Kate Harding has been collecting some of the videos of Democratic women in the House expressing themselves with tragic eloquence in the face of Indiana Republican Rep. Mike Pence's efforts to defund Planned Parenthood. Because of the Hyde Amendment, no actual tax dollars go to fund abortion, but Planned Parenthood is still the only option for women's health services for people who don't have a lot of money.
Here's Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin talking about having her first child at the age of 18, and in an apparent oblique reference to the pro-life conspiracy theory that abortion is a genocidal plot against blacks, she reminds Congress that "I know a lot about having black babies. I've had three of them." She goes on to talk about how difficult it is to raise children in poverty:
I don't know how many members of Congress knew what a "mayonnaise sandwich" was before yesterday.
Here's Rep. Jackie Spier talking about actually having had a therapeutic abortion, and scolding the previous speaker, New Jersey Republican Chris Smith, saying that for him to suggest that the procedure "is either welcomed, or done cavalierly, or done without any thought, is preposterous. "
Pence has been touting the Planned Parenthood fake sting videos in support of his amendment.
These videos are striking because they're a reminder of how little of media coverage of political battles over abortion reflects the views of real human beings, as opposed to the reductive, paternalist caricatures that seem to dominate the conversation.
