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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWonkette: David Brooks's Abortion Column Should Have Been Aborted
Last edited Tue Feb 6, 2018, 01:23 PM - Edit history (1)
In your New York Times column yesterday, you a conservative white man offered some advice to us progressives in the guise of an Imaginary Democratic Consultant, which you are not. This advice was that we stop caring so much about keeping abortion legal, in hopes of reeling in the many voters you imagine would totally vote Democratic if only we gave up the ghost on that particular issue. People who would, surely, care about economic and racial justice if only they didnt come pre-packaged with, ew, reproductive rights.
Dear Democratic Leaders,
Last week I watched as our senators voted down the Republican bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks. Our people hung together. Only three Democrats voted with the other side. Yet as I was watching I kept wondering: How much is our position on late-term abortions hurting us? How many progressive priorities are we giving up just so we can have our way on this one?
This is a rather fascinating departure from your earlier theory that the way for us to win would be to give up on identity politics and protesting. Its really lovely that you, a person who is going to vote Republican anyway, care so much about our welfare.
It is also very astute of you to notice that people vote for and against things they care about. Who would have thought?
............................................
Abortion is a class issue. Were we to have a situation in which, as you describe, abortion were illegal in the 21 or so states that want to make it illegal, it would only actually be illegal and unsafe for poor people. The rich would still be able to travel to states where it was legal in order to obtain safe and legal procedures, just as they did before Roe. Making abortion illegal means one set of rules for the rich and another set of rules for the poor, and that goes against anything anyone progressive might stand for.
Abortion is an economic issue. Abortion is, quite frankly, a large part of the reason women have been able to join the workforce and not rely on men to survive. Forced birth means not having the choice to make sure you are able to provide economically for a child before starting a family, it means more children growing up in poverty and fewer women being able to move forward in their careers.
Read more at https://wonkette.com/629232/david-brookss-abortion-column-should-have-been-aborted#EtTAgxUHp76ozubi.99
R
Me.
(35,454 posts)and him.
Cha
(297,323 posts)I love wonkette.. she's brilliant
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Excellent!
liberalhistorian
(20,818 posts)nearly thirty years ago, it infuriated me the number of people, male AND female, who, without really knowing me and before having any idea what I planned to do, railed at me against abortion and thought they had the right to dictate to me what I should do.
The only person who had ANY right to decide was ME (my fiancé had decided he didn't want to deal with any of it and had kicked me out of the house. Biology allowed him to "not have anything to do with it", while I, quite literally, had no choice, I had to decide what to do, though I, too, "didn't want to deal with it."
I did not choose abortion, and ultimately raised my now-grown son, but at least the option was available. I'm also amazed at the number of people who have used me as an example to women in similar situations: "see, she also was abandoned and had it rough but she chose to carry the pregnancy to term, you can do it too!" Excuse me, but just because I made a particular choice, based on what I thought was right for me, does not mean that it would be right for everyone else and they, too, should make that decision, that choice. Because that's what it's all about, CHOICES, based on what the individual thinks is best for her under her own circumstances.
Fuck David Brooks, and the hell with his bullshit "character". I'm sure his dumped wife would have some "choice" things to say about his so-called "character." I'm so tired of these hypocritical RW fucks always lecturing us when they know shit about it.
mcar
(42,334 posts)Thank you for sharing your story, liberalhistorian. No one has a say in the matter except the woman.
Ohiogal
(32,011 posts)mcar
(42,334 posts)but that smug, condescending, misogynistic column finished it.