Batten Down Your Vagina, Here Comes a Tidal Wave of Insidious New Anti-Choice Laws
1:01 pm - 05/24/2012Batten Down Your Vagina, Here Comes a Tidal Wave of Insidious New Anti-Choice Laws
Ladies, please remove sharp objects from the spot in your desk where you like to bang your head, do all of your yelling vocal warm-ups, and ready your cervixes — it's time for a brand new abortion debate. Forget all that "personhood" business — that comical overreach was rejected by voters so hard that if it were a cartoon, it would've seen tiny unburdened storks flying around its head. But the next wave of bills is more subtle, more sneaky, and more perilous.
This new trend of laws won't propose waiting periods or other barriers between women and abortions. They won't attack abortion providers, it won't attempt to ascribe feelings to 18-week-old fetuses, and it won't force teenagers to get permission from their parents before terminating a pregnancy. The new frontier in abortion restriction is writing laws governing why women are allowed to terminate their pregnancies. And they're more popular than you might think.
State battles are often defined by model legislation crafted by anti-choice groups like Americans United for Life (did you think that low-level legislators just magically and simultaneously came up with shitty laws on their own? Psh.). Every year, they create a packet called Defending Life, a sort of Forced Pregnancy Mad Libs for the on-the-go conservative politician who really wants to make a splash with his rabidly anti-choice constituents without doing any of his own thinking. And this year's edition of Defending Life contains a bit of legislation that we'll likely see in other states very shortly — rules that restrict why you can have an abortion.
So-called "motivation bans" have started small and without much controversy; at the federal level, a bill known as PRENDA aims to outlaw abortion based on the race or sex of the fetus and would allow parental or spousal intervention to stop a woman from aborting her pregnancy. Even though the bill nakedly sucks ass, the prospect of outlawing sex-selective abortion is a popular one — according to LifeSite News, more than 75% of Americans say they'd support a ban on the practice. But it's a solution in search of a problem; in the US, there's no evidence or noteworthy numbers to indicate that women are having abortions based on the sex of the infant — if that were the case, we'd start seeing proof in a lopsided birth rate. There's no proof, either, that women are aborting babies based on the future child's race.
Earlier this year, the push to expand the list of "unacceptable reasons to have an abortion" to include fetal abnormality intensified. At a Catholic Church-sponsored conference this January, the anti-choice Family Research Council (and, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an "anti-gay hate group") devoted an entire day to discussing motivations of parents who chose abortion because of a genetic defect like Down Syndrome, and how the Faithful can fight for laws aiming to prevent the termination of these pregnancies. Since then, there's been an uptick in the number of people writing about fetal abnormalities and abortion on the anti-choice side.
In addition to attempting to ban race- and sex-based abortion at the federal level, lawmakers in a few states, including Arizona and Kansas, have acted accordingly, introducing laws protecting doctors from lawsuits if they fail to disclose fetal abnormalities to expectant parents. Theoretically, anti-choice doctors or ultrasound technicians would be legally allowed to lie to women about the presence of a birth defect if they thought it would prevent her from having an abortion.
But it doesn't have to end here; what we're seeing right now is likely the first stage in a series of proposals that will get more and more ridiculous, because this is part of a larger strategy to bring a woman's motivation for abortion into the debate. If it's not okay for a woman to abort based on expected gender or race of the child, and it's not okay to abort because of expected fetal abnormalities, then what other reasons can be examined as inappropriate? Will lawmakers attempt to enact economic barriers in the procedure in order to prove that the woman on trial genuinely cannot afford to raise a child? What about spousal permission? Will woman be forced to prove that they weren't coerced into abortion? Will it only be allowed among women below or above a certain age?
These laws — and they questions the propose to ask of abortion-seeking women — sounds increasingly like a guilty-until-proven-innocent scenario. It's a slippery slope argument, but it's an argument that is sliding right toward your slippery uterus
I'm not gonna lie, though, there are certain reasons that people get abortions that makes me want to beat the hell out of them, whether they're using it as birth control or, such as what was stated above, because "Oh noes! I didn't want a boy/girl!!" -_- I'm not even going to get into how angry that makes me that people take life so for granted and yet I've got friends who would make AMAZING mothers and want children BADLY and wouldn't dispose of a baby just because it wasn't the gender they wanted.
