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Never mind the fact that these continual attempts to slither around Roe v. Wade are unconstitutional, it hasn’t stopped pols around the country from attacking a woman’s reproductive freedom as if it should be the first order of business when our economy is in the crapper.
Look at Florida State Representative Charles Van Zant‘s (R, of course) bill, HB1151, the “Florida for Life Act.” It would make it a felony to perform an abortion (with very strict criteria for exceptions) and the doctor would potentially face life in prison. (The Florida Independent):
A termination of pregnancy may not be performed unless:
(a) Two physicians certify in writing to the fact that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, the termination of pregnancy is necessary to prevent the death of the patient;
(b) Two physicians certify in writing to the fact that, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, the termination of pregnancy is necessary because to continue the pregnancy would unreasonably reduce the likelihood of successful treatment of a life-threatening disease of the patient; or
(c) A physician certifies in writing that a medical emergency existed and another physician was not available for consultation prior to the time necessary to perform the termination of pregnancy. The physician’s written certification must clearly describe the medical emergency.
Van Zant, it may not surprise you, is an ordained Baptist minister and winner of the 2009 “Christian Coalition of Florida, Faith and Family Award” and the 2009 Florida Family Policy Council, Defender of Marriage Award. You can visit his Facebook page here.
My reaction to this bullsh*t — not just this pol’s naked attempt to curtail reproductive freedom, but all of these bills? The intellectual dishonesty is just tiring. Why aren’t the women, who are ostensibly there voluntarily for the procedure, in this man’s political crosshairs? Not that I want women going to prison, but I’m sick of the dance around abortion being deemed a murder when the person ordering “the hit” apparently has nothing to do with the crime when these womb controllers try to criminalize it by law. Either a woman is an agent of her own destiny or not. The implication is that she is no more than a birthing vessel whose decisions about her body must be determined by the state.
Hat tip, Think Progress Health.
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How come, if I hire a hit man to kill somebody, and he gets caught after doing the deed, he and I both get sentenced for murder? Logically speaking, given that the anti-choice crowd’s view that abortion is murder, isn’t the woman who procures the services of an abortion doctor the same as a person who hires a hit man?
The answer, of course, is that the anti-choicers don’t yet have the political nerve to charge abortion-procuring women with murder. Will they get to that point? Or will they be content once women are again driven to back-alley butchery, poisons, and sharp objects, just so long as doctors are blocked from providing a woman the choice of safe means to end a pregnancy?
I recall a phrase from long ago, which I believe is still true today:
“if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.”
I think that was Florynce Kennedy.
Yeah, I remember that one. And, I was just sitting here thinking, yet again, how the issue of stupidity just won’t go away.
I’m almost 60 years old and we fought this battle before.
It almost feels like the 60′s was like living in Disnelyland compared to what we are living in now. Maybe I disremember because of my age.
But, it still SUCKS big time.
Leave our wombs alone. It’s almost enough to make you dislike men in general, but I know there’s a few good ones left.
Just pisses me off.
If they would just go back to shouting at the sky.
I used to wonder about that. Having felt the strongest pro-choice argument would be: what kind of society would confine women, forcing them to give birth against their will?
But everyone would be shocked by such a thing. Which is why opponents will never go that far. Even if halfway measures allow endruns around the law by the well-connected and well-to-do.
Probably intentional. The people making the laws? Their daughters may continue obtaining abortions, if those footing the bill agree to it.
My friend’s first attempt at pregnancy resulted in a fetus with trisomy 18 (3 copies of the 18th chromosome).
This fetus would never be viable and live for maybe 30 minutes after birth, if it wasn’t stillborn to begin with. She went to the hospital and induced an abortion, as well she should.
How is it possibly Christian to force this woman and her fetus to go to full term just to endure such horror? How is torture compatible with Christ? This is an example of why I can never be a Christian: my morals do not allow for inflicting pointless emotional torture on people.
This is what comes of groups like Planned Parenthood becoming Democratic party doormats. Will go defunct. A friend, a strong supporter of PP in Houston, agrees. They have tried to go undercover as much as possible, not raise any stinks, and as a result have been easy to attack and made irrelevant.
There is money to be made in exploiting peoples’ hatreds and there are oh so many hatreds to work with. And these days, “serving in office”, is synonymous with pandering for money. Ironic that these same people pass laws banning panhandling. I guess they couldn’t stand the competition.
The same can be said about NARAL. Supporting Lieberman over Lamont was unconscionable and was the last straw for me.
