Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ) was forced to reword his anti-abortion bill to avoid redefining rape. The bill as originally drafted would have limited taxpayer funding of abortions to cases of "forcible rape." That is, women impregnated in cases of statutory rape or women who are drugged into a state of mind that would render them unable to resist sexual contact would have been out of luck. Smith, in a rare show of moral ambiguity on this issue, backed down in response to public outcry.
This is a negligible upward blip in the fight for women's rights. This bill would still end tax breaks for health insurance plans that include coverage for abortions and abortion-related procedures, and it would ban women from using their health savings accounts for abortions. Of course, the bill has no chance of passing in the Senate, and the President would veto it anyway. But this ongoing attack on abortion rights - a sign that the misogynistic policies of the Reagan era, like the Reagan era itself, haven't really gone away - is enjoying new life thanks to a far-right Tea Party movement that was only supposed to be about taxes and spending. Well, this bill is called the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," so maybe Smith thought he could make it sound fiscally relevant.
I couldn't help but notice, by the way, that this legislation is getting no coverage by the mainstream media. No coverage when I've checked, anyway. Perhaps the press thinks this bill is too insignificant to cover in light of the ongoing crisis in Egypt. Not to mention the Giffords shooting, although reporting on that story has diminished somewhat, lest you start calling for gun control. (Breaking news: Her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, is going to command the last Endeavour space shuttle flight.) The truth is, the mainstream media don't want to cover issues affecting people's daily lives. If they did, you'd start seeing Lafayette Square in Washington fill up with protesters just like Tahrir Square in Cairo. And that might actually lead to progressive change in this country that threatens the established order of which the mainstream press is part.
But it would be a great story to cover.
By the way, the United States remains the only industrialized country where abortion is still an issue; other industrialized nations have long since settled it, one way or the other. I may have said this once before, but when a Japanese official pointed this out on American television, he was laughing.
This is a negligible upward blip in the fight for women's rights. This bill would still end tax breaks for health insurance plans that include coverage for abortions and abortion-related procedures, and it would ban women from using their health savings accounts for abortions. Of course, the bill has no chance of passing in the Senate, and the President would veto it anyway. But this ongoing attack on abortion rights - a sign that the misogynistic policies of the Reagan era, like the Reagan era itself, haven't really gone away - is enjoying new life thanks to a far-right Tea Party movement that was only supposed to be about taxes and spending. Well, this bill is called the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act," so maybe Smith thought he could make it sound fiscally relevant.
I couldn't help but notice, by the way, that this legislation is getting no coverage by the mainstream media. No coverage when I've checked, anyway. Perhaps the press thinks this bill is too insignificant to cover in light of the ongoing crisis in Egypt. Not to mention the Giffords shooting, although reporting on that story has diminished somewhat, lest you start calling for gun control. (Breaking news: Her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, is going to command the last Endeavour space shuttle flight.) The truth is, the mainstream media don't want to cover issues affecting people's daily lives. If they did, you'd start seeing Lafayette Square in Washington fill up with protesters just like Tahrir Square in Cairo. And that might actually lead to progressive change in this country that threatens the established order of which the mainstream press is part.
But it would be a great story to cover.
By the way, the United States remains the only industrialized country where abortion is still an issue; other industrialized nations have long since settled it, one way or the other. I may have said this once before, but when a Japanese official pointed this out on American television, he was laughing.
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