I CAN’T. I REALLY CAN’T. I JUST FUCKING… BLARGHITY $##$%^$#!%*FUUUUUUUUUUUUCKYOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUU#@%&%$#^ 
It’s only February, but this year has been a tough one for women’s health and reproductive rights. There’s a new bill on the block that may have reached the apex (I hope) of woman-hating craziness. Georgia State Rep. Bobby Franklin—who last year proposed making rape and domestic violence “victims” into “accusers”—has introduced a 10-page bill that would criminalize miscarriages and make abortion in Georgia completely illegal. Both miscarriages and abortions would be potentially punishable by death: any “prenatal murder” in the words of the bill, including “human involvement” in a miscarriage, would be a felony and carry a penalty of life in prison or death. Basically, it’s everything an “pro-life” activist could want aside from making all women who’ve had abortions wear big red “A”s on their chests.
I doubt that a bill that makes a legal medical procedure liable for the death penalty will pass. The bill, however, shows an astonishing lack of concern for women’s health and well-being. Under Rep. Franklin’s bill, HB 1, women who miscarry could become felons if they cannot prove that there was “no human involvement whatsoever in the causation” of their miscarriage. There is no clarification of what “human involvement” means, and this is hugely problematic as medical doctors do not know exactly what causes miscarriages. Miscarriages are estimated to terminate up to a quarter of all pregnancies and the Mayo Clinic says that “the actual number is probably much higher because many miscarriages occur so early in pregnancy that a woman doesn’t even know she’s pregnant. Most miscarriages occur because the fetus isn’t developing normally.”
Holding women criminally liable for a totally natural, common biological process is cruel and non-sensical. Even more ridiculous, the bill holds women responsible for protecting their fetuses from “the moment of conception,” despite the fact that pregnancy tests aren’t accurate until at least 3 weeks after conception. Unless Franklin (who is not a health professional) invents a revolutionary intrauterine conception alarm system, it’s unclear how exactly the state of Georgia would enforce that rule other than holding all possibly-pregnant women under lock and key.
Click here to read the rest. I have to go — I suddenly feel some pressure building in my —
I NEED A CLEAN-UP ON AISLE BRAIN!!
[cross-posted here at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
JPL
The idiot introduces bills like this all the time. As crazy as our statehouse has become, this won’t pass.
geg6
Okay, I’m so down with having this go viral. This is exactly what wishy washy kinda sorta pro-choicers need to see coming down the pike. Hell, any time a woman menstruates, the police should come storming into the bathroom and hold the woman under protective custody until it is proven that it is a regular period and not something drummed up to cover for an abortion or punching herself in the stomach to induce a miscarriage or whatever this cretin decides, I suppose.
Forced fucking birthers. And people wonder why I call them that.
Kryptik
@JPL:
Never think that. Never, ever. You’ve already seen the limits of crazy there are with wingers these days (that being, none). They fucking want to federally defund Planned Parenthood for gods sake.
General Stuck
This post scares me a little.
Mattminus
Why does ABL try to make the BJ frontpage look like Bartcop?
Angry Black Lady
@Mattminus: i don’t know what that means, but that was my reaction when i read it. i can’t offer a more serious treatment of this fucking crap.
@JPL: i understand that it won’t pass, but the crazier the shit is, the more likely that something less crazy but still crazy as fuck will get passed.
i can’t deal with this.
i can’t.
Mnemosyne
I know we often joke about sending our used pads and tampons to assholes like this but, seriously, it may be time.
Unless it’s against federal law to send blood products over state lines. In that case, we can just take close-up pictures and ask Rep. Franklin to examine them and let us know if we suffered a miscarriage or just had a heavy period that month.
Violet
@Mnemosyne:
Awesome idea. Perhaps red dye and red colored paste could be used instead. It would still be pretty disgusting.
Shinobi
I feel like any minute they will propose a bill criminalizing keeping a child in the womb past its due date or something. “Unlawful fetal imprisonment.” I can see it now.
Oh god, I’m giving them ideas.
