Subscribe to Receive the Daily Report

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011

Congresswomen Electrify Planned Parenthood Abortion Debate

Author:     MICHELLE GOLDBERG
Source:     The Daily Beast
Publication Date:     21-Feb-11
 Link: Congresswomen Electrify Planned Parenthood Abortion Debate
Stephan:   Reality confronts ideology. The attack on Planned Parenthood using ideology rather than facts is part of the cancer devouring us. Women throughout America are going to have to go into the streets, I am afraid, in order to protect their right, indeed, their power to control their own bodies. Michelle Goldberg is a journalist based in New York. She is the author of The New York Times bestseller Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism and The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World, winner of the 2008 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Award and the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize.

The House may have voted to strip Planned Parenthood of funding, but the personal stories from Gwen Moore and Jackie Speier about an unplanned pregnancy and an abortion inspired women everywhere. The two congresswomen tell Michelle Goldberg why they decided to speak out.

In the end, Reps. Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Jackie Speier (D-CA) probably didn’t sway any votes by sharing their personal stories on the House floor on Thursday night. On Friday, 240 of 241 House Republicans voted to strip Planned Parenthood, the nation’s leading provider of reproductive health care, of government funding.

Article – Goldberg Speier Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif) talked about her abortion on the House floor on Thursday night during a debate on a proposal to cut federal funds for Planned Parenthood. (Charles Dharapak / AP Photo)

Nevertheless, when Moore stood up to talk about being an 18-year-old with an unplanned pregnancy, and Speier described having a second-trimester abortion after a wanted pregnancy went wrong, the effect was electrifying. With their candor, the two congresswomen inspired women all over the country and pierced through the sanctimonious abstractions dominating the debate. At least half of women have an unintended pregnancy at some point in their lives, and nearly a third […]

Read the Full Article