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2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Totally inane for NARAL, Planned Parenthood to battle with Bernie with 100% rating from them. [View all]DirkGently
(12,151 posts)65. Well, no. "Rare" is stigmatizing rightwing framing.
It's not even a controversial observation. "Rare" gives weight to the rightwing premise that abortion is a moral hazard. It is also, unfortunately, precisely the kind of calculated triangulation that gives progressives a lot of their misgivings about the Clintons. It's a deliberate sop to the religious right -- "We hate it too, of course."
But "safe, legal and rare" is not a framework that supports women's health needs: it stigmatizes and endangers it.
In a 2010 research article, Dr Tracy Weitz, Director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote that "rare suggests that abortion is happening more than it should, and that there are some conditions for which abortions should and should not occur".
"It separates 'good' abortions from 'bad' abortions", she added.
Steph Herold, the deputy director of the Sea Change Program an organization that seeks to create a culture change around abortion and other stigmatized reproductive experiences like miscarriage and adoption agrees. "It implies that abortion is somehow different than other parts of healthcare," she told me. "We don't say that any other medical procedure should be rare."
In a 2010 research article, Dr Tracy Weitz, Director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) program at the University of California, San Francisco, wrote that "rare suggests that abortion is happening more than it should, and that there are some conditions for which abortions should and should not occur".
"It separates 'good' abortions from 'bad' abortions", she added.
Steph Herold, the deputy director of the Sea Change Program an organization that seeks to create a culture change around abortion and other stigmatized reproductive experiences like miscarriage and adoption agrees. "It implies that abortion is somehow different than other parts of healthcare," she told me. "We don't say that any other medical procedure should be rare."
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/09/hillary-clinton-abortion-legal-but-rare
Whats really at issue in Douthats column is the perils of accepting the right-wing frame when constructing liberal positions. By unilaterally presenting abortion as a very bad thing in the 1990s, the message mavens of the Clinton administration, with their construction of safe, legal and rare, gave abortion opponents a rhetorical rationale for piling on restrictions that, in many states, make abortion inaccessible to increasing numbers of women despite the fact that the Supreme Court decided decades ago that their right to the procedure is protected by the Constitution.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2012_02/breaking_where_abortion_is_ava035510.php
Debunking the rights contraception myths
But its also worth reiterating, as Adele Stan did this weekend and reproductive rights activists have been saying for years, that if youre more than nominally pro-choice, you cede important ground by embracing the safe, legal and rare formulation that Douthat cited as a consensus. As the National Network of Abortion Funds tweeted, Lets reject rare. If abortions are legal & accessible, number of abortions performed should = exactly the number of abortions necessary. Contrast the following data points the 87 percent of U.S. counties that lack an abortion provider, the financial barriers that right-wingers would like to increase with insurance bans, and the significant stigma around abortion with the fact that almost half of all pregnancies are unintended. Suddenly, rare becomes more about a lack of real choice rather than choosing from an abundance of options. If, as a matter of public health policy, we are doing a terrible job of preventing unintended pregnancies, and some women want abortions and cant have them, then the current rate is too low.
But its also worth reiterating, as Adele Stan did this weekend and reproductive rights activists have been saying for years, that if youre more than nominally pro-choice, you cede important ground by embracing the safe, legal and rare formulation that Douthat cited as a consensus. As the National Network of Abortion Funds tweeted, Lets reject rare. If abortions are legal & accessible, number of abortions performed should = exactly the number of abortions necessary. Contrast the following data points the 87 percent of U.S. counties that lack an abortion provider, the financial barriers that right-wingers would like to increase with insurance bans, and the significant stigma around abortion with the fact that almost half of all pregnancies are unintended. Suddenly, rare becomes more about a lack of real choice rather than choosing from an abundance of options. If, as a matter of public health policy, we are doing a terrible job of preventing unintended pregnancies, and some women want abortions and cant have them, then the current rate is too low.
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/21/debunking_the_rights_contraception_myths/
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Totally inane for NARAL, Planned Parenthood to battle with Bernie with 100% rating from them. [View all]
madfloridian
Jan 2016
OP
So, are you going to accept my apology or not. I've asked you thrice now. Nt
ProudToBeLiberal
Jan 2016
#11
It's nitpicking by a DNC spokesperson who should not take sides. Makes me furious.
madfloridian
Jan 2016
#50
this is as bad as the voting with the vagina schtick. did not think that the tone deaf crap
bettyellen
Jan 2016
#57
A 100% voting record does not necessarily mean a Senator is a "champion" for anything
Empowerer
Jan 2016
#23
Like I said he's been opposing it for decades, he called for its repeal.
beam me up scottie
Jan 2016
#31
I've been following politics since I campaigned for JFK....this was the biggest TRUMPed up charge
Peregrine Took
Jan 2016
#32
Um....his writings on women squicked me out. Maybe they read what he wrote. nt
msanthrope
Jan 2016
#62