Teri
Can I add my scream to your ABL? As a pro-choice Catholic (because my religous beliefs should not infringe on your rights as guarenteed in the constitution, I believe life begins at conception but that is my religous belief. As a woman who has had three miscarriages this is absolutely insane!! I have no clue on how to wake up our fellow females in this country to this regimented assault on females in this country. I find weird connection with this quest to roll back reproductive independence with the drive to destroy unions. Thank you for your advocacy and strong voice.
Teri
sb
Swear, I’m at school (teacher) and I got a phone call from a friend.
ME: “I’m teaching. What the hell do you want?”
FRIEND: “There’s a Georgia State rep who wants to punish women for having miscarriages.”
STUDENTS: “Mr. ******, why did you drop the phone?”
geg6
@Mnemosyne:
I like your ideas and would like to sign up for your newsletter.
Angry Black Lady
@Teri: thank you. it’s not the most eloquent of my posts, but i was yelling at the monitor and that’s really all i could manage to post.
geg6
@sb:
So what did you tell them?
numbskull
@Angry Black Lady:
That is exactly right. When you’re as old as I am, you marvel, and not is a good way, at how far right this place has become since my teens.
Hell, we used to call ’em Jesus Freaks and laugh at ’em. Nobody took them seriously. For good reason. They’re batshit crazy and stoopid.
Now we call them “Senator” and “Congressman”…
Kirk Spencer
Actually, it doesn’t quite make all miscarriages illegal. Only those caused by human actions. (sarcasm)
For what it’s worth, I just finished reading the thing. The last five pages are deletions of clauses applying to when abortions are allowed and reported, thus all you need to read is the first five. At heart it is a nullification bill, for which abortion is just the pretext. Seriously, most of the text is dealing with why Georgia can ignore and nullify anything the feds say, and only sometimes why the state can ignore and nullify what the feds say about abortion.
Spiffy McBang
Innocent until proven guilty: Only fetuses may apply.
For anyone who reads Tiger Beatdown, I’m thinking of this guy as the voice of Grizzly Fetus.
Mark S.
Try arguing that if you’re ever in federal court.
jcgrim
Next, these fools will make menstruation manslaughter.
Angry Black Lady
@numbskull: yep. something about “ovaltine windows,” innit?
cleek
as crazy as this legislator may be… people elected him. many many times. that’s super-crazy.
from his bio:
(i like how he forgets to capitalize “biblically”. blasphemer!)
as if i needed to be reminded to avoid Marietta GA.
Kirk Spencer
@Mark S.: Yah, they tend to ignore Article II section 8.
The Dangerman
Make their heads explode in return; not all anti-abortion advocates are Christian, but, if they are, they are specifically defining life differently than the Bible. One doesn’t have to go far in Genesis before God breathes life into Adam; Job 27:3 appears (to me, at least) to say that, at death, the life spirit returns to God with one’s last breath. Of course, babies don’t breathe in the womb.
Personally, since I can’t say for sure when life begins, I’ve chosen to say life begins at birth. That isn’t derived from the above, but rather a complete lack of being able to prove where life begins prior to that point. Yeah, I’m being arbitrary, but so is the other side; if they say abortion is murder, yet allow some abortions (incest, etc.), they are allowing some murders. I find my position more defensible.
Chris
Franklin deserves our gratitude. He simply made explicit the logical conclusion of the dangerously blithe “pro life” position that all the rights of personhood must attach no later than the moment of conception.
The Dangerman
Now, how did I trip the moderation filter? Consider this a test.
Shinobi
@Spiffy McBang: OMG TOTALLY
“Grizzly Fetus is too young to vote republican.”
numbskull
@cleek:
Billboard on the I75/85 connector (runs through Atlanta):
“Atlanta: The city too busy to hate!…So c’mon up to Cobb! We got plenty of time!”
(Marietta is in Cobb County)
Dennis SGMM
@numbskull:
Tell me about it. I’m 62 and I keep feeling as though I woke up in one of Phillip K. Dick’s alternate realities.
