CA Congresswoman gives amazing speech about her own abortion to the Senate
By Lina CanneyFebruary 18th, 2011, 1:13 pmComments (41)
Democratic, Californian Congresswoman Jackie Speier, well, how to put it? She kicked some serious ass on the Senate floor yesterday while discussing whether or not Planned Parenthood should be stripped of their federal funding. She was so moved by the debate, she discarded her prepared speech and said:
"You know, I had really planned to speak about something else, but the gentleman from New Jersey has just put my stomach in knots, because I'm one of those women he spoke about just now. I had a procedure at seventeen weeks, pregnant with a child that had moved from the vagina into the cervix. [...] I lost a baby. For you to stand on this floor and suggest that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcome or done cavalierly or done without any thought, is preposterous. [...] There is a vendetta against Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has a right to operate, Planned Parenthood has a right to offer abortions, last time you checked, abortions were legal in this country. You may not like Planned Parenthood; so be it. There's many on our side of the aisle that don't like Halliburton [...] but do you see us filing amendments to wipe out funding for Halliburton? No, because frankly that would be irresponsible."
Holy crap. What can you even say about that speech? The clenched fist she yielded the whole time? All I know is that I have a new role model, who I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley after talking shit about abortions.
Commentarium (41 Comments)
Great. It's the 70s all over again. Do those antichoice assholes not remember what things were like before abortion was legal?
This asshole remembers that abortion was legal in some states and not in others.
What does federal funding for abortions have to do with choice?
You got all the choice in the world, the law says you can have an abortion, just do it on your own dime.
Then just maybe people will stop using abortion as birth control.
Spoken like a true Conservative! Who does not give a damn about Women, Minorities or the Poor! Well done!
Where are these droves of women using abortion as birth control? I've certainly never met them.
I would love to see 'BADD' back up his argument that people use abortion as birth control.
Or, more to the point, what does this bill have to do with federal funding funding of abortions? The federal funding Planned Parenthood receives can't be used to perform abortions under existing law. This bill cuts funding for family planning and reproductive health services.
"This bill cuts funding for family planning and reproductive health services." Which is the real issue, thank you KS. People forget the diverse number of medical and emotional supports PP provides just by the fact that it's secular and caters to everybody from all walks of sexual life. I'm ethically pro-life but that doesn't mean I can't understand the value of accessible sexual health care in general. People formally against Planned Parenthood are welcome to start their own Sexual Health clinics to actually deal with their issues instead of just whining about them.
Anyone care to explain how a pregnancy moves from the
'vagina to the cervix?
' Total crap.
Publius, consider the possibility that you might not know everything there is to know about all the complications that can arise from pregnancy. There is an endless amount of things that can go wrong. And right, for that matter.
I repeat: Anyone care to explain how a pregnancy moves from the "vagina to the cervix?" Ectopic pregnancy, sure, but that's not what's explained here. An egg doesn't implant in the vagina. Total crap but go ahead lilhuna, explain away.
Yeah, that line about the pregnancy moving from the vagina to the cervix doesn't make any sense at all. I think she was a little confused. An ectopic pregnancy is when the fertilized egg implants outside of the womb, typically within the fallopian tubes. Ectopic pregnancies are basically always terminated, since it can easily kill whoever's pregnant. I think she misspoke.
Could be, K, but you've got to hate that we have pinheads like that in important policy making positions.
Of the abortions reported in 1999 to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 26.2% of women who aborted had experienced one previous abortion; 11.2% had two previous abortions, and 7.5% had three or more previous abortions.
The situation may be even worse than this, because the reports that U.S. states make to the CDC are voluntary, and the largest abortion state, California, does not report. Forty-six states do report, and this led to a total count of 861,789 legal induced abortions in 1999. That means that in one year, by the most conservative data available, 64,634 abortions were performed on women who had had three or more previous abortions, or 224,000 women had more than one abortion.
That is considered using abortion as birth control.
@Publius, I know. I was disappointed.
@BADD- Your stats are outdated.
@Lisa and Lot-As a current teenager in high school, I can think of a few girls who graduated last year who used abortions to terminate their pregnancies multiple times throughout school when they were irresponsible during sex. This was the class that also had eight births in one year in a class of less than 200.
Instead of just funding abstinent-education sex ed, there needs to serious discussion about birth control because statistically, about half of teenagers are having sex! Even though I'm a virgin, I'm still very informed about my body and birth control, STDs, etc. because I want to prevent having to make such a wrenching decision if something were to go wrong once I finally have sex.
How many of those abortions were for health reasons? In cases of rape or incest?
I'm a liberal and I don't think the government should spend one dime funding abortion. People need to take responsibility for their actions, dammit. Pretty soon you'll want the government to come over and wipe your ass too.
