Before getting into the content of today's article, I want to say Happy 43rd Birthday to Hemant and to thank him for all he has done for atheism/secularism/humanism.
This asshole said the quiet part out loud. His explicit desires on display here are: 1. Women are less than men. 2. Pro-life does means controlling women and not protecting living humans. 3. "Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong and and enemy deserving of being killed.*
The bloodlust and hunger for power that comes with their belief system is off the charts.
If abortion is so repugnant to the people sponsoring this bill, I want to know why they haven't addressed the biggest abortionist of all: Yahweh. They complain about women terminating their pregnancies, while the god they more than likely worship has wasted potential lives by the BILLIONS. Unimplanted fertilized eggs, miscarriages due to multiple fetal abnormalities, and stillbirths resulting from other irregularities in the gestation process are the clear evidence of Yahweh's attitude toward pregnancy. Were they counted against the comparatively safe and controlled procedures women experience now, the comparison would resemble the volume of the Pacific Ocean against a glass of water.
We all know the reason for this. Put bluntly: control of women. Subjugation of women to second-class status and reassertion of the patriarchy ... by a bunch of insecure, immature men. Makes me embarrassed to be of the same sex as those putzes.
They are badly clone insecure frightened little toddlers (my apologies to toddlers) in men’s suits; trying to act tough and manly, when all their actions scream I AM SOOOO SCARED OF POWERFUL INDEPENDENT WOMEN!
Nevermind that bit in the bible that gives rather specific instructions on how to perform an abortion! Or the bit about slashing open the bellies of an enemy's pregnant women, the better to wipe them completely off the face of the Earth...
Funny that they always leave 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 cherries on the branch when they go a-picking, innit?
Those things could lead to promiscuity, and if we just keep teenagers as ignorant as possible there is no possibility of them ever trying to figure things out for themselves. /S
The so-called pro-life community couldn’t care less about the health and well-being of women, they never met a war they didn’t love, they’re pro-death penalty, anti-gun control and quit caring about the child the moment it’s breathing on it’s own. If they’re so pro-life why aren’t they pushing for universal healthcare? This is all about controlling and debasing women in the name of morality. They envy the Taliban.
Well, if the sinful harlots would just recognize that they are property owned by their menfolk and they can always be replaced with a more compliant 13 year-old little girl from the youth group, the big, strong, righteous menfolk wouldn't have to hurt them so.
Cutting off aid to Africa has murdered over 1 million people mostly women and children, so far. Can Trump supporters in Tennessee be charged with murder? Or is it only murder if they imagine them being white?
I await the news of Barrett (or any other xtian fanatigelical that supports hideous misogynistic anti-life legislation) to be caught in flagrante delicto with prepubescent boys and/or girls.
If I was a betting person, I would say the odds are very extremely high that these Christian fascist fuckwits will be caught sexually abusing a child (boy or girl)!
“…providing preborn children with equal protection of the laws. By protecting the lives of preborn children with the same laws that protect people who are born,…”
“Under this legislation, murdering anyone would be made illegal for everyone, ensuring that all humans made in the image of God are equally protected”
Except that is not what is happening. You are removing legal protections from born people to provide more rights to the zef than any other being in the world has, and you are taking rights away from pregnant people reducing them to less than the rights of dead people. No one has the right to use the body of any other person. No one. You can’t make a father donate his blood for his child to live. And that is a simple procedure that doesn’t even require a local anesthetic, can be done in an hour, and leaves no lasting effects on the donor. You can’t force a sibling to donate a kidney or liver, you don’t get to harvest organs from a corpse unless you have direct specific permission before that person dies. But a fetus is allowed to drain calcium, iron, hormones, all nutrients from the pregnant person, while damaging the organs and systems throughout the entire body for months. Pregnant people are never recovered from pregnancy, they are just expected to have brain fog, emotional instability, weaker bones and teeth, a lack of flexibility, bladder control issues, and extra fat for the rest of their lives. And that is before the pregnancies that actually cause recognized damage like gestational diabetes, broken ribs or pelvis, autoimmune diseases. But we have to protect autonomy when it comes to donating blood, but definitely not when it comes to giving up your entire body.
The term unborn child is sickening. It may not be born so unborn is true, but it is not a child, nor is it a baby. It is a zygote, embryo or fetus. It must be born to be a baby, it must be over a year old to be a child. We could just as easily call it an unborn adult if we are going to play this game. And the fucker who describes embryos as the jelly bean little babies (or however it was described) is trying to get you to think that it looks like a tiny fully formed baby, which they do not. This is all emotional manipulation to win over people to their side. But the more they push, the less credibility they get, protect the unborn like the born by murdering the born for exercising their bodily autonomy.
As for abolishing abortion, we know it will never happen, they only are going to abolish safe abortion and kill women in the process. And not even pregnant women, but by making abortion illegal it puts all women’s healthcare at risk. Fewer people will pursue ob/gyn practice or even study women’s health, which is already ridiculously understudied by a million miles. They want this as much as they want to punish women for being sexually active or simply for being alive and not submissive. They want us pumping out babies, and if we can’t produce a live child as often as possible, they want us dead. But that’s just the background, I’ve noticed that the stricter the abortion policies the shittier the state/country quality of life. Maybe it’s a question of which causes which, but with what is going on in real time in our country, I feel like the abortion policies are what shapes the quality of life. Knowing that keeping women tied to babies and children, interfering in their opportunities for education and work, is detrimental to society as a whole. I have read plenty of literature noting that when women are afforded opportunities to learn and work for pay, the children become more successful overall, which makes society more successful. But gatekeeping education and paid work for only men, society stagnates. We get the oligarchies and slave states that only ever rewards a tiny fraction of the top of the hierarchy. Third world countries seem to all have very strict abortion restrictions, our worst performing states have always had limited access to abortion and, now Roe is overturned, are quickly sliding into third world societies. But we can’t seem to see the connection. I think the oligarchs in power do and know how they can use this to retain their control. And now that we have this cult of personality in charge being used by the modern oligarchs of the USA, they’re so ready to throw women and children into the trash to keep their gold coin swimming pools full.
