New Stanek poll: Would you support a government shutdown over defunding Planned Parenthood?
I have a new poll question up:
Would you support a government shutdown over a budget stalemate on defunding Planned Parenthood?
Vote on the lower right side of the home page.
The previous poll question got a big, lopsided response opposing pro-life pickets of pro-abort luminaries. I voted in the minority….
Click on the map to enlarge to find your own brightly colored flag, although only the most recent 500 votes will show…
As always, make comments to either the previous or current poll here, not on the Vizu website.
Mar.12, 2011 10:02 am |
Polls |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
If so, you’re probably going to be disappointed, because even a number of moderate Republican senators oppose these punitive cuts in funding:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51155.html
It’s nice to see that not all Republican lawmakers are hard-right firebrands.
Of course! Sunlight is the best disinfectant! Their votes need to be out there for all to see, their ideology replaces their sanity, science and technology they can’t hide from, we are winning.
Wasn’t there someone bashing the Constitution party on another thread? Saying we had to stick with the Republicans because they can win and Constitution party can’t (which is an utter lie).
Well here you go Joe. Repubs that don’t even support the fiscally sound and morally important bills to defund PP.
I gave up on Repubs a long time ago. If there is a Constitution candidate I always vote for them. And they HAVE won.
Republican politicians are, with some exceptions, reliably stupid and naive. Add gutless as well.
Jill brought up an excellent talking point yesterday regarding the evenly split nation on abortion, and how Republicans allow themselves to be cowed into retreat by the other side.
Go for the government shutdown. Force Obama to shut down the nation over funding PP.
Just have TV commercials showing the latest round of Live Action stings. Ask why only ONE employee was fired!!
Ask why PP did not ask the State of Virginia to assess its blood safety after a nurse was recorded stating that she always tells people to donate blood as a means of free STD screening.
Ask why it is that in most of those films from Virginia, the pimp is told that if he lacks insurance or cash to go to the county health department for free testing and treatment, when the $360 million annually is supposed to help PP do testing and treatment for those lacking insurance or cash.
Make Obama defend the organization with a long history of ties to the Girl Scouts, who made available to a group of GS a booklet in a meeting at the UN (closed to their adult advisors) which stated:
“You have the right to decide if, when, and how to disclose your HIV status.”
“There are many reasons that people do not share their HIV status. They may not want people to know they are living with HIV because of stigma and discrimination within their community. They may worry that people will ?nd out something else they have kept secret, like they are using injecting drugs, having sex outside of a marriage or having sex with people of the same gender. People in long-term relationships who ?nd out they are living with HIV sometimes fear that their partner will react violently or end the relationship.”
“Improve your sex life by getting to know your own body. Play with yourself! Masturbation is a great way to ?nd out more about your body and what you ?nd sexually stimulating. Don’t stop there: Find out how your partner’s body works, what makes them feel good and what gives them pleasure. Talking with your partner about what you each like and what feels good is the best way to have great sex.”
“Your skin is the largest erogenous zone on your body, and your mind plays a big role in your desire for sex and sexual pleasure. Caress and lick your partner’s skin. Explore your partner’s body with your hands and mouth. Mix things up by using different kinds of touch from very soft to hard. Talk about or act out your fantasies. Talk dirty to them. Tickle, tease and make them feel good.”
The booklet is titled Healthy, Happy, and Hot
Then make Obama defend PP against targeting children as young as TEN with condoms in their publication, Stand and Deliver, where they define the ages they are targeting, and the obstacles to their agenda, which includes religion:
Defining Adolescence
“As most societies define adolescence and youth in terms of both age and life circumstances, there is no universal agreement on what is a ‘young person’. The national legal age for political participation and the availability of data on different age groups can also determine how societies define youth. The World Health Organization defines young people as those from 10 to 24 years of age, including adolescents (10–19 years) and youth (15–24 years). IPPF (International Planned Parenthood Federation) uses the terms young people, youth and adolescents interchangeably to refer to people who are between 10 and 24 years. Defining all people under 18 years of age as a child is often not useful because it ignores the circumstances of youth who are faced with pressures and responsibilities that are usually reserved for adults. Policies and programmes for young people should focus not so much on age, but on the specific developmental needs and rights of individuals as they transition from childhood to adulthood.”
