Tonight, Bush will announce his nominee for the
Supreme Court seat recently vacated by Sandra Day O’Connor. Those who
believe in women’s rights are dreading the decision, as the nominee is
unlikely to be friendly towards a woman’s right to privacy and abortion
rights. The debate over abortion is seen as a virulent division across
the country, a primary fissure in the “culture war.” If you see the
division, though, as 50-50, or Republican vs. Democrat, you’re wrong.
The truth is that the people believe in women’s rights. The other truth
is that the Democratic Party has failed miserably in fighting for
women’s rights and is hardly the pro-choice friend that it once seemed
to be.
Instances are increasing in which women, rushing to
the pharmacy for Emergency Contraception (EC), are denied the drug by
the pharmacist. There are reports of women who have needed surgical
procedures because a pharmacist made the decision not to supply the
drug. It’s one thing when right-wing Christians lobby for pro-life
causes, it’s another when an ignorant fundamentalist who works in a drug
store decides for you what pills he’ll allow you to take. It doesn’t
take much imagination to think about where this could lead – how will
this pharmacist act when he has to fill a bottle for an AIDS patient?
What if his primitive superstitions say that homosexuality is a sin,
making him unable to fill it? Surely that can’t be legal. Surely he
should get fired.
Not according to John Kerry. John Kerry was the
main Democratic supporter of the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which
allows pharmacists to exercise their “conscience clause” when filling
prescriptions. Ultra right wing groups are now encouraging supporters
to take jobs as pharmacists so they can put the health of their
customers in jeopardy. Thank the “second most liberal Senator” when
instead of receiving the medication your doctor prescribed, you are
called a “whore” or “baby killer” and made to search elsewhere.
What can you expect when the party Minority Leader,
Harry Reid, has continuously fought against abortion rights? He has
voted to ban abortions on military bases and can be expected to be on
the wrong side when the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act comes
to the Senate (which makes it illegal for a non-parent to transport a
female minor across state lines to get an abortion.) Democrats have
been supporting these types of legislation, many of which require
parental notification if the woman is under 18. It doesn’t bother them
how many young women choose to risk their lives in illegal abortion
procedures rather than face their parent’s wrath. Nor does it bother
them that a young woman who was raped by her father can’t have access to
an abortion (there has been at least one similar case). A staggering
number of Democrats in the House (54) voted for the Child Interstate
Abortion Notification Act.
Why are the Democrats fighting so little when so
much is at stake? Many of them will tell you that they have to be more
centrist to be viable, that they have to compromise. It is not the
anti-choice crusaders, though, who have the support of the people.
According to a Pew Research Center poll taken last year, 58% oppose
making it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion (that’s more
than who currently approve of Bush’s handling of the War in Iraq).
Barely over a third favored more restrictions.
Bush’s announcement tonight is not just scary
because of this ultraconservative administration that has an abysmal
record on civil liberties. It is not just scary because the GOP
controls the house and the senate. It is scary because a majority of
the people is represented by an impotent minority; it is scary because
we can now add abortion and women’s rights to the quickly growing list
of issues on which the Democratic Party has betrayed the people.