I’ve learned not to even think “They wouldn’t dare…”
Arclite
@Angry Black Lady:
Yeah, he’s trying to move the Overton window. Bring this shit up enough and dumb people might think it’s a reasonable position. Just like Torture is okay or Global Warming is a hoax.
I read this yesterday and I was pretty much dumbfounded. What’s next, every time someone breaks a bone there has to be a criminal investigation to make sure they are not committing felony assault against themselves? Every time two people have sex, there has to be a criminal investigation to make sure it’s not rape?
Basilisc
Well, say what you want, this does carry the anti-choice position to its logical conclusion. If life really begins at conception, then ANYTHING that terminates a pregnancy after fertilization is, at the very least, negligent manslaughter.
Similarly, getting rid of the rape/incest exemption is consistent with blastula/embryo/fetus = life. After all, you can’t justify murder by rape, even if that happens to be a position the vast majority of the country is comfortable with.
Which is why the anti-choice position is, at its base, f—ing insane.
I’m (almost) enjoying the Republicans’ recent decision to abandon that old-fashioned “sunny”, “compassionate” subterfuge from the Reagan-Bush (Sr) days and follow all their positions to their logical conclusions. It’s like one of those Twilight Zone moments when the mask finally comes off the hideous monster who’s been living next door all these years.
Dennis SGMM
@Arclite:
“Every time two people have sex, there has to be a criminal investigation to make sure it’s
not rapefor procreation only?”Bill Section 147
Horrifying, but if the illogical “every cell is sacred” crowd can have logic applied this has to be the outcome.
If any cell that may become a human is a human then you have to accept that a Miscarriage is at least manslaughter of some kind. A woman has the responsibility to care for her child and if that child dies while under her care then there should be an investigation as too the cause.
And this idiocy is coming from an elected official. Not “some blogger.”
Citizen_X
Idiots. How on Earth does anyone “prove” this particular negative?
Fucking logic. How does it work?
sb
@geg6: I was in the middle of a different lesson. That’s not a copout but I am considering telling them. 9th graders, if that matters.
I know why I didn’t tell them today but tomorrow? I really don’t know.
Mary G
I got outraged by this earlier today and I commend you, ABL, for putting my feelings out there exactly. I was feeling speechless. The exploding brain is perfect.
Punchy
Fixed, so you can lower the shouting a few decibels.
geg6
@sb:
Well, if you don’t teach history or civics, it really isn’t something you should discuss, I guess. But I, completely lacking in impulse control in certain situation, would completely have told them.
Just Some Fuckhead
Hopefully, the pendulum will swing the other way someday and fetuses can be prosecuted for attempting to kill the mother during childbirth.
Dennis SGMM
@Punchy:
I know I’m shouting. I like to shout.
Violet
I have a friend who lives in Marietta. Should I send this to her? Is there a news report of this that isn’t from a partisan site? I’m not sure the ALL CAPS FREAKOUT would get her attention in the right way.
Betsy
Didn’t Virginia or some damn southern state try this back in, like, 2005 or something? I seem to remember a similar bout of exploding heads.
Seth
If I didn’t love my job and family so much, I’d move out of Georgia in a heartbeat. Assholes.
Martin
My mom (a Republican) and I have come to a general agreement to avoid freakouts over every stupid fucking thing that 300 million people might come up with:
For legislation, you can’t call it ‘real’ until it gets taken up by some committee. Yeah, even proposing this legislation is fucking stupid, but at least one of the jobs that your elected representative is elected to do is to bring bills to the legislature that the public wants and may have written. In these cases, you have no idea whether its even the stupid fucking idea of the elected representative, or if they’re just passing some idiotic idea along on behalf of voters that they represent out of some excessive sense of responsibility.
But forcing everyone to wait until the point that some larger group has deemed the legislation worthy of discussion avoids a lot of completely unnecessary (and often unfair) freak-outs.
Sue
Didn’t something like this just happen in Utah? Some kind of wording that would make it a felony if you couldn’t prove you hadn’t brought your miscarriage on yourself?
These bills are coming so fast I can’t keep them straight anymore.
