Illinois action blog

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Pro-life or Pro-Fetus?

The SCHIP veto override has failed.

I got a ton of emails over it, asking me to call my representative to urge her to vote to override. Considering that my rep is Jan Schakowsky, I could save my phone call as I knew she'd vote the way I wanted. We all know the real targets were Republicans as all but two Democrats voted for SCHIP. Many of those emails were from organizations that lobby for women's rights, health care, children's rights, on and on. Ann at Feministing points out that not one email would be coming from pro-life organizations. Even AFTER the wording was changed so that SCHIP covered the fetus and NOT the woman carrying the fetus, the pro-life forces wouldn't support the bill. Because we all know that women don't need health care while pregnant. 10 anti-abortion Democrats even sent a letter asking them to support SCHIP.

In the NYTimes, Senator Harry Reid mentioned compromises that had already taken place to get Republicans to vote for SCHIP. One of those compromises was on abstinence-only education. Amanda Robb reports that:
To entice Republicans to support the bill, the House of Representatives agreed to increase money for abstinence-only sex education by $28 million, to a total of about $200 million a year. Abstinence-only courses, the only form of federally financed sex ed, teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to cause psychological and physical harm.
They compromised on sex ed? Even after studies have come out that show it is a waste of money? It looks like the Democrats will try again and again, playing this out for all the political capital. But I have to wonder, if they are willing to compromise on sex ed, what else will they compromise on in the next version?

This leads me to believe that yes, our opposition only cares about the fetus. Not women or else we would be covered while pregnant. Not the child because once you're out, baby, you're on your own.

BTW - Here is a link to the final roll call.

technorati tags: pro-life, SCHIP, healthcare, roll call, Congress, veto

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