Faith Religion and Sexuality
“Involving young people from all regions of the world, IPPF convened a meeting to give young people the opportunity to voice their experiences of their own sexual and reproductive health in religious contexts, and to learn about how to meet young people’s needs. Culture, religion and traditions are some of the biggest obstacles in implementing sexual and reproductive health programmes for young people.”
I want the Republicans to put these quotes out there and to hang them around Obama’s neck. He defends PP, so let him wear these quotes. Few Americans know of these quotes, or the hideous publications they are in, published with their tax dollars. A government shutdown would be a golden opportunity to make this even more widely known, to show Dems as child predators and Republicans as family stalwarts.
I’m sick of seeing John Boehner blubbering like a little boy at elections and pro-life awards and then going into full retreat when manhood is the order of the day. Time to earn those pro-life trophies, Mr. Speaker.
The next presidential election will be won or lost by the Republicans right here on this battle. Are they too stupid or gutless to fight a battle that would make Obama defend all of PP’s criminality? I fear the answer is yes. And if they cave, we’ll see a third party candidate, which will result in four more years of Obama.
If Obama thinks that shutting down the nation is reasonable in order to defend this organization’s criminality, then it’s worth the Republican’s shutting down the nation to force the American people to decide what’s more important:
Our children, or getting the mail on time.
I really don’t envy Republican politicians outside of the Bible Belt and a few ultra-conservative enclaves scattered around the rest of the country. It’s a difficult position to be in, trying to mollify the increasingly large number of radicalized hard-right portions of their voting blocks, ginned up by the likes of Fox News and the conservative grassroots blogosphere, while at the same time having to face the political reality that generally speaking the safest place for any politician to be is as close as possible to the middle of the ideological continuum because the majority of people have moderate, tepid, or even indifferent political sensibilities and thus are not swayed by fiercely partisan overtures. This is especially the case for senators who represent not only individual districts, which may or may not swing especially hard to the left or right, but entire states which tend to contain a far more diverse electorate.
Sydney:
If you vote for Constitution Party candidates (who cannot win) all you do is make it more likely that more dangerous abortionist Democratic politicians will take power. I know the CP is strongly pro-life and the Repubs leave a lot to be desired, but the only real world alternatives are the two major parties.
I am not interested in casting protest votes or sending a message or making a statement. I want to stop the killing of unborn children. I see no way of doing that by voting Constitution.
The only way I can see to stop the killing is to elect Republican supermajorities to get pro-life conservative Republican simple majorities. The Constitution Party helps prevent this. We lost Senate seats in Oregon and Minnesota in 2008 because Constitution candidates siphoned away tens of thousands of votes, 5% in the case of Oregon. Losses like this hurt our cause and hurt the unborn. Plus, the CP takes thousands of pro-life conservative activists out of the GOP, making the Republicans less conservative and less pro-life. Not good at all from a strategic standpoint.
Put the ball into Obama’s court. He will be forced to either swallow hard and disappoint his wife and his extremist pro-abort supporters, or he will have to show some backbone and leadership and keep the country going.
Okay Joe. And the Repubs have been in power many many many times. Has the killing of children in the womb been stopped? no. Nuff said.
What is the definition of insanity… don’t they say its doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting different results?
I will not vote or a Repub when there is a Constitution candidate. We will get true pro-lifers into office and THEN the killing will stop. I vote my conscience.
One word: ABSOLUTELY.
‘Would you support a government shutdown over defunding Planned Parenthood?’
Sounds like a ‘win’ ‘win’ propostion if I ever heard of one.
Yes and Yes.
joan says: March 12, 2011 at 11:21 am
“It’s a difficult position to be in, trying to mollify the increasingly large number of radicalized hard-right portions of their voting blocks, ginned up by the likes of Fox News and the conservative grassroots blogosphere,”
==============================================================
Joan of arse,
What get this right winger ginned up is natterring nabobs like b o who speak of all the ‘good’ that pp has done with ‘other peoples money’.
