Life Links 11/5/07

Ann Friedman of Feministing recently attended a House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Mexico City policy. The Mexico City Policy (or called the Global Gag Rule by its opponents) prevents organizations which provide or promote abortion overseas from receiving U.S. tax dollars. She notes the lack of attendance from pro-choice members of the committee and says she was almost "retching" because Representative Chris Smith "went so far as to put ultrasound images up on the screens on either end of the room and draw our attention to ‘the child kicking, catapulting in the womb.'"

How dare he? We all know that ultrasound images are vile examples of inadmissible evidence.


In another Feministing post, Vanessa believes that Wisconsin legislation which attempts to prevent women from being coerced into abortion "nibbles away at choice." Apparently, asking women if they've been coerced into this abortion is an attempt to "persuade everyone else that women can't make their own decisions." Is this a pro-woman position or a pro-abortionist position?


David Sessions in Slate about how the evangelical crack up is "Not All It's Cracked Up To Be."


Fred Thompson isn't in favor of the Human Life Amendment. What is the deal with the putting-young-girls-in-jail line at the end of the clip?


Ramesh Ponnuru takes down Gary Wills' abortion essay in the LA Times. Wills' essay which is filled with almost an unbelievable amount of ignorance and is worthy of so many blog posts. The best part is when he uses the thoughts of Aquinas (who, because of no fault of his own, had almost no knowledge of embryology) to defend a position on personhood while claiming evangelicals don't want to hear from embryologists. Embryologists don't give evangelicals the answers we want to hear? Evangelicals want to exclude embryologists? Under which rock has Wills been living? Maybe I've been missing something but I see quotes from embryology textbooks on prolife web sites (like my own side bar) fairly often. I can't recall the last time I saw an embryology textbook quoted on a pro-choice site.


Amanda Marcotte admits the Fox News documentary on abortion was "okay" but clings to her paranoid theory "that Fox was trying to promote stereotypes of who gets abortions was pretty accurate." Basically, Amanda thinks Fox News tried really hard to find stereotypical women but messed up because one of the women defied the stereotype which Amanda thinks Fox News was trying to fit her in. Why Fox News didn't leave their supposedly failed stereotype clips on the cutting room floor isn't mentioned.

Tags: abortion, gary wills