Day 15
Today I am venting a bit in a new essay. I probably need to quit watching the news, but I refuse to be an uniformed citizen.
CONFESSIONS OF AN EXTREMIST
I’ve been reading quite a bit lately about whether the Democrats have a chance to take Congress back in 2018. There are a number of seats up for grabs, and some recent wins have made the Democrats a bit euphoric about their chances. Fair enough; grabbing seats that have long been Republican, which you are not expected to win, is enough to justify euphoria.
I am, however, seeing another trend that worries me. I was reading an article that compared Planned Parenthood to the NRA, indicating that they were both extremist in their outlook and that Planned Parenthood had an iron grip on the Democratic Party. This struck me as a bit odd, so I looked for the evidence the author presented. The evidence was there: it seems that the Democrats are pro-choice in their outlook and their platform, and that they are less enthusiastic about supporting pro-life candidates. (By the way, the Pennsylvania seat was just won by a, wait for it, pro-life Democrat, which this article claimed was not allowed by the party).
So let’s just unpack this a bit, all right? The NRA believes that everybody should have absolute unfettered right to own any sort of weapon they wish, even weapons that have no purpose for hunting, recreation, or defense, but are instead military type weapons designed for the sole purpose of killing people. They shout this at everyone who dares to suggest any sort of restriction on gun ownership, and they manage to prevent any regulations being passed to restrict even the worst of weapons, in spite of the fact that the majority of the country is in favor of at least some restrictions on gun ownership and use. Gallup poll trends show that the support for stricter gun regulation is increasing, and that it was at 60% in October 2017. Since that time, there have been numerous school shootings, and support for gun regulations is at an all time high.
As for Planned Parenthood, they believe that all women have the right to high quality health care, and the right to make choices about their own reproductive health. America mostly agrees with them, with more than half (57% at the latest poll I found) believing that abortion should be legal in at least some cases. PP doesn’t shout this at people, but instead invest in education programs and health programs to actually make their vision come true, and support politicians who support their vision (the right of every citizen and corporation to do, because, well, we are a democratic republic, and we have the right to try to persuade others to agree with us). So they are like the NRA, then? Not exactly.
The NRA has been astonishingly successful at getting legislatures all over the country, as well as the federal government, to toe the line and follow their sincerely held belief that all people should have the right to have enough weaponry to mow down as many of their fellow citizens as come within range of their rage and anger. Sensible, limited gun restrictions are not on the agenda, even though there are some politicians who make some gun regulation noises, and various regulations get introduced into various governing bodies. The NRA is able to take for granted that their wishes will be honored, and that their vision of the Second Amendment will be the one that governs all our laws.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood has been closing clinics right and left – 32 in 2017 alone – because legislatures are passing more and more stringent regulations that limit their ability to operate. This restricts their ability to provide the myriad of health issues that women need, in some areas where they may be the sole clinic to serve the needs of women who are unable to pay or travel. These services were far more than just abortions; in fact, abortion makes up only a tiny percentage of what the PP clinics provide. The increasingly picky regulations that legislatures pass which need to be met by women’s health clinics are leading to underserved populations as clinic after clinic shutters. Other women’s health clinics fare no better, and in fact, often have to close much sooner than Planned Parenthood because they are unable to meet the requirements for door size or hospital privileges that are not required of other clinics serving other populations.
While the official right to an abortion is still in place, the restrictions have effectively shut off access to that option for a substantial number of women throughout the country. Other restrictions that limit access to legal abortion include the requirement in 37 states for parental consent before a minor can have an abortion. Waiting periods are present in 27 states, and 14 of those states require a woman to make two trips to the clinic before she can have the procedure. State-mandated counseling is required in 18 states, and 20 states have laws against so-called “partial birth abortion”, a procedure that does not exist in a scientific sense. Most of the states, 43 to be exact, have laws that prohibit abortions after a specified point in the pregnancy.
While the United States Congress has not yet been able to pass laws outlawing abortion entirely, and no state has been able to outlaw the procedure following the 1973 Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, most states have passed some extremely restrictive laws that prevent most women from obtaining access to the abortion that is their legal right. The Supreme Court has upheld most of those laws, even while refusing to totally jettison the 1973 decision, so women have been effectively stripped of their legal rights.
When you begin to look at these two organizations more closely, it appears that Planned Parenthood really isn’t much like the NRA at all. Wherever you stand on these two issues, it is obvious that one group has been highly effective at promoting their preferred agenda, while the other has been mostly spitting into the wind. Approximately equal numbers of Americans favor some gun restrictions and some legal abortions, and these Americans are being ignored, out shouted, and left behind in the wave of legislation that is being passed by their own representatives. In fact, the group that seems to me to most fit with the NRA type of system is the pro-life movement that has succeeded in passing much of what they have desired, even though they have not yet managed to outlaw abortion altogether.
When one party has aligned itself totally with the pro-life movement, it seems strange to me that people would be ignoring that, and criticizing the other party for differentiating itself from the opposition party by aligning itself with the opposite movement. It also seems peculiar to me to brand a group extremist when its agenda aligns so well with what the majority of the voters desire. It seems that, in this as in so many other things, Democrats are being advised to throw women under the bus, to cease to be an advocate for women, and to move themselves to a position of being only slightly different from the Republicans – only, perhaps, in fiscal issues. In all issues involving women – issues of equal pay for equal work, equal access to medical facilities, freedom from unwanted sexual contact – taking a position advocating for women is billed by pundits across the spectrum as an extremist position, while supporting the rights of men to grope, abuse, and underpay women is seen as mainstream.
If supporting women is an extremist position – and, according to most of the pundits out there right now, it is, in almost all issues except the right of women to clean house and have babies – then I proudly confess that I am an extremist.