I cannot help but see the humor in "hide behind's" comments to "bra burners" (I believe there were fewer than 10 of those back in the 60s) to not be "half cocked." If the ones who COULD be "half cocked" WERE indeed "half cocked" - there would be many fewer pregnancies worldwide and we'd all be better off for it. Ok i'll send this but don't expect commondreams.org to let my comments remain!

Peace!

I am an Edwards supporter and, as a two-time cancer survivor, a real fan of Elizabeth.

But note to her: Sorry, it's too late. Roe is already a dead letter. The Fascist 5 have gutted it, leaving only a rotting corpse.

The solution, if Edwards gets it, is to revive the Equal Rights Amendment--if necessary with changes which will make specific that real humans (women) WILL NOT have their rights interfered with in order to protect imaginary ones (blastocysts & embryos).

It's nice to see Americans wanting to catch up with a liberal progressive western democracy like Europe, rather than the fascist police state that has been created by the Republican party

Once again an article about health that fails to mention the person with the health plan endorsed by Michael Moore, the health plan that is NON PROFIT, and a plan that would cover EVERYONE. And of course Dennis Kucinich...is also pro-choice. The best healthcare or legal abortions don't much matter to the 50 million people that have no health insurance..because they dont have access.
HR 676. Get over the hyperbole, look at substance. All the other candidates are taking $ or like Edwards have stock in insurance companies. Or both. We cannot afford to subsidize insurance companies, and why should we? Look beyond sound bites.

"He has chipped away at reproductive rights..." has he, Hillary? And your waffling erosion, what the hell is that? Framing abortion as something that should be "rare" is a value judgement in itself with negative implications where there shouldn't be any. I think you forget, Ms Clinton, that you were not swept into the whitehouse because of the economy--it was the abortion issue that was the crisis of the hour with a protest of women in white descending on the capital. The protest turn-out was so giganic that it was necessary to cling hands with the people you were with so not to get swept away by the crowd. The press of bodies was that intense. I have not forgotten, despite of being a veteran of countless demonstrations, and I have not forgotten even if the event was written out of history. You won't ride that wave again Ms Clinton, you will have to buy and sell yourself...but Elizabeth Edwards? She could do it. Now she is smart and she has some integrity and courage as a role model for women.

"Mrs. Clinton, of New York, argued that the Bush administration and its conservative allies had undermined and underfinanced longstanding education and family planning programs while heavily favoring abstinence education. She added, to cheers..."

From a Slate article:
In her speech, she recalled campaigning for "teenage celibacy" a decade ago. She emphasized "the important role that parents can play in encouraging their children to abstain from sexual activity. … Research shows that the primary reason that teenage girls abstain is because of their religious and moral values. We should embrace this—and support programs that reinforce the idea that abstinence at a young age is not just the smart thing to do, it is the right thing to do."

what kind of world will our daughters grow up in? what hurts our daughters will hurt our sons.

I am a man so I have no idea why women do or do not have sex at an early age. My guess is that those who remain abstinent would do so with or with our Government intervention and and those that want to experiment will do so and they are the ones who need information that an informed Government can and should provide.
Older women who accidentally get pregnant should have all the options open to them including abortion, adoption or to have the child. I see no reason for the Government to pump more money into abstinence only programs.
I do believe that an unwanted pregnancy should not financially fall on the shoulders of the man who fathered the child. If a woman wants to have a child and the father doesnt I believe she should be willing to support the child. If she cant afford to support the child she should choose another option.

I have an inkling that if it were men who got pregnant and not women, this whole issue would not be being debated right now?

If we males were the ones who had wombs, we would have the legal right to do exactly as we please with our bodies, and this would be completely enshrined in law.

And if women were then the ones trying to have us males do or be otherwise, -there would be a lot more protest made about it all than at present?

And yes, ~as ever, how come the Right to Life / Pro-life thing doesn't extend to babies once *out* of the womb, -and more especially if they are babies living (read: *dying*) in Iraq?

Bu$h the inferior's health policies are bad for every segment of the people.

His policies also put more women in a position desperate enough to have an abortion that they would not have in many other countries where there is universal health care and a social safety net.

The pathetic abstinence only policy is also a contributor to abortion.

I oppose abortion because there are many better ways to prevent an unwanted pregnancy and stop the spread of disease.

This is the non-issue issue the corporate democrats use to keep the liberal sheep scared and afraid

but

Are we out of Iraq yet ?

