This is reminiscent of the far more numerous threats by the extreme right wingers, some of them apparently domestic terrorists, after the health care legislation passage. Such threats, regardless of the political premise, should be condemned in the strongest possible way. Anyone, ANYONE making such threats should be prosecuted.
It also reminds me of all the violent incidents from so-called pro-lifers / anti-abortion extremists, who as a group are a violent bunch of fanatics.
Clearly, there is a vocal subset of Republicans and Tea Partiers who side with the original statement made by Todd Akin, about women not being able to become pregnant by rape. The more fringie extremists on the right, like bullets-instead-of-the-ballotbox Sharron Angle strikes me as a perfect exmple of one of those terrorism and insurrection advocating extremists embraced by the right.
The reality is that the GOP platform allows for no abortion under any circumstances, not for the life or health of the mother, not for statutory rape, not for rape where a woman is non-violently incapacitated, not for their beloved 'forcible' rape, not for incest.
Those who agree with Akin's original statements are both angry at the rest of the right that is trying to feign sanity and a reality orientation, (despite all of the evidence that many of them also support removing rape as a valid reason for abortion) and angry apparenty at Todd Akin for walking back his comments when he was shown to be factually wrong - a point on which he is now waffling.
It is already well-established that the right embraces ideology over fact, so any deviation from that ideology that shows a respect for fact is going to generate strong feelings of opposition.
The left has for the most part simply condemned Akin's ignorance, but been contented to see him look stupid, and to enjoy watching his own side cannibalize him. The stronger motives for anger at Akin would appear to lie in the greater volatility and pattern of violence and threats from the right, not the left in this matter. It will be interesting to see 1. the motives of the person or persons making these threats; and 2. to see if it is another example of an arsenal accumulating gun nut. The right is highly intolerant of any deviation from conformity among their own, and would seem to be the side that would have more to gain by successful intimidation of Todd Akin to leave the race.
Do I have to watch Coulter through a mirror? Will I turn to stone if I look at her?
ReplyDeleteI hope you won't turn to stone, but you might want to turn down the sound... if you listen to her, your brain might liquify, and bleed out through your ears!
ReplyDeleteThe final Republican party platform is being drafted in Florida now. Suppose the party stood up and said "Enough silliness. From now on, all Republicans must support abortion on demand for any age female, without parental notification, up to and including taxpayer funded partial birth abortions; but ONLY for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest in which the victim has fully cooperated with law enforcement, and in chases where abortion is medically necessary to save the life but not the mental health of the mother. All other unwanted pregnancies must be carried to term and the child given for adoption."
ReplyDeleteWould you be happy? If not, what else would they need to include to make you happy?
Joe, I am appalled at a party that would deny an abortion to a woman who had an ectopic pregnancy, where her health was clearly at risk, but only possibly her life endangered. Ectopic pregnancies CAN be life threatening, but they are not always. The GOP would require waiting until the situation was more dangerous for an intervention, IF they acknowledge any exception to allow abortions at all.
ReplyDeleteI had a co-worker experience an abdominal rupture of an ectopic pregnancy, and watched as she was taken out of her office next to mine on a gurney to a waiting ambulance, screaming in pain. She was a woman I would describe as stoic, and she subsequently described the pain as excruciating, as more than she could stand. Her ability to have children ended with that pregnancy as well.
If she had known she was pregnant with an ectopic pregnancy, she would have sought a medical abortion, to save her own reproductive health, because there was clearly no way that an ectopic pregnancy like hers could be made viable.
When I see health of the mother -- and that should include mental and emotional health -- so disregarded, I am angry and offended that women are valued so little by the GOP.
You conflate dissimilar things. There is support for late term abortions only when they are medically necessary, a decision which should be left up to doctors and patients, not you or the rest of the GOP. There is NO support by anyone for partial birth abortions, and they are unlikely to ever be reinstated as legal. NO ONE - let me emphasize that again -- NO ONE is arguing for partial birth abortions. So why do you include them in the discussion?
No one is suggesting that abortion on demand should be available for anyone under legal age to consent - or refuse! - an abortion, but rather that the decision should be reflected in the ability of a person to make a reasonable consent. No one is suggesting that abortions routinely be available on demand after a reasonable term either, EXCEPT where there is an absolute medical necessity, to end that pregnancy.
