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Wednesday, October 7, 2015

I am not Pro-Abortion I am Pro-Choice

I seemed to garner some pushback in an earlier post I wrote about Biden's abortion record and history which I found a bit surprising.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/with-scotus-in-balance-biden-is-wrong.html

Not that everyone disagreed but there were some who got pretty vocal with me on Twitter. I mean these are liberal Democrats surely it's not controversial to support abortion rights?

But I think the point of contention was twofold.

1. I think some took offense to my tough critique of the Vice President. I understand this in a way as I have been a big fan of his too. I've always defended him all those years the Beltway mocked him as a gaffe machine.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/09/remember-when-media-wanted-obama-to.html

But I have been very unhappy with the use of Biden during this cycle to know down Hillary's numbers. And yesterday's Politico piece suggests that he's been complicit.

I feel very strongly that while the VP is understandably in pain and grieving that doesn't mean he gets to use running for the President as some kind of family therapy.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/biden-needs-to-get-that-presidency-is.html

Maybe some find that harsh, but it's the reality. There is too much at stake in this election. A woman's right to choose, ACA, immigration reform. a new embassy in Cuba, even the very survival of Medicare to allow it to be just the prop for anyone even a good man like Biden who is suffering.

While some took issue with me for being too harsh or somehow hitting beneath the belt many other Dems I speak with agree.

What I didn't get was a few folks on Twitter who felt my piece chronicling Biden's abortion record was below the belt.

I don't agree. It's not like a personal attack. To me beneath the belt is W years ago putting out the story in SC that McCain fathered a black child.

Or for that matter, Biden himself seemingly focusing on the Benghazi Committee hearings as a way to take Hillary's supporters. He actually mentioned Benghazi to Elizabeth Warren.

That is below the belt certainly for a Democrat. But my post on Biden's abortion record is about issues.

Why is it unfair to compare his and Hillary's records if he plans to run?

His record is much more troubling. I know he says that he won't impose his prolife beliefs in public but he has in the past.

He voted to repeal Roe v. Wade in 1982, In 1994 he voted against HRC's healthcare over abortion. He continues to vote against federal funding of abortion and 'partial birth abortion.'

This brings me to another aspect of the pushback I got.

2. Even among progressives many seem a little lukewarm on abortion rights. Which is a problem when you consider that a woman's right to choose is more or less over I'm large swathes of the country.

It's been argued that women have already lost the War on Women.

Yet I got some who told me that they agree that partial birth abortion should be avoided at most costs. I agree. My problem is that when the GOP passes PBA bills these are red herrings as this practice is already rare and it's not as if Democrats are lined up in support of it.

Understand that so-called partial birth abortion bills are not about stopping abortions over 20 weeks which are already very rare but rolling back the right to abortions before the end of 20 weeks.

So the Vice President has been part of this unfortunate ideology.

I got perhaps the most surreal criticism form one woman on Twitter who accused me of nosing into women's private parts by supporting abortion rights.

Her and I had words but later she admitted she kind of jumped the shark on those comments and we're friends again.

But this made me feel compelled to qualify. I have never been pro abortion. I am pro choice.

My premise is simply that women are in the best position to make this particular ethical call as it happens in their own bodies.

Them and not the government or their husbands, boyfriends or any other family members male or other.

What they choose to do with the choice is theirs by definition. But pro choice is not a euphemism.

But I am a very passionate advocate as this right is under attack as Wendy Davis chronicles.

So I believe we need the strongest advocate for a woman's right to choose in 2017 and that person is clearly Hillary.


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