Mark McCracken on Reproductive Rights

Some of you have been coming to my site looking for information on Mark McCracken's position on reproductive rights. I know this because the SiteMeter is just that good.

To help serve your curiosity before the election, I wrote Mark to ask him to write a few words on the subject.

Here is what he said:

I am Catholic and my personal / individual beliefs are pro-life. However, I take the strong stance that I will not impose my personal beliefs on anyone else. As I believe in personal rights and responsibility, I will always respect that another person has the right to make their own choices.

I hope this statement helps people understand where Mark McCracken is on the subject of reproductive rights and how he might vote on a bill addressing the various related issues, such as abortion rights, birth control and abstinence education.

I wrote Mark a while ago when the PA Department of Health was deciding to accept Title V abstinence-only funds for the first time since 2003. He wrote back to let me know that he also believes that we need to offer young people the information they need to keep them safe and healthy.

If Mark's response on reproductive rights does not answer your question, than please write your question as a comment on this blog.

McCain Fights to Keep Crucial Blue State in Play - NYTimes.com

I have been moving around a bit. For the last 2 years, I was in rural, western PA. It felt good to be there during the primary. I saw new people discovering the democratic networks that had become isolated from new members. The democratic party in PA is much larger now, thanks to the voter registration during the primary and on non-stop until the deadline to register on Oct. 8.

"[T]his year there are 1.2 million more registered Democrats than Republicans in the state," says a NYTimes article on McCain in PA. Read McCain Fights to Keep Crucial Blue State in Play

McCain's strategists think he can make a play for PA, which has gone blue in the last four elections.... McCain's ad's of blatant lies about Obama raising our taxes have been on the radio for weeks.

Volunteers have really made the campaign strong in rural PA as well as in the somewhat urban area where I now reside. Here, we are fortunate to get volunteers from New Jersey and New York as well as Connecticut!

Having McCain target the pro-gun, working class people of PA will intensify the efforts of volunteers in the Keystone state. Also, I believe in the old-school mentality of the blue-collar Pennsylvanian who understands that regulations exist to help employees and consumers. They understand that by helping each other, we help ourselves!

My friend flew in to PA this last weekend from AZ. She got a taste of knocking on doors and entering data. Now, she is advocating the ease of involvement in the campaign to people in AZ! Her husband is an economist, and he now supports Obama mainly on the basis of who he solicits for economic advice. She sent me a link to the NYTimes article about McCain trying to move in on PA, and now she wants to come back!

Come to PA and help to make the Obama victory in this state a landslide!

Voter Registration Status

Not sure where to vote? As you may have guessed there is one easy way to find out. You can go to PA voter services and look up your Voter Registration Status.

Make sure you know where to vote!
Make sure the people you know are certain of where they should vote!

If you are not sure what to take with you to the polls, you can find out at VotesPA.
You do need ID, but if someone lacks any form of photo ID, they can also use a utility bill!

Vote!

Oral Contraceptives and the Struggle for Reproductive Freedom and Women's Rights

There is a sad and simple truth that more women need to realize. The fight for women's rights is NOT over! If you value your ability to plan the size of your family, then you must take a stand and protect women's ability to access oral contraception.

Women's liberation was made possible by, among other things, the invention of the oral contraceptive pill (OCP). As a reliable form of birth control, one that could largely be controlled by the woman, became available, more women were free to pursue an education and enter the work force. Unfortunately, there are those who believe that OCP is an abortifacient, that it aborts an unborn child and want to prevent women from gaining access to OCP. On July 15, Robert Pear of the New York Times reported that Secretary Leavitt of the Health and Human Services Agency and President Bush are planning to

require all recipients of aid under federal health programs to certify that they will not refuse to hire nurses and other providers who object to abortion and even certain types of birth control.

According to NARAL: Pro-Choice America:

• This regulation could undermine good state laws that require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape survivors and ensure that pharmacies fill women’s prescriptions for birth control.
• The proposal could allow health-care corporations (hospitals, HMOs, and health plans) to refuse to provide services or make referrals for birth control.
• The proposed regulation could affect Medicaid and the Title X family-planning program. For instance, staff at clinics or health-care plans that contract for Medicaid services could refuse to provide contraception.

In her blog on Reality Check, Christina notes that this legislation is "a spectacular act of complicity with the religious right."

