The Texas Abortion Rights Action League (TARAL)’s Executive Director, Kae McLaughlin, was published this past weekend in The New York Times Sun, Jun 18, “Letters to the Editor” section. Not surprisingly, the letter was about abortion rights and even less surprisingly, it attempts to clarify our nationally spotlighted guv’nuh’s positions and actions regarding such. McLaughlin, Austin’s (and Texas’, for that matter) bad-ass babe on the frontline of the fracas, cites the seven anti-choice bills that Dubyuh signed into law (evidently tied for first place in the U.S. with Gov. John Engler of Michigan), and calls the Junior Bush out for posing as a moderate, challenging him to “come clean” regarding the hot-button issue. Our fave part of the TARAL honcho’s volley is this brilliant twist on using the master’s tools to tear down the master’s house, as it were (okay, so it can be done under certain circumstances … ). We quoth: “A prominent Texas anti-choice leader, Bill Price, said it best. When talking about pro-choice Texans, he crowed that Mr. Bush ‘pulled the wool over their eyes.’ We hope the rest of America doesn’t let that happen.” Go, Kae!
Heck, we were so chuffed that we’re gonna reprint verbatim the TARAL PR that we received regarding an E-mail Action the group is urging folks to participate in. Again, we quoth:
“As you read this, the U.S. Senate is determining the fate of an important amendment to combat violence at reproductive health facilities. The amendment, conceived of by [the National Abortion Rights Action League] NARAL, authored by Charles Schumer, D-NY, and passed 80-17 by the Senate earlier this year, would prevent those who commit acts of clinic violence from using bankruptcy proceedings to escape paying the penalties for their violent acts. Now, as Senators negotiate a final version of the bankruptcy reform legislation, anti-choice leaders are attempting to water down the NARAL/Schumer Amendment to the point of meaninglessness.
“We are down to the wire. It is critical that Senators [and ours would be U.S. Senators Phil Gramm and Kay Bailey Hutchinson] hear from their constituents how important it is to preserve the Schumer amendment — in its full strength — from anti-choice attempts to gut it. Please call your Senator or send an instant e-mail from congress.nw.dc.us/naral/ elecmail.html.”
Okay! Well, there it is. Get off of those naughty “escort” sites, click your browser to said URL, and let your digits make with the digital discourse. 462-1661.
EventCrazy
Man! You caught us in the middle of a summer snooze … We must be sleeping on the job, because this huge slew of events just snuck in right under our huge collective nose. What with these many juggernauts coming to loggerheads all on one weekend, we suggest you get out there in the thick of it, or get the hell out of the way. Oh, and just for space-sake we are going with acronyms from here down, so if you don’t know who we mean by the end of the listing (and after all these years … ), use the handy number at the end to call them up. Phew! Let’s get on with it:
This article appears in June 23 • 2000.