All Abortion Legislation, All the Time?

By Sarah Seltzer May 9, 2011

For a brief while, it seemed like the unending cascade of legislation that together comprise what many of us have been calling the “GOP War on Women” had slowed down from a torrent to a trickle.

But then the House brought back and passed H.R. 3, the bill that was the opening salvo in this assault, with its “forcible rape” and “let women die” clauses and its essential guarantee that insurance of all kinds, public or private, will stop covering abortion. Some may remember the bill as the one vehemently opposed by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the new (and Jewish) Democratic National Committee chair.

While the Senate is unlikely to pass the bill, and President Obama has even threatened a veto, the cumulative effect of these assaults and retreats is a gradual siphoning away of abortion rights, until they’re basically rights in name only. Washington, D.C. and South Dakota’s women have both suffered major blows in the last few months.

The priority of many Republican legislators seems clear, even as current events and concerns fluctuate: Restrict Roe above all else. Even as much of the GOP has had to back away from its plan to end Medicare as we know it, and even as the aftermath of the Bin Laden death made all political posturing seem, for a brief moment, petty and unseemly, they continued their crusade against women’s bodily autonomy.

Watch Nancy Pelosi’s speech in which she clearly and eloquently voices her opposition to H.R. 3:

Meanwhile, ThinkProgress put a clip reel together showing GOP talking points evolving from jobs to all abortion, all the time.

Watch it here:

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO