*Previously Recorded by Phyllis Schlafly // 2009*
Many people don’t know what it means to be a feminist. The premier feminist organization, the National Organization for Women (known as NOW), has just helpfully spelled out what it calls the “feminist action agenda.” So you will know what feminism stands for, I’m going to tell you what NOW is demanding that the government do.
Appropriate $10 billion every year for daycare so that mothers can be liberated from caring for their own babies. Stop federal funding of marriage promotion and fatherhood programs. Stop all funding for abstinence education and replace it with funding for federal programs that emphasize contraception. Repeal all the restrictions put into place by Welfare Reform that encourage welfare recipients to seek a job or job training.
Here are more feminist demands: Enact the Freedom of Choice Act, which would repeal all national and state regulations of abortion passed over the last 35 years, including the ban on partial birth abortion. Repeal the Hyde Amendment which bans federal taxpayer funding for most abortions. Halt adoption of a “conscience” regulation to allow doctors and other health care workers to refuse to perform abortions or provide services they believe are morally objectionable.
Remove the age restriction on over-the-counter so-called emergency contraception. Promote abortion programs, services and advocacy in other countries, and appropriate at least $1 billion for international family planning. Approve funding for embryonic stem cell research that requires killing embryos.
Appoint federal judges who support abortion and other feminist goals. Ratify the long-dead Equal Rights Amendment. Ratify the United Nations Treaty on Women, which would make our laws, customs and textbooks subject to supervision and control by a UN committee of feminists designated as “experts.”