Quote: " And not even pregnant women, but by making abortion illegal it puts all women’s healthcare at risk."
Did you read that story about the lady who was very early in her pregnancy like 6/7/8 weeks and who had a heart condition? She needed some kind of procedure, I've forgotten the details. The doctors were extremely reluctant do do this procedure, although it was generally considered quite safe due to her pregnancy. She then tried to get an abortion so that she could get the heart procedure afterwards.
She could not get an abortion straight away, due to mandated waiting periods and also due to the fact that the clinics which still exist are booked out, forcing people to wait extra.
During that waiting time she died.
I'd like someone to ask this Mr Tennessee Legislator to ask about her case!
Stories like that one are so common I'm not sure it would be possible to trace the original source you speak of, which is a commentary on the situation in and of itself.
Probably because, I have been told before, that her sole purpose in life is having a baby and that the greatest thing she can do is sacrifice her life to bring the baby into the world. This has been explained to me numerous times by misogynistic men in this very forum (maybe not all on Substack but on all the locations that Friendly Atheist has posted). That to have any other interests, callings and purposes in life for women is selfish. Being selfish is worthy of deserving death.
I don't think she deserved to die. But the idiot Republican from Tennessee would probably claim that his god struck her down because she wanted to get an abortion.
And of course the elite members of the Christian fascist movement will be able to get abortion, or will be exempted from the law. It will be the poor, middle class and non-white women that will suffer the most; not the wealthiest elites!
(I'll probably have to respond in stages, for the moment just one thing which caught my eye)
But we have to protect autonomy when it comes to [wearing a paper mask during a air-borne pandemic], but definitely not when it comes to giving up your entire body.
"You can’t force a sibling to donate a kidney or liver, you don’t get to harvest organs from a corpse unless you have direct specific permission before that person dies."
I am sure I’ve read parts of it. It seems to be my point.
I will note that there was another case coming before the SCOTUS at the same time as the Roe case, just following it, that would have been making the case of abortion protection on the grounds of bodily autonomy rather than the right to privacy that Roe was settled on. Some have said this other case, and I don’t remember the case name or its exact argument, would have been a more secure decision that wouldn’t have been able to overturn as Roe has. The very least of any argument regarding abortion is that women have a right to self defense and every pregnancy is a threat to the life and health of the pregnant person. As well as the argument for bodily autonomy and being able to give and take permission at will should be considered. “But you gave permission when you agreed to sex.” Consent to sex is not consent to pregnancy, as any deadbeat dad will attest, and consent isn’t consent if it cannot be withdrawn. Consent to sex is acknowledgment of the risk of pregnancy, not consent, and then if that happens there are options to consent or not consent to the pregnancy itself. Also if we are using contraception, we do not consent even if the contraception fails. But anyone who claims consent to sex is consent to pregnancy is probably someone who will of not withdrawn consent to sex, as though they are entitled to the other person’s body.
Sorry, this subject is a bit of a trigger for me and I will rant. Women are people and should have the same rights and opportunities as men have no matter the circumstances and this subject keeps society from acknowledging women’s humanity. Being a woman, I am committed to defending this stance at all costs, since it is my life on the line. I also do it for my daughter and all women.
I honestly don't see how a case settled on bodily autonomy would've been any safer in the hands of the Roberts court than Roe was- it's not as though the Shameful Six have been any more consistent on bodily autonomy than they've been on privacy, and it's 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘭𝘺 not as if they don't just flagrantly lie and shred precedent whenever it pleases them to deliver the ruling their patrons desire.
I mean, I read about this case before Trump corrupted the court, so I don’t think that anyone was expecting that. However, the case for Roe was about privacy and not women’s personhood, which is easier to dismiss at the end of the day. And it is what the right has been working on defeating for 50 years. What we needed was more legally grounding principles than only privacy, to bolster the decision so that the right can be defended on multiple fronts. But you are correct, the current SCROTUS would have been able to contort their brains to reverse the ruling no matter the basis of the decision.
Of course, it would've helped if Roe had been backed up by legislation at some point during those five whole decades... say, maybe one of the several times Democrats held both the White House and Congress? Instead, because nobody wanted to touch that political live wire again and risk their precious seats, the religious right had all the time in the world to poke and prod at things until they finally found their moment to strike, and then the damned media spent more time trying to find out who leaked Dobbs than they did holding legislators' feet to the fire while there was still a realistic chance of making the ruling irrelevant.
The center-left of this country is just so fatally 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥. There's no other word for it. Every time they get a chance to do some actual good, they let it just... whiff right past their empty fucking heads.
Of course, the bill includes no means or method for determining how or why a pregnancy was terminated, and I'm sure the omission is completely intentional. Legislation like this would shift the burden of proof to the defendant. Even a spontaneous miscarriage could be prosecuted as murder, because there's simply no way to tell the difference between a miscarriage and an abortion in most cases; it'd be her word against the prosecutor's, and we all know how that story goes most of the time (particularly for women of color). Every pregnancy would carry with it the constant fear of imprisonment and possible execution, should any complication- even those which there exists no means of detecting in advance- result in the loss of the fetus.
