Republicans forgot that Susan B. Anthony was a socialist

by Joel Wendland

I was amused to learn this weekend that Republicans have organized a new group called The Susan B. Anthony List. No doubt a knock-off of the influential Emily's List, a political action committee dedicated to supporting the political campaigns of women to public office who support women's equality and a host of related issues.

The Susan B. Anthony List, as its website indicates, does the opposite. It will support women who specifically oppose women's reproductive rights.

So what's the connection to Susan B. Anthony? Anthony was among the preeminent feminist social activists of the 19th century, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Ida B. Wells, and many others. She was a staunch abolitionist as well as an advocate for voting rights for women.

Which, of course, makes the Republican campaign to link their opposition to reproductive rights to such a well-known advocate of equality so ironic and offensive.

Above all, however, is the apparently forgotten fact that Susan B. Anthony was also a socialist!

In an article celebrating Anthony's life and career, famed labor activist and serial Socialist Party president candidate Eugene V. Debs said, "she was a heroine in the highest sense and her name deserves a place among the highest on the scroll of the immortals."

Amusing: Republicans are celebrating the life of one of America's home-grown socialists.

More than half the world favors leaving abortion to individual choice

A survey released earlier this week by WorldPublicOpinion.org found that in "17 out of 18 nations polled around the world, majorities reject using criminal penalties, such as fines and imprisonment, as a means to prevent abortion."

52% of the people surveyed on four continents from Nigeria to France, Mexico to Indonesia approve of the idea of leaving abortion up to the individual.

23% agree that government's can used non-punitive methods to encourage choices other than abortion (including education, counseling and adoption).

Only 18% agree with the idea that fines or imprisonment or other punitive measures should be used.

In the U.S., the breakdown on these questions was 69%, 21%, 8%, suggesting that right-wing fanatics who support imprisoning doctors or women for making private health decisions or other government intervention in reproductive choice matters are in a global and national minority.

No woman should have to go without basic health care

From NARAL Pro-Choice America:

In 1970, this fundamental belief spurred a bipartisan coalition in Congress to set up a new program for low-income Americans, called the Title X ("ten") family-planning program.

Title X provides vital services, including pap smears, mammograms, and birth control to five million women and men every year. Family-planning services prevent unintended pregnancies and thus reduce the need for abortion. By investing in preventive health care, Title X saves taxpayers money in the long run.

Now, as our country faces a health-care crisis, anti-choice ideologues in Congress are trying to deny women access to this successful and proven program.

Click here to tell your member of Congress to fight back and fully fund Title X.

Right now, pro-family-plannning lawmakers outnumber our opponents in Congress, but by the very slimmest of margins. Last year, with new pro-choice leadership in Congress, we secured the first significant increase in Title X funding since President Bush took office, but anti-choice politicians aren't giving up.

Just last year, presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and other anti-choice senators tried to deny federal funding to health centers, including Title X clinics, that use their own privately raised dollars for abortion care (they lost). And McCain has voted to terminate the program altogether!

Help us launch the counterattack. Title X needs your help in the face of an onslaught by McCain and his far-right allies.

Programs like Title X should remind us all why it's so important to elect pro-choice leaders this November to beat back these attacks on family planning and invest in programs like Title X that so many women rely on.

Title X has been the cornerstone of our nation's family-planning services for nearly 40 years. By providing vital care, such as cancer screenings and STD treatment, it has undoubtedly saved lives. Let's return the favor by saving Title X. Click here to send a letter to your member of Congress today.

NARAL Endorses Obama

By Joel Wendland

Hopefully, the announcement today by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) of its endorsement of presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama will put to rest persistent but erroneous rumors started by some within the Clinton camp that Obama is bad on women's reproductive rights.

Of course the endorsement would have been much more helpful in avoiding some of the recent divisiveness if it had been made sooner.

The announcement reads in part:

We have been so fortunate to have two fully pro-choice candidates running for the Democratic nomination, and we praised both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama for their leadership in standing up for women's reproductive rights.

[...]

To win in November, NARAL Pro-Choice America will educate swing voters who can tip this election: Republican and Indepdendent women. And we cannot let one more day go by without comparing Sen. Obama's fully pro-choice record to Sen. McCain's anti-choice record.

On one hand, we have Sen. Obama—who has been a fully pro-choice ally from day one and whom women can trust.

And on the other hand, we have Sen. John McCain—who has gone even further than George W. Bush in his anti-choice rhetoric by directly calling for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.