A rant

I am so very, very tired of the politics of abortion.

The Right’s determination to exploit this issue so as to gain and hold power has turned the selection of Supreme Court Justices into a travesty — as this week’s hearings amply demonstrated.

And now there’s this, in the Washington Post: Surgeon General Pick’s Stance on Abortion May Clash With Church’s

Regina Benjamin is a sterling choice for the position of Surgeon General. From all I can tell, she has performed Herculean efforts to bring healthcare to the rural poor on the Gulf Coast, a area ill-served enough by the Federal government. Hers is the kind of success story we should all celebrate.

Would this question even arise if Barack Obama had chosen a man to be Surgeon General?

I agree with David Satcher:

“We all have our religions, but when you speak as the surgeon general to the American people, it’s not about your religion,” said David Satcher, a former surgeon general under President Bill Clinton. Satcher taught community health to Benjamin at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. “I don’t see why the surgeon general has to get involved in a discussion about abortion.”

I won’t even start on the degree of domestic terrorism that’s been practiced by the extreme right on this issue, terrorism that has been aided and abetted by certain right-wing polliticians for the sake of votes.

The right to have a safe, legal abortion was a great breakthrough for women in this country, but to me it’s beginning to look more and more like a Pyrrhic victory.