It is not the role of government to enforce religious views on those who do not share those views.
That includes the view all sex outside of marriage as a sin or a crime; that includes treating masturbation as wrong, bad, or dangerous to health in sex ed classes; that includes catering to those who object to contraception because they believe that all sex has to lead to possible conception.
There has to be a non-religious based, logical, SCIENTIFIC basis for our decisions about abortion.
That does not include personhood at conception - an event which cannot be identied as taking place at a specific time. There is no medical or scientific basis for that belief, and it is not widely shared.
The GOP is trying to shove the views of the religious right down our throats, and they are wrong to do so.
I would be happy ONLY if the GOP and government gets out of women's uteruses, stop interfereing with their reproductive choice, and stop trying to push religion on those who don't agree with specific beliefs, but instead hold equally valid but different views. I would be happy ONLY if the GOP stops trying to repeal equal pay for women for equal work, or denying us contraception or freedom to make determinations over our bodies, instead of assuming a bunch of old white crazy religious guys know best and are more moral than we are.
ReplyDeleteToo many rapes go unreported now. It would be wrong to mandate a report to law enforcement when too often prosecution of rape or even investigation of rape is so difficult, painful and re-victimizes the rape victim. If a woman is too traumatized to report a rape, to ashamed or uncertain (in the case of being drugged for example) about what happened, the GOP should NOT be criminalizing the victim over decisions about reporting. And they sure as HELL should not be makeing women pay for rape kits.
Abortion should be available for any child, because that pregnancy is likely to harm a child, both damage physically, emotionally and psychologically far more than an abortion would.
Why would you require a child be given up for adoption in unwanted pregnancies? Can YOU guarantee an adoptive parent or parents will be available or that those will be good homes? NO you can't. Because we have a lot of kids who aren't adopted NOW.
For a party that claims they represent freedom and smaller government, you enlarge and intrude that government far more than any liberal. Women are as moral as men, as moral as you are or as any Republican is, and therefore should be entrusted with decisions about her own body, not the GOP.
The GOP pushes abstinence only sex ed, which lies about sex, and denies important information to students. The GOP mandates unnecessary medical procedures that are expensive and invasive. The GOP tries to embarass and humiliate women. The GOP forces doctors to lie to women about breast cancer risks with abortion and to provide other medically false information.
The GOP is wrong, and what they do is evil - and ignorant.
In case you missed it, I'm enraged at the entire GOP positions on sex and women and reproduction.
ReplyDeleteIf you want more insight into why it is that we should not REQUIRE a criminal rape complaint as a pre-requisite to an abortion, read it here. Rapists have ALSO been known to sue to prevent women from having abortions, and can and could use that threat to prevent filing criminal charges -- putting women in a catch 22.:
http://jezebel.com/5937170/when-rapists-seek-joint-custody-of-the-children-they-father-through-rape-everyone-loses
"Though instances of rapists seeking or even obtaining joint custody are apparently pretty rare, only 19 states have laws restricting the parental rights of men who father children through rape — everywhere else, men are technically allowed to seek such rights, and even if they don't intend on actually being part of their child's life, rapists have been known use the threat of joint custody as a way to blackmail their victims into not filing criminal charges. Now would be a great time to pause for a few minutes and let the rage bile boil up through your esophagus like an agitated hot spring.
On Wednesday, Buzzfeed's Hillary Reinsberg took the unfortunate opportunity Todd Akin has offered all of us to offer an overview of how and why rapists sometimes choose to pursue joint custody in states where such legal loopholes haven't yet been closed. Reinsberg pulls most of her information from Shaunna Prewitt, who in 2010 wrote a paper at Georgetown Law School called "Giving Birth to a ‘Rapist' Child: A Discussion and Analysis of the Limited Legal Protections Afforded to Women Who Become Mothers Through Rape." Prewitt's research, however, isn't merely informed by distant, faceless statistics and legal jargon — as a 21-year-old University of Chicago student, she experienced first-hand what happens when a rapist decides to serve his victim with papers seeking child custody. (She also wrote about her experience for xoJane; the outlet posted the story on Monday. )