Women would be alarmed if they could see what President Bush and the far right wing of the Republican Party have in store for them.
Both Pro-Life AND Pro-Choice advocates don't have a clue as to what radical, extreme right-wing, ultra conservative legislation may and most likely will be enacted if Bush is re-elected.
The rights of both Pro-Choice advocates who advocate their right to abortion will see abortion made illegal, just as it was in the 1950's when women had to subject themselves to back-alley abortions or fly off to Sweden to obtain an abortion. This will happen within the first two years of the new Bush Administration after he has had the opportunity to appoint two or three new Supreme Court Justices and hundreds of ultra conservative Federal Judges that will "make new laws", for the people, and for "God".
One would think that the Pro-Life advocates will be ecstatic about this development. They will be ecstatic initially, until they realize that they have been snookered and that the Pro-Life extremists have taken the legislation so far off to the extreme right that we are almost embracing the types of draconian laws that exist in Muslim, theocratic countries.
The real surprise will come to the advocates of the Pro-Life position, which wants abortion illegal except in the case of rape and incest or danger to the life of the mother. These exceptions will be legislated away at the behest of the Catholic Church and Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christians which donate millions to the Presidential aspirations of any politician that advocates strict Roman Catholic, anti-abortion, pro-life positions which date back to the Middle Ages when the Catholic Church ruled most of the Holy Roman Empire.
President Bush today announced a faith based health care plan based on the tenets of the Popes' Roman Catholic Church doctrine. It is a plan for Federal employees and fully supported and encouraged by Bush and his ultra-right wing henchmen of gray-haired, elderly, Caucasian, wealthy, mainly Southern radicalized conservative. If you don't believe me you can read the front-page article in the 9/25/04 issue of the New York Times. "Federal Health Plans to Include One Shaped by Catholic Tenets"
The article, which should alarm any woman, states that "The Bush administration has broken new ground in its "faith-based" initiative, this time by offering federal employees a Catholic health plan that specifically excludes payment for contraceptives, abortion, sterilization and artificial insemination." It goes on to state "The new plan, "..is part of a $1 billion project seeking to involve religious organizations in all types of federal social programs"..it is sponsored by OSF Health, a unit of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis".and is one of the first to be marketed as "faith -based".
This means that women who become pregnant through the violent act of rape or incest will no longer have access to health care benefits of any kind for abortion related health services. The baby will have to be born. Whether you are a 13 year old girl sexually abused and raped by a close relative or whether or not you are a 35 year old woman brutally raped by stranger, or whether or not you are a 20 year old college coed date-raped, if you become pregnant, the pregnancy will have to come to term for a full 9 months and the "loving, cherished Life" will be yours to keep.
Eventually, even a dire threat to a women's life in the last week of the 9th month of pregnancy will not legally permit the saving of the mother's life. All of this will be done under the guise of "Family Values".
Yes, "Family Values". It has such a nice ring to it. "Family Values" conjures up visions of the old TV shows, "Father Knows Best" and "Leave It To Beaver"---a mother and father married forever; three perfect children in perfect health who always obey; a nice house in the suburbs with the best schools; 4th of July and Memorial Day picnics in the backyard; and the American flag waving from the front porch. "Family Values Day" will undoubtedly be made a Federal Holiday where we all take time off to celebrate "Life".
The consequences of this will be an explosion of the birthrate of poor African American, Latino American, and illegal Mexican immigrants who won't be able to afford an abortion here in the United States and who won't be able to travel to Sweden or Western Europe to obtain one. As in many Third World countries, this population explosion of poor, destitute families converts into votes, votes, votes for the ruling party that controls their minds and their religious fervor. Mind manipulation is back in vogue in America .
One should take note that this new, faith-based Federal health care plan also has a prohibition against all payment for contraceptive and birth control prescriptions and services as well as fertility services for couples having trouble conceiving. I can only surmise that the ultra conservative, right wing, religious based wing of the Republican elders want to make sure all sex results in a pregnancy and all pregnancies result in a birth. They undoubtedly would like to make illegal any and all means of fertility help for couples wanting to become parents but having difficulty conceiving or maintaining a pregnancy. Everything will be "God's will"----from the most advanced nation on earth.
This certainly proves the point when people in the know say that President Bush doesn't believe in Science. It's also ironic that Senator John Kerry, a Catholic, has (in spite of his personal, moral feelings against abortion) the common sense to espouse "separation of Church and State". He is a man of principal to keep his religion out of this campaign since he realizes that HIS religion doesn't represent ALL the American people.
You might say, "what ever happened to separation of Church and State." You must be dreaming. President Bush's Agenda for America is to meld the two together into a strict Christian/Catholic theocratic Federal Government that will control every aspect of our moral "Family Values", as set forth by the Federal Government.
With President Bush's push to push small business to group together to get small business group health care plans its conceivable that we could find that some groups of small businesses will ban together and offer only Catholic based Federal health care plans, or only Methodist Federal health care plans, or only Calvinist Federal health care plans. Birth control, contraception, planned parenthood advice, and yes, ALL abortions will become a thing of the past.
Could it be in ten years that you will be forced to join a religion not of your choice just in order to obtain health care insurance offered by your employer? Nothing is out of the realm of the possibilities once George Bush is re-elected.
Once the Pro-Life/Pro-Choice issue is settled by the far right wing, ultra conservatives, women will find that they no longer have the right to sue in court for sexual harassment in the workplace. This legislation will be tacked on the elimination of "Junk and Frivolous Lawsuits" that President Bush claims he wants to enact to curtail medical malpractice suits. The term "junk and frivolous lawsuits" is merely a code word for legislation that will strip women of the right to sue for sexual discrimination, sexual harassment, and wage discrimination" in the workplace. This is going to be the "Agenda For America". It has such a nice ring to it----"Agenda for America "---as the throngs of idiots cheer, scream, roar, laugh, applaud and wave their little American flags at Bush's campaign rallies. Read the smirk on his face and watch his nervous twitches and strange mannerisms----and you will see the real man behind this man.
And of course, George Bush wants your husband, your son, your brother, and your uncle. He wants them for the so-called "ultimate sacrifice" in a war that has become a quagmire and a "catastrophic success". It has the possibility of becoming a major Middle East conflagration, another Vietnam , that will claim tens of thousands of American lives. If I were a woman I would be alarmed, to say the least. Yes, Bush is decisive, determined and strong----even so he didn't look so decisive, determined and strong when he was reading "My Pet Goat" when the World Trade Center was under attack. He is also nuts.
Anything is possible when we elect a man who brags about being a born again Christian and who wears a Bible on his sleeve but who won't come clean as to his past cocaine sniffing, alcohol drinking, partying, aggressive/abusive behavior, and his lackluster, suspect military record for the privileged son of an ex-President. This is a President who lost the popular vote by 500,000 votes and who may not have even really won the electoral vote if a full recount of Florida has been permitted to proceed without the interference of Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida Republican Secretary of State and the Florida Supreme Court.
America is off on a new direction and American women should beware.
James Boyne
James Boyne is a regular contributor to www.opednews.com.
Read other articles by James Boyne at his Article Archive
