Friday, July 01, 2005
Profiles in Leadership
Wednesday I mentioned how pro-Chavez legislators in Venezuela are trying to decriminalize abortion at least under certain circumstances. This effort is being led by MVR Deputy Iris Valera and aims to allow abortions in case of rape or incest. Unfortunately, the Catholic church is opposing this very moderate reform. Worse still, so is most of the rest of the opposition. For example, one of the main opposition parties, Proyecto Venezuela (Project Venezuela) denounced the proposed law. This was reported both in Venezuela’s press agency, ABN, and the web site Aporrea. As Aporrea gives an introduction I will reproduce their article which can be read in Spanish here:
So there you have it, the Venezuelan opposition wants to keep Venezuelan women stuck in the 19th century. It makes me wonder if they are going to try to run Jerry Falwell or Ralph Reed for president in 2006.
Now to make matters even more interesting this whole topic came up in the Aporrea forum (be warned there are some very graphic images of the type anti-abortion activists usually show). And ironically enough a number of the pro-Chavez participants in the discussion were very anti-abortion. Again, with respect to this issue Venezuela is a very conservative country. Which is why the MVRs leadership on this is all the more impressive. It would be simple to take the easy way out and not push this issue. Especially when it alienates some of your very own supporters. But leadership means doing what is right and doing what will make your citizens lives better even when it is difficult politically. And Chavez has never shied away from a hard fight if it is over something that needs to be done to move Venezulea foward. Contrast this to even the “progressive opposition” who say nothing on this issue. People like Petkoff and his MAS (Movement to Socialism) party are nowhere to be found on this issue even though it is costing a lot of women their lives. So we can see who has the courage to lead and who is afraid to do anything that might hurt their chances to get their hands on the levers of power and money.
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Note from Aporrea: Abortion is common in Venezulea, but its illegality means that only women from the upper classes can get access to it in a safe manner, while poor women either cannot get access to it at all or they do it in very poor clinics or, in desperation, in their own homes where many times they die or wind up with long term medical problems. It is now time that the Bolivarian revolution catches up with the rest of the progressive world in terms of women’s rights.
Caracas, June 28th, ABN (Jose Francisco Michelli) – The Project Venezuela deputy Vestalia San Pedro said that only God can introduce changes in our lives and that no type of change should be brought about by any other means.
In this way, the opposition parlimentarian disagreed with the decrimminilization of abortion proposed by 19 civil organizations to the National Assembly last Tuesday.
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The deputy understands the suffering of the women who are victims of rape but believes such an act can’t be resolved by taking the life of an inoccent
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The duputy also indicated that all the Project Venezuela deputies are against decriminizing abortion. “As a Christian I say that the most basic is a live given to Christ. There is a supreme being that is God”
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According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Soical Development in 2003 each week two women died from abortions given in clandestine clinics.
So there you have it, the Venezuelan opposition wants to keep Venezuelan women stuck in the 19th century. It makes me wonder if they are going to try to run Jerry Falwell or Ralph Reed for president in 2006.
Now to make matters even more interesting this whole topic came up in the Aporrea forum (be warned there are some very graphic images of the type anti-abortion activists usually show). And ironically enough a number of the pro-Chavez participants in the discussion were very anti-abortion. Again, with respect to this issue Venezuela is a very conservative country. Which is why the MVRs leadership on this is all the more impressive. It would be simple to take the easy way out and not push this issue. Especially when it alienates some of your very own supporters. But leadership means doing what is right and doing what will make your citizens lives better even when it is difficult politically. And Chavez has never shied away from a hard fight if it is over something that needs to be done to move Venezulea foward. Contrast this to even the “progressive opposition” who say nothing on this issue. People like Petkoff and his MAS (Movement to Socialism) party are nowhere to be found on this issue even though it is costing a lot of women their lives. So we can see who has the courage to lead and who is afraid to do anything that might hurt their chances to get their hands on the levers of power and money.
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