HOWEVER, the politicians pushing the things like this are the same ones who want to put a stop to all abortions, even for the women who need it to save their life. I find that appalling beyond measure and it makes me want to dumb-stamp them. It's like, do these fucktards even realize that in such cases (for example, an ectopic pregnancy) that the baby is going to die anyway? What the fuck do they think they're gaining in their over-zealous Pro Life movement by making it quite clear that they don't have any respect for the life of the mother? "Yes, in an effort to spare the baby death by abortion, we'll just tell the mother to go fuck herself and then she'll die, which means the baby will die anyway. For the win!!!!" -_-
The bottom line is that while I think the killing of the unborn is appalling and tragic, what these politicians are doing is flat-out terrorism upon women. They have made it quite clear in so many ways (not just in the abortion debate) that they have absolutely no care or concern about the health of women. While my sentiments are very much Pro-Life, I'm Pro-ALL Life, not just that of the unborn but also for their mothers. And because of that and because of what these political psychos are doing, I'm being given a rather violent shove over to Pro-Choice simply because I know that if women have to go back to doing coat-hanger abortions or abortions in an illegal clinic where the person doing doesn't even have to be a doctor, the facilities don't have to be hospital-grade sterile, etc., we'd be losing so many more valuable, precious lives.
So please, if you're reading this, don't fry me just because I hate abortion. Just because I hate abortion doesn't mean that I'm anti-women, nor would I EVER vote for these psychos that make it so apparent that they have no regard for women's health or safety. It's just that this is a very sensitive topic for me (as it is for anyone regardless of their stance). I look at my own children and I remember how they looked the day they were born and just picturing them or other babies like them being cut up like they're just worthless pieces of trash by selfish assholes who don't want them simply because they weren't the desired gender....... Ugh.
It's very conflicting for me, personally. I think, what it just all boils down to, is that indifference toward life in any manner is flat-out tragic and heartbreaking.
Edited at 2012-05-25 01:02 am (UTC)
No.
Your anti-choice language is disgusting, as is your abelism. You can shut the fuck up now.
Also, you should stop taking in propaganda like it's air or something. The whole "babies...being cut up like they're just worthless pieces of trash by selfish assholes who don't want them" bit is errant nonsense. That is not what most abortions are. Those late term terminations are incredibly rare and needlessly difficult to get and usually involve a foetus that has died or one that has such huge medical issues that it can't survive long. No matter what kind of abortion we're talking about it's none of your fucking concern. People who feel they are justified in sticking their noses where they shouldn't and those who demand others simply must take into account their bullshit opinions are some of the major reasons the US is in this mess, combined with truly ignorant men thinking women are too stupid to know their own minds and people who think babies are the best punishment for being a 'slut'.
Also, I always want to start drinking when people bring up infertile/ttc couples in the topic about abortion as if they're good people who are entitled to the babies of women who abort.
Edited at 2012-05-25 02:27 am (UTC)
But especially this:
Just because I hate abortion doesn't mean that I'm anti-women
I mean, did you even read what you wrote?
The least people could do before they open their mouths about these things is something called research. Especially when the whole "abortion because of gender" thing gets dragged out. Especially if they already have kids, since the ultrasounds for that don't happen right away. It's not like a clinic can hold an Ouija board up to a woman's reproductive organs to divine this stuff at 8 weeks, for Pete's sake.
