Tag Archives: pro-life

Pro-birth … not pro-life

I am on the verge of abandoning the long-held term used to identify those who oppose a woman’s reproductive rights.

They call themselves “pro-life.” The reality is that they instead are “pro-birth,”

Why the change? It stems from the draconian measures enacted to restrict abortion in many states, including Texas. Here, legislators approved a ban on any abortion when a woman has been pregnant for six weeks or longer.

It makes no exception for the health of the unborn babies. Consider what happened to a Dallas woman who had to go out of state to obtain an abortion because one of the twins she was carrying had no chance of survival. She obtained the abortion.

Legislators are requiring women to give birth to children even when that act would jeopardize the health of the child and possibly destroy a woman’s ability to give birth in the future.

That is not a pro-life position. It promotes birth …. and it is a lie!

Should the 2024 election turn on this issue? Damn straight it should!

The Republican nominee in waiting has bragged about how he “single-handedly” deprived women of their right to govern their own bodies. The Democratic nominee, President Joe Biden, cannot let his opponent get away with that idiotic boast.

Has Walker sunk himself?

Hershel “Georgia Dumbass” Walker finds himself denying an allegation that is beginning to look more credible by the hour.

Walker is the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, running against Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Democratic incumbent.

It turns out the Daily Beast is reporting that Walker paid for a former girlfriend’s abortion in 2009. It’s a big deal, man. Why? Because Walker has been proclaiming himself to be a devout pro-life advocate who opposes abortion at any level.

Walker denies the allegation. Except that the Daily Beast has obtained receipts with Walker’s signature on them, offering tangible evidence that the allegation actually is, um … true!

How does this clown Walker manage to keep within shoutin’ distance of Sen. Warnock in public opinion polling? National Republicans are doubling down on Walker’s behalf, declaring they’re sticking with their GOP guy.

I am not sure I can come up with a more hideous display of rank hypocrisy than what is being alleged in this instance. The Daily Beast is standing firmly behind its reporting; it has produced written documentation to back up what the ex-girlfriend has said happened.

To think this idiot Walker can possibly be elected to the U.S. Senate is utterly astounding beyond measure.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

What would they do … ?

I am willing to wait for as long as it takes for a self-righteous, sanctimonious politician to answer a simple question that I believe needs asking.

What would they do, how would they react, if their daughter was raped and beaten half to death and then learned that she is carrying an unborn child as a result of that attack?

While we’re on the subject, how would they react if, say, a lecherous uncle impregnated them?

No one has asked the likes of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, or Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that question. Nor has anyone asked any other politician who has enacted laws that all but eliminate abortion, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

It’s a fair question. I admit it’s a bit of a “gotcha” inquiry. I can remember when then-GOP Sen. Dan Quayle was running for vice president in 1988 on a ticket led by VP George H.W. Bush. Quayle said he would “support” whatever decision his daughter made, even if she chose to have an abortion. Quayle was notably pro-life on the issue of abortion but didn’t flinch when someone asked him publicly about how he would react if a member of his own family faced that gut-wrenching decision.

Politicians simply must thrust themselves into the lives of those who must live by the laws enacted. They must be forced to answer the tough questions that some of those decisions require of them.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Pro-choice and pro-life? Yep!

The debate over the hideous Texas anti-abortion law has me tied in knots. Sort of.

Some of my more conservative friends and family members — yes, I have many of them on the other side of the great political divide — might be wondering why I would be so adamantly opposed to the law signed by Gov. Greg Abbott.

I am both pro-choice and pro-life on abortion.

No. I do not see any contradiction. I will explain.

I could never provide advice for a woman to get an abortion. I am not wired that way. The issue, for starters, is none of my damn business. The decision rests solely with the woman, her partner, her religious counselor and with God Almighty.

To that extent, I consider myself pro-life.

However, the bigger issue for me is the meddlesome nature of legislation that seeks to dictate to a woman how she can manage affairs of her body. Texas legislators have crossed far into territory where they should not tread.

The law in Texas prohibits a woman from obtaining an abortion any earlier than six weeks into her pregnancy. It doesn’t make any exceptions for rape or incest.

The ghastliest part of the law is that it allows total strangers to rat out a woman if he or she learns she is going to get an abortion. We have created a vigilante corps in Texas. It allows these strangers to meddle where they damn sure don’t belong.

A friend of mine in Amarillo once said he believed in the Biblical theory of Earth’s creation and in the theory of evolution.

