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Is Kelly Ayotte With Sarah Palin On Choice? You Betcha!

by: PaulHodes

Mon May 17, 2010 at 15:45:09 PM EDT


( - promoted by Dean Barker)

[The following is a post from Valerie Martin, my campaign manager]

On Saturday, Laura Clawson posed an interesting question to Kos readers, one that is definitely worth answering.  So, is Ayotte with Palin on abortion?

You betcha.

PaulHodes :: Is Kelly Ayotte With Sarah Palin On Choice? You Betcha!
Kelly Ayotte is the most anti-choice woman to run for statewide office in New Hampshire history.  So it came as no surprise to see Ayotte front and center at Palin's anti-choice Susan B. Anthony event in Washington, or to see Palin single Ayotte out as a "bold, brave" candidate. Their friendship is not only the latest blow to the conventional "wisdom" that Kelly Ayotte was going to run as a moderate Republican candidate - but it is a frightening example of how she would be a starkly anti-choice, right-wing Senator.

When it comes to a woman's control over her own body, Kelly Ayotte is as right-wing as they come. She's been actively campaigning against choice in the Republican primary, and her appearance at the Susan B. Anthony event with Palin shows exactly what kind of Senator she would be.  Furthermore, she has a frightening record from her time as attorney general in New Hampshire.

During her tenure in the AG's Office, the courts here struck down an anti-choice state law because it lacked an explicit exception for health emergencies. What does that mean? It means that New Hampshire's law was so narrow that it wouldn't allow choice - even when it was necessary to save a young woman's health.

Federal courts found this unconstitutional, but Kelly Ayotte disagreed. So she decided on her own, over the objections of the Governor and the will of the overwhelmingly pro-choice people of New Hampshire, to spend taxpayer money to take Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood all the way to the Supreme Court.

This is no middle-of-the-road position. There is nothing moderate about a woman so anti-choice that she opposed safeguards in the moments when a woman's health is threatened by her pregnancy.

New Hampshire women are fierce when it comes to freedom. In a state where we 'live free or die,' our ability to have control over our own bodies is as fundamental as our grassroots involvement in who we elect to represent us.

In 2008, New Hampshire rejected Sarah Palin, a far-right, anti-choice woman who abandoned her office to run for a higher one.

In 2010, it looks like Kelly Ayotte is giving us a chance to do that again.

(Cross-posted at Daily Kos)

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , (All Tags)
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It's Still Surprising To Me... (0.00 / 0)
...or should I say, mighty disappointing to me, that John McCain choose Sarah Palin as his running mate.  

What was he thinking?

I'd kind of like to see her run in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary in 2012, if for no other reason that Republican voters, who aren't as far-confused (I don't want to associate the word "right" with her) as she is, would be able to quiz her in their living rooms and town meeting halls.  That format hasn't been happening in her mega-forums where she's been able to stand behind a podium.  

She only has two palms on which to write the quickie taking points.  


abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion (0.00 / 0)
What does that mean? It means that New Hampshire's law was so narrow that it wouldn't allow choice - even when it was necessary to save a young woman's health.

What you're trying not to say is that NH's law was so narrow that it wouldn't allow ABORTION - even when it was necessary to save a young woman's health.

Abortion is a legal procedure. It's under siege, these days. The fascists are winning. And one reason they're winning is because the Democratic Party, which has always been the party that was supposed to defend a woman's right to privacy and bodily autonomy.

It would be a lot easier to keep abortion legal, if Democrats weren't such weenies about even discussing a woman's right to a LEGAL medical procedure.  


Beware of nets that sweep too large.... (0.00 / 0)
  I seem to recall that in the NH House, most Democrats and some Rs as well spent a lot of time in the last four years standing up for a woman's right to choose.  To be called a weenie afterwards is irksome, to say the very least.

