“The Dirty Dozen”
Digg This!On Wednesday, the Heritage Foundation came out with its “Dirty Dozen.” The list, by Jennifer A. Marshall and Katherine Bradley, outlines what they believe are the 12 most egregious things the Obama Administration and Congress shave done since taking office in January. I was shocked that only 5 or 42% of the list directly named a policy change that supported comprehensive reproductive health. You can bump that up to 50% if you count embryonic stem cell research as a reproductive health issue and if you include their slam on welfare reform that total can be edged up to 58%. I was also surprised that reproductive health wasn’t mentioned until #3. (Then I realized that the Heritage Foundation has a financial stake in numbers 1 &2 and was no longer surprised.)
The list is well worth the read for anyone who supports access to reproductive health care as it probably lays out our opposition’s strategy for the near future. This is a great opportunity to thank our friends in the White House, the House, and the Senate for their hard work and for supporting reproductive health care. It is nice that most current policymakers are supportive; however, we cannot sit back and depend on them to protect us. I think the best way we can thank the Heritage Foundation for sharing their views is to be ready with the rationale for these policy changes and to remind our allies (perhaps in a thank you note…) how the world and our nation will benefit from these changes. We don’t need to bring the fight to them on this, but we need to be ready for it when it comes. It’s the quickest way to avoid losing ground on the initiatives that will advance our mission and improve access for those we serve.