If pp has done so much good then it should be no problem for the whore to raise al the money she needs from the ‘johns/janes’ in the private sector to keep the doors of her whorehouse open.
The truth is pp like NPR would fold in short order if she had compete in the free market.
One the most reliable indicators of an good or service’s value is the consumers ‘choice’ to invest or purchase said good or service.
Even if there is a demand for pp’s good/service the free market will fill the void quickly when pp has been dis-established and de-funded.
Of course not – some military veterans would lose checks – and active military could be forced to work without pay. Social security new applications could come to a halt. The politicians need to get this figured out.
lol, “Joan of Arse.” I seriously laughed out loud when I saw that.
I don’t want to defund PP. When PP isn’t getting the money for abortions someone else will. When hospitals discover how much money abortion will bring in it will be even harder to end abortions and it will be MUCH harder to save babies at a hospital. We need to defund abortion and I believe now is the time to do it. Gosnell along with PP lies could get it done. But the pro life movement is not ready to walk by faith and not by sight. God can do it, we don’t believe it, so we turn to politicians; just as the Jews told God they needed a King, we tell Him we need Politicians. Unfortunately there is nothing new under the sun and man keeps making the same mistakes.
Ken – look at the commenting rules again. No name-calling allowed.
Nice to see Jill has the same belief system as Fred Phelps. Fred Phelps believes God hates America, so he has to picket military funerals for dead soldiers. Also, the military kills a lot of innocent people, so who could blame him? I assume Jill supports Fred Phelps, since he’s just acting on his beliefs and all by terrorizing attendees at funerals.
Anyone who would stand outside a funeral with bloody fetus pictures is a lunatic, not to mention sadistic.
No one who thinks they should be able to hold up fetus pictures at funerals can criticize Fred Phelps for holding up “thank God for dead soldiers” signs. On what grounds would you criticize him? Why are his pickets wrong? (If you say “because abortion doctors kill baybeez,” remember that the military does too. Yeah, civilian deaths are mostly unintentional, but not really–since we chose to invade a country for no reason.)
Ashley, sometimes I just don’t get you. I let you comment here and you invariably turn around and take uncalled for stabs at me, this time by implying I support Westboro Baptist (which I do NOT) and that I’m a lunatic and sadistic.
You write for Townhall as a conservative, yet I see no evidence that you are. In this case you spout liberal crap with your soldiers-kill-babies/invading-a-country-for-no-reason chattel. You’re comparing apples to oranges, and I’m pretty sure you know it.
Is there really that much difference between protesting someone’s funeral because of their support for homosexuality (what the Westboro crowd does) and protesting someone’s funeral because of their support for abortion (what you and 5% of this site’s readership would consider acceptable)? Either way, you’re disrupting a private event on the basis of the personal beliefs of someone who is dead and can’t even defend themselves and causing an untold amount of grief for the surviving family and friends, all in order to make some heavy-handed political statement.
Not really, I haven’t claimed to be right-wing on most issues for a while. And it’s obvious that soldiers do kill innocent people sometimes. That’s war, which is why we try to avoid completely unnecessary wars like Iraq. And we have a volunteer army, so you could argue that soldiers willingly sign up knowing that innocent people will be killed.
If his beliefs are sincere, doesn’t he have a right to picket funerals and express that belief? Aren’t you just expressing your beliefs by picketing abortion doctors’ funerals? You say it’s your moral obligation because abortion is wrong. Fred Phelps thinks it’s his obligation because tolerance of homosexuality is bringing God’s wrath on America. It’s all a matter of personal belief.
So, why are Fred Phelps’ actions wrong?
And I do write for Townhall sometimes, but if you look at the archives, I only do it rarely. For the most part, I’m a liberal.
If you say picketing abortionists’ funerals is okay, then you actually DO support Westboro Baptist Church’s actions. You support picketing funerals. You just disagree with Westboro’s particular message (God hates America). But you’re not against picketing funerals, so you believe their actions are not wrong, just the message. If they had bloody fetus signs instead of “God Hates Fags,” you’d be all for it.
