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As First Lady and a US senator, Clinton has built her reputation fighting for women's rights. A comprehensive list of Clinton's pro-choice proposals would take pages, so here are a few of the highlights: As First Lady, she helped pass the Family and Medical Leave Act, which requires employers to provide unpaid leave to care for newborn babies or family members, and helped found the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancies, which set and achieved a goal of reducing teen pregnancies by one third. As senator, Clinton led the fight, in a hostile Republican-dominated Congress, to make emergency contraception available over the counter. She led the battle against the confirmation of anti-choice Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito, arguing in Alito's case that the nominee would "roll back decades of progress" for women. She led the fight in the Senate to get rid of the global gag rule, which prohibits US funding for overseas groups that use funding from other sources to provide abortions or abortion counseling, and has vowed to devote her "very first days in office" to overturning that decision.
13 replies [ Reply | Watch | Options ]a statement Obama made in Iowa that gives me, as a pro-choice voter, cause for concern. The statement was in response to a man who wanted to know what Obama would do to protect the "thousands of innocent, sweet babies [that] are being killed every day through what we call abortion." Obama: I think that the American people struggle with two principles: There’s the principle that a fetus is not just an appendage, it’s potential life. I think people recognize that there’s a moral element to that They also believe that women should have some control over their bodies and themselves and there is a privacy element to making those decisions.
[ Reply | Options ]Yes, some control--a position that's consistent with his statement ion the Senate floor, in response to a question about whether teenagers should have the right to get abortions, that the choice to abort or not "generally is one that a woman should make." Back in Iowa, and still in response to the innocent, sweet babies question, Obama continues: One area where I think we should have significant agreement is on the idea of reducing unwanted pregnancies because if we can reduce unwanted pregnancies, then it’s much less likely that people resort to abortion. The way to do that is to encourage young people and older people, people of child-bearing years, to act responsibly. Part of acting responsibly – I’ve got two daughters – part of my job as a parent is to communicate to them that sex isn’t casual and that it’s something that they should really think about and not think is just a game. I’m all for \education for our young people, encouraging abstinence until marriage, but I also believe that young people do things regardless of what their parents tell them to do and I don’t want my daughters ending up in really difficult situations because I didn’t communicate to them, how to protect themselves if they make a mistake.
[ Reply | Options ]Yes, you may say, but Obama clearly supports comprehensive sex education and the right to choose--the fact that he hedges on those positions and couches his response in right-wing rhetoric when responding to a right-wing questioner shouldn't matter. Here's why it does: 1) Endorsing abstinence-only education in public schools--even as part of a larger strategy in which the government encourages parents, and adults without kids, to take responsibility--is endorsing a failed system that has done nothing to reduce the teen pregnancy rate or the rate of STDs and abortions. 2) Ninety-five percent all Americans have had sex by the time they get married. Isn't it time for the next Democratic president to acknowledge that instead of embracing the failed model of "abstinence until marriage"? 3) Rhetoric is important. The government, under Bush, already has an official policy encouraging "people of child-bearing years to act responsibly"--it's called adult abstinence until marriage, and the federal government is spending millions of dollars a year to promote it. If Obama doesn't support the policy, he shouldn't talk about unmarried adults "acting responsibly." Yes, Clinton did call abortion, "in some cases," a "tragedy." But assuming Obama is the frontrunner now, I think all thinking Democrats should be holding his feet to the fire for hemming and hawing on issues that should be central to any Democratic candidate's platform and message.
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oh for Pete's sake, stick with the politics board. She's lost. what's your point? all she's doing now is hurting the party.
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UrbanBaby Asks...
When I ride in a taxi cab with my DC I:
- Use a carseat
- Buckle him/her in his/her own seat
- Hold him/her on my lap
- I'd never ride in a taxi with my DC, it's much too dangerous!
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