In South Carolina, women don't fare very well. Whether it is health care, employment, violence, education, reproductive rights... you know what I mean. And in spite of all the anti-abortion verbiage about protecting women, pregnant women, babies and children remain vulnerable.
On Thursday, September 1, Charleston County Democratic Women will hold its first meeting after the summer hiatus. The featured speaker will be Jane Perdue of the Center for Women, founded in 1990, and which mission is "Dedicated to empowering and enriching women in their private and public lives."
The end goal is to increase the presence of women professionally and in elected office. But to get there, so many things have to change. Our daughters need to be healthy, well-fed and well educated. They need to live in homes and walk through neighborhoods that are safe. As they grow older, they need to have the same opportunities for higher education, employment and economic growth as men, and all those criteria need to cut across race as well.
In South Carolina, preterm birth rate is 4th highest in the nation; while the infant mortality rate has declined, there is a dramatic racial divide. With the state's continued refusal to expand Medicaid, women and children continue to experience the harmful results. Last year, attacks on Planned Parenthood threatened to shut down a valuable source of women's health care. Control of our reproductive health means control of emotional and economic well-being. South Carolina ranks #1 in violence against women. We are still debating whether or not to allow our schools to provide medically accurate sex education to students.
What all the above means is that here in South Carolina, girls and women are faced with constant hurdles to living a good life.
The Center for Women addresses each of these issues with education and advocacy.
The year of our first woman president should be the year we move the girls and women of South Carolina into the 21st century.
Please go to the Charleston County Democratic Women Facebook page and say you will attend this important meeting on Thursday, September 1, at the Holiday Inn. Men are welcome, because what improves the lives of women improves all our lives. Registration is at 6, the buffet dinner is $20.00. And please take the opportunity to become a member.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Showing posts with label Reproductive Rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reproductive Rights. Show all posts
Thursday, August 25, 2016
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Awesome in North Carolina
I know, I couldn't wait to get away from SC politics, so here I am, in North Carolina. Well, it couldn't be helped. It's a timeshare week that I hoped to rent to help cover my recent blue state getaway, and since I couldn't rent it I figured I'd head on out to Atlantic Beach and see how much it's changed in five years.
My resort is still fairly nice, hasn't changed much, and it's lovely to have the beach a short walk away. The skinny little island, however, is just sad. It's been way too wet lately, and the standing water and drizzle combined with the fact that ugly three-story tall houses two feet away from other three-story tall houses have been stuck any wherever they barely fit make it seem that the whole thing is just going to sink fairly soon. I walked the main drag to the causeway yesterday and it's so trashy it's depressing. It pretty much seemed like a testament to greed and refusal to care. After my time at the beautiful beach towns in Rhode Island, I couldn't have imagined a greater contrast.
But today I decided to head out to neighboring Morehead City to find Sugarloaf Bakery. Despite my poor sense of direction, my GPS got me there with no problem. Traffic was light and I took a careful u-turn and parked in front of the tiny building, and looked up to see a cop car with lights flashing pull up behind me. The 30-40-ish African American officer took a few seconds to check out my out-of-state plate and no doubt my blatantly liberal bumper stickers.
I couldn't figure out what I might have done wrong, so when the cop walked over and I asked "What did I do?" I was very obviously not faking it. I had taken a u-turn under a small unobtrusive sign that said "No U-turns." I apologized and explained that I was looking for the bakery and hadn't been here before. He looked up at the bakery and commented, "They have great cheesecake. The best in the state." And then he explained to me about the u-turns and told me -- nicely -- not to do it again. And left.
The tiny bakery was supposed to have opened at 11, but the sign on the door said that due to roof damage from the rains they would be opening at 12, and it was just a couple minutes before. So far, I'd been lucky all the way around.
The shelves of goodies were still being stocked, and the woman behind the counter described the different sweets. I bought too many, and as we said our good-byes I told her I was glad they were open and that I hadn't been given a ticket. She replied that she had noticed my bumper stickers and that she had seen me being stopped for something that people do all day. Given that I had been let off with the recommendation to try the cheesecake, I really didn't think the stop had been because of the bumper stickers. The man was, after all, a police officer, and he was a black man, so I thought that I had those two details in my favor.
