Listen Up Dems: Repressive Societies Prioritize Controlling Women's Reproduction

Repressive Societies Prioritize Controlling Women's Reproduction

Anne of Carversville has tracked the Republican War on Women in-depth since 2007. The assault on women has gained huge momentum under Trump, and this 2007 essay written by Steven Conn, now the W.E Smith Professor of History at Miami University, is more relevant today than ever. 

Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico lit a bonfire among Democrats when he said earlier in August that abortion rights shouldn't be a "litmus test" for Democrats. 

Abortion rights activists including myself erupted, imploring leaders like Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, to remain defiant with the Democratic Party. Richards couldn’t be clearer on how wrong she thinks Luján is, telling Politico. “It’s a shocking sort of misunderstanding of actually where the country is … which is overwhelmingly supportive of abortion rights and also, who are the ground troops that kind of fuel the election of candidates.” 

“Fundamentally, perhaps [what] he’s missing is, people can distinguish between their own personal feelings and what they believe government or politicians should do. And people even in some of the most conservative areas of the country who may themselves personally say, ‘I would never choose to have an abortion,’ or, ‘That’s not something that’s right for me,’ also, absolutely do not believe politicians should be making decisions about pregnancy for women,” Richards argues. “I think he’s totally wrong and I’ll use every opportunity to convince him of that.”

The truth is that Trump and conservative Republicans are coming at women's body autonomy with a torch -- the same torches that burned in Charlottesville. The alt-right believes that women's essential purpose is to breed. The white supremacists want white babies and they are poised to insist Handmaiden style that they -- THE MEN -- have control over women's bodies. It's positively disgusting to understand that in the aftermath of Hillary's defeat, Democratic men want to bring the Blue Dog Southern Democrats back into the party -- when they would be far more conservative today than 50 years ago. 

Secret Service Debunks Trump Lawyer Jay Sekulow's Lie That They Should Have Vetted Trump Jr. Russians Meeting

In the blithering nonsense that rolls from tongues in Trumplandia, President Trump's personal lawyer had a new argument on the ever-changing Donald Trump Jr. meeting with the Russians, one he expressed on his marathon-man appearances on all five Sunday news talk shows.

Trump's lawyer Jay Sekulow argued that it was the fault of the US Secret Service that Donald Trump's Jr.'s mishap meeting happened in the first place -- b-e-c-a-u-s-e it was the responsibility of the Secret Service to vet the meeting with Russians at Trump Tower. Game over. 

The Secret Service quickly shot down the assertion, much as the Dept. of Homeland Security slammed Trump's assertion that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch had personally issued the US visa to Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya.

“Donald Trump, Jr. was not a protectee of the USSS in June, 2016. Thus we would not have screened anyone he was meeting with at that time,” Secret Service spokesman Mason Brayman said in a statement.

After the inauguration, Trump's kids do indeed have Secret Service protection, as they do Trump family deals all over the world. But there was none during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

Renee Rabinowitz Wins Case Over Ultra-Orthodox Demand That She Be Moved On El Al

Renee Rabinowitz was asked to switch seats on an El Al flight from Newark to Tel Aviv in 2015 because a strictly Orthodox male passenger did not want to sit next to her. CreditUriel Sinai for The New York Times

Women's rights in Israel have seen a steady erosion in recent decades, although there is no high-pitched debate around a liberal abortion policy in the country. In fact, about 97% of women who seek state financing for abortion are approved. Israel approves abortions as late as 40 weeks of pregnancy.

The most obvious erosion of women's rights in Israel centers around issues of religion and gender in public spaces. Now 83-year-old Renee Rabinowitz has won a critical court ruling, suing the strictly Orthodox male passenger who demanded that she be moved from her El Al aisle business-class seat when he boarded Flight 028 bound for Tel Aviv from Newark in December 2015. Strictly Orthodox Jewish men believe they are contaminated and tempted in the close proximity of women who are not their wives. 

Ms. Rabinowitz, who lived through traumatic days of the Nazis in Europe, moved reluctantly. But she landed in Israel determined to take action. This week a Jerusalem court ruled that gender segregation and the movement of passengers to accommodate gender discrimination was illegal on El Al. 

“This is a common story; it happens to many,” Anat Hoffman, the director of Israel Religious Action Center who represented Ms. Rabinowitz, said of the pressure on women to change seats. Ms. Hoffman called the verdict “a breath of fresh air” and compared Ms. Rabinowitz to the Israeli actress who starred in the movie “Wonder Woman.” “Like Gal Gadot, Renee has superpowers,” she said.