President Obama Has Refused to Stand Up for Women, Plain and Simple

Posted by Melissa McEwan, Shakesville at 9:45 AM on November 10, 2009.

I can't put it any more plainly than that. And, no -- it's not hyperbole. I wish it were.

The White House on Monday signaled it would keep its distance in the increasingly vocal debate over whether health insurance reform should include language related to abortion.

When asked whether the president supported Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) amendment to prohibit the public insurance plan from covering abortion services, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs dodged the question -- multiple times.

"Well, ask me that right before Christmas and the end of the New Year," Gibbs said during today's press briefing, noting the president still expected to sign a healthcare bill before the year's end.

The press secretary later clarified, "We will work on this and continue to seek consensus and common ground."

FUCK THAT.

There is no fucking "common ground" between people who believe in women's right to autonomy over their own bodies and people who believe that women's bodies are property of the government, or their doctors, or their husbands, or anyone else who gets a vote on whether they have to be pregnant even if they don't want to be.

Either you stand on the side of women's equality and independence or you don't.

It is fucking ludicrous that our DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT refuses to take a stand on this issue.

And this mealy-mouthed bullshit —"I laid out a very simple principle, which is this is a health care bill, not an abortion bill"—is contemptibly craven. I'm absolutely fucking livid that a man who had the audacity to claim to be a champion of women's right to choose would abandon women in this way. Not that I'm surprised. Of course I'm not surprised. I always knew this was bullshit. A lack of surprise makes me no less furious about the depth of his callous disregard for women.

That? Is also not hyperbole: "In case you are wondering about the real life effects of playing cheap politics with pregnancy, read this.

And this. ... All women will be losing coverage for necessary abortions when a wanted pregnancy goes wrong. It only has an exemption for the life of the mother, but not for her her health, nor for severe and fatal fetal abnormalities. Click those links for what that means in real life."Women's real lives—something our president evidently doesn't give a fuck about. Or might. Y'know, depending on which way the wind is blowingin December.

For the record: This isn't me hysterical. Nor overwrought. Nor upset. Nor reactionary. Nor irrational. Nor hypersensitive. Nor any other word one might use to dismiss a feminist in this moment.

This is me angry and brimming with contempt.

UPDATE: Oh, pardon me: He is taking a stand, after all—by asking the Dems do THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM POSSIBLE for women:

President Obama suggested Monday that he was not comfortable with abortion restrictions inserted into the House version of major health care legislation, and he prodded Congress to revise them.

"There needs to be some more work before we get to the point where we're not changing the status quo" on abortion, Mr. Obama said in an interview with ABC News. "And that's the goal."

On the one hand, Mr. Obama said, "we're not looking to change what is the principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions."

On the other hand, he said, he wanted to make sure "we're not restricting women's insurance choices," because he had promised that "if you're happy and satisfied with the insurance that you have, it's not going to change."

Which, naturally, means fuck-all for the poor women currently without healthcare for whom government-subsidized health insurance will be the only option, i.e. the very health insurance at the center of the Stupak Amendment.

So the president's Very Principled Stand is to firmly plant his feet in between expanding abortion rights for women who most need it and the status quo. Bravo.

Did I mention I'm angry and brimming with contempt...?

Tagged as: abortion, women's rights, stupak, stupak amendment

Melissa McEwan writes and edits the blog Shakespeare's Sister.