Illinois elections, Dominionism, and scary-type religions

[Amethyst Hunter]

This applies to pro-choice folks, pro-Planned Parenthood folks, and anyone who's on contraceptives for health reasons (in addition to preventing unwanted pregnancy). Everyone else, feel free to browse on by.

Meet your anti-choice candidates of the day!

Chris Lauzen

Lauzen is running for the seat left vacant by Dennis Hastert (another anti-choicer). On the surface, he would appear to be a Good Guy: he's for lowering taxes, bettering state government, etc. Of course, he's a politician, and they all spew that same crap. The difference is that many local people appear to be buying into it.

Here's why Lauzen is NOT a "Good Guy."

Last year when the fuss about the new Planned Parenthood broke in Aurora, Lauzen attended an anti-choice rally set up by the groups Pro-Life Action League and Families Against Planned Parenthood. Both of these groups are spearheaded by the Scheidlers, the elder of whom is *on record* as saying that he believes contraceptives cause abortions (a popular lie spread by anti-choicers, which any legitimate doctor will tell you is false). Both groups are affiliated with the anti-choice group Pharmacists For Life, an organization which is dedicated to making sure that pharmacists can deny women their BC prescriptions based on bullshit personal beliefs (and not sound medical judgment). And, most damning of all, both groups are ALSO linked with Operation Rescue, a notorious anti-choice group that IS KNOWN to have endorsed and carried out *violent action* against those whom they disagree with. OR has been led off and on by Randall Terry; at last check, Terry had handed reigns of control to another from the organization but is said to be back at the helm.

Jim Oberweis

Yes, *that* Oberweis of the dairy empire. He throws his hat in the ring every election year but thus far has lost; however, his two big speaking points are anti-choice activism and illegal immigration. Oberweis is on record as saying that if elected he will work to defund Planned Parenthood.

Popular opinion has it that Oberweis won't win, mainly because his views, or rather, the method of stating them, are seen as too far-out, and Lauzen is clearly the favorite of the two. But vigilance is always important.

Joan Solms

Running for Representative of the 83rd District. Solms has expressed a desire to repeal the current law in Illinois that states all IL pharmacies must fill the prescriptions they're presented with, or refer a customer to someplace else that will fill it. Basically, Solms supports the bullshit "moral clause" ideology that states pharmacists should be able to deny women contraceptive access based on their personal beliefs.

Dave Carlin

Running for Representative of the 48th District. Is endorsed by the Illinois Federation for Right To Life (a state-based anti-choice group).

Terry Hunt

Running for Representative of the 50th District. Definitely a bad egg - Hunt is endorsed by Scheidler's PLAL and has the following blurb on his website:

"The Pro-Life Action League and Families Against Planned Parenthood have joined forces in a grassroots coalition of citizens, community groups, churches and neighborhoods determined to defend our families from the dangerous influence of Planned Parenthood. I share their beliefs, and their opposition of the Planned Parenthood facility in Aurora. Please contact either of these groups to find out how you can help."

Both anti-choice groups were also instrumental in the bitchery against the PP that opened in Aurora late last year (and are still at it; they recently lost a court case and will now be trying their trickery at state court level in the future).

Regardless of your feelings about the abortion subject, the fact is that there are women who would be desperate enough to do ANYthing - and I do mean anything - to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy. And yes, I would be one of those (in the event of rape; I'm celibate by choice). Denying them access to safe, legal abortion will only bring more misery and won't succeed in lowering the abortion rate one whit. No amount of guilt-tripping, religious argument or threatening/fear tactics will change a woman's mind if she is flat-set on choosing an abortion.

Even more concerning is the fact that these groups and individuals aren't limiting themselves to a procedure that they personally disagree with - they're gunning for birth control and more and more are making no bones about it. What helps prevent abortion in the first place? Three guesses, and the first two don't count!

Not only that, but there are many, many women who are on contraceptives for health reasons - I'm one of them - and for them to be denied what could very well be lifesaving medication is, frankly, a fucking outrage. This is why that law in Illinois was passed - some anti-choice dickweed in *Chicago* (of all places) thought they could get away with telling a customer what medication she could and could not have. They thought wrong, and the governor rightly signed into law the Fair Access to Birth Control Act.

So yes - if you live in or near any of the abovementioned areas, or know people that do, I STRONGLY discourage voting for any of these anti-choice candidates. As far as pro-choice candidates go, the only ones I know of at this time are John Laesch and Bill Foster (the latter is on record as having been endorsed by Planned Parenthood). I would like to see more pro-choice candidates get into office, or at least those kinds of conservatives (sadly, a rarity that's practically extinct these days) who know when to apply common sense and keep their personal beliefs to themselves and not try to impose 'em on everybody else. I really don't want my state to get overrun by the kind of plague that seems to be infecting the rest of the nation.

/soapbox

[Boozy]

I can't believe that abortion is still being treated as a valid political issue, to be honest.

Canadians for the most part prefer it to be a private decision between a woman and her doctor. It was legalized two decades ago and not much has been heard of since. We have a few people making noise, but no one wants to hear it.

It is political death here to mention abortion in a campaign speech. Canadians don't want the kind of vicious hysteria over this issue that we see in our neighbours to the south.

The kind of disinformation that is spread in the abortion battle is dangerous. Canada has a significantly lower abortion rate than the US, despite the fact that the procedure is accessible to a greater percentage of Canadians than Americans. Is this because of differences in prevailing attitudes about sex education, birth control, and women's rights?

[AFPheonix]

Possibly. This IS a country with at least 2 Creationism museums, after all. There's a lot of people for whom closing their ears to the truth is much easier than facing up to it.

