Redstate

Posted at 1:11pm on Mar. 19, 2006 Nation's first anti-coercion abortion bill introduced in Michigan

By Rachel

From Diaries.

This Thursday, Michigan women legislators introduced the Coercive Abortion Prevention Act in order to prevent what they say is a neglected type of domestic abuse.  Under this legislation, abortion clinic staff would have to screen women to determine whether they had been coerced into having an abortion.  If it were determined that a woman was choosing abortion as a result of "continued and repeated harassment or intimidation," a 24-hour waiting period would be instituted and the woman would be referred to a domestic violence agency.

Importantly, the bills would also punish this coercion with jail time and/or fines.  A brief piece about this story from the Lansing State Journal can be found here.

The Coercive Abortion Prevention Act is supported by Michigan Right to Life and Feminists for Life, who say that "There is nothing pro-choice about no choice."

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Posted at 2:18am on Jan. 20, 2006 Feminists for Life, NYCLU, and the pregnant teacher

By Rachel

From the diaries...

Michelle McCusker was fired from her job teaching pre-K at the St. Rose of Lima School in Rockaway Beach in Queens after she told her principal that she was pregnant and intended to keep her baby but not marry the father.  The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint on her behalf with the EEOC for gender discrimination--since only women can become pregnant, only women can be charged with violating the prohibition against premarital sex.

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Posted at 12:48am on Jan. 12, 2006 Pawlenty's latest education proposal

By Rachel

I wrote an earlier diary about Q-Comp, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty's idea to introduce merit pay for teachers as a way to support student learning.  I haven't caught anything about Q-Comp in the headlines since August, but a friend of mine is in administration in an inner-ring suburb of Minneapolis and tells me that many districts are signing up.

As far as I understand this program, I support it and applaud Pawlenty's efforts to improve education and incentivize student performance.  He has a new idea that I am not so wild about: requiring districts to spend at least 70% of their budgets on classroom expenses, the latest reincarnation of last year's failed plan to mandate at least 65% of the money go to classrooms.

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Posted at 7:49pm on Nov. 17, 2005 Feminists for Life and the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Bill

By Rachel

From the diaries. Not all the important fights make the front page of the Post - and this is a perfect examples. Kudos to FFL. - Krempasky

I wanted to take a minute to highlight some recent happenings in the fight for unborn children.  The Elizabeth Cady Stanton Pregnant and Parenting Students Act of 2005 was recently introduced by Elizabeth Dole and Melissa Hart.  The efforts of Feminists for Life's college outreach were instrumental in bringing this bill about.

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Posted at 10:30pm on Aug. 18, 2005 A new educational idea from Pawlenty

By Rachel

Mark this down as the first time I've said something positively glowing about my former Governor.  From today's Star Tribune:

Passed in the last legislative session, Q-Comp, or Quality Compensation, would modify the system of pay based on seniority and education level. Instead, teachers' pay raises would be paid based in part on their performance.

But, Pawlenty said, Q-Comp is more than that.

A document developed by the state Education Department outlines a plan that would revamp the system itself, with master teachers coaching resident teachers, lead teachers paid on a par with school principals and days that allow for greater collaboration.

All of it, Pawlenty said, is geared toward developing a system that teaches smarter and produces children who learn better. The pay, he said, provides the incentives for it all.

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Posted at 7:37pm on Jul. 23, 2005 Dean suggests expanding the tent to include pro-life Dems

By Rachel

Newsday.com had an interesting little article about Dean's take on what the Democrats need to do regarding their platform on abortion.

Dean did not mention the looming confirmation hearings. He discussed the abortion debate after a student questioned why the party was supporting Bob Casey Jr., a Pennsylvania Democrat challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Rick Santorum.

The chairman tried to draw a distinction between Casey and Santorum, even though both men oppose abortion rights.

"You have to respect people's positions of conscience," said Dean. "I think Bob Casey's position is a position of conscience."

What, if anything, does this mean for the bigger picture of drastically reducing the incidence of abortion in this country?  Is this one example of a larger trend toward recognizing and protecting all people, regardless of where they're at developmentally?  It seems to me like it might be.

Granted, it's probably impossible for me to talk one way or the other about the Left's abortion opinion trends, because the particular dilemma of the pro-life Democrat has only caught my attention strongly during the last year or so.

But I see signs.

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Posted at 12:12am on Jun. 24, 2005 Dean on the Daily Show

By Rachel

Since I can't do a Redhot, I just wanted to give a heads-up that Howard Dean is the guest of honor on the Daily Show tonight.  Will he do damage control?  Will he go further?  This should give you some good material to work with...

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Posted at 7:30pm on Jun. 4, 2005 First diary--abortion "complications"

By Rachel

    This is partly a thank-you note to the redstate community and partly a discussion of a topic that's come to be very important to me.  I've been a liberal (or left-wing, or progressive, or Democrat--one thing I've gotten from my time at redstate is a strong tendency to question labels) my whole life.  This diary does contain some liberal talking points, though it's also from a conservative position on abortion, so I'm hoping it will be acceptable.  I'm a Christian, a teacher, and a wife.  I'm a feminist--though not what some people apparently think of when they hear that word.  I've been a member of Amnesty International since I was 13 years old and paying dues with my babysitting money, and I'm not about to throw the baby out with the bathwater now.  I'm in favor of strong environmental protections and increased educational funding (along with increased accountability).  I'm against "tort reform" and the death penalty. For most of my life, I was pro-choice--though that has changed.

    I wasn't pro-choice because I thought abortion was the killing of a human being and I was okay with that as long as no one already born was inconvenienced.  I was pro-choice because I didn't think a fertilized egg/embryo/fetus was the same thing as a person.  That wasn't so much a rational conclusion I arrived at, but rather an idea I internalized almost accidentally.  

        The first thing that gave me a flicker of doubt about that was ironically a liberal ethics class that I took in college in which we discussed the morality of abortion.  "Discussion" may be the wrong word, though, because the professor was the only person even attempting to present both sides.  It occurred to me that if all the expressed opinions could be easily summed up by bumper stickers, something was very wrong.  The second thing was all the stories of micro-preemies surviving even though they were born at gestational ages where abortion was still legal.  This struck me as vaguely creepy, and I came to the conclusion that I personally wouldn't get an abortion, but I still didn't like the idea of putting that into law.

    Abortion continued to kick around in the back of my brain during subsequent years.  One thing that kept it so far to the back may have been the idea that this happens all the time and the thought that it could be murder, then, was very nearly inconceivable.  The thing that really pushed me over the edge away from being pro-choice was spending time on this site and reading various intelligent posts and diaries that outlined the pro-life position beyond the bumper-sticker points.  For that, I'm very grateful to Thomas and many others of you.  Though I won't say that I'm entirely convinced that a fertilized egg is indeed a human being, I can say that I think that it probably is, and that further where there is uncertainty the only humane error to risk making must be that error that favors life.

    I don't think the terrible magnitude of abortion was the only thing that made me so resistant to the pro-life position, though.  Why did it take me so long to get here?  Why am I still very uncomfortable applying the pro-life label to myself?

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