I still feel like the baby shouldn't be killed just because it's sperm donor was a sick rapist fuck
there are certain reasons that people get abortions that makes me want to beat the hell out of them
whether they're using it as birth control
dispose of a baby just because it wasn't the gender they wanted
Just because I hate abortion doesn't mean that I'm anti-women
just picturing them or other babies like them being cut up like they're just worthless pieces of trash
Here's a lovely little factoid for you: I've done quite a bit of research about abortion. I know things that people like to just pass off as Pro-Life propaganda but is more factual than any voracious Pro-Abortion nitwit would care to know. I know of these things because of people who have actually worked in the abortion industry, not from listening to Pro-Life psychos like the LOVELY politicians *gag*
And despite my revulsion toward abortion in general, I almost had one. It was because of that that I came to have far more empathy and respect toward the people in the position I was in. No, I didn't end up having the abortion and I'm glad I didn't; I'm glad things worked out in life to where I didn't have to. I'm grateful every day that I didn't abort my now-5-year-old son.
So believe me, you silly sod (and this goes for all the ones who want to trash me for what I said seeing as how I have neither the time, the energy, nor the interest to reply to each and every ridiculous one), I don't give a flying flip if you like what I said, agree with what I said, or anything like that. I've arrived at my position through research AND life experience.
You wanna try to tell me that I can't possibly be Pro-ALL Life because I despise the murder of unborn babies? HA!!!! That right there is a ridiculous contradictory statement. And Just because I respect ALL life (both mother and child) is the reason that you will NEVER find me voting for any of these psycho women-hating motherfuckers trying to worm their way into office.
I don't believe in the contradictory bullshit they pull, the obvious disrespect they have for women and treating them like they're just worthless chattel who's only value is to be an incubator but then they wanna turn around and do away with all the programs that are supposed to benefit the children they claim they're trying to save.
I mourn loss of life, yes. But not to such a point that I will EVER scream at a woman that she's a baby-killer because she had to abort for whatever reason. Not even if she ended up aborting for reasons I don't personally agree with. Why? Because, ultimately, it's none of my business. For Christ's sake, I even drove one of my best friends to a clinic to get an abortion, which she got because she felt like she had no other choice (half-Korean girl with a VERY traditional Korean mother who'd already threatened to disown her when she had her first child out of wedlock. Internally, I didn't like it and I didn't like that she'd basically been forced into that position, but I was there for her even when she mourned her baby later. And I did it because I'm her friend. Because it wasn't about me.
SMFH
So don't you get self-righteous and haughty with me. If ever you should like to have an INTELLIGENT discussion on this topic, let's discuss the Catholic church that excommunicated a 9-year-old girl's mother and her doctors for giving the girl a life-saving abortion after she became pregnant by her sick bastard pedophile of a step-father while the Catholic church did NOTHING to him and deemed the girl's abortion more serious than what the pedophile did. My Goddess, that girl was a BABY and she was pregnant with TWINS and yet the Catholic church STILL behaved as though she should have just died trying to carry them to term. They wanted to claim that they believed "all innocent lives should be protected" even while they spat on the innocent life of a child.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w
Jesus. This happened back in '09 but I only heard about it a couple hours ago and I'm still shaking after reading that article.
So save the smugness for some uneducated twit who really DOESN'T know what they're talking about.
KTHXBAI
Your butthurt is only matched by your incredible ignorance when it comes not only to abortion, but reading comprehension. Let's try going down the reasons I posted my little list of statements, in order:
1) Hating abortion = hating women's rights and women's choices. This makes you a misogynist.
2) Fetuses are not babies, and saying a woman shouldn't have an abortion "just because" the sperm donor is a rapist demeans and belittles the experiences and horrors that women who find themselves pregnant because of rape go through. This makes you a misogynist.
3) Wanting to "beat the hell" out of women because of their personal choices about their own bodies makes you a misogynist.
4) I shouldn't have to say this, but I'm so fucking tired of this meme. Abortion is birth control. And it should be used by women whenever they feel they need to, or even just want to! I'm so incredibly tired of this shit. It's slut-shaming, misogynistic, anti-choice bullshit. Would you rather women had babies they didn't want and would maybe neglect or abuse? Oh right, of course you would; Anti-choicers don't give a flying fuck about the well-being of women or born children.
5) First of all, this happens incredibly rarely and hardly at all in the U.S. Second, THAT IS THEIR FUCKING CHOICE and it is not your right to question it. Third, would you rather they had the baby and mistreated it because they didn't want anything to do with it? Oh yeah, again, you don't give a fuck about actual babies, just fetuses.
