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CAROL DUFF: PRO-LIFERS WOULD MAKE SURE THAT YOU NEVER HAVE HEALTHCARE
America, do you or do you not want health care for your children, grandchildren, parents, far-reaching relatives, friends, neighbors and even yourself? The seriousness of no healthcare should not be ignored by ANYONE. Maybe we should get used to the concept because there are those who will use every imaginable ploy to keep healthcare out of your reach.
First of all, as you should all know, but if you do not, the “illustrious” members of Congress who are voting on whether we, the “sheep ,” should be allowed healthcare have very nice healthcare coverage for themselves and their families. The Senate and the House of Representatives have healthcare coverage, part of the perks for being someone who can make or break laws for “we the people”.
Face it, people who have healthcare at their fingertips will decide whether you can have it. I only know of one person in politics who has publicly refused government issued healthcare and that is our Ohio governor, Governor Strickland. Upon election he stated that he would not accept the healthcare insurance offered to a governor until everyone in Ohio had the ability to have their health care needs met. I thought that was a wise and prudent decision on his part.
Today, in my local newspaper, The Toledo Blade, I was affronted by a full page ad paid for, maybe I am making an assumption, but the name of their organization is clearly at the bottom of the page, AUL Action Group. This group states that it is the legislation action arm of Americans United for Life which as I look up their true interest is pro-life and anti-abortion. What I would take as their mission statement is:
“American United for Life uses a proven three-pronged strategy- Education, Legislation, and Litigation – to protect life through the law. Our comprehensive, beginning –to-end approach is reducing abortions and helping state after state become more pro-life every year.”
They are offering emotional assistance to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to pass the U.S. House of Representatives’s health care bill with provisions of what healthcare issues could be covered. What healthcare issue is to be left out of any healthcare bill, well that would be abortion.
Back in 1973 in the Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, landmark case decided by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion, the ruling was that a woman may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the point at which a fetus becomes viable.
Viable was determined to mean: “could live outside the mother’s womb, perhaps with artificial aid” adding that “viability” is usually placed at about 28 weeks. The court also determined that after this point of viability, abortion could be available when needed to protect a woman’s health.
This provision is further stated in the case of Doe v. Bolton, constitutional right to privacy which arises from the Due Process Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment (substantive due process). The United States of America, after much debate and public turmoil, accepted the medical fact that girls and women should be able to obtain a termination of a pregnancy which will be offered in a medically responsible, safe way.
Medically safe termination of a pregnancy for a girl or woman who does not wish to have a baby, to become a mother, is the only fact that is relevant or important here. Girls and women would no longer be forced to end pregnancies at the hands of butchers who would either kill them during the abortion or set them up for infections that would later kill, maim or insure that they would never have a child.
The AUL action group and other pro-life groups would make sure that you do not have healthcare coverage because they wish to attack a matter that has long ago been decided as helpful to females and again try to place women back in the age when the only hope to take control over their body was to seek out an illegal means. This forced women to subject themselves to having a baby that they do not want. These groups would have you believe that these abortions will be funded by tax payer dollars, that you would personally be paying for a woman to have an abortion. They prevaricate to make you think that you would then be responsible for paying the bills of these women who have abortions.
This newspaper ad particularly addresses our local Congresswoman, Marcy Kaptur, Democrat, Ohio, U.S. House of Representatives, and applauds her for making sure that the health care bill passed by the House of Representatives does not allow for taxpayer-funded abortions. Ms. Kaptur is pro-life and has let this feeling taint her sense of decency to the community, fellow women, and has placed her own values above the lives of her constituents and above the people of America.
An appendectomy, heart transplant, cancer treatment, abortion, doctor examination for a new- born, etc. are ALL health care issues. If these “lawmakers’” who themselves have excellent health care coverage, are allowed to decide what areas of healthcare will be covered, any chance of America receiving healthcare is doomed. They choose an admittedly still controversial portion of healthcare, legal terminations of pregnancy, to strike against. They hide behind their self-righteous, personal ideas. They would force these upon you and keep you from attaining the ability to take care of your families and yourselves.
People, health care is health care is health care.
There should not in any manner of safety or conscience by any procedure or treatment that is singled out as a reason to not support healthcare for all. Now, before anyone thinks about attacking me for believing that all women have the right to choose you should know that I am the mother of three. That being said, I adamantly respect and support the right of ANY girl or woman to choose whether to take on the challenging task of becoming a mother.