But... that's part of the point. The fear is a feature, not a bug. Y'know. To remind those uppity womenfolk what their 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 place in the order of things is.
And then the same damnfool Republicans wring their hands and whine about declining birth rates, as though there's no connection whatsoever to their anti-life culture war bullshit.
Oh don't worry, they plan on fixing the declining birth rate. This is just step 1, step 2 is making BC illegal and reducing womens' rights to be treated fairly in the workplace.
The republicans for the most part only care about birth rates of whites; not the POC who has more than two kids, or the Muslim immigrants who have several kids!
This anti abortion bill is their response to the “replacement theory” by non whites (in their tiny minds), in addition to controlling women!
The Christian fascist don’t care if this bill kills women (especially women that are not white, Christian, and conservative) if it instill fear and allows them to control women (again especially any women not like them).
Further Thought: Scenario - Born-again Tennessee legislator comes home to discover that his beloved wife has an ectopic pregnancy. She is in no small amount of pain, and her life is clearly at risk.
So what do you do, Cappy Dick? Get appropriate treatment for the women you love or let her die in agonizing pain for the sake of your misguided ideology?
Here’s the thing with the so called exceptions for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, as played out in real time in Texas and other abortion ban states, they wait until the pregnant person is near death despite not having any course of action for saving the fetus. When a woman goes to the hospital for a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, the pregnancy is already doomed, there are no interventions to save the fetuses, once the bleeding starts the pregnancy is already over, even if there is still a heartbeat. That is why the hospitals are sending the women home, if they could do something to stop the pregnancy from ending they would admit and perform their miracle, but they can’t. So, instead of just ending the pregnancy immediately to avoid pain, suffering, life altering complications, and even death, they wait, and they can’t even observe her until they can do something, they send her home to suffer in silence, and hope she comes back in time. An ectopic pregnancy, by the time it is caught, the development of the zygote is already compromised and it will not develop properly, it’s already dead just not done dying. We can’t just pull it out from where it shouldn’t be and put it where it should, but we can simply remove it. They won’t do that until there’s no other choice, but by then, it can be too late. Same goes for miscarriage. Even “late term” abortions, fetuses that are incompatible with life once born do not deserve to suffer birth and slow death. Anyway, medical science cannot stop the extant miscarriages from continuing, but they refuse to do what it takes to save the living person from suffering and death from it. Like I have said many times, for the religious right/pro-lifers/forced-birthers, if women can’t have a live baby, then they should die. Women are just baby factories and they deserve the pain and suffering involved with that.
Believe me, I've heard those stories, and each one just makes me sick. Politicians tying the hands of doctors, because pro-life, because baby, because irrational reasons that add up to: "We're the MEN and WE tell the women what to do, FULL STOP."
Bunch of limp-dick idiot-children who couldn't SPELL "empathy," let alone practice it.
And considering that the nervous system develops very late in pregnancy, they cannot feel pain when aborted, the earlier the better. By making abortion harder to get they add to the problem of timely care.
He will say that his wife doesn’t have an ectopic pregnancy in public, while making damm sure she gets treated for it in another state so his constituents won’t know about it!
Yep this exactly. These rules are for the commoners; wealthy upper-class women can always find a doctor for their 'sickness' or go on a short vacation.
♫♪ Out in the hall they were talking in a whisper / Everybody noticed she was gone awhile / Somebody said she's gone to her sister's / But everybody knew what they were talking about... ♪♫
When I was in high school I was so naive. At one point I commented that it was strange how so many girls were leaving school to go live with their aunt out-of-state. The person explained to me what was really going on.
And what does he do when some investigating reporter comes across this little tidbit and decides to pull Mr. Volunteer State's pants down? The bill says execution for the woman and anyone who helps her.
If you are asking me? I think the legislator will use his money and influence to prevent that story from being published; or try to justify that his wife’s abortion was needed unlike those “other women” who are just COMMON CLASS murders which their abortion wasn’t really “needed”.
I feel sick just writing that! I think I need a strong drink!
An alternative scenario (based on a real life case, a lady called Savita Halappanavar): She was pregnant with a very much wanted baby, when her waters broke at about 16/17/18 weeks (i.e. well before any baby would have been viable). She needed an abortion, because if she does not get one, she is at a very very very high risk of sepsis.
Mr Tennessee Legislator - what is your advice for the medical staff treating this lady? What does your legislation say how they should proceed in such situations?
That's the one that broke Ireland's Catholic back, for all intents and purposes. What happened to Ms. Halappanavar and how she was [not] treated was inarguably horrific, but it had the positive effect of badly damaging the influence the RCC had on that country.
I've said it many times: THAT is what happens when those in authority favor ideology over PEOPLE.
They are a great example of how the Catholic Church holds a society back from progressing. Once they overthrew the malignant influence, life improved for everyone.
Oh, REALLY? Damn! These guys will do anything to allow themselves to skate on their bullshit. Problem is, there are a lot of other conditions during pregnancy which will 1) obviate ANY chance of the fetus surviving and 2) threaten the life of the mother. I reread the article and the language on that topic is vague to me.
'“𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏. 𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒃 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒚,” 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅.' might be technically true, but the only reason it might not single out women is it might go after their doctors as well and that isn't helping.
