Senate Dems to pursue new strategy on abortion By Alexander Bolton The Senate Democratic leadership says it has found a wedge issue to strengthen the party’s position on abortion rights, which top strategists think has become a liability in recent years. The wedge is legislation expanding access to contraceptives and sex education, which polls show a majority of Americans support but which Democrats are betting will be difficult for social conservatives in the Republican base to accept. Democratic strategists say the time is right for action because women who support abortion rights but are not politically engaged are alarmed by the confirmation of Samuel Alito as Sandra Day O’Connor’s replacement on the Supreme Court and by the passage of legislation strictly curbing the availability of abortion. Democratic leaders had planned to attach their wedge legislation to the budget resolution last month, but let that opportunity pass. The Prevention First Act is sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.), one of few congressional Democrats considered anti-abortion. The bill, which Reid introduced at the start of the Congress, has the support of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), presumptive front-runner in the 2008 presidential primary and 21 other Democrats. The bill would prohibit group health plans from excluding contraceptive drugs, devices and outpatient services if they cover the cost of other prescription drugs and outpatient services. It would also require the secretary of health and human services to disseminate information on emergency contraception to healthcare providers and require hospitals receiving federal money to provide emergency contraception to victims of sexual assault. The bill would also mandate that federally funded programs provide information about contraceptives that is medically accurate and includes data on health benefits and failure rates. When asked whether he would be able to get a vote on his bill soon, Reid said: “I hope so. I’ll do what I can.” He added that bringing the issue to the floor is “on my mind.” A Democratic leadership aide said that, while only a slim majority of voters favor abortion rights, an overwhelming majority support promoting the use of contraceptives and comprehensive sex education. Democratic pollsters also say that the issues of contraceptives and sex education are favorable for Democrats. “The issue of abortion is very different from the issue of prevention, access to birth control and access to comprehensive sex education,” said Anna Greenberg, a pollster for Greenberg, Quinlan, Rosner, which works for the abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America. “I think that Senator Reid’s prevention-first agenda is not just smart in policy terms but smart in political terms because there is overwhelming support in the public for access to birth control and comprehensive sex education. People want women to be able to prevent unwanted pregnancies.” Celinda Lake, a pollster with Lake Snell Perry Mermin and Associates, working for NARAL, has tested voter support for Reid’s Prevention First Act. “It’s 3-to-1 in favor of it. Even pro-life voters support it,” Lake said. “It has the potential to be both a wedge and a turnout issue post-Alito. It shows how extreme a faction [within] the Republican Party is. “Lazy Democratic women who are very pro-choice are very concerned about the combination of Alito and South Dakota.” Her polling last month in upstate New York, which has a heavy concentration of Republicans and socially conservative voters compared to the southern part of the state, showed that nearly 80 percent of voters supported comprehensive sex education, even when compared to programs emphasizing abstinence as the only truly effective form of birth control, Lake said. Senate conservatives said they’re not worried about the Democrats’ plans to isolate them from independents and centrist. “The efforts will likely fail because they’re beholden to left-wing interest groups who oppose common-sense measures like parental notification,” said John Hart, spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.), a conservative Republican who has been outspoken on the issues of abortion and contraception. “They take an ideological and unscientific view of contraception. “Our work to improve accuracy of labeling on condoms has been blocked by a lot of people on the left who are supposedly for a balanced education approach.” Hart explained that Democrats and their liberal allies often oppose efforts to increase awareness about the failure rate of contraceptives in preventing pregnancy and the spread of disease. He added that his boss would work with any colleague who wants to protect the health of women and young adults but would also “fight any effort by any politician to make this a wedge issue.”
I think it's a mistake for democrats to use this in the context of a wedge issue. If they feel strongly about the issue and wish to include it in the platform and honestly feel that it’s an issue that Americans should care about, more power to them. But don't push some concocted idea specifically to use as a dividing issue for everyone. It's not honest and will be seen as a cynical ploy just like the republicans using gay marriage to divide people and take the conversation away from valid issues of the day. IMO
Please don't use the words "democrats" and "strategy" in a sentence again. TIA bwwaaaaahahhahahahahaa
Please don't use the words "republicans" and "law-abiding" in a sentence again. The two words do not and cannot co-exist in the same sentence. Thanks for playing, littletexie!
Yeah, because getting pissed and hitting a police officer is SOOOO much better than laundering money and accepting bribes while serving as an elected official.
Outside of "emergency contraception" (nice euphamism there) I could certainly get behind such a bill.
Well, one is done in the heat of anger, was the culmination of several previous racially based incidents (like when they apparently mistook her 23 yr old white staffer for her) was apologized for, and has no lingering effects on the membership, composition or of the legislature, especially since the person who did it hadn't been in senior leadership positions for the last 17 years. Exactly how many Democratic representatives' campaigns were supported by Rep. McKinney's misdemeanor phone poking (or throwing) incident, which caused no physical injury to the officer (who may or may not have allowed other congress people to bypass the checkpoint without their legislative pins)? How many elections were subsidized, how many pieces of legislaiton possibly compromised? Although, you don't necessarily have to break any laws to make a good impression... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_delay#Northern_Mariana_Island_legislation Granted, there are enough Lippo Groups, Charlie Tries, Committees to Re-Elect the President, and Buddhist temple cash-drops for both parties.