6) Yes, it does.
7) Anti-choice bullshit.
Now, to address your more recent anti-choice bullshit!
First of all, let me make this incredibly, blisteringly clear to you: I will not award you any points for voting pro-choice when you are still an anti-abortion, slut-shaming, misogynistic dipshit. Congratulating you for voting pro-choice would be like congratulating you for not, I don't know, slamming someone's fingers shut in the door intentionally just because you want to see them hurt -- "Congratulations on doing the basic minimum required to not be a complete monster!" Yeah, no. You don't get cookies for that, especially not when in the same breath you're making misogynistic comments and trying to police women's bodies and what they do with them. Your implication that if it weren't for some anti-choicers, you would be more than happy to vote to deprive women of their basic bodily rights doesn't exactly help, you sanctimonious little shit.
I know things that people like to just pass off as Pro-Life propaganda but is more factual than any voracious Pro-Abortion nitwit would care to know.
Well, why don't you share this apparently ~horrifying data, then, sweetheart? I know I for one would love to hear it, especially since I'm about 99% sure it's either a) basically anti-choice propaganda or b) completely bullshit.
Oh right. The info probably doesn't exist. You're just trying desperately to justify your anti-woman stance.
And despite my revulsion toward abortion in general, I almost had one.
And yet you have the gall to shame, insult and question women who dare to make the choice you almost made. Congratulations, you're a hypocrite!
I'm grateful every day that I didn't abort my now-5-year-old son.
Good for you. Can we move on from the attempted emotional manipulation now? I know, I know, being anti-choice, it's pretty much all the ammunition you've got, but it's getting really old.
I don't give a flying flip if you like what I said, agree with what I said, or anything like that.
lawl. If you didn't give a shit, why did you send me the tl;dr screed to end all tl;dr screeds? Your butthurt is showing.
I've arrived at my position through research AND life experience.
What the fuck kind of bullshit, poor ass "research" have you been doing? Because the "research" isn't showing up in your comments... and it doesn't exist. Period. "Research" proves that abortion is a vital and necessary good for women. You're just basically saying your "life experience" and a few anti-choice webpages have made you a misogynistic shitstain. Er, congrats, I guess?
-- Continued.
Um, yeah. When you shame and judge women for exercising their rights, and obviously prioritize a fetus over the health, well-being and life of an actually living woman, you aren't "pro-life." You're an anti-choice, misogynistic douchebag.
Also, I think this is the point where you stopped sounding like any kind of person and just started sounding like a caricature. The "HA!!!!" really sealed it. All I can think of are anime villains.
And Just because I respect ALL life (both mother and child)
You clearly do not respect women. Your comments here and before prove that. If you respected women, you wouldn't question, judge and shame their personal choices with regards to their own bodies. You wouldn't make comments about how you want to "beat the hell out of" women. You wouldn't judge and shame women who abort due to rape.
As an aside, you're also disrespecting children when you compare them to fetuses.
you will NEVER find me voting for any of these psycho women-hating motherfuckers trying to worm their way into office.
Once again, congratulations on not being a complete monster. ...seriously, what, do you want cookies for this?
But not to such a point that I will EVER scream at a woman that she's a baby-killer because she had to abort for whatever reason.
No, you'll just use self-righteous, sanctimonious and manipulative language to essentially accomplish the same effect over the internet, right?
Protip: Whining about women "murdering their babies" and shit in a public forum is exactly the same thing.
Because, ultimately, it's none of my business.
Wow, really? Maybe you should have thought of that before you made your previous comment, or this one!
For Christ's sake, I even drove one of my best friends to a clinic to get an abortion, which she got because she felt like she had no other choice
So, basically, she had a "good" abortion, according to you.
Internally, I didn't like it and I didn't like that she'd basically been forced into that position, but I was there for her even when she mourned her baby later.
..or not. So you basically judge any woman who has an abortion, period. Oh, but you'll do the basic minimum required not to be a monster, of course, as above... but you'll still be shaming and judging women on the inside! That's so nice to know!
