E.J. Dionne, I like you a lot, but really you are beating a dead horse here...

[CTyankee]

http://www.sacbee.com/2013/11/11/5894017/ej-dionne-whats-the-matter-with.html

As a person who worked for many years on abortion rights, this idea that anti-abortion folks would work with pro-choice advocates on making sure women have good prenatal care and support for their babies if only we all came together and made it happen -- well, it never got off the ground.

The simple reason: anti-choicers don't really want to do it. That is not their purpose. They don't care.

It is surprising that Dionne doesn't know this. He's an intelligent man and a nice man. I like to read his columns. But he is living in a dream world if he is promoting this so late in the abortion wars. Where has he been? I can remember being in that same dream world back in the 80s and it seems every few years another manifestation of it pops up as if it is a new, bright idea nobody ever thought of before.

Dionne must get over it. His kinder, gentler pro-life philosophy is precisely wrong at its very core. Without safe, legal abortion we will not truly meet the needs of women and the children that they want and need help in caring for. It will result in diminishing the lives of our daughters and granddaughters.

Pro-choice stands for a pro-woman, pro-child and pro-family philosophy. Period.

[Arugula Latte]

1. Yep. The antis really just want to control women. That's their agenda.

[silverweb]

2. Not a dead horse at all.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]These are points that continuously evade the conservative bubble and that are unnoticed by great masses of uninformed, unengaged people.

The more exposure they get, the better. They need be part of the fabric of our society's universal consciousness so that the anti-choicers become marginalized, isolated, and fully exposed for the extreme hypocrites that they are.

[CTyankee]

3. well, I've seen this idea again and again over the years and folks new to the abortion wars always

think it is such a wonderful idea and if the anti-choicers don't just leap up and join with us they will, as you put it,
" become marginalized, isolated, and fully exposed for the extreme hypocrites that they are." Yet the anti-choice movement continues to succeed by digging in their heels even harder, tho not everywhere in the country.

I personally believe that electing more pro-choice women to office at all levels is the only real way we will safeguard our reproductive rights. I'm tired of wasting my time with these goddamn knuckle-draggers. They can go to hell, for all I care.

[silverweb]

4. I fully agree with you.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Except for the part where continued discussion is analogous to beating a dead horse.

Nobody pays attention if nobody's talking about it, and the young ones coming up, in particular, also need to be brought into full consciousness of the issues.

[CTyankee]

5. I guess I'm talking about where we in the reproductive rights community place our energy.

My experience leads me to go with Emily's List's approach. I feel that the young ones coming up still have some retrograde people who will believe the Right's garbage on repro rights. But we need to support and elect pro-choice women in office first and foremost. They need to be in power first or we'll never get this done.

[silverweb]

6. We agree.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]By running and electing more pro-choice women, the discussion continues and gains wider exposure, and there's more opportunity for policy change.

By continuing discussion of the issues and exposure of the anti-choice mob, more pro-choice women will be motivated and inspired to run for office.

The multifaceted approaches work.

[Auntie Bush]

7. "Pro-choice stands for a pro-woman, pro-child and pro-family philosophy. Period."

I like that!

[davidpdx]

8. I agree

I believe there was a political cartoon in the last few weeks that pretty much summed it up well (sorry, I'm too lazy to go find it, but if someone does feel free to reply and post it).

The cartoon had the anti-choice people with the pregnant woman saying "oh we'll take care of you, yahayahayadah", then after the baby was born and she was on foodstamps they said "oh you are such a moocher".

[TeamPooka]

9. K&R!

[Arneoker]

10. I'm pro-life, and I just want to save babies.

Dionne is right, and he is throwing down the right gauntlet to the pro-life movement, most of whom (if not all) do seem to be a bunch of hypocritical reactionaries. I think that Dionne would agree with me that abortion should be legal.

His idea may be an old one, and one that has never quite caught on. But that is true of a lot of ideas, and doesn't make them wrong. At the least it can expose the cruel hypocrisy of so many "pro-lifers" who seem more like anti-lifers.

[freshwest]

11. Pro-choice stands for a pro-woman, pro-child and pro-family philosophy. Perfect!

[Skinner]

12. I suspect E.J. Dionne actually does know this.

He's not actually trying to convince the pro-lifers. He's showing everyone else that the pro-lifers are hypocrites.

[CTyankee]

13. I hope that is the case. And if so, maybe he feels it is worth repeating to drive the

point home. He may feel that it needs repeating ever so often in case some people forget...or haven't been aware...