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
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)