More on Plan B

From someone on another forum (I asked permission before quoting him.)

One thing the right knows to do is when they have an issue that's important to them, they go balls to the wall, no retreat, no compromise, all hands on deck, all fronts, add your own cliche.

When they do that they start a hundred fires. Most of them get snuffed but some don't and at the end of the day - even at the cost of overreach and looking crazy and/or stupid - they have advanced their cause.

It's changing slowly, but too many Dems - and not-batshit-insane-Americans in general - act as if we're dealing with sane people who whom we share good faith and a common interest in the general welfare. We aren't. They are the political equivalent of a fucking Terminator.

"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever."

I don't know what kind of strategy you can adopt to both defeat people like that AND strengthen what little remains of our Constitutional republic and participatory democracy. Maybe there isn't one.

I thought it was a good illustration at what is happening in the United States, how the political landscape is shifting, inexorably it seems, to the right.

I'm disgusted by how people in many so called liberal communities are reacting.

--- Well, yeah, the FDA said it was safe for all ages, but you know, the FDA has fucked up recently a few times and.... And that is exactly what the Bush administration did, over and over: ignore the science, and if you can't, attack the scientific agency or the scientists.

--- My daughter will get Plan B is she needs it! The "Fuck you, I've got mine" attitude. I'm so fond of that. If every girl in the US has parents she could talk to, or a trusted relative etc, maybe this would not as big an issue.

--- Well, an 11 year old should talk to someone before... Yeah, she should. If she can. And she will, since a pharmacist has to dispense Plan B. But more importantly, 11 year old make up 10% of the people we're talking about. So using the OMG, 11 years olds buying plan B!!! scare thing is just wrong. It's more likely to be 14, 15, 16 year olds. Plus, at $50 a dose, yeah... That's a lot of pocket money.

--- Same argument about 11 year olds taking something that could impact "the rest of their reproductive life". No, actually. And it's a lot less risky that an abortion, which itself is less risky than pregnancy and childbirth.

--- Anyone who disagrees with this decision has "Obama Derangement Syndrome". Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. I so hate the immediate accusation that you're deranged if you happen to disagree with what is, imo, a really crappy decision.

It's a decision that is bad for girls, for young women. It fails to protect the most vulnerable, the young women for whom this drug could really make a difference. But it's politically expedient, so the lucky girls who have parents to help, yay for them, but the ones who don't... well... too bad? I guess so.

I'm disgusted, in large part, too, because it's so very easy to hide behind the 11 year old girl buying OMG PLAN B RIGHT NEXT TO THE BUBBLEGUM!!! when what we're looking at here is just more ceding of terrain on women's reproductive choice to the right wing. And I find that very sad.

HT to S. for this one. HHS: Let's Treat ALL Women Like Children An excerpt from that blog post:

Barack Obama says that as the father of two daughters, he wants the government to “apply common sense” to rules about over the counter medications. Well, I too have a daughter, and so many many pro-choice women. Who died and made Barack Obama daddy in charge of teenage girls? Would he really rather that Sasha and Malia get pregnant rather than buy Plan B One-Step at CVS? And excuse me, Mr. President, thanks to your HHS, acquiring Plan B is prescription-only not just for 11-year-olds but for the 30 percent of teenage girls between 15 and 17 who are sexually active, and is a cumbersome process for all women, who have to ask a pharmacist for it and, as many news stories have reported, be subjected to fundamentalist harangues and objections. Apparently, it’s okay with you if Michelle is treated like a sixth-grader.

I'm the mother of two daughters, and I hope they'd come to me if they needed contraception, plan B, an abortion, whatever. But you know what? If they don't, I hope to hell that they can get what they need. Because that's the fundamental thing of it. Becoming a parent at a young age is not ideal, and I don't wish it on them. But personal feelings aside, it's not about me or my daughters, it's about all daughters, and Obama appears to be making public policy based on his personal feelings about the relationship he has with his daughters, applying it as if it were universal to all daughters. That's privilege, and short sighted, and not realistic.

But then again, I suppose expecting this president to take a stand for women isn't realistic either.