Bills like this ignore some hard cold realities, and I'm honestly thoroughly sick of it. The bottom line is that punishing women - and really, it's pretty much always the women - has not, does not, and will not solve anything; it doesn't promote stronger family ties, it doesn't prevent unborn children from being aborted, it doesn't stop non-marital intercourse, it doesn't do any of the things the people proposing these bills claim they want. The rallying cry of 'protecting the unborn!' has always been BS, and nothing in this bill changes that.
Barrett also completely fails to recognize the fragility of the pregnancy process. So many things can go wrong that the prospective mother has no control over, and modern medicine, while fairly competent, has no answer for a considerable number of the problems that can occur.
Still, he'll never get pregnant. Why should he care?
It's not even technically true: since the law criminalizes abortions of both dead and live fetuses equally, it is not criminalizing *killing*, it's criminalizing *aborting*.
"The unborn" are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. It's almost as if, by being born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.
Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.
And yet ... they are prepared to sacrifice, the health, wealth and pursuit of happiness of a real, living, breathing woman to (possibly!) protect this potential baby.
Note - I do have some sympathy with the wish to protect an unborn baby, when it is a near-term pregnancy and the baby is viable. But before then? Especially when it's so early that mife-miso would be appropriate, at those times it's a hard no from me.
But the widdle bitty jelly bean baby is just such a cutesy little critter! Why would anybody want to murder such a precious tiny mini-winnie doll of a human being? :^|
It won’t apply to spontaneous abortion/miscarriage unless they can find any excuse whatsoever to blame the woman for the pregnancy loss. Did she have a sip of wine? Is she working? Did she clean the litter box? Maybe she got in a fight and someone shot her causing the fetus to expire. Yes, that really happened and they blamed the pregnant woman for getting shot. Right now they’re arresting and jailing women for not handling the products of conception properly when they, flush them, save them to bring in to the hospital, bury them, throw them in the trash with the pads. So I do not trust that women suffering from doomed pregnancies will be spared being prosecuted for their pregnancy loss.
I don't know whether you read @Jessica Valenti's newsletter? With infuriating regularity she's reporting of women who are being investigated (and sometimes arrested, detained and charged) with offences related to a spontaneous miscarriage.
Such laws as the ones proposed will actually create danger for lots of women, especially those who might have pregnancy complications.
I live about 30 miles south of PA. MD gas is about 30 cents less per gallon because of state taxes. (PA does not tax all sorts of retirement income such as SS and IRA distributions.) It is not uncommon for MD residents to retire just over the PA border and then fill up their cars in MD.
According to AAA, no state has an average gas price of $2.30. I understand that some localities might. The Liar in Chief said that many states have gas below $2.30.
Before getting into the content of today's article, I want to say Happy 43rd Birthday to Hemant and to thank him for all he has done for atheism/secularism/humanism.
I raise my glass to him.
Happy Birthday to you Hemant! May it be joyful and prosperous!
Hear-hear!
It's 5 o'clock somewhere!
16.47 here ...
🍺🍺
Easy-peasey, just get yourself a broken clock and set the hands accordingly. 🙂
I find 5 o'clock to be arbitrary and capricious. 🍸
Yes Hemant, happy birthday!
Happy Birthday to Hemant.
"𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑝𝑟𝑜-𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤." (𝐴 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛)
"𝑇ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑙𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑟." (𝐴 𝑏𝑖𝑔𝑜𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑙𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟)
This asshole said the quiet part out loud. His explicit desires on display here are: 1. Women are less than men. 2. Pro-life does means controlling women and not protecting living humans. 3. "Anyone who disagrees with me is wrong and and enemy deserving of being killed.*
The bloodlust and hunger for power that comes with their belief system is off the charts.
No male representative should be allowed to vote on women’s healthcare issues.
It's what Jesus wants.
But let's shoot the messenger anyway.
And they get upset when we call their religion a death cult...
I guess the truth hurts.
If abortion is so repugnant to the people sponsoring this bill, I want to know why they haven't addressed the biggest abortionist of all: Yahweh. They complain about women terminating their pregnancies, while the god they more than likely worship has wasted potential lives by the BILLIONS. Unimplanted fertilized eggs, miscarriages due to multiple fetal abnormalities, and stillbirths resulting from other irregularities in the gestation process are the clear evidence of Yahweh's attitude toward pregnancy. Were they counted against the comparatively safe and controlled procedures women experience now, the comparison would resemble the volume of the Pacific Ocean against a glass of water.
We all know the reason for this. Put bluntly: control of women. Subjugation of women to second-class status and reassertion of the patriarchy ... by a bunch of insecure, immature men. Makes me embarrassed to be of the same sex as those putzes.
They are badly clone insecure frightened little toddlers (my apologies to toddlers) in men’s suits; trying to act tough and manly, when all their actions scream I AM SOOOO SCARED OF POWERFUL INDEPENDENT WOMEN!
Pathetic, ain't it?
Yes, it is!!!!!!!
Nevermind that bit in the bible that gives rather specific instructions on how to perform an abortion! Or the bit about slashing open the bellies of an enemy's pregnant women, the better to wipe them completely off the face of the Earth...
Funny that they always leave 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 cherries on the branch when they go a-picking, innit?
And the advice to dash the heads of enemy infants heads, upon the rocks.
An inconvenient truth that they would rather not talk about.
𝐼𝑓 𝑅𝑒𝑝𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒, 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑀𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑖𝑑, 𝑓𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑟𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑠𝑎𝑓𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠
Don't forget the most effective abortion-reducer of all time: good sex ed combined with easy access to prophylactics and birth control.
But no, they won't do that either. It's allllll about culture war.
