So after blowing off steam with your statements saying women in Iraq don't deserve our help since they just aren't trying hard enough(!?!?), you go into a more nuanced statement about how its the fact that you are against Western imperialism, not really support for Iraqi women per se. Be against Western Imperialism all you want, I'm fine with that. I never wanted this war to begin with and I hardly think that it was US left wing feminists groups that brought this war. If anything the war has done NOTHING to advance the cause of women in Iraq or in the greater Middle East. In fact this war has had a negative impact on women rights in law, education and the economy in Iraq. But since we broke it, isn't is our duty to help those that we f****ed over. And if we are already pouring dollars into the country, shouldn't we try to disperse it equally and reach people that need it and can use to support good causes like OWFI (which is indeed a locally run group)? As far as broad based support goes, with all of the competing interests in Iraq, is there anything that has mass appeal (other than anti-war sentiment)? That Iraq was before the war a country that had fairly equal rights for women, high rates of education for women, and representation in various ministries and courts, doesn't that signal that there is(was) support for women's rights? Nowhere in the original article did it talk about implementing radical feminism (whatever that is anyway) in Iraq, it was talking about supporting women owned business, educational efforts and making sure that US money wasn't going to militia groups that engage in violence targeted at women. It also pointed out that the Bush gov't after making noises about supporting women's rights in Iraq didn't actually follow through on that by making sure they got funding, in fact they have done just the opposite by funding the religious militias and making deals with the hard-line Islamists to turn back the rights of women in Iraq. Not that I'm too surprised about that since this is the same gov't that said that we were in Iraq because of WMD, that Saddam was linked to 9/11, that this is part of the greater war on terror and that it would be a cakewalk. But if anyone deserves and needs our support, it's the women in Iraq, they got screwed over and then some. Although they might have to wait in line behind the Afghanis.

"Would a better punishment be if her kids were taken away from her and her home confiscated and she was socially ostracized by the men in the community?" --brightstar

This reminds me of drunk college games...if you had to have sex with Carrot Top or Pauly Shore, which would you pick. And suicide is NOT an option!

Look I'm not going to defend Sanger, she was wrong, wrong, and wrong about many things. However the organization that is now Planned Parenthood is not propagating eugenicist policies. Out of all of the services that PP provides to ALL women that use the clinics, abortion is chosen by only 9% of those women. If you think that you are going to get affordable quality health care (pre-natal care, STD testing, colposcopies, PAP smears, birth control and menopause assistance) from those pregnancy crisis centers, then be all means avail yourself of their help. Or better yet, since you seem to disagree with both groups, start and support your own local clinic.

Re: Modern feminism. It has evolved from the orginal suffragette movement and it is simplistic for anyone to say that they are the same. Times have changed and we now can look back at history through modern lenses and say that early feminism was non-inclusive and had it's racist elements. But you can say the same about any movement. Let's talk about what those are movements are doing here in this time and in this place. Organizations like NOW and PP are very aware that historically they have failed poor women and women of color and are doing a lot to rectify that. I've sat through hours of debates on this very topic at NOW meetings. You certainly won't hear the right wing conservative pro-lifers talking about how they failed poor women and how they can make up for it.

And one last thing, heaping the horrors of slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, and rape at the feet of feminism is just plain ridiculous.