18 Days to Go!

Today I need to link one exceptional piece from RHRealityCheck.org that really made me uncomfortable. And I watched Standard Operating Procedure last night.

In "Can There Be Justice for Pregnant Women if the Unborn Have 'Human Rights?'" Lynn Paltrow challenges the complacency that I think too many of my generation swing to- throwing support behind the right to choose to keep or abort, but losing interest there. The slippery slope of restricting the right to choose is now inextricable from the rhetoric debate seeking to define the moment of citizenship. My discomfort while reading the cases Ms. Paltrow presents went from mild frustration to downright anger, knowing that in some areas of my country, being pregnant would obstruct my civil rights.

The complacency affects comfortable twenty-somethings who support the right to choose on principle (many principles, really), and forgo that there are many choices still very precious to us women (and our families), and the right to make those choices are often taken away. I sat back and thought, of the women I know who have given birth in the last year, how many of them were forced out of their birthplan? The answer was 4 out of 6.

Like Laura Pemberton, "who wanted to have a vaginal birth after a previous delivery by Cesarean surgery. Because no hospital would admit her unless she agreed to deliver again by surgery, she stayed home to give birth. While there, in active labor and near delivery, an armed Sheriff knocked on her door. He had orders to take her into custody. He strapped her legs together and brought her to a hospital to determine whether she could be forced to have the Cesarean surgery. A lawyer was appointed for the fetus, but not for Ms. Pemberton. Ms. Pemberton vehemently opposes abortion, but she nevertheless believed in her right to evaluate medical risks and benefits to herself and her unborn child. She was forced to have the unnecessary surgery. When she later sued for violations of her civil rights, was told she had none."

Keep reading.

Internationally, those pesky borders are just really getting in the way of the War on Terror. Juan Cole, as usual, offers his adroit evaluation of the U.S. talking points. Here's a taste:

Washington also tends to over-estimate the importance of individual leaders such as al-Zarqawi and al-Mazidi. Mostly they are fairly easily replaced. It is not as though they have been through a military academy or anything. When al-Zarqawi was killed, it changed absolutely nothing with regard to violence in Iraq. Others than Mazidi can smuggle North African volunteers into Iraq.

Here are some links I wanted to post last week:

First, The New Yorker once again has an excellent political piece, this time on Biden, the forgotten VP, and the seat of Vice President in general. I enjoyed the review and the perspective.

Second, Bob Herbert is my hero. This is everything I wanted to say, but more concise and kinder than I could ever manage.

Alright, back to work.
And please, wear red on Thursday the 30th for the Be Bold Wear Red campaign to Stop the Violence Against Women of Color!