“We don’t want to go back to coathanger abortions”

The Observer has a great story detailing how Bush’s hard-line abortion stance is finally beginning to alienate women within his own party. And moderate Republicans are stepping up to discuss what we’ve known all along–if Bush is re-elected there is a very good chance we may lose our right to choose.
Arizona Republican State Senator, Linda Binder, claims that while she voted for Bush in 2000, she won’t be casting a vote for him this time around. Why? “We don’t want to go back to coathanger abortions… As legislators, my fellow moderates are feeling the push for more faith-based programs on sex education and contraception coming from the Bush administration.” Amen, sister.
Exploring the explosion of government spending on abstinence-until-marriage education, Newsday documents that under the Clinton administration these programs received less than $60 million dollars. Under Bush the regime, abstinence spending has more than doubled to $138 million. Even scarier? He’s trying to double *that* number. He recently put in a request for $272 million for abstinence initiatives in the new fiscal year.
The international community isn’t immune from his sex education rollbacks either. In 2001, on the anniversary of Roe v Wade, President Bush signed the global gag rule, effectively prohibiting any U.S. money from going to organizations that perform abortions or provide post-abortion counseling. And, if Bush stays in office, “at least one-third of U.S. global AIDS prevention funds must be used for abstinence-until-marriage efforts beginning in 2006.” Scary, huh?
I keep praying for more signs of resistance on the right. So far we have the Republicans for Choice and the Republicans for Kerry. How all these votes will add up on election day I’m not sure, but I’m definitely keeping my fingers crossed that this Republican rebellion will gain momentum…Any thoughts?