Reproductive Rights Updates: AK, WI, IL, GA, MI, AZ, & Fed

Here's some more of All The News You Can Use...to bang your head against your desk.

In Alaska, the state's Senate Minority Leader, John Coghill (R-North Pole) has intro'd mandatory ultrasound legislation. Wait. North Pole? That's cool, in a "don't write that every day" sort of way. But I digress! Sen. Coghill thinks this is a matter of "informed consent". He so graciously explains:

"I think if people understood a little bit more about what's going on in the womb, they might reconsider (an abortion)," he said.

"The choice is the female's, and I respect that as much as I can respect it," he said, "but I'm also trying to bring as much respect for what a pregnancy really is."

Because "a female" just doesn't know anything about "what a pregnancy really is", amirite?

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In Wisconsin, there was, apparently, a "contentious" debate in the state senate yesterday when a public hearing was held regarding legislation that is supposed to ensure that a woman is definitely not being forced to have an abortion and also addresses women being able to obtain mifepristone via web.

Under current Wisconsin law, abortion providers must inform women seeking them of the risks, and then the woman must give voluntary written consent. Republican Rep. Michelle Litjens wants to add provisions. She told the Assembly Health committee of her alarm when she heard a Milwaukee radio station air a 911 call.

“There was a young girl about 13 or 14 who was being escorted into an abortion clinic a few months ago. She didn’t want to go inside and there were some people outside the clinic who were trying to help her so they called 911 and the police said there was nothing they could do. She was going inside with a guardian, and they could not help the girl and it’s frightening to hear. This bill requires the physician to inform the woman that she has the right to refuse an abortion, that her consent is not voluntary if someone is coercing her and that it’s unlawful for the physician to perform the procedure if it’s not voluntary,” Litjens says.

Litjens says her bill would require the physician to question the patient in private and have her sign a voluntary consent form without anyone else present.

Ok there are two issues with this. First one is brought up--and smacked down--by Rep Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay). Rep Pasch is also a nurse, btw:

"Let me tell you what the components of informed consent are, that there’s a voluntariness, that’s essential as part of it, that’s already in the informed consent process, that information is provided to the patient and the information needs to be the risks and benefits of the procedure that they’re requesting, the risks and benefits of alternative procedures and the risks and benefits of doing nothing which in this case would be allowing a pregnancy, so which part of that do you think needs to be strengthened?” Pasch asks.

Litjens: “I would like to strengthen it so that that woman is asked those questions or told that information in a room where she doesn’t feel pressured at all. I would like that young girl who was forced to enter an abortion clinic in Milwaukee to have the opportunity to say no."

Pasch: “If the physician doesn’t do it, there could be a felony charge. Who’s going to monitor that physician if they’re all alone in the room?”

Litjens: “ I would assume that the woman’s going to monitor the physician to make sure it’s done because that would give her the opportunity if she’s being coerced by a boyfriend, by a parent, by an abusive stepfather or something of that nature."

Which brings us to the next issue. I see Rep Litjens is all about calling a minor a woman in this aspect. She is all about the rights of a minor to not have to have an abortion if she does not want one. The right to choose "no, it's not what I want". However, in Wisconsin, minors cannot obtain an abortion without the consent of a parent.

So. Wisconsin: no abortion if you're under 18 without parental consent; no parental "interference" if a minor does not want an abortion. Not that I'm saying anyone should have to have an abortion if they do not want one. The point is no one should be forced into a choice they do not want to make by another person--including a parent stopping an abortion.

The other aspect is regarding the ability of a woman to be prescribed mifepristone (RU-486) via web by a doctor when one is not present in office to otherwise do so (a woman still has to come to clinic to access the consult). This is not currently available in Wisconsin but the WI "right to life" groups want to try and head it off before it can be available.

Nothing was decided on the legislation yesterday, except that more discussion is needed.

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Jedward: "All The Small Things"

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Quote of the Day

"We try to look at child care as more of a form of work support."—Lynda Laughlin of the US Census Bureau's Fertility and Family Statistics Branch, explaining why is it that the Census Bureau assumes mothers to be the "designated parent" in a two-parent household, and why further it considers a father providing childcare while mother is at work/school to be a "child care arrangement" but a mother providing childcare while father is at work/school to be designated parenting.