Those things could lead to promiscuity, and if we just keep teenagers as ignorant as possible there is no possibility of them ever trying to figure things out for themselves. /S
Some of these dopes could USE a little promiscuity. Might loosen their brains a bit, let 'em think a little clearer.
As a great man once put it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB1JlHWvRxc
Epic ... and utterly true.
Oh they do, they just busted some bishop in San Diego for being a regular at a Mexican brothel.
Well, that's ONE, I guess!
One of the things they probably won't be able to figure out is how to prevent unwanted pregnancies.
Here is a map of teen pregnancies by state - https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/teen-pregnancy-rates-by-state. Kentucky ranks 9th highest in teen pregnancies and 4th in births.
The so-called pro-life community couldn’t care less about the health and well-being of women, they never met a war they didn’t love, they’re pro-death penalty, anti-gun control and quit caring about the child the moment it’s breathing on it’s own. If they’re so pro-life why aren’t they pushing for universal healthcare? This is all about controlling and debasing women in the name of morality. They envy the Taliban.
Well, if the sinful harlots would just recognize that they are property owned by their menfolk and they can always be replaced with a more compliant 13 year-old little girl from the youth group, the big, strong, righteous menfolk wouldn't have to hurt them so.
(Pukes)
Cutting off aid to Africa has murdered over 1 million people mostly women and children, so far. Can Trump supporters in Tennessee be charged with murder? Or is it only murder if they imagine them being white?
One has to ask: how many pregnancies there could be saved through proper prenatal care ... which may be as rare as hen's teeth in some quarters?
So pro-life that they'll kill ya for it.
And THAT is your Minimum Daily Requirement of IRONY for today!
I await the news of Barrett (or any other xtian fanatigelical that supports hideous misogynistic anti-life legislation) to be caught in flagrante delicto with prepubescent boys and/or girls.
If I was a betting person, I would say the odds are very extremely high that these Christian fascist fuckwits will be caught sexually abusing a child (boy or girl)!
“…providing preborn children with equal protection of the laws. By protecting the lives of preborn children with the same laws that protect people who are born,…”
“Under this legislation, murdering anyone would be made illegal for everyone, ensuring that all humans made in the image of God are equally protected”
Except that is not what is happening. You are removing legal protections from born people to provide more rights to the zef than any other being in the world has, and you are taking rights away from pregnant people reducing them to less than the rights of dead people. No one has the right to use the body of any other person. No one. You can’t make a father donate his blood for his child to live. And that is a simple procedure that doesn’t even require a local anesthetic, can be done in an hour, and leaves no lasting effects on the donor. You can’t force a sibling to donate a kidney or liver, you don’t get to harvest organs from a corpse unless you have direct specific permission before that person dies. But a fetus is allowed to drain calcium, iron, hormones, all nutrients from the pregnant person, while damaging the organs and systems throughout the entire body for months. Pregnant people are never recovered from pregnancy, they are just expected to have brain fog, emotional instability, weaker bones and teeth, a lack of flexibility, bladder control issues, and extra fat for the rest of their lives. And that is before the pregnancies that actually cause recognized damage like gestational diabetes, broken ribs or pelvis, autoimmune diseases. But we have to protect autonomy when it comes to donating blood, but definitely not when it comes to giving up your entire body.
The term unborn child is sickening. It may not be born so unborn is true, but it is not a child, nor is it a baby. It is a zygote, embryo or fetus. It must be born to be a baby, it must be over a year old to be a child. We could just as easily call it an unborn adult if we are going to play this game. And the fucker who describes embryos as the jelly bean little babies (or however it was described) is trying to get you to think that it looks like a tiny fully formed baby, which they do not. This is all emotional manipulation to win over people to their side. But the more they push, the less credibility they get, protect the unborn like the born by murdering the born for exercising their bodily autonomy.
As for abolishing abortion, we know it will never happen, they only are going to abolish safe abortion and kill women in the process. And not even pregnant women, but by making abortion illegal it puts all women’s healthcare at risk. Fewer people will pursue ob/gyn practice or even study women’s health, which is already ridiculously understudied by a million miles. They want this as much as they want to punish women for being sexually active or simply for being alive and not submissive. They want us pumping out babies, and if we can’t produce a live child as often as possible, they want us dead. But that’s just the background, I’ve noticed that the stricter the abortion policies the shittier the state/country quality of life. Maybe it’s a question of which causes which, but with what is going on in real time in our country, I feel like the abortion policies are what shapes the quality of life. Knowing that keeping women tied to babies and children, interfering in their opportunities for education and work, is detrimental to society as a whole. I have read plenty of literature noting that when women are afforded opportunities to learn and work for pay, the children become more successful overall, which makes society more successful. But gatekeeping education and paid work for only men, society stagnates. We get the oligarchies and slave states that only ever rewards a tiny fraction of the top of the hierarchy. Third world countries seem to all have very strict abortion restrictions, our worst performing states have always had limited access to abortion and, now Roe is overturned, are quickly sliding into third world societies. But we can’t seem to see the connection. I think the oligarchs in power do and know how they can use this to retain their control. And now that we have this cult of personality in charge being used by the modern oligarchs of the USA, they’re so ready to throw women and children into the trash to keep their gold coin swimming pools full.
Rant over
Quote: " And not even pregnant women, but by making abortion illegal it puts all women’s healthcare at risk."
Did you read that story about the lady who was very early in her pregnancy like 6/7/8 weeks and who had a heart condition? She needed some kind of procedure, I've forgotten the details. The doctors were extremely reluctant do do this procedure, although it was generally considered quite safe due to her pregnancy. She then tried to get an abortion so that she could get the heart procedure afterwards.