You also said you support picketing funerals of NARAL directors and politicians, people who have never actually performed an abortion. I’m anti-war. It undeniably leads to civilian deaths. So if I picket a military funeral on the grounds that soldiers knowingly volunteer to kill civilians, do you support my right to do so? On what grounds would you say I’m wrong?
Ashley, you’re wrong to conclude that because I may see rationale in showing pictures of aborted babies at the funerals of certain abortion proponents or abortionists that I would see rationale in holding “God hates fags” signs at the funerals of American soldiers. It’s as simple as that. You’re being ridiculous.
Not really. You are cool with funeral pickets as long as it’s a message you support.
If I go to a military funeral and hold up a sign with a picture of dead civilians that says “The MILITARY KILLS INNOCENT PEOPLE”–which is true–do you support me? If no, why not? You can only argue that you disagree with my beliefs (war is wrong), not my tactics.
Ashley, seriously? Civilian casualties in times of war, particularly on the part of Americans, is unintentional. Killing babies by abortion is intentional.
It’s not always unintentional. There was that case of several soldiers raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her family. There was the Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam, where American soldiers killed civilians quite brutally. There are numerous examples So if I stand outside a military funeral with a sign that says “The military kills civilians” with gruesome pictures, why is that wrong?
You support picketing funerals, so long as you agree with the message. If Westboro Baptist Church started claiming God hates America because we allow abortion, you wouldn’t be opposed to them picketing with bloody fetus signs. You’re just trying to weasel your way out of it now.
And I’m guessing you agree with the Supreme Court’s ruling that Westboro–and therefore everyone else–has a right to picket funerals. You want to do it, right?
By the way, this site is mostly read by the dedicated pro-lifers. If 95% of the active pro-life community is against you, it’s time to rethink how militant you are.
Logically, you’re taking the side of Westboro against military families in the Supreme Court case. Unlike military families, you want a right to picket funerals. I therefore consider you on the side of Westboro.
Logically, I agree with the Supreme Court in the Westboro case. I think that fundamentally and legally, they have the right.
However, I think picketing a funeral for any reason is tasteless, evil, and should not happen. Legally, allowable – but I don’t support that group at all, and I find it baffling that even 5% of people on this board support it in cases of abortion leaders.
No, Ashley, I’m logically taking the side of the American Constitution.
The Supreme Court decision on Westboro Baptist (8-1, I might add, with conservative Alito being the lone dissent) was no different than the Supreme Court decision saying it was permissible to burn the American flag when it was the thing for malcontents to do back in the 60s and 70s. I may not like either one, but it’s a free speech issue.
We can’t start banning free speech we don’t like. The First Amendment is precisely in place to protect free speech we don’t like. There’s no need to protect free speech we like.
Speaking of Townhall, the consensus over there is that funeral pickets are vile and the Supreme Court was wrong to side with Westboro. Glad to know you’d take Westboro’s side in court over the side of military families.
I don’t think you have any right to get hissy about being compared to Fred Phelps when you undeniably support what he’s most notorious for: funeral pickets. 95% of the people who read this site think it’s horrifying, but not you.
Ashley,
You need to distinguish between the actions of a few rogue soldiers and U.S. Military Policy in time of war. The US has spent tens of billions of dollars on the development of smart bomb technology, and the production of these bombs, precisely to minimize civilian casualties. No other nation on earth has done so. That’s why it would be ridiculous to picket military funerals with signs saying we kill innocent civilians.
No, we need to move past squabbling over the merits over this or that person’s reasons for picketing a funeral. People can throw together all kinds of arguments for picketing funerals because they’re anti-war/anti-gay/anti-abortion. The only question that matters is, “Is picketing funerals okay?” For me, the answer is always no. Even if the deceased is a heinous abortion doctor.
Since the person is dead, funerals are mostly meant for the families. Sure, we say that the funeral is meant to “honor the dead,” but it’s really about the family and their emotional needs. For all you know, the majority of family members at an abortion doctor’s funeral could be pro-life.
