Why we have to stop the GOP from taking us back a hundred years

[csziggy]

How often will we see this on death certificates for women?

The cause of death was septicemia following attempted abortion on self.

That is a quote from the death certificate of a sister of my great grandmother. Jessie was born in Michigan in 1889. She married in 1910 and had two children before her husband died in 1912. She remarried in 1913 and had three more children before her death in 1920.

I'll never know why she tried to abort her sixth child. Maybe she couldn't handle another child. Maybe she thought they couldn't support another child, though in the 1920 Census her husband's occupation was listed as none and hers as retired - he was a farmer living alone in 1910 before their marriage. Jessie died in January 1920 and her widowed husband was remarried before the end of the year. By 1930 he and his new wife had one child of their own, though his occupation was still listed as none.

What ever the reason for her attempt, she could have lived many more years if birth control, family planning, and medically safe abortion had been available to her. While my great great grandmother, her much older sister, died before my father was born, maybe he could have met his great aunt.

There were better excuses a hundred years ago for allowing women to die this way. Today the only excuse is religious mania that wants to control women by withholding medical procedures that allow them to make their own choices about their lives.

[MineralMan]

1. What you said. This and many other issues require all of us

to work tirelessly to win in 2012 at every level. There can be no argument with the fact that allowing the Republicans to take control will be a complete disaster. We need everyone who can to work to elect Democrats to office and to get out every Democratic vote in November, 2012.

[freshwest]

3. +1,000

[DCBob]

2. I would not be suprised to see the Pukes try to make abortion illegal nationwide.

if they ever get control of both chambers and the WH.

[kctim]

5. Like they did under Bush

when the GOP controlled all three branches?

[DCBob]

8. The teaparty wasnt around then. The Republicans have moved far right in recent years..

and are now willing to do all sorts of drastic things to make their agenda the law of the land.

[SammyWinstonJack]

13. ....

:evilgrin:

[csziggy]

16. They tried under Bush and now are trying state by state

It's frightening, even for those of us who are beyond child bearing age. Margaret Atwood tried to warn us, but the US seems to be moving that way even if it is not popular for most Americans.

[DCBob]

17. Yes thats right.. one only needs to look at the red states to see what they really want to do.

Its scary.

[csziggy]

18. I live in one - Florida

There are no politicians to talk to that will listen. pRick Scott doesn't care and the legislature is mostly Repub, and the few Democratic members are pretty conservative. If I didn't love the farm I own and we didn't have elderly parents, I'd want to move out of this state even though it is the only place I've ever lived.

[musette_sf]

4. K & R

:hug:

[JohnnyRingo]

6. Demoting women is the very backbone of the Republican party....

Democratic president signing The Lilly Ledbetter act that protects women's rights in the workplace:



Republican president signing a law to ban certain abortions:



Next time someone says "there's no difference between the two parties"....

[tabasco]

7. Oh no! According to most on DU:

"democrats = republicans."

"Obama = Newt Gingrich."

Yep, DU has become an idiotic cesspool.

[saras]

9. Because 100 years back is a trial run for 1500 years back

[get the red out]

11. Yep

These bastards want us afraid of Sharia Law because what they want would make it look liberal.

[get the red out]

10. If there were no other reasons to vote for Democrats

That would be enough for me. It will always be enough for me. I am almost at menopause but I have two young nieces and I do not want their lives ruined by Republican Theocracy.

I believe that the Corporate drive for more and more consumers has mated with religious extremism in this country to produce their bastard child, the Republi-bagger Party. If they win many lives will be ruined and it could take generations to become civilized.

[Initech]

12. The soulless jackasses are also talking about repealing child labor laws. Fuck them!

They really do want to take us back 100 years! :argh:

[The Genealogist]

14. A sad cog in the mechanism that powers authoritarians

I've not seen a death certificate, myself, that indicates a woman died from a self-induced abortion. I'm sorry your relative had to die this way. One woman dying this way is too many.

Republicans and conservatives claim to be the ones who want to get the government off of people's backs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Too many of them want to micromanage what women do with their bodies, when what women do with their own bodies is absolutely none of their business.

They don't want to get government off people's backs; they want MORE control over what people do in their private lives.

[ellisonz]

15. We cannot allow those who want to roll back the clock of history...

...to take more power anywhere in the country. We need to fight them in all 50 states, in all elections, and do so until we've transformed this country.

:dem: