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Today's
Stories
November
4, 2003
Tariq
Ali
Resistance
and Independence in Iraq
November 3, 2003
Patrick
Cockburn
The
Bloodiest Day Yet for Americans in Iraq: Report from Fallujah
Dave Lindorff
Philly's
Buggy Election
Janine Pommy Vega
Sarajevo Hands 2003
Bernie
Dwyer
An
Interview with Chomsky on Cuba
November
1 / 2, 2003
Saul Landau
Cui
Bono? The Cuba Embargo as Rip Off
Noam Chomsky
Empire of the Men of Best Quality
Bruce
Jackson
Midge Decter and the Taxi Driver
Brian Cloughley
"Mow the Whole Place Down"
John Stanton
The Pentagon's Love Affair with Land Mines
William S. Lind
Bush's Bizarre Korean Gambit
Ben Tripp
The Brown Paste on Bush's Shoes
Christopher Brauchli
Divine Hatred
Dave Zirin
An Interview with John Carlos
Agustin Velloso
Oil in Equatorial Guinea: Where Trickle Down Doesn't Trickle
Josh Frank
Howard Dean and Affirmative Action
Ron Jacobs
Standing Up to El Diablo: the 1981 Blockade of Diablo Canyon
Strickler
/ Hermach
Liar, Liar Forests on Fire
David Vest
Jimmy T99 Nelson, a Blues Legend and the Songs that Made Him
Famous
Adam Engel
America, What It Is
Dr. Susan Block
Christy Canyon, a Life in Porn
Poets'
Basement
Greeder, Albert & Guthrie
October 31, 2003
Lee Ballinger
Making
a Dollar Out of 15 Cents: The Sweatshops of Sean "P. Diddy"
Combs
Wayne
Madsen
The
GOP's Racist Trifecta
Michael Donnelly
Settling for Peanuts: Democrats Trick the Greens, Treat Big Timber
Patrick
Cockburn
Baghdad
Diary: Iraqis are Naming Their New Babies "Saddam"
Elaine
Cassel
Coming
to a State Near You: The Matrix (Interstate Snoops, Not the Movie)
Linda Heard
An Arab View of Masonry
October 30, 2003
Forrest
Hylton
Popular
Insurrection and National Revolution in Bolivia
Eric Ruder
"We Have to Speak Out!": Marching with the Military
Families
Dave Lindorff
Big
Lies and Little Lies: The Meaning of "Mission Accomplished"
Philip
Adams
"Everyone is Running Scared": Denigrating Critics of
Israel
Sean Donahue
Howard Dean: a Hawk in a Dove's Cloak
Robert
Jensen
Big Houses & Global Justice: A Moral Level of Consumption?
Alexander
Cockburn
Paul
Krugman: Part of the Problem
October
29, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Thieves
Like Us: Cheney's Backdoor to Halliburton
Robert Fisk
Iraq Guerrillas Adopt a New Strategy: Copy the Americans
Rick Giombetti
Let
Them Eat Prozac: an Interview with David Healy
The Intelligence
Squad
Dark
Forces? The Military Steps Up Recruiting of Blacks
Elaine
Cassel
Prosecutors
as Therapists, Phantoms as Terrorists
Marie Trigona
Argentina's War on the Unemployed Workers Movement
Gary Leupp
Every
Day, One KIA: On the Iraq War Casualty Figures
October
28, 2003
Rich Gibson
The
Politics of an Inferno: Notes on Hellfire 2003
Uri Avnery
Incident
in Gaza
Diane
Christian
Wishing
Death
Robert
Fisk
Eyewitness
in Iraq: "They're Getting Better"
Toni Solo
Authentic Americans and John Negroponte
Jason
Leopold
Halliburton in Iran
Shrireen Parsons
When T-shirts are Verboten
Chris
White
9/11
in Context: a Marine Veteran's Perspective
October 27, 2003
William
A. Cook
Ministers
of War: Criminals of the Cloth
David
Lindorff
The
Times, Dupes and the Pulitzer
Elaine
Cassel
Antonin
Scalia's Contemptus Mundi
Robert
Fisk
Occupational Schizophrenia
John Chuckman
Banging Your Head into Walls
Seth Sandronsky
Snoops R Us
Bill Kauffman
George
Bush, the Anti-Family President
October
25 / 26, 2003
Robert
Pollin
The
US Economy: Another Path is Possible
Jeffrey St. Clair
Outsourcing US Guided Missile Technology to China
James
Bunn
Plotting
Pre-emptive Strikes
Saul Landau
Should Limbaugh Do Time?
Ted Honderich
Palestinian Terrorism, Morality & Germany
Thomas Nagy
Saving the Army of Peace
Christopher
Brauchli
Between Bush and a Lobotomy: Killing Endangered Species for Profit
Laura Carlsen
Latin America's Archives of Terror
Diane
Christian
Evil Acts & Evil Actors
Muqtedar Khan
Lessons from the Imperial Adventure in Iraq
John Feffer
The Tug of War on the Korea Peninsula
Brian Cloughley
Iraq War Memories are Made of Lies
Benjamin
Dangl
and Kathryn Ledebur
An Uneasy Peace in Bolivia
Karyn
Strickler
Down
with Big Brother's Spying Eyes
Noah Leavitt
Legal Globalization
John Stanton
Hitler's Ghost Haunts America
Mickey
Z.
War of the Words
Adam Engel
Tractatus Ridiculous
Poets'
Basement
Curtis, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Project Last Stand
October
24, 2003
Kurt Nimmo
Ashcroft's
War on Greenpeace
Lenni Brenner
The Demographics of American Jews
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Rockets,
Napalm, Torpedoes and Lies: the Attack on the USS Liberty Revisited
Sarah Weir
Cover-up of the Israeli Attack on the US Liberty
David
Krieger
WMD Found in DC: Bush is the Button
Mohammed Hakki
It's Palestine, Stupid!: Americans and the Middle East
Harry
Browne
Northern
Ireland: the Agreement that Wasn't
October
23, 2003
Diane
Christian
Ruthlessness
Kurt Nimmo
Criticizing Zionism
David Lindorff
A General Theory of Theology
Alan Maass
The Future of the Anti-War Movement
William
Blum
Imperial
Indifference
Stew Albert
A Memo
October
22, 2003
Wayne
Madsen
Religious
Insanity Runs Rampant
Ray McGovern
Holding
Leaders Accountable for Lies
Christopher
Brauchli
There's
No Civilizing the Death Penalty
Elaine
Cassel
Legislators
and Women's Bodies
Bill Glahn
RIAA
Watch: the New Morality of Capitalism
Anthony Arnove
An Interview with Tariq Ali
October 21, 2003
Uri Avnery
The
Beilin Agreement
Robert Jensen
The Fundamentalist General
David
Lindorff
War Dispatch from the NYT: God is on Our Side!
William S. Lind
Bremer is Deaf to History
Bridget
Gibson
Fatal Vision
Alan Haber
A Human Chain for Peace in Ann Arbor
Peter
Linebaugh
On the Bicentennial of the Hanging of Thomas Russell
October
20, 2003
Standard
Schaefer
Chile's
Failed Economy: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Chris
Floyd
Circus Maximus: Arnie, Enron and Bush Maul California
Mark Hand
Democrats Seek to Disappear Chomsky
& Nader
John &
Elaine Mellencamp
Peaceful
World
Elaine
Cassel
God's
General Unmuzzled
October
18 / 19, 2003
Robert
Pollin
Clintonomics:
the Hollow Boom
Gary Leupp
Israel, Syria and Stage Four in the Terror War
Saul Landau
Day of the Gropenfuhrer
Bruce Anderson
The California Recall
John Gershman
Bush in Asia: What a Difference a Decade Makes
Nelson P. Valdes
Bush, Electoral Politics and Cuba's "Illicit Sex Trade"
Kurt Nimmo
Shock Therapy and the Israeli Scenario
Tom Gorman
Al Franken and Al-Shifa
Brian
Cloughley
Public Propaganda and the Iraq War
Joanne Mariner
A New Way to Kill Tigers
Denise
Low
The Cancer of Sprawl
Mickey Z.
The Reverend of Doom
John Chuckman
US Missiles for Israeli Nukes?
George Naggiar
A Veto of Public Diplomacy
Alison
Weir
Death Threats in Berkeley
Benjamin Dangl
Bolivian Govt. Falling Apart
Ron Jacobs
The Politics of Bob Dylan
Fidel Castro
A Review of Garcia Marquez's Memoir
Adam Engel
I Hope My Corpse Gives You the Plague
Poets' Basement
Jones, Albert, Guthrie and Greeder
October
17, 2003
Stan Goff
Piss
On My Leg: Perception Control and the Stage Management of War
Newton
Garver
Bolivia
in Turmoil
Standard
Schaefer
Grocery Unions Under Attack
Ben Terrall
The Ordeal of the Lockheed 52
Ron Jacobs
First Syria, Then Iran
David
Lindorff
Michael
Moore Proclaims Mumia Guilty
October
16, 2003
Marjorie
Cohn
Bush
Gunning for Regime Change in Cuba
Gary Leupp
"Getting Better" in Iraq
Norman
Solomon
The US Press and Israel: Brand Loyalty and the Absence of Remorse
Rush Limbaugh
The 10 Most Overrated Athletes of All Time
Lenni
Brenner
I
Didn't Meet Huey Newton. He Met Me
Website of the Day
Time Tested Books
October
15, 2003
Sunil
Sharma / Josh Frank
The
General and the Governor: Two Measures of American Desperation
Forrest
Hylton
Dispatch
from the Bolivian War: "Like Animals They Kill Us"
Brian
Cloughley
Those
Phony Letters: How Bush Uses GIs to Spread Propaganda About Iraq
Ahmad
Faruqui
Lessons
of the October War
Uri Avnery
Three
Days as a Living Shield
Website
of the Day
Rank and File: the New Unity Partnership Document
JoAnn
Wypijewski
The
New Unity Partnership:
A Manifest Destiny for Labor
October 14, 2003
Eric Ridenour
Qibya
& Sharon: Anniversary of a Massacre
Elaine
Cassel
The
Disgrace That is Guantanamo
Robert
Jensen
What the "Fighting Sioux" Tells Us About White People
David Lindorff
Talking Turkey About Iraq
Patrick
Cockburn
US Troops Bulldoze Crops
VIPS
One Person Can Make a Difference
Toni Solo
The CAFTA Thumbscrews
Peter
Linebaugh
"Remember
Orr!"
Website
of the Day
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Behold,
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Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
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CounterPunch Exclusive:
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November
4, 2003
A Right Today, A Crime
Tomorrow
When
Opponents of Abortion Dream...
By KARYN STRICKLER
Under Roe v. Wade, the 1973 U.S.
Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal, a woman's decision
to have an abortion in the first two trimesters of pregnancy
is legal. In the case of late-term abortions, in the third trimester,
or roughly after fetal viability, states may regulate or even
proscribe abortion except where it's necessary to save the life
or health of the woman. Ever since 1973, those who oppose the
right to choose safe and legal abortion have been plotting to
overturn Roe v. Wade, despite the fact that late-term abortions
may be limited by states except where continuing the pregnancy
jeopardizes a woman's life or health.
A so-called "partial birth"
abortion ban that just passed the U.S. Senate and ostensibly
bans a particular type of late-term abortion procedure. However,
the ban contains no mention of the stage of pregnancy to which
the ban applies in the legislation - not viability, weeks of
gestation, or number of trimesters. The definition of so-called
"partial birth" abortion in the bill is so broad that
it can be interpreted to ban all abortion. The ban passed the
U.S. House and U.S. Senate by wide margins, will soon be signed
by George W. Bush and will become the law of the land unless
pro-choice forces have the law enjoined.