Has NAFTA been repealed yet ?

Is the minimum wage a living wage ?

Has corporate money to politicians been outlawed yet ?

No Thanks

Nader 2008

Call me cynical.

Strange that an issue that doesn't affect corporate interests is an issue that candidates can at last let their 'principles' run riot with?

This is the non-issue issue the corporate democrats use to keep the liberal sheep scared and afraid Peace Warrior

I remember distinctly this is a Republican issue that is kept alive every election by the religious right and those who cater to them! It's one of the core issues of their sick belief's. They will overlook all criminal behavior (look who they supported for President) before they will overlook abortion! When the religious freaks took over the Republican party Reagan changed it's party platform to 'Pro Life'! Because that's when a lot of us long time Republican's went looking for someone else to vote for. We could see the mess that was coming with religion in politics! If they don't trust me to make my own decisions regarding my body and life. They aren't going to get my vote! I haven't voted Republican since.

Drex, I could hardly believe what you wrote. Are you aware that almost all teenage pregnancies are the result of fathers who are 20 years old or older? So you think they should be able to go around seducing and impregnating underage girls, announce they don't want the baby and leave the girl to deal with the fallout. Great! Since you're a man, you also don't know how it feels to have an abortion. For many girls and women it is an unacceptable option, in their belief, murder. For others, extremely traumatic. I have never met a woman with a cavalier attitude toward abortion.

To say a man can go around impregnating women without any consequences is Neanderthal. It reduces women to second class status. A baby has two parents, not one, with equal responsibilities. I'm curious, do you have a daughter? It's hard to believe the answer would be yes.

I believe it was Gloria Steinem who first said "If a man could become pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament." In the early 1990s I was a volunteer @ Denver's Planned Parenthood and heard about the "pro life" women who would come from neighboring states to have abortions in Denver, and then return home to protest against abortion. If you believe for one minute that if Jenna or Barbara Bush became pregnant by the "wrong guy" that Laura and George wouldn't obtain a safe and clean abortion for their daughter - then you live in fantasy land.

I have always believed that abortion is NO man's business - yet thankfully there are sensible men who now only know that, but who help the fight for the right to choose.

Keep up the fight to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and keep up the fight to keep the right to choose a private and personal one that only the woman involved has the right to decide.

Peace.

Hold on a minute!
Funding directed on a sexualy biased nature towards woemn is already 5 times more than those for mens health issues.
Now before you bra burners go off half cocked remembert that almost all of the money for Earned Income tax funds is given to single woemn with children, all the social food and suplement money , for mental stability funding no less,and providing the funding for education to keep women and their children in more finacial security to be healthy.
Programs by the w3ay that end up gving more jobs to white woemn in bureaucracys and more funding to predomianately white women over any real benefits to minority races.
What we have here is one more reason the Democrtats suck as a politcal party, their power is in convincing individual groupings that they are victims of the system.
They then end up having no progressive national programs and keep sucking at the public money trough.
Edwards old lady is no liberal or even a progressive, she and her husband made their money the old fashioned way within the establiushment ruled by a system of corproate elites with politcal connections.
Hillary and Edwards are both opportunist and promise welfare programs while each seeking the raw power that is available to whomever sits in the next Presidency.
Raw power for the individuals who will still be Corproate.
Using this victim mentality of men are all preying upon underage females, 20 is under age and stupid, seems like self defeating verbiage, in this day and age of sex education free condoms and all the other Womens rights,including womens health issues always at the forefront of the Democratic party.
We have a very sad case of mass misogyny in all of american culture true but at this time in history it is males and females who are under attcack by a completley out of control political/military and corproate apparatus that in the future if allowed to go unchecked becuase you want more abortions and boobs tested, this misogyny of today will seem damn mild in the future.
So wander off in bra burning land led by men and women who both manipulate you and take advantage of your feminism.

I believe we need to go way beyond the liberal and limited Roe. We should have full and complete reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, anytime during pregnancy, at all US hospitals and military bases, and for free (ideally, covered under our to-be national healthcare system along with the range of contraceptive devices).

