In Which DJ! Resolves the Abortion 'Debate'

It seems to me that the abortion so-called debate in the US has never been more heated as the Democrats make a final push for healthcare reform. The lies and bullshit are flying -- just google 'abortion' -- fast and furiously. Each side is shrieeeeking either that 'YES! Abortion is so funded under the plan!' or that 'NO! Abortion is not atall atall funded under the plan!'

I have no idea whether it is covered or not. And frankly, I've ceased to care about healthcare reform in the Excited States. We at DJ! called it back in July last year. Any attempt to reform the system significantly would founder on abortion. Because there is no common ground on women's reproductive rights.

Bill Clinton, that weaselly triangulator, thought he had it with the mealy-mouthed meme, 'safe, legal, and rare':

Safe, legal and rare. President Clinton first used this phrase, as early as 1992, to capture the essence of a desired national policy on abortion. For the most part, even the most ardent abortion rights supporters have come to embrace this notion and to accept the validity of its two-fold underlying premise: Abortion in the United States must remain legal in order to be safe, and at the same time, even with abortion services legal and accessible to women who need them, abortion can be rare -- or at least far less common than it is now.

Of course, the fetus fetishists leapt on the central idiocy -- trying to speak out of both sides of the mouth -- saying, 'Well, if abortion is no biggie, then why try to make it rare?'

The Democrats dumped that meme in 2008 and went for a policy that, again, tried for common ground, this time by including tepid support for pregnant women and adoption while asserting that abortion should be legal and safe.

And look how well that's working out for them.

There is one hard fact behind abortion rates.

Put simply, abortion rates around the world are high where unplanned pregnancy is high, and they are low where women and couples are better equipped to prevent those pregnancies they wish to postpone or avoid altogether.

Sciencey-facty oriented people cite all kinds of sciencey-facty studies to prove the point.

And, oh, look, here's another one (emphasis mine).

Offering young women free hormonal contraception could lead to a significant fall in abortions, the results of a new health project indicate.

As part of the project, 3,500 women aged 20-24, who were living in two different cities in Norway, were offered free hormonal contraception for one year. By the end of the year, the abortion rate in both cities had halved.

The Norwegian Directorate of Health initiated the project after a previous project led to similar success. In 2002, Norwegian women aged between 16 and 19 were offered free hormone-based contraception. Abortion rates fell dramatically and reached their lowest level in 2005.

In 2006, after the authorities modified the scheme and introduced part-payment for hormonal contraception, the number of terminations among this age group began to rise again. Since then, the abortion rate among 16 to 19-year-olds has risen every year.

There. You want 'rare'? Hand out free contraception.

The teabaggers are coming just in time for Xmas.

And you thought it was safe to disregard the tragically studip? Bwahahahaha! they're ba-a-a-ack!

From here:

Tea Party Patriots — the right-wing organizers controlled by FreedomWorks — sent an urgent call to action today, asking supporters to come to Washington December 15th to “storm Senate offices” in order to “play out the role of patients waiting for treatment in government controlled medical facilities.” The e-mail says organizers plan to “stay there until they force us to leave,” and incites supporters to “flex our muscle” and “hold the line in our fight against the government takeover of health care” ...

Any moment now, a TPP (pronounced teapeepee) leader will declare that the "government takeover of healthcare" (which is called healthcare reform by sane people) is a manifestation of the War On Christmas.

W.O.C.kers' vigilence regarding the phenomenon claimed to be yet another form of discrimination against and/or persecution of Christians is constant and never-ending. Focus on the Family has foot-soldiers marching in shopping malls all over the US, scrutinizing the wording in flyers and reporting what evidence they find.

Balbulican wrote a trenchant blogpost: "The REAL War on Christmas – Found At Last!" where he observes even christofascists are jumping on the retailing bandwagon. In the comment section he says:

About 95% of the “War On Christmas” stories you read have to do with vendors who are now promoting their products and services by encouraging EVERYONE who’s got a holiday with a gift-giving tradition to come and spend money. That’s as capitalist, as entrepreneurial, as private sector as you can get.

At the risk of provoking yet another round of shrieeekkking from fundamentalist religious zealots, this may be an appropriate moment to quote someone who had a powerful approach to creating Peace on earth and goodwill for all living creatures.

Mohandas Gandhi: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time."

OK, I realize this isn't funny

So why am I laughing?

I've checked. It really happened. The Washington Post and Guardian are both reporting it. But I liked this guy's take on it.

Call it a case of bite and run, but a 65-year-old man opposed to health care reform struck another man who was trying to reach a MoveOn.org-backed pro-reform rally of 100 participants -- and had half his pinky finger bitten off in return. And, in a dramatic tour de force of socialized medicine, the victim was sent home by doctors after they reattached the digit -- all covered by his Medicare policy.

