Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Is there a Republican war on women? Paul Ryan, the GOP candidate for vice president, mocked the idea of any such thing when he made the following comment at a private fundraiser in Florida last week: “Now it’s a war on women; tomorrow it’s going to be a war on left-handed Irishmen or something like that.”
Ryan may think his party’s “war” on women is a topic of humor…something to be derided. He may perceive things like a woman’s right to determine what is best for her own health and well being differently from the way many of us of women do. After all, Ryan did cosponsor personhood, ultrasound, and “Let Women Die” legislation. He also supported the Blunt Amendment.
Ryan is not the only Republican politician who has brought his party’s comments and positions on women’s issues under scrutiny. Not long ago, Todd Akin, a senate candidate from Missouri, was skewered by the media when he made a claim that women who are victims of “legitimate” rape can’t get pregnant. And just last week, a comment made by Congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois about abortion brought the whole issue of the Republicans’ anti-woman attitude into the limelight once again. After Walsh’s debate with Democrat Tammy Duckworth the other night, he claimed that there is never any reason for a woman to have an abortion—even to protect her health or save her life.
Walsh said—and I quote: “There is no such exception as life of the mother, and as far as health of the mother, same thing, with advances in science and technology. Health of the mother has become a tool for abortions any time, under any reason.”
There you have it…straight from the mouth of Rep. Joe Walsh: Women today can never suffer any adverse effects of a pregnancy or die from complications of pregnancy because of “advances in science and technology.” Unfortunately, Walsh never mentioned what those scientific and technological advances might be.
It appears that the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists may not be aware of all the newest scientific and technological advances that Rep. Walsh spoke of. That’s probably why the organization said that remarks like his are one of the reasons why it feels politicians need to “get out of our exam rooms.”
The organization said:
“Contrary to the inaccurate statements made yesterday by Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), abortions are necessary in a number of circumstances to save the life of a woman or to preserve her health. Unfortunately, pregnancy is not a risk-free life event, particularly for many women with chronic medical conditions. Despite all of our medical advances, more than 600 women die each year from pregnancy and childbirth-related reasons right here in the US. In fact, many more women would die each year if they did not have access to abortion to protect their health or to save their lives.”
It seems there are others in the medical community who are also unaware of those scientific advances. Mark I. Evans, president of the Fetal Medicine Foundation of America and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said that Walsh’s claim was “absolute nonsense. This is scientific and political malpractice.” Lawrence Pratt, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles and the director of the Center for Fetal Medicine and Women’s Ultrasound, said that abortions can save the lives of pregnant women who suffer from different medical conditions—including an ectopic pregnancy, “in which a fetus develops outside of the normal location in the womb and can cause the uterus or tube to rupture, leading women to bleed to death.” He added that pregnancy can also “worsen the conditions of women suffering from heart, lung and kidney diseases, among others, that can lead to death.”
Dr. Carrie Terrell, an ob-gyn and chief of staff at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, said that there “are innumerable potential instances wherein a termination of pregnancy would be indicated to save a woman’s life.” She added that some of those “instances” included such serious conditions as the following:
• chorioamnionitis in pre-viable pre-term premature rupture of membranes (a bacteria-related inflammation of the fetal membranes),
• severe pre-eclampsia and other hypertensive (high blood pressure) disorders,
• certain forms of cardiomyopathy (a disease that weakens and enlarges the heart),
• various maternal cardiac and pulmonary anomalies,
• severe nephrosis,
• severe cancers,
• infections with sepsis, and
• multi-organ failure.
Terrell also said that “she sees pregnant women with these kinds of conditions several times a year”—and that in some cases the women who choose not to terminate their pregnancies “die as a result.”
I’ve been trying to figure out if politicians like Todd Akin and Joe Walsh really believe the things that they say about women, rape, pregnancy, and abortion—or if they are just attempting to tell their constituents what they think they want to hear. What do you think?
NOTE
From CBS News–Walsh backtracks: Abortion to save a mother’s life is up to her
SOURCES
Joe Walsh On Abortion: No Exception For ‘Life Of The Mother’ Thanks To ‘Advances In Science And Technology’ (Huffington Post)
Walsh, Duckworth clash on Medicare, abortion (WGN Radio)
Paul Ryan Mocks ‘War On Women’ At Private Fundraiser (Huffington Post)
Rep. Joe Walsh: “Not one instance” where abortion necessary to save woman’s life (CBS News)
Rep. Walsh Says No Need for Abortion to Save Mother’s Life (ABC News)
Congressman Walsh Says Abortion Not Needed to Save Lives (Business Week)
Rep. Joe Walsh’s abortion comment is stunning in its ignorance (MinnPost)
Tea Party craziness, extremism is making Republicans drink hemlock
By JOEL CONNELLY, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF
Sunday, October 21, 2012
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/connelly/article/Tea-Party-craziness-extremism-is-making-3965275.php
Excerpt:
The latest jaw-dropping absurdity from a Tea Party politician came Thursday night as Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Illinois, made the case for why a woman should not be allowed to undergo an abortion even when her life is in danger.
