Nicholas Kristof nails it today in his New York Times column:
“While American women cannot normally obtain emergency contraception without a prescription (by which time the optimal 24-hour window has often passed), it is available without a prescription in much of the rest of the world, from Albania to Tunisia, from Belgium to Britain.
One thought that paralyzes the Bush administration is that American teenage girls might get easy access to emergency contraception and turn into shameless hussies. But contraception generally doesn’t cause sex, any more than umbrellas cause rain.“
Last week, Jo Maney, spokesperson for the House Rules Committee, issued the following statement:
“Lobbying is a First Amendment right and we would not want to in any way chill the desire to petition the government or lobby the government.”
No doubt Ms. Maney is unaware that this is precisely what the Bush Administration has done with respect to international family planning programs, with encouragement from the Republican-controlled Congress. President Bush’s expansive version of the global gag rule denies funding to organizations that use their own, private, non-federal money in provision of counseling or advocacy related to abortion. The pureness of the quote above is a reminder of just how outrageous the global gag rule is, why it would be unconstitutional if applied to U.S. organizations, and how hypocritical this policy is coming from an Administration that preaches the virtues of democracy and freedom.
“Wanted Dead, NOT Alive” was clearly the intended message promoted by anti-choice protesters as they literally targeted doctors who provided women with abortion services, through their dissemination of Wild West type “Wanted Posters.”