But she is a Democrat, and we talked about the sad state of North Carolina in the maws of the Republican party and the Kochs, and treading cautiously with a small business in the belly of the beast. Being from SC, I commiserated, and I told her how astonishing it was to see NC get taken down, and how proud I was that with groups like the SC ACLU, we managed to not have a single anti-abortion law passed in this last legislative session. Then I got the great opportunity to talk about being fearless, taking chances (like plastering pro-Obama care and anti-Citizens United bumper stickers on your car). It was a very happy meeting.
And the more conversations I have like this, the more I heartily believe that there are far more of us out there than our Democratic politicians believe. They just need to know -- we just need to know that we are not alone. We need to know that our representatives, our candidates, will really stand up for us. Elizabeth Warren did it in 2012. In South Carolina we have a few who are unafraid to speak up on issues like women's reproductive rights and gun control, and they even get elected. Fearless women like Gloria Bromell-Tinubu. Heck, there are even a couple of men who proudly fight for marriage and workplace equality and women's reproductive freedom.
And that is what it is going to take. Because we really are the ones who are fighting to protect the American people.
So speak up.
My resort is still fairly nice, hasn't changed much, and it's lovely to have the beach a short walk away. The skinny little island, however, is just sad. It's been way too wet lately, and the standing water and drizzle combined with the fact that ugly three-story tall houses two feet away from other three-story tall houses have been stuck any wherever they barely fit make it seem that the whole thing is just going to sink fairly soon. I walked the main drag to the causeway yesterday and it's so trashy it's depressing. It pretty much seemed like a testament to greed and refusal to care. After my time at the beautiful beach towns in Rhode Island, I couldn't have imagined a greater contrast.
But today I decided to head out to neighboring Morehead City to find Sugarloaf Bakery. Despite my poor sense of direction, my GPS got me there with no problem. Traffic was light and I took a careful u-turn and parked in front of the tiny building, and looked up to see a cop car with lights flashing pull up behind me. The 30-40-ish African American officer took a few seconds to check out my out-of-state plate and no doubt my blatantly liberal bumper stickers.
I couldn't figure out what I might have done wrong, so when the cop walked over and I asked "What did I do?" I was very obviously not faking it. I had taken a u-turn under a small unobtrusive sign that said "No U-turns." I apologized and explained that I was looking for the bakery and hadn't been here before. He looked up at the bakery and commented, "They have great cheesecake. The best in the state." And then he explained to me about the u-turns and told me -- nicely -- not to do it again. And left.
The tiny bakery was supposed to have opened at 11, but the sign on the door said that due to roof damage from the rains they would be opening at 12, and it was just a couple minutes before. So far, I'd been lucky all the way around.
The shelves of goodies were still being stocked, and the woman behind the counter described the different sweets. I bought too many, and as we said our good-byes I told her I was glad they were open and that I hadn't been given a ticket. She replied that she had noticed my bumper stickers and that she had seen me being stopped for something that people do all day. Given that I had been let off with the recommendation to try the cheesecake, I really didn't think the stop had been because of the bumper stickers. The man was, after all, a police officer, and he was a black man, so I thought that I had those two details in my favor.
But she is a Democrat, and we talked about the sad state of North Carolina in the maws of the Republican party and the Kochs, and treading cautiously with a small business in the belly of the beast. Being from SC, I commiserated, and I told her how astonishing it was to see NC get taken down, and how proud I was that with groups like the SC ACLU, we managed to not have a single anti-abortion law passed in this last legislative session. Then I got the great opportunity to talk about being fearless, taking chances (like plastering pro-Obama care and anti-Citizens United bumper stickers on your car). It was a very happy meeting.
And the more conversations I have like this, the more I heartily believe that there are far more of us out there than our Democratic politicians believe. They just need to know -- we just need to know that we are not alone. We need to know that our representatives, our candidates, will really stand up for us. Elizabeth Warren did it in 2012. In South Carolina we have a few who are unafraid to speak up on issues like women's reproductive rights and gun control, and they even get elected. Fearless women like Gloria Bromell-Tinubu. Heck, there are even a couple of men who proudly fight for marriage and workplace equality and women's reproductive freedom.
And that is what it is going to take. Because we really are the ones who are fighting to protect the American people.
So speak up.
Monday, February 3, 2014
A Truly Painful Abortion Ban
South Carolina's Lindsey Graham has taken up the important question of who is more willing to stand up against women's medical rights by championing the twenty-week abortion ban in the U.S. Senate. Thankfully, in this 2014 Senate the bill won't pass.
