Conservatives Strike Blow Against Women and Civil Rights in Their Campaign to Restore the Values of the 1700s [173*9]

THE 10/28/2012 ARTICLE BEGINS - "(CNN) -- Texas won another battle against Planned Parenthood this week." What followed was a report regarding a ruling denying Planned Parenthood's challenge to a Texas law denying them State funding that use to be supplied by Medicaid.

Image, in 2012, an American State doing battle with an organization, and those affiliated with it, whose sole purpose is to help disadvantaged women with health problems! Worse yet, to have a Federal Court go along with it. This sad state of affairs is easier to understand, of course, when you realize the state is Texas and the federal court is the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, both dominated by conservatives, and the fact that one of the multitude of services offered by Planned Parenthood is abortion counselling. Knowing this, it all makes sense now, given the history of conservative opposition to advances in civil rights from the abolition of slavery to a woman's right to vote to their on-going opposition to equal opportunity and affirmative action, and yes, public funding of woman's health care counselling regarding family planning because it includes an abortion option.

Conservatives believe so strongly in this that, in Texas, Governor Perry, a stand-in for Governor Romney, went so far as to first " ... give up funding from Washington and run the Women's Health Program itself. ..." and then " ... adopt a rule that required clinics funded by the program to certify they do not perform abortions or are not affiliates of entities that perform abortions." (Medicaid provided the funding to Texas' Women's Health Program until Texas chose not to accept Medicaid support any longer in order to impose their will on the poor women of Texas.) This is what Planned Parenthood had challenged and just lost on appeal. As a consequence, the disadvantaged women of Texas no longer have access to abortions, or, if they do, it is now extremely difficult and costly; just the way conservatives want it.

Concerning the ruling of the 5th Circuit, Perry said,

"Today's ruling affirms yet again that in Texas the Women's Health Program has no obligation to fund Planned Parenthood and other organizations that perform or promote abortion. In Texas we choose life, and we will immediately begin defunding all abortion affiliates to honor and uphold that choice,"

This means, of course, if you don't like my moral code, get out of Texas, because, if you don't have money, you lose your liberty to choose your own moral code; you are automatically cast as a second-class citizen.

Did you know that it was only in 1964, with the passage of the Civil Rights Act that the words,

"WE hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men [and Women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...."

... were finally instantiated in law (and later backed up by Supreme Court decisions) to insure their FULL meaning, and not to apply just to the white, male, Protestant, property owners who were the only Americans for whom they originally meant? (BTW, take note that Jefferson included the words "among these", meaning there are more than the big three, and that "unalienable" was originally "inalienable". I just learned that either Congress or the person who wrote the final, official copy changed the spelling, nobody knows.)

In any case, conservatives, whether they be Democrats or Republicans, and progressives, again, whether they be Democrats or Republicans, continue to do battle, with one side trying to push back the gains made over the last century or so, as in the Texas case, while the other side tries to maintain what they have gained and possibly gain more.

Which side are you on?

5/19/2013: I WASN'T SURE WHICH HUB TO PUT THIS IN, so this one was the winner. Here is a wonderful summary of how I think Conservatives view the role of women in today's society ... from a recent 700 Club TV episode:

Pat Robertson, the network's 83-year-old founder, was not condoning adultery when he answered a viewer's question on "The 700 Club" this week, the network said.

The viewer said she was having difficulty forgiving her husband for cheating. Robertson said the “secret” was to “stop talking about the cheating. He cheated on you. Well, he’s a man. OK.”

Robertson went on to suggest the woman focus on why she had married her husband and whether he provided for her needs and those of their children, adding, “Is he handsome? Start focusing on these things and essentially fall in love all over again.”

“Males have a tendency to wander a little bit. And what you want to do is make a home so wonderful he doesn’t want to wander.”

I doubt it ever crossed Robertson's mind to wonder why the husband married the wife or that the husband even has a responsibility toward the wife beyond the two he mentions. And you wonder why the stereotype lives on?