Clinton vows to fight "insulting" abortion plan

[cags]

What the hell is wrong with these people, I can't even wrap my mind around this



http://www.reuters.com/article/wtMostRead/idUSN1843863720080718


By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Bush administration plan to define several widely used contraception methods as abortion is a "gratuitous, unnecessary insult" to women and faces tough opposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday.

The former Democratic presidential candidate joined family planning groups to condemn the proposal that defines abortion to include contraception such as birth control pills and intrauterine devices.

It would cut off federal funds to hospitals and states where medical providers are obligated to offer legal abortion and contraception to women.

"We will not put up with this radical, ideological agenda to turn the clock back on women's rights," the New York senator told a joint news conference with New York Rep. Nita Lowey, also a Democrat, at Bellevue Hospital.

"Women would watch their contraceptive coverage disappear overnight," said Clinton.

The planned rule is aimed at countering recent state laws enacted to ensure that women can get contraception when they want or need it. It also would help protect the rights of medical providers to refuse to offer contraception.

Clinton said she has written a letter with Patty Murray, a Democrat senator from Washington, to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt asking him to reconsider and reject the release of the proposed rules.

She also urged people to sign a petition on her website, www.hillpac.com, against the proposed changes.

"Our first effort is to get the Bush administration to rescind the regulation, not issue in its current form," Clinton said. "If that doesn't succeed, we're going to be looking for legislative steps that we can take to prevent this regulation from ever going into effect."

A copy of a memo that appears to be an Department of Health and Human Services draft provided to Reuters this week carries a broad definition of abortion as any procedures, including prescription drugs, "that result in the termination of the life of a human being in utero between conception and natural birth, whether before or after implantation."

Conception occurs when egg and sperm unite in the Fallopian tubes. It takes three to four days before the fertilized egg implants in the uterus. Several birth control methods interfere with this, including the birth control pill and IUDs.

"If enacted, these rules will make birth control out of reach for some women. That's a sure way to guarantee more unintended pregnancies and more abortions," said Anne Davis of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Eric Beech)

[mrreowwr_kittty]

1. They're not even trying to hide that they're going after contraception. nt

[woo me with science]

2. One more in a long list of reasons that

WE. MUST. WIN. THIS. ELECTION.

[Hidden Stillness]

3. This Step Should Surprise No One

This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one. When you realize that their main objective is complete and total, anti-feminist subugation of women, and a dismantling of all laws promoting equality, then you realize you are just moving from sphere to sphere, killing everything. I remember, a few years ago, arguing with someone who was against abortion and kept calling it "murder," who claimed that I was a "hypocrite" for being against the murder of actual, live children, but supporting abortion, and I answered that this person was also a hypocrite, if I was. "You are against abortion, but not against birth control, which stops a pregnancy just as much," etc. The way it went during the discussion was that the person kind of agreed, that we both had what could be called a "flaw" to our positions, and we ended the discussion pretty well, not threatening or abusive.

Then when I thought about it later, it started to worry me that actually, a real extremist could exactly think of every God-damned thing as "baby-killing," and I never lost that fear. Now, as a matter of fact, here it is. Never forget--they do not care about women; they hate women most of all. They want to "protect" women by tying them (us) up in chains so they (we) don't "hurt" themselves or do something "bad." The ultimate goal is to take the entire public sphere of legal rights away from women, like an instant reversion to hundreds of years ago and subserviance to the male. This is what you WILL GET by appeasing these tyrannical people, ("Abortion should be rare...," etc.). Go Hillary Clinton--fight!

[Triana]

5. The objective is to control women. Plain and simple. n/t

[Triana]

4. The American Taliban strikes again...

...gotta control them women - next they'll have us wearing burkas, not be allowed out without a male escort (ONLY husband or family member) and being denied education.

[netania99]

6. Has anyone tried to access the petition from the hilpac site?

I'm not seeing anything - just a sign up place. When I signed up, I got a thank you, but no way (that I could see) to get to the petition. Thanks!