Reproductive Rights

With abortion now topic-of-the-moment amid the health reform debate, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) weighed in last night with a prediction certain to please women’s rights groups: Republicans, the Ohio Democrat said, won’t be able to rally even 50 votes — let alone the 60 they’ll need — to pass an amendment restricting abortion coverage on [...]

“If the Stupak amendment is in there, I would definitely define it as one of most important life votes in more than a decade,” said Doug Johnson, the legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.

How is it possible that the FBI was told repeatedly just days before the murder of Dr. George Tiller that Scott Roeder, now the leading suspect, had repeatedly broken federal law by vandalizing the women’s health clinic where Tiller worked, including gluing the locks of the clinic, and the FBI did nothing about it?
Meanwhile, if [...]

A small number of conservative groups and 42 bishops are turning the speech into a watershed moment, while obscuring the president’s support among Catholics.

For eight years, the United States has observed a policy that few Americans outside the reproductive rights community probably knew about: International groups that provide abortions — or even counseling on the procedure — have been barred from receiving federal funding.
Today, that ban ends.
This afternoon, President Barack Obama signed an executive order repealing the restriction, [...]

Blogging off my beat for a minute, I wanted to add a few points to the Gov. Sarah Palin discussion. We’re hearing a lot about Palin as the “glass-ceiling-shattering” nominee, meant to soak up votes of women who supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — and just as much about how she’s unlikely to succeed in [...]

Perhaps there’s nothing eye-popping about a small-town mayor rejoicing over a big-time check from Washington, but in the context of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s claims to rugged federalism, the celebration takes on a new meaning.
Similarly, there’s nothing inherently unusual or terribly controversial about a 17-year-old getting pregnant — unless her mother is a powerful politician [...]