Contra Kathleen Parker and several commenters on this blog, the health care bill did nothing to change the landscape of federally funded abortion in the United States. As Emily Bazelon explains here, everything will remain the same: “Poor women get state funding for abortions in the 17 states that provide it. Everywhere else, they’ll continue to pay their own way.”
Will Saletan makes an even more thorough case here that the abortion debate in the health care negotations was a complete red herring. There was never a substantive difference between the Stupak and Nelson amendments that were parsed at such length by social conservatives, who had no intention of supporting the bill anyway.
All that to say, I’m glad this nonsense is more or less behind us.
David Sessions
David Sessions is the founding editor of Patrol. He covers religion for Newsweek and The Daily Beast, and is a graduate student in the Draper Program for Humanities and Social Thought at New York University. He can be reached at hdavidsessions at gmail dot com.
6 Responses to Federally Funded Abortions Are Not on the Way
Leave a Reply
Follow Us
Advertisement
I happen to agree with you here, but I also think you really need to watch your tone. Opening an argument with “No matter what conservatives say” as you have on Twitter is needlessly final. Phrases like that, and “complete red herring” really end discussion or debate, and they do so artificially. I see it on both sides of contentious issues, people opening with phrases like “You have to admit that…” No, actually, I don’t have to admit any opinion, only fact. You’re presenting your opinion here as though it is fact. I happen to agree with your opinion, but you’re coming off absolutist and a bit contrary. If you’re not careful it can seem like you’re looking for a fight. Pointing out that this stuff is “behind us” makes this post feel like a parting shot.
It’s astounding that there is no pretense to feigned objectivity here. I might as well write, “No mtter what Patrol editors say, they certainly are not concerned about remaining faithful to any voice other than their own…” Really, the generational hubris is disconcerting. David Sessions is right about music, theology, profanity, theatre, and… wait,sports and politics as well! It’s the new nti-magisterial magisterium!” Republicans be damned! I’d be more impressed if he had three 26 yer olds on his insurnce policy, or if his approach had more intellectual substance and less of the Tim McGraw-like Everyman presumption. Especially since sourves like the Catholic Bishops, no conservtives or intellectual slouches, disagree. Patrol continues to chase fter the ghost of Brian Maclaren. Its generous orthodoxy seems more nd more cliched and mean spirited.
Despite the other two comments to the contrary, I think your tone and stance are perfectly fine. The issue has been clear for quite awhile, that federally finance abortions are not going to happen. Statements to the contrary are simply scare tactics from the right, and are frankly, shameful. Keep up the good work and please ignore the harsh words above.
are you seriously using as a rebuttal a blog post that explicitly encourages the readers to “get out of the legal thicket.” In other words, leave the factual grounds for the argument and let’s try to make sense out of a complicated bill through naive appeals such as, “How likely is it that his administration is going to turn around and do the opposite, after a hugely contentious battle over abortion that the White House did its best to sidestep at every point along the way?” Not only is that weak in every way possible, it is also lazy.
How likely, Emily asks? 100% likely. Either the author of that blog is out of her league writing about politics or she is naively confident in this administration.
As for your post, David, I can honestly say that this is one of the worst things you’ve written. From your holier-than-thou tone, to your lack of understanding of the abortion issue in the bill, to your lack of in-depth reporting, I couldn’t be more disappointed in what you just offered readers.
Why is it “nonsense”?
Is that really all there is to it because that’d be fablbergastnig.