Despite Wendy's heroic filibuster, we are losing the abortion war.

[cali]

badly.

The anti-choicers found a helluva winning strategy: TRAP laws.

How we can turn this around is beyond me.

For more and more women in this country, Roe is a hollow right.

For millions of women having an abortion now is a humiliating and degrading experience.

For many providers, new laws mean having to give women misleading and dishonest information.

[ananda]

1. It appears to me that red state leaders are trying to practice medicine.

Certainly that should be totally illegal.

These laws should be struck down by the courts.

[cali]

2. There are injunctions on quite a few laws

Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Freedom have been great about challenging laws, but they haven't challenged a lot of the TRAP laws and have had limited success where they have.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. The laws passed in Arkansas earlier this year, over the governor's veto,

are going to be challenged in court. I wonder how many tax dollars it will cost to defend these unconstitutional laws. Of course, the pro-birthers don't care because they want to see an abortion case make it to the SCOTUS. They think there is a chance that this court will overturn Roe v. Wade. They are salivating at the prospect.

[el_bryanto]

3. I don't know - while these laws are terrible

I don't think demographics are on their side. These might just be the death thrashings of a dying issue.

I hope so anyway.

Bryant

[cali]

6. How are demographics on our side?

poll after poll reflects that younger folks are among those most opposed to abortion.

As I said, in state after state, Roe is essentially nullified. Millions of women in this country have already effectively lost their right to an abortion. That is not hyperbole. It's factual.

[ellie]

8. I just saw a poll of Catholics

ages 18-40 who support abortion 58% to 34%. http://www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm

In another poll on Roe v. Wade, people ages 18-29 support it 68% to 27%. http://www.pewforum.org/Abortion/roe-v-wade-at-40.aspx

So I am not sure what other polls are out there saying young people are against it. Do you have a link?

[cali]

12. ....

Americans Aged 18 to 29 Trending More Anti-Abortion

The analysis above focused on public support for the "legal under any circumstances" option in Gallup's abortion question. There is a somewhat different pattern in the trends by age for those choosing the "illegal in all circumstances" position.

Two important changes are apparent. One is a significant drop in the percentage of seniors saying all abortions should be illegal. This fell from 32% in the earliest years of the trend to 16% in the first half of the 1990s, but has since rebounded somewhat to 21%. This long-term 11-point decline among seniors compares with a 9-point increase -- from 14% to 23% -- in support for the "illegal in all circumstances" position among 18- to 29-year-olds since the early 1990s.

As a result, 18- to 29-year-olds are now roughly tied with seniors as the most likely of all age groups to hold this position on abortion -- although all four groups are fairly close in their views. This is a sharp change from the late 1970s, when seniors were substantially more likely than younger age groups to want abortion to be illegal.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/126581/generational-differences-abortion-narrow.aspx


http://jezebel.com/5520138/the-graying-of-the-abortion+rights-crusade

Young people support equal marriage rights by huge margins, but abortion by narrow margins and not liberal abortion rights.

[ellie]

16. Thanks, but that Gallup poll is from 2010

as is the Jezebel article. That one link I posted is from the Polling Report and has a bunch of different polls in it from this year. My take on this assault is that the conservapukes are hoping to get to the Supreme Court where they think they have a chance at overturning Roe v. Wade. But Scalia is one pasta primavera away from another liberal being named to the court so they are running out of time.

[kentuck]

4. It is not about abortion.

It is about freedom for women and there are a lot of men that support that idea also.

[cali]

7. of course it's about abortion

it's ridiculous to claim that it's not.

[Orrex]

13. It is simplistic to claim that it's only about abortion

Of course it's about abortion.

It is also about restrictions on women's reproductive freedom and, by extension, their right to self-determination.

[cali]

15. sure, it's about other things, but

the bottom line here is the right to a safe, accessible abortion.

[Orrex]

18. I think that you and I are ultimately arguing in the same direction

Access to safe abortions should be an element of basic healthcare, so it's worth arguing for in its own right, but another strategy identifies draconian restrictions on abortions as a means of controlling women, so IMO the matter is worth pursuing from that angle as well.

[Coyotl]

9. Perry: "I asked you to play Doctor, not to doctor public records."

Why do these men want to play Doctor? Is it sadism? Do they hate women? What's with rape culture?

[KharmaTrain]

10. The Answer Is At The Ballot Box...

...these laws just aren't showing up out of thin air. They're being proposed and enacted by radical rushpublican legislatures around the country. It's a long time goal that has been underway for decades among the right wing. They started at the very grassroots...like a certain grifter from Alaska who somehow got into politics on the local school board...and then moved their way up. They took advantage of low voter elections to get their candidates elected and to slowly infiltrate even blue states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania while the Democrats were fixated on the White House.

The way to fix this is for a new grassroots 50-state movement...to take the states back from the fundies and right wing scumbags. It's getting more involved, not less...and to use the large base that this party's developed into every town, township, county and state across the country...

[n2doc]

11. exactly

People who support the right to Privacy and Choice need to work harder than the anti-rights nutjobs. They need to realize that Roe ain't going to save them.

Lots of other good things follow from that as well, but the single most important thing is to defeat these nutjobs everywhere, regardless of how one might otherwise feel about their performances or positions on other issues.

[still_one]

14. I disagree. Appearances are deceiving in this case. Yes, it appears the anti-choicers are winning,

however, what was evidenced in 2012, and will continue to grow even stronger, is the outrage of women against this extremism directed toward them.

In addition, if this gets to the Supreme Court, as skeptical as many are regarding Kennedy, he is not going to change his position on Roe. In fact I believe with the current makeup of the Supreme Court, if it gets to them, they will affirm Roe, and that will stop these draconian measures that certain states are trying to implements.

However, the strongest force is the underestimation of the power of women by the republicans, and it does not look like they are changing their position anytime soon.

[cali]

17. It's not appearance. It's the reality for millions and millions of women

that's just a fact. TRAP and other laws have diminished access to abortion to the point that for millions, Roe is a hollow guarantee.