There's a lot of talk these days about what might happen if Roe falls, and most opinion seems to be roughly divided into two camps.  A sizable contingent feels confident that the Republicans need Roe more than Democrats do, both because it's the most reliable way of energizing their base, and because they fear the voter backlash that would surely follow its loss.  Almost as many people seem to believe that Democrats should shut up about the issue of abortion and let it go, because all it's good for is losing elections.  Their reasoning goes that even if Roe was struck, abortion rights would revert to the states and because -- as some preciously naive poster commented a few days ago -- "Americans are liberal and pro-choice," women would still keep access to safe and legal abortion care.  

Both those opinions are wrong -- for some women, even today, literally dead wrong.  Should you still cling to either of those cherished illusions, PBS Frontline's The Last Abortion Clinic and numerous abortion providers will tell you that you're only whistling past the graveyard.

from Our Word

OK, everybody, how about some good news for a change?  

If you live in Rhode Island, chances are that you already know about the impressive professional accomplishments, extensive political involvement and numerous social contributions of Dr. Pablo Rodríguez.

Basically, as many people already know, and as the Bushistas in Florida are only beginning to find out, Pablo Rodríguez rocks.

And I thought everybody else might like to know him, too.

Meet my friend Dr. Pablo Rodríguez.

from Our Word

Governor Mel Blunt signed an omnibus bill to restrict access to abortion in Missouri only weeks ago, but the sole abortion providing facility in Springfield, Missouri has already been forced to close its doors--leaving women in that region 160 miles away from the nearest doctor who is willing to provide abortion care.

The new law requires that doctors who perform abortions must hold professional privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of any location where an abortion is performed.  But abortion providing physicians now have become such a rare breed that many must travel considerable distances, so that the nearest hospital where a doctor has admitting privileges can lie much farther than 30 miles away from the clinic where she or he provides abortion care.

Like all TRAP laws, its provisions might apply to doctors, but women are the ones who get trapped.

Abortion is in the headlines this week.  On Saturday jsmdlawyer at Daily Kos diaried Clarence Thomas' attempt to prevent an imprisoned woman in Missouri from having the abortion to which she was legally entitled, just because she didn't have the $350 she needed to get to the clinic (before we were through with that one, she could have hired a limo, but how much better for women everywhere that she didn't need it after all).  

And this morning none of us was shocked--shocked!-- to hear about Harriet Miers' 1989 promise to support a Constitutional amendment banning abortion altogether.  

But now I'm going to tell you an abortion story that hasn't made the news, and probably won't--a story about the women of Katrina, and about the hurricane relief effort no one talks about--the Katrina aid that dare not speak its name.

It had to happen somewhere, sooner or later, and none of us should be surprised that it has happened first in Texas. The rabidly anti-choice mob comprising the majority of the Texas Legislature passed a law this year that finally has abortion-providing physicians exactly where the Rapture Right wants them: subject to the death penalty.

How could such a thing have happened?  In a state like mine, how can you ask?

The new law was signed by Rick Perry at a Fort Worth church three months ago, on the same occasion that he notoriously suggested that returning Iraq veterans should come back to anywhere but Texas . . . if they were gay.    

But at least he didn't sign their death warrants.

When bayprairie (with TruBlueDem) posted her diary here at Booman Tribune presenting a compelling case for opposing Democrats for Life, every last face in her Rogues' Gallery belonged to a man. There's no objective reason that we should expect more compassion from women on issues involving reproductive freedom than we expect from men.  Certainly we shouldn't.  Especially not from women such as Missouri state representatives Belinda Harris (left) and Kate Meiners (right) - both DFL All-Stars.

Just how hard-line are the positions of these two women?  Before the 2004 election, both Harris and Meiners won strong endorsements in bold type from Missouri Right to Life, an organization that is 100% anti-abortion, anti-birth control and anti-stem cell research -- and that trusted these Democratic women to further those extremist goals over their staunchly "pro-life" male Republican opponents.

And that's about as hard as the line can get.

The Food and Drug Administration has now "indefinitely" put off a decision on making Plan B - also called Emergency Contraception (EC) and the Morning-After Pill -- available over-the-counter.  The FDA promised, during (then acting) FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford's confirmation hearings, to issue a final decision by September 1, 2005. Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Patty Murray then released the hold they had placed on Crawford's confirmation. And as soon as Crawford became the official head of the FDA, he issued the ruling earlier than promised - proving that even US Senators need access to Plan B.

