Next Monday I’ll be in Washington D.C. to moderate a panel for the Feminism 2.0 conference called “Roe’s Safe: Now What?” As you can imagine, that title, which was deliberately chose to be a little provocative, has been effective at that goal, and there’s some concerns that it’s a misleading title expressed in comments. I want to clarify that I wrote that title because I believe that the public at large thinks that the issue of reproductive rights is a done thing with Obama in office—-he’ll appoint some justices who are pro-choice, the balance will stay 5-4 for the foreseeable future, so the issue is done, right?
Not by a long shot, and the childish behavior being exhibited by Republican congress critters and the conservative base right now shows why this issue isn’t going away any time in the future. I just put up a post about it at RH Reality Check, which I recommend reading because I get to say “doing it” a lot, but I don’t think writing that completely purged my system of the need to make fun of conservative idiots who are using the “OMG people are FUCKING” card to stop this economic stimulus package. The rationale is weak—-of the $825 billion that Congress wishes to spend on economic stimulus, $87 billion will go to states to shore up their Medicaid budgets. A percentage of that will cover women who are on the birth control pill. Now, these are all going to be women who were already on the pill, and it’s just to make sure that states don’t go bankrupt because they continue to offer services they’re already providing. Grown-ups can see how this works, and grown-ups realize that preventing unintended pregnancy is a legitimate government service, especially in an economic downturn, when women are less able to afford abortion or the excessive costs of having a baby. That’s the grown-up reaction.
Then there’s the wingnut reaction: