What is the "more" that the enraged abortion activists are asking BIDEN to do?

[pnwmom]

Last edited Sat Jul 9, 2022, 11:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Why do they think it will help the cause to criticize the person who's standing up for us on this?

ON EDIT: I think they should be protesting with all their fury at Susan Collins doorstep. She's pretended to be pro-choice, and she claims to have been misled by Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. Now's her time to act on it.

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. It's all about the vote.

There is only one Party that gives a shit about reality.

[pnwmom]

3. They're picketing the WH, as if Biden was the problem. nt

[empedocles]

8. Something wrong there

[Ocelot II]

2. I'm not sure there's much else he can do.

He's made it clear that we need to vote in more Democratic senators and congresspeople. EOs are very limited in what they can do.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. He could declare a public health emergency around abortion. He could order a "whole government"

response where each department looks at how it might improve abortion access.

He could put pressure on the FDA to review its overly restrictive requirements for mifepristone and push federal supremacy on the use of mifepristone.

He could order CMS to reiterate that all hospitals that receive Medicare/Medicaid funds are required to provide FDA-approved medications.

He could actively and intentionally change his language to emphasize the word "abortion" rather than "women's health care" and stop trying to make it all sound "reasonable."

He could listen to people at the forefront of abortion rights activism -- Black people, people of color, people who have gotten abortions -- and learn from their experiences to craft a passionate response that would electrify a wide swath of citizens and voters.

[pnwmom]

9. What makes you think he isn't putting pressure on agencies across the govt.?

He is working on improving access to the abortion medication, but it isn't true that hospitals that receive Medicare or Medicaid are required to provide ALL FDA-approved medications.

And I disagree with you that emphasizing the word "abortion" rather than "women's health care" would be a better approach. Whenever I talk about this, I speak of the right people should have to make their own medical decisions about their own bodies. This is bigger than just abortion, as important as that issue is.

https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/becerra-support-medication-abortion-travel-and-privacy-there-no-magic-bullet-ruling

[Mad_Machine76]

14. Isn't that sort of

The point of his EO the other day?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. No. It was mostly about how HHS can look into enforcing existing laws and write a report.

[iemanja]

26. The one point of disagreement I have

Is that the overturning of Roe isn't just about abortion. People who have miscarriages will now be subject to investigation. They will have to carry dead fetuses inside their bodies. They will be denied treatment for ectopic pregnancy. They will have cancer treatment withheld because they are pregnant and there is a potential for the fetus to be harmed. Certainly abortion is a huge part of it, but the ripple effects for healthcare for women and pregnant people are tremendous.

[msongs]

5. the activists can help get more dems in state legislatures nt

[DURHAM D]

6. They don't know. nt

[betsuni]

7. Not rational, all emotional.

Mindless attack on "The Establishment" or whatever.

Evidently a majority of Americans think all Democratic presidents have magic wands in the White House closet and get real mad when they refuse to use them.

[Phoenix61]

10. Sprout wings, take up a flaming sword and smite thine enemies..nt

[Wednesdays]

11. They want him to turn into Trump

and become a dictator.

[Me.]

12. Got Me

The king's messenger I suppose and certain parts of the party think stamping their feet will produce magical results

[SharonClark]

13. Citizens should always put pressure on politicians

to do more. How do you think you ever move the needle on social justice? You keep the pressure on your friends as well as your opponents.

[Mad_Machine76]

16. From what I'm reading from some progressives on Twitter

It sounds like they’re attacking Biden and accusing him of attacking them.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

18. Well, today's statement from the White House was a real kick in the teeth tbh.

“Joe Biden’s goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party. It’s to deliver help to women who are in danger and assemble a broad-based coalition to defend a woman’s right to choose now, just as he assembled such a coalition to win during the 2020 campaign.”

The activists aren't the ones "out of step with the mainstream." The majority of people are in favor of people having the right to an abortion. Activists are fighting for that.

[Nevilledog]

19. People are big mad.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

21. I mean, it's a pretty shitty thing to say.

[pnwmom]

31. It's pretty shitty that people are focusing on Biden as the bad guy when it's the Republicans

who forced this on the country.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

36. Asking your ally to do more is not making him the bad guy.

[pnwmom]

44. They're not asking. They're screaming at Biden and they ARE making him one of the bad guys.

Someone who wasn't following all this closely might think that he was as guilty as the R's.

[betsuni]

51. +1

[WhiskeyGrinder]

55. How should people who have been doing the work of delivering help to people who need abortions *for

years* and who have been working on ways to defend the right to an abortion *for years* ask for help from the president of the United States?

[iemanja]

33. and completely unnecessary

[WhiskeyGrinder]

37. Yep.

[Mad_Machine76]

22. What exactly is the WH Comms director referring to?

Things like declaring a national emergency over abortion are not realistic options

[Nevilledog]

25. This is the statement

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/09/biden-democrats-abortion-dobbs/

[Mad_Machine76]

27. It would be nice if it was clearer

What exactly they’re referring to. What prompted the comment?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

29. Their annoyance with the perception that they're not doing enough.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

28. A public health emergency is different than a national emergency.

It would actually garner a fairly small response and limited resources, but every little bit helps. It would certainly communicate the urgency of the situation.

[JustAnotherGen]

50. He's right

The immediate focus needs to be on women who are a few weeks pregnant and those who may be experiencing a non viable pregnancy.

[DURHAM D]

20. Putting pressure on one person or a party that does not have an

actual majority doesn't do anything. They seem to be blaming the wrong side for the problems. People lose respect for their issues because they don't seem to understand how change happens.

[karynnj]

23. Changing the opinions of other people should be the goal of activists, not attacking

Politicians on their side. Demanding politicians already trying to do as much as they feasibly can do to do more is not likely to work. This is especially true for those who may have worked on various issues for decades.

The primary role of activism should be to create the movement needed to make issues voting issues. That could change both who is elected and whether we have the votes.

[Mad_Machine76]

24. Yeah.

Attacking the people who are already on your side is counterproductive. If you listen to some folks, you’d think that the Biden WH and the Democratic Party for the past 20-30 years were responsible for Roe v Wade being overturned. Some people are even peddling the idea that Biden is anti-abortion.

[pnwmom]

34. They're wasting their time going after allies on abortion. They should be putting pressure

on the OPPOSITION.

This leaves less informed voters in the middle confused.

[W_HAMILTON]

45. Citizens should fucking VOTE.

If they did, we wouldn't be in this position to begin with.

Protesting does little at this point.

They should have heeded our warnings back in 2016.

[betsuni]

52. +1

[delisen]

15. Speak up like Joanna McClinton of PA House of Representatives might be one such "more."

There will be many spokespeople who can do this. It would certainly be better in this time of crisis regarding the ripping away of human rights of women to have a woman such as Joanna McClinton in the White House to be articulating this but I think a man can also rise to the occasion.

If Biden cannot, someone else while assume that role.

It is just that if a president can do it the power of the office along with the personal power of the office holder magnifies the message, energizes all of us under attack and can make victory all the more possible.

Not everyone can be Winston Churchill - the right person at the right moment in history. I believe we will win anyway but how the person in the Oval Office frames the situation can make a tremendous difference in how long the struggle takes and how costly in bloood and treasure.

These justices and Federalists have struck the biggest blow against the people of the United States in my lifetime. Naturally I will gravitate toward leadership that can understand the existential nature of the strike, the ongoing threat and can resonate with it.

[pnwmom]

30. Why aren't they protesting the Republicans who refused to seat Merrick Garland

on the Supreme Court, and then seated Amy Coney Barrett?

They're the ones people should be protesting, not Biden -- who, by the way, gave an excellent speech.

[delisen]

48. I figure if I want to have a certain protest, I need to go ahead and do it.

I need to just let others protest however they will.

In any case, Mc Connell is not the leader of my country or my party.
When I want action in government I contact my representatives, congressperson, senator, president. These are the people for whom I get to vote.

I am not a resident of Kentucky; Senator McConnell does not answer to me. Although McConnell has power over me he is under no obligation to listen to me. I can send money to his opponent when he runs, I can work to get him defeated, I can demonstrate against him but my relationship to Senator McConnell is fundamentally different from my relationship to to my president, senator, and representative.

