Albuquerque New Mexico is a small sample, when you look at the nation as a whole. Yesterday it became the center of the world for the Women's Rights movement. A very strict anti-abortion bill was on their municipal voting ballot. This bill, if passed, would have banned late term abortions and set the limit for receiving the legal procedure at 20 weeks -- a restriction beyond the Roe v. Wade finding.
TPM news reports:
Albuquerque became the focus of the latest anti-abortion campaign because it is home to Southwestern Women's Options, one of just a handful of clinics in the country that perform late-term abortions. The proposal would have banned abortions after 20 weeks except to save the mother's life.
Twenty week limitations are being fast-tracked across the nation. States are trying to flex their legislative muscle and Republican led bias in state houses where the GOP holds majorities. But this particular vote was brought to the people, bypassing the monkey court-like grandstanding in some heavily populated GOP-governed states. Granted, this one vote was on the local level, and only effects those within the boundaries of the most populous city in New Mexico. But it's a start. And it's an important vote. It's the first of many baby steps it's going to require to curtail the Republican plot to shut down's women's rights to control their own bodies.
Perhaps the most surprising observation is that the vote wasn't even close.
Voters on Tuesday rejected the measure 55 percent to 45 percent following an emotional and graphic campaign that brought in national groups and hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising. The campaign included protests that compared abortion to the Holocaust and displayed pictures of aborted fetuses.
A coalition of groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico and Planned Parenthood, called the results a huge victory for Albuquerque women and families.
Make no mistake, this was only a wake-up call to all the anti-women's legislators around the country, especially in the Red States. You must respect a woman's right to choice. It's proper, it's demanded and it's the federal law. Try to take that away, and the voters are going to stalk your re-election campaigns and mow you down with their votes.
Voting is the power all of us have and elected officials know that. That's why so many repressive Red states are trying to challenge our right to exercise our vote. They conveniently forget that voting is a right, not a privilege. We can't let that happen or we'll be enslaved forever. The men and women of Albuquerque have shown us the light. We must join with them and Howard Beale from Network in saying, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
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