She could not get an abortion straight away, due to mandated waiting periods and also due to the fact that the clinics which still exist are booked out, forcing people to wait extra.
During that waiting time she died.
I'd like someone to ask this Mr Tennessee Legislator to ask about her case!
Stories like that one are so common I'm not sure it would be possible to trace the original source you speak of, which is a commentary on the situation in and of itself.
He'd probably tell you she got what she deserved, to his way of thinking.
He deserves to be dropped head-first into a pit of hungry alligators.
No way!
The alligators deserve better.
I don't understand that way of thinking? Why did she deserve to die?
Probably because, I have been told before, that her sole purpose in life is having a baby and that the greatest thing she can do is sacrifice her life to bring the baby into the world. This has been explained to me numerous times by misogynistic men in this very forum (maybe not all on Substack but on all the locations that Friendly Atheist has posted). That to have any other interests, callings and purposes in life for women is selfish. Being selfish is worthy of deserving death.
I don't think she deserved to die. But the idiot Republican from Tennessee would probably claim that his god struck her down because she wanted to get an abortion.
Ok, that’s the way it was meant.
Thank you.
𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑙 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒, 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑦, 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚 𝑜𝑓𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑦𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒—𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑛𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑛 𝑎 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑓𝑢𝑙 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑣𝑖𝑙𝑙𝑎𝑔𝑒, 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑝𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑦, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛, ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑡ℎ, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑠𝑚 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒. 𝐼𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛'𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟; 𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑠ℎ, 𝑡𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝐵𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑖𝑎, 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠—𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒. 𝑁𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡, 𝑜𝑟 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑠.
-- Christopher Hitchens
And of course the elite members of the Christian fascist movement will be able to get abortion, or will be exempted from the law. It will be the poor, middle class and non-white women that will suffer the most; not the wealthiest elites!
(I'll probably have to respond in stages, for the moment just one thing which caught my eye)
But we have to protect autonomy when it comes to [wearing a paper mask during a air-borne pandemic], but definitely not when it comes to giving up your entire body.
FIFY
"You can’t force a sibling to donate a kidney or liver, you don’t get to harvest organs from a corpse unless you have direct specific permission before that person dies."
Are you aware of Judith Jarvis Thompson's defence of abortion -https://spot.colorado.edu/~heathwoo/Phil160,Fall02/thomson.htm
I am sure I’ve read parts of it. It seems to be my point.
I will note that there was another case coming before the SCOTUS at the same time as the Roe case, just following it, that would have been making the case of abortion protection on the grounds of bodily autonomy rather than the right to privacy that Roe was settled on. Some have said this other case, and I don’t remember the case name or its exact argument, would have been a more secure decision that wouldn’t have been able to overturn as Roe has. The very least of any argument regarding abortion is that women have a right to self defense and every pregnancy is a threat to the life and health of the pregnant person. As well as the argument for bodily autonomy and being able to give and take permission at will should be considered. “But you gave permission when you agreed to sex.” Consent to sex is not consent to pregnancy, as any deadbeat dad will attest, and consent isn’t consent if it cannot be withdrawn. Consent to sex is acknowledgment of the risk of pregnancy, not consent, and then if that happens there are options to consent or not consent to the pregnancy itself. Also if we are using contraception, we do not consent even if the contraception fails. But anyone who claims consent to sex is consent to pregnancy is probably someone who will of not withdrawn consent to sex, as though they are entitled to the other person’s body.
Sorry, this subject is a bit of a trigger for me and I will rant. Women are people and should have the same rights and opportunities as men have no matter the circumstances and this subject keeps society from acknowledging women’s humanity. Being a woman, I am committed to defending this stance at all costs, since it is my life on the line. I also do it for my daughter and all women.
Thanks again Val for so thoroughly outlining the issues.
I honestly don't see how a case settled on bodily autonomy would've been any safer in the hands of the Roberts court than Roe was- it's not as though the Shameful Six have been any more consistent on bodily autonomy than they've been on privacy, and it's 𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘭𝘺 not as if they don't just flagrantly lie and shred precedent whenever it pleases them to deliver the ruling their patrons desire.
I mean, I read about this case before Trump corrupted the court, so I don’t think that anyone was expecting that. However, the case for Roe was about privacy and not women’s personhood, which is easier to dismiss at the end of the day. And it is what the right has been working on defeating for 50 years. What we needed was more legally grounding principles than only privacy, to bolster the decision so that the right can be defended on multiple fronts. But you are correct, the current SCROTUS would have been able to contort their brains to reverse the ruling no matter the basis of the decision.
Of course, it would've helped if Roe had been backed up by legislation at some point during those five whole decades... say, maybe one of the several times Democrats held both the White House and Congress? Instead, because nobody wanted to touch that political live wire again and risk their precious seats, the religious right had all the time in the world to poke and prod at things until they finally found their moment to strike, and then the damned media spent more time trying to find out who leaked Dobbs than they did holding legislators' feet to the fire while there was still a realistic chance of making the ruling irrelevant.
The center-left of this country is just so fatally 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘥. There's no other word for it. Every time they get a chance to do some actual good, they let it just... whiff right past their empty fucking heads.
Thanks Val for your post. Perfect.