I think demonstrating in front of the White House if one wants to press for a change in policy or a change in intensity is good. I don’t know the group at issue. They may be purposefully wanting to make this president look bad. They may be totally reactionary manipulative creeps. I don’t know.

I do know that a president can get news coverage whenever they want, that they can exert a great deal of power on that coverage.

I also believe that when strong Biden supporters complain about the press not covering Biden, or that Biden is not covered fairly it just serves to make Him or anyone holding that office look weak.

The president of the United States, commander of our armed forces, and leader of free world holds tremendous power to not just obtain press coverage but to shape that coverage.

Giving an excellent speech is great. It is also fine to use the power of the presidency to work behind the scenes to broker deals and engage in political work to protect our rights. I don’t know how Biden is going to work his unique role.

I just do not see my role as telling other people how they should protest. Personally I am going to work like hell for strong women ito get in office and to stay in office because I believe that if we had achieved parity in office for Democratic women we could have prevented some of the worst of what is happening in our country now.

My inspiration right now is coming from Kathy Hochul, Stacy Abrams, Whitmer, and others including people just speaking up and exercising their free speech rights. Women refusing to be cowed and refusing to run scared.

[iemanja]

32. Use his political influence to try to put Roe into law

for one.

[pnwmom]

35. He IS. But Manchin is from the state that had the biggest Trump margin in the US.

He's not budging.

[iemanja]

39. I think abortion activists were frustrated

with what they saw as a sense of resignation of the issue that they heard from Democrats when Roe was overturned. They want to know that Biden and the Democrats are doing everything in the power to reinstate Roe. And calling out activists as unwanted is a bad move. They are the ones that work for abortion rights. Saying "we can't do anything because of Manchin" is not going to cut it. And it shouldn't for you either.

[pnwmom]

42. Those activists are REDUCING not INCREASING Biden's political power.

They are giving confused people in the middle a reason for believing that neither party cares about women.

What those activists should be doing is attacking Republicans -- like Susan Collins, who is in a blue state and pretends to be pro-choice, but voted to put Kavanaugh and Gorsuch on the court.

They should be at the office door of every Republican Senator or Congressman in every swing state, demanding to know why they aren't supporting peoples' right to make their own medical decisions.

[betsuni]

53. +1

[Me.]

38. Presidents Don't Make The Laws...Congress Does

I don't know why people don't understand this and why people like Manchin and Sinema are where people should be putting their energy.

[iemanja]

40. Why do you think I wrote "use his political influence"?

The attitude that we shouldn't do anything because of Manchin and Sinema is precisely why people are pissed off. Far too many are comfortable giving up on equal rights.

[pnwmom]

43. Then they should go and be pissed off with Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Murkowski,

both of whom pretend to be pro-choice.

And they should go and be pissed off with every GOP Senator and Rep who's running in a swing state.

[iemanja]

46. Why do you assume they aren't?

[Me.]

56. Frankly If He Could Convince Them It Would Be Done Already

This is a we the people job though I doubt that will work. What will work is getting 2 more senators and keeping the house and that's where our energy and money should be going

[GoCubsGo]

41. Yep, they were protesting the wrong person.

I can think of a lot of others, besides Susan Collins, too. Not to mention that Biden isn't a fucking king.

[JI7]

47. Those who are really concerned about this issue would be looking at the upcoming elections

and specifically a few Senate Races like in Pennsylvania , Georgia , Ohio

We have seen that even things we pass can be struck down by the SC. Which is why this issue is still important.

[Tom Rinaldo]

49. I've had the same question

I suppose some of it has to do with how passionately and how often he uses the so called bully pulpit to rally pro choice forces. The only specific I've heard of what more can theoretically be done, and it's always been ill defined, concerns providing abortions on federal lands. When it has been mentioned it has never been explained if and how that could work.

[betsuni]

54. Very passive-aggressive. Expecting Democratic leaders to be activists.

That's not the job. Chanting "Do your job" at a president who did his job with the EO people demanded, yesterday.

Emotion beats thinking.