fasten your seatbelts: Push for Strict Abortion Limits Expected in House

[spanone]

WASHINGTON — A leading Congressional opponent of abortion rights, who is in line to take charge of an influential House panel, plans to press for much stricter limits on the procedure.

The selection of the lawmaker, Representative Joe Pitts, Republican of Pennsylvania, as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health presages a major shift on abortion and family planning, according to opponents and supporters of abortion rights.

Opponents of abortion gained about 45 seats in the midterm elections, and they count the next speaker, Representative John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, as a staunch ally, virtually guaranteeing more conflicts with the White House on the issue.

Mr. Pitts was chosen last week as the chairman of the subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over private health insurance, Medicaid and much of Medicare, as well as the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.

In urging Republican leaders to choose Mr. Pitts, the National Right to Life Committee said he had “made the protection of the sanctity of innocent human life the cornerstone of his service in the House.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/health/policy/12abortion.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

[shraby]

1. We still have a majority in the Senate...and the Presidents

veto pen.

[spanone]

2. that's our only hope....but the senate is no guarantee

[secondwind]

3. True, and the 'Baggers who came into the House have a six-year term. We need to

be vigilant and fight back hard.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Terms of Office: House = 2 years, Senate = 6 years

--d!

[Warren DeMontague]

8. 2 years in House.

6 years in Senate.

[mitchtv]

4. nor is the president's veto

[cap]

12. why are we panicking

there are still a fair number of progressives in both the House and Senate. The Republicans don't hold both the House and Senate and the Presidency.

Let's not get scared of our own shadow.

My prediction is this: there will be a big hue and cry about stuff....and there will be some nibbling around the edges... but nothing major will happen. We have to try and make sure the nibbling is kept to a minimum.

[Demoiselle]

9. Nor. apparently, is the President's veto pen.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. They don't want to take responsiibility for human despair, but they'll

help create it.

[Warren DeMontague]

7. Best thing that could happen would be for them to push culture war "values voters" shit

That's where they're wildly out of touch with most of America, which is vaguely middle-right on fiscal matters but far more socially libertarian on issues of keep government out of our bodies, bedrooms, and bloodstreams.

If they were to embrace a genuinely libertarian agenda, uniting the far right and the disaffected left, then we would be in trouble. Fact of the matter is, choice is a winner issue for us.

[bluestate10]

11. I completely concur.

I want to see republicans get back to the extreme social agenda they pushed during 2005. That is the path to permanent destruction for them. Nothing unites other voters more powerfully than the thought that our nation will be talibanned by USA born zealots. Just hope democratic leaders don't &*%# ** the next opportunity to bury republicanism.

[PeaceNikki]

10. Anti-choice Politicians Beware: Large Majority Strongly Opposes Republican Leadership's "Plans"

One thing you've heard over and over from politicians on the right in this month after the election is how focused they plan to be on jobs and the economy.

One thing you might not have heard so much about: While the new Republican House leadership has failed to articulate an economic strategy beyond "cut, cut, cut" and "make the rich richer," they have a long list of bills they want to pass to restrict women's health and rights.Voters say: Not so fast.

A survey funded by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and conducted by Hart Research shows that large majorities of voters--including those who voted Republican or Tea Party in the last election--are strongly against proposed attacks on women's health and rights.

The survey was conducted among 802 registered voters between November 5th and 8th, 2010. It measured support for and opposition to the GOP leadership’s policy proposals on women’s health, which come in part from the GOP’s “Pledge to America.” Specifically, the GOP “Pledge to America” calls for “a government-wide prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion and subsidies for insurance coverage that includes abortion.”

Key findings from the survey included:

* Seventy one (71) percent of voters are against cutting federal funding for preventive health services at Planned Parenthood health centers around the country (including 60 percent of voters who voted for the Republican candidate for Congress in 2010).

* Eighty-Eight (88) percent of voters support comprehensive sex education for teens which includes information and training on abstinence as well as birth control and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases. These findings comport with those in earlier surveys.

* Seventy-five (75) percent of voters support policies to reduce unintended pregnancies through greater access to birth control.

* Seventy-seven (77) percent of voters disagree with making abortion illegal, including in cases of rape or incest. Sixty-eight (68) percent of those who voted for the Republican candidate for Congress in 2010 also disagreed.

* Seventy-four (74) percent of voters disagree with making women who choose to purchase private health insurance with their own money pay higher taxes if that includes abortion coverage (including 71 percent of voters who voted for the Republican candidate for Congress in 2010).

“Unlike the new leadership in the House, the vast majority of American voters clearly support taking proactive steps to prevent unintended and teen pregnancy, such as providing real sex education to young people and making birth control affordable and available,” said Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

From: http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2010/12/06/antichoice-politicians-beware-large-majority-strongly-opposes-republican-leaderships-plans-women

I posted that in the Choice Group the other day.