The BoBo Files

Funny, maybe not, this seems to have slipped past the regular media – AGAIN

As White House Readies Abortion Plan, Packaging Emerges as Major Issue

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

As the White House readies its plan for finding “common ground” on reproductive health

issues and reducing the need for abortion, a major debate has emerged over how to package the plan’s two major components: preventing unwanted pregnancies and reducing the need for abortion.

Many abortion rights advocates and some Democrats who want to dial down the culture wars want the White House to package the two parts of the plan together, as a single piece of legislation. The plan would seek to reduce unwanted pregnancies by funding comprehensive sex education and contraception and to reduce the need for abortion by bolstering federal support for pregnant women. Supporters of the approach say it would force senators and members of Congress on both sides of the abortion battle to compromise their traditional positions, creating true common ground that mirrors what President Obama has called for.

But more conservative religious groups working with the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships say they would be forced to oppose such a plan—even though they support the abortion reduction part—because they oppose federal dollars for contraception and comprehensive sex education. This camp, which includes such formidable organizations as the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptist Convention, is pressuring the White House to decouple the two parts of the plan into separate bills. One bill would focus entirely on preventing unwanted pregnancy, while the other would focus on supporting pregnant women.

The libertarian in me says – this is a social issue and the government needs to stay out of it completely.  However, I have to actually say I am in full support of anything that would reduce the number of abortions in this country.  Those idiot “conservative religious groups” need to get off their freakin’ high horses on this one.  Deny contraception and sex education?  Why?  So that we can have more abortions or unwed teen pregnancies?  You guys are way off on this one!  And then, further down in this article – we have this:

Some abortion rights groups have already come out against the Pregnant Women Support Act, the model for advocates of splitting pregnancy prevention and support for pregnant women into separate bills. “For the pro-choice community, that bill has lots of incendiary language and coercive policy,” says Rachel Laser, who directs the culture program at the Democratic-leaning think tank Third Way and is pressing the White House to take a comprehensive approach on its reproductive health plan.

Hey, Rachel – chill out!  This proposal does not reverse Roe v. Wade and it does nothing to stop abortions.  The idea, bonehead, is to reduce the number of abortions through education and contraception.  Why are you so hell bent on making sure there are unwanted pregnancies out there requiring the aborting of a human life?

I can’t believe I’m actually siding with the Obama administration.  But, this just goes to show – you’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t.  Personally, I think this is a great option for reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions.  While I am still a very strong advocate of limited government, the Public Health scholar in me says this is one to get behind.

But supporters of the all-in-one approach say that passing a support-only plan is unrealistic in Democratic-controlled Washington. “There would be a strong reluctance in the pro-choice community to trust that if Congress moved support-only, that a prevention-only package would also pass,” says Laser. “There’s also a fear that support-only would be defined as the new common ground. For the pro-choice side, the most important part of common ground is pregnancy prevention.”

Laser and some prominent abortion rights supporters are pushing the White House to support the Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act, which is expected to be reintroduced by Democratic Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Tim Ryan in coming weeks. The bill attempts to reduce unintended pregnancies by providing low-income women with better access to contraception and to reduce the need for abortion by giving women who ask for it information about alternatives to abortion, among other things.

For the White House, the decision about which tack to take is largely a question of whom it feels more comfortable alienating: religious groups like the Catholic bishops, which it has been trying hard to win over, or abortion rights groups, a key part of the Democratic base that it doesn’t want to lose.

C’mon people!  Really?  Who the hell cares if you alienate the religious groups and the pro-abortion groups?  This is a comprehensive package that addresses both sides of this issue.  There is common ground, “For the pro-choice side, the most important part of common ground is pregnancy prevention.”  Isn’t this also what the pro-lifers want?  Isn’t this what everyone wants?  How can you not be on the side of this plan?  Me, I’m just waiting to see the implementation plans and the overall costs.

Tags: abortion, government, Politics, pregnancy prevention, pro-choice, pro-life

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