and would not let you get a word out of your mouth. I was so angry. Me and other shouted at them to stop. They did not. You finally gave up and left, walking up the aisle on my side of the theater as the crowd got kinda crazy. I was on the end and stood up and thrust out my hand to you. In all the chaos, you were kind enough to stop and shake it while I apologized for the behavior of others. It was one of the best days of my life. Since then I’ve continued to combat the fixated and very narrow minded beliefs of the people who still call you Hanoi Jane – friends of my parents, uncles, VFW veterans, superiors…..ironically, some of the same people who demonized the troops when they came home from that awful war. The same people who get out of their easy chair to vote just to make sure someone like me doesn’t get the right to marry. The same people who still don’t think women deserve to make decisions about their own bodies.

    I spent 22 years in the military, enduring my own issues as not only a female, but a gay person. I know what it is like to keep your head above water in a white male dominated arena. One day about 7 years ago, my uncle, a retired USAF helicopter pilot who served in NAM, sent me an email that had been forwarded a hundred times. It was a petition in an attempt to cancel an award some organization was giving you. They said you didn’t deserve it because you were a traitor. I was appalled. I fished through the hundreds of email addresses on it to find the originator – who was a Navy Master Chief (E-9), and I lambasted him. I asked him if he’d ever done anything back when he was a lowly Seaman (E-3) that he may not be proud of now. I asked him why, when someone goes up for Chief we purposely do not peek below E-4 in their records, since people grow and mature. I asked him if in all the years he’d been in the Navy, he hadn’t come to realize that people deserve a second chance and that they can grow from their mistakes, especially knowing they often make a greater good of their lives. I copied my uncle. Neither one of them responded, but I never heard another peep or saw another email like that. It felt good to admonish him.

    When I was a teenager, I truly believed Coming Home would pacify these people. To me, it was your love letter, your sincerest apology written on the best stationary, with the perfect pen. How wrong I was. There are some people who will just never get it. They are so ignorant – they are full of their own faults but only find fault in others. They hold on to things and throw hate at others because they have nothing else that matters in their own lives. I don’t feel sorry or even pity for them, I feel angst, because they are the ones with the power as you discuss above. These ignorant people still wield the great power and the rest of us suffer the consequences.

    I still admire you so much and can’t imagine what its been like to have this section of the nation treat you with such contempt for most of your life. I’m just glad you’ve stayed your course, and kept feeding us with the best you have.

    Thank you, Jane Fonda, for being Jane Fonda, and for finding yet another medium to reach out to the rest of us with. You are an inspiration to the many of us who can think for ourselves, who do come from a place of love, and understand that we all need to swallow a dose of humility every day, to stay sane and alive.

  15. Wow, this has been interesting and insightful, from all directions. It does appear that many make statements with “supporting” history without fully undestanding the history they attempt to use to back their argument and I see many have filled in those blanks.

    Abortion isn’t a simple issue in that yes, there are extenuating circumstances. But, do not forget, there is such a thing as personal responsibility. Abortion should never be used as “birth control.” Anyone alluding to the need to have access to birth control, well, it is easily and readily available.

    But responsiblity first begins with being a parent – if parents do their job, discuss this with their sons and daugthers so that they first have the intelligence and self-esteem needed to go through the teen years and make smart decisions, it is a good start to make the needed change on the reliance of abortion as birth control. I have yet to know one person who has had an abortion for any other reason than they made poor choices and didn’t want to deal with the consequence.

    Further, I have yet to meet a teen that is mature and responsible enough to have sex and deal with the consequences of a pregnancy. What’s wrong with advocating responsibiliy, even abstinence. This country is first failing as parents by not preparing their children; second, failing by allowing the responsibility to be taken over by the government and third failing by not holding individuals accountable for their own actions.

    There is a lot of gray in between, but I beg people to FIRST be a parent that educates their children long before they are faced with these decisions of peer pressrue and teen sex. Our best defense is empowering children to make the right choices, responsible choices and build their self-esteem. Sex even without pregnancy has consequences for a teen. Abortion has even greater consequences. And yes, I am a parent of two young women who were educated and empowered to know what was right for them.

  16. Jane,
    Have you ever had an abortion? If so, how was it? From personal experience, I know abortion hurts for a lifetime! The “underlying principle of Health care” is that it is supposed to HELP, not hurt women! Abortion hurts millions of women physically, emotionally, and psychologically for a lifetime. If abortion is truly an elective procedure, then why shouldn’t “private choices” be paid for with private funds?

    Abortion “has everything to do with power and who has it.” It is the ultimate form of child abuse, domestic terror, and lethal form of age discrimination. It represents a mindset that values convenience rather than civil rights of all humanity.