We have already seen changes to policies in 2004 at the Center for Disease Control, where condoms are no longer advocated as the best defense against sexually transmitted disease. We have also recently witnessed various attempts to remove access to late term abortions on the state level in South Dakota, which resulted in a law requiring doctors to tell women seeking an abortion that they are terminating the "the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."

We can not continue to allow policy to be shaped by ideological beliefs over scientific fact as well as the pressing reality of overpopulation and the global benefits of women's ability to control reproduction.

Oral contraceptives suppress ovulation; increase the accumulation of mucus in the cervical tubes, which make it difficult for sperm to reach an egg; and impede the thickening of the endometrium, which is where a fertilized egg, or blastocyst, typically is implanted for development into an embryo.

In a recent issue of Ethics and Medicine Dr. J. Goodnough critiques a argument made by Dr. R. Alcorn that OCP is an abortifacient because, at times, ovulation does occur, eggs can be fertilized, and, therefore, embryos may die.

According to Dr. Alcorn, OCP is an abortifacent because some breakthrough ovulation can occur. If this happens, then there is the chance an egg will be fertilized but unable to implant due to the thinning of the endometrium. Dr. Goodnough argues that OCP has a .1% pregnancy rate, which means about 3% of users will become pregnant even while taking OCP. However, he believes this rate is mainly accounted for by missed pills. One should not assume that breakthrough ovulation is a common occurrence.

Dr. Goodnough also argues that there is no actual proof that the endometrium is made so hostile as to cause death for an embryo. Goodnough states:

he could just as easily assume that the embryo always implants and survives despite seemingly hostile changes in the endometrium. Or, more accurately stated, he could say that the embryo implants and survives as frequently in those on the OCP as happens in those not on the OCP, since embryo loss occurs in an estimated 70 % of fertilizations in women not taking the OCP. Fifteen percent of these embryos die immediately after fertilization, 15 % fail to implant, and 41 % are lost after implantation.

In other words, a sexually active woman using OCP is just as likely to experience the loss of an embryo as a sexually active woman not using OCP.

Oral contraception pills prevent ovulation and impede fertilization. It is not clear the extent that they inhibit implantation of a fertilized egg.

Do not be lured by ideological slants on research. OCP is not an abortifacient.

But, for arguments sake, let's say that OCP is an abortifacient, would that reality give health practitioners the right to refuse to prescribe or fill prescriptions for OCP? Do we really want to empower health practitioners with the right to make choices based on their religious values when they serve the public health? What if we were to allow teachers in public schools the same right? Would you be partial to allowing an educator to refuse to teach students who did not share his/her religious values? Perhaps an educator might refuse to teach a segment of history that did not meet his or her belief system? Maybe educators who do not believe the holocaust existed should not have to teach about it. Perhaps educators who believe democrat values are really a psychological illness can fail students who do not demonstrate republican beliefs and refer them to the nurse?

Those who serve the public do not get to make choices based on religious or partisan values. They must make choices that serve the common good and reflect the will of the people as demonstrated through democratic processes, and they must be conscious and respectful of reason and scientific evidence.

Thankfully, many members of Congress are speaking out on behalf of OCP and family planning. According to Matthew Jaffe of ABC news,

More than 100 members of Congress wrote President Bush today, urging him to "halt all action" on a proposal they argue would change the definition of abortion, and drastically limit women's access to birth control.

We should not take this proposed legislation lightly. Write your Senators and Congressmen to tell them where you stand on this issue.

Write Sec. Leavitt at secretary@hhs.gov and explain to him why you support a woman's right to control her fertility and to plan her family.

Uniquely Obama

Please watch this video and experience what it is that makes Obama unique.
He is unique because he envisions a new way of managing governance. For Obama, governance is about what we can do together and not what others can do for us.

As he said on the March 4th Primary Night, San Antonio, TX,

"...[T]he real work of democracy begins far from the closed doors and marbled halls of Washington. It begins on street corners and front porches; in living rooms and meeting halls with ordinary Americans who see the world as it is and realize that we have it within our power to remake the world as it should be."

In the following video, you glimpse another example of the empowering manner that is uniquely Obama. In the video, you can witness the pep talk he gives to his staff and volunteers in the campaign headquarters in Chicago and across the country by conference call on June 7:

Unify the Democratic Party!

Right now, Jim Dean is asking members of the Democratic Party to take the UNITY PLEDGE to reach out to 5 people who you know supported a different candidate for the nomination RIGHT NOW and bring them into our campaign.