Why not picket Jill Stanek’s funeral? As the funeral procession is going by, maybe some pro-choicers can stand on the sidewalk with pictures of coat hangers and women dead from illegal abortions, while screaming hatred at her family. You support that, right? What’s the moral difference between that and holding up fetus pictures at a politician’s funeral?
Anyone who pickets funerals or supports such pickets is an evil person. End of story.
Ashley, I would be thrilled were pro-aborts to picket my funeral, which they never would anyway. They’re too lazy and noncommitted to make such an effort. I would hoot from heaven. My family would smile, knowing I’d love that final badge of honor. I love that Keith Olbermann named me the Worst Person in the World. It’s even on my bio. It gets the biggest round of applause when read as an intro before I speak. You don’t get it.
Ashley, you’re apparently only now realizing I’m militant on abortion. To honor an abortionist in particular in death is the same to me as honoring Hitler. The thought of colleagues and pro-aborts trying to positively eulogize deceased abortionists makes me sick. They should view the pictures of aborted babies as trophies, as tributes, because they only show what the abortionist did. What’s wrong with that, if they’re so proud of it?
No justice, no peace.
Okay, Fred Phelps. You’ve completely dodged all my questions about what makes you more moral than him. Or why his pickets are wrong and yours are right.
At the very least, anyone who would stand outside a funeral with fetus pictures needs to get a life. By the way, being “militant” isn’t a badge of honor, it’s a word associated with al Qaeda and the Taliban.
You’re worse than the middle-aged perverts who screamed at me and held up bloody fetus pictures outside a family planning clinic. I’m sure screaming at a young, sexually active woman is titillating to them. I was actually going there for a pregnancy test and an ultrasound. I later called up the local Right to Life chapter and told them they better not put me down as one of their “saves.” They like to claim they saved a fetus if a woman goes into a clinic, then leaves. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t harass me out of an abortion. I wasn’t going to have one.
“The only question that matters is, “Is picketing funerals okay?” For me, the answer is always no. Even if the deceased is a heinous abortion doctor.”
No, that’s not the only question that matters. Picketing funerals is NOT OKAY in my opinion. But the court does not exist to answer whether something is “okay,” just whether it should be punishable by law. I would do almost anything to stop people from picketing at the funeral for another human being – just about the only thing I WOULDN’T do would be to legally bar them from doing so. Because there is no basis for that in our system of government.
Rights are protected in the Constitution because we will not always want to or be able to protect them ourselves. The right to free speech is bigger than any words anyone could ever use, no matter how harmful those words may be.
Ashley, stop. I have read enough. I agree with you about picketing funerals. I disagree with Jill though I understand where she is coming from and I respect her opinion even if I wouldn’t do it myself.
But to suggest that those who stand outside clinics trying to convince women like you not to abort are sexually titillated by the thought of you having sex. Pulease! Thats insulting. Don’t you wish someone had talked you out of your abortion?
If I saw a woman going into an abortion clinic I wouldn’t know why she was there. I would only know that that clinic is evil and that they KILL BABIES THERE. I would know that if a woman needed a pregnancy test and ultrasound she could get those services FOR FREE through a pro-life CPC and that she wouldn’t be subjected to intense sales pressure to BUY AN ABORTION!
I don’t agree with screaming at moms going into clinics but I have been one of those people standing outside of clinics waiting to help any mom who wanted another option. I know we’ve never met face to face but you seem to like me well enough on facebook and you know I care about you.
I just shake my head because I don’t know where this obsession with our views on sex is coming from. Its okay to disagree with Jill without being so vitriolic. I disagree with her too. But why the anger Ashley?
Don’t you wish someone had talked you out of your abortion?
Yes, but I’m just telling you a bunch of nasty old men holding up crosses and bloody fetus pictures were not going to do that. First of all, it’s weird to talk to men, in general, about your unplanned pregnancy. Especially if you don’t know them and they’re screaming “don’t kill your baby!” and “repent!” They were not approachable. They weren’t loving. My first instinct would be to avoid them like the plague. I have trouble believing any woman has ever changed her mind because of them. That’s why I called to tell them I was horrified by their tactics and to not put me down as a “save.” They certainly did not save my pregnancy, I did.