Of course, the bill includes no means or method for determining how or why a pregnancy was terminated, and I'm sure the omission is completely intentional. Legislation like this would shift the burden of proof to the defendant. Even a spontaneous miscarriage could be prosecuted as murder, because there's simply no way to tell the difference between a miscarriage and an abortion in most cases; it'd be her word against the prosecutor's, and we all know how that story goes most of the time (particularly for women of color). Every pregnancy would carry with it the constant fear of imprisonment and possible execution, should any complication- even those which there exists no means of detecting in advance- result in the loss of the fetus.
But... that's part of the point. The fear is a feature, not a bug. Y'know. To remind those uppity womenfolk what their 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳 place in the order of things is.
And then the same damnfool Republicans wring their hands and whine about declining birth rates, as though there's no connection whatsoever to their anti-life culture war bullshit.
Oh don't worry, they plan on fixing the declining birth rate. This is just step 1, step 2 is making BC illegal and reducing womens' rights to be treated fairly in the workplace.
The republicans for the most part only care about birth rates of whites; not the POC who has more than two kids, or the Muslim immigrants who have several kids!
This anti abortion bill is their response to the “replacement theory” by non whites (in their tiny minds), in addition to controlling women!
The Christian fascist don’t care if this bill kills women (especially women that are not white, Christian, and conservative) if it instill fear and allows them to control women (again especially any women not like them).
Further Thought: Scenario - Born-again Tennessee legislator comes home to discover that his beloved wife has an ectopic pregnancy. She is in no small amount of pain, and her life is clearly at risk.
So what do you do, Cappy Dick? Get appropriate treatment for the women you love or let her die in agonizing pain for the sake of your misguided ideology?
I'm waiting...
Here’s the thing with the so called exceptions for miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies, as played out in real time in Texas and other abortion ban states, they wait until the pregnant person is near death despite not having any course of action for saving the fetus. When a woman goes to the hospital for a miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy, the pregnancy is already doomed, there are no interventions to save the fetuses, once the bleeding starts the pregnancy is already over, even if there is still a heartbeat. That is why the hospitals are sending the women home, if they could do something to stop the pregnancy from ending they would admit and perform their miracle, but they can’t. So, instead of just ending the pregnancy immediately to avoid pain, suffering, life altering complications, and even death, they wait, and they can’t even observe her until they can do something, they send her home to suffer in silence, and hope she comes back in time. An ectopic pregnancy, by the time it is caught, the development of the zygote is already compromised and it will not develop properly, it’s already dead just not done dying. We can’t just pull it out from where it shouldn’t be and put it where it should, but we can simply remove it. They won’t do that until there’s no other choice, but by then, it can be too late. Same goes for miscarriage. Even “late term” abortions, fetuses that are incompatible with life once born do not deserve to suffer birth and slow death. Anyway, medical science cannot stop the extant miscarriages from continuing, but they refuse to do what it takes to save the living person from suffering and death from it. Like I have said many times, for the religious right/pro-lifers/forced-birthers, if women can’t have a live baby, then they should die. Women are just baby factories and they deserve the pain and suffering involved with that.
Believe me, I've heard those stories, and each one just makes me sick. Politicians tying the hands of doctors, because pro-life, because baby, because irrational reasons that add up to: "We're the MEN and WE tell the women what to do, FULL STOP."
Bunch of limp-dick idiot-children who couldn't SPELL "empathy," let alone practice it.
You've described the situation of Savita in Ireland, Izzy in Poland - and I don't want to know how many women in the United States!
And considering that the nervous system develops very late in pregnancy, they cannot feel pain when aborted, the earlier the better. By making abortion harder to get they add to the problem of timely care.
He will say that his wife doesn’t have an ectopic pregnancy in public, while making damm sure she gets treated for it in another state so his constituents won’t know about it!
Yep this exactly. These rules are for the commoners; wealthy upper-class women can always find a doctor for their 'sickness' or go on a short vacation.
♫♪ Out in the hall they were talking in a whisper / Everybody noticed she was gone awhile / Somebody said she's gone to her sister's / But everybody knew what they were talking about... ♪♫
-- Bruce Hornsby, "The Long Valley Road"
When I was in high school I was so naive. At one point I commented that it was strange how so many girls were leaving school to go live with their aunt out-of-state. The person explained to me what was really going on.
Oh! That. Oh, ok.
I was probably even more clueless back then, but so what else is new?
And what does he do when some investigating reporter comes across this little tidbit and decides to pull Mr. Volunteer State's pants down? The bill says execution for the woman and anyone who helps her.
How say you now, bub?
If you are asking me? I think the legislator will use his money and influence to prevent that story from being published; or try to justify that his wife’s abortion was needed unlike those “other women” who are just COMMON CLASS murders which their abortion wasn’t really “needed”.
I feel sick just writing that! I think I need a strong drink!
I think I'm with you on that one, and I wonder if it's too early in the day to be reaching for the Glenlivet.
And I find myself longing for the days of Mike Wallace and Dan Rather.
Just turned 17:00 .....
Enjoy! Methinks I may have some Tamnavulin, later on tonight.
An alternative scenario (based on a real life case, a lady called Savita Halappanavar): She was pregnant with a very much wanted baby, when her waters broke at about 16/17/18 weeks (i.e. well before any baby would have been viable). She needed an abortion, because if she does not get one, she is at a very very very high risk of sepsis.
Mr Tennessee Legislator - what is your advice for the medical staff treating this lady? What does your legislation say how they should proceed in such situations?
That's the one that broke Ireland's Catholic back, for all intents and purposes. What happened to Ms. Halappanavar and how she was [not] treated was inarguably horrific, but it had the positive effect of badly damaging the influence the RCC had on that country.
