Pawlenty, Bachmann sign abortion ban pledge

First of all, I write as one who hails from the same faith tradition as Susan B. Anthony–Quakers. Quakers accept that there is “continuing revelation,” the belief that God’s Truth is always being revealed to us as we search for it.

That said, there is no way to know where Susan B. Anthony would stand *today* on the issue of *choice* and the right for a woman to choose *for herself* when tough decisions come to bear.

Societal and religious guilt, peer pressure, and political rhetoric doesn’t help a woman through a difficult choice. The unconditional love of community and an authentic, no-hidden-agenda offering of compassion do.

Second, pledging to appoint judges with a certain agenda in mind points to corrupting the lack of bias that judges are supposed to have.

And so much of America has been socialized over the generations to sit back and let the corruption happen–in the name of “the Church,” in the name of “protecting our wealth,” and in the name of “supporting American corporations.”

In light of events in Wisconsin and the recent state Supreme Court decision and minority opinion there (about stripping unions of collective bargaining rights), I would say that my wealthy brothers and sisters in politics and business are creating fear, fostering division, and supporting greed. Certain politicians and now even judges are passing it off in the guise of “privileges” or “rights” that deserve protecting.

I don’t buy it, and I don’t see any spiritual fruits of love and peace emerging.

This I know from direct experience:

Privilege begets privilege. The more we have, the more we want, and the more we fear losing it. As a society we covertly teach and socialize our children and youth through political ads, through the media, through homilies, through policy, and through the courts, to protect privilege and squelch those who threaten it.

This issue is bigger than the debate between the right to life for an unborn child and the right to choose for a pregnant, distressed woman. The issue is, do we model power-grabs and put-downs based on unearned privilege, or do we model sharing-the-burden and “lifting one another up with a tender hand,” to quote another Quaker, Isaac Penington?

So they are going to appoint activist judges. They admit that politics is more important to them than the Constitution.

Hypocritical right wing statement # 8, 463 and counting.

In March, Bachmann called judges “our black-robed masters” and praised Iowa for voting out “activist” Supreme Court justices who “created religious theology” and approved gay marriage.

In 2004 “We are wide open and vulnerable and in all likelihood an activist judge will strike down our Defense of Marriage Act, our state law against gay marriage, this year. “

Romney’s Pro-Life Pledge
Mitt Romney follows up his rejection of the Susan B. Anthony List’s pro-life pledge with a vow of his own:
I am pro-life and believe that abortion should be limited to only instances of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother.
I support the reversal of Roe v. Wade, because it is bad law and bad medicine. Roe was a misguided ruling that was a result of a small group of activist federal judges legislating from the bench.
I support the Hyde Amendment, which broadly bars the use of federal funds for abortions. And as president, I will support efforts to prohibit federal funding for any organization like Planned Parenthood, which primarily performs abortions or offers abortion-related services.
I will reinstate the Mexico City Policy to ensure that non-governmental organizations that receive funding from America refrain from performing or promoting abortion services, as a method of family planning, in other countries. This includes ending American funding for any United Nations or other foreign assistance program that promotes or performs abortions on women around the world.
I will advocate for and support a Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act to protect unborn children who are capable of feeling pain from abortion.
And perhaps most importantly, I will only appoint judges who adhere to the Constitution and the laws as they are written, not as they want them to be written.
As much as I share the goals of the Susan B. Anthony List, its well-meaning pledge is overly broad and would have unintended consequences. That is why I could not sign it. It is one thing to end federal funding for an organization like Planned Parenthood; it is entirely another to end all federal funding for thousands of hospitals across America. That is precisely what the pledge would demand and require of a president who signed it.
The pledge also unduly burdens a president’s ability to appoint the most qualified individuals to a broad array of key positions in the federal government. I would expect every one of my appointees to carry out my policies on abortion and every other issue, irrespective of their personal views.
If I have the opportunity to serve as our nation’s next president, I commit to doing everything in my power to cultivate, promote, and support a culture of life in America.

Mitt’s own pledge follows the constitution, and is better written than the SBA lists pledge ever was. Those in the SBA lists’ organization have their own political agenda. The pledge was bait for Mitt. He showed the courage of his convictions by not taking their bait.

I trust that anyone signing a Susan B. Anthony List would heed the following:
“The one distinct feature of our Association has been the right of the individual opinion for every member. We have been beset at every step with the cry that somebody was injuring the cause by the expression of some sentiments that differed with those held by the majority of mankind. The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.”
— Susan B. Anthony

In the seventies I worked in a factory. Hurling insults was a way of life. One of those I recall being used was

“your old man should have pulled.”

Oh that were the case for Slapshot Tim and Big Hair Bad Makeup Michele.

Jeff Wilfahrt, Rosemount, MN

yea go ahead ladies..vote for one of these GOP monsters, and see where your RIGHTS go……or your daughters/grand-daughters rights go……the GOP is thoroughly disgusting

@Liz Oppenheimer and @Tom Smith, your comments were incredibly thoughtful ones. Thank you for posting rational responses with compelling arguments in the face of such a disappointing article. I want desperately to believe that our countrymen aren’t fooled by the dictatorial approach of the religious right. One way is not the American way. It is plurality and tolerance that allows us to exist as one country, under god or not.

[...] Pawlenty and Michelle Bachmann have signed the Susan B. Anthony List’s “Pro-life Presidential Leadership” pledge, promising to appoint anti-abortion judges and cabinet members, to defund Planned Parenthood and to [...]

Simply: These people need to be bound up, gagged, put in a straight jacket, thrown in jail, or out to pasture. We can’t. Won’t. Put up. Or Shut up. Anymore.

Their pledge to prejudice the judiciary without regard to the Constitution or the written law is nothing less than a promise of tyranny.

“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
James Madison, Federalist 47

It has long been the goal of the republicans to achieve what some negligently refer to as “the trifecta”.

Despite Pawlenty parting his hair differently, he still looks like Gumby and speaks with a forked tongue, claims he didn’t raise taxes – yet I pay 300% more in taxes & fees than I did BEFORE he took office. He kicked the budget down the road for the next governor and still has the smear on his record of misusing campaign funds and does not publish the fine he had to pay because of his mis-use of funds. He allowed a person with no educational background (B.A. in the arts and nothing else) run a department that deals with over $30,000,000.00 budget – gave her a $119,000.00 salary PLUS forced taxpayers to pay $89,000.00 so she could get a master’s degree and quit before the facts were made public. Again – snake in the grass.

Now for Bachman…every time she opens her mouth, you wonder which fact she is going to butcher or which part of history she will re-write in her little mind. The only reason she is so popular with the Tea Party is because she is just plain bizarre and knows how to whip up a crowd of geriatrics and their young escorts.

[...] and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) all tout their Christian credentials and signed the pro-life pledges to court the evangelical vote. But there is one traditional position that even young Christians are [...]