I stand with Darcy Burner
by David Atkins
There is apparently a significant pushback against Darcy Burner for her brilliant presentation at Netroots Nation. Sadly I was unable to attend the conference in person--it was the first one I've missed--but it remains an electric message even via web video.
I'm not going to provide links (google if you care), but a blogger at Balloon Juice and a writer at Seattle PI have pre-emptively declared Darcy to be too extreme to win public office. Too extreme because Darcy has the audacity to suggest that the one out of three women who have had an abortion might have the temerity not to be ashamed of their choice.
It's apparently too extreme to say this:
"If you are a woman in this room, and statistically this is true for about one third of the women in this room, if you're a woman in this room who has had an abortion and is willing to come out about it, please stand up!"
There is a legitimate argument to be had about the time at which a viable fetus should or should not be considered something like its own person. Many Americans feel conflicted about this subject, and I have long contended that it's this deep bipartisan discomfort about the language of "choice" associated with viable fetuses that is the cause of our losing ground on this issue.
But if you're a man who is deeply discomfited by women feeling unashamed over having normal abortions of non-viable fetuses (namely, 99% of all abortions), take your discomfort and go elsewhere with it. Somewhere away from any men and women of honor and courage.
The rest of us will stand with Darcy, refusing to be cowed by bourgeois patriarchal moralism.
If you can chip in a few bucks to help Darcy prove her detractors wrong, scare the pants off the patriarchs and take her message to Congress, please do so.
We need her in Congress.
.