More dumbassery than you can shake a wire hanger at.
THIS JUST IN: part of your head just exploded.
In pushing this bill through, Republicans in Arizona relied on “statistics” showing that a high percentage of minority women are seeking abortions in clinics purposefully located in minority communities. Republicans also cited statistics demonstrating that some populations are seeking more and more abortions because they don’t like the sex of the fetus (really!? no the fuck they’re not.)
BREAKING: the rest of your head just exploded.
Essentially, this law attempts to turn abortion into a hate crime in order to lend an air of credibility to the absolutely bullshit theory that abortion is some sort of black genocide.
::sigh::
Here’s the thing about hate crimes: They are different from “regular” crimes in that proof of hate crimes require proof of a little somethin’ extra — prejudicial motivation.
For example: It’s one thing to assault a guy and steal his wallet. It’s quite another thing to assault a guy while calling him a homo and screaming about how you’re going to teach queers a lesson, and then steal his wallet. Both are crimes. The latter is fairly undeniably a hate crime.
Of course, the former may also be a hate crime; maybe the assailant only steals gay people’s wallets, and maybe he keeps a journal somewhere entitled Number of Queer Wallets Stolen. Suck it, Homos! which can be introduced as evidence against him. But unless a prosecutor can prove a prejudicial motivation beyond a reasonable doubt, no conviction for a hate crime will result.
In order to morph a run-of-the-mill assault — an act intended to cause an apprehension of harmful or offensive contact, and which causes apprehension in the victim that harmful or offensive contact is imminent — into a hate crime, a prosecutor must prove that the accused’s undisclosed intent was based upon prejudice.
So, not only does a prosecutor have to get inside the accused’s mind to prove intent, the prosecutor must then go one layer deeper into the accused’s mind to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that bias or prejudice formed the foundation for that intent.
If you’re confused, you should be. A hate crime is, essentially, the Inception of crimes — a crime within a crime.
With that in mind, I give you a brief rant:
First of all, how dare these Teabilly assholes pretend to care about the plight of the Negro, when the very same Teabillies are gutting and intend to further gut the social programs on which black and brown women rely in order to keep their babymakers in check? I mean, Jesus F. Bieber — how can they defund Planned Parenthood on the one hand but then deem the abortion rate in the black community to have reached such critical levels that it should be called genocide? How can they not see that these issues are directly related?! What the hell is wrong with them?! (That’s a rhetorical question.)
Second of all, how in THEE hell are they going to get inside an abortion doctor’s head to determine whether or not s/he would have been less inclined to perform the procedure had the fetus been of a different race? Are there scads of “Black Baby B’Gone” clinics from which this law is intended to protect black ladies?
Looky here: You’re not fooling anyone, assholes. It is plain that you are using this “black genocide” angle to push your anti-abortion agenda. How stupid do you think we are?
Furthermore, how stupid are you? If your little plan works, and brown women have fewer abortions, we’re just going to outbreed you! Yeah, let that little nugget of OMG! sink in for a while. You need to decide which you hate more: Brown people or dead babies.
I swear, I’m going to go have a half dozen babies tomorrow – out of spite.
And in about 20 years, when my spite babies are all growns up, they’re going to join forces with all the terrorist anchor babies and BLOW YOUR SHIT UP.
[via Right Wing Watch]
[cross-posted here at the place where whisky goes to die]
sukabi
Breed ON! ABL, Breed ON!!! lol…
gwangung
Yup.
Generally, I know who’s being a racist prick. I sure as hell don’t need some pale assed fool (who barely knows the difference between Issei and Nisei) to tell me who’s being racist to me.
Mr Stagger Lee
But if an illegal alien gets an abortion, but if not, the baby becomes a citizen….Did they clear this with Russell Pearce?
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
If only the fine legal minds on display here would explain the Constitution and our “laws” to the President of the United States and his entire administration.
.
.
brentblah
This is the best thing in the history of EVAR.
PhoenixRising
How did we go from a chicken in every pot to a bun in every oven? Just how, dammit!
The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik
Take a deep breath, ABL, calm down, take a chill pill.
If only so you don’t completely spontaneously combust as I remind you that they’re pulling this same argument in Illinois and invoking Obama while doing it, scaremongering how it’s gonna kill future black leaders.
Don’t you love how they want Obama to die horrible deaths, but then gladly use his image to promote ‘pro-life’?
Villago Delenda Est
ABL, I’m afraid that you’re not qualified to comment on this, as you’re not a member of the Great White Father who knows what is best for you group.
That is all.
sukabi
In Indiana they are claiming that women will pretend to be raped just to get an abortion…
Suffern ACE
So…this is going to be struck down, but not before all the doctors are sued or stop performing abortions under duress.
PeakVT
So, how much worse is the gender gap going to be in 2012? This has to be worth at least two points in AZ.
Parallel 5ths (Ionian Steel)
Love abortions are still cool, right?
beltane
@PhoenixRising: More like going from a chicken in every pot to a surveillance camera in every vagina.
