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- G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
GOT GAME?
| While the country is concentrating on Iraqi
war and terrorism, a greater danger to women looms almost unnoticed. It
is their gradual loss of control over their bodies, their self-determination
and their reproduction.
Playing to an audience of voters who are rapidly drawing away from valuing fairness and equality, the Bushie's politics of macho is supplanting the politics of impartiality. It's a wolf in a sheep's clothing approach where compassionate-George has proclaimed that a developing fetus is a child whose rights trump those of the owner of the uterus it survives in. This time Karl Rove is in charge of training the people who go on television and radio to sway the nation towards eliminating birth control. The majority of voters believe in a woman's right to choose. Because of this, we will be hearing a different sort of argument. Women's groups that are going to be up front to counteract it must start preparing answers soon.
We are beginning to hear the following "talking points" expressed on late night/early morning Conservative-talk-shows, where it appears they are being tried out for effect. Letters to the editor pages now contain the buzz word, "abortion is the anti-civil rights." The Game's afoot. Are we prepared for it? How can these charges listed below be countered? How would you answer them? Ø Women who want a boy use abortion to stop a pregnancy that tests show is a girl. This is sex discrimination. Ø Women who have found that the fetus has a handicap such as Down^Òs syndrome use abortion to terminate it. This is discrimination against the handicapped. Ø Women discriminate against biological fathers of a fetus when they get an abortion without his agreement. This discriminates against men. Ø No "child" is as weak or helpless as a fetus yet women disregard this and have abortions. Ø It has been shown recently that small families and broken families do more harm to the environment than normal sized families because the earth must sustain more habitats. How can a woman justify terminating an unwanted pregnancy or suing for divorce and a separate household? http://www.danzigercartoons.com/cmp/2003/danziger1541.html The macho image, enhanced by war, which the Bushies have projected, is immensely attractive to male voters, especially Latinos. It appears that the Bushies have given up on attracting more women voters based on their increase in attacks on them. See a summary in "The War against Women": http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/opinion/12SUN1.html?pagewanted So once again the Rove agenda of divide and conquer comes into play to exacerbate the war between the genders for political gain. The ploy is to pit the ego of one against the emotions of the other. Lest we forget, it may be time to review why the choice of abortion must be kept available for women. LIZNOTES http://www.gate.net/~liz/liz/004.htm mirror site http://www.thelizlibrary.org/liz/004.htm SUNSHINE FOR WOMEN http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/abortion.html
2003-003
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The
Rovian arguments are predicated on a strong plank in the Liberal agenda
supported by most women - the hallmark of equal rights. Laws have been
passed and Liberals have professed belief that discrimination in all forms
is wrong and that all PEOPLE are created equal. Rove plans to make it women's
Achilles heel now that the fetus has been declared a "person."