That is a private matter of which we have no right to comment, as decided under the Constitutional right of privacy as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court. What I would welcome is a stand to insist that all forms of healthcare be allowed because like it or not, at times we have to seek it, sometimes to make us feel better, to heal, and sometimes to keep us from dying or to help us to die if living is no longer attainable.
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Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=22040
Posted by Carol Duff on Mar 17 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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There are many reasons why any thing like government run health care should be opposed. The 10th amendment comes to mind first and foremost; that government run health care has been a miserable experience wherever it has been tried in other countries; our own government can’t run medicaid; common sense; but the idea that the government would use my money to kill babies in the womb tops them all. Since it was decided in 73′ (by the same illustrious body that gave us Dred Scott) technology has given us an even better picture of what is going on in an abortion (you know those pictures you don’t want any one to see.) We wouldn’t want to make an informed decision now would we?
I think there is a lack of consideration for the constitutional rights of the unborn child. Science shows life beginns at conception. The child has a civil right to life. It has a right to due process. In abortion, the child is tortured and executed without benefit of a fair trial of its peers for a crime it did not commit.
The socialized medicine bill is not good for this country. It would raise taxes and insurance premiums on the middle class. It would further erode our rights to decide our own treatments. It is just one more big government take over of our personal business. There must be a lot of crap and corruption in the bill if Obama and Pelosi will not let it be read and dissected publicly so WE The People can actually see what we are getting.
Nash Trillium,
When life begins is purely an opinion based on religious beliefs. Show me a two week old mass of cells that can live a meaningful life and I will change my opinion. Until then, women have the right to take control of their lives, their reproductive system, and to be treated in a safe and conscientious manner.
As for your social medicine comment, a wait for a doctor’s appointment is better than no appointment at all. You really need to wake up. Your health insurance premiums have been escalating for over 20 years. Twenty years ago Americans were paying about $60 a month for medical insurance. Now they are paying $1,200 a month. Just who do you think can afford that amount of money? Perhaps they would rather eat or have a roof over their heads. It usually works like that. But too bad that they also get sick or need medical assistance.
Carol
“When life begins is purely an opinion based on religious beliefs.” – Not Really. There is a lot of science to show human life begins way before delivery. And “meaningful” life?? Who is going to define that, and if that can justify killing the baby before birth, why not after the birth?
And why do you think insurance costs have gone up so much. Get on Google stocks and look up these companies and check out the bottom lines. There is not a lot of profit left in the end.
And why do you think the cost of health care is going to go down with the government taking over. All those expenses still have to be covered. is government efficiency going to reduce costs. Yeah, that happens all the time.
Principaldad,
You miss the intent of the article. Pro-lifers use this issue as a ruse to get their ideas across to the public, to garner attention and support at the cost of those who are alive and in need of medical attention.
Insurance costs have gone up because of healthcare insurance companies, hosptals for profit, doctors who charge beyond what could possibly be paid for procedures let alone office visits, and I could go on and on including laboratories, radiology departments, etc. These groups reap the rewards of people being sick, hurt, inured. How about everyone being treated for depression? You will never be told about the often horrible side effects of these drugs, but a prescription will be written and refilled over and over again. I assure you that there is great profit for some with people being sick and not being able to take care of themselves without visiting a clinic, ER, doctor’s office, clinician, osteopath, chiropractor, etc.
Carol
Okay Carol, you say a two week old mass isn’t viable. What about three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, etc., etc., after the point of birth? Medical science knows more than you think. Roe vs. Wade defines a viable life at 28 weeks (seven months). That was decided by a bunch of blabbeering lawyers with virtually no technology.
I saw a doctor on film doing open womb spinal surgery (spinal bifida) on TV a cuple weeks ago. The repaired fetus was 21 weeks old. The baby actually reached out and GRASPED the surgeon’s finger after the surgery was completed. I wasn’t in the operating room, but the doctor was very clear, and in tears, talking about the conscious life he interacted with. The child is now over two and walking, toddling, bright-eyed, healthy young boy.
The point is, don’t rely on an old law (Roe vs. Wade) without revisiting some of its principles based on 37 years of more advanced technology. To do otherwise, and take the life a baby citizen based on lust, anger, greed, or ego is stepping through the gates to karmic hell.