Yeah, pretty misogynist.
So don't you get self-righteous and haughty with me.
...I'm getting self-righteous and haughty? Jesus fuck, you just lack any ability to look at and evaluate your own words and language, don't you?
If ever you should like to have an INTELLIGENT discussion on this topic, let's discuss[...]
First of all, I highly doubt I would be able to have an intelligent discussion of any kind with you. Second, I'm not interested in only discussing abortions that you personally "agree with" or "allow". I'd much rather discuss how harmful and hurtful to women your anti-choice, slut-shaming, judging bullshit is.
Jesus. This happened back in '09 but I only heard about it a couple hours ago and I'm still shaking after reading that article.
Again, what do you want here, kudos for not being a monster? "Oh my god-- she's against abortion and still thinks a nine-year-old shouldn't have to die giving birth to twins!" Yeah, no.
So save the smugness for some uneducated twit who really DOESN'T know what they're talking about.
You really don't know what you're talking about. Also, smugness? ...I posted a gif. Something tells me you're the one with reading comprehension problems.
KTHXBAI
Ciao, you flouncy misogynistic jackass. ♥
Edited at 2012-05-25 08:24 pm (UTC)
>But not to such a point that I will EVER scream at a woman that she's a baby-killer because she had to abort
These two sentences in conjunction make sense to you, huh?
And I can go no further. Insert flipping table gif here.
Your attitude can only exist in the first world, where the struggle to survive isn't staring you right in the face every day. As people of economic privilege it's our duty to put away our feelings about abortion and focus on the epidemics that are happening to people that
As far as I can see, the pro-life movement arrived at least a century too early. Even if we miraculously solve all these problems, you'll still have to let go of the 'omg baby killing!' emotions and look at it rationally. I think the best you can hope for is that future medical centers will have an attendant making the rounds in the OB/GYN, asking pregnant folk "Excuse me, would it be all right if we used our handy, 100% safe, painless teleporter to beam that fetus you want to abort into a birthing station?" And I do mean ask, not tell. Because even in that utopian future, women should still have the right to choose how their bodies are treated.
Edited at 2012-05-25 07:44 am (UTC)
It's nice to know that you feel intense violence towards women getting abortions for reasons you disprove of. That's very pro-woman of you.
Do even have any clue why some women get sex-selective abortions? It's not because they're selfish b*tches, but many come from cultures that value baby boys more than baby girls, as boys carry the family name (and so many more reasons, which I won't go into because I'm especially educated on the topic, and don't want to make an arse of myself).
because I know that if women have to go back to doing coat-hanger abortions or abortions in an illegal clinic where the person doing doesn't even have to be a doctor, the facilities don't have to be hospital-grade sterile, etc., we'd be losing so many more valuable, precious lives.
So, if you don't want abortion criminalised (which I assume you don't going by this part of your comment) - why make this comment at all? This isn't about you - and in a post about misogyny and anti-choice attitudes about women, and women who get abortions, this is a very inappropriate comment to make. Especially the sex-selective abortion comments, because it makes it clear you have no idea what drives a lot of sex-selective abortions.
Abortion controls birth. Therefore, it is birth control. Always.
or, such as what was stated above, because "Oh noes! I didn't want a boy/girl!!"
There is no evidence that this happens in any statistically/realistically significant numbers in the US
I've got friends who would make AMAZING mothers and want children BADLY and wouldn't dispose of a baby just because it wasn't the gender they wanted.
Good for them. I don't see what this has to do with the reproductive choices of other women.
I look at my own children and I remember how they looked the day they were born and just picturing them or other babies like them being cut up like they're just worthless pieces of trash by selfish assholes who don't want them simply because they weren't the desired gender....... Ugh.
Abortion is not about you, and it is not about your children. It's about the individual choices of the women who own the bodies that are pregnant. If you don't like to picture them being cut up, then stop picturing it. But you thinking that a procedure is "icky" or for the wrong reasons should not be reason enough to ban it for other people.
No.