With a few exceptions, many in the pro-choice
community, Congress and the mainstream media continued for more
than eight years to debate the issue on terms offered by anti-abortion
advocates, talking in graphic terms about late-term abortion,
instead of pointing out that these bans were simply a pretext
for banning all abortion. The passage of the ban was due in no
small part to this deliberate, avoidance strategy on the part
of many prominent, national leaders. The pro-choice forces lost
both the legislative and public opinion battles.
The Anti-abortion Activist's Dream
Begins
The scenario that anti-choice advocated
hope will occur when this legislation becomes the law of the
United States, goes something like this:
Despite efforts to the contrary, the
pro-choice community is unable to enjoin the ban and it takes
effect. Then one of the nine Justices on the United States Supreme
Court retires. George W. Bush's singular criterion for filling
the vacancy is that the new Justice will vote to overturn Roe
v. Wade, outlawing abortion. Democrats in the U.S. Senate lose
their nerve and tire of fighting and they confirm Bush's nominee.
The vote on the Supreme Court before the new nominee is confirmed,
is 5-4 to uphold Roe v. Wade. With the new nominee, the vote
is 5-4 to overturn that landmark decision, given the right case.
Even if more than one Justice were needed to overturn Roe, the
same scenario applies.
The local, anti-abortion prosecutor in
Utah has the neighborhood physician arrested, proposing life
imprisonment, for performing an early abortion using standard
methods. The anti-abortion prosecutor charges the doctor with
performing a "partial birth" abortion. The pro-choice
advocates file a case asking for the doctor's release saying
that the abortion performed by the doctor was not a "partial
birth" abortion, because it was done early in pregnancy
and used standard procedures that do not fit the definition of
so-called, "partial birth" abortion.
The case goes to court where the anti-abortion
prosecutor argues that after all, the legislation that bans "partial
birth" abortion does not mention any stage of pregnancy
to which the ban applies, so it is irrelevant that the doctor
performed an early abortion. The doctor is liable for abortions
performed at any stage of pregnancy, they argue. The anti-abortion
advocates contend that their definition of "partial birth"
abortion is broad enough to include all types of abortion, that
in fact any doctor who performs any abortion at any stage of
pregnancy is liable for prosecution under the so-called "partial
birth" abortion ban.
Anti-abortion advocates offer examples
from history that help to prove their case. They remind the judge
that on May 14, 1998 every abortion clinic in Wisconsin ceased
operations when a federal judge refused to block a state law
banning "partial birth" abortion. Doctors said the
ban was so broad that they could face life imprisonment for performing
any abortion at any stage of pregnancy -- even for those using
standard methods early in pregnancy.
The case makes its way through the conservative,
federal court system to the United States Supreme Court. As a
part of their case, anti-abortion advocates present an actual
letter, dated March 18, 1996, written by six staunchly anti-abortion
U.S. Congressmen including Henry Hyde, Charles Canady and James
Sensenbrenner on an earlier version of the bill: "H.R. 1833
does not ban 'D&X' or 'Brain Suction' abortions...the ban
would have the effect of prohibiting any abortion [that meets
our definition]...no matter what the abortionist decides to call
his particular technique." They use this letter to show
that the legislative history proves that it was their intent
since the beginning to ban all abortion.
Anti-abortion advocates tell the Supreme
Court to look at the definition of partial birth abortion from
the legislation. In that bill, S3, the term "partial-birth
abortion" means an abortion in which -- "(A) the person
performing the abortion deliberately and intentionally vaginally
delivers a living fetus until, in the case of a head-first presentation,
the entire fetal head is outside the body of the mother, or,
in the case of breech presentation, any part of the fetal trunk
past the navel is outside the body of the mother for the purpose
of performing an overt act that the person knows will kill the
partially delivered living fetus; and "(B) performs the
overt act, other than completion of delivery, that kills the
partially delivered living fetus..."