Yes, there are medical exceptions. I don’t mind paying taxes for those. But not to support murder.
Yes, a woman has a right to her own body. But so does the fetus once it is energized with life giving force (what do the Christians call it? Oh yes, the Word. Eastern Mystics call the same thing the shabd).
A woman and a fetus within her have a special relationship no man will ever understand. Her right to abort that incredible relationship should not be taken lightly. A woman has every right to know what the latest, growing body of science is. And I’m talking about real science, not the intellectual graffiti called global warming religion.
Boy (girl?), you lit up a firestorm didn’t you. Tom in Houston
Thankyou Nash and Principaldad. Well said. I should be so clear and eloquent!
Tom Houston Vet, Texas
Principaldad,
Perhaps you are one of the lucky who have healthcare insurance. Fifty-five million familiesin America do not have healthcare because they cannot afford healthcare insurance. This is up from 40 million. Many of those without access to healthcare are children, already born. Perhaps you would like to view pictures of children with curable diseases and illnesses and deformities such as cleft lips and palates who will never have the chance to see a healthcare provider. The issue is not abortion, the clear issue is pro-lifers trying to use healthcare for Americans to hold the American public hostage. You can also add insurance companies who make sure that the average American cannot afford insurance due to the high rates they demand. What about the illnesses, surgeries, etc, that they deem they will not cover? Get over the pictures of babies, many of whom would not have healthy lives without healthcare, and stick to the reality of what is here, in front of you.
Carol
Carol,
You must be a pretty calloused soul to get over those pictures, especially the more recent high def videos where you can actually see the little guy trying to get away from the suction tube that is about to dismember it.
You also don’t understand economics. The insurance companies demand high rates because their payouts keep going up. The average ROI is rather slim in the Health Insurance Industry, about 4% I believe. I wonder what the average ROI is for the Ambulance Chaser lawyers is. In this whole health care debate, nothing has been done to stop that abuse. The other big problem is the government itself. We really already have government run health care in fascist sort of sense. The regs that are burying the health care and insurance are running the cost out of site.
And Carol, I would like to see all those pictures of all those children who can’t get surgery for their curable diseases. I sure don’t see these kids when i am walking around town, do their parents keep them locked up in the basement? Show me some stats to back up your claim.
I don’t think you have ever worked with the poor. They are quite well aware that they can walk into the county hospital and get their medical needs cared for it.
Lastly, I am not ‘lucky’ to have health care, I work my tail off for it. Also your figures of 55 mil without insurance are filled with illegal aliens, and youth who don’t think they need it.
Principaldad,
You are lucky if you have healthcare insurance. You speak of the harm of to the unborn, but you care nothing for those who are already here and in need of healthcare. Your statement about illegal aliens speaks loudly about where your values are.
Carol
Hospice was contracted by the VA to “assist me” after I received 25 radiation treatments to my mattle area in 2004. This government is pro-deathers to me as I’ve seen first hand what they do using their morphine lollypops. My condition was dire and I was unable to walk. They were lining me up to expire.
When this Hospice worker left the room to get a form for me to sign, I literally crawled out of the bed, out of the room, making my way to a stairwell long forgotten by most others which led to the ground floor emergency room area. I climbed into a wheelchair and rolled myself out of that VA in East Orange, NJ to my car. I have not returned to that facility since.
So much for government health care. I submit that the VA and all Hospice facilities have killed many thousands of Americans in a very quiet manner, and although I haven’t read this bill I feel Hospice will be killing off thousands more and many will be veterans. Hispice will be getting paid by the government to pick up the pace.
I realize my comment has nothing to state about what you have written, except that government healthcare is wrong, and I can only thank you for presenting this issue, and allowing me to state what I have experienced. Thank you.
Night-flyer,
You have encountered a medical system that has found you an inconvenience instead of a human being. Next time call me and I will come and get you and make sure those who did not have your best interests at heart know why you are leaving.
Carol
CD => “Back in 1973 in the Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, landmark case decided by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of abortion, the ruling was that a woman may abort her pregnancy for any reason, up until the point at which a fetus becomes viable. Viable was determined to mean: “could live outside the mother’s womb, perhaps with artificial aid” adding that “viability” is usually placed at about 28 weeks. The court also determined that after this point of viability, abortion could be available when needed to protect a woman’s health.”
