It's The 1st Anniversary For The Misguided Dobbs Decision

 

The Dobbs Decision by the Supreme Court is now a year old. Michael Levenson (New York Times) gives us five things we need to know on this sad anniversary:

Here are five major changes detailed in The New York Times’s coverage of the first anniversary of the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which ended the constitutional right to abortion after nearly 50 years.

Some Republicans are struggling on the issue.

The Dobbs decision has reshaped the national political landscapein two seemingly contradictory ways. It has made abortion rights a significant electoral strength for Democrats and, often, a clear liability for Republicans. And yet, Republican-dominated states have moved swiftly to limit or ban access to abortion.

Those dueling forces have left some Republican lawmakers, strategists and activists struggling to find a consensus on abortion policy, and grappling with how to energize the party’s base on the issue without alienating swing voters.

Abortion policy has become particularly fraught for Republicans in competitive districts, as well as for some presidential candidates, whose uneasy attempts to strike a balance on the issue have highlighted the tensions rippling through the party in the post-Roe era.

New polling shows more support for abortion rights.

Polling over the last year has detected a notable shift in public opinion after decades of relative stasis: For the first time, a majority of Americans say abortion is “morally acceptable.” A majority of them now believe abortion laws are too strict. And for the first time in two decades, Americans are significantly more likely to identify as “pro-choice” than “pro-life.”

The increase in support for abortion rights could affect the 2024 presidential election. More voters than ever say they will vote onlyfor a candidate who shares their views on abortion. But Republicans and those who identify as “pro-life” are less motivated by the issue than Democrats and those who identify as “pro-choice,” who are far more concerned about abortion rights.

“This is a paradigm shift,” said Lydia Saad, the director for U.S. social research for Gallup, the polling firm. “There’s still a lot of ambivalence, there aren’t a lot of all-or-nothing people. But there is much more support for abortion rights than there was, and that seems to be here to stay.”

Clinics are closing, and not only in states with abortion bans.

In the year since Roe v. Wade was overturned, at least 61 clinics, Planned Parenthood facilities and doctors’ offices have stopped offering abortions. While most were in states that banned abortion outright, others closed because of the uncertain legality of abortion in their states. The closures forced many women to travel to states, such as Illinois and North Carolina, where abortion is legal. Clinics in those states have experienced an increase in demand.

About half of the providers that stopped providing abortions have shifted to offer other services, such as birth control and prenatal care. And at least a dozen providers opened new clinics in states that do not ban abortion.

Across the country, the number of average monthly abortions fell by about 3 percent in the nine months after the Supreme Court ruling.

Religious freedom arguments are fueling the fight against abortion bans.

For years, conservative Christians have cited the principle of religious freedom to secure legal victories in battles over issues like contraceptive insurance mandates and coronavirus pandemic restrictions. Now, abortion rights supporters are invoking the same principle to fight state abortion bans.

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, clergy members and followers of various religions, including Christian and Jewish denominations, have filed at least 15 lawsuits in at least eight states, saying abortion bans infringe on their faiths. Many argue that their religious beliefs permit abortion in at least some circumstances, and that bans violate religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

The lawsuits, which are still in the early stages, show “religious liberty doesn’t operate in one direction,” said Elizabeth Sepper, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Guam might show what post-Roe America could look like.

The tiny island of Guam, an American territory 1,600 miles south of Japan, has become the purest laboratory of what life might look like if abortion were banned entirely in the United States.

Though abortion is legal up to 13 weeks in Guam, the last abortion doctor left the island in 2018. The closest state in America with an abortion clinic is Hawaii, an eight-hour flight away. A pending court case could cut off access to abortion pills, the last legal method by which most women on Guam are able to end their pregnancies. And there is a push on the island to revive a near-total ban on abortions that was passed in 1990 and has been blocked by courts for three decades.

“Guam is a litmus test,” said Attorney General Douglas Moylan, a Republican who opposes abortion and appealed to the federal courts to lift the injunction on the 1990 ban. “If anti-abortion forces were to succeed anywhere in the United States, I would say Guam would be one of them.”

jobsanger Is 10 Years Old Today

(This image is from pl.dreamstime.com.)

Today marks the 10th anniversary of this blog. I wrote my first post on March 16th of 2006. In that 10 years I have posted 21,700 times, and have gotten over 2.93 million page views. And I have you readers to thank for that. I want you to know that I appreciate each and every one of you for continuing to read (even when I make you mad).

Now I start on my second 10 years, and I still have a lot to say.

Elizabeth Warren Celebrates The 3rd Anniversary of CFPB

Yesterday was the third anniversary of the date the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) became an independent agency, and began working to protect Americans from the shenanigans of Wall Street and the giant banks. One of the chief architects of that bureaus creation was Elizabeth Warren, and she was originally destined to be its first agency head.

But the Republicans decided they couldn't allow the president to have his first choice leading the agency -- so they blocked the nomination of Warren. It turned out to be a huge mistake for them, because she then ran for the Senate in Massachusetts and got elected. She is now a constant thorn in the side of Wall Street and the giant banks, and is in a good position to protect the CFPD from Republican attempts to destroy or weaken it.

 Yesterday, Senator Warren send the following e-mail to her supporters, celebrating the anniversary of the CFPB. I thought it was excellent, so I reprint it here in case you haven't seen it.

Not long ago, I was at a McDonald's when a man came over, held out his hand and said he had been having trouble with a fee his bank had charged. It wasn't huge, but he said the bank should not have charged him. He called and argued, talked with customer relations, asked to speak to a manager -- and he got a big, fat zero.