In Walsh’s opinion, there can be no danger.
“This is an issue that opponents of life throw out there to make us look unreasonable,” said Joe. “There’s no such exception as life of the mother, same thing. With advances in science and technology, there’s — health of the mother has become a tool for abortion for any time, under any reason.”
They say stuff like that. Missouri’s U.S. Senate candidate, Rep. Todd Akin, recently told a TV interviewer that in cases of “legitimate rape” a woman is able to shut down her body and will not carry a pregnancy to term.
The Tea Party brewed up a political storm two years ago, helping blow away Democrats’ majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Two years later, the tea bag is becoming a weight around the neck of Republican candidates from one Washington to the other.
Snohomish County Councilman John Koster revved up a 2010 Tax Day rally in Everett with anti-government rhetoric. In 2012, making his third bid for Congress, Koster is being pummeled in TV ads and fierce mailings, which cite his past statements about abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, outlawing abortion and privatizing Social Security.
Even the founder of the Tea Party caucus in Congress, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., is fighting for her political life. So is Rep. Allen West, R-Fla., who identified colleagues in Congress’ Progressive Caucus as “communists.”
Elaine, This Walsh is a sleaze. His house was foreclosed on while he went off gallivanting with his girl friend. He lived three blocks from my sister.
Swarthmore mom,
Both Todd Akin and Paul Broun are supposedly well-educated too. I guess that hasn’t stopped them from saying and believing stupid crazy stuff.
Tea party Congress is past its sell date
By REP. STEVE ISRAEL | 9/30/12
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81825.html
Excerpt:
Time is up on this tea party Congress.
House Republicans like to say that government should be run more like a business. I agree. If I had a business and only 13 percent of my customers approved of my product, I’d go out of business. It is time for them to go.
For more than 20 months, this Republican tea party majority has put millionaires and special interests ahead of Medicare for seniors and jobs for the middle class.
The tea party experiment has failed.
Instead of fighting for middle-class jobs here at home, they fought for tax breaks for big corporations sending jobs overseas.
Instead of protecting consumers from health insurance abuses, they tried 33 times to repeal those protections, even as they kept congressional health care for themselves.
Instead of reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, they tried to redefine rape.
Instead of standing up for small businesses, they spent their time trying to shut down Planned Parenthood.
And, instead of protecting Medicare for seniors, they voted to raise health care costs for seniors by $6,400 to give another $250,000 budget-busting tax break to millionaires.
This isn’t a do-nothing Congress, it’s a do-damage Congress. And, now, Republicans have gone on vacation. Instead of working hard for the middle class, this Republican Congress hardly works.
It doesn’t have to be this way. In a little over a month, we have a chance to fire the tea party Republican Congress, and entering the most critical stretch of this campaign, we have momentum.
Elaine, My sister informed me yesterday that Joe Walsh has a masters degree from the University of Chicago.
A little food for thought:
Is Congress getting dumber, or just more plainspoken?
by Lee Drutman
May 21, 2012
http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/05/21/grade-level-congress/
Excerpt:
Congress now speaks at almost a full grade level lower than it did just seven years ago, with the most conservative members of Congress speaking on average at the lowest grade level, according to a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of the Congressional Record using Capitol Words.
Of course, what some might interpret as a dumbing down of Congress, others will see as more effective communications. And lawmakers of both parties still speak over the heads of the average American, who reads at between at 8th and 9th grade level.
Today’s Congress collectively speaks at a 10.6 grade level, down from 11.5 in 2005. By comparison, the U.S. Constitution is written at a 17.8 grade level and the Declaration of Independence at a 15.1 grade level. The Gettysburg Address comes in at an 11.2 grade level and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is at a 9.4 grade level. All these analyses use the Flesch-Kincaid test, which equates higher grade levels with longer words and longer sentences.
In looking at the data more closely, a few other important patterns jump out:
1. Controlling for other factors, it is generally the most moderate members of both parties who speak at the highest grade levels, and the most extreme members who speak at the lowest grade levels. This pattern is most pronounced among freshmen and sophomore members.
2. Prior to 2005, Republicans on average spoke at a slightly higher grade level than Democrats. Since then, Democrats have spoken on average at a slightly higher grade level than Republicans.
3. Some of the decline in grade level since 2005 is because junior members speak at a lower grade level than senior members, and some of it is because senior members have simplified their speech patterns over time.
4. On average, the more words individual members speak on the floors of Congress, the simpler their speech tends to be.
Re Duckworth, there she went again referencing that she was a veteran when she said dress got her out of camouflage. How dare she remind anyone that she fought in the military?
Romney said at one point abortion except in case of rape iincest, health of mother. Ryan said “That’s a start” meaning towards outlawing any reason. Walsh has now taken care of the health part of it evidently.
My Tucson friend will be delighted.