TD => Hi Carol: It’s fun to play God, isn’t it? The beauty of America is that we all get to believe we can play God providing we don’t hurt others. Therefore, I say under those guidelines you can make whatever choice you want as long as it doesn’t hurt others. It’s your business.
The extreme left-wingers want to believe life can be aborted even after a child is born. The Obama-wingers believe (and have publicly stated) a child can be aborted AT ANY AGE until the Government’s “investment” in the child’s development exceeds the value killing it. That is in the wonderful new “health/deathcare bill” they are trying to ram down Amercans’ throats.
Rightly or wrongly, I call the “right to abort” people “right to murder” people. It is for a simple scientific reason: Do we know at what day or week that a child in a mother’s womb is a viable human being? I don’t think Americans should let a bunch of failed lawyers and “lawyer wannabes” be speaking for the Creator (whatever or He or She is).
Six percent of born children remember the birth process. Ten percent of that group (0.6% of all children) remember being in their mothers’ wombs. I personally remember being in my mother’s womb, communicating with her mentally, feeling comfort and discomfort, seeing light and darkness and seeing “monster” shadows and hearing their voices though her stomach wall. Later in my long belly dwell, I clearly remember arguing with her about her food and drink choices, the birth process, me wanting to exit through that small opening feet first and her saying I must go head first or we’d both die. I argued that I’d suffocate if I went headfirst. She ultimately won the argument, since I agreed that us both dying was not an option.
I know I was a viable human at some tender fetal age. The greatest Mystics say the soul enters the fetus body before its organs begin to work. I’ve never heard one pass judgement on anyone who doesn’t understand that specific point in an infant’s lifetime. So I ask: How many days or weeks from inception before we can hear a baby’s heartbeat? You’re a nurse so you know better than I do.
If I had been aborted when I first became consciously aware, I would have been murdered. Plain and simple. Who was there to protect MY rights? Only my mother’s common sense. I was not born in a happy, healthy home. I was unaffordable. I was an extra burden. But I know I had the right to live, and to my good fortune, my birth mother understood that (besides, I grew up to be a cute little shit).
You can call me a “right to lifer” if you want. That’s okay, but it’s not totally true. I just want science to define when life actually starts (if they ever can). I can live with any consequences following that guideline. I just want hard science, not money making global warming, pontificating, idiot scientists
From my personal experience, I would call most winners of the Roe vs. Wade dispute “right to murder” people. If they can call me names, I can return the favor. The difference is, I have actual experience. Most “right to murder” people are selfish, self-centered, narcissistic ego-maniacs, whereas most “right to lifers” are trying to error on the best side of a bad situation.
The simplist way to avoid the whole issue is to avoid the situation. If sex can’t be avoided, then use birth control pills. A spade is a spade, you know?
Finally, there is karma associated with every thought and action we perform in this Creation. For every act there is an opposite and equal reaction, somewhere, sometime down the road. We need to be careful.
Finally, far be it from me to judge anybody who is involved with karmic acts. It is there business, not mine. But I would be wrong NOT to say be careful, very careful.
Cheers, and well-written post.
Tom Houston Vet, 1st Cav, Electrical Engineer, Physicist and Mathematician, Jesuit trained, practicing Yogi.
Tom,
You miss the point of the article. Pro-lifers are using this healthcare bill as a reason to further their cause at the detriment of those who need healthcare. The pro-life movement does not care for children. You are suckered if you think they are trying to save all unborn babies. They have no right to make decisions that affect me and Americans any more than they have a right to make decisions that affect any woman who chooses to not become a mother.
Carol
Hi Carol, If I look at your headline, it says “Pro Lifers insure people would never have healthcare.” That borders on stupidity, at a minimum it roils around the edges of a bold-faced lie. I can’t believe any intelligent person would reach such a bizarre conclusion (unless of course, it was me on certain issues).
The pro=life movement DOES care for children. And for old farts like Duff and me. I have absolutely zero belief that the “Right to Murder” people give one rat’s ass about the very old or veryb young, other than to get them (us)out of the way as fast as possible if THEY decide we are useless. Why? If we are (not, or no longer) paying high taxes, we are useless for their causes.
It’s a shame, but the people who are promoting that “right to murder” shindig do want to pull the cord on grandma. Because the “right to murder” people are so stupid, they are steering America directly into a backlash of becoming a “Theocracy”. I don’t want to live ruled by the super-religious, blind leading the blind, do you?