Paging Dr Bauer!

Cameron Holmstrom at Dispatches by Northwestern Lad called it exactly right. This is is perfect person to stand up for healthcare reform in the US.



Yes, Kiefer, please go on Rachel's show.

How much more "far out" can Palin's fans take?

"... it's another example of Sarah Palin having difficulty figuring out how to enter into a serious debate about issues."

I've long wondered if there would be a point at which Sarah Palin went just a little too far for the political mainstream. A whole lot of political observers noticed the obvious lies, the cringe-worthy ignorance, the petty feuds, and the bizarre behavior, but wanted to maintain the fiction that Palin was a credible political figure. After all, John McCain wanted her to be one heartbeat from the presidency -- and 60 million Americans agreed.

Maybe, just maybe, her "death panel" message on Facebook -- complete with lies, poor writing, policy confusion, and family exploitation -- will be enough to convince the skeptical that Palin really is that far gone?

Gone, gone where? If only she were. But no, Palin keeps bouncing back, like a really really bad case of poison ivy.

Many Republicans and US conservatives are distancing themselves from Palin and her incoherent rambles on various topics. The attention-seeking narcissist also known as Bible Spice and Caribou Barbie added her glurge-y twist to the steaming pile of lies about the proposal to fund public health in the US. Nonetheless, she still has supporters, including Newt Gingrich. From the NYT:

The United States, like most countries, has long had a lunatic fringe who channel in the flotsam of delusion, half-facts and conspiracy theories. But now, with the light-speed and reach of the Web, “entire virtual crank communities,” as the conservative writer David Frum called them, have sprung up. They are fed, in the case of Sarah Palin, by people who should know better.

It would be interesting to read Frum's take, if he dares write about this debacle, regarding his fellow travellers in the GOP.

Afternote: Go read JABbering stooge's 'murrican take on Sa-wah. He blogged and posted at the same time DJ! did. You know what that means?

Aborting Healthcare Reform

I had never heard the term 'medical bankruptcy' -- as in 'the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the US is medical bankruptcy' -- until last week.

Appallingly, it's true, according to a study by Harvard researchers. And dig this -- the data comes from 2007 BEFORE the current economic meltdown.

Medical problems caused 62% of all personal bankruptcies filed in the U.S. in 2007, according to a study by Harvard researchers. And in a finding that surprised even the researchers, 78% of those filers had medical insurance at the start of their illness, including 60.3% who had private coverage, not Medicare or Medicaid.

Medically related bankruptcies have been rising steadily for decades. In 1981, only 8% of families filing for bankruptcy cited a serious medical problem as the reason, while a 2001 study of bankruptcies in five states by the same researchers found that illness or medical bills contributed to 50% of all filings. This newest, nationwide study, conducted before the start of the current recession by Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler of Harvard Medical School, Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, and Deborah Thorne, a sociology professor at Ohio University, found that the filers were for the most part solidly middle class before medical disaster hit. Two-thirds owned their home and three-fifths had gone to college.

You get an education, a job, buy a house, pay your taxes, then whoopsie! you or a family member gets sick or injured and the American Dream goes swirling toiletwards.

President Obama pledged to reform the US healthcare system, but he's taking on a helluva industry as well as its fetus-fetishist allies.

I predict (and I really hope I'm wrong) that the so badly needed reforms will come a cropper on the issue of abortion.

Oh. Looky here (emphasis mine):

A bipartisan group of House members is pushing for language to prevent any federal funds in a healthcare reform bill from being used for abortions.

The shriiieeeking nutbars held a MASSIVE online rally yesterday and already have a Stop the Abortion Mandate website set up. Because, you know that if the government is funding abortions, it's a mandate and everyone will be forced to get one, even the guys.

Any significant reform will be beaten by the intense lobbying and deep pockets of the insurance industry, but the loss will be spun as part of the Culture Wars.

Here's my reason for believing this. In all the polling the fetus fetishists do, even here in abortion-crazy Canada, the question that consistently comes up 'best' for their interests is 'Should abortions be publicly funded?'

We recently reported on a Canadian poll, that while demonstrating yet again that overwhelmingly Canadians are cool with the status quo on abortion, the public funding question came closest to a tie between pro-liars and pro-choicers. In that poll, 49% of Canadians agreed that abortion should be publicly funded, with 47% opposed. Still a majority, but way closer than on any other abortion-related question.

So, they'll shriieeeek and stamp their tiny feet and squeal about 'our tax dollars funding the murder of baybeez' and all you medically bankrupt Americans and all you future ones can thank your local zygote zealot for crapping all over any chance for a sane healthcare system in your country.

Or, maybe in the time-honoured manner of all pols, the women and children will get thrown under the bus when the going gets politically tough and reproductive health services will be left out of any expanded coverage.