The war on women is over...and women lost.

[kiva]

Yesterday I posted about my frustration with posters using the attack on Planned Parenthood to discuss their own priority issues...a few people agreed, some didn't, which is fine because this is a discussion board

Here's an article that examines one of the ways in which women's reproductive rights have been limited in recent years - it's long, but worth the read:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/planned-parenthood-abortion-the-war-is-over

When she was 20 years old, Renee Chelian began every Friday with a predawn drive to an airplane hangar outside Detroit. There she met an abortion doctor, and a pilot who flew them to Buffalo, New York.

This was 1971. Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that established a woman's right to an abortion, was still a year and a half away, and New York was one of the few places in the country where abortion was legal. Chelian was the doctor's assistant. She cleaned instruments and made appointments for women who hitchhiked or drove from all over the Midwest and New England to reach the clinic.

Chelian knew well why these women were willing to make the journey to Buffalo. Just five years earlier, at 15, she'd gotten pregnant by her high school boyfriend. She was resigned to dropping out of school. On the night she was packing her suitcase, "to go get married," her parents came into her room and asked if she wanted an abortion instead. "What's that?" Chelian asked.

-snip-

Chelian is now 64 and has two grown daughters. She's the founder and CEO of Northland Family Planning Center, a group of three clinics that perform abortions in the Detroit suburbs. A petite woman with a blunt haircut and a round face, Chelian is matter-of-fact and seemingly unflappable. But when we talk about her clinics, her tone intensifies. Her business is under constant threat of closure from the conservative Michigan Legislature, which has spent the past four years churning out a string of arbitrary new abortion restrictions designed to shut clinics like Northland down. One proposal required Northland to have one bathroom for every six patients.

[randys1]

1. Killing abortion providers, attacking Women is now the norm and is acceptable to much of

this country.

That is just a fact.

I have said it before, a real man will defend a Woman's right to her own body with his own body.

I am talking to all men, for the moment.

If Roe is overturned, Women will die, count on it. As it is, they will be dying anyway in the states that have managed to outlaw abortion even though that should be impossible.

It is like arguing over WHICH identification you need to vote, when the constitution says NO id can be required, not unless said id is imprinted on you when you are born or something like that, anything else is a poll tax.

[RKP5637]

3. Well Said!!! K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's pathetic! Civilized country, hmmmmm. n/t

[DesertRat]

22. +1000

Thank you!

[hifiguy]

24. Very well said.

[marym625]

2. it's a great article

I noted it in a post myself back in October

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027224870

[kiva]

4. I saw that it was out for awhile,

but you're right, it's a great article and given what just happened, a good reminder of what's at stake - I think it's a war we can't afford to lose.

[marym625]

6. Absolutely we cannot. We must fight. Hard and loudly

Rage. Rage against the machine

La Rage

[Thinkingabout]

5. I wish I could say you are all wrong, it is not true the war on women is over years ago,

I can not do this because you are right. In fact in the past few years the war on women has ramped up, more sharia type laws is getting passed in different states by republican states. It needs to stop, lots of dumb statements have been made by republicans and they think this is just great.

[Luminous Animal]

12. They are not "sharia" type laws. They are Christian type laws.

[SharonAnn]

26. I now call them "Christian Sharia" laws.

[malthaussen]

7. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

I disagree that it is over, but certainly massive reverses have been suffered. That just means, of course, that the fight has gotten harder. The first thing that needs to be done is turn this country off the slide to Fascism, because most of our "Wars," whether hot or cold, are due to their bloody-mindedness. Once that has been accomplished (which will take awhile), then the quislings who claim to be on the Left can be re-educated. It's a massive undertaking, no error, since it involves adjusting just about every aspect of how our society thinks about itself.

-- Mal

[Jim Lane]

14. We can hope that RW successes will be self-defeating.

The re-education process you describe will go more quickly as reproductive rights are more and more curtailed. Abstractions about "when life begins" may come to seem less important to people whose pregnant teenage daughter can't get an abortion.

Well, that's the optimistic view, anyway.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

8. Over? Not quite IMHO

Last edited Sun Nov 29, 2015, 08:56 PM - Edit history (1)

However, the extent to which it can be limited has got to be addressed (and will be addressed) by SCOTUS. Once SCOTUS opened the door for restrictions as long as they don't create an "undue burden", lawmakers have taken that and found so many *creative* ways to limit and/or frustrate women from getting abortions to the degree that, unless you are wealthy or otherwise connected, the right to choose as given under Roe V. Wade has been very nearly legislated out of existence as a practical matter in some (mostly deep "red&quot areas of the country. The most insidious of these limitations are so-called "TRAP" laws that force a bunch of unnecessary regulations on abortion providers as a means of shutting many of them down. Hopefully, SCOTUS starts by knocking Texas' recent spate of anti-choice laws. Next step is cleaning as many anti-choicers out of state legislatures as possible and replacing them with pro-choicers (or at least people not interested in pushing more restrictions).

