Abortion Tactics and Conflicted Moral Ambivalence
If the Republicans had wanted to prevent abortions, they would have…
- Funded a thorough and mandatory sex education initiative from the earliest grades in all schools and combined it with the distribution of free contraceptives in all high schools, public and private (religious schools included)
- Legislated generous family leave for both mothers and fathers
- Provided federally funded day care as a national priority
- Expanded adoption services, including encouraging gay parents to adopt children, and they would have encouraged gay couples to marry and adopt
- Provided a generous tax incentive to have children and direct financial assistance and educational opportunities for all families, including single parents
- Raised taxes to pay for these programs
- Never have equated stem cell research with abortion, much less with murder, thereby making the anti-abortion position patently ridiculous
- Above all, they would have addressed the injustice of the growing gap between the superrich and everyone else and fought to raise the living standards of poor people. (Forty percent of all women seeking abortion live on $10,000 a year or less.)
"Being a taxpayer is like going to the zoo. It’s $20 to get in. You can’t just go, ‘Here’s $18.50 - I don’t like zebras.’"
Jon Stewart in response to the “it’s not right to have people’s taxes go to something (read: abortion) that they don’t agree with” argument (via bringmethathorizon) (via vruz) (via atheistramblings)
EXACTLY.
- Betsy McCaughey: You're so rich. You can afford to provide care for anybody in your family, whatever they need.
- Jon Stewart: That's right. That's why I don't mind being taxed a little more to help people who are not in as favorable a situation. I don't mind that. In fact, I welcome it, because it's a way for me to give back to the country that has allowed me to come this far.