Pro-choice Videos

The passage of the Stupak-Pitts amendment came as a shock to many prochoice activists and writers, but it's not a secret that "pro-lifers" would like to roll back the right to abortion at any chance they get. Now that the amendment is in the House bill, progressives have to fight twice as hard to make sure it stays out of the final bill, and with some of the allies we've got, that's going to be an uphill slog--after all, Rep. Stupak is a Democrat. Jill Filipovic of the blog Feministe, Frances Kissling, contributor to RH Reality Check and Visiting Fellow at the Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania, Diane Archer, Special Counsel & Director, Health Care Policy, Institute for America's Future, and Eesha Pandit of Raising Women's Voices for the Health Care We Need join us to talk about strategies for responding to Stupak, and what activists, feminists, and allies can do to make Democrats understand that women are not bargaining chips.

The House passed its version of health-care legislation Saturday night by a vote of 220 to 215 after the approval of an amendment which amounts to a not-very-back door abortion ban for everyone but the very rich. Presented by Democrat Bart Stupak of Michigan with the strong backing of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the amendment would prohibit abortion coverage in the government-run plan and any private plan on the new marketplace that accepts people who are using government subsidies to buy coverage. It's sexist, it's classist, it goes well beyond the heinous Hyde Amendment ban on public funding for abortion--and it passed with the support of 64 Democrats, roughly a quarter of the caucus. House liberals say they voted for it to keep the process of reform moving forward towards a majority but women are the majority -- of Americans, of voters, of Democrats, and pro-choice women outnumber the other sort. The House move had less to do with majority than it had to do with theocracy. Why is it that from Bangor to the Beltway, church pressure works on even liberal Democrats, even as no politician in America seems to be afraid of losing votes over being anti-choice? Obama left the abortion issue unmentioned Sunday when he appeared in the White House Rose Garden to congratulate the House on its "courage." Bunk. "Now it falls on the United States Senate to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people," said Obama. Now, it seems to me it falls on pro-choicers to demand an answer to the question raised by Jodi Jacobson on RH Reality Check. "What does Henry Waxman, Nancy Pelosi or any other member of Congress owe the Catholic Bishops that they do not owe the majority of women in this country? What does Obama owe the Bishops that he does not owe you and me?" It's not too late for voters to lay siege to their Senators. And it's not too late for the liberal campaign contributors to close their wallets until they find out.

The Fourth Commandment is “Honor your father and mother.” The Lord worked through our parents to bring us into being;