I'm just glad I'm in a relatively progressive state like Oregon, and even here there was a voter initiative on the ballot to make it so teenagers would have to tell their parents if they were going to abort.

There's also a lot of people who don't really read up on stuff that can potentially effect them, too. We've had at least a few women who have called the pharmacy to ask if Plan B would still be effective for them, and they've already been pregnant for a month.
It's not like it wasn't all over every news outlet when Plan B went over the counter, it's not like health clinics of most every stripe don't have a wealth of pamphlets on it, Dr. Drew mentions it just about every night on Loveline, the vast majority of people in this country are hooked into the internet and by extension Google.
It's really sad sometimes.

[Amethyst Hunter]

Canada has a significantly lower abortion rate than the US, despite the fact that the procedure is accessible to a greater percentage of Canadians than Americans. Is this because of differences in prevailing attitudes about sex education, birth control, and women's rights?

Yes, and no.

I've always felt that other countries are far smarter than we are when it comes to certain things. This is one of them. Europeans have about as much (maybe even more) sex as Americans, yet they suffer from half the problems we do. Why? Because sex is treated as part of life: take it seriously, but don't guilt-trip over it and just use common sense. Here we have that damnable Puritan streak running us into the ground. So, yes, there is definitely a different cultural attitude to account for.

However, the nuts that we have to deal with down here are also, unfortunately, busy exporting their malignance to other countries - and yes, Canada is on their target list. Thus far our neighbors to the north have been spared a lot of the worse crap, but that doesn't mean that it can't happen - and these are the type of people who would love to help make it happen.

Look up dominionism and you'll see some pretty horrifying stuff. It isn't just limited to abortion and birth control. The most hardcore groups believe they are mandated by God to literally take over nations and make them "Christian" nations...whether they want to be or not.

Canada isn't the only nation that's been infected by this plague either. Reports of this type of religious-based abuse have come from the UK, Australia, the Philippines and even Russia. It's not just a US thing - but we're definitely seeing some of the worst of it.

[rahmota]

dominionism

I have. These people are a scary group and definately fit the Christian Taliban profile. I mean the willful ignorance that a lot of people have towards thigns that challenge the POV is one thing. These people take it the step further and actually hate and want to destroy the things they disagree with.

I would agree that this terrorist movement isnt a purely american one but we do seem to have the lions share of them. And forgive me for calling a spade a spade but thats what the christian taliban/dominionism and any of these groups that want to subvert their faith and destroy the civil and basic human rights of people regards of what flag they are flying.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Dominionism is scary.

I remember a few years back some group decided to pick a state and have as many of them move there as they could, so they could secede from the union and make the place a 'perfect' Christian nation. They chose South Carolina.

Several families did move there, but obviously, the rest of South Carolina hasn't caught on yet.

After some searching, I have found they are called the Christian Exodus group.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Exodus

Here's the wiki on these nuts. Have fun reading.

[Greenday]

What in the heck?

To abolish public funding for education, and to protect Homeschooling. The group "...prefers the privatization of education whether in the form of private schools or home schooling because public administration is far less efficient and immorally taxes citizens not receiving the service paid for."

The majority of people in this country already suck at raising their own kids. Now they want all kids to be home schooled!?

[AFPheonix]

They don't want their kids being exposed to anything but their own brand of doctrine. It's the only way they can ensure that their kids will grow up to stay in the sect.
I saw quite a bit of that in the Plymouth Brethren, too. One family (who I acknowledge was an anomaly, but still, they were attracted to this church) were "homeschooling" their kids, except they weren't even teaching them anything at all. The oldest ones at 9 or 10 couldn't even read a comic book.

[rahmota]

Exactly "homeschooling" with some of these groups is a way of programming and insulating their children away from all those dangerous thigns like freedom of thought, science and potential exposure to alternative lifestyles and cultures.

Another WTF is this:

They advocate the repeal of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments, which abolished slavery, made former slaves citizens and gave them the right to vote. Christian Exodus says "We hold that it is the obligation of the various States to nullify this Amendment and all laws and court rulings arising from it."

Umm Hello? Does this really read that they want the right and ability to have slavery again? Or am I reading this wrong? I hope I'm reading this wrong. Somehow i doubt it though.......

Oy vey.

[Boozy]

Anyone interested in Dominionism should read a book called Kingdom Coming by Michelle Goldberg.

There's lots of solid information in there, but its an engaging read (if a bit chilling). I highly recommend it.

[Seshat]

I just changed the title to better fit what you're all talking about.

Nothing to see here, please continue.

[machinest]

In regards to the higher rate of abortions in the US I think that the fact that most other industrialized nations have a lower rate is related to having universal health care as anyone who wishes can get contraceptives whereas in the US the $60-$80 price is a serious hurdle for many single women.

[Boozy]

In regards to the higher rate of abortions in the US I think that the fact that most other industrialized nations have a lower rate is related to having universal health care as anyone who wishes can get contraceptives whereas in the US the $60-$80 price is a serious hurdle for many single women.

Very good point.

That is all.

[Sylvia727]

That is a good point. There's a clinic near my university offering free condoms, and discounted pills/IUDs/etc. I paid $10 for one cycle of pilss, and I got my annuals exams done cheaply too. The reason for all the cheapness? There's probably 40,000 young women in nearby colleges alone. Do you really want them all pregnant on your watch?

[AFPheonix]

Also, to get federal dollars, any sex ed. program in schools must teach abstinence. Yes, it is indeed the most effective birth control, but only if used properly
More than three-quarters of us do not use it properly before marriage. Perhaps better edumacation in other methods is in order.

I will give the last generation of kids credit, though. Their birth and STD rates are way down compared to kids in the 80's. Yay for the internets and Dr. Drew to get the message out.