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View
from the Left
As
Bush hypocritically pushes anti-abortion agenda, did he impregnate young
women and make them get abortions in his single days?
By
Jackson Thoreau
If a list of all the ways that George W. Bush is a
hypocrite could be written, such a list would undoubtably stretch longer
than Bush’s lying-ass nose.
Have you heard of the “never-ending story?”
This would be the “never-ending list.”
There’s that war
thing, sending young men and women to die in a battle similar to the one
he refused to fight in when LBJ and Nixon tried to send Bush himself.
There are Bush’s
statements that he will unite people, not divide them. Then, his lies
about Iraq, tax cuts for the super wealthy, plans to allow oil companies
to pollute protected federal wilderness and legalization of political
assassinations, to name only a few, result in dividing many more people
than uniting them.
There’s Bush’s
claim to support states' rights and local control, then he appealed to the
Republican-controlled, federal Supreme Court to stop legal hand recounts
approved by the state supreme court in Florida during the Republicans’
2000 election heist.
There are his pledges
to uphold rules and laws, as he and Cheney flaunted the 12th
Amendment to the Constitution by living in the same state in 2000 and the
nagging questions that he broke rules and laws related to drugs, driving
while intoxicated, business practices, his marital vows and other matters.
As you can see, this
list can go on and on and on……I haven’t even mentioned Bush’s
hypocritical admissions that he supports environmental protections as he
allows any friend who wants to drill for oil in and near our national
parks and other protected lands, pooh-poohs scientific evidence on global
warming and relaxes environmental regulations for companies. He also
allowed Houston to overtake LA as the country’s most polluted city when
he was governor of Texas. I also haven’t mentioned Bush’s pledges to
be a peacemaker as he makes plans to implement “small nuclear bombs”
and blow up more kids in the Middle East. Or his….
But one of the most
obvious hypocritical stances in Bush’s White House residency concerns
his push for the Religious Right’s extreme anti-abortion agenda and
curious manner of talking to kids about abstinence from premarital sex in
another classic case of “do as I say, not as I do.”
You might remember that right before Bush was selected by his Supreme
Court buddies in 2000, porn czar Larry Flynt went on CNN to say he had
evidence that Bush impregnated a young woman in the early 1970s and made
her get an illegal abortion at a Houston hospital. That was before the
1973 landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade legalized
abortion.
Flynt’s main source,
the girlfriend of a Bush friend who allegedly arranged the abortion,
reportedly backed out of going public at the last hour. So the story
pretty much died there and was swallowed in the 2000 election heist and
ensuing fascist hijacking of our country..
Well, according to a source I trust and talked with
recently, this woman was not the only young woman Bush impregnated during
what he often calls his “young and irresponsible” years, which for
Bush and many other Republicans covers up to age 40.
In the course of some
research, this source learned that Bush might have impregnated FOUR young
women, one of whom was UNDER 18, which is against the law in most states.
At least one supposedly had to be sent out of the country to get the
abortion done.
I called a hospital
where one of these abortions might have occurred, and a spokesperson said
the hospital didn’t release such records, if they exist at all. Remember
how we found out about Bush’s 1976 driving while intoxicated conviction
in 2000? That record had been buried in a court in Maine, and it was only
through the perseverance of a television reporter that it was unearthed.
This is a pattern in dealing with Bush, who has left a trail of buried and
purged public records throughout his life.
Through public
records, I located the present address of one of the women, who is one
year younger than Bush and living in a Texas town with her husband, who is
reportedly an FBI agent. But my efforts to call her stalled when I
discovered her phone number is unlisted. Since her town is about 300 miles
from mine, I couldn’t conceivably drive there. I doubt she would talk to
me anyway; she was probably either paid to stay quiet or intimidated into
silence by the Republi-Thug Mafia.
I also discovered the name of another woman who
Bush allegedly made get an abortion, rather than father his child, during
his carefree and forgetful younger days [before age 40, remember?]. But I
have had no luck tracking her down, either.
Has anyone out there
heard anything more about these women Bush allegedly impregnated and
forced to get abortions? I’d appreciate hearing from you. I’d like to
attempt to breathe some fire into this story again.
Why
is this story important? Because Bush and other so-called pro-life
Republicans [which really means they value the lives of only other
Republicans, just like “compassionate conservatism” really means
conservatives are compassionate only towards other conservatives] are now
doing whatever they can to roll back Roe v. Wade and make abortions
illegal again. That means if your cousin in Kentucky impregnates you at
age 14, such conservatives will make you carry that baby for nine months,
no matter what pain it puts you through and whether the baby is born
without a brain. But they will show compassion in front of your face.
