Tag Archives: Roe v Wade

Do Climate Bill’s weaknesses outweigh strengths?

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There’s an excellent article in The Guardian this week, giving voice to some of the countervailing viewpoints on the Climate Bill. It’s titled “Landmark US climate bill will do more harm than good, groups say.” I highly recommend you read it, and I’d greatly appreciate your feedback.

Some of the article’s highlights:

[T]he bill makes a slew of concessions to the fossil fuel industry, including mandating drilling and pipeline deals that will harm communities from Alaska to Appalachia and the Gulf coast and tie the US to planet-heating energy projects for decades to come.

Siqiniq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, said: “This new bill is genocide, there is no other way to put it. This is a life or death situation and the longer we act as though the world isn’t on fire around us, the worse our burns will be. Biden has the power to prevent this, to mitigate the damage.” Continue Reading →

We discuss abortion … and rabbits

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Joining me are Dr. Charles Goldman, attorney Joseph Glazebrook, and professor Carol Spaulding-Kruse. It’s a rock-star line up, and I hope you’ll listen to the program and share your feedback.

There are so many questions surrounding this sea change in a woman’s right to make her own decision when it comes to abortion. What will individual states do? Will anti-choice activists push for even more draconian erosions of personal liberty? Could the US Congress potentially preempt pro-choice states? Is it possible in today’s hyper-charged partisan environment to find common ground on preventing unintended pregnancies?

My guests and I tackle these questions and more. Again, feedback welcome. Continue Reading →

Responding to the repeal of Roe v. Wade

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Sure, there are some monsters out there who have shot and killed doctors, terrorized pregnant women, and burned down medical facilities. Yet from my own work building bridges, most are good people who simply have strong beliefs. In my conversations, I listen, of course, and try to identify common ground. Yet I don’t hesitate to politely challenge “pro-life” voters to consider how a nation committed to personal liberty and religious tolerance can defend denying a woman the right to make this choice.

During 14 years as a state lawmaker, I had a 100% pro-choice voting record. Yet that didn’t stop me from working with “pro-life” Republicans to come up with strategies to reduce the incidence of abortion. That effort culminated in 1998, when five Republicans and two Democrats joined me in sponsoring HR104. That legislation passed without dissent on April 22. It established the Unintended Pregnancy Committee, and provided one of the few occasions when NARAL, Planned Parenthood, Family Policy Center, and Iowa Right to Life Committee sat down at the same table and talked.

While those of us who support a woman’s right to choose must be vocal, engaged, and firm, we must also be civil. Preaching to the choir while we lob derogatory remarks at “the other side” accomplishes nothing.
Continue Reading →