<\/p>\n
\nI find myself somewhat depressed by what’s going on in this\nmoment. A year ago, millions of us watched with great hope the inauguration of\nPresident Obama. I did not expect him to be a miracle worker, given the\noverwhelming crises he inherited from George Bush — an economic meltdown, two\nwars, an out-of-control deficit, and a crisis of faith in our government and\npublic institutions. The Office of the President had lost all credibility as\nthe multiple lies and manipulations of the Bush-Cheney administration brought\nour country to its knees.\n<\/p>\n
\nPresident Obama had a full-blown mess on his hands. He\nneeded to prioritize saving the economy, ending the wars, combating terrorism,\nenacting health care reform, and restoring trust in the government before he\ncould get to the main issues I wanted as a reproductive justice activist. I\nfully understood that we had elected a neo-liberal to beat back a neo-fascist\nagenda. So his support for Wall Street, for corporations, for moneyed interests\n— while disappointing — was not surprising. He had to have centrist,\npro-business politics to get elected. After all, this is the America I know,\nlove, and criticize.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe author talks about the racial and economic dynamics of abortion, STDs, teen pregnancy and health care.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\nWhat was truly disappointing was the way President Obama\nflinched every time support for abortion came up in policy debates — from the\nstimulus bill to healthcare reform. As Sharon Camp from the Guttmacher\nInstitute puts it, "He can’t make eye contact with abortion," an observation\nthose of us in the reproductive justice movement can’t help but agree with. His\nfailure to stand up for the human rights of women — and to trust us — began to\nmake me wonder about his commitment to those of us who were his core\nconstituents and helped elect him. He’s like the prom date I had last night who\ncan’t remember my name this morning.\n<\/p>\n
\nIn many ways, his failure of leadership on abortion rights\nhas made things worse. In the healthcare reform debates, we have Democratic\npoliticians increasing restrictions on access to abortion. President Obama\nopenly supported the Hyde Amendment prohibiting the use of federal funds for\nabortions for poor women, women in the military, and women receiving healthcare from the Indian Health Service. Instead of dismantling Hyde, he’s\ndefending it, while not understanding that a country that can be persuaded that\npoor women are second class citizens who don’t deserve funding for abortions\ncan morph into a country that believes that all poor people don’t deserve\nfunding for healthcare at all.\n<\/p>\n
\nSo as I continue SisterSong’s work of building a movement of\nwomen of color for reproductive justice, I wonder what the New Year will bring.\nWill we finally begin to see White House leadership help us save the lives of\nwomen of color who desperately need us to stand up for them? Will national\npolitical leaders wake up to the reality that poor women and rural women in\nstates like Kentucky suffer most when the federal government compromises on\naccess to reproductive health care? Will\nPresident Obama offer policies to substantiate his brilliant rhetoric? Will he\nsupport our human rights to have children, or to not have children? To parent\nour children in safe and healthy environments which are the cornerstones of\nreproductive justice?\n<\/p>\n
\nThe tea baggers on the right who loathe his agenda are\nthe least of his problems. The diminishing faith among those in his core base\nshould really worry him. How can we be motivated to come out to the polls when\nwe doubt whether our needs are his priority?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I find myself somewhat depressed by what’s going on in this moment. A year ago, millions of us watched with great hope the inauguration of President Obama. I did not expect him to be a miracle worker, given the overwhelming crises he inherited from George Bush — an economic meltdown, two wars, an out-of-control deficit, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5114,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-268764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268764\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}