The South Carolina state legislature has passed, and the governor says she plans to sign, a bill that would ban abortion in the state after 20 weeks of pregnancy, without the standard exceptions in cases of rape or incest.
South Carolina’s Repugnant Abortion Ban
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication, WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "The Stringer."
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I once worked with a man with right wing—and homosexual—proclivities. He objected to homosexuals having equal standing with heterosexuals before the law.
In his attempt to shock me he said he was going to marry a man. I wasn’t shocked at all.
The authoritarian personality seems to lack the resolve to abide by what they take as moral stances without government help. They seem to be asking for the state to promise to punish them because the freedom to do as they want to in the sexual realm presents a too great temptation to resist on their own.
I mentioned here before that I was compelled to eat lunch in the presence of Dennis Hastert, a great example of this.
The insertion of state violence into the private lives of citizens should be seen as overreach by self styled opponents of Big Government, whether in homosexual or abortion rights.
“There once was a time when all people believed in God and the Church ruled. It was known as the Dark Ages.”—Richard Lederer
Step One: ban abortions after twenty weeks.
Step Two: mandatory 21 week waiting period.
Signed off by a woman governor? The only thing that’s more disgusting than a man outlawing abortion is a woman doing so.
Wait. What?
Sometimes a Kulturkampf has real-life consequences….
Henri
I believe that religion played an important role in helping us to achieve civilization. It’s hard to convince ignorant savages* that working together for the common good will benefit them in the long run. Telling them that god will burn them forever-an-ever simply works better.
Fear of the unknown is a disabling fear. If you don’t know how volcanoes work, making up an explanation like Pele makes the “unknown” into a “known” – even if it’s wrong.
Today, we can see the benefits of civilization all around us, and we know how volcanoes work. We’ve outgrown superstition, but it’s still ingrained in many societies. Thankfully, it appears to be losing its grip in the US. Something like 35% of Millennials consider themselves free of religion. Way to go, Millennials!
*by “ignorant savages” I of course mean, “Conservatives.” 😀
«I believe that religion played an important role in helping us to achieve civilization.» I can’t but be reminded of that apocryphal exchange said to have taken place between Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and an anonymous reporter on the occasion of the former’s visit to Britain in 1931, in which it is claimed the reporter asked, «Mr Gandhi, what do you think of Western civilisation ?», to which Gandhi replied, «I think it would be a good idea»…
Henri
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Mo, but disputed – I like it regardless.
Give me thirty days with these right to lifers: spend one week in the courtroom, another week riding with the police, week 3 with the probation officer, and week 4 with a social worker. After a month of seeing the havoc wrought by all these unplanned (and plenty of the planned) pregnancies, they would STFU about banning abortion. Amazing how they are so concerned about the baby before it’s born but once it’s born these same people oppose supporting the social safety net and funding other related infrastructure that all these children will need. Also interesting how the most strident anti-abortion supporters don’t have one, much less 2 or 3 foster or adopted children – and I don’t mean the cute white newborns but the older kids, the sibling groups, the children with mental/physical disabilities, etc. Further, a crapload of these right to lifers are major hypocrites. If they, or a family member “get in trouble,” – or knock someone else up – they’ve always known a doctor they could go to to “take care of things” in a safe manner but they don’t want the rest of us to have that opportunity. Many of them even oppose birth control. Can’t have it both ways folks. If you want every fetus to become a baby, you are going to have to get up off some tax dollars to pay for the roads, schools, welfare, housing, healthcare, etc that these babies and their families will need.
Given the frequency of so-called «spontaneous abortions» – otherwise known as miscarriages – estimated at 30 – 50 % of all pregnancies, a great opportunity to widen the war on women seems to be in the offing. They could be forced, for example, to undergo pregnancy testing within the first few days of the luteal phase of the ovarian cycle ; if testing indicates that conception has occurred, they could be punished in the event the pregnancy is not brought to term for any reason, whatever. After all, the author(s) of Genesis 38 got things completely arse-backward : its not every sperm which is sacred – they are produced in abundance – but every egg, given that women only have 3-400 000 at menarche, of which around a thousand die every month from natural causes, and they cannot produce more….