Federal funding for abortions have been illegal since 1976, so this has nothing to do with funding for abortions. This is about taking away ALL reproductive health services away from poor women, prenatal care, cancer screening, birth control, EVERYTHING. So if poor people try, as you suggest, to take responsibility for their actions and get on birth control before having sex, this law prevents them from doing that. Since the GOP types tend to prefer young boys as sexual partners, this is not particularly surprising.
Oh, shit! Owned!
America is funny. Thank you all so much.
Yea, Lib, like how dare rape victims have an abortion on your dime. And don't get me started on those victims of incest.
On a serious note most of the money Planned Parenthood gets is to prevent pregnancies, which can lower the number of abortions that occur. If people really wanted to prevent abortions they would help fund places like Planned Parenthood.
A total non-sequitar. Planned Parenthood was started by Margaret Sanger who believed minorities shouldn't reproduce. So go ahead and support PP, you bigots.
ME, that's absolutely the most retarded thing I've heard. The percentage of these abortions that are used for rape or incest is probably single digit percentages. For you to use shock values like that as a justification for funding them is typical propagandist bullshit.
@Ryan: Once again-most of the money that PP gets goes towards PREVENTING unwanted pregnancies. As previously posted,
"Federal funding for abortions have been illegal since 1976, so this has nothing to do with funding for abortions. This is about taking away ALL reproductive health services away from poor women, prenatal care, cancer screening, birth control, EVERYTHING."
"Typical propagandist bullshit" is more along the lines of people like you thinking that PP does nothing but perform abortions.
The speech was to the House of Representatives, not the Senate. She's a U.S. Representative, not a Senator.
The author may have a new role model but that role model is an incoherent boob.
This will never pass. Cancer screenings, STD checks, contraceptives for low income women.. it's never getting taken away. Besides, where do those Republican lawmakers think their mistresses go to take care of business when they get the Clap or the Herp, or their illegitimate children. Oh, ignorant, stupid men.
Lots of it will be taken away - rightfully so - when Obamacare is eviscerated. When did it become my responsibility to pay for another's STD checks?
You already pay for a lot of medical procedures for people you probably don't like: it's called Medicare and Medicaid.
Very true, Tacks PayErr, but the issue here is not the same as Medicaid or Medicare. Why should I pay for a racist, bigoted organization like PP to provide services such as abortions, STD checks, etc?
*When did it become my responsibility to pay for another's STD checks?*
When did it become my responsibility to build a water park in Iraq?
Yes. It happened. Suck it.
@Pubulius2001, believe it or not, you also have the right to get those free, confidential STD checks. If you are a sexually active person, it's just the responsible thing to do, considering that 1 in 4 people contract an STD in their lives, and up to half of those people don't even show symptoms. It's because of PP that STDs are being taken treated.
I agree with you, J. It became our responsibility to fund a war that has provided our country with a trillion dollars of debt--spending up to 1.8 billion dollars a WEEK.
PP isn't spending 1.8 billion dollars a week on anything. The amount of federal funding that goes to PP is so small, compared to so many other things people could be outraged about.
Publius, bullshit. A "racist, bigoted organization"? Don't fucking talk because of the ideals of the founder of the organization. Put down some solid proof that the majority of people running/working for the organization TODAY are like that or shut your ignorant mouth.
"Since the GOP types tend to prefer young boys as sexual partners,"
What a complete steaming pile of crap...
Don't get too upsest, FKTRD. Among the left, that passes as wit.
Hey, Lib, why don't you overthrow the government and put yourself in power?
I bet you would repeal funding for education, too. Let them pay their own god damned way. And by the way why don't we make these god damned kids work. I'm sick of lookin' at them.
I was talking to Lib, of course and not for myself above.
To all you who want to take planned parenthood away, I am one of the people that they helped. I found out that I had ovarian cancer because I wasn't able to afford insurance at the time of diagnosis, and thus was unable to go to a gynecological oncologist and went to planned parenthood instead. Without providing the services they did, I would be dead by now. So, if you think that this whole debate for planned parenthood is just to get rid of abortions, think about all the people that planned parenthood actually helps, including yours truly. Let me emphasize that I did not go in the case of abortion, and for that matter, I am not part of the larger groups of people that usually use planned parenthood (poor and minority groups). Check the facts of what planned parenthood actually does, and appreciate that there are far FEWER abortions and unwanted children because of the services and education they provide, as well as screening for people like me. I want to live just as much as you do, and taking away this service may cost thousands of lives, as well as leave STDS and other cancers untreated. Do you really think that this is fair? Nope, didn't think so.
Help, I've been informed and I can't boceme ignorant.
Now you say something