Roundup: A Not So Silent Night

Dec 23, 2009, 9:17am

Robin Marty

It's two days until Christmas, and today is "Health Care Vote Eve." Tomorrow morning the senate will be wrapping their bill with a pretty little bow. But today, let's see what sort of carols are being sung while folks are decking the halls...

It’s two days until Christmas, and today is "Health Care Vote Eve." Tomorrow morning the senate will be wrapping their bill with a pretty little bow. But today, let’s see what sort of carols are being sung while folks are decking the halls…

Rather than being pleased about the embarrassment of riches that Sen. Nelson has provided them, the anti-abortion factions are lamenting their loses in a soulful rendition of "The Twelve Anti-Family Gifts from Congress." They have their twelve drummers drumming and eleven pipers piping morosely about the loss of abstinence only education and more funding for Planned Parenthood.

The Christmas season is a time when
Americans celebrate life, family, and community. Unfortunately, the 12
unwelcome Christmas gifts in the omnibus bill, signed into law by
President Obama last week, undermine these pillars of American civil
society.

Guess the ten lords didn’t leap through enough hoops to make them happy.

Meanwhile, pro-choice feminists have given up on getting two front teeth, and are asking for a more important gift: health care. But they aren’t waiting for Santa Baby to stick a present under the tree. Instead, they ask everyone to demand it.

The next two weeks are critical for pro-choice activists. It’s the
middle of the holiday season, but we have to remain focused. Call your senators directly,
rather than by calling the Senate switchboard, and tell them that you
demand equal health care access for all Americans. Requiring women to
purchase additional insurance for abortion coverage is
unconstitutional. We shouldn’t have to pay twice as much as men for
health care.

Can’t start caroling yet because you are too busy looking for last minute gifts? Sounds like there is a senator you can pick up for cheap.

I can respect those who are pro-life out of conviction and those who
are pro-choice out of conviction. It is more difficult to respect
politicians willing to use their deepest beliefs — and the deepest
beliefs of others — as bargaining chips.

In a single evening, Nelson managed to undermine the logic of
Medicaid, abandon three decades of protections under the Hyde Amendment
and increase the public stock of cynicism. For what? For the sake of
legislation that greatly expands a health entitlement without reforming
the health system; that siphons hundreds of billions of dollars out of
Medicare instead of using that money to reform Medicare; that imposes
seven taxes on Americans making less than $250,000 a year, in direct
violation of a presidential pledge; that employs Enron-style accounting
methods to inflate future cost savings; that pretends to tame the
insurance companies while making insurance companies the largest
beneficiaries of reform.

And, yes, for $100 million. It is the cheap date equivalent of Taco Bell.

But don’t bother getting a gift receipt for that – once you buy him, you’re stuck with him.

With all of the debate, blustering, and posturing, I personally am looking forward to a silent night in the near future.

Mini Roundup: Contraception stocking stuff extra: Depo can cause bone density loss, the pill can help with menstrual pain and migraines, and this may be a potential new form of birth control all together.

December 23, 2009

Not
good enough California
Catholic Daily

Marie
Wilson: From Right to Wrong: Daycare, Abortion Huffington Post

Abortion
looms as possible health bill deal killer The Associated Press

Scrutinizing
health-care reform Washington
Post

Couple’s
family planning is headed for crash
Houston Chronicle

Federal
funding may revive sex education debate Waterbury Republican American

New
ads causing Catholic controversy Fox11online.com

December 22, 2009

Women’s
Victory: Baltimore Crisis Pregnancy Centers AlterNet

The
‘Pill’ Offers Benefits Beyond Birth Control
BusinessWeek

Birth
control option has doctors watching women’s bone health WWAY NewsChannel 3