Social issues

abortion

The 2022 midterms and what happens next in US politics

Written By: nickkelly
Date published: - 3 comments

Overall, the 2022 midterms were the best for any sitting Democrat President since 1978. Whilst losing control of the House is disappointing, the Republican majority is slim. Should hardliners try to block the Biden agenda as they did with Obama, they risk moderate Republicans breaking ranks. Further, hardline Republicans overplaying their hand in Congress may scare moderate voters away from the party and at the same time motivate the Democrat base to win back the House in 2024. Add to that the prospect of Trump returning in 2024, it could be about to get very messy in the Republican Party.

Red ripple in US

Written By: lprent
Date published: - 29 comments

Except in Florida, where Ron DeSantis led a convincing set of Republican gains, the Republican party in the US have had a disappointing mid-term election. The Democrats expecting to face a mid-term vote against incumbents, will be pleasantly surprised. There are still a lot of votes to count. This being the US, lawyers will be trying to set court dates.

Christopher Luxon’s many and varied abortion takes

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 103 comments

National leader Christopher Luxon who has been previously reported as believing that abortion is murder, issued three public statements over the weekend trying to distance himself from the controversy caused by the US Supreme Court overturning of Rowe v Wade.

The end of Roe v Wade

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 149 comments

America’s status as a potentially failed republic is growing stronger with the highest court of the land having a draft judgment leaked in an apparent attempt to shore up a conservative majority position on overturning abortion rights.

Ngaro goes negative

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 43 comments

National list MP Alfred Ngaro has shown that National’s message discipline has broken down completely by going negative and making some outlandish claims against Labour’s Phil Twyford.

Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Government: Style over substance or a guiding light for progressive politics?

Written By: nickkelly
Date published: - 33 comments

Critics have dismissed the Jacinda Ardern government as being one of style over substance. This is unfair given the challenges this government has faced and the policy achievements it has had. However, it is a government that has much work to do if it wins a second term. And its over-reliance on Jacinda as party leader is a huge strategic risk, especially when the governments front bench is perceived, rightly or wrongly, to be lightweight.

What if Trump wins again?

Written By: advantage
Date published: - 124 comments

We may as well prepare ourselves for Trump overperforming his popularity again and winning. We’ve had to deal with left’s retreat in most of the world in 2019. So let’s prepare and plot some likely accelerated changes in Trump’s second term.

What is up with NZ First?

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 105 comments

New Zealand First’s late decision to promote a referendum concerning abortion has caught everyone including its spokesperson Tracy Martin by surprise and is the latest example of last minute changes of position.

Will the Christian Conservatives rise again?

Written By: mickysavage
Date published: - 78 comments

Simon Bridges has conceded that his claim that talk about Alfred Ngaro setting up a conservative party was “rumour and speculation” was not actually true.  And Ngaro has gone on the offensive describing abortion as an unholy holocaust.

Autonomy.

Written By: Bill
Date published: - 29 comments

So women in ‘half’ of an island have bodily autonomy.

NRT: The Greens support abortion

Written By: notices and features
Date published: - 216 comments

Removing our absurd thirty-year-old abortion law, which effectively requires women to declare themselves mentally ill to access a basic medical procedure is great. But it also addresses availability, requiring medical professionals who object to abortion to provide an effective referral, and ensuring that women don’t have to travel hundreds of kilometres for a basic medical procedure.

Review: Fighting to Choose by Alison McCulloch

Written By: QoT
Date published: - 61 comments

Abortion has a long and dramatic history in NZ, but it’s not a history we talk about, or remember.  And remembering that history is vital to our continuing push for reproductive rights today.  That’s where Alison McCulloch comes in, with a new, brilliant, history of the struggle so far.

The price of National’s politicking

Written By: Zetetic
Date published: - 81 comments

In a desperate effort to hang on to a few red-neck votes, National keeps on ramping up rhetoric against solo mums. There was talk of compulsory contraception or sterilisation. National played up those ideas, even though it hasn’t followed through. Is it any surprise, then, that poor mums, who don’t follow the news closely, just hear the rumours, are being scared into abortions?

Mass layoffs, layoff the boys.

Written By: lprent
Date published: - 6 comments

There are always consequences to the type of mass unemployment that we’re starting to see in NZ at present. However there looks like […]

Still too far

Written By: Eddie
Date published: - 45 comments

Farrar has come back with a defence of his icky and outragous ‘satire’ post that proports to be a Green press statement announcing […]