That is to say that the US government is engaging in that most infuriating of parenting tropes: Moms parent and dads babysit.

(Not to mention that they evidently do not consider childcare "work," no matter who is doing it.)

I don't even know what the Census Bureau does with two-parent households in which the parents are the same sex. Curl up in the fetal position, cover its ears, and pitiably whine "No no no no I can't hear you!", presumably.

[H/T to Shaker Rachel.]

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Top Chef: Texas Open Thread

Guest judge Jimmy (A Unicorn) found your bouillabaisse to be chalky!
Bev returned from the dead, like a Top Chef zombie and everyone stumbled around the pantry and the whole show is just beyond ridiculous now. Speaking of zombies, Bill Hinzman who played an iconic walker (ha!) in Night Of The Living Dead died. Also speaking of which, The Walking Dead returns this weekend. Dust off your zombie shoes, everyone!

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Good News: Unemployment Among Black Men Drops

Shani O. Hilton at Colorlines:

When the Labor Department released the January unemployment rate last week, there was finally some good news to celebrate—and some news that seemed almost too good to be true. Black unemployment saw its steepest drop since the recession began, dipping more than two points. Apparently, that happy improvement was largely driven by black men being hired in larger numbers than anyone can remember.

So what, exactly, is happening here? Nobody saw it coming, and there's no immediate explanation. I talked to Algernon Austin, director of the Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy program at the Economic Policy Institute, to get some insight.

Colorlines: So, the interesting thing about January's unemployment rate was that the unemployment rate for black men dropped 3 percent—from 15.7 percent to 12.7 percent—even though workforce participation stayed about the same. That's not something we've seen before, is it?

Algernon Austin: Such a large drop in the unemployment rate is quite surprising. Certainly, we haven't seen a drop that large any time recently. There was a slight decline in workforce participation, but even looking at that, we're talking about a very large decline for blacks, and particularly black men, which is quite unusual.

What are the fields—or are there any—where it's more likely that black men were hired?

It's a real mystery to figure out what might be going on here. The public sector dropped jobs, so that's not likely to be it. Restaurants and bars—that's not likely. Retail, maybe some retail; maybe some health care. Maybe temporary health services, construction. But really, I don't know.

It is not just a coincidence that, during the first bit of job growth we've had since Barack Obama was elected, black men are "being hired in larger numbers than anyone can remember." It is evidence of the known effects of visible diversity.

To think that seeing a black man in the news, competently running the most powerful nation on the planet, day after day for three years, hasn't worked on the subconscious of US employers, hasn't sent a message that gets internalized in the same way the narratives of exclusion and marginalization and less than do, is to imagine that humans work in a way that we actually don't.

That is not the only explanation for this good news. There are certainly other influences, which Algernon Austin and his team will suss out at the invaluable EPI.

But I wanted to note nonetheless: This is no coincidence. This is the value of meaningful inclusion.

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Primarily Terrible

Supporters pray over Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (C) during a campaign stop at the Bella Donna Chapel on February 8, 2012 in McKinney, Texas. [Getty Images]

I'm thinking it's images like the one above (barrrrrrrrf) that necessitated frontrunner (!?whut?!) Rick Santorum assuring voters that he is not running to be "pastor in chief" of the United States. (He totally is, by the way.) I will point out yet again, because I'm an asshole like that, that the church in which this revival campaign event was held is a tax exempt entity, since it is not considered inappropriately political for a congregation to lay its hands on a presidential candidate and pray for him in front of the news media.

I will also note (#asshole #atheist) that these laws were put into place back when religious institutions in this country were generally in the business of actually helping the poor in their communities and not building multimillion-dollar entertainment complexes complete with ATMs and gift shops.

Anyway!

Here is a fun quote from Rick Santorum, Master of Projection: "The intolerance of the left, the intolerance of the secular ideology, it is a religion unto itself, it is just not a biblical based religion, and it is the most intolerant. Just like we saw from the days of the atheists of the Soviet Union, it is completely intolerant of dissent. They fear dissent. Why? Because the dissent comes from folks who use reason, common sense, and divine revelation and they want no part of any of those things."

"Reason, common sense, and divine revelation." One of these things is not like the other, Rick Santorum!