For years the MAP Conspiracy has been fighting to make sure that all women can get EC in an emergency.  

Here is the latest information on what the MAP Conspiracy is, what they are doing to protect the right of all women to take control of their own reproduction, and what you can do to help tomorrow, tonight ... and the morning after.  

Previously at LSF.

Do you know  Mrs. Judie Brown?  If you haven't made her acquaintance, an introduction is long overdue.  

As cofounder and president of the American Life League, she's known in "pro-life" circles as America's #1 Church Lady - and it must be true, because the Vatican says so.  In fact, she's well into her second five-year term as a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, and the Daily Catholic cites her as one of the top 100 Catholics of the 20th century.

When Mrs. Judie Brown speaks, Catholic "pro-lifers" listen.  This week, she's got a lot to say about Bill Frist and the National Right to Life Committee - and Judie's not in a good mood about what she calls a case of mistaken identity.

Dr. Warren Hern of Boulder, Colorado--anthropologist, public health physician and specialist in abortion care--has attracted a great deal of attention by publicly exposing and denouncing the threat directed at him a couple of weeks ago by Operation Save America.  

When Dr. Hern read the piece about events in Boulder that I wrote and posted here and elsewhere, he responded with an appreciative but to-the-point letter that briefly touched on his views about what is wrong with Democratic politics and how to fix it.

And now Dr. Hern gives us more.

Every summer Operation Save America takes a massive, weeklong protest to some fortunate city in America where their director, Flip Benham, leads them in "storming the gates of hell."  A couple of weeks ago, OSA swarmed Colorado in Operation Save Denver.  But when Benham's "saints" and "gentle Christian warriors" pack up to go marauding, they carry along so much hellfire and brimstone that they had plenty left over for Boulder, where they focused the wrath of their angry God upon Dr. Warren Hern.

Dr. Hern is a provider of exemplary abortion care.  He is also a renowned anthropologist, as well as an internationally recognized authority in his highly specialized field of medicine.  Together with Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, Dr. Hern has been at the top of the antiabortion mob's hit list for over 20 years.  

And this time was no exception.

(Previously published at Liberal Street Fighter, also posted at My Left Wing and The Daily Kos)

Hurricane season comes around every year, and it's that time again. But for anyone dedicated, courageous or just hardheaded enough still to be providing the women of Florida with abortion care, disaster can strike at any time--destroying their facilities and threatening their very lives--because there, as in so many places, the season of hatred never, ever ends.

Abortion providing clinics all across the country have been targets of hatred and violence for what seems like forever: break-ins, blockades, vandalism, butyric acid attacks, anthrax threats, bombings, and even murders. Since 1992, as many as 19 clinics have been torched each and every year. And even as we all celebrated our legacy of American freedom this 4th of July, yet another clinic burned, this time in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Just one more violent statistic added to a long, long list.

That's how PinkDome and In The Pink sum up the debut of the new Marriage Alliance web site, dedicated to saving the marriages of millions of innocent Texans from the Godless gay and lesbian hordes hellbent on perverting that sacred institution beyond all recognition.

Fresh from his consecration of Texas' latest auto da fé against pregnant and abused teenagers, and understandably eager to get our statewide pogrom against gay and lesbian Texans indecorous enough to emerge from their closets kickstarted on schedule, Gov. Rick "Goodhair" Perry lends his chiseled good looks and eponymous coiffure to a video welcome on the main page.

Marriage is at the heart of our social fabric. It brings us love, structure, stability and family. Marriage throughout the ages has been between a man and a woman and in that tradition we must support it. Join our Marriage Alliance and let your voice be heard.

What an uncharacteristically Democratic idea ...

God, I love Pink Dome.

There's no more entertaining place to keep up with what's really going on in Reichstag-on-the-Brazos (yes, y'all, I know Austin's on the Colorado, but these days I'm doing all I can to stay rooted) than the deliciously seditious and nutritious PD.

Now, along with an account of Little Ricky's bill-signing service last Sunday with that hate-peddling Pharisee Rod Parsley, PinkDome treats us to a peek at self-described "Evangelical leader" Ted Haggard's e-mailed instructions to his flock at Colorado City's New Life Church on how to try their best to pass as "normal" during an upcoming opportunity to be on TV.

Let PinkDome tell you all about it. You'll be glad you did.