The push to legislate "morality" goes on, and on. But should it? Republican legislators have hammered away at trying to take down Roe v. Wade at the state level. Why is the "morality brigade" so concerned with fetuses, but so quick to cut benefits to children from low income families? Can that behavior really be considered "morality?"

On that matter, is there any argument against same-sex marriage that isn't "morality" based?

Why are corporations given rights that trump those of ordinary people? What about the sweeping Wall Street greed that is decimating our country's economy? Could it be...that this about who has the money and who's working for them? Why isn't the morality brigade fighting that battle? Robert Reich explains the troubling situation.

Current TV’s John Fugelsang, Salon.com staff writer Irin Carmon, and comedians Elayne Boosler and Lizz Winstead consider a spate of extremely restrictive abortion laws that have passed or are being considered in states across the country. Some, like a proposed law in Arkansas and another in North Dakota, directly violate Roe v. Wade by banning abortions before viability.

“The majority of Americans want abortion to be safe and legal,” says Carmon. But the restrictions that are being passed are not medically necessary, so why do people support them? “If you ask people why they’re passing (these restrictions), their particular end is to ban abortion, not make women safer.”

On Liberty Counsel’s “Faith and Freedom” radio show Sunday, host Mat Staver honored the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by likening federal funding for Planned Parenthood to “enriching Hitler.” Funding abortion, he said, is no different from funding a “Hitler kind of killing machine, or Pol Pot, or some of these other genocide tyrants.”

Staver's views fall in line with other extremists who have issues with women's rights to privately consult with a doctor to make their own health care choices without some nutjob executing their physician in the middle of a crowded Sunday church service, or being assaulted with "holy water" while entering their medical clinic.

Or this at another women's health center in Alabama recently:

"Pro-choice marchers recalled a particularly painful event last month when a woman whose baby had died en utero was coming to the clinic to have it removed. In an awful coincidence, that was the day, Watters said, when the pro-life demonstrators collected a children’s choir on the sidewalk to sing “Happy Birthday, Dead Baby” to anyone driving in."

Staver and other anti-women's rights extremists do nothing to further their views with such expressions or actions, as a new poll makes clear.

For the first time since the groundbreaking Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973, a majority of Americans want abortion to stay legal—and seven in 10 respondents oppose overturning the case. According to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday, the intense rhetoric about abortion and rape by Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock and the debate over contraception have caused attitudes to shift toward abortion. Fifty-four percent of adults said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and a combined 44 percent said it should be illegal with no exceptions. And 70 percent said Roe v. Wade should not be overturned—with 57 percent backing that sentiment strongly.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America is out today with a new video illustrating how the pro-choice and pro-life labels don’t reflect the complexity of the conversation about abortion, and the way that Americans — especially young people — think and talk about abortion today. It highlights a disassociation with the black and white labels that “box in the conversation” and the fact that a growing number of Americans who might otherwise identify themselves as “pro-life” are in fact in favor of keeping abortion safe and legal.

The video, “NOT IN HER SHOES” comes as part of the organization’s effort to expand the national conversation about abortion beyond “pro-choice” and “pro-life” labels.

“NOT IN HER SHOES” comes in advance of the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision confirming a woman’s constitutional right to access safe and legal abortion, if and when she needs it, and without interference of politicians.

“The way that Americans — especially young people — think and talk about abortion has changed over the last 40 years,” Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a press release on Wednesday. “A growing number of Americans no longer identify with the pro-choice and pro-life labels that they believe box them in. In fact, many people who say they are ’pro-life’ also believe that women should have access to safe and legal abortion. Americans agree that abortion is a deeply personal, complex decision that should be left to a woman and her doctor, without interference from politicians. Instead of putting people in one category or another, we should respect the decisions women and their families make.”

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Thousands of people gathered on the state Capitol lawn in Lansing Monday evening, to protest the treatment of two female lawmakers who were barred from speaking on the House floor last Thursday following an emotional debate over abortion.

They heard a recitation by the two lawmakers and others of The Vagina Monologues.

The performance, kicked off by the work’s author Eve Ensler who flew in from California for the occasion, was the culmination of five days of reaction to the decision by House Republican leaders to issue one-day revocations of the right of state Reps. Lisa Brown, D-West Bloomfield, and Barb Byrum, D-Onondaga , to speak on the House floor.

They said the discipline was in response to "incivility" displayed by the two representatives a day earlier during a debate over legislation to impose new restrictions on abortion clinics. Brown said she was punished for using the word vagina.

Welcoming the crowd, Brown said the legislation would “effectively overturn Roe v. Wade,” the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision which ended most state-level restrictions on abortion, and “turn back the clock to the 60s, when women were denied health care.”

Concluding her remarks during the House debate, Brown had said, “I’m flattered that you are all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no.’”

Monday evening she said, “We shouldn’t be legislating vaginas, if you can’t say vagina.”

Via:

The play is a series of graphic tales - some funny, some violent - about vaginas. The author, Eve Ensler, said the protest setting at the capitol was a first for her show in its 16th year.

"This is a turning point moment," Ensler said. "This is a moment where we can turn this whole war on women in a whole other direction. And it's really important that we have her back and that we support her. And we let the world know this isn't going to be tolerated."

That's why thousands of Brown's supporters, young and old, attended the event. They wanted to make sure the next generation has a voice.

"She's going to change the world, and we gotta start somewhere," said Molly Kozlowski referring to her 2-year-old, who wore a "Viva Vagina" shirt and rainbow tutu. "She's going to be a strong, independent woman, and we're going to start here."

Women weren't the only ones speaking out about vaginas. There were plenty of men in the crowd supporting Representative Brown as well.

"We need to be honest talking about women's health issues, that it's not a dirty word," David Widmayer said. "This is not someone making a scene, this is how you have to talk about it if you're honestly going to talk about women's health in the legislature."

Ensler called on all women to participate in “One billion Rising,” on Feb. 14, 2013. On that day, she urged women to leave their jobs and their schools and go to the streets to dance.

“I want you to take over this place,” Ensler said. “I want you to dance for vaginas and life.”