Rick Santorum also said at the same revival campaign event: "The institution of marriage saved my life." Rick Santorum is a hyperbolic dipshit, so it is not literally true that marriage saved his life, but he clearly finds his marriage VERY IMPORTANT to the quality of his life. Which, of course, makes it even more heinous that he endeavors to deny participation in the institution of marriage to some people, on the basis of whom they want to marry.

"Here is a life-saving thing that YOU CANNOT HAVE!"—Rick Santorum, Good Christian.

Speaking of Good Christians, the American Conservative Union's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is this week, and, naturally Mitt Romney is heading on over in order to pretend like there's a chance in hell that he'll ever appeal to extreme social conservatives.

CPAC FUN FACT! In 2007, Mitt Romney introduced Ann Coulter at CPAC by saying, "I am happy to hear that after you hear from me, you will hear from Ann Coulter. That is a good thing. Oh yeah!" before Coulter took the stage and called John Edwards a nasty gay slur.

Mitt Romney will be in GREAT COMPANY again at this year's CPAC: "CPAC will play host to anti-gay groups such as the Family Research Council, the birther leader of WorldNetDaily, and the Apartheid-nostalgic Youth for Western Civilization. But that isn't all. Following speeches from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Michele Bachmann, CPAC is hosting (pdf) the panel 'The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the pursuit of diversity is weakening the American Identity' with Peter Brimelow, the founder and head of VDARE.com ... a White Nationalist website, run by [a dude] from Great Britain [who] expresses his fear of the loss of America's white majority, blames non-white immigrants for social and economic problems, and urges the Republican Party to give up on minority voters and focus on winning the white vote."

Awesome! Good company you keep, Mitt Romney!

Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, who is still definitely in the race for inexplicable reasons, will also be in attendance at CPAC.

I guess Ron Paul isn't attending? Well, that makes sense. He's probably pretty confident everyone already knows he's a racist thanks to those suuuuuuuper racist newsletters.

Talk about these things! Or don't. Whatever makes you happy. Life is short.

P.S. I just saw this wire photo of Rick Santorum wearing a cowboy hat while campaigning in Texas...


...and now I cannot unsee this:


To the Beltway...and BEYOND!
That may be the ticket with the best chance of beating the unstoppable Goat|Paperclip this year!

Have a nice day!

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Open Thread

Hosted by an AT-AT Walker.

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Question of the Day

What is your favorite comedy film starring a woman?

It doesn't have to only star a woman (or women), but it has to have at least one woman as a central (and not secondary) character.

Because I am as predictable as the sunrise, I will say Harold & Maude, which is a comedy, if a dark one.

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Washington State Lawmakers Approve Gay Marriage Bill

The Washington House passed a bill today to allow same-sex couples to wed. The state Senate approved the measure last week. Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire is expected to sign the measure into law next week.

The law goes into effect in ninety days.

As per usual, bigoted assholes are expected to fight to have the law overturned.

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Photo of the Day

Hillary R. Clinton, US secretary of state arrives for day 2 of the 48th Munich Security Conference at Hotel Bayerischer Hof on February 4, 2012 in Munich, Germany. The 48th Munich conference on security policy is running till February 5, 2012. [Getty Images]

I think it was Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo who was making her laugh.

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Breaking Nooz

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops says birth control is more powerful than god. You heard it here first.

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Number of the Day

$40 million: The domestic gross made by Bridesmaids just through "digital platforms including internet video on demand (VOD), pay-per-view, hotel viewings, and electronic-sell-through transactions," making it the most ordered VOD title of all time.

VOD hasn't been around that long, of course, which cuts both ways: It's the most popular VOD film of all time in what is a relatively new medium, but it just made forty million freaking dollars in a relatively new medium.

Which is to say nothing of the gerjillion dollars it made while in theaters.

Note to the Film Industry: Women are funny. Women want to see other women being funny. Men want to see women being funny, too. Women can carry movies. WOMEN CAN MAKE YOU MONEY. Lots of it.

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You Are Shitting Me. You Have to Be Shitting Me.

[Content Note: Domestic and sexual violence.]