Then he said he remembered about the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and told the bank he would file a complaint. They put him on hold and then came back and said they would reverse the fee. The agency worked.

Today is the fourth anniversary of Dodd-Frank, the law that established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- and the third anniversary of the date the CFPB became an independent agency. And in those three years, the agency has done a lot to help level the playing field.

• The CFPB has forced big financial companies to return more than $4 billion dollars to consumers they cheated.


• The CFPB has put in place rules to protect consumers from a whole host of dangerous financial products and to make sure that companies can't issue the kinds of deceptive mortgages that contributed to millions of foreclosures.


• The CFPB has helped tens of thousands of consumers resolve complaints against financial institutions that cheated them. 

Sure, there is a lot of financial reform work left undone. The big banks today are dramatically bigger than they were in 2008 and they are taking on new risks, and I think that means we need a 21st Century Glass-Steagall law to break them up. But I celebrate the progress we've had so far: When big banks have to listen to their customers a little more, the playing field starts to level out just a little bit more.    

The big banks spent more than a million dollars a day lobbying against financial reforms, and top lobbyists said that killing off the consumer agency was their number one priority.  Even now, the Republicans continue the attack, introducing bills that would take the legs out from under the agency.

We didn't have the lobbying muscle or the money that the big banks had. But we got that agency because we fought for it. We joined forces online and through groups, and we made our voices heard. And now, after three years, it's starting to work.

I smiled at the guy who said he got his money back. I smiled because I love to hear how the CFPB works. But mostly I smiled because it reminded me of what we can do when we fight.  

Happy anniversary!

Elizabeth

Texas Not Celebrating Its Confederate Treachery

On February 1, 1861, exactly 150 years ago, the state of Texas seceded from the United States and joined 12 other states in the Confederate States of America. Texas then joined those other states in declaring and engaging in war on the United States -- a violent and traitorous action. While only five minor battles were actually fought in Texas, over 90,000 Texans fought for the Confederacy in many battles throughout the war (out of a total free population of 419,000).

Some Southern states are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Confederacy, and trying to rewrite history to redefine the causes of the Civil War. By claiming the war was not about slavery (which it obviously was about) but instead over states' rights or economic issues, they can justify their celebration of the treacherous event.

Fortunately, Texas is not one of those states celebrating the dubious anniversary. There are no official state-sanctioned events commemorating Texas secession. Even the state's far-right Republican leadership wants no part of celebrating the fight to keep slavery legal. But that brings up the question of why. When many of its Confederate brethren are celebrating, why is Texas not doing so? I think there are several reasons, and some of them are:

* Texas is well on its way to becoming a state where minorities will soon make up the majority of the population. Celebrating slavery and white supremacy is just not smart politics.

* In the last few decades Texas has grown rapidly due to immigration from other states, and many of those people came from north of the Mason-Dixon line. These new Texans do not have Confederate ancestors and have no wish to celebrate the institution of slavery (or the fight to keep it).

* While Texas had 181,000 slaves when they seceded, they were primarily located in East Texas and the Gulf Coast. After the war, Texas' history was mostly involved in a Cowboy/Western tradition, and today most Texans identify more with that tradition than a Southern one.

* At least a third of its non-slave population voted to stay in the Union (including Texas' most revered hero, Sam Houston, who was run out of the state for not swearing allegiance to the Confederacy). Four counties voted to stay in the Union, and in one of them (Cooke County) there were over 50 people hung for remaining loyal to the United States. Other counties also had such instances of Texan against Texan, and even today there are hard feelings among some over these events.

I'm sure there may be more reasons for Texas to avoid making itself look foolish by celebrating the Confederacy. As a life-long Texan (whose family has been in the state for several generations), I am just happy that there are no official celebrations. Our current Republican leaders have given the state enough to be embarrassed about without dredging up this unsavory bit of history.

All Texans should remember the horrible mistake Texas made by seceding from the Union and fighting to keep slavery. We should remember it so we don't ever repeat it. But it is certainly nothing to celebrate.

Cuba Turns 50

January 1, 2009 is a doubly special day for Cuba. In addition to celebrating the start of a new year with the rest of the world, that date will mark the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution. On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and his revolutionary army drove the dictator Batista away and set up the current government structure.

Cuba has changed a lot in the last 50 years. Batista had sold out to American corporations and criminal elements, and cared nothing for the Cuban people. Most Cubans were poor and lacked adequate food, access to even simple medical care, and had no hope of getting an education to try and better themselves.

Today, all Cubans are given a free education, and Cuba has one of the highest literacy rates anywhere in the Americas. They also have quality free medical care.

The island still has a lot of poverty, but government programs see to it that no one starves. Some blame the economic system (communist) for Cuba's current poverty. Others blame the American embargo, which has been in effect for most of the 50 years. The United States has intentionally tryed to destroy the Cuban economy in an effort to force them to once again submit to the tyranny of American corporations.

I suspect their economic condition is a result of both their system and our embargo. Now that we have a new president coming into office, I hope he has the good sense and courage to end the embargo. We can just look at the last 50 years to know we are not going to force the Cuban government to do anything. In addition, we simply don't have the right to try to force our system on any other country.

Does Cuba have problems? Yes (and so do we for that matter). They could use more freedom of speech and a better economy. But instead of trying to force them to change, we should remove the embargo and re-establish trade and contact with them. It's much easier to encourage change in a friend than an enemy. Also, the trade would benefit the economies of both countries.

Happy Birthday, Cuba!! I hope our countries can soon be friends, and that each of us can work out our problems and plan for our futures without interference from the other.