Tom,
Well it is very easy to tell that you, Principaldad, and Nash are all men. You could never really underststand what it means to not have control over your own body, thus you have no input in any discussion that would affect women. Anyone who wants to haul out their baggage and throw it in the way of American’s getting healthcare should really be ashamed of their self serving methods and their attempts at scare tactics.
The pro-lifers have gone at evey angle to garner support within the Congressional ranks to defeat the health care bill. The full page ad in a newspaper is only proof of this. Oh, and the picture of the baby on the top half of the page was not intended to garner sympathies, was it? The headline I have given my article is one that works. It reflects exactly what the pro-live people want since they are not interested in healthcare for all. Only the ones they deem worthy of it, which I guess are those unborn babies. The pro-life groups receive extensive funding from insurance lobbyists, representing companies that all failed and required the financial bailout that they are trying to prevent uninsured Americans from getting. You have to know this.
Carol
Hi Carol,
I tried to post this on your article but it is not having it:
Great article. I don’t agree with everything you wrote, but, nonetheless, you helped illustrate how abortion has been and is being used like a political football… like a child in the middle of a very ugly divorce… a tool and a weapon against the other party, in the name of the best interest of the child… yet, the child and their needs go ignored.
Really, what has changed since 1973 to stop abortion – as it has been a hot button topic of the people and political parties all of these years? Nothing.
Most politicians ‘have’ to posture with their chosen party.. and don’t speak their real minds on the subject most times. Not all politicians… but, a lot.
It’s sad… a real leader would say what they really thought instead of mumbling and being mamby-pampy about something they may have strong opinions about… but that is a different subject.
I agree that women should have rights over their bodies… I also know that, (years ago), when I showed a friend a video of my baby in the womb at three months… she turned white and ran to the bathroom… when she came out 20 minutes later… she was upset and told me that she had an abortion earlier at three months term and she thought then that it was just a ‘mass of cells’.
Where is the middle?
Apparently there is none with abortion… that’s why it is going to be at a stalemate and used as a political weapon for so long.
My youngest is the one that was in that video… I was being pressured to have an abortion by the medical people who were saying that she would probably have spinal bifida, severe mental retardation and very possibly Down Syndrome. I’m not going to tell you how wonderful I was to have that baby… I will tell you that I was blessed with giving birth to one of the most amazing, (and smart and healthy), people that I know. (Seriously, if I wasn’t there and conscience at her birth… I wouldn’t know where she came from…. really.) She wants to be a doctor and work with ‘Doctors Without Borders’. She is the funniest person I know with her very dry and understated humor and she keeps me laughing.
I am not better than anyone else for giving birth to my daughter. I do believe that I was blessed with an uncommon calm and assurance during her birth that I cannot explain.
That is just part of my story. We all have stories. Some make a different choice and for different reasons.
I do believe that my daughter at three months gestation was a viable person who needed my care as she grew within my womb… and that she was a viable person when she was a two week old mass of cells. That is my opinion.
I also believe that I cannot know everyone’s personal story, so I cannot freely judge other people at random in accordance to my beliefs. I don’t know everyone’s situation. Like the girl/young woman/mature woman who was raped. The woman who is in an abusive relationship and already feels trapped enough. The girl who was not taught and so does not yet fully realize that her body,(and her mind), is her own and doesn’t yet set boundaries with her body with the opposite sex… not yet exercising the freedom of pursuing and having sex according to her own true wants… (I Do have very Strong opinions about That which include honor and respect.) The list goes on and on. I am not their judge.
Fran,
We agree that women have a right to what happens to their bodies. To take abortions out of the medical picture will again place women in unsafe situations. Using the healthcare bill as an agenda to spread the pro-life cause is criminal in that they would deny safe healthcare to those who do not agree with their beliefs. No one is allowed to pick and choose who is qualified, important enough, righteous, deserving, etc.
Carol
Fran,
I copied and pasted your other article to the reply window since it came throuh in my email. I have tried two times to post it. I had no luck either time. Sorry.
Carol
Thanks
Carol, It is also criminal to use the healthcare bill as a method to spread the ‘pro-murder’ agenda. You’ve been watching Kucinich too much.
Tom,
I neither listen to nor watch politicians or most news networks for the obvious reason that they spew untruths. There is always an agenda I have formed my own ideas by observations. I am simply pointing out that pro-lifers have an agenda that will harm Americans, particulary women. I stick with what my article says.