A judge in Florida has sentenced a man charged with domestic battery to take his wife, and victim, on a date. Or as MSNBC puts it in their disgusting lede: "Just in time for Valentine's Day, a Florida judge ruled on Tuesday that a man involved in a scuffle with his wife treat her to an evening at a local bowling alley and a romantic meal at Red Lobster."

Judge John Hurley [who also ordered that Joseph Bray, 47 and his wife Sonja, 39, get marriage counseling] handed down this ruling instead of setting bond or slapping Bray with a prison sentence after he deemed domestic violence charges leveled by Bray's wife to be "very, very minor."

According to Bray's arrest affidavit, Bray and his wife got embroiled in a spat after he failed to wish her a happy birthday. Bray's wife claims that her husband shoved her against a sofa and grabbed her neck.

The judge, citing Bray's otherwise clean record and the incident's apparent lack of serious violence, did not consider Bray's behavior a major offense. However, Bray must follow the stipulations of Hurley's ruling very closely if he wants to avoid potential jail time.

"He's going to stop by somewhere and he's going to get some flowers," Hurley said at a hearing, according to Florida newspaper Sun Sentinel. "And then he's going to go home, pick up his wife, get dressed, take her to Red Lobster. And then after they have Red Lobster, they're going to go bowling."

Hurley noted that he would not typically treat a domestic violence charge in a similarly jocular or light-hearted manner.

"The court would not normally [make this ruling] if the court felt there was some violence but this is very, very minor and the court felt that that was a better resolution than the other alternatives," Hurley said.

And to add to the rib-tickling tone of this whimsical domestic violence sentencing, Daniel Arkin of NBC Miami, who filed the story, amusingly wraps it up with a review of the local Red Lobster: "Fortunately for Bray and his wife, the Plantation Red Lobster receives high marks in Google Maps' Review section."

According to this Sun-Sentinel article on the outrageous sentencing, Hurley handed down his sentence after asking Sonja Bray, in front of her violent husband in court for abusing her, if "she was hurt or in any fear of her husband," to which, in front of her violent husband in court for abusing her, she answered no.

After she said she wasn't, and Hurley confirmed that Bray had no prior arrests, the judge continued his questioning with a lighter tone.

"Do you have something you like to go to?" he asked. "Is there a restaurant you like to go to?"

The woman answered that she enjoyed bowling and eating at Red Lobster. And so the judge made his decision accordingly.

"Flowers, birthday card, Red Lobster, bowling," Hurley said.

I was, as a teenager, locked in a room with my rapist by school administrators and told, "Don't come out until you've worked out your differences." He spent the entire time threatening to kill me, my family, and my dogs, if I ever reported anything he ever did to me again. When the head counselor eventually came back to that room, I was asked if we'd managed to work things out, and I confirmed that we had.

Because I would have said anything to get the fuck out of that room.

He raped me again and again over the next three years.

I desperately hope that Sonja Bray is safe. And I hope that Judge Ha Ha Chuckles is removed from the bench immediately. He literally facilitated what could very well be part of a pattern of escalating abuse: Violence, elaborate display of romance, violence. No one who thinks that sentence is appropriate, no one who fails to recognize how it fits into a recognized abuse cycle, has any fucking business presiding over domestic abuse cases.

[H/T to Shaker Julie.]

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An Observation

Per the stereotypes of the aged and aging, I am terrible at getting older.

I like my grey hair, I love my wrinkles, I am ever more hopeful, and, with due acknowledgement of a broad stroke, I generally find the younger generation to be extraordinarily neato.

Get ON my lawn!

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Daily Dose of Cute

Doggedly Cute:


Dudley


Zelda


Besties

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Wednesday Blogaround

This blogaround brought to you by tree stumps with hidey holes.

Recommended Reading:

Hey, Alcatrazies! You know how Jorge Garcia is awesome, and we can't stop talking about how awesome he is in Alcatraz, and, before that, we couldn't stop talking about how awesome he is in Lost? Just FYI, he's awesome in real life, too: Classmates.com/Memory Lane, What Were You Thinking? [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism.]

Teresa: How the US Became a Nation of Freelancers

Vanessa: Mitt Romney, Komen, and the War Against Women's Health

New Black Woman: Arizona State Lawmaker Suggests Holiday to Celebrate White People

Angry Asian Man: Starbucks Labels Drinks with the "Chink Eyes"

Andy: Ellen DeGeneres Rips 'One Million Moms' for Calling for Her Firing [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of homophobia.]