Definitely. Too many disgusting examples to cite for my mental health.
Women (and supportive men) fought this issue in my youth…..I guess it’s time to step up and fight it again. We just need some new organizations since NARAL and PP went soft. Of course, the “Christians” weren’t shooting doctors and women leaders then…that I recall. It’s much more hostile now, and that is really criminal. Where are the “good Christians”?
It’s the same old story. No matter how high and noble the intentions are at the outset, it seems like almost every charitable organization eventually devolves into an entity motivated primarily by the desire to remain in existence and relevant enough to be able fund raise successfully. It’s stated goals become secondary or even tertiary to it’s continued survival. It’s tough for cynical me at least to see how putting organizational survival first is in any way conducive to achieving one’s stated purpose. Seems a bit self restricting.
To my shame, once this issue got ‘resolved’ and I got beyond child-bearing years, I lost interest. Even as the new battle heated up, I ignored it. Now I see the error of my ways. I also found that women of a younger generation, having their own battles to fight, also lost interest of what they regarded as a settled issue.
Time to take to the ramparts again. Hope it isn’t too late. Misogyny is much more deeply imbedded than racism.
Also a question of ‘leadership.’ Leaders are easily co-opted by PTB (think union leader sell-outs). Followers catch on much later.
My friend is an example. She is a year younger than I am (66 for her), and it took several email exchanges before I convinced her that PP of Houston was pursuing a wrong-headed tactic.
She is not a ‘leader,’ just a long-term supporter, so not sure if she has any ability to convince or change the course.
My skills involve only the ability to talk or type. I am not an activist in any other sense. But this is a battle royal that needs to be refought in the most strenuous way.
Mandatory vasectomies would also prevent abortions. Maybe he should add that to the bill? [/sarcasm]
Though I oppose abortion, I think you’re entirely right about refusing to treat women as agents in their own destiny, as if only the doctor were engaged in the act of taking a life, and the women were just some poor, helpless victim.
Or as if only the politician were infringing upon a woman’s civil right to privacy and self-determination.
Impregnate a woman against her will and he goes to jail for life; no possibility of parole. Add that one line to the bill and see how far it goes.
Ronny Ray-gun was the consummate cynic about abortion. He played lip service to get the votes then threw the anti-choice rubes a bone in C.Everett Koop as Surgeon General. As far as I remember that was all that Ray-gun did with the whole issue.
Only problem was that eventually Koop eventually disowned the anti-choice movement.
Koop was a hero Surgeon that pioneered surgeries for saving infants; it is understandable why he would not believe in abortion. Turns out he discovered what is now well know about Repugs on the subject; they protected only the fetus. They weren’t interested in prenatal or post-natal care, contraception, or education. They just wanted to stop all abortions period. They couldn’t care less about the mother or the child after it was born. So he quit.
A tangent note to that is that the Computer wiz that KKKarl Rove used to fix the computer vote count in Ohio in 2004 was a rabid anti-choicer. That was supposedly the hook they used to get him to fix the vote count.
Anti-choice is simply a tool to Repugs.
oops should read;
“Only problem was that Koop eventually disowned the anti-choice movement.”
I edit way too much.
Let’s remember who’s pushing this strategy: a cabal of old and middle-aged men, either a part of or beholding to the religious reicht, trying desperately to hold on to what little power they have left, so they throw these bombs out there with no intention of following through.
The main reason why you see these last-gasp attempts is this: from what I’ve seen, the younger folks in the evangelical circles to a large extent aren’t interested in controlling peoples’ lives like their daddies did.
As to those who feel PP and NARAL need to step up, then get involved in the local and state leadership, and shake them out of their stupor.
Jefferson said it best: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”
Where are the jobs? Election 2012 is not far off.
There’s been a continuous battle to support choice and defend clinics since 1973.
NARAL and Planned Parenthood are just two of the groups that have been in the fray. The National Organization for Women, the Feminist Majority and the National Abortion Federation have also been active.
Many terrible anti choice bills have been defeated, even in places like South Dakota and Mississippi.
There’s been violence directed at abortion providers and clinics since the beginning of legal abortion in 1973. This is a good article about Anti Abortion Violence
Planned Parenthood has actually done a good job of keeping its clinics open and fighting against the anti choice activists over all these years.
Here’s another summary of abortion clinic violence. This one mentions the killing of Dr. George Tiller in 2009 Anti-abortion rhetoric fuels domestic terrorism