Carol
Carol,
I agree with everything you wrote here.
It’s a tough call for me… but really… the last 37 years… what Has happened to reduce abortions as Americans have been in a grid-lock battle over abortion?
Are we truly empowering ALL girls and young women?
For one example: I don’t know if this is true for a fact… but I have heard many times that over 60% and as much as 70% of abortion clinics are in inner-city neighborhoods…
That might be a great place to start to teach young people true empowerment.
There ARE programs THAT WORK.
Programs that Produce Real Results in bringing generations out of poverty.
WHY aren’t more of these programs not in place?
Harlem Children’s Zone Breaks Poverty Pattern
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111193340
NPR ‘Talk of the Nation’ July 28, 2009
“What Works” Harlem Children’s Zone CEO Geoffrey Canada Shares His Solutions”
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=111193340&m=111193338
If Americans quit bickering and hating on each other… we could find a meeting point to start from and continue together towards a desired goal… such as less abortions.
This is a battle where both sides can dig in and not give an inch… but again… what have the results been? How many abortions could of been prevented… starting Decades ago… if Americans haven’t been so busy fighting each other?
We can get all self-righteous about this issue… and not produce results…
What the hell America…
IF anyone mentions a computer program that DOES exist which can successfully track on-line pedophiles… BUT we don’t have the money for it…
the American people are not asking for it…
Why?…
Because we ‘don’t want to talk about THAT.”
They Should be DEMANDING IT! Instead, no one want to think about THAT.
Too much fighting, not enough courage and nothing being done to make real results for America and worse… American children.
Freedom Comes With Responsibility.
Stop fighting America about everything and get busy producing real results. Our children are counting on us.
This is the statement that I agree with you on Carol:
“We agree that women have a right to what happens to their bodies. To take abortions out of the medical picture will again place women in unsafe situations. Using the healthcare bill as an agenda to spread the pro-life cause is criminal in that they would deny safe healthcare to those who do not agree with their beliefs. No one is allowed to pick and choose who is qualified, important enough, righteous, deserving, etc.”
I can truly understand someone who is pro-life not wanting to be a part of providing abortions in any shape or form. I have no animosity to the (non-militant) Pro-Life position. I can see their point of view. However, as I have stated before… What Has Happened To Reduce Abortions in the Last 37 Years As Americans Have Been In A Stand-off on Abortion? Nothing.
I see a American political stand-off… and health-care and abortion are the hostages.
I hate seeing abortion being used as a political tool to motivate people to get on board a political bandwagon… while Not producing any results in Decades to reduce abortion. None.
I am not impressed with some of the low-down and dirty tactics that have been used to misinform people about ‘Health Scare’… death panels… and so on.
Scare tactics such as the ones I have seen in the last year… makes the the very people who are using them… lose all credibility in my eyes. How can I respect their position or even try to listen objectively when I have already seen national immaturity on a mass scale due to their tactics? I cannot.
This is a tough call… but, what have the politicians against abortion been able to do for the unborn these past 37 years as Americans have been screaming and yelling at each other? Nothing.
Let’s start all working on Solutions That Work and Produce Results by Empowering our young Americans…
including our ‘at risk’ youth with.. health care and education.
THEN maybe the abortion rate will decrease Greatly…
Or… we can just keep screaming and yelling at each other.
Maybe it will work… eventually.
There are no easy answers…
and there has not been any results…
Maybe… many of the politicians who claim to be Pro-Life don’t really care… because if abortion was illegal…
they wouldn’t have their best football to play fetch with…
and be able keep the American public chasing their tails…
or lead them by the nose while pulling on their hearts.
Again… What has Changed the past 37 years?
Do we want more of the same?
Fran,
I have copied and pasted the other comment you wrote as it came through to my email account, but does not show up here. Carol
Comment:
I do believe that any society may want to consider seriously before they start to establish ‘who’ is living a meaningful life or not and how that affects their life or expiration.
I do believe also that a humane society needs to look carefully before establishing who gets to live or not according to their means to afford or obtain health care. Because basically that is what is happening right now in America…
‘The fortunate can have health care and the rest… tough luck buddy’… that seems to be the mantra of many opposed to health care for all.