Steven: Obama Campaign Copies Gingrich—Decries Then Embraces Super-PACs

Elle: Not-So-Trivial Trivia

Adam: The Very Last World War I Veteran Has Died

Resistance: Q&A [Content Note: The post at this link contains discussion of racism and white privilege.]

Will: Slurp the Soup of the Sea [Content Note: The post at this link contains beautiful but disturbing images of garbage from the oceans, some of which has hurt animals.]

Leave your links and recommendations in comments...

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Why I'm Pro-Choice, and My Boyfriend Is, Too

by Shaker BrianWS, who may or may not become a full-time contributor someday based on a swirling purple vortex of glittery keys only one of which fits into two crumbling locks, one of which opens a door to Shakesville, and the other of which opens a door to a rip in the time-space continuum beyond which is either a parallel universe or a Malkovichian hole into Rick Santorum's brainpan.

[Content Note: Anti-choice views on reproductive rights; disrespect for autonomy and consent.]

I will never need an abortion. It's a fact of my life as a cis gay man in a relationship with another cis gay man, but being fervently pro-choice is very important to me, and it's also very important to me that I found a partner who shares that belief.

I'm pro-choice not only for the women in my life who have had abortions or who one day may need to terminate a pregnancy, but because I've found that a person's view on abortion rights is a really great test to determine how someone feels about bodily autonomy as a whole—and, to that end, what kind of autonomy over my own body I can expect when dealing with that person.

When I was single last summer before meeting my current boyfriend, I had a profile on OkCupid, and one day received a message from a guy who quickly identified himself as a conservative supporter of Ron Paul.

I don't like Ron Paul one bit, so I was hesitant but curious. Knowing what I know now, I have no problem saying that if that happened to me today, there never would've been drinks or dinner or anything. But it didn't happen today.

We often hear, even from people presumed to be liberal allies, about how "both sides are just as bad," and we're trained by the media to think that every opinion is equally worth being heard, and even this progressive feminist was not immune to having internalized those messages.

"If I don't go out with him just because of his politics, then I'd be an asshole," I thought, and I decided to go out and meet him.

I figured that we could have a good time just hanging out and letting it be casual regardless of political affiliation. That worked for a few dates. We didn't much discuss politics, including abortion, although I knew his position, and I found myself actually enjoying his company.

"I'm the next James Carville!" I excitedly told myself, feeling a slight, and now embarrassing, sense of smugness for having been "big enough" to enjoy his company without agreeing with his political views. In doing so, however, I was hiding a huge part of who I am, and a huge part of what I believe to be true and important in this world, just to be able to say I managed to navigate that political divide.

We did that dance for about a month, sharing drinks, movies, dinners, and games about every other day, all while both trying our best to ignore the giant whirring abortion machine in the room.

That's when the wheels came flying off. We were invited to a Pride party at his ex's apartment overlooking the parade route, and we were excited to go to that together. There were plenty of drinks, plenty of amazing new friends to meet, and I was having a great day. We were both worried initially that his ex might be weird about me being there, but it turned out that his ex and I hit it off immediately.

He and I were, in fact, on the back deck, chatting, laughing, and generally having a great day, when another one of the party's hosts came up to me and said, "You might want to go talk to your date; he's really upset right now."

"Why?!" I asked. It was a great day with great company, and nothing seemed like it could go wrong. I went to look for him, to find that he had angrily stormed out of the party. I texted him to find out what was wrong, and it was then that his adherence to a strict conservative ideology became the problem that, deep inside, I always knew it was going to be someday, sooner than later.

He was angry that I was socializing with his ex, and told me that I had humiliated him by being friendly with his ex. Naturally, this made no sense to me—after all, we had accepted an invitation to a party at his ex's house, and learned that our earlier worries about it being uncomfortable were completely unfounded. So unfounded, in fact, that his ex and I were able to act like adults who had never met one another, treat each other with respect, and find out that we actually had a lot in common and enjoyed talking to one another.

The only one who found the situation uncomfortable was the guy I was seeing—the guy who had put us into this position in the first place. I felt a ton of pressure going over to his ex's house that day; it's not easy to be the "new guy" in a tight-knit group of friends when an ex is included. The fact that it wasn't the weirdest day my date and I had ever spent together should have been a huge victory.

