[Marxism] Re: [PEN-L] Kerry Could Appoint Anti-Abortion Judges

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> Will liberal feminist organizations such as Planned Parenthood,
> NARAL, and NOW continue to give the Democratic Party a blank check?

Why not? If this didn't stop them, nothing will.

The New York Times
October 23, 2003 Thursday

Bill Barring Abortion Procedure Drew on Backing From Many Friends of Roe
v. Wade

BYLINE: By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Senator Blanche Lincoln, Democrat of Arkansas, considers herself
decidedly in favor of a woman's right to abortion. "I'm about 99 percent
pro-choice," she says.

On Tuesday, she voted the other 1 percent.

Ms. Lincoln was among 17 Democratic senators, many of them strong
advocates of abortion rights, who voted to ban the procedure that
critics call partial-birth abortion. Their votes were not a surprise:
most had voted to forbid the procedure several times before, as had many
abortion rights proponents in the House.

Still, it was those lawmakers' willingness to defy abortion rights
groups, a crucial Democratic constituency, that allowed Congress to pass
a bill that will ban a specific abortion procedure for the first time.

For many of those senators, the issue was sealed years ago when abortion
opponents coined the term "partial birth" for a procedure that doctors
call intact dilation and extraction. Critics of the procedure described
it in terms so gruesome and detailed that many lawmakers who otherwise
support abortion rights already felt compelled to vote against it when
the issue repeatedly came before Congress during the Clinton administration.

So by Tuesday, when the Senate again considered passage of a ban, the
last step before sending it to President Bush for a signature that is
assured, the die was already cast.

Some Democrats who voted in favor, like Ms. Lincoln, said they felt that
they were reflecting the views of their constituents. Some, like Senator
Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, said the procedure was morally repugnant.

Others, like Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the minority leader,
said that after eight years of divisive debate, they were ready to get
the matter out of Congress and into the courts. Advocates of abortion
rights say they will challenge the measure in court as soon as Mr. Bush
signs it; they contend that the ban is unconstitutional because it lacks
an exception for the health of the pregnant woman and, they maintain, is
overly broad.

"The time has come to move on," Mr. Daschle said on Wednesday. "I have a
lot of misgivings about this bill. I have initially opposed it because I
didn't think it took into account the need for women's health
adequately. But I also believe that we've got to address this issue and
let the courts decide whether it's constitutional. In my view, the vote
yesterday just moves that process forward."

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