Abortion: The Susan B. Anthony "List"

MediaMatters Action Network reports that "the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List has released a new ad targeting Senator Harry Reid's position on abortion. Keeping with the conservative habit of broadcasting bald-faced lies, this new ad is full of misinformation and distortions because it references legislation that hasn't been written yet."

List? List? Didn't McCarthy have a list or two?



Now, I ask you, doesn't it gall you just a little bit that this conservative woman's anti-abortion group is besmirching and highjacking the name of a woman who was the absolute antithesis of anything and everything these self-righteous types represent.

Susan B. Anthony, according to Wikipedia, was the woman who was the driving force behind women's rights over 150 years ago and an active critic of slavery. She also championed temperance but remember, she was born into a Quaker family way back in 1820.

. . . .a woman should be allowed to refuse sex with her husband; the American woman had no legal recourse at that time against rape by her husband. Anthony spoke very little on the subject of abortion. Of primary importance to Anthony was the granting to woman the right to her own body which she saw as an essential element for the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, using abstinence as the method. In The Revolution, Anthony wrote in 1869 about the subject, arguing that instead of merely attempting to pass a law against abortion, the root cause must also be addressed.

Simply passing an anti-abortion law would, she wrote, "be only mowing off the top of the noxious weed, while the root remains." Anthony continued: "Guilty? Yes, no matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh! thrice guilty is he who, for selfish gratification, heedless of her prayers, indifferent to her fate, drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime.

This was pretty radical thinking for the time. Given her progressive actions, thoughts and writings, I have no doubt that by 2009, Anthony would have evolved with the times and become an active supporter of abortion. She had the intellectual capacity to think through and address the needs of her time and I firmly believe that she would be just as progressive by today's standards.

I also think she would take a dim view of any conservative group usurping her name to further their own narrow beliefs. One thing for sure, she would get her facts straight and I think she might just give them the ole international sign while doing it.