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Showing Original Post only (View all)How can one claim to be progressive while being pro-life? [View all]
Why would a progressive campaign for someone who is pro-life and sponsored a bill to compel women seeking abortions to view ultrasounds of their fetuses? Why would progressive supporters ignore advocacy for pro-lifers, as though the equal rights of half the population weren't worth their attention?
There was already a long thread on this but many respondents avoided the key issue that concerns me: women's equal rights. Bernie is choosing to spend his time campaigning for a pro-life candidate over and above other Democrats seeking election.
If you run as a Democrat, youre a Democrat, Sanders said. Some Democrats are progressive, and some Democrats are not. . . .
Perhaps the strangest thing about this is that Sanders isn't vouching for Ossoff's progressivism even as he's doing so for another Democrat of pretty questionable credentials. That would be Omaha mayoral candidate and former state senator Heath Mello, whom Sanders will campaign with Thursday.
As the Wall Street Journal's Reid J. Epstein and Natalie Andrews note, Mello in 2009 sponsored a bill that would require a woman to look at ultrasound images of her fetus before undergoing an abortion (he still opposes abortion rights). Indeed, it's tough to think of something that progressives would hate more.
Why would progressives ignore ignore that
Perhaps the strangest thing about this is that Sanders isn't vouching for Ossoff's progressivism even as he's doing so for another Democrat of pretty questionable credentials. That would be Omaha mayoral candidate and former state senator Heath Mello, whom Sanders will campaign with Thursday.
As the Wall Street Journal's Reid J. Epstein and Natalie Andrews note, Mello in 2009 sponsored a bill that would require a woman to look at ultrasound images of her fetus before undergoing an abortion (he still opposes abortion rights). Indeed, it's tough to think of something that progressives would hate more.
Why would progressives ignore ignore that
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/04/20/bernie-sanderss-strange-behavior/?utm_term=.722503041999
This is not Bernie derangement syndrome. This is about concern for my equal rights and those of just over half the population of America.
Abortion rights are not a wedge issue. They are fundamental civil rights. They also are directly related to poverty. Women already earn less than men. Single mothers already experience higher rates of poverty. As access to reproductive rights diminish, their poverty increases and with them the children who make up the largest portion of the American poor.
It is not possible to advocate for economic equality without supporting equal rights for women. To do so is to advocate for increased male prosperity at the expense of legal and economic equality for women.
If you truly care about economic equality, if you truly want to move the country forward rather than backward, then you must tell Bernie his support for pro-life candidates, whether Mello or Marcy Capture, is not acceptable. It is not progressive. You might agree with Bernie on every other issue he champions. You might admire him greatly, but he is wrong on this, and as citizens and his supporters you have the obligation to tell him so. Unless . . . you don't actually support women's reproductive rights or consider them of insufficient importance to even voice concern. If that's the case, you should be honest on the subject so that we can know that contemporary progressivism is defined in terms of male prosperity, with women excluded.
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Believe it or not there are people on this board defending this choice instead of campaigning...
brush
Apr 2017
#4
I think she/he broke it down splendidly. Tell Sanders to stop backing pro-lifers
brush
Apr 2017
#142
Because being a "purist" is not a prerequisite for being a progressive/liberal.
Lil Missy
Apr 2017
#9
All good questions about the future, based on past behaviors, NOT the past primary
Hekate
Apr 2017
#25
I think it's fine to be pro life as long as you don't impose your beliefs on others.
Kablooie
Apr 2017
#34
I totally agree with you. Pro-life fits pro-choice Democrats better than...
WePurrsevere
Apr 2017
#85
He's not my Senator, nor am I a target of "Democratic Outreach" -already being a Democrat, but sure.
Warren DeMontague
Apr 2017
#130
"I strongly support the right of women to make their own health and reproductive decisions and...
LexVegas
Apr 2017
#112
Not until he got in the US Senate as Gov, he was anti-abortion as Gov (links included)
Omaha Steve
Apr 2017
#141
You are, of course, correct. Anyone saying otherwise has ulterior motives for doing so. nt
LexVegas
Apr 2017
#114
Kaine is opposed to abortion RIGHTS? Or just to abortions? Can you clarify?
NurseJackie
Apr 2017
#65
Again... is he opposed to abortions or abortion RIGHTS? There's a difference.
NurseJackie
Apr 2017
#69
Anytime. Those were the exact same smears that popped up when HRC picked Kaine to be her VP
FSogol
Apr 2017
#86
I believe that the smear was self-deleted for "strategic" reasons. Not because ...
NurseJackie
Apr 2017
#88
Major abortion rights groups and some of their allies on Capitol Hill are tip-toeing around....
Omaha Steve
Apr 2017
#127
It isn't a black and white issue and isn't the most important issue to many people...
cbdo2007
Apr 2017
#57
Because one does not understand that reproductive freedom is necessary for economic justice
Recursion
Apr 2017
#58
I counter that with: How can someone drive a Prius with a Trump bumper sticker?
Initech
Apr 2017
#95
(I call it Anti-choice, not pro-life.) You can't -- and I'm disappointed in Bernie!
50 Shades Of Blue
Apr 2017
#101
I was pointed here by a respose to an OP of mine by the author of this one.
Tom Rinaldo
Apr 2017
#105
Better subject, "How can one claim to be a progressive while not being pro choice?"
LAS14
Apr 2017
#107
I agree that "pro-life" is a lie. What they really are is "anti-choice" and "anti-woman".
athena
Apr 2017
#137
By "Pro-Life" you mean "anti-abortion", not someone wanting to outlaw the death penalty, or
ColemanMaskell
Apr 2017
#129
Exactly. But it's not even "anti-abortion"; it's "anti-choice" and "anti-woman".
athena
Apr 2017
#138
How interesting (NOT) that a right-leaning blog didn't post Rep Pelosi's ENTIRE comment:
musette_sf
Apr 2017
#148