However, here in South Carolina, legislators are rabid to get on board the Tea Party Express to hell before the primaries. They have shown passion if not reason in their quest to control women. But there are really only a few of these crazed fanatics in our legislature. Others who would vote in favor of these bills opposing women's reproductive rights do so because they fear repercussions, and really don't have a grasp of the issues.
Thursday at 9 a.m. there will be a hearing in Columbia on H 4223, what is erroneously called the "Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Bill," in Room 516 of the Blatt Office Building. The ACLU will be there giving testimony. If you can make it there in support, if you or someone you know has testimony you can give about why passage of this bill would be wrong, please be there.
I urge you to contact your legislators in the House. You can find out who that is, as well as contact information, at SC Statehouse. It is important to let your legislator know that you live in their district. Some legislators pay more attention to actual snail mail, because of the extra time and attention it takes to send a message that way. Individually written messages are more likely to get attention as opposed to mass emails. On the other hand, do whatever you are able; any contact at all is better than none.
That said, here are a few important points that you can make when you contact your legislator:
Twenty week abortions are rare. They are undertaken when a problem has occurred in the pregnancy that either could not be detected or was unclear earlier in the pregnancy. Most often these are wanted pregnancies, and the decision is extremely difficult.
The diagnosis of the medical problem and determination of whether or not to proceed with the pregnancy requires expert analysis. The recommendation of trained physicians is critical. There have been instances elsewhere in which, due to an existing anti-abortion law, women have been forced to continue with a pregnancy despite medical indications of extreme trauma, only to give birth to a severely impaired infant who dies (in pain) shortly thereafter.
The decision where there is a possible serious problem needs to be made by a woman who has been well-informed by a knowledgeable medical professional. I would not ever want to be in the position of making this critical decision, and neither should our legislators.
Regarding the issue of pain, solid science has determined that thalamocortical connections, which are not developed until week 29/30 at the earliest, are necessary for the experience of pain. Until that time, although there may be reflexive movement, there is no feeling of pain.
Whereas, and I have to emphasize this fact, if a pregnancy is continued despite evidence of severe trauma, it may well result in undue pain by mother and a child who is not capable of survival, and possibly the death of the mother.
And again, twenty week abortions happen rarely, and in desperate circumstances, and under the advice of a medical professional.
So H 4223 is not only unnecessary as it addresses a problem that occurs very rarely, but it prevents licensed medical professionals from making critical recommendations during the course of problems that arise during the pregnancy.Please speak out to your legislators, and talk to family and friends and educate them about what the real issues are in this proposed twenty-week abortion ban.
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
The Politics of Birth Control
It's not just controlling women, it's controlling races and religions. And it's been going on in this country for a very long time.
In Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927, he takes a microscope to everything 1927, from flight to baseball to eugenics. As I read about the eugenics movement, I thought about controlling women's reproduction and how it has evolved over time.
Margaret Sanger's interest in birth control involved reducing the populations of blacks and Chinese. Prescott Bush, grandfather of "W.", worked with Sanger in the newly formed American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood, where he served as Treasurer. It has been said that Bush's interest in population control had something to do with all those Catholics that were procreating.
Imagine the surprise of all those who propounded about birth control as a means of reducing the numbers of undesirables when in fact this became the means to move those groups into the middle class. Italians, Jews, Chinese, African Americans and anyone else who did not fit into the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) image were becoming doctors, lawyers, and yes, politicians. Smaller families meant more disposable income and the time to pursue a career, both for men and women. And political power.
We have lately been confused by this current push to ban birth control. Why on earth would the right wingnuts want to create a situation where more of us who lean Democratic have more Democratic babies? Well, the answer is in political and fiscal power. When you can't control how many babies you have or when, your options in life, and those of your family, become limited. The path to college for a girl in high school, the opportunity for travel and knowledge about the world, the chance for a career and career advancement, all are dimmed when a woman is unable to make reproductive decisions.
Of course, when birth control is unaffordable, those rich white guys will still be able to provide birth control for their families. And when it is illegal, well, the same will be true. And there may be more of us, but we'll be too busy trying to care for our families to compete for money and power, or even a fair chance at a good life.
In Bill Bryson's One Summer: America, 1927, he takes a microscope to everything 1927, from flight to baseball to eugenics. As I read about the eugenics movement, I thought about controlling women's reproduction and how it has evolved over time.
