Of Course

In the WaPo's piece on the current state of the Senate healthcare legislation, titled, "Reid's recipe for getting health-care deal done," we find that Senator Ben Nelson (D-Umbass) has the recipe for mucking it up and driving progressive women even further from the Democratic Party:

As of late Thursday, the abortion issue remained the biggest point of contention. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), who is among a handful of potential defections who could foil Reid in his quest for 60 votes, is expected to offer an amendment as soon as Friday that would ban abortion coverage in the Senate bill's scaled-back public plan. Nelson's measure would also prohibit people who receive tax credits for private health-care coverage from buying policies that include abortion services. Speaking to reporters Thursday morning, Nelson declared flatly that if his amendment fails, "I won't vote to move [the bill] off the floor."

I'll say it again: This is the inevitable result of the Blue Dog-Big Orange-Conservative Democrat-win-at-all-costs fuckery that demoted women's fundamental right to bodily autonomy to a negotiable platform plank.

And let us not forget that abortion rights were considered a legit bargaining chip because it was MORE IMPORTANT to win back the Congress and the White House so we could end those two wars and stop extraordinary rendition and close Guantanamo and end the era of presidential secrecy and...

This week alone, Obama has escalated the war in Afghanistan, renewed his promise to close Guantanamo (thereby kicking that can yet further down the road), and invoked the separation of powers to prevent one of his staff from testifying before Congress.

That the willingness to compromise on my basic autonomy ain't working any better for the people who were willing to throw my rights under the bus is no comfort at all. In fact, it somehow makes the whole goddamned mess even worse.

Hopefully, unlike Stupak's amendment in the House, Nelson's will be defeated in the Senate.

Of course, even if it is, that doesn't mean some anti-choice horseshit won't end up in the final bill after reconciliation, anyway. More wait and see...