Tuesday, February 15, 2011

WI Stands in Solidarity

Of all the opportunities I have had through my experience at UW-Madison, witnessing 13,000 outraged activists protest at the capital is one I will remember forever.
Governor Walker has proposed his Budget Repair Bill to address the large budget deficit incurred in previous years. I agree that changes are necessary, but the approach being taken is unfair to WI's middle class.
Vital services such as education, protection, and healthcare are all under attack in this proposed bill and I am proud that many people residing in WI are stepping up, many for the first time, and are asking for another option. This is not a partisan issue. This is an issue of WI public sector being asked, no, forced to take on more cuts, to make more sacrifices than their well off private sector counter parts are ever asked to take on.
I hope that everyone will take into consideration the effects this bill could have on the education of the children who are our future, the access to healthcare provided to us by Badgercare, the protection provided to us by our correctional facilities, and the future of this great state. Where will everyone go when WI becomes the backwards state?
I witnessed teachers plead for their students. I witnessed firefighters plead for their futures and their public sector colleagues. I witnessed students plead for their futures, their teachers, and their parents.
Solidarity. It moved me today. It invigorated my passion. It revived my spirit.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

One attack after another....

It's been one attack after another. Relentless. Reprehensible. Repugnant.

By any adjective, the actions of the newly-elected Congressional representatives belie the reasons for which they stated they were running for office. Instead of fulfilling campaign promises to focus on jobs and the economy, there appears to be a lottery for the most outrageous and vicious plan to deny basic health care services, birth control and abortion services for the women of this county.

If these women get their services from such places as free clinics or Planned Parenthood, they are typically among the poorest. Preventing them from accessing birth control will keep them poor. That means their children will be poor. Children who grow up in poor families don't have the opportunities that children in better financed families have. Do the math.

In an economy like ours is now, making it difficult for women to access birth control is truly one of the most unjustifiable positions anyone can take. In addition to the affront against women making decisions about their own health care, it borders on economic terrorism. Providing birth control reduces the need for abortions. Providing basic, preventive health services are less expensive than restorative health services. Do the math.

And the idea of redefining rape to make it more difficult to get an abortion is also insane. Rape is always forcible. Why should women have to put themselves near death's doorstep to prove that they were raped?

And allowing hospitals to deny women a life-saving abortion? And preventing women from purchasing insurance that covers abortions even when they use their own money?

What next? How about something on jobs and the economy? Something that doesn't include keeping women and children in poverty. Something that won't drive this country into a poverty-ridden, third world country.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Where is the outrage?

Since the University of Wisconsin announced its intention not to continue with plans to provide second trimester abortion services at the Madison Surgery Center or an alternate location in Madison, the medical community has been eerily silent. Throughout the debate over whether or not to provide abortion services at the MSC, doctors and others in the medical profession spoke out in support of the plan. They stood with us, testifying to the need for this critical service.

Two years ago, the plan was approved. We waited. And waited. And waited. In May of last year, the UW announced that the MSC was not a suitable location and went to work finding an alternate site. Again, we waited. And waited.

The MSC never began providing the services. In December, shortly after the election of Governor Scott Walker and anti-choice majorities in the State Senate and State Assembly, the UW announced that it would not be moving forward with its plans, citing security concerns:
Monday's announcement ends that attempt, said UW Health spokeswoman Lisa Brunette. She said the surgery center "was really the only viable option within our system, and we have concluded that it cannot be secured to the extent necessary for patient safety and privacy."
NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin and other advocacy groups reacted immediately, expressing our disappointment and outrage that the UW and MSC let down the women of our community.
Subeck, of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin, said most second-trimester abortions are performed when the woman is in medical danger or has learned that something has gone terribly wrong with the pregnancy. "I would have hoped (UW Health) would have continued its commitment to the entire spectrum of women's reproductive health," she said.
Outraged citizens spoke out through their letters to the editor, their blog posts, and even their Facebook pages. The community was outraged, but where were the doctors? The nurses? The medical students? The medical community as a whole has been eerily silent in response to this news.

On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Dr. Doug Laube - a Madison physician who chairs the national group Physicians for Reproductive Choice - wrote a column calling on his colleagues to express their outrage that the UW and MSC let down the women of this community and left a gaping hole in the availability of reproductive health services with their decision.
“It is just appalling to me that there is not one lick of criticism out there from anybody who represents the physician practices in town,” says Dr. Doug Laube, a professor in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Wisconsin, who was not involved with UW Health’s plans.
He calls the Dec. 13 decision a hypocritical one, counter to both UW Health’s claim to offer comprehensive women’s health services and an earlier vote by its board to offer the abortion services at the Madison Surgery Center, which is jointly owned by UW Hospital, UW Medical Foundation and Meriter Hospital.
We agree with Dr. Laube and join him in calling upon his colleagues to express their outrage. NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin is committed to ensuring the full range of reproductive health services is available to women in our state, but we cannot do it without the help of the medical community. We know that medical professionals in the Madison area are upset, outraged, and concerned for their patients who can no longer access this critical care. Now it is time to step up and let the University of Wisconsin and Madison Surgery Center know that they let the community down.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

3am

So it’s 3 in the morning and I’m using this time to write, not having had a chance for the last week. Why 3am you ask? Why would a man with 2 toddlers not be sleeping at 3am when he knows he desperately needs that sleep? Because I am sick to death of evil lunatics forcing their way into political office rather than being arrested for treason or shuffled off to the mad house where they belong.

Yes, I refer to the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act”. There is a good article in Mother Jones about this if you need an update.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/republican-plan-redefine-rape-abortion

Among the more odious provisions of this ill conceived, poorly drafted, and vaguely defined act is a redefinition of rape! WHY would anyone wish to empower a rapist, you ask? Because if we can only redefine rape as something that is not a crime we can prevent women from having abortions! Bravo! And by that logic we could cure cancer by simply killing the patient, no more cancer, problem solved!

We currently have no federal (tax payer) funding for abortion, so any reasonably intelligent person made aware of this would probably ask why would we need a No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act now? The obvious answer is we don’t. This bill is only a political expedient. The people who proposed this bill know they cannot safely make any sort of direct challenge to Roe vs. Wade because if it were somehow over turned they would lose their political power base. This singular issue, the issue of abortion, consolidates and controls an otherwise disparate voting group who could not be unified by other means. Anti-choice politicians have to pretend like they’re doing something so they make these ill-conceived attacks as a show to their constituents that they’re going to deliver on their promise about fighting abortion. In my opinion, I don’t believe they want the bill to pass or they would have taken there time and done a better job on it. There will be greater political mileage for them if it doesn’t pass and they know this. When it doesn’t pass the anti-choice politicians can make other lame half- assed attempts and claim they’re still in the fight. Because the fight is all they have to offer. If the fight were ever over people might start paying attention to the fact that such individuals are dangerously ill equipped to govern and should never have been voted into office in the first place.

A little voice in the night just called to me to change a diaper. I went to her, changed that diaper, hugged her tight, gave her a kiss, managed to find her pacifier in the dark and put her back to bed. What sort of world will the irresponsibility of single issue voting offer her? When misogynistic people are placed in power, people who are willing to brutalize and endanger all our children with diminished rights, diminished protections under the law, we must ask the question: is our national interest served by this sort of unnecessary subterfuge? What is accomplished? Other than that the undeserving managed to gain power to line their pockets and the pockets of their wealthy masters. We as Americans and responsible voters cannot allow locale state or national elections to be viewed as a referendum on a single issue. The people we entrust with our power derived from our assent, our vote, will have a broad impact on our future beyond the limited scope of any single campaign issue. Depend upon it!