Oh yeah, “Not my money!” and “American is going socialist1″
My goodness, the ‘Good Samaritan’ is a story being taught in Christian bible classes to children… but does it reach the hearts of those who are teaching it?
I wonder sometimes.
Finally, I feel frustrated because in my mind and heart… the Spirit of the American People could figure out anything to accomplish anything… but we are not because we are too busy standing on opposite sides of the street… facing off and yelling at each other.
But… is anyone listening?
Maybe if we could starting talking and listening to each other… we could figure out how to reduce teen pregnancies and unwanted pregnancies… and I do believe that teaching when a little heart starts beating would help greatly so people could make… in my opinion… better informed decisions when they exercise their choice… or not.
Another area to look at is empowering our girls and young women…
I’ve read that American women have become empowered with being able to have birth control and abortion available. But is that REAL empowerment?
Real empowerment, in my opinion, will happen when women around the world reach out to one another, learn from one another, help one another and learn to become truly empowered from within.
The world would become a different place if the women of the world all held hands and supported one another and learned to raise Our Voice Together… as sisters, daughters and mothers.
Thank you Carol for your article.
Thanks Carol!
Thank you for your post Fran, and thank you for contributing your daughter to our civilization.
Tom, Houston Vet
yes pro lifers,these sick american taliban like pricipaldad could give a rats ass about the health and safety of anyone but his own! i’ll bet ya that pricipaldad is all for dropping depleted uranium on innocent iraqis and their children,and wouldn’t let a woman or a child who has been raped or caught up in incest get an abortion even if it was needed to keep them alive! or even if the pregnency was a health risk to the mother.you freakin’ bible thumping knuckle dragging slobs make me sick.and you know something with all those dinosuars running around 6 or 7 thousand years ago its a wonder were still around cause i’m sure those dinosaurs would have chased us all over the flat edge of the earth!!oh i forgot they died on the ark!a womans right to chose is just what it states! very good article it helps bring out those (principaldad) who need the (mental)health care the most.
mrg,
You have said alot in a short space. I can see that you have kept up with the current religious beliefs not to mention the cruise ship problems. It is amazing how people can think something, form it into a belief to support their misguided ideas and pretend that it is real.
Carol
Nationalized medical care is unconstitutional in this country, a clear violation of the 10th Amendment. There are nothing at all like 50 million American citizens without medical care, and as noted above and as everyone knows, any illegal can walk into any hospital and be treated.
That abortion is murder is a matter of justifiable belief among pro-lifers. For those favoring abortion, where is the moral justification for destroying a human life? As to Carol’s comment that an early term fetus is merely a mass of cells without specificity, what does she think it would become if it were not otherwise willfully destroyed? The decision to have an abortion is precisely a willful decision to exterminate what would otherwise in the normal course of things have become a human baby.
What a sickening article. To support socialized medical care and also demand it include paying for abortions is an abomination and testimony to moral subjectivism gone mad on a massive scale.
Dan,
Do you have any idea of the numbers of “pregnancies” that do not follow through to the birth of a baby without an abortion? Is that God’s way of committing an abortion? Your rehetoric has spit in the face of God himself. You are an agent of the Destroyer. You are also utterly clueless as to the what is Constitutional law.
Carol
Ms. Duffy one other quick note its about time you women get it together the way you did when you did the bra burning thing and kick the american taliban to the curb!
KUDOS…
Excellent article, and with the comments — superb!
Gordie
Hi Carol, It’s too bad you won’t bother or have time to read this. It’s just a little bit of Soul talk since you brought up Roe vs. Wade, not me:
CD => Perhaps you are one of the lucky who have healthcare insurance. Fifty-five million familiesin America do not have healthcare because they cannot afford healthcare insurance”
TD => With an average of 2.2 people per family in America, you are suggesting 120 million out of 300+ million Americans don’t have health insurance? Must have been a typo.
CD => Well it is very easy to tell that you, Principaldad, and Nash are all men. You could never really underststand what it means to not have control over your own body, thus you have no input in any discussion that would affect women.”
TD => Ask any military survivor (e.g., Duff) if men know what it’s like not to have control over their own bodies. I think almost 27 million vets know more than most women–except women vets or male/female cancer patients. Do you know wat G.I. stands for (like in G.I. Joe)? It stands for Government Issue. When we are in the Service, the Government owns EVERY aspect of our lives, including our right to live or die. Ask anyone who was ordered to slog through toxic mud and shit, dodging incoming and outgoing at the same time if they know what it’s like to not have control. It is an absolutely helpless feeling. I was hospitalized three times in the Service, twice on the edge of life threatening. I’ve awoken being carted to the morgue. I and those like me or worse off, we know. So don’t spread that “men never know crap”.