[Turn CO Blue]

9. It ain't over, but everyone is just exhausted. We have to get more rowers to help us.

There is an entire generation of millennials and gen-y'ers of young women who are just coming up wise to what is going on here.

My 24 year old daughter said to me on the phone an hour ago "the real issue here is that they just want full control over our sexuality". Wise beyond her years.

I'm hopeful/grateful/optimistic? that they will probably have the energy to continue this fight and have the social media and issue framing know-how to carry it for at least another generation until we once again forget our history (coathangers, swallowing poison) again...oh wait, maybe not that hopeful after all. Sigh.

[greymattermom]

10. I think the real issue

is that a bunch of old white men think lady parts are disgusting and want to punish women for enjoying sex.

[LiberalArkie]

17. I might add a lot of young men also. I even know some teenagers that are the same.

[Turn CO Blue]

20. The female protesters probably think our stuff is "icky" too. Remember a month ago

that young lady in Oregon that broke up a forced-birth protest in front of a PP clinic?

She was jumping around doing high kicks shouting "YEAST INFECTIONS! YEAST INFECTIONS! THANK YOU FOR HELPING ME WITH MY YEAST INFECTIONS!"

And her hand-drawn poster had a scrawled image of vulva/vagina on it (can you imagine...gasp!), so when she would get near, the protesters would move away to get away from her signs (and probably her cheering and dancing).

Finally they couldn't take it and left.

Story carried by many outlets, but here is one:
http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/humor/daring-woman-confronts-planned-parenthood-protesters-with-bold-two-word-chant-tweets/

[William769]

11. I would disagree.

Sure there have been some lost battles, but the war on women is hardly over.

This primary is just one example of that.

Yes I am a middle aged white guy, but I'm not giving on this war and you shouldn't either.

[uppityperson]

15. ++++++++

[LiberalArkie]

18. I would say it is getting damn close when a teen girl may have to travel 1000 miles

or more to be able to get an abortion and then fight the protesters in front of PP.

[leftyladyfrommo]

21. When I was in school in the 60's

you could go to a back alley butcher, Mexico or Oregon. Those were your choices.

[Vinca]

13. We haven't lost and we should never give up.

Just saying it is counterproductive.

[kiva]

16. I don't think so either,

but I kept the title of the article because I think the danger is there.

[leftyladyfrommo]

19. I think women should just go form their own country.

I don't think trying to work it out with men is ever going to work . It never has in the past. Women are treated better in this country than most places in the world and it's still really bad even here. The most dangerpus place for a woman is her own home.In other parts of the world women are just treated worse than the stock. It's beyond awful. They are burned, mutilated. Stoned. Kept as slaves. They live unbelievable lives.

We need to find our own island where we can live in peace. A place where women can be safe.

[roody]

28. Women were learning to do menstrual extractions before R v Wade.

We have to get back to women's. self help. As well as fight like hell for justice.

[smirkymonkey]

23. K&R

[CrispyQ]

25. Kick, kick, kick

Most abortions today involve some combination of endless wait, interminable journey, military-level coordination, and lots of money. Roe v. Wade was supposed to put an end to women crossing state lines for their abortions. But while reporting this story, I learned of women who drove from Kentucky to New Jersey, or flew from Texas to Washington, DC, because it was the only way they could have the procedure. Even where laws can't quite make it impossible for abortion clinics to stay open—they are closing down at a rate of 1.5 every single week—they can make it exhausting to operate one. In every corner of America, four years of unrelenting assaults on reproductive rights have transformed all facets of giving an abortion or getting one—possibly for good.

[nolabear]

27. No. It's not over. As long as our minds aren't controlled

They are terrified of our actual power over life and always have been, those who believe they have to have everything. Our issue is believing in ourselves and hanging together. I think we can if we have to, and make the price of trying to control our bodies very, very high. Only if they're willing to go Handmaid's Tale on us can they have that.

[ck4829]

29. It's not over until someone surrenders or is destroyed

Time for women and their allies to fight back in earnest.