Margaret Sanger's interest in birth control involved reducing the populations of blacks and Chinese. Prescott Bush, grandfather of "W.", worked with Sanger in the newly formed American Birth Control League, which later became Planned Parenthood, where he served as Treasurer. It has been said that Bush's interest in population control had something to do with all those Catholics that were procreating.
Imagine the surprise of all those who propounded about birth control as a means of reducing the numbers of undesirables when in fact this became the means to move those groups into the middle class. Italians, Jews, Chinese, African Americans and anyone else who did not fit into the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) image were becoming doctors, lawyers, and yes, politicians. Smaller families meant more disposable income and the time to pursue a career, both for men and women. And political power.
We have lately been confused by this current push to ban birth control. Why on earth would the right wingnuts want to create a situation where more of us who lean Democratic have more Democratic babies? Well, the answer is in political and fiscal power. When you can't control how many babies you have or when, your options in life, and those of your family, become limited. The path to college for a girl in high school, the opportunity for travel and knowledge about the world, the chance for a career and career advancement, all are dimmed when a woman is unable to make reproductive decisions.
Of course, when birth control is unaffordable, those rich white guys will still be able to provide birth control for their families. And when it is illegal, well, the same will be true. And there may be more of us, but we'll be too busy trying to care for our families to compete for money and power, or even a fair chance at a good life.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
Loyalty
Forget about the elephant and the donkey. Imagine instead a growling rottweiler and a houseful of scrappy cats.
Like most Democrats, I am proud of our willingness to think independently. But this has also become our Achilles' heel. We mostly go about our business and believe strongly in what we believe in, and acknowledge that others may have a different opinion, and we all have the right to live by our beliefs as long as they don't interfere with another's rights. We also tend not to go out of our way to fight for interest groups other than our own.
So we have ended up each of us on an island, fighting our own battles, while being outfunded and inevitably outvoted by a group that knows how to unite. No matter the anti-abortion faction, in the name of being "pro-life," stands by the gun lobby. And those who are absolutely rabid about cutting the deficit will wholeheartedly support spending whatever it takes to "protect our borders." Small business owners donate to politicians whose raison d'etre is channeling government money to big corporations. Here you see united the anti-government forces with those who try to pass laws against blacks (voter ID), the poor (Food Stamps), women (contraception and abortion), LGBT (gay marriage).
And among all those contradictions, they all stand firmly behind their brand: the GOP.
Meanwhile, corporations control our government while we scrabble to keep or win individual freedoms, each of us fighting our own battles.
Here in South Carolina, our Democratic politicians are afraid to speak of contraception, abortion, sex education. They throw around phrases like workers rights and job creation without ever uttering that foul and frightening word "union." Black voters are so aware of the deck being stacked against them that many don't vote; women pretend that their bodies are not being violated by laws that would force them to carry a pregnancy to term or deny access to contraception, as well as by the fact that the anti-abortion movement has pronounced their mission as sacred, declaring the rest of us to be sinners carrying the banner of satan.
We should be united. The abortion fight is about whether the government should have the power to decide a woman's medical decisions. The immigration battle is about whether the government has the right to stalk and detain those who "look different." The battle for LGBT rights is about the government choosing which citizens get individual rights and which don't. The voter ID fight is to keep those in power who will take away the freedoms of all of the above. As is the demonization and outlawing of unions.
Because we are not united, we are constantly being attacked, from all sides, and end up lost and demoralized.
We need to be unafraid not just to stand up for our own rights, but for all individual rights. The African American community needs to stand by women's right to reproductive privacy, and the the unions need to stand by the LGBT community, and their rights to the same liberties as us all. We all need to fight for the right to vote, because we are really all in this together.
This upcoming election season, we need to demand courage from our politicians. We need to demand that they support ALL of us, fearlessly. And we need our politicians to unite when they run for office, rather than continue to behave like a clutter of cats.
And we need to see our politicians stop being willing to sell us out, one constituency against another, or as they like to call it, "reaching across the aisle."
Let's start forming some coalitions, and working for each other as well as ourselves. If they don't vote for us here in SC, well, they probably weren't going to anyway. And at least we will be able to be proud to be Democrats.
And when we stand together and fearless, well, you never know what will happen.
Like most Democrats, I am proud of our willingness to think independently. But this has also become our Achilles' heel. We mostly go about our business and believe strongly in what we believe in, and acknowledge that others may have a different opinion, and we all have the right to live by our beliefs as long as they don't interfere with another's rights. We also tend not to go out of our way to fight for interest groups other than our own.
