Abortion on Demand --Demands

 

But that was then and this is now–“Free Abortions on Demand Without Apology”

 

By Dave Andrusko
Although I returned from vacation last Tuesday, I am still catching up on articles that ran while my family was away. I’m thinking of a truly astonishing piece, “Free Abortions on Demand Without Apology” which appeared in The Nation.
A quick preface. As the pro-life jivinjehoshaphat.blogspot.com dryly observed, back in January, writing in the same publication, Katha Politt nonchalantly maintained the following:

“An ‘extreme’ pro-choice position would be the one pro-lifers falsely claim Roe protects: it would permit abortion on demand up until the day before birth. No pro-choice organization calls for that.”

True in the sense that none that are politically sophisticated, such as Planned Parenthood, would espouse such a position, although operationally, this is PPFA’s practice. But back to Jessica Valenti ‘s “Free Abortions on Demand Without Apology” where that is exactly what she demands and where she unfurls her irritation that “so many feminists” have gotten “polite on abortion.”
Her first shot-across-the-bow is at Planned Parenthood and its legion of apologists, which rhetorically practices abortion minimalism. “I cannot take hearing another pundit insist that only a small percentage of Planned Parenthood’s work is providing abortions,” Valenti grouses. “Tiptoeing around the issue is exhausting, and it’s certainly not doing women any favors.”

What does she have in mind as a replacement? A back-to-the-future slogan: “It’s time resuscitate the old rallying cry for ‘free abortions on demand without apology.’” Valenti quickly acknowledges, “It may not be a popular message but it’s absolutely necessary.”
In a backhanded way, Valenti acknowledges that hiding the real agenda may have help in the 2012 elections. “This may be the outcome of 2012’s ‘war on women’: messaging that mobilized voters, got mainstream media coverage and put reproductive rights at the center the national conversation.”
But that was then and this is now. “But efforts to appeal to all often meant framing reproductive rights issues in the most palatable way possible: by shying away from wholeheartedly supporting comprehensive abortion access.”

Get it? Sure, Obama and all the other pro-abortion politicians who mask their support for essentially abortion on demand got themselves re-elected but the time for timidity has now passed. End the Hyde Amendment (and no doubt anything else) that minimizes or eliminates governmental streams of revenues.

“’Free abortions on demand without apology’ is a call for equal access to a constitutional right,” Valenti argues. “More importantly, it’s a promise that feminists won’t ignore the needs of all women in favor of tailoring messages to the mainstream.”
And then the clincher: “Because being pro-choice means doing what’s right, not what’s popular.”
So contra Pollitt (a) there are pro-abortion feminists—and plenty of them—who want to pick your pocket and mine to pay for abortion for any reason and at any time in pregnancy; and (b) think it’s only a failure of political will that prevents this nirvana from coming to pass.

“Abortion on demand and without apology” tells you all you need to know about not just fringies like Valenti but also about where many more “mainstream” pro-abortion organizations are as well

Source: NRLC News