Since the planet is grievously underpopulated – there are only around 7½ thousand millions of us – it is obvious that every step, no matter how seemingly cruel, which can help to guarantee that every possible egg that is fertilised results in a new human being is an absolute necessity….
Henri
I remember reading about an anti-abortion activist couple in Florida. They spoke at rallies and schools and churches, wrote editorials, etc.
When their daughter got pregnant, she committed suicide rather than face her parents. Now they sing a different tune, but their daughter is still dead.
One of the biggest problems with conservo-whackos is that they don’t have the ability to imagine themselves in someone else’s shoes. The *only* way they learn is when it happens to them, as with the couple above.
A lack of empathy is, alas, not an infallible guide to wise policy….
Henri
Nicolae Ceaușescu, Romanian ruler, required women to be tested by the government monthly to explain their lack of, or termination of, pregnancy during a push to increase Romania’s population.
I first read of this detail in Scientific American. Sorry, I don’t have access to their archives anymore.
Romania, a Conservative’s dream State.
From Scientific American:
“In a misguided effort to enhance economic productivity, Nicolae Ceausescu decreed in 1966 that Romania would develop its “human capital” via a government-enforced mandate to increase the country’s population. Ceauşescu, Romania’s leader from 1965 to 1989, banned contraception and abortions and imposed a “celibacy tax” on families that had fewer than five children. State doctors—the menstrual police—conducted gynecologic examinations in the workplace of women of childbearing age to see whether they were producing sufficient offspring. The birth rate initially skyrocketed. Yet because families were too poor to keep their children, they abandoned many of them to large state-run institutions. By 1989 this social experiment led to more than 170,000 children living in these facilities.”
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/tragedy-leads-study-severe-child-neglect/
I am skeptical of stories like the Romanian pregnancy policy and the plight of orphans. It could be based on some grain of truth, but probably wildly sensationalized and exaggerated. It doesn’t mean that something improper didn’t happen, but you have to be careful. I set a high burden of proof on American sources when it comes to stories about U.S. officially designated enemies.
Skepticism is good.
I’ve seen numerous credible references to this misogynist practice, one from a book by Alice Miller.
We need not look far from under our own noses for examples:
http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/02/virginia_ultrasound_law_women_who_want_an_abortion_will_be_forcibly_penetrated_for_no_medical_reason.html
“Under the new legislation, women who want an abortion will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason. Where’s the outrage?”
I am all for a woman’s right to abortion, but it seems to me that 5 months is enough time to decide whether or not you are going to keep the baby. After that, outside of some extreme circumstance like danger to the mother, I think you are committed at that point to have the baby. I mean we have to set the limit somewhere. Is it okay to have an abortion at 8 months when the fetus has actually become (no question about it) a human baby?
Yes, eight months is too late. Most abortions are performed during the first trimester, a fifth-month is extremely rare.
But the question is whether the government has the power to set arbitrary limits. Say a six-month fetus dies for whatever reason, does the government have the right to force the woman to carry it another three months, endangering her health for reasons no better than ignorant superstition? I say no.
Moreover, the superstitious ignoramuses are working hard to ensure that a woman *can’t* get access within that first three months. If they manage to torpedo Planned Parenthood, there’s a good chance that many poor women won’t even know they’re pregnant.
“Oh, gee whiz – we prevented you from finding out for two months, then we made it impossible for you to get to doctor inside of the next month, and there’s a mandatory thirty day waiting period – You’re now an underage, unwed, unemployed, mother. You may die in childbirth but the important part is that we asserted our control over your body.”
THAT’s what they’re hoping for – give ’em an inch…
I see what you mean, that makes sense. I guess the devil is in the details. I think the left just needs to be careful about letting others create the narrative and set the parameters of debate. When the right-wing says it wants abortion to be illegal no matter the circumstances, we make a terrible mistake by saying that we want abortions to be legal no matter the circumstances.