So we have ended up each of us on an island, fighting our own battles, while being outfunded and inevitably outvoted by a group that knows how to unite. No matter the anti-abortion faction, in the name of being "pro-life," stands by the gun lobby. And those who are absolutely rabid about cutting the deficit will wholeheartedly support spending whatever it takes to "protect our borders." Small business owners donate to politicians whose raison d'etre is channeling government money to big corporations. Here you see united the anti-government forces with those who try to pass laws against blacks (voter ID), the poor (Food Stamps), women (contraception and abortion), LGBT (gay marriage).
And among all those contradictions, they all stand firmly behind their brand: the GOP.
Meanwhile, corporations control our government while we scrabble to keep or win individual freedoms, each of us fighting our own battles.
Here in South Carolina, our Democratic politicians are afraid to speak of contraception, abortion, sex education. They throw around phrases like workers rights and job creation without ever uttering that foul and frightening word "union." Black voters are so aware of the deck being stacked against them that many don't vote; women pretend that their bodies are not being violated by laws that would force them to carry a pregnancy to term or deny access to contraception, as well as by the fact that the anti-abortion movement has pronounced their mission as sacred, declaring the rest of us to be sinners carrying the banner of satan.
We should be united. The abortion fight is about whether the government should have the power to decide a woman's medical decisions. The immigration battle is about whether the government has the right to stalk and detain those who "look different." The battle for LGBT rights is about the government choosing which citizens get individual rights and which don't. The voter ID fight is to keep those in power who will take away the freedoms of all of the above. As is the demonization and outlawing of unions.
Because we are not united, we are constantly being attacked, from all sides, and end up lost and demoralized.
We need to be unafraid not just to stand up for our own rights, but for all individual rights. The African American community needs to stand by women's right to reproductive privacy, and the the unions need to stand by the LGBT community, and their rights to the same liberties as us all. We all need to fight for the right to vote, because we are really all in this together.
This upcoming election season, we need to demand courage from our politicians. We need to demand that they support ALL of us, fearlessly. And we need our politicians to unite when they run for office, rather than continue to behave like a clutter of cats.
And we need to see our politicians stop being willing to sell us out, one constituency against another, or as they like to call it, "reaching across the aisle."
Let's start forming some coalitions, and working for each other as well as ourselves. If they don't vote for us here in SC, well, they probably weren't going to anyway. And at least we will be able to be proud to be Democrats.
And when we stand together and fearless, well, you never know what will happen.
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Tim Scott on Gun Control
Good luck trying to find a comment from South Carolina's Tim Scott on gun control since the massacre of six-year-olds in Newtown. Like his hero, Jim DeMint, and his bedfellows at the NRA, Scott knows when to keep a low profile.
But his pro-gun votes go way back, and there is no grey area in this issue for our Tim. Like fellow House wacko Louis Gohmert, who "just wish to God (the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal) had an M-4 in her office," Tim can't imagine a situation that wouldn't be improved by a gun.
How does he know? He prays on it. And, amazingly, he and God have 100% agreement on this issue, as well as all others.
God doesn't talk to me so much, so I can only assume what the conversation was like. I imagine God told Tim that our children might get gunned down from time to time, but, as God's buddy DeMint might say, "That's the way FreedomWorks."
And we may see his position on women's reproductive rights as intrusion, but I imagine Tim merely sees it as God giving us more babies to make up for the lives lost in acts of gun violence.
At least Tim's pro-gun control stance aligns well with his anti-abortion sentiments: he is 100% pro-life until birth.
But his pro-gun votes go way back, and there is no grey area in this issue for our Tim. Like fellow House wacko Louis Gohmert, who "just wish to God (the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal) had an M-4 in her office," Tim can't imagine a situation that wouldn't be improved by a gun.
How does he know? He prays on it. And, amazingly, he and God have 100% agreement on this issue, as well as all others.
God doesn't talk to me so much, so I can only assume what the conversation was like. I imagine God told Tim that our children might get gunned down from time to time, but, as God's buddy DeMint might say, "That's the way FreedomWorks."
And we may see his position on women's reproductive rights as intrusion, but I imagine Tim merely sees it as God giving us more babies to make up for the lives lost in acts of gun violence.
At least Tim's pro-gun control stance aligns well with his anti-abortion sentiments: he is 100% pro-life until birth.
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