Hard living in a state dominated by snowbirds who are born red and vote red in Phoenix. Phoenix, great name. They take half the Colorado runoff to water their grass lawns with one day a week. Californias Central Valley takes the other half for greens and fruit.
FairlyBalanced,
I wouldn’t kid you.
BTW, I wrote a post about “this schmuck” last year:
Excerpt from the Hypocrite Files: Tea Party Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois, Debt Ceiling Darling & Deadbeat Dad
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/08/01/excerpt-from-the-hypocrite-files-tea-party-rep-joe-walsh-of-illinois-debt-ceiling-darling-deadbeat-dad/
This schmuck owes back child support which is being deducted from his federal paycheck! You are kidding me?
Off Topic:
Federal Judge Blocks Arizona From Defunding Planned Parenthood
By Tara Culp-Ressler on Oct 22, 2012
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/22/1057551/federal-judge-blocks-arizona-from-defunding-planned-parenthood/
Excerpt:
A federal judge has blocked Arizona from implementing HB 2800, a measure that would have revoked Medicaid funding for family planning services at any health organization that also provides abortions, effectively defunding the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliates. The ruling represents a victory for Planned Parenthood, who sued to prevent HB 2800 from going into effect after Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) signed the bill into law in May.
Judge Neil Wake rejected the argument that Arizona can cut off federal funding for family planning simply based on the state’s own determination that abortion providers aren’t qualified for Medicaid eligibility, pointing out that Medicaid recipients have the right to choose between the full range of qualified providers “without government interference.” Planned Parenthood officials told Reuters that they are pleased the judge’s decision will preserve health services for thousands of low-income women in Arizona:
Bryan Howard, the president of Planned Parenthood Arizona, called the ruling “a victory for poor women” in the state. With the ruling, their health care will not be interrupted while the case moves forward, he said.
“Today’s ruling affirms what we have said all along: no woman should ever have to fear being cut off from her doctor’s care because of shortsighted political games,” Howard said in a statement.
Commiottee for beating wives out of child support???
And of course committee on abortions—the latter only if he agrees to undergo an abortion each month, anatomically impossible but with modern science……!
Should he be elected he should probably be on the committee for veterans affairs, or maybe the committee on intelligence. [sarcasm]
ElaineM,
I think she referrex in the “last word”-interview to massive negative ads paid for by PACS (Koch money?).
Some will believe what they are fed if it comes often
enough.
When I saw a post about Joe Walsh I was hoping to hear Rocky Mountain Way. That Joe Walsh is clean and sober and promoting his autobio.
Rep. Joe Walsh’s Science Fiction on Abortion
By David Wagner | The Atlantic Wire –
Fri, Oct 19, 2012
http://news.yahoo.com/rep-joe-walshs-science-fiction-abortion-164717951.html
Excerpt:
Walsh’s statements come with a long history of trolling. He previously angled for headlines by saying that Duckworth, who lost her legs serving in Iraq, was not a military hero. He’s also known for making sweeping, racially charged statements about minorities, once charging the Democratic Party with trying to hook Hispanics “on government just like they got African-Americans dependent on government.” Duckworth had a 14 point lead against Walsh in late September, but Walsh has been gaining on her steadily in past weeks.
*****
What kind of person would vote for this man?????
There are only two, maybe three solutions to Joe Walsh and his types.
1. Sew his lips together.
2. Cleave his head to let some ideas in.
2. Vote for Lt. Col. Duckworth.
Make your choice. A shame folks don’t tell him to shut the EFF up. Freedom of speech. Yeah. Not for those who don’t sing his praises.
OTOTOTOT
========
Here’s how the Norwegians used non-violence to extinguish such types. They avoided the bubble collapse. Read how.
http://www.alternet.org/story/153929/how_swedes_and_norwegians_broke_the_power_of_the_%271_percent%27?page=0%2C0
Written by a veteran protester, a Quaker Professor.
——————–
The second is about how the Swedish workers did it non-vilently in 1931. You may have seen the movie: “Ådalen ’31”.
http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/swedish-workers-general-strike-economic-justice-power-shift-dalen-1931
===================
Don’t mean to jack the thread, but with guys like Walsh it will be our turn soon to starve, and I don’t want to see the middle-class turn against the lower one as was done for a while in Norway. Do you?
JOE WALSH SETTLES CHILD SUPPORT DISPUTE WITH EX-WIFE | Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) and his ex-wife released a joint statement today saying they had reached a settlement of her claim that the freshman Congressman owed her $117,000 in unpaid child support. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed Since the couple divorced in December 2002, Walsh’s ex-wife repeatedly went to court to force him to pay and asked the court to garnish his wages. Child support payments are currently being deducted from Walsh’s Congressional paychecks. Walsh faces an uphill re-election fight this November against former Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs Tammy Duckworth (D).
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/04/20/467790/joe-walsh-settles-child-support-dispute-with-ex-wife/
Sh*t Joe Walsh Says
More from Crazy Joe: