Before I get to two videos of Democratic congresswomen talking about abortion and birth control, something that Adam Serwer wrote is very germane:
These videos are striking because they're a reminder of how little of media coverage of political battles over abortion reflects the views of real human beings, as opposed to the reductive, paternalist caricatures that seem to dominate the conversation.
Anyway, here's Democratic congresswoman Jackie Speier:
And Democratic congresswoman ties together the importance of birth control and poverty:
As regular readers know well, one of the things I regularly cover is education policy. After watching Rep. Moore's speech, how can teachers unions be the primary stumbling block for poor children--which is where the educational crisis lies.
I'll also add it's good to hear an elected official talk about what it's like to be poor as opposed to talking about poverty in the abstract.
After hearing these two women, I tempted to think we should just boot all the men out of Congress: we're just too unrealistic.
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Republican ideology never collides with reality - its parallel and thus they never meet.
I would say that Republican ideology isn't parallel with reality; it's SKEWED from reality. It will never collide, but it looks more and more distant from reality as time goes on.
My father did legal abortions. I helped my father do legal abortions. The pro-lifers used to picket and threaten him at his clinic in an effort to "protect life".
When women were not allowed to receive legal abortions, they found ways to do it themselves. The OB-Gyn wards used to have a separate unit for those women who came in with botched back street abortions that caused bleeding and sepsis. Many women died or lost their ability to have children at a later time. I remember the story of a young woman who died of sepsis from an illegal abortion; the doctors lied to her parents about how she died ("an unusual virus")because it would have been too shameful for the family at the time.
The Repugs are just pushing malignant cultural and religious memeplexes to their idiotic, non-reality based, base in an attempt to maintain power. Women and girls will be vulnerable and suffer if they are not effectively countered with reality and real stories.