But I’m so glad the teastainers have taught me that every pre-menopausal black woman in this country is a potential Hitler; it’s not the type of knowledge most of us would have picked up by intuition.
Wow, just wow.
piratedan
it’s a race in our state to see which happens first, SB 1070 get stricken down as unconstitutional or we see another Arizona Governor impeached because of the people in her administration taking kickback money from the Fiesta Bowl or CCA (Private prison industry). In the last 20 years, the only Republican Governor who hasn’t been removed from office due to illegalities is Jane Hull, who took over after Fife Symington was convicted. People in this state would rather set themselves on fire rather than face any of the harsh realities facing the state. Viva Baja Arizona!
Cacti
My favorite comment following the article:
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
BWAhahahahahaha!
If only you weren’t writing about such frightening awfulness whilst being so ding-dang funny!
Here’s your biggest problem, ABL: You actually read the law, and (try not to take this personally), attempt to apply it to real life. I know, I know, that labels you pretty heartlessly as an elitist, but the truth will set you free, baby.
Also, too: You’re smart and not a fucking racist. So, there’s that, too.
Also, too, too:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahahaha!
/wipes tear.
/can’t determine if it’s from laughing or weeping.
beltane
How about we entice all the wingnuts from the rest of the country to move to Arizona and then open the border with Mexico while simultaneously cutting off their water and severing them from the grid. It would be epic. Arraignments will be made to evacuate all non-teabbagers from the state ahead of time of course.
Angry Black Lady
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: ooooh sarcastic quotes. i love sarcastic quotes.
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik: i saw that after i published the post. my head re-ploded.
@sukabi: why are you trying to kill my head?!
i really need to get off this world. can someone stop the ride, please?
Svensker
An idiot congressman from NJ used taxpayer funds to go to Kenya to try to get the Kenyans to get rid of the exemption for “life of the mother” in their abortion law. So maybe these teabaggers really do love them some brown fetusi. Brown women, not so much.
shortstop
Well, they’ve got a plan for that, too. It’s called mass disenfranchisement of non-pink people with a soupcon of redistricting jujitsu.
Calouste
@Angry Black Lady:
Which makes me wonder with the Republican attacks on education and the middle class how long it will be before we see a brain-drain out of the US to countries that offer somwhat more job security and where you don’t risk going bankrupt from a medical emergency.
shortstop
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
And it’s a damned sound argument, given how much the people making it love Obama’s leadership. They had to get this genocide thing out now so they could devote all their free time to working on his campaign next year.
beltane
@Svensker: They don’t love brown feti or any other feti. It’s all about catering to smug megachurch members’ desire for baby death porn. This maudlin tradition actually has rather deep roots in our society :http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/25/ghost-babies.html
Barb (formerly Gex)
@Svensker: It’s always been bros before hos. Nothing new here that indicates a change in their feelings about brown babies.
Roger Moore
It’s like the people who want to hunt wolves from helicopters to keep them from eating caribou. They want to declare open season on doctors who perform abortions in order to ensure there’s a large enough population of brown people to act as menial servants for their children. The gender part is to ensure that there are both nannies and gardeners available.
BTW, I somehow doubt that the statute will be enforced against white women who are unhappy with their mixed race fetuses. Just a hunch.
Chris
ABL, recall that these are the same kinds of conservative jerkoffs who insisted – and persuaded the Supreme Court at the time (not that they wouldn’t win today either, given the wackos have four and often five votes on their side now) – that a racially disparate *effect* was *NOT* enough to prove a racial intent in the 1970s.
In other news, ten bucks says that none of the people who support this will also support the right of people to join class-action lawsuits to thwart class-based discrimination.
Not that the two concepts are at all related.
beltane
@Roger Moore: It does seem all to reminiscent of the attitudes of the old plantation owners. God, do I loathe these horrible people.
rikyrah
ABL,
you rock. plain and simple
Suffern ACE
@Roger Moore: Except for a few notable exceptions, the babies of white women also come in one of two sexes, regardless of race.
Roger Moore
@Suffern ACE:
I think there must be some miscommunication here. The law prevents discrimination by either race or sex. My point is that this will be conveniently enforced in a way that ignores it when whites are the ones doing the racial discrimination, e.g. in the case of a white woman getting an abortion because she (or more likely her family) doesn’t want a mixed race baby.
PaulW
They’re not only making themselves look ridiculous going after abortion rights, the pro-lifers are also mocking the whole purpose of Hate crime laws. Do they seriously believe a majority of African Americans and Hispanics are gonna buy this? I’m Eurowhite trash and even *I* can see this for hypocritical crap!
