Obama's willingness to give ground, to send the message that we women really can't be trusted to make these decisions for ourselves, his appointing to administration positions of more than a few anti-choice individuals with track records of working against the right to choose, and in favor of blurring the line between church and state - this was a huge opening in the barricade that has been protecting women's reproductive rights.

I'm glad, of course, that the amendment appears to have been defeated; what still ticks me off is that it was ever open to debate in the first place.

The one silver lining in this sack of manure is that it will rip the fig leaf (so to speak) off the phony Piety Brigade.

It's wearily been proven ad infinitum that medically based education, pregnancy prevention and treatment keep health care costs way down and the anti-access, anti-prevention, anti-rights fanatics are not only our, but their own, worst enemies.

If anyone had any sense or decency, the wording would be changed from being about rape, incest and the life of the mother to the health of the mother. If they can't accomplish that much for us ambulatory fertility pods, they might as well use us as for spare parts.

And if we didn't know it before, it ought to be crystal clear at this point: Obama does not give a rat's patootie about reforming the health care system - he cares about Congress passing a bill, and it won't matter - to him - that it is less-than-acceptable, more-like-the-camel's-a$$, as long as he can claim a HUGE VICTORY that will require a stirring speech and give us a good look up his nostrils as he strikes a pose for the ages.

Pardon me while I swallow the bile that is creeping up into my mouth.

Good thing I gave up the Sunday shows a long time ago, as I'm sure my head would explode over all the credit the Democratic House leadership is going to be giving to Obama on this.

I'm going to make a prediction: if the Stupak Amendment passes today, it will end up in the bill. There's a rumor going around that the President personally promised Henry Waxman that he would work to get the language out of the bill in the conference committee. But that's the message being spread around to get pro-choice liberals to vote for the bill. It's as meaningless as "we'll get you a single payer amendment" and just as effective. To borrow a phrase from my moviemaking days, this is the equivalent of "we'll fix it in post."

This language is not in any of the Senate bills, but pro-life Harry Reid will almost certainly allow an amendment of this ilk. And even if it doesn't pass (it would need 60 votes), there's the conference committee. And Stupak would raise the same threat, and the same "pro-choice" Democratic leadership will kowtow to him. Even though he probably never had the votes.

I'm someone who believes that every person has the right to his or her beliefs, and with respect to abortion, my feeling has always been, if you don't believe it's right, don't have an abortion.  If you are a man, and you will never, ever be in a position to be pregnant, or to be faced with ending a pregnancy that is developing in your own body, I can appreciate your feelings, I can respect them, but I cannot and will not tolerate your beliefs affecting and determining my ability to make decisions about what is happening to and within my own body.  

To Bart Stupak, I can only say that I respect your belief in the sanctity of life, but I reject your belief that you should be able to take from me autonomy over my own body.

To Nancy Pelosi, I can only say that while Democrats are supposed to be the party of the open-minded, we are also supposed to be the party of reproductive choice, and you failed to uphold a basic party tenet by giving legitimacy to Stupak's amendment.

Every time I turn around, Democrats are letting me down, treating me like a second-class citizen who can be sacrificed on the altar of getting-a-win-for-Obama, and expecting me to see a big picture that doesn't put me on equal footing with others.