Ninth-Month Abortion

Some politicians who want to vilify opponents who support women's reproductive rights, have begun breathlessly accusing them of supporting "Abortion, right up to the moment of birth!"  

The national Republican Party has focus-group tested, and rolled out this hideous phrase nationwide—including in Washington's Third Congressional District—for use against candidates who hope to codify the protections formerly provided by Roe v. Wade, until the Supreme Court recently overturned it.  

Decisions around terminating a pregnancy are profoundly personal at any stage - vastly more so in the final months.  Women don't carry a pregnancy that far, then just change their minds. This catch-phrase, that Republicans toss around like a political football, cruelly targets and distorts those who had hoped to become parents, but now face this tragic choice deep into a pregnancy.    

Roe v. Wade never allowed so-called 'abortion on demand' in the latter stages of pregnancy.  These are invariably situations where a termination is deemed medically necessary by the woman, and her medical care-giver ... the ONLY people rightfully involved in the decision.  

The people promulgating this phrase, and the dehumanizing frivolousness it implies, don't care any more about the unborn than they do about the heartbroken expectant mother; they just know how to manipulate the fearful, to achieve their partisan ends.  They are worthy only of our scorn and disgust for employing such cruelty.  

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Abortion and Privacy

Decisions around an unplanned pregnancy are incredibly personal.  They should be left to the woman, her doctor, her minister, other interested parties in her church, her employer, state, local, and national politicians, and other interested parties - including scout troops, altar societies, or others who might benefit from a legal bounty paid by some states for turning her and her healthcare provider in - if they make the 'wrong' decision.  

Unfortunately, if Democrats solidify their control of government, many of these people will be left out of these key decisions, leaving the poor, fallen woman to make this decision all on her own.  

Please, for her sake, vote Republican!  Because an unplanned pregnancy is everybody's business!

Freedom Isn't Free

With Labor Day Weekend drawing to a close, and a presidential election underway, it’s a good time to consider the dynamics of our society.  No gains are permanently locked in – not in the dignity of labor; equal rights—even voting rights—for racial, ethnic, or religious minorities; or a woman’s control over her own body.  Gains are always ephemeral; we relax and enjoy them at the risk of losing them.  Every gain in dignity formerly denied to some, is seen as a loss of prerogative to those who formerly held the reins – a loss they will immediately work to regain.  

So I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend, and took a few moments to remember those who struggled, sometimes died, and continue to struggle, to win you a three-day weekend, and eight-hour workday, a decent minimum wage, and the right to vote for leaders who will protect those rights.  

Freedom isn’t free, and it is never secure to the complacent.

Abortion Access by Class

The recent Supreme Court ruling enshrines into law what has already been the reality in many states, which have used restrictive laws to restrict access to women's reproductive services.  

Women with the time and the resources will continue to be able to simply decamp to a state which more fully respects women's privacy and autonomy, receive an abortion, then return home.  

Women who don't enjoy the time and monetary resources to either go elsewhere, or to endure the intentionally difficult obstacles set up in her home state, were forced to bring their unplanned pregnancies to term.  

It's not a party-line issue, but in effect it is a socio-economic class issue.  We need lawmakers who will level the playing field for American women, regardless of state of residence.  

Cult Response to Threats

When a scandal comes to light that implicates somebody we admire, there is a tendency to resist believing it at first.  But as the evidence accumulates, and the window of plausible deniability closes, we cease that resistance, and our esteem for the one we admire is diminished.  

Within a cult, it's different.  The attachment to the leader is not mere admiration so much as it is adoration, or even identification.  Any implication of wrongdoing by the cult leader is perceived as a direct personal attack against us.  As more evidence accumulates—rather than causing followers to separate themselves from the leader—the cult tends to cleave more closely; the more credible, and the greater the accumulation of evidence, the more tightly the followers cling to the leader, and lash out at the accusers.  The siege mentality they share can result in unpredictable, desperate behaviors.  

This identification with the leader makes deprogramming difficult under the best of circumstances - much more so if the member can't be isolated from the influence of the cult.  This is made even more difficult when the cult controls a vast communication infrastructure.  In some nations, (e.g. China, Putin's Russia, Victor Orban's Hungary), the ruling party simply doesn't allow contradictory information to be broadcast.  In other cases, the cult is simply trained to pay attention only to approved communication, by portraying all outside sources as 'fake news', or otherwise not credible.  Unless this obstacle is overcome, there is little hope of breaking the hold of the cult on its members.  

Underground Railroad - Oregon Cove

As with other times in our history, when calamities have arisen, kind people all over our country are offering to provide shelter to women seeking abortions, but who cannot obtain them, safely and legally, in their own state.  

One thing that is desperately needed to make this mission of mercy work are organizations to connect women needing to find lodging in a state that allows this vital service, with those who will open their homes during her visit.    

Oregon Cove was founded just last Friday, in Portland, Oregon.  If you, or somebody you know is from elsewhere, and have come to Oregon seeking abortion services, please contact them.  If you have an extra room in your home, and in your heart to host a traveler in need, please contact them.  oregoncove@gmail.com 

This is just one piece of the puzzle … a very short, early length of the Underground Railroad that must be built.  It is one of the first steps that begins the journey of a thousand miles. 

https://oregoncove.org/

Kids and Guns

At times like this, it is natural to want to hug our children, with a mixture of pure love, and apprehension that they might be taken from us.  

But for some, there is an unnatural desire to hug their guns, and hold them close, with the same mixture of love, and paranoia that they will be taken from them.