Jim Dean wants us to listen, empathize, and try to help them move past the pain and think of the good of the country. This is bigger than an alliance to one candidate...

He encourages us to convince them that if they are thinking of voting for McCain, then they are not choosing the same values and goals of their original candidate. McCain is for the same things as Clinton or Edwards or Richards, and definitely not Biden or Kucinich!

I had a fellow democrat email me last week to tell me that while she and her family have been staunch democrats [she] can not support Obama. While curious if this means that she merely won't be publicly promoting Obama or if she really will not vote for our presumptive democratic nominee, I can't yet bring myself to ask.

People need time to heal. Our fellow democrats have been going through the stages of grief. We can reach out and let them know that we are here. However, until they embrace acceptance, we should not rain upon them neither reason nor rhetoric.

I will reach out and say to the Clinton supporters I know,

The democratic values you believe in have not been lost.
They are embodied in Obama.

The major difference between Obama and Clinton was not policy or democratic values, but rather the way they went about living those values. Clinton wants to restore jobs and rebuild the middle class. She wants to help make health care and education rights and not privileges....

But when Clinton talked about making change, it was about what SHE would do for US.
When Obama talks about making change, it is about what WE can do TOGETHER.

Keep your not-yet-Obama-supporters away from the strange delusion that McCain is a better choice because of his experience...Clinton really did not help herself or the party by pursuing that line of reasoning.

McCain is to Hillary as Bush is to Bill.
Let's try to keep that thought in mind.

Obama is to Hillary as Richardson is to Edwards...

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been stressing party unity through the month of May. At the Jefferson-Jackson dinner this year, Clinton even said,

If [Obama] is the nominee, I'll work my heart out for him."

If Clinton is offering to promote Obama as the candidate as well as hold the Vice President position, then why should her supporters do anything besides vote for Obama?

Take the UNITY PLEDGE and reach out to your fellow democrats to unify our party, but please use caution. They may need time to heal.

Pundits liked to spin a drawn out primary as bad for the party, but more people have been fired up by it across our nation than have been in 30 years! More people are interested and engaged!!! This primary has helped us to see the real stakes of the election.

To safeguard our future, democrats must stand together.

Involvement in Jefferson County PA: Summary of Democratic Committee Meeting

If you are interested in being more involved with democratic action in Jefferson County, PA, then please consider attending a meeting of the Jefferson County Democrats!

At these meetings, you will get to meet candidates and elected officials, hear from representatives of the state democratic committee, participate in voter outreach, and hear about the policies that are shaping your lives! You will also have time to socialize with people who share your values.

At their most recent meeting on May 28, the Jefferson County Democrats finalized their decision to have booths for outreach and voter registration, discussed the importance of unifying behind the democratic Presidential nominee, and heard updates from regional candidates such as Mark McCracken (5th Congressional) and Don Hilliard (66th PA state legislative). The campaigns are reaching out to voters in all parties. This is a republican dominant county. We will need cross party votes to get our candidates into office!

They also received an update on the Obama campaign from me: the campaign is back in town and gearing up for the next phase! Please let me know if you are interested in helping with the campaign. We will be working with the Jefferson Democrats to get more people registered to vote!

Finally, the Jefferson Democrats were visited by Brigid Sullivan from the DNC who came to discuss the Neighborhood Leader program. The Neighborhood Leader program asks that you speak with at least 25 voters about our democratic candidates three times from now until November. No problem!

The outreach and voter registration booths will be held at the Jefferson County Fair and the Sykesville Ag & Youth Fair. They will also look into having booths at the Laurel Festival, the Brockway Festival, and the Reynoldsville Homecoming. They will not have a booth at the Punxsy Festival due to the numerous rules.

Chairman Lu Inzana asked that everyone attend each festival and fair wearing buttons, etc. to show support for the party and for democratic candidates.

He also asked that all democrats come together to support our likely presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama

Lu Inzana said that we in NW Pennsylvania have a chance to make a real showing in this race.

PA is quite often a swing state in elections. By coming out in record numbers, we have a chance to impact this election.

All democrats must support the democratic candidate if we are to get a democrat back into the oval office!

I hope you will consider getting involved by helping at at voter registration booth, showing your support for all of the democratic candidates, and by participating in the Neighborhood Leader program.