I missed this when it popped up last week, but it deserves, even in retrospect, a resounding “What the f—?”
Today [June 9th], 11 anti-choice Republican members of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees spending for health, labor and education programs voted against a proposal offered by Rep. David Obey (D-WI) aimed at making it economically easier for low-income and vulnerable women to choose to carry pregnancies to term.
I never thought the obvious needed to be stated, but apparently so. Rep. Obey’s measure would have, in all certainty, reduced the number of abortions in America by making it easier for women to carry their pregnancies to term. No matter what delusions Republicans seem to be laboring under, many women abort not because they’re frivolous people or don’t respect the “culture of life,” but because they respect it all too well, and understand that it’s cruel to bring a child into the world that can’t be provided for properly. That’s not a difficult concept to grasp. Or it shouldn’t be. But really, what’s the use arguing here? These House Republicans don’t care. The point of pregnancy and birth, for them, isn’t about creating life or raising children or sustaining a healthy society. The point seems to be nothing more than making sure that women, as pseudo-Adrienne put it, “fulfill their biological duties.” Charming, all of them.
On a related note, I can’t imagine there are many people who haven’t read this post yet, but if not, it deserves a read.
UPDATE: Hm, after doing a little searching around, it seems that many of the health and education cuts Obey was railing against were made necessary by the need to free up some $900 million, in order to help pay for George Bush’s 2003 Medicare bill. Which, as we know, extended that all-important helping-hand to those pharmaceutical companies that were trampled on, oppressed, and otherwise down on their luck. Life is hard, you know.
