A profile of slaughter

This individual is a real piece of work.

I first heard of her when she was asking people to "Help Save Funding For International Family Planning", partly because it is "subject to constant attack by far right-wing ideologues in Congress and outside groups."

She means pro-lifers.

For her, the debate is over: "The current level of funding is simply not sufficient and women and children are dying because of it. Access to reproductive health care ... is an issue of basic human rights. Period."

She has a 100% NARAL voting record, with not a single pro-life vote. She's endorsed by Emily's List a pro-choice donor network. She voted NO on banning partial-birth abortions, says its okay to transport minors across state lines to get them abortions, not a crime to harm a fetus while committing other crimes, wants Planned Parenthood to get US funding for its international programs, and says that only organizations which provide abortion information should get federal funding.

Human cloning? That's fine. Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research? You bet.

Oh, but she reaches out to religious groups, as her House of Representatives website claims:

"[She has] Organized a series of educational briefings featuring prominent members of the Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, and Jewish clergy to discuss the pro-choice position from a faith-based, values-based perspective."

On the day after the anniversary of Roe V. Wade this year, she wrote:

"Leaders of conservative organizations interested in scoring cheap political points, not solving problems, have sought to limit women's rights and freedoms by imposing stricter penalties and enacting laws to criminalize doctors and women. However, at the same time, these leaders have done next to nothing to ensure that millions of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases are prevented in the first place. If you oppose abortion, you must be for preventing unintended pregnancies."

Other pearls of wisdom:

"Contraceptives have a proven track record of enhancing the health of women and children, preventing unintended pregnancy, and reducing the need for abortion."

"For most women, including women who want to have children, contraception is not an option; it is a basic health care necessity."

"Moreover, 1 in 3 girls becomes pregnant before the age of 20, and 80 percent of these pregnancies are unintended."

I consider her concern about in-utero poisoning especially ironic:

"If ever we had proof that our nation's pollution laws aren't working, it's reading the list of industrial chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside the womb."

"Let's clean up our environment. Let's clean up our bodies, but most importantly, let's not permit our babies of the future to be polluted before they are even born."

"That we have children coming into this world already polluted, at the same time we don't know what the effects of that pollution will be on their mental and physical development, is both bad policy and immorally wrong." [sic]

That it can be "immorally wrong" to let children in the womb be polluted by chemicals but okay to kill the same children in the womb if they are unwanted ... well, I said she was a real piece of work.

Who is she?

Rep. Louise Slaughter

Now, I realize that one cannot choose the name one has been given. And it's completely invalid to criticize someone based on their name. I understand that. But in this case, if anyone was ever called to avoid their nomenclature, and seems instead to have embraced it (intentionally or not), I think it's Rep. Slaughter.

For an example of the ongoing slaughter of abortion, see Jill Stanek (warning: graphic images).