Bulworth
This must be more of that “less government” I keep hearing about.
Carnacki
If miscarriages are an act of God, will Georgia put God on trial?
Arclite
@Dennis SGMM:
Heh, thanks for the fix, Dennis. I like yours better.
Arclite
@Bill Section 147:
So, if I spit I should be charged with manslaughter? Cuz my spit contains my cheek cells which have a full genetic profile, and when stuck in an embryo in vitro have the potential to grow into a human.
Jay in Oregon
@Arclite:
Fixed that for you. These are wingnuts, after all; they’re more concerned about all those horrible, false-rape-charging-women victimizing good, clean-cut men.
Karen
“Every sperm is sacred…”
It was a song in a 70’s Woody Allen movie….
MikeJ
@jcgrim:
The Smiths had really gone downhill by the time they released that turkey.
Mark S.
@Angry Black Lady:
Exactly. Next week, Chunky Bobo (if he’s back from paternal leave) will say that while it is extreme to execute women who can’t prove their miscarriages are natural, our commitment to the sanctity of life requires that they at least be prosecuted for manslaughter.
Mark S.
@Karen:
Meaning of Life
Woodrowfan
Let me see if I have this correct. ahem. When the government passes a law that tries to guarantee you can afford to see a doctor if you wish, that is tyranny. But when the government wants you to “prove” that your miscarriage was not deliberate, that is not tyranny, but a valid exercise of government authority? Is that right??
asiangrrlMN
@Dennis SGMM: Me, too. I need to shout right now because some of this bullshit is going to pass. Not this one, but some of it. Now, back to my own post on the subject. I just peeked in here to see the reaction of the BJ crew.
@Woodrowfan: Yes.
chopper
@Citizen_X:
lol. how about they ask women to prove that “no leprechaun was involved in the miscarriage”? sorry, lady, but i don’t see any proof. off with your head!
Marmot
@Mattminus: Heh. Excellent question.
Adrienne
@Woodrowfan:
The best part about their reasoning is this: If you accept it, how exactly is one supposed to “prove” anything about a miscarriage without a doctor… access to which they are also fighting? Who the hell is supposed to pay for the expert medical testimony that would be necessary to determine the cause of a miscarriage? These mofos don’t want to pay for well baby checkups and proper prenatal care (all included in the health care bill), but they’ll pay for gov’t mandated uterus inspections after a miscarriage?
Karen
Do you notice that it’s just for fetuses?
Apparently beating your child to death is a lesser offense.
Logically, wouldn’t these be next?
1. Death penalty for getting your tubes tied.
2. Death penalty for birth control of any type.
3. Death penalty if you use fertility drugs to have children because the chances are that you’ll have make a choice of which embryos to keep.
4. No chemo for pregnant cancer patients because the chemo will kill the fetus and they’ll have to kill the woman anyay.
5. Death penalty to pregnant women who are sick and have to take medicine that will potentially kill the fetus.
If I lived in Georgia I would just never have sex with a man. If I had sex at all I’d just have it with a woman because at least that way, I don’t have the chance of being pregnant.
For every day I hear about the escalating batshit crazy potential laws that makes the life of a fetus worth more than a living woman, I thank the gods that I live in a blue state like Maryland.
Karen
@Mark S.:
I don’t know why I was thinking of “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid To Ask” but thank you for fixing my mistake. It’s appreciated.
Batocchio
Exactly, and that’s the strategy conservatives have used for decades… and eventually, they re-define crazy as “respectable.”
ABL, just remember to pace yourself. The Asshole Brigade never stops. I find that sometimes, posting about it is cathartic, but they are such relentless, evil muthafuckas if I don’t take a break every now and then my outrage meter (and head) will explode.
Cris
My wife had to have help with her miscarriage. The gestational sac became lodged in the cervix, resulting in excessive bleeding, so we went to the emergency room and an OB removed it with a forceps.
During and after the procedure, I found myself thinking: the ‘pro-lifers’ would make this impossible. They would have her bleed instead of getting this lifeless thing out.