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. --Marcus Aurelius, courtesy of Paul Berch

[ Parent ]
yes (4.00 / 1)
I remember how bravely Democrats fought against Bart Stupak.  

[ Parent ]
I really see people who oppose abortion (2.00 / 2)
as some of the worst humans out there - especially if it's a woman who opposes it.  Kelly Ayotte and the rest of her gang of self-hating (and woman-hating) abortion opponents are for making a woman die instead of getting a life-saving medical procedure.  They'd rather see a rape victim carry a fetus around for nine months and then force these poor women to give the baby up for adoption than get an abortion.  

A fetus is NOT alive!!  It doesn't matter how long since it's been conceived.  I'm sick and tired of the GOP driving this debate talking about "late term abortions" as though there is such a thing.  Abortion at 8 months is no different than abortion at 2 months - it's still a woman's right to choose.

What Kelly Ayotte and Sarah Palin believe sickens me, and I believe it sickens the people of NH.  (Future) Senator Hodes, thank you for posting this and making it an issue for your campaign.


Treating The Opposing View With Respect (0.00 / 0)
I do think we have to realize that there are divisions of opinion on this very important topic.  

While I've been pro-choice since the time I voted for the first "modern" choice bill sponsored by then-Representative Jean Wallin in 1969 -- and never voted for any restriction since then whatever -- we should remember that very good people differ on this subject.  

I suspect that choice issues will be debated and voted on 50, even 100 years from now, and as we've seen in the polls the view of the American public does fluctuate.  

Fortunately, most people continue to support choice, and I think the way we encourage that point of view is to use logic, make our case with examples, tell the stories of those who must make that choice, and not marginize those with whom we differ.  Certainly not consider them anything other than with respect.  


[ Parent ]
why? (4.00 / 1)
Why should women consider these people with respect? Not only do they have no respect for women, their privacy, and their bodily autonomy - they are almost always the same people who want to destroy the very same social safety net that would help women with children.

We should respect this?

I don't have an iota of respect for Bart Stupak. I lost all respect for Nancy Pelosi when she caved in to his demands. Pelosi didn't go on the Sunday talk shows explaining how the Hyde Amendment made Stupak's assertions irrelevant. There were no press conferences, no big media interviews pointing out that Stupak was a lying bag of dirt. Instead, Stupak was catered to, his demands were met, he got the lions share of media coverage, and now (thanks to all of that)  we have a nation full of idiots who still believe that the gummint is paying for abortions.  

I should respect this?    I think not.


[ Parent ]
Because... (4.00 / 1)
...that's the way we beat them.  And since they are many -- still almost half the country -- we can't hate them.  It's their point of view that we have to change.  Just like marriage equality.  We're most persuasive when we can look them in the eye, and get them to look us in the eye.

Then the dialogue is possible.


[ Parent ]
there's a big difference (4.00 / 1)
between this and marriage equality, Jim. We aren't fighting for our legal right to own our own bodies - we already have it.

Abortion is legal. There is no need to pander to those who hate women, and wish to control us. It shouldn't even be a topic of discussion.


[ Parent ]
Hypocrisy (4.00 / 2)
Love the fetus, hate the child.  The hypocrisy just makes one want to vomit.

[ Parent ]
I would just remind us (0.00 / 0)
that if the people who oppose choice win the majority, they will oppose a lot of other things.  If the far right supporters of Kelly Ayotte have their way, they could do a lot of damage to the country.

These are the people who claim to be for women's rights but oppose abortion.  They are the same people who claim to support babies and children but will gladly take away WIC and free school breakfast/lunches.  They claim to be for good health care but would make it a pre-existing condition to be a woman, would deny children with congenital abnormalities the health insurance they need to get life-saving health care, and would give power over your health care choices to big insurance companies.

Jim, I understand where you're coming from, but I could care less if 90% of the country sided with the GOP (thank goodness that'll never happen) - I can't have respect for people who want these things for me and the citizens of this great country.


[ Parent ]

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