Aug
12
In part 2 of Wendy Norris’ Colorado Independent piece about Amendment 48, there is a striking bit of history that I had never known:
Colorado has played a prominent role in the abortion debate since 1967, when the state was the first in the nation to legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life.
Considering the dearth of places in which to obtain an abortion in the state right now, it was really surprising.
This part is incredibly sobering, and shows the true intent of the amendement. Even though the wording had to be changed in order to comply with our state’s one-issue-per-amendment rule, the intent is to ban both abortion and contraception/contraception access in our state. Period.
As I said in the comment to the post below, I would love to hear more moderate voices about this issue. For some reason, people who are willing to talk about this issue are ceding the debate to people like Colorado Right to Life, which definitely isn’t as benign an organization as it sounds.
I urgew all my fellow Coloradoans to read all four articles in the series. Read them carefully, and remember them when you go to vote in November.
There aren’t any. The militant anti-choice movement has positioned itself as the sole spokesthing for anyone with qualms about abortion or contraception, and they actively discourage the participation of any voice that could be seen as moderate. It’s as if PETA and ALF had managed to subvert the Humane Society and become the only voices for animal welfare.
Or if ALF changed their name to, say, “Americans for the rights of fluffy bunnies”. It’s not quite their actual agenda, but it makes people feel less threatened. Until they’re in the news about a clinic bombing, or harrassing yet another abortion provider – or, say, picketing the newest branch of Planned Parenthood until people are afraid of going in – they sound so pretty. So benign.
And I’d argue that PETA, at least, has almost accomplished drowning out the Humane Society, at least here in the US.