Now, a well-meaning pro-lifer might try to tell me otherwise. They may say “well, it was a blighted ovum, it wasn’t really a baby at all, so that kind of D&C wouldn’t be illegal.” Maybe. But if abortion is illegal, you’re going to be hard-pressed to find a physician willing to perform the procedure at all, even if it’s not technically an “abortion.”
So in short, yeah, fuck Bobby Franklin.
quaint irene
The more I read of this guy, the more it’s apparent he’s way overdo to be forcibly committed to some mental institution.
Chris
@Mnemosyne: Yeah, I’m not sure why this isn’t the standard protest procedure for insane, misogynistic stuff like this.
Who thinks up bills like that? Do they not know women? Do they not have women on their staff who say, “Um, with all due respect, you’re being a fucking moron.” OTOH, I suppose if I were a woman who knew this guy, I wouldn’t exactly be volunteering to describe anything about myself or my experience as a woman, especially if it involved anything reproductive-related, to him.
rikyrah
what…you silly woman…
you think you have a right to
a) control your own body
b) privacy
get outta here.
HE and all his colleagues knows what’s best for OUR WOMBS.
you know how Ced the Entertainer says that Black people ‘ wish’…
I WISH I WOULD have one of these mofos come up in my face spouting this bullshyt.
Brachiator
Hey, the state could convert to super-radical Islam and put all the women in burkhas and make them stay in and be possessions of husbands or other male family members.
These people are fools of the first degree.
BDeevDad
So a woman who has an ectopic pregnancy gets to choose whether to kill herself or have the state do it.
quaint irene
More tidbits on Franklin. He’s wants to abolish all public education, in lieu of private and home schooling.
Oh, and he thinks requiring driver’s licenses is wrong cause….
e” licenses represented “oppressive times” and “licensing of drivers cannot be required of free people, because taking on the restrictions of a license requires the surrender of an inalienable right.” He further stated that the freedom of movement by operating an automobile should be open to all Americans, regardless of age or driving skills. He cemented these beliefs by noting that he does not object to 12 year old children driving cars on Georgia Highways.”
But I’m sure he’d oppose free driving rights to any woman of reproductive age, cause, who knows. She might be pregnant and if she was in an accident it might harm the fetus.
And to finish up, he insists that gold and silver should be the only legal tender in Georgia.
Jeez, is he related to Glenn Beck?
As somebody else said, the biggest travesty about this man is that people have actually voted for him.
Jay in Oregon
@Brachiator:
Someone should point out that enacting Sharia law would make many of these kinds of “crimes” a moot point — A woman is not likely to have unprotected sex with someone if they’re not allowed out of the house except in the presence of a mahram.
Then watch their heads explode…
EDIT: How the hell did I restate your point in the process of agreeing with it?
jonas
Logically, this guy also has to propose outlawing masturbation and any evidence of nocturnal emission must be verified as completely unconscious occurrence and not the result of intentional stimulus. Here’s why. If life begins at conception, it follows that what makes life possible is male ejaculation. Life and humanity do not inhere within the female egg, but in the union of sperm and egg, which is only possible due to the work of male sperm implanting themselves in the passive female egg. Thus to “spill one’s seed” is, in a very real way, kill millions of human individuals. Sperm may only contain 50% of a future person’s genetic DNA, but they contain 100% of their personhood and humanity, because the instant they unite with the egg, a human being is created. None of that personhood or humanity was present when it was just the egg there in the womb and you can’t say something is “half” human prior to conception. Nor can you argue that a “complete” human soul and identity exists outside the body prior to its conception because that’s funky Platonic paganism and against what the Bible teaches. The only thing to conclude is that full humanity is contained in the male sperm and to kill male sperm is, plainly put, murder.
Masturbation is genocide, people. When will we start requiring all men over the age of 12 to wear electronic monitors on their dicks that simply administers a lethal dose of cyanide into their bloodstream if they ever ejaculate outside a female vagina?
Brachiator
@Karen:
Nope. Monty Python
Every sperm is sacred.
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.
Everybody sing!!