There were actually no protestors at all when I went for my abortion. It wasn’t in the best neighborhood.
As for the point about CPCs: I am going to one regularly. I never ended up getting the pregnancy test at the abortion/family planning clinic, since I snatched my ID and told the baby’s father to take me home. They wanted to charge me $100 upfront for a test and a “consultation.”
I’m against abortion. I think it made me an alcoholic. But Jill is seriously annoying me with her funeral-picketing crap. Look at the poll results. 95% of her readers think she’s a nut.
As someone who did it, I can tell you what works and what doesn’t when it comes to sidewalk counseling/protests, and dealing with women who defend their abortions.
Graphic signs are a no-no. They DO NOT WORK on women going in for abortions. There’s research showing that if you try to persuade people by showing them things that are too gruesome or too extreme, they’ll block it out and try to ignore it. (This hasn’t been tested with fetus pictures, but when people were shown gruesome images of Holocaust victims, they remembered way less information than the people who did not see the pictures.)
Screaming religious mantras at women is also insulting and presumptuous. First of all, you don’t know whether she’s a believer, so you’re making this all about your religious needs, not hers. Carrying around crosses and talking about repentence is a good way to get dismissed as a religious nut who’s there to preach, not stop abortions. I object to things like “Good Friday protests” by Christians. Are you there to stop abortions, or are you there to fulfill your own religious duties?
And I’d much rather be approached by women, not a swarm of men. Sorry, there’s something creepy and perverted about having a bunch of guys yell at you. But then again, I get weirded out by male gynecologists, so maybe it’s just me.
I’m not angry, I’m stressed out. I am seriously worried about my alcohol abuse (we’re talking non-stop drinking every day, sometimes up to 15 drinks) before I found out I was pregnant.
The Planned Parenthood I went to when I was 6 weeks the first time told me there was no way I’d give birth to a normal baby. I didn’t get my abortion there, but they did solidify my plans to get it done by telling me that. How SHAMEFUL is it to tell people your baby has fetal alcohol syndrome?
Does anyone have information on this? How much damage can you do before 4 weeks?
I did disagree on shutting down government NOT because I agree with PP, but because the very reason that we civilized people can find the solution of One problem at a time. I’m not sure but Nancy Pelosi is the one that said the we might be at risk of shutting down government…. Well as in the Constitution government is the WILL of the PEOPLE!! and is through WILL that with our differences we find the reason to stay together even if we disagree on any issue.
The Patriot Guard Riders take care of the cult of Fred Phelps.
http://www.godvine.com/Christian-Veterans-Protect-the-Funeral-of-a-Fallen-Soldier-278.html
I think i can see Ashley’s point… How can picketing a funeral be right with one message, and wrong with another? While it is A right to free speech anywhere, any message… is it right to picket funerals? If the answer is sometimes, then where is the line drawn? It’s ok to picket those associated with abortion, but not those associtaed with the military?
also, this is a real question to anyone who supports picketing abortionists funerals.
Ashley, “they” say you’re supposed to stop drinking before trying to become pregnant, but let’s be honest – a LOT, LOT, LOT of people have been drinkers up until they found out they were pregnant, and their babies were healthy. There are no actual stats on when unborn babies are affected by alcohol consumption. If you stopped drinking once you found out, chances are everything should be fine.
On one message board, I saw this: :Q&A: Alcohol and getting pregnant?
I have some genetically inheritied diseases in my family, and when I went to the genetic counsellor, she during the initial risk questionaire, told me that the baby doesn’t start pulling from your bloodstream until 4 weeks, or 2 weeks AFTER conception. So basically anything you’ve done before you find out cannot harm the baby. Plus people drank their entire pregnancies until just a few years when it was discovered to be harmful and most children turned out just fine. They tell you to abstain while trying to concieve because it helps your overall health, which in turn can help you concieve. But don’t beat yourself up for what you’ve done before you knew you were pregnant, chances are it has posed no risk to the baby.