That
means that if your doctor believes the baby might cause you to lose your
life, such conservatives will say, tough, doctors have been wrong before.
But they will show compassion in front of your family’s faces at your
funeral.
That
means if some “young and irresponsible” guy rapes you, that’s tough,
carry that criminal’s baby, conservatives say. But they will show
compassion towards your face as your name is smeared in the media during
your trial.
And
if you die in an illegal, back-alley abortion, as many more women did
before 1973 than they do today [some 1,500
pregnancy-related deaths are prevented annually through safe abortions,
according to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America],
that’s your choice, these Bush conservatives say. That’s God’s
revenge on you for HAVING AN ABORTION. Aren’t we happy that God is so
just?
But
if you are rich enough and your last name rhymes with, say, “mush,”
such conservatives will gladly help you rush the woman you got pregnant
secretly into a private hospital or out of the country to HAVE AN
ABORTION. Only such conservatives might not be quite as compassionate
towards your face the next time that happens. Still, they will look the
other way if you become a senator. And especially if you become president.
So
what has George the Hypocrite done since allegedly causing several women
to undergo abortions during his “wild and irresponsible” days? As
Texas governor, Bush signed
no less than 18 anti-abortion laws. He has long supported a Constitutional
amendment that would overturn Roe v. Wade and subject more than a
million women and their doctors each year to criminal prosecution.
One of Bush’s first
actions as president-select in late 2000 was to name anti-abortion extremist John Ashcroft as attorney
general. As attorney general of Missouri, Ashcroft defended anti-choice
legislation all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and as a U.S. senator,
he voted against a resolution in favor of Roe v. Wade. Ashcroft
pledged to uphold Roe v. Wade during his confirmation hearings, but
of course, that was another lie. The first chance he got – in early 2002
— Ashcroft intervened in a case involving a ban on abortion procedures.
Bush also picked
anti-choice Tommy Thompson for secretary of health and human services. As
Wisconsin governor, Thompson signed into law numerous anti-abortion bills.
Then, among Bush’s
first acts in the White House was to reinstate a rule preventing
non-governmental organizations in countries that receive U.S.
international family planning assistance from using their own money to
provide abortion services. He also closed the
White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach in early 2001.
Bush
then nominated judges who oppose abortion like Priscilla Owen, Charles
Pickering, Michael McConnell, Dennis Shedd, Lavenski Smith, Carolyn Kuhl, William
Pryor and D. Brooks Smith to
federal appeals courts. The Senate has confirmed half of those on that
list, while Owen, Pickering, Pryor and Kuhl are still pending, thanks to
necessary filibusters by Democratic senators.
Bush
also increased funding to teach “abstinence-only” sex education in
schools, something he hypocritically thumbed his lying-ass nose at when he
was in school. The teaching withholds information about condoms,
which help prevent unintended pregnancies and the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS. But of course, maybe letting kids who
can’t afford going to private schools acquire AIDS is part of the
genocidal conspiracy hatched by these conservative fascists.
Before you write me
calling me a child-hating communist, let me disclose that I have two young
children. I don’t like the practice of abortions. But I recognize, like
many Americans, that there are some cases, such as medical reasons, rape
and the unwanted pregnancy of a 12-year-old, in which abortions need to be
kept legal and safe. Even my conservative, Catholic mom has said that to
me.
During the 2000
presidential campaign – way back when we had a president we actually
elected – reporters questioned Bush about his earlier drug use, for no
apparent reason other than they wanted to know whether he snorted cocaine
or not. At least one even asked him if he got arrested since his wild,
carefree college days in the late 1960s, and Bush lied in saying no –
there was at least the 1976 DUI arrest. But at least some reporters asked
such questions.
During these important
judicial hearings, with the abortion issue in the forefront, don’t you
think it’s at least slightly relevant to ask Bush whether he ever caused
a woman to have to get an abortion in his younger days? Why don’t
reporters ask Bill Frist, the anti-abortion activist who now heads the
Senate, the same thing? Get them to have to answer the question on the
record. Put some heat on their hypocritical asses. Then investigate
whether they are telling the truth or not.
I’d love to see Bush
squirm and give some incoherent response in a press conference to such a
question. Then maybe we might see some of these women he supposedly
impregnated during his wild days come out of the woodwork to prove him
even more of a liar and see his nose grow even more.
Ah, that list, that
never-ending list. I must get back to it.
Jackson Thoreau is an
American writer and co-author of We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a
Legitimate White House. The updated, 120,000-word electronic
book can be downloaded on his Internet site at http://www.geocities.com/jacksonthor/ebook.html.
Citizens for Legitimate Government has the earlier version at http://www.legitgov.org/we_will_not_get_over_it.html.
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