I've said it many times: THAT is what happens when those in authority favor ideology over PEOPLE.
Ireland has progress pretty far, considering the power the Catholic Church had on that country!
They are a great example of how the Catholic Church holds a society back from progressing. Once they overthrew the malignant influence, life improved for everyone.
Simple, they do not have “beloved wives”, he tells her to suffer, then marries the teenage girlfriend.
If that's the case, I seriously have to wonder if people like Barrett and I are actually the same species!
"Terminating an ectopic pregnancy is not abortion." I have heard them say that
Oh, REALLY? Damn! These guys will do anything to allow themselves to skate on their bullshit. Problem is, there are a lot of other conditions during pregnancy which will 1) obviate ANY chance of the fetus surviving and 2) threaten the life of the mother. I reread the article and the language on that topic is vague to me.
Damn, but how I positively HATE this shit.
And it absolutely is.
'“𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏. 𝑰𝒕’𝒔 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒌𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒎𝒃 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒃𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒕𝒚,” 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒕 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅.' might be technically true, but the only reason it might not single out women is it might go after their doctors as well and that isn't helping.
Bills like this ignore some hard cold realities, and I'm honestly thoroughly sick of it. The bottom line is that punishing women - and really, it's pretty much always the women - has not, does not, and will not solve anything; it doesn't promote stronger family ties, it doesn't prevent unborn children from being aborted, it doesn't stop non-marital intercourse, it doesn't do any of the things the people proposing these bills claim they want. The rallying cry of 'protecting the unborn!' has always been BS, and nothing in this bill changes that.
Barrett also completely fails to recognize the fragility of the pregnancy process. So many things can go wrong that the prospective mother has no control over, and modern medicine, while fairly competent, has no answer for a considerable number of the problems that can occur.
Still, he'll never get pregnant. Why should he care?
It's not even technically true: since the law criminalizes abortions of both dead and live fetuses equally, it is not criminalizing *killing*, it's criminalizing *aborting*.
". . . we have failed to identify that tiny little, jelly-bean-sized baby as a human being."
No. It is not a "human being" yet. It has the potential to become one, but it is not there yet.
It doesn’t resemble a baby at that point either, barely resembles a jelly-bean. It does represent a deadly threat to the pregnant person, though.
Inside the womb and dependent on the woman to survive: Fetus.
Outside the womb and breathing independently: Baby.
When baby is outside the womb, Christian fascist dumbasses don’t care about mother or baby!
"If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked."
— George Carlin
I miss him, he would have fun at the expense of that ugly orange skunk ape!
Yep, John Stewart came out of retirement for that.
And man he is at the top of his game. The laughs he can draw with a simple facial gesture!
Outside and 18 yrs. old: cannon fodder.
David Barnhard
"The unborn" are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don't resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don't ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don't need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don't bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. It's almost as if, by being born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe.
Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.
And yet ... they are prepared to sacrifice, the health, wealth and pursuit of happiness of a real, living, breathing woman to (possibly!) protect this potential baby.
Note - I do have some sympathy with the wish to protect an unborn baby, when it is a near-term pregnancy and the baby is viable. But before then? Especially when it's so early that mife-miso would be appropriate, at those times it's a hard no from me.
But the widdle bitty jelly bean baby is just such a cutesy little critter! Why would anybody want to murder such a precious tiny mini-winnie doll of a human being? :^|
Barf.
"It would not apply to “a spontaneous miscarriage,”"
So, letting god off the hook. How special.
It won’t apply to spontaneous abortion/miscarriage unless they can find any excuse whatsoever to blame the woman for the pregnancy loss. Did she have a sip of wine? Is she working? Did she clean the litter box? Maybe she got in a fight and someone shot her causing the fetus to expire. Yes, that really happened and they blamed the pregnant woman for getting shot. Right now they’re arresting and jailing women for not handling the products of conception properly when they, flush them, save them to bring in to the hospital, bury them, throw them in the trash with the pads. So I do not trust that women suffering from doomed pregnancies will be spared being prosecuted for their pregnancy loss.
Is she poor? Black or Hispanic? Single? Throw her in jail while we investigate this so-called "miscarriage."
I don't know whether you read @Jessica Valenti's newsletter? With infuriating regularity she's reporting of women who are being investigated (and sometimes arrested, detained and charged) with offences related to a spontaneous miscarriage.
Such laws as the ones proposed will actually create danger for lots of women, especially those who might have pregnancy complications.
To be fair, it'd be 𝘢𝘸𝘧𝘶𝘭 hard to apply the death penalty to someone who never existed in the first place.
Does ANYONE live somewhere where a gallon of gasoline is $2.30, per the Liar in Chief last night?
I paid $2.90 today.
There are some spots where it's less.
https://www.gasbuddy.com/gasprices/iowa
The cheapest one is only a thousand miles away from me. Ioway, here I come!
I live about 30 miles south of PA. MD gas is about 30 cents less per gallon because of state taxes. (PA does not tax all sorts of retirement income such as SS and IRA distributions.) It is not uncommon for MD residents to retire just over the PA border and then fill up their cars in MD.
According to AAA, no state has an average gas price of $2.30. I understand that some localities might. The Liar in Chief said that many states have gas below $2.30.
As of February 2026, the state with the lowest gas prices in the US is Oklahoma, with an average price of $2.34 per gallon. Following Oklahoma are:
Arkansas: $2.46 per gallon
Mississippi: $2.47 per gallon
I feel lucky when I can find premium for less than $4.00 a gallon for my G70.
The gas station closest to my house was $2.65 yesterday.