Every Sperm is Sacred {Monty Python’s Meaning of Life}
Dennis SGMM
@Adrienne:
That is one of the many things that proves to me that the pro-life movement is about life to the same extent that the GOP is about fiscal conservatism. And don’t even get me started on affordable day care.
R-Jud
@MikeJ:
Thanks for that. I have now learned a valuable lesson: when you snort wine out of your nostrils, it burns.
Arclite
@jcgrim:
Male masturbation will be manslaughter too, and don’t think the social conservatives aren’t trying to figure out away to make this into a law.
Ruckus
@Angry Black Lady:
It’s OK, ya done good. Crap that doesn’t even come close to this needs to be yelled at. This level should be monitor damaging.
And it’s un-civil to call them the american taliban. The mind reels.
Chet
@Chris: You assure there aren’t women out there who support this kind of crap themselves. Let me assure you that there is, sadly, no shortage of such women in Redstate America.
Pinacacci
@Just Some Fuckhead
Oh that is perfect!
fucen tarmal
don’t sweat it angry black lady, the bill isn’t aimed at you. you are mostly an upstanding citizen, and though you do need to be careful to not make wrong choices, or let your life lead you down the wrong path, you have nothing to worry about, as long as you keep living a mostly exemplary life.
this bill is aimed at people who aren’t as capable of defending themselves. people who have chosen to make themselves less than respectable. if someone chooses to be poor, or uneducated, or doesn’t want to conform to the great blessings our society has to offer, all this bill does, is give us a way of weeding out those undesirables, before they have a chance to lead others astray. others like you, who aren’t undesirable yet, but could be. think of this bill as a way of protecting you, and keeping you from becoming an undesirable.
Chet
@Jay in Oregon: The problem these people have with Sharia isn’t that it’s authoritarian and theocratic, but that it’s authoritarian and theocratic in the name of a celestial dictator other than their own.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Pinacacci: Lock up or execute a few fetuses and then you’ll see some real change for the better.
dww44
@Angry Black Lady:
Me, either, and really as much as the screaming here at each other provides some sort of relief, we’ve got to en masse highlight and illuminate the crazy and insane out there for the rest of the citizenry to see. We need to join, advocate, march, and bear witness against the stupidity and cruelty of what passes for modern conservativism these days. Start by writing letters to your newspaper. Call in to your local radio shows.
We have to turn and fight, even though these days it’s hard to know what to zero in on. We need to divide up, focus and scream louder. Too easy to feel defeated.
And, yes, it’s correct that what Franklin proposes is so craazy that it probably won’t pass, but, as ABL points out, some other serious dilution of women’s reproductive rights will and the poor and vulnerable will once again pay the price. Sad state of affairs in this country. I have NEVER been so ashamed of this country.
I keep having this conversation with myself, what are sane Republicans thinking? Are there any left? I don’t think so, as even those I know who are otherwise sane want government drowned in the bathturb because they hate, hate, hate it. Years of their imbibing conservative talk radio and tv has brought us all to this sorry pass.
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen:
Not so fast. You’re still denying a putative human the possibility of potential life.
Mike in NC
People in Cobb County, Georgia also elected Newt Gingrich. Is there something in the water?
Ruckus
@The Dangerman:
When I was trying to figure this out many moons ago I came to the conclusion that I would start with death. When do we say someone is dead. Death So then I worked backwards (I sure hate using that word in this context) and came up with a person is alive if they can breathe and pump blood on their own and their brain stem is working. If any of those things are not happening then no life. And those things do not/can not all happen until birth. It’s a sticky issue for some and sounds cold and heartless to others but it is the way it works.
Even if the fetus is alive then why does it have precedence over another living creature? One that can create additional humans?
As most of us know it’s not about the fetus. It’s about power/religious control over women. And it’s bullshit.
cckids
@Arclite:
You forget, those examples could apply to the male persons of the species, they don’t need the oversight the females do.
