Tuesday January 23 1:33 AM ET
Abortion Battle Heats Up With Bush
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Abortion protesters marching on the capital promised legislative fights and cheered President Bush's first major action in office - overruling an abortion-friendly policy by his predecessor.
At the same time, abortion-rights groups girded for battle. The president of the National Organization for Women (news - web sites) said Bush had removed the ``moderate mask that he wore during the election'' by ruling out U.S. cooperation with many family-planning organizations abroad.
``Read My Lips - No More Partial-Birth Abortion'' proclaimed a sign held by Randi Grantham of Wellington, Fla., demonstrating in a smiling Bush mask. The 36-year-old sculptor's sign had a more ominous flip side: ``It's War! Baby.''
Bush imposed strict restrictions Monday on U.S. funds to international family-planning groups involved in abortion, even counseling people about it or lobbying governments about it. The order was similar to a policy of Bush's president father, which President Clinton (news - web sites) had overturned when he took office in 1993.
Bush's move coincided with a demonstration by thousands carrying signs that read ``Defend Life'' and ``Stop Abortion Now,'' a march to the Supreme Court in an annual rite of protest against Roe v. Wade (news - web sites), the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide 28 years ago.
``It is not respectable for people who advocate and tolerate abortion to be in high positions of government,'' Nellie Gray, president of March for Life Fund, told the annual abortion protest rally her group has sponsored since 1974.
There was something different this year: President Bush, an abortion opponent sworn in two days earlier, welcomed and encouraged the protesters.
``Two days ago, Americans gathered on the Washington Mall to celebrate our nation's ideals. Today, you are gathered to remind our country that one of those ideals is the infinite value of every life,'' Bush said in a message read by Rep. Christopher Smith (news - bio - voting record), R-N.J., an outspoken abortion foe.
Abortion opponents hope to take advantage of the new political landscape to push a Republican-controlled Congress and White House they expect will be more sympathetic to overturning Roe v. Wade.
Bush told the crowd he appreciated their efforts.
``We share a great goal: to work toward a day when every child is welcomed in life and protected in law,'' his message said. ``We know this will not come easily, or all at once. But the goal leads us onward: to build a culture of life, affirming that every person, at every stage and season of life, is created equally in God's image.''
A big cheer went up when the crowd was told that Bush had signed the executive memorandum Monday to reverse Clinton's decision in 1993 to restore federal financing of international family-planning groups that offer abortion or abortion counseling. Bush's action, which covers even groups that use their own money to pay for abortions or abortion counseling, effectively reinstates a policy that President Reagan put into place and Bush's father continued.
Clinton supported abortion rights and thwarted opponents' attempts to curb access to the procedure. Twice during his presidency, he vetoed legislation to outlaw a late-term procedure described by its critics as partial-birth abortion.
Rep. Steve Chabot (news - bio - voting record), R-Ohio, told marchers the measure would be reintroduced. ``He will sign it, not veto it,'' he said of Bush.
Abortion-rights advocates criticized the march.
``They don't represent the majority of people in this country who are pro-choice and pro-family planning and who voted for the pro-choice candidate,'' said Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League.
``George W. Bush (news - web sites) has ripped away any remnant of a moderate mask that he wore during the election,'' Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, told about 200 people at a candlelight vigil outside the court Monday night.
They held signs such as ``Keep Abortion Legal'' and ``Fight the Radical Right'' and chanted against former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft (news - web sites), Bush's choice for attorney general.
Despite some setbacks, abortion foes seem energized and expect Bush to move quickly to overturn several Clinton administration policies.
Another candidate for reversal is government approval of the RU-486 (news - web sites) abortion pill. Anti-abortion advocates also want a ban on federal funding for research involving fetal tissue or the destruction of human embryos, including stem cell research.
Two narrow Supreme Court rulings disappointed anti-abortion advocates last year. Voting 5-4, the justices struck down Nebraska's law banning the ``partial-birth'' late-term abortion procedure. The court, by 6-3, also gave states greater authority to restrict anti-abortion demonstrators outside clinics.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010123/el/abortion_protest.html
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I have been called an 'extremist'.
Perhaps if 'extremism' involves connecting the dots to form the picture of the world as painted by a totalitarian corporate body of elitists.. I am guilty as charged.
We are now in an Ogliarchy - or Plutocracy- and heading into a Theocracy..you may call it any of these, just do not call it a democracy any longer.
Democracy did not die when GB was inaugurated. Democracy suffered many mortal wounds - one at a time and inflicted on multiple occasions by diverse group and individual decision-makers. Many of whom I am sure inflicted these wounds unknowingly, or perhaps with the belief that democracy was so strong- so invincible- as to be immortal somehow. Democrats cry and wail and gnash thier teeth at Nader, yet do they not see how they themselves bloodied the sword with the confirmations of Scalia and Thompson?
John Ashcroft said "There are voices in the Republican Party today who preach pragmatism, who champion conciliation, who counsel compromise. I stand here today to reject those deceptions. If ever there was a time to unfurl the banner of unabashed conservatism, it is now."
John D. Ashcroft
Human Events
April 10, 1998
And the response from the Left to this battle cry? Nonexistant besides a small shuffle step toward the middle. It seems the harder the Conservatives pull on the rope- the more the Liberals seem willing to follow the lead.
Shuffle step by shuffle step.
Okay, so now the Libs are standing in the middle of the road. I wonder how long they will stand there? I see that deer in headlights look in thier eyes. And there is a big bad bunch of Right Wing Christians at the wheel who think it is their G-d given moral imperative to run that animal down. No matter what goes down with it. But most people don't seem to see or realize that the vehicle being used is Multinational Corporate Power and the resultant greed is what fuels it.
Sure, the Multinationals and thier village idiot currently installed in office will let the Christian Coalition think it is following its precepts and ideology. The Christian Right will actually think they are winning a huge battle. In truth, all of the ideologies of the Christian Right play well into the hands of the Corporate Elite. And so of course does the money.
In third world countries the women who labor for the Multinationals are considered to be 'used up' by the time they are 24 - 25 years old. They lose thier jobs as a general rule by this age.
There is a projected labor shortage coming up in the near future in a lot of these areas, in part because of groups who are federally funded to provide contraception and abortion for the poor.
How do you 'fix' this projected forecast? Well you get the man you enabled to hijack the Presidency to end federal funding for abortion and contraception overseas, and you manipulate the support of the Right Wing Christian Faction under the banner of Anti-Abortion laws.
Sure, there will be a great cost in the form of starvation, misery, poverty and disease and death for millions of children and adults as a result- but who cares?
Not the sheep who are too busy being entertained by NFL on sundays. And not the Christian Right who can see no farther than the limits that corporate and religious brainwashing will allow. And if you have a lock on the media via men like Rupert Murdoch (head of the Cato Institute, Right Wing 'think tank')- no one even need know.
Of course one of the most important agendas will be to undermine and manipulate the education system of the U.S. through cuts in funding and proliferation of Corporate ideals through advertising in the schools. The more undereducated a populace is - the easier it is to control them as a cheap labor force while imbuing them with a consumerist mentality. "Get 'em while they're young".
Meanwhile there needs to be a swing in public opinion about the environment in order to allow for drilling in the Arctic and offshore in California and Florida. The key to that would be of course to create an 'energy crisis' that is large enough to cause a near panic.
This is already underway, as I am sure the Californians have noted.
Does all of this sound 'conspiricist'? 'Extremist'?
Tell it to Caesar.
It is exactly how things are. And I fear it will become much, much worse. A dead democracy still animated like a Walt Disney creation can and will begin to stink to high heaven. I just wonder how many the stench will awaken?
Elysian