    Abortion allows men to use women for sexual services without any commitment, discard them when an unexpected pregnancy arises, dump them out at the abortion clinic, and then go on to their next conquest, yet you some how call this “empowerment”????

    Every dictator—Stalin, Ceaucescu, Hilter and slave holders throughout history, have oppressed the weak, maligned the most basic dignity of our fellow human beings, and killed just because they could. Just because killing unborn human beings is legal, does not make it right, any more than slavery was once legal, but so terribly wrong.

    The new generation of younger, Neofeminists believe women deserve better than abortion and do all we can to help women choose LIFE, providing whatever our sisters may need, while aging neanderfems still defend a woman’s right to cruelly kill her own child through all nine months of pregnancy. A baby can live outside its mother’s womb at 22 weeks and “termination” involves a very painful and cruel dismembering of this baby, bloody limb by gruesome limb.

    Abortion is a complex social and economic undertaking that affects a woman’s economic, social, sexual, and emotional life, and the life of her family and her community, this undertaking cannot be decided by a medical doctor who is weighing it from the point of view of self-indulgent reasoning. This makes the woman an “object” and it dismisses the scientific knowledge about her own body and the undeniable and separate life of her unborn female (or male) child. Instead of enhancing a woman’s dignity and self-respect, abortion belittles and disempowers her.

    Abortion reflects a mindset that women must kill to make themselves powerful, that killing will somehow be good for their families and society; that killing is good for a family and a community and a society or even a woman’s own health.

    The strategy of the pro-killing-of-innocent-human-beings sees nothing wrong on waging an incremental assault on anyone who is “imperfect”, “inconvenient”, voiceless, and therefore unable to defend herself, in a long-term effort to win the hearts and minds of the American public.

    If you are still anti-war, Jane, then when will you open your eyes to this war in the womb, hurting nearly 4,000 women every day, while killing over a million human lives every year?

    True feminists believe women deserve better choices than killing their unborn child.

  17. i am pro-choice, but i also support the hyde amendment as it is, which, as you know prohibits federal money for abortion services except in cases of rape and the health of the woman. stupak does indeed go to far, b/c private insurance is not a government entity.

    i will say though that i take issue with labeling every abortion a “health” issue. an unplanned pregnancy may infringe on a woman’s life goals, etc. but unfortunately that is a consequence of sex, potentially even when the right contraception methods are used responsibly. but to insist that the government must foot the bill for indigent women on medicaid for any other reason than her health or if she is raped (in which she suffers the consequences of a crime and having NO CHOICE) is a problem. the government, by law, has no jurisdiction over a woman’s body and the choices she makes; why then would they pay for it? that is not “anti-choice”. we as americans have the right to purchase anything that is legally for sale; but if we lack the money, the government NOT paying is not an infringement on the exercise of that right.

    look at how angry this country is over bailouts? big corporations and banks made terrible choices, and the people had more than just a visceral reaction to the idea of bailing them out. now i don’t mean to say that terminating a pregnancy is at all on a par with investments or “merchandise”, but choices are choices. and choices have consequences, both good and bad.

  18. I wanted not to reply since I reply often. But Jane Fonda and Regina T (one of the replies) speak for me, to me and with me. And I with them.
    I defend Jane Fonda with my life and with all the force of my being as I defend any and every woman on this planet. And as I defend myself.

  19. from the c-span website home page:

    This morning, Pres. Obama met with Senate and Judiciary Cmte. Leadership to discuss the upcoming Supreme Court vacancy…. In remarks, the President said that he “wants someone who will take into account individual rights, including the right of women to choose when it comes to their own bodies.”

    “… including the right of women to choose when it comes to their own bodies.”

    Jesus Christ did not abridge women’s rights to be themselves and have their own minds and control their own health. He did not do violence to people. He would never bomb a women’s health care clinic or murder a doctor in a church. He would not wage a propaganda war against self-selected “enemies”. He said love your enemy.

    The spirit of truth (Spirit of Christ) makes people open minded and receptive to the myriad of dfferences in humanity. It guides us to follow the spirit of Jesus’ teachings and not freeze truth into hardened doctrine and dogma. It leads people to ever increasing freedom. It removes fears. Jesus did not hold grudges–not for one second and especially for years and years. He did not come here to establish a theocratic fascist world government or any kind of government. He did not teach us to force our beliefs on people and punish people for not believing as we do. Jesus gave us the way to ever increasing spiritual growth, including ever greater capacity to love and forgive and grow in insights and to take care of each other.

  20. you would do well to spend some time speaking to the countless women who abortion has hurt, physically, emotionally and spiritually, as well as the siblings who have found out about parents abortion and the impact it is having their lives.

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