Maybe we'll have better luck next time.
Elizabeth Cavendish, Interim President, NARAL Pro-Choice America
Posted on 09/03/2004 9:31:00 AM PDT by jebanks
Last Wednesday, I traveled to New York at the invitation of a group called Republicans for Choice to the hearing where the Republican Platform on social issues was being debated. I was eager to talk to them about their platform, which calls for amending the constitution to eliminate the right to choose. At the very least, I thought, I could help our pro-choice Republican friends -- and their allies from the Log Cabin Republicans group that supports gay civil rights -- call for public debate on the Human Life Amendment, a position deeply unpopular with the American people.
I wore pearls to fit in, so when they came unstrung on the train ride I worried I wouldn't be let in, but I was admitted with no problem. But when I tried to make myself heard it got tricky. Seeing that I wasn't going to be allowed to speak, I took the opportunity to hand some of the committee members the written testimony I'd prepared. (You can read it here.)
A few were polite, a few scowled. Nobody screamed anything vile at me. But an aide to someone or another firmly suggested that I stop talking to the delegates. Apparently, a public hearing isn't meant to include much opportunity for the public to be heard.
We got to see who was really important in this process when the head of the full Platform Committee, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, came into the room. And who was Frist conferring with? None other than Gary Bauer, one of the country's most strident anti-choice leaders. They were practically attached at the hip, with Bauer whispering intently into the Senator's ear.
When voting time came, it was clear that Bauer and his allies didn't only have the committee's ear literally. They didn't even discuss dropping the absolutist anti-choice language. The platform was unanimously adopted by the full Republican National Convention.
Maybe we'll have better luck next time.
Elizabeth Cavendish, Interim President, NARAL Pro-Choice America
Praise God there is still a good deal of sanity left in the GOP!!!
Um, how would this read in 1860:
"They didn't even discuss dropping the absolutist anti-slavery language."
I dunno what's more fun, watching leftists be hysterical, or watching them sit around with their gears jammed...like this poor fool who thought pearls would make her fit in....
A public hearing at the Republican convention is an opportunity for Republicans to be heard. Are you a Republican, Ms. Cavendish?
Why is she "Interim" president? Did they abort the last one?
Maybe we'll have better luck next time.
Over 75% of Americans (and the congress) oppose "partial birth abortions." Over half of American Women opposing the basis of unlimited abortion on demand.
Maybe you need to infiltrate the DIM party and change their platform.
Did the Dems even HAVE an opportunity for input to their platform discussion, Non-Dems or otherwise? If Gary Bauer had gone to the Dem platform meeting, he probably would have been beaten about the head and shoulders by unwashed San Franciscans carrying signs saying "Kill Babies, Not Mass Murderers".
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