Medical Students for Choice, South Dakota post-failed abortion ban, and why white women are a problem. Also an interview with Lois Backus from Medical Students for Choice and a look at the major candidates’ views on sexual health issues. And why is everyone hating on John McCain?

Links from this episode:
Margaret Cho on Plan B
Planned Parenthood South Dakota
Looking at abortion
Medical Students for Choice
Dobson on McCain
Dobson on McCain II
Coulter on McCain
Obama on abortion
White women are the problem

Transcript:

This week on Reality Cast, I'll have an interview with Lois Backus from Medical Students for Choice, a look at the major candidates and their views on sexual health issues, and an examination of the reproductive rights politics in South Dakota after the failed abortion ban.

Thanks to Ann at Feministing for posting a video of my hero, Margaret Cho, talking about the administration's hostility towards emergency contraception that forced the delay of selling Plan B over the counter for years.

• insert Margaret cho *

I spent a lot of time massaging the naughty words out of that clip, because it was too funny not to share. You can thank me by telling your friends to listen to Reality Cast.

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Reproductive rights activists in the North Midwest area are still reeling from the fight against an abortion ban in South Dakota. I can imagine their local wingnuts are still aggrieved about losing that battle. And they packaged it all up nice with the new strategy of demanding that abortion be banned to protect women, who are, as you know, too stupid to breathe without a man and the government telling us how to do it.

The area Planned Parenthood Action Fund has an informative podcast about the efforts in South Dakota to lay the groundwork for a ban on abortion. The government only wants to own your uterus for your own good, you know. The latest attempt to define women as beings unable to think for ourselves is a sonogram bill in South Dakota. Planned Parenthood has the scoop.

* Dakota sonogram 1 *

I spend a lot of time on this program documenting the way that the anti-choice movement has embraced this strategy of claiming that they want to protect women. The idea is that it's a way to escape the rather inescapable conclusion that they want to bring women's bodies under state control because they hate us. The argument is something like, "We don't hate you. We just think you're inferior to men and need to be controlled for your own good." Considering that Carhart v. Gonzalez, the Supreme Court decision upholding a ban on a specific later term abortion procedure, was argued precisely on the women-are-stupid grounds, this strategy has been given a shot of fuel.

It's also an indication of how ignorant the anti-choicers are. They seem to really believe that there's a fully formed baby growing in there just moments after a man ejaculates. I think they have to believe this, because they believe that only men can do anything of consequence. But this strategy might backfire.

As Jill at Feministe recently argued, a lot of women who get abortions are comforted by looking at a sonogram or the contents of their uterus after the abortion, so they can see in fact that it isn't that big a deal.

I have to think that as a legislative strategy, this is a poor one. The problem with arguing that women are stupid is that it's really quite offensive. And the voters in South Dakota are reacting appropriately.

• insert Dakota sonogram 2 *

But the pro-choicers in South Dakota are finding clever ways to fight back. Exposing what radicals dominate the anti-choice movement is as simple as showing that they're trying to ban contraception, too. Planned Parenthood has been pushing for a birth control protection act, but the legislature is putting off hearings. Is the bill that scary?

• insert Dakota sonogram 3 *

I'm gonna take a wild guess what their fear is. Anti-choice legislators are generally committed to rolling back reproductive rights incrementally. It's the frog in hot water effect. They're hoping that if they chip away at the right to use hormonal birth control behind the scenes, they'll eventually get to the place where they can ban it without causing a backlash. This act would mess with that plan, but they don't want to just up and vote against it, which would reveal what radicals they really are. So they're just avoiding the issue.

Repeat and tell your friends. The so-called "pro-lifers" want to ban your pill, your patch, your diaphram, and eventually even your condoms.

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• insert interview with Lois Backus *

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I'll confess that I don't get the hard right hostility towards John McCain. He's become this huge symbol of the clash between the religious right and everyone else, and the religious right isn't having it. James Dobson is flipping out on McCain.

• insert Dobson mccain *

Considering that McCain is himself in a so-called traditional marriage, it's a stretch to say he's not for it. Of course, we're talking about the crazies who think if the gay couple down the street gets married, you have to divorce to keep the world in balance. McCain is officially against same sex marriage, but he draws the line at a constitutional amendment, which is why the wingnuts are going insane over this.

Dobson has seen McCain as his enemy on this for a long time. Last May, he was trying to turn people against McCain.

• Dobson mccain 2 *

That paragon of tolerance and rationality Ann Coulter was turning on McCain as well.

• insert coulter mccain *

Of course, a lot of the anti-McCain sentiment is suspicion that since he was tortured for years in Vietnam, he might have lost the taste for it and will put a stop to it once he's in office. That there's a substantial pro-torture and murder segment out there, and that they overlap significantly with the so-called "pro-lifers" says a lot about how pro-life they're not.

Of course, I think back to last week's episode and how Frank Luntz was basically pushing the line that Republicans are not as anti-sex on average as the hard right representatives would have you believe. And he's right about that, of course. But I think it was a political move. Luntz has figured out that the Bible-thumping, anti-sex stuff is beginning to turn people off, and wants to rescue the party from the brink.

I'm thinking that the fact that McCain has the nomination cinched indicates that Luntz's instincts are right as usual. People perceive McCain, rightly or wrongly, as somehow above the anti-sex pandering and I think that's what helped rocket him to the top of the polls. Most Americans, regardless of party affiliation, want your noses out of their bedrooms.

While I'm on the subject, it seems like it's important to discuss the Democratic candidates and the issue of reproductive rights. I have seen, in various places around the internet, some confusion about how Obama and Clinton differ on this issue. From what I can tell, the main difference is how proactive they are on the issue. Obama famously had "present" votes on a couple of abortion bills in the Illinois Senate. However, he was encouraged to vote that way by reproductive rights activists for arcane procedural reasons.

Clinton is basically the main senator who strong-armed the FDA into allowing emergency contraception to be sold over the counter. She has offered a lot of leadership on reproductive rights in the Senate. But they're both the same in their general principles on the issue. To illustrate, I'll close with a speech from Obama on abortion:

• insert obama speech *

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And now for the Wisdom of Wingnuts. This beaut from Bill Bennet was unintentionally revealing.

• insert white women *

Ha! Ha! White women: Can't live with ‘em, can't put together an issue of Playboy without ‘em. At least not until computer graphics technology improves. I enjoy thinking about how I'm a problem to Bill Bennett. And one that's not going away anytime soon.