Posted on 02/13/2005 7:33:53 AM PST by Libloather
Sen. Clinton offers abortion solution
By John Aloysius Farrell
Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief
New York - It seemed a reasonable, almost obvious, point to make: The Democratic Party should represent Americans of all creeds and religious convictions, even those who have qualms about abortion.
"We shouldn't ... have a special-interest group define our stand on choice," said former Rep. Tim Roemer, a Democrat from Indiana, referring to abortion-rights groups such as NARAL Pro-Choice America.
The hissing began at the rear of the room full of Democratic activists and spread throughout the hall. Last week, having failed to gain much support, Roemer dropped out of the race for party chairman.
It was a creepy little scene in a contest marred by behind-the-scenes ugliness, and illustrative of the challenge facing the victor in that race, incoming Democratic chairman Howard Dean.
Assessing their party, many professional Democrats see a glass half full. Outgoing chairman Terry McAuliffe is leaving Dean a massive grassroots donor list, a bulging party war chest, a new headquarters building and a state-of-the-art get-out-the-vote operation.
If just 60,000 more people in Ohio had voted Democratic, McAuliffe ruefully notes, he'd be picking up orders from President Kerry and heading for a new job as ambassador to Great Britain. A tweak here, a TV ad there, and the Democrats are back in business.
But the passion in the party comes from its liberal activists - the MoveOn folks and Michael Moore fans and NARAL members - whom Dean famously called "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party." These are people who oppose the Iraq war, despise President Bush and his domestic initiatives, and think their party needs to purify itself and harden its opposition.
Resolving those views - sustaining the left's passion while reassuring centrists - may be Dean's toughest chore.
The last Democratic president was a master at this kind of balancing act, so perhaps it is no surprise that a way out of this dilemma was offered by someone named Clinton.
In a Jan. 24 speech in New York, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton used that most contentious of issues - abortion - to offer the Democrats a template.
"I respect" your values, Clinton told abortion foes. She asked them to move past the apocalyptic rhetoric employed by both sides in the debate, and to work with her and other congressional Democrats to actually reduce the number of abortions in America.
"We can all recognize that abortion in many ways represents a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women," she said. Such sentiments are rarely heard in Democratic venues.
Clinton declared her support for "teenage celibacy" programs but said they are not enough.
She asked conservatives to join her in supporting family planning.
"Seven percent of American women who do not use contraception account for 53 percent of all unintended pregnancies," Clinton said, adding that "more than half of all unintended pregnancies end in abortion."
Clinton's proposal faces many obstacles. Catholics, for example, are taught that both abortion and contraception are sinful. Other congregations, and many secular families, don't like schools teaching kids about sex or birth control. And if you believe that life begins at the instant of conception, then some forms of contraception, which keep newly fertilized embryos from becoming viable, are tantamount to abortion.
But both sides need to consider: Are they letting the perfect be the enemy of the good?
Religious conservatives would have to settle for progress short of victory, and send a signal to their elected officials that the benefits of saving countless unborn children from abortion are worth blinking on sex ed.
Liberals would have to acknowledge that, 30 years after Roe vs. Wade made abortion legal, many fellow Americans still view the practice as Clinton described it, as a "tragic choice" of last resort.
The best way to keep abortion legal and safe may be to make it rare.
In her travels as first lady, Clinton witnessed the evil of communist Romania, where a dictator ordered women to have more children, childless couples were punished, contraceptives and abortions were banned, and "once a month, Romanian women were rounded up at their workplaces."
"They were taken to a government-controlled health clinic, told to disrobe ... (and) examined by a government doctor with a ... secret police officer watching," she said.
Clinton also saw communist China, where "local government officials used to monitor women's menstrual cycles and their use of contraceptives because they had the opposite view - no more than one child," she said.
Maybe there is no way out of our culture wars. Perhaps Clinton's offer was just posturing.
But liberals should listen, and conservatives should test her sincerity.
yada, yada, yada...What a meaningless wish... There were tighter races in other states (PA for example) where demomcrats won, so if less than 60,000 of those democrats had voted republican it would have been a massive landslide for Bush, so what is their point???
And that's why abortion is a good thing.
Without Roe vs. Wade there would have been enough democrats to easily win the last 2 elections.
So9
I've already tested her sincerity. She's lying. How do I know? Her lips were moving.
She'll say absolutely anything to further herself and her goals. She can never be trusted. Never.
So secret, in fact that your Mom or Dad may not know that you're crying in a doctor's office because SOMEONE told you abortion was the best way!!
but the plurality vote across the country was what - about 3 million more for Bush - and Feinstein wants to eliminate the electoral college. (Do the dems talk to each other LOL)
This mantra of 'only 60,000 votes is just another example of how they think the American people are stupid
And without Roe v. Wade there would be more workers per retiree and Social Security might not be the mess it is. There's no telling how many new businesses or maybe even whole industries that simply never materialized due to abortion.
"If just 60,000 more people in Ohio had voted Democratic, McAuliffe ruefully notes, he'd be picking up orders from President Kerry and heading for a new job as ambassador to Great Britain. A tweak here, a TV ad there, and the Democrats are back in business."
Gee Terri. When the fraud in Wisconsin is uncovered and when those 105% voting records in Dem districts are corrected, we have a, a, oh my, we have a LANDSLIDE!!!
"Seven percent of American women who do not use contraception account for 53 percent of all unintended pregnancies," Clinton saidyet not ONE single word as to WHO that 7% are or what SHE plans to do to get their mind right!!!
Sorry,the day when Hillary recognizes that her husbands actions with Monica went a long way to cheapen and introduce young people to sex,then her words will mean something.
"Perhaps Clinton's offer was just posturing."
D'ya think? This is about abortion, but the only way the demonrats will win the presidency, House, and Senate back is to apply the same principle across the board, to wit: "Oh yeah, I understand your position. But let's compromise, you come a little MY way, and we'll settle. OK?" The fence sitters will buy it like candy.
Thus we lose incrementally rather than all at once.
We're better off if people that stupid don't breed.
We're better off if anyone stupid enough to get an abortion doesn't breed.
SO9
In other words, it would have been easier to try to steal the election. We would have had another fiasco like what they tried to get away with in Florida.....They is what the rats were striving for. Fortunately, the gentlemen in charge of the voting in Ohio even though a democrat, was an almost extinct rarity in the DNC, honest.
"They were taken to a government-controlled health clinic, told to disrobe ... (and) examined by a government doctor with a ... secret police officer watching."
"Hillary, honey... have you seen muh passport larely? I'm thinkin' of takin' me a li'l ol' trip down t'thet 'Romania' place..."
If you mean Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell....he is a Republican and running for Governor in 2006.
"Who would more than likely get an abortion - a liberal or a conservative?"
The issue of getting an abortion is not so black and white as you want to make it out to be.
... several decades too late:
What does she think a party platform is, and how do you represent both, you can't. She's gettin' her advice from Bubba, go to the right and talk about praying....yeah...that's the ticket.
So what's your solution? Women being forced to have babies they don't want? Women offering up unwanted babies to orphanges (sp?) that will have to take care of them, placing the burden on all taxpayers?
What's wrong with administering medication (birth control) that makes contraception impossible?
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