While the definition may seem to apply
to a specific, late-term abortion procedure, anti-abortion advocates
believe that all fetuses, at all stages of development are "living,"
from the moment of conception. In all vaginal abortions, at all
stages of pregnancy, the fetus comes outside of the woman's body
either head-first or in a breech presentation. They believe that
all abortions, at all stages of pregnancy constitute "an
overt act of intentional killing," regardless of the reason
for the abortion. So in their minds, all abortions, at all stages
of pregnancy fit the definition in the "partial birth"
abortion ban.
They claim that if anti-abortion leaders
had wanted to ban a particular type of late-term abortion procedure,
they could have done that by specifying a stage of pregnancy
and naming particular procedures with standard medical terminology.
They consciously chose a definition that can be interpreted to
broadly ban abortion. Moreover, they argue, the vote in favor
of the ban in the U.S. Congress was overwhelming, demonstrating
strong support for making all abortion illegal.
The Justices deliberate. A majority of
Justices do not care about 30 years of precedent supporting constitutional
protection of the right to choose safe and legal abortion. They
are looking for a justification for making abortion illegal.
They feel this case gives them strong grounds on which to justify
their positions. After all, they saw the Justices who made the
decision in Roe v. Wade as activists. Now it is their turn. The
court room is packed with advocates for and against the right
to choose safe and legal abortion. They wait. The tension in
the air is palpable as they breathlessly await the decision of
the Supreme Court. The gavel comes down in what seems like slow
motion and Roe v. Wade is....overturned?
The right to choose safe and legal abortion
vanishes. Women are hurled backwards into the dark days when
women who need access to safe abortion services must once again
risk their lives and health to get it. Children whose mothers
are not fortunate enough to get an abortion safely will lose
their mothers. The woman who bleeds to death from a botched abortion
could be your sister, your best friend, your daughter or your
favorite aunt. Those who seek abortion and do not die, suffer
hideous infections from non-sterile instruments along with the
permanent adverse health effects and personal stigma of illegal
abortion.
Teenage pregnancy soars. The number of
unwanted, abandoned, homeless and hungry children skyrockets.
Women and girls who have been raped will have to carry those
pregnancies to term. Women who are successful in getting a safe
abortion procedure in a doctor's office must consent to permanent
sterilization as a condition of the abortion. Those women risk
life imprisonment. Women's education, career options and personal
freedom are curtailed because they are pregnant for their entire
reproductive lives. Women cannot make reproductive choices that
are fundamental to their lives and dignity. Only the wealthy
can escape with their dignity because they always have, and always
will have access to safe abortion.
How could this have happened?
Copyright held by Karyn Strickler who
is the former executive director of the Maryland affiliate of
the National Abortion Rights Action League that fought for codification
of the the principles of Roe v. Wade into state law. She led
an effort to defeat so-called "partial birth" abortion
in Maryland in 1998 and to educate the media and pro-choice leaders
across the country on the issue.
Weekend
Edition Features for Oct. 25 / 26, 2003
Saul Landau
Cui
Bono? The Cuba Embargo as Rip Off
Noam Chomsky
Empire of the Men of Best Quality
Bruce
Jackson
Midge Decter and the Taxi Driver
Brian Cloughley
"Mow the Whole Place Down"
John Stanton
The Pentagon's Love Affair with Land Mines
William S. Lind
Bush's Bizarre Korean Gambit
Ben Tripp
The Brown Paste on Bush's Shoes
Christopher Brauchli
Divine Hatred
Dave Zirin
An Interview with John Carlos
Agustin Velloso
Oil in Equatorial Guinea: Where Trickle Down Doesn't Trickle
Josh Frank
Howard Dean and Affirmative Action
Ron Jacobs
Standing Up to El Diablo: the 1981 Blockade of Diablo Canyon
Strickler
/ Hermach
Liar, Liar Forests on Fire
David Vest
Jimmy T99 Nelson, a Blues Legend and the Songs that Made Him
Famous
Adam Engel
America, What It Is
Dr. Susan Block
Christy Canyon, a Life in Porn
Poets'
Basement
Greeder, Albert & Guthrie
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