(snark)
Adrienne
@Dennis SGMM: Affordable day care?! HAHAHAHAHA. They want women to stay home, but they abhor any type of gov’t assistance for the lazy single mom whores, which is why after a woman is forced to birth the baby they want to force her to marry the shiftless t-bone steak buying young buck who knocked her up! Then he’ll have to work triple hours for shitty wages and no benefits all to the enrichment of our corporate overlords…
Sadly, it actually makes *perfect* sense when you think about it. These fuckers are evil.
JaneGoth
The lack of compassion in this proposed bill is appalling too. I’ve got a friend who is blighted with secondary infertility. After 4 years of trying she amazed us all a week ago by announcing she was pregnant. Very early days but still! 2 days ago she miscarried. She is in bits, completely distraught, under Franklin’s regime she would have to go through the added trauma of being questioned by the police. And unlike almost any other law she would have to prove her innocence rather than the state her guilt. Shameful.
I’m also pregnant right now, I had my first scan on Tuesday. Behind my tiny baby with his/her beautiful heartbeat, was a misshapen oval that the ultrasound tech believes is what remains of our baby’s twin. Does Franklin believe that I should be taken in for questioning too? How do I prove that I didn’t cause the twin’s death when there is no way of accessing the evidence without risking miscarriage for the surviving baby.
His bill, if it were to ever pass would also outlaw amniocentesis and CVS testing two very useful & powerful diagnostic tools because they can increase the chance of miscarriage.
I’m glad that this bill has no chance of becoming law, but he’s pushing the crazy so far out that we have to be eternally vigilant.
I live in the UK our abortion rights are safe for now, but our forced birthers look to your wingnuts for their memes and lies about pregnancy, sexual health and abortion.
Kirbster
Does this mean that states with fertility clinics are grossly underrepresented in congress? Could the embryo population of a fertility clinic actually become its own (very compact) congressional district? Does this present huge new opportunities for gerrymandering? Just wondering…
Angry Black Lady
@rikyrah: ha! i love me some bernie. RIP.
clairworn
People don’t seem to realize just how difficult it is to actually get an abortion in America today, even though it’s been legalized for decades.
Several years ago, I drove three hours to the nearest clinic with my boyfriend at the time. He had taken advantage of me when I was passed out after a rare visit to a local bar several weeks before, and neither of us were ready for parenthood. I had been crying ever since the little gray stick glowed “pregnant”.
When we arrived at the clinic, we had to park across the street, and as soon as I got out of the car, my heart sank. There were close to three hundred protesters in front of the building, a local church had organized a day of prayer in an attempt to “save” as many babies as they could.
A group of them broke off from the larger mass and ran across to meet us as we crossed the street. I don’t know what they looked like, I could only stare at my feet as they clumsily carried me toward the clinic. I was shaking. I wanted to throw up, as one woman tried to hand me a Bible. Two other women kept repeating, “God wants you to be a mother. How could you kill your precious baby?” One of them grabbed my arm and tried to pull me toward the crowd, saying, “You’re a mother now. You’re a mother now.”
I wanted to scream at them. I wanted to punch them. Most of all, I wanted to close my eyes and wake up somewhere else, somewhere quiet and Godless.
The procedure hurt. My boyfriend and I drove the three hours home in complete silence, and I cried myself to sleep for a week. Turns out one of my coworkers had been in the crowd, her church group had been invited to attend. When I went to work the following week, the rumor had quickly spread. She was telling people I had killed my baby. I lost good friends. Certain coworkers stopped talking to me.
Somehow one of my sisters found out. She sent emails to my family members explaining how I was a horrible “BABY KILLER”. When I read the capital letters that day, some part of me died. Anger has grown in its place.
I am married now (to a good man), and I have a wonderful six-month old baby. I do not regret what I did all those years ago. It cost me friends, and I haven’t spoken to my sister in years. But I am glad that a child was not born into a broken home, with insufficient parents and insufficient funds.
I get so angry when I hear people talk about how women don’t care about having abortions. It’s so easy, they say, like going to the mall and buying a pair of jeans. They don’t know what it’s like to walk across that parking lot, scared to death, being screamed at by hundreds of strangers, shaking, praying, hands pulling on your flesh, as everything inside you spins, confused, angry, lost.
