Let’s take a few minutes to see why pro-abortion militant Armanda Marcotte believes “It’s Been a Terrible Year for Reproductive Rights.”
But we’re going to take her conclusion first because it’s the kind of question-begging argument that pro-abortionists specialize in. And then we will end where Marcotte began.
Pro-lifers and those who have no particular stake in the abortion issue have passed a great number of laws going back to 2011 that require that abortion clinics upgrade their physical plant (and therefore the safety of women); that they use the FDA recommended protocol for chemical abortions; that abortionists have admitting privileges at a local hospital so when there are the inevitable complications they can go with the woman to the hospital—to name just three.
For purposes of her argument, Marcotte adds the Hobby Lobby decision which (unlike her characterization) in fact afforded only a modest victory for religious conscience rights but did not truly correct any of the major abortion-expanding problems created by Obamacare.
Amanda Marcotte
But for Marcotte none of this had anything to do with either protecting women, calling the abortion industry to task for the likes of Kermit Gosnell, or religious freedom. The “escalation in anti-choice activism is a reaction to something, and it’s not hard to guess what it is,” she writes.
Okay, what is it? It’s that “Women have, in recent years, really been gaining control over our reproductive capacities.”
Really? That may be what the folks at places such as rhrealitycheck.org believe—or, more accurately, what they need to believe to make sense of what was for them a disastrous year (or two, or three)—but it is poppycock.
Marcotte et al. are even more glum about the future. Many more pro-lifers were elected in state legislatures this last election and more governorships and state houses are controlled by Republicans, courtesy of the November 4 outcomes. This makes passage of pro-life legislation more possible, even though many years of experience reminds us that a determined pro-abortion minority—or a pro-abortion governor—can bring progress to a grinding halt.
But as NRL Political Director Karen Cross reminds us over and over and over elections do matter. We had a banner mid-term election cycle with not only a gain of nine in the United States Senate, but also (in 2015) the most Republicans serving in the House of Representatives since 1929.
Let me conclude with Marcotte’s opening paragraph:
Looking over the battle for reproductive rights that took place in 2014, I wish I could say that I’m optimistic for the coming year. But that, frankly, would be a lie. The sad fact of the matter is those who oppose the basic right to control one’s own reproduction have had a banner year, as they watch their efforts to chip away at abortion and contraception access finally come together in such a way that the restrictions may become permanent. Things are looking bleak for American women, and there’s no way to get around that fact.
By Dave Andrusko, NRL News Today
