And they're off! It's a dry track for Anti-abortionists....

(On today's outrage, here is a copy of an e-mail to like-minded friends -- probably the first of many.)

I actually thought the Religious Rite (RR) would wait until January or February before mounting a full scale attack on reproductive freedoms, but the election was a "mandate" (shudder). ...

They choose late Friday to release the information to the press, and Saturday for the vote.

In a nutshell:

[The measure] expands to all hospitals, clinics and doctors a provision that currently applies to Catholic hospitals. Those hospitals do not have to comply with a federal law that requires health-care providers who receive taxpayer dollars to discuss the option of abortion with women if they inquire about it.

The language also allows hospitals and health-care providers to opt out of state and local laws that require them to provide abortions, abortion counseling or referrals. ...

In other words, they're opening the door to cut out a whole class of medical care now available to women in this country. With the demonstrated viciousness of the RR, it shouldn't surprise anyone if hospitals dropped the option in droves rather than face busloads of these aggressively religious people rioting on their doorsteps. They've already chased providers out of small family clinics in numerous counties throughout the country, now they're going for the gold -- your local hospital.

Of course, the offices of our representatives are closed today (Saturday). When the offices open up again on Monday, they can say, well, golly gee, we had to vote on this important spending bill without your specific input -- beyond, of course, the recent election. At least the office manager for my RR Senator (Libby Dole) will have *my* complaint about both the measure and its timing on her voice mail when she opens her office on Monday. Those of you who live in NC are certainly invited to share *your* disgust and dismay with her -- her Raleigh number is 919.856.4630 and her DC number is 202.224.6342. I ask those of you outside the area to call your senators and representatives and let them know how you feel about this sneak. http://www.senate.gov/ and http://www.house.gov/ will tell you how to get in touch with any of them.

I'm afraid that e-mail is too easy to ignore. We must either fill up their voice mailboxes or burn 37 cents and send in an actual paper letter. (Conventional wisdom has it that each person who is inspired to actually write and send a letter is expressing the opinion of 10 to 20 of their peers, who are not all that inspired. You can see where receiving a bunch of letters makes these guys sit up and take note.)

It's going to be a long four years, and we of the Blue persuasion *must* make ourselves the vocal and aggressive minority in order to retain *any* of the rights we've achieved and enjoyed these past few decades.

~B

PS If emails of this type offend you, or if you are a member of the Religious Rite and agree with what they're doing, please drop me a line and let me know so that I can save bandwidth and not send any more of them to you. I plan to be a Blue Thorn for the next four years. Those who are "with" me will get these action alerts on occasion, along with a plea to phone and complain. Those who aren't... I guess that, according to Group W, those who aren't with us are against us.

At least they haven't figured out how to circumvent that "freedom of speech" thing ... yet. Use it or lose it.