Luke vs birth control, part seven million
In furtherance of this quest I have been following to get Mayor Ravenstahl, seen here showing off his sweet flag collection, to clarify his position on birth control, I just sent an e-mail to his opponent.
Now that my slate of questions is in the hands of both candidates I have no doubt that by this time tomorrow I will have answers in hand and will be able to put this issue to bed once and for all.
As to the question of how this started, I was forwarded an interesting e-mail.
It went like this:
Earlier this month, one of my sister members of the 7th Ward Democratic Committee told me of a conversation she had had with Luke Ravenstahl when he requested her support. She told me she had asked him about his vote as a member of City Council against protecting health care facilities, particularly women’ s health care facilities, from harassment, particularly by anti-abortion forces. She told me she was very upset by his answer, and that he further informed her that he was not only against the Constitutional right to abortion, he was also against birth control.
I was amazed and somewhat incredulous about this answer, so I decided to ask him the question publicly.
On February 7, the 7th Ward held its forum. I had asked every candidate to detail her/his record on hiring and promotion of women of all colors and men of color. As a follow-up to Ravenstahl’s answer, I said, “You can understand my concern, since I recently learned that you are not only opposed to abortion, but also against birth control. So I worry about your attitude to women generally.”
The acting mayor responded by nodding as I stated his position. When he didn’ t verbally respond, one 7th Ward member complained that those issues had nothing to do with being mayor. But another member objected to that characterization, stating that public safety was an issue, and Ravenstahl had refused to protect women at the health clinics. A spirited debate occurred, during which Ravenstahl stated that he did not believe that there was any harassment at the clinics, just people trying to gently persuade women. Many of the 7th Ward members objected to that characterization.
I tell you this in background so you know why I was asked by a 14th Ward Committee member to attend your forum last Thursday (2-22-07) to assess Luke Ravenstahl’s answers to questions about women’s constitutional rights.
Imagine my surprise when Ravenstahl essentially called one of the 14th Ward members a liar, saying “no such private conversation had taken place.” And he, of course, left out the fact that he had confirmed his anti-abortion, anti-birth control, anti-right to privacy positions publicly in front of the 7th Ward committee.
I was also amazed to discover that in the space of a couple weeks he had changed his position on public safety from one in which he denied there was a problem to “it is now the law and I will enforce it.”
I feel that the 14th Ward committee members (and others, for that matter) should know that Ravenstahl lied in his presentation, which is why I’m writing this note.
If this is all true then I am sure that the mayor would like to offer some support for some of the more surprising assertions he is reported to have made, such as “there was [not] any harassment at the clinics, just people trying to gently persuade women.” Those people are seen here gently persuading with a bullhorn and a photo of a fake fetus. If there are mistakes here, or he remembers events differently, I am sure he would like to clear them up.
I intended to remind Luke to respond to my questions at last night’s candidate’s forum, but he was not there. It was strange: Twanda Carlisle, the District 9 incumbent, wasn’t there either. Lenny Bodack the Younger, the District 7 incumbent, was late. I am starting to wonder if there is something wrong with the city’s e-mail system.
Correction: Apparently Twanda did show up at the very end of the District 9 forum. The festivities for District 7, where I live, came first. I left halfway through the talking about District 9, where I do not live.
As if Luke’s worldview weren’t looking scary enough, check out these videos:
http://burghreport.blogspot.com/index.html