[Content Note: anti-choice rhetoric; description of birthing injury. Please note that not only women need access to abortion.]
Answering queries about the attack on Planned Parenthood, President Obama had this to say:
“I think it’s fair to have a legitimate, honest debate about abortion,” the president said. “How we talk about it — making sure that we’re taking about it factually, accurately, and not demonizing organizations like Planned Parenthood is important.”
Um, Mr. President, I did NOT just hear you say that my basic right to bodily autonomy is up for debate as long as it's polite and factual. The problem is not just the tone. It is the content. Anti-choice is an inherently violent position. There is no legitimate debate to be had about whether someone else can force me, against my will, to endure (in Liss's words) "nine months of potential discomfort and pain, followed by an act that might include the skin and muscle between my vagina and anus being torn open," not to mention the risk of death, lifelong disability, or other complications.
I did NOT just hear you say that, right?
Perhaps what you mean to say was something more like this:
The days when old men get to decide what a woman does with her body are long gone. Times have changed for the better.
...or words to that effect. Because small l or large L, that's how I expect a liberal party leader to talk, and even more so one who has the luxury of not running in the next election.
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