Glad to see that the leading abortion rights group in the United States is staying neutral on a bill that would give women false information about abortion and declare that pregnancy begins at fertilization (the medical definition of pregnancy says that it begins at implantation).
I don’t have any problem with making fetal anesthesia available if women want it. I do have a problem with requiring doctors to give women brochures which claim that fetuses feel pain, when this point has been contested by doctors and pain specialists, and in fact the opposite appears to be true. I also have a problem with legislating the medically inaccurate idea that pregnancy begins at fertilization.
In other words, More options: Good. Lying to women: Bad.
This isn’t NARAL’s first major slip-up. I’m not sure what’s going on over there, but they need to get it together.
UPDATE: It looks like at least a few of the state affiliates have figured it out.
In other depressing reproductive rights news, Uganda doesn’t look like it’ll be legalizing abortion any time soon, and a singer in Indonesia is being criminally investigated for allegedly terminating her pregnancy (sorry the link is weird; click “printer-friendly” to read the article).
The “pro-life” movement: Proudly turning women and doctors into criminals, and killing hundreds of thousands while they’re at it.
Similar Posts:
- Fetal Pain Is a Myth by Lauren August 24, 2005
- Good International Repro Rights News by Jill April 11, 2007
- Crime, Pregnancy and Civil Rights by Jill October 26, 2006
- Provide half the raw materials: get $10,000. Provide the finished product: get $500. by zuzu March 23, 2007
- Pro-Choice Congressmen More Likely to Have Slutty Daughters by Jill June 18, 2007
Digby got it right. For reasons of “maintaining credibility,” advocacy orgs get sucked into the artificial center, while some on the right remain far right and try to slide the discourse window. NARAL is part of the problem. They need an abortion-on-demand-without-apology league to hold up the outside edge of the discourse and make NARAL the moderates by comparison. Otherwise, they’ll sell out anything just to get pats on the head from the Beltway establishment.
Is there any hope of a grassroots’ revolt to take control of NARAL?
And if not, isn’t it time for those of us on the pro-choice side to take our time, money, and energy and give it to a new organization?
Thanks for the link!
Keeenan has been a disgrace for a long time: refusal to weigh in on Alito, failure to even bother to stop John Roberts, the Lieberman endorsement, and now this. And yet, they keep begging for money: what the hell are they DOING with the money? Throwing parties for the help? Flushing it down the toilet? Whatever it is, it’s certainly not beign used to advocate strongly for reproductive rights.
She needs to go. Bob Brigham at FDL may have been inspired by here when he was in college, but those days are gone.
Nancy Keenan makes my heart hurt.
Anyone have any idea as to an email address I can send an angry letter to?
I’ve got one all typed up and ready to go in my draft folder, but can’t find an email address on NARAL’s site that seems an appropriate place to send such a scathing, “why are you betraying us?” letter.
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You mean like your LOCAL STATE AFFILIATE? That would be a very good idea.
It looks like at least a few of the state affiliates have figured it out
Or more properly speaking, it looks like at least a few bloggers have figured out how NARAL’s organizational structure works. It is not and never has been a secret.