C
Captain Compassion
Guest
Democrats pledge support for wide access to abortion
By Mike Dorning
Washington Bureau
Published July 18, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Edwards said Tuesday that her husband's
health-care plan would provide insurance coverage of abortion.
Speaking on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards
before the family planning and abortion-rights group Planned
Parenthood Action Fund, Edwards lauded her husband's health-care
proposal as "a true universal health-care plan" that would cover "all
reproductive health services, including pregnancy termination,"
referring to abortion.
Edwards was joined by Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton
(D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at the group's political organizing
conference in addressing issues at the core of the political clash
between cultural liberals and conservatives, including abortion
rights, access to contraception and sex education.
The recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding a federal ban on a
late-term abortion procedure that opponents call "partial-birth
abortion" has increased anxieties among reproductive-rights advocates
over the future of constitutional protections for abortion rights. All
three of the Democratic campaigns used the forum to signal their
determination to appoint Supreme Court nominees who would uphold the
1973 Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling.
Obama, who earlier gained the endorsement of Washington, D.C., Mayor
Adrian Fenty, offered the group a vision of equal opportunity for
women, tying a call for improved access to contraceptives for
low-income women with a call for an "updated social contract" that
includes paid maternity leave and expanded school hours.
Asked about his proposal for expanded access to health insurance,
Obama said it would cover "reproductive-health services." Contacted
afterward, an Obama spokesman said that included abortions.
Clinton has not yet released her health-care proposal. She provided a
bruising critique of Bush administration policies and Republican
conservatives on abortion rights and contraception policy.
She criticized cuts in contraception services for low-income women,
lengthy delays in approving over-the-counter sales of the
"morning-after" contraceptive pill and redirection of sex education
funds to abstinence-only programs that do not include information on
contraceptive use or condoms toto prevent the spread of AIDS.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
By Mike Dorning
Washington Bureau
Published July 18, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Edwards said Tuesday that her husband's
health-care plan would provide insurance coverage of abortion.
Speaking on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards
before the family planning and abortion-rights group Planned
Parenthood Action Fund, Edwards lauded her husband's health-care
proposal as "a true universal health-care plan" that would cover "all
reproductive health services, including pregnancy termination,"
referring to abortion.
Edwards was joined by Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton
(D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at the group's political organizing
conference in addressing issues at the core of the political clash
between cultural liberals and conservatives, including abortion
rights, access to contraception and sex education.
The recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding a federal ban on a
late-term abortion procedure that opponents call "partial-birth
abortion" has increased anxieties among reproductive-rights advocates
over the future of constitutional protections for abortion rights. All
three of the Democratic campaigns used the forum to signal their
determination to appoint Supreme Court nominees who would uphold the
1973 Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling.
Obama, who earlier gained the endorsement of Washington, D.C., Mayor
Adrian Fenty, offered the group a vision of equal opportunity for
women, tying a call for improved access to contraceptives for
low-income women with a call for an "updated social contract" that
includes paid maternity leave and expanded school hours.
Asked about his proposal for expanded access to health insurance,
Obama said it would cover "reproductive-health services." Contacted
afterward, an Obama spokesman said that included abortions.
Clinton has not yet released her health-care proposal. She provided a
bruising critique of Bush administration policies and Republican
conservatives on abortion rights and contraception policy.
She criticized cuts in contraception services for low-income women,
lengthy delays in approving over-the-counter sales of the
"morning-after" contraceptive pill and redirection of sex education
funds to abstinence-only programs that do not include information on
contraceptive use or condoms toto prevent the spread of AIDS.
--
There may come a time when the CO2 police will wander the earth telling
the poor and the dispossed how many dung chips they can put on their
cook fires. -- Captain Compassion.
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