I will always be a mother to two babies. One very much alive, the other a ghost, trailing me throughout my days and occasionally leaving hints here and there of its shadowy presence.
It’s a woman’s body, a woman’s choice.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
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Hey, chill the fuck out – President Obama has got this. Stay the course.
.
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Kirk Spencer
On another list, someone pointed out that while Georgia wasn’t part of Roe v Wade, it WAS part of Roe v Bolton — the “sister” case which overturned Georgia’s abortion law.
Glen Tomkins
Actually, we do know some causes of miscarriage.
Poor nutrition is one. I’m down with the death penalty for legislators who even threaten to cut WIC.
Smoking is another cause of miscarriage. So, when do we fire up the chair for Lorillard execs?
These cholos better word this law more carefully than they obviously have the brains for, or they’re going to find themselves and their big contributors the first up against the wall.
Karen
@SiubhanDuinne:
Hmmm….would it reach a point where having a baby is mandatory then? Not just saving the fetus of a pregnant woman but to the point where if you don’t get pregnant and have a baby it’s illegal?
chmatl
@clairworn: This thread is probably dead but I wanted to tell you, on the off chance that you check in later, that your recounting your experience was brave and very moving. It literally had me choked up.
I live in this asshole’s district; he is my state representative. I was born and raised here in Marietta/Cobb Co., and until recently, for all its faults, it has felt like home. For the first time in my life, I am giving serious thought to moving away from here. I’m not sure I want to live in a place where this man with his “values” apparently represents the majority of the people.
Angry Black Lady
@clairworn: thank you for sharing this. i had tears in my eyes.
i’m sorry, that your moving tale had to be followed by UCT’s usual turd dump.
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: did you think of that one all by yourself, lil buddy? haven’t seen you around here in a while. you and your firebuddies planning to commit mass seppuku for helping usher in this group of idiots? i’ve got a sword to lend you if you require assistance.
run along, lil buddy. aunt jane is waiting for you.
asiangrrlMN
@clairworn: clairworn, thank you so much for telling your story. I am in tears, and I am so very sorry you had to go through that. You are right. Your body, your choice. My body, my choice. It really is that simple.
TenguPhule
For fuck’s sake. *BREATHING* is a human action.
These are not stupid enough to live. But’s that is all.
And at this rate assisting in their suicide looks better by the minute.
Paul in KY
@sb: I’d be careful in what you say. All it takes is for one squealing fundie parent to make your life a living hell, tenure or no tenure.
someofparts
I’m going to start telling people I’m from Oregon.
Jennyjinx
Virginia tried this in 2005. It didn’t get anywhere at the time, but, man… Good to see the Assholes haven’t given up trying to to criminalize Womanhood.
Robin
@Chet: Dear Georgia, Please secede at once. We promise, this time we won’t try to stop you. Signed, The USA
unintended
I’m sure the dumass hasn’t even begun to think of the unintended consequences. Women will just start hiding their pregnancies as long as they can. All those pregnancy test folks will be out of business cuz we won’t want any proof of a pregnancy. We’ll stop going for prenatal care until it’s so far along that you can’t help but go. Oh yeah they’ll just call it a crime to avoid prenatal care. I forgot. They’ll catch us at all our little tricks to terminate our pregnancies! So another type of women’s underground reality will be born out of necessity due to politicians messing around with women’s bodies when what they should be doing is anything but. Where’s the death penalty for the father that didn’t make sure his wifey didn’t have a miscarriage? I’m getting pretty tired of no tit for tat when it comes to all things vaginal. I still say that until all these friggin male congressmen get a vagina and a uterus that they should confine their bullshit to their own dicks. I know I NEVER EVER see any legislation proposed about dealing with the male side of any reproductive issue! Start legislating hardons! Masturbation! Maybe any man who commits adultery should be put to death? Hey what about using a condom? Maybe that should be a death penalty offense? How far is this crap gonna go? And when will it ever stop? Thank God for Roe v. Wade cuz without it we women would surely be slaves to men again.