Instead, it turned ugly.

He had wanted me to go to this party with him at a place that could have been very uncomfortable for me, and I had made the best of it. He didn't want me to make the best of it for me, though—he wanted me to make the best of it for him. And I had failed to behave as he had desired for me to behave.

As the night wore on, he continued to berate me via text messages and phone calls. He policed my behavior in exacting detail, slut-shamed me for being friendly with his ex, belligerently screamed at me, plainly and simply commanding me to be something more like what he wanted, rather than who I actually am, and to make the choices he wanted me to make, rather than the choices that were right for me.

So clueless, he then demanded that I spend the night at his apartment. I felt afraid, and I felt unsafe. I left and never saw him again.

In the end, it should have come as little surprise to me that he would show his hand like that at some point. But it wasn't until he actually tried to claim what he thought was his right to control my body and my actions that I actually let it all sink in.

And when it was done sinking in, I was left with this: Fuck. That.

Sure, this could have been the jerk behavior of anyone with any political ideology, but I am left with the thought that true belief in rigid conservative anti-choice ideology presents a fundamental problem for those desirous of an egalitarian relationship. The anti-choice position is rooted in a desire to control women's bodies, restrict their ability to act as individuals, and to police their behavior. If my date thinks that control over a woman's body is his right, what guarantee do I have that he would ever think any differently about MY body?

There's an undeniable connection between views on abortion rights and views on bodily autonomy as a whole, and that's why gay men need to care about abortion rights. The same people who will work tirelessly to restrict women's autonomy over their own bodies and choices won't hesitate for a moment to tear mine away, too.

The only body that an anti-choice conservative thinks shouldn't be controlled is his (or her) own.

Being pro-choice means respecting the autonomy of women and other people with uteri over their own bodies, full-stop. There is no halfway. There are no, "...but" qualifiers. You either do—or you don't.

It's not about babies, or whatever other bullshit anti-choicers say to try to pretend that it's about anything other than controlling and policing women's bodies—experience tells me that assholes with rigid anti-choice ideologies based around controlling other people's bodies aren't likely to ever consider exceptions to that rule for me and my body just because I don't have a uterus.

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Comments Not Appearing in New Zealand & Australia

A bunch of readers have contacted me about comments threads not appearing in New Zealand and Australia, due to Blogger now redirecting blogspot.com to blogspot.co.nz and blogspot.co.au.

This causes a compatibility failure with Disqus, our third-party commenting system. For comments to load correctly, one must be viewing the blog at blogspot.com, and Bekitty's fix doesn't appear to be working anymore.

I'm so desperately sorry for the inconvenience, but it is, unfortunately, nothing over which I have any control, short of relocating Shakesville to its own server, which didn't work out so well last time I tried it.

You can contact Blogger to politely ask them to fix the problem by tweeting at them @blogger.

UPDATE: Shaker Flunkette in Australia writes: "What has been working for me (and is still working now) is to take the '.au' off the end of the url when it redirects me, and putting '/ncr' there instead, and pressing enter. If I right-click on post titles from that page and select 'open link in new tab', the page in the new tab allows me to view and post comments."

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Two-Minute Nostalgia Sublime

Liquid Liquid: "Cavern"

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And It's a Group With Actual Members

Lest anyone get the impression that Bill Donohue and his one-man outrage operation, the Catholic League, or even a serious organization like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, reflect the entirety of opinion on the issue of reproductive rights, and making birth control available via healthcare plans, Catholics for Choice have joined with 19 other religious groups to sign a letter supporting the Obama administration's position on contraceptive coverage.

The letter can be read here (pdf).

In a statement, Jon O'Brien of Catholics for Choice said that the letter "shows what those of us who work in the field know only too well. Some of the strongest supporters for family planning are in the religious community. We know that the vast majority of all American women use and support access to family planning, including 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women. The loudest voices in the Catholic community are those of the priests and bishops who know that they are being ignored when it comes to their teachings on family planning. They may be the loudest, but we know they also represent a tiny minority of Catholics."

I hope President Obama is listening.

They are loud, but they are a minority. And, most importantly, they are wrong.

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