I was willing to put up with it so ALL Americans, regardless of a citizens’ sex, creed, color, religion, age or whatever, could have the opportunity to enjoy Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, without injuring others.
I, like most thoughtful Americans, understand there are extenuating circumstances where women DO have the right to abort. But, 99.8% know within the first 8 weeks (tow missed periods) if they are pregnant. Soon after that, the decision becomes one of “right to independence, don’t restrict me no matter what” vs. “right to murder”. It’s a slippery slope.
Best of luck and keep writing, Tom
Tom,
Anyone who has an abortion after the baby could survive, and that really time frame has changed since we ,medically do so much now to keep very early term babies alive, although they often do suffer the physical and mental consequences of being born too early, in my opinion has done something very wrong/criminal. The doctor or medical health professional who assists her has also done something very wrong/criminal.
In the perfect world birth contol is utilized if not by the female, who I feel should take the prime responsibility due to the fact that she does not want to become pregnant, but also the male member of the alliance and the prospects of an unwanted baby do not present.
Men go to war and are or can be put into often horrendously injurious positions. But men will never be in position to be totally personally responsible for becoming a mother. Not all women should be mothers and not all men should be fathers. Some people just do not have the ability to take on the responsibility of a life other than their own and sometimes they can do a pretty awful job of that. Forty-two percent of black women have never been married because they think they cannot find someone of their race who would hold up his end of a relationship. Men do not get pregnant Tom. I referred to women and pregnancy in my article. Actually, women and pregnancy was why I wrote the article.
There are that many people without the ability to walk into the office of a healthcare provider and plunk down a card that will get them started on the way to being evaluated to see why they have come in or for just being checked on and educated in how to keep him or herself healthy.
For women to seek a medically safe abortion, at a time when the fetus is not viable, is supportedly a very valuable thing. Medically safe is where I am strongly coming from. Obviously no one believes that an abortion is a form of birth control. If a girl or woman cannot take care of a baby, child she should not be forced to have a termination of the pregnancy in an unsafe manner. Safe and unsafe is all about who or what you can pay. Abortions have been happening since someone figured out how to halt a pregnancy, thousands of years ago. They will never stop and that is a very clear fact of life.
I do feel that groups including the pro-lifers and health insurance groups, who really do make a tremedous proffit off of people fearing the cost of being ill, have tried to further their causes by encouraging Americans to think that they, the Americans, will be paying for women to have abortions.
By the way, with all the new pregnancy tests that can be bought off a shelf in a drug store, and yes, even a dollar store, a pregnancy can be determined long before the second period is missed.
Carol
Got your point. Much clearer in my feeble mind. However, I AM a conscientious objector (a 60s and 70s term for you young whipper-snappers) when it comes to my tax dollars paying for any part of an abortion.
A couple months ago we had a young lady on television here in Houston that had six or seven abortions. All free. All paid for by our multitude of free hospitals and clincs here in Houston. She stated it was the only form of birth control she could afford. I can only guess that her estrogen levels were so high she couldn’t keep her knees together.
Maybe I don’t understand what you mean by “pro-lifers” but the ones I know, other than not wanting to pay for what they see as murder, want to be healthy just like you. They firmly believe they would be less healthy if a government bureaucracy was running the system. My wife Sharon is very sick. I was told yesterday by one of her doctors that if Obamacare passes, my wife will be on the short list to keep living because she is too expensive to maintain. Does trying to keep my best friend alive make me a “dastardly pro-lifer” who wants no one to have health care? I don’t think so.
I need to stop blabbing Carol. Once I got your article gist, I just wish the headline would have been more appropriate.
have fun, Tom
Tom,
I am very sorry to hear that your wife is so ill. What I have read about the current healthcare mandate is that insurance companies will not be able to place a cap on what they must spend for a person’s illness, etc. They will also not be able to avoid insuring those with pre-existing conditions. I guess we will not know what will happen until those, who already have good health insurance coverage, decide what the rest of America will get.
Carol
Anti-lifers will make sure you won’t be around to need health care.