A few passing thoughts, #4

Rep. Louise Slaughter, we can be sure, is about to receive (in fact, already is receiving) the full-court "You! Must! Apologize!" press from the right-wing. Referring to the reactionaries' attacks on abortion rights and Planned Parenthood on Wednesday, she told a crowd of pro-choice advocates that

“I went through this as co-chair of the Arts Caucus. In 1994, people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts, Slaughter said, “now they’re here to kill women.”

To kill women by hindering their access to cancer screenings and similar preventive health care. To kill them by driving them to back-alley abortion mills. To kill them, that is, indirectly, silently, one at a time - the better for the right wing to avoid having to admit to the real-world effects of their fanaticism.

Which means that while Rep. Slaughter's statement may have been "inartfully expressed" in a more honest sense than that phrase is usually employed, her thrust - that the reactionaries want to enact policies that will result in women dying unnecessarily and prematurely - is true. She should not back down, she should not apologize, and if pressed to do so should reply "I will not apologize for speaking the truth."

One way in which the right-wing clearly outshines the left is in sheer stubbornness. It's about time we started to catch up.