Why is it there are more men here discussing pregnancy than women? Why do you Drex want to leave yourself out of fatherhood 'if' you don't want 'it' ? Like you ever had a choice in history. You are a dad or a father. What is up with this Patriarchal religious zeal? What happened to having friends, whatever sex they are? You wouldn't do that to your friend! We are at a time in our social evolution where sex plays a role in our decisions, gay or straight, M or F. Women now have rights of their own nomater what their religion says or their husband, father or whatever says. To make any decision that is upheld by law must be made by the ones who have been in the situation not the ones bribed by the secret blow-job club. If bush keeps this up he'll say that any dad can rape his son or daughter as long as it 'Kept in the family'. That might be an exaggeration but maybe not. This is erosion of family politics which should give all parties an equal share of the floor. Unless you are fighting for fair and equal policies you are a sexist, fascist, might as well be racist, cause to the problems we share as a society as a whole. Just like a corpse upstream in in the drinking water, making us all sick.
I still hear women complain that they are treated unfairly at work and they are still underpaid for the same tasks as men. Black folk and Mexicans as well. What I hate the most is the stupid women who don't fight for their rights and try to keep other women in their place, (just look at the french election and the tide turning slander that whats his pencil nose name said that swayed the final outcome, but that is another story, " with that all said she is a woman with all the problems of a woman" or something to that effect). Unfortunately it is a part of this thousand year domination by a patriarchy. Subliminal to all who are NOT in the moment when they speak. WAKE UP WORLD!

Republican politicians probably have no qualms dropping off their own pregnant teens at the clinic.

I'm not afraid of anyone overturning Roe. On that front, we already won. Think about it. WE WON.

-Overturning Roe only allows states to outlaw abortion if they choose to do so.

-The states where MOST abortions are performed are in blue states that will never outlaw abortion.

-States that would outlaw abortion (red states) are already so restrictive, and maybe have only one or two clinics in the whole state, it won't make a difference. In fact, most women in red states have to travel for abortion services.

-Conservatives on the streets will be pissed when they find out overturning Roe DOES NOT illegalize abortion nationwide.

Basically, overturning Roe won't change much at all. Obviously I don't want that to happen, but in the long run, we WON.

The only way for cons to outlaw abortion nationwide would be to convince New York, California, Massachusetts and so on to ban it, or pass a constitutional amendment - have fun with that! Hahahaha!

Are you people living in the same United States I live in?
Do you have the same Supreme Court as I do?
Women and homosexual causes are still relegated to positions not much above illegal immigrant status and both have had their teeth kicked in by legislators in Massachusets, second class citizhip, and all over the South.
The reasons for womens and same sex issues now being on back burner is mainly by the power of the Religious Right and their hold upon the short hairs of all elected officals.
All the federal funding and male or female medical professionals salarys in countrys finanaces does not come close to the yearly take of a 450 billion dollar religion Industry.
There are no blue states they ar all federal states, male or female governor it is power that matters, and they all are under one Branch of government, the executive and no matter the candidate who next takes that spot everyone running is claiming how much faith they have in GOD and GOD does not like liberals, homosexuals, or uppity women in the US of A.
Another point is GOD is already in each and every banch of government and he is a jealous male GOD! So powerfull a GOD that the women and good christians are telling lies to protect the one they say talks to him in the white house.
There are two strong religios groups that are allied and Hillary Obama or Edwards are bowing down to them already.
There is a health issue alright but it is a mental health issue if you think a Democrat in office is going to listen to anyone but those with the most bucks and today that is the Power of the Corporoate Religious Right.

Times like this, I wish we were all sitting around a large table in a quiet room so we could discus (argue!) some of the issues we read about here. This one is very close to me. I lost two friends to botched abortions in the 1960s. Their boyfriends (steadies, back then) were leaving for 'Nam and, of course, they proved how much they loved their guys by getting pregnant. And, of course, the guys stopped writing as soon as they found out.

What this country needs, in my humble opinion, is a governing leadership not ruled by religios rules. The USA is a melting pot of people with every kind of religions (and non-religious, athiet, scientologist, whatever) belief system in the world (and then some). Get religion out of the business of governing a country whose people are fed up with this crap and on the verge of revolution.

And the abortion laws? I say if a women (girl/child) is not allowed to make her own decisions about her own body and forced (by family, government, religion) to deliver a baby she neither wants nor has the ability to raise...

[SIDEBAR: the last reports from Washington were that women ARE still paid less for the same job than men, still under the false premise that men are the heads of the family and the main breadwinners. To heck with all the single moms out there, struggling to keep a roof over her family's head and food on the table.]

...the proven (ah, dna testing at its best) sire of that child ought to be forced to HAVE an irreversible vasectomy.