What’s more, I once saw a sticker that asked: “Aren’t you glad that the Virgin Mary was pro-life?” Hmm. Well, she also was pro-choice because she “chose” to give birth to the baby who gave Christianity its name.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Abortion-ban law blowback: a big surprise

I have to admit to being quite surprised at much of the response to the Alabama Legislature’s decision to ban virtually all abortion in that state.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill into law. Democratic/progressive response has been predictable: Alabama has launched an assault against women’s reproductive rights, the lefties are saying . . . correctly, in my view.

But then there’s been a negative response from the Republican/conservative movement.

Get a load of this from Tomi Lahren, a right-wing commentator and contributor to the Fox News Channel. Lahren calls herself a “pro-choice” conservative who favors limited government involvement in people’s lives. She wrote: “I’m . . . someone that loves the Constitution, I’m someone that’s for limited government. So I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say ‘I’m for limited government, but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies.'”

Televangelist Pat Robertson said the law is too harsh, too “extreme.” Lahren said it won’t save any lives because it “forces women into more dangerous methods, other states or countries.”

This debate is causing my head to spin. I used to think the abortion divide fell along certain partisan and ideological lines.

The Alabama law has just blurred those differences beyond my ability to recognize them.

Trump does the impossible

abortion-debate1

Of all the commentary being tossed around in the aftermath of Donald J. Trump’s absurd assertion that women should be “punished” for obtaining an illegal abortion, the most interesting came from a Republican strategist who doubles as a commentator for CNN.

Anna Navarro said this morning that Trump managed to do the “impossible,” which she said was that he managed to anger both the pro-choice and pro-life sides of the abortion divide at the same instant.

Trump told MSNBC interviewer Chris Matthews at a televised town hall meeting in Green Bay, Wis., that women “probably” should face some punishment if they got an illegal abortion. Matthews questioned Trump on how the government could make abortion actually “illegal,” to which Trump didn’t have an answer.

The Republican primary campaign presidential frontrunner quickly backed off that statement, declaring that the doctor should be the one facing punishment, not the woman — who he described as a “victim” of the illegal act.

That didn’t go over well at all with the pro-choice crowd.

The pro-life crowd, meanwhile, was still steaming over the notion that a woman could be punished for obtaining an abortion.

And so the drama continues.

The fun factor of this campaign just keeps getting stronger.

Trump: flip-flopper extraordinaire

LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 28:  Chairman and President of the Trump Organization Donald Trump yells 'you're fired' after speaking to several GOP women's group at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino April 28, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Trump has been testing the waters with stops across the nation in recent weeks and has created media waves by questioning whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States.  (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

Donald Trump’s true identity might be a little harder to determine than we thought.

“Meet the Press” today took note of some important changes in Trump’s political evolution.

* He used to be “pro-choice” on abortion. He said in 1999 that he detested abortion, but insisted that obtaining one should be the woman’s prerogative. Today? “I’m pro-life,” he says.

* Trump once said that he admires and likes Hillary Rodham Clinton; he also expressed affection for her husband, former President Bill Clinton. He now calls her the “worst secretary of state in the nation’s history.” He probably speaks differently of the former president as well.

* The Donald once said that Barack Obama was a man of considerable accomplishment. These days he says the president is feckless and has been a disaster.

Those are just three examples.

The Republican Party presidential candidate needs to explain himself. Trust me on this: His Republican opponents are going to be ready to pounce. If hell freezes over and he gets the GOP nomination next summer, well, just wait until the Democrats get him in their sights.

Stop talking about rape … period!

Another politician has stepped in it yet again over the issue of rape.

When will these clowns get the message that there can be nothing good or redeeming about a savage sexual attack?

The latest addition to the pantheon of schmucks who’ve entered the rape discussion is West Virginia Republican House Delegate Brian Kurcaba who said that while rape is “awful,” something good can come from it if the produces a baby.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/west-virginia-republican-says-rape-can-be-beautiful-if-it-produces-a-child/

Arrrgghhh!

Kurcaba wants the state legislature to enact a law that bans abortion after the 20-week gestation period of a pregnancy. Of course, he doesn’t want any exceptions granted for the victims of rape.

He now joins the likes of former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, who proclaimed that victims of “legitimate rape” have ways of “shutting down” a pregnancy; and the we have Richard Mourdock of Indiana who said while running for the U.S. Senate that a child born from a rape is a “gift from God.”

Both of those fellows lost their campaigns for the Senate. Imagine that.

Now we have Brian Kurcaba stepping into the fray.

Here’s a political tip, young man: Don’t seek higher office.