Combined with the fact those same politicians are literally killing off medical help and financial aid for poor families, these pro-lifers are going out of their way to re-invent those damned back alley clinics again. Welcome back to the health care hell of 1955…
Dear Canada and Mexico: now is a good time to start setting up professional womens’ health care clinics right along the U.S. borders. You should start expecting a wave of clients in 5… 4… 3…
scav
@Suffern ACE: So, does this
really sort of mean that either the parents of the vagina-ed one or the recreational user of same vagina in a way own the carrier of the vagina? In that they clearly can sue (or whatever the term is) if denied the product of said vagina? IASNAL. Cause that sure is a trippy line to bring up especially in their OMG they be killin’ all de black babies context.
PaulW
@shortstop:
Actually it’s worse than gerrymandering districts. The Republicans want to get rid of the Citizenship Clause of the 14th Amendment altogether. They can then deem ANYONE – by skin, by gender, by religion, by political leaning – to be non-citizen and thus unable to vote. If that doesn’t scare you, then maybe this mask of PRESIDENT MICHELLE BACHMANN will! Booga booga.
punkdavid
@Roger Moore:
But you see, if the woman’s white father decides she’s going to fucking have an abortion, goddammit, then it’s OK.
Suffern ACE
@Roger Moore: I can only read what my first quote from the article said. This law is triggered by parents in cases of a minor. I assume that in other cases, the father can press charges against the doctor in any case, whether the family wants the law ignored or not. I don’t quite understand how this law would work in practice. If the father doesn’t come forward to complain, it is not clear that the doctor would be investigated and charged. I only read the article ABL linked to.
asiangrrlMN
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik: My own Damascus fig head almost exploded when I saw that a few days ago. I just can’t even fathom–yeah, we figging hate this guy, but we’re going to use him as an argument for our lame-asymptote argument, anyway.
ABL, I love the Black Baby B’Gone line and much of the humor in this post–I just wish the topic wasn’t so searingly stupid, insulting, and a harbinger of the batguanocrazy to come.
ppcli
@The Political Nihilist Formerly Known As Kryptik:
And also there’s Santorum’s “Social Security is in trouble because all those aborted fetuses didn’t grow up to participate in the system”. Common variations on a theme.
These “think of all the ones who aren’t around” arguments are even dopier than the others, because if taken seriously they provide an argument against *abstinence*. Just think of all the extra babies that would be around if we didn’t stop telling our 17-year old daughters to wait to have sex. [Of course, Santorum’s argument, but not the “think of the missing future leaders” argument is also, if taken seriously, a reason to throw open the doors to lots more immigrants. If the economy is hurting because we are short x number of young workers, there’s an easy remedy for that…]
Another one like this is the “you should be glad that your mother didn’t abort you” remarks that litter message boards. Yes, I suppose that’s true but since I was conceived by an unwed teenager in the days before effective birth control I’m also glad that my mother had sex at precisely that time. Doesn’t mean that I think teenage girls should be encouraged to have early, unprotected sex.
asiangrrlMN
@ppcli: In addition, one could argue the opposite. Maybe the baby being aborted is the next John Wayne Gacy or Pol Pot. Then, wouldn’t it be in the best interest of humanity for those babies TO be aborted?
And, as to the question of whether I’m glad I wasn’t aborted, it’s really tangential because if I had been aborted, I wouldn’t be around to give a Damascus fig.
scav
In re: “you should be glad that your mother didn’t abort you” I’m always so tempted to reply “Yes, knowing that she didn’t want me is an ever-present joyful balm to my heart and knowing that I ruined her life is one of my proudest achievements.”
ppcli
@asiangrrlMN: Very true on the “next Pol Pot” point as well. We root for the bomber in a movie about someone trying to assassinate Hitler. But by these people’s logic it would be horrible and immoral if instead of killing an adult Hitler, someone had built a time machine and went back to persuade Hitler’s mother to have an abortion? (Or to use birth control?)
Roger Moore
@ppcli:
Yes, we can end child labor laws and public schooling. That should free up a lot of young workers who aren’t producing anything in today’s economy.
Roger Moore
@ppcli:
OTOH, I’d think that denying him socialized medicine when he was gassed in the trenches would be just fine.
ppcli
@Roger Moore: Whaddya mean? Outrage! That would be not supporting the troops. Because at the time, Hitler was a… a troop.
Roger Moore
@ppcli:
That’s a joke, right? Supporting the troops involves inventing excuses for why we have to go to war more often, demonizing anyone who argues for peace, and putting magnetic “support our troops” logos on our pickup trucks. It does not involve spending money to ensure that our troops have necessary equipment, support, medical care, or benefits.
Batocchio
Clearly, white social conservatives love black babies more than anybody else. That goes double for racist teabagger white social conservatives. Just add in a birth certificate and a tax cut for a billionaire and they’ll be in heaven.
Gian
take it for what it worth, me being sleep deprived and all, but
the irony (is that the right word) here is lethal. In living memory GOP shills have been pitching a racist crime rate theory on other than white abortions. To be clear more minority abortions equals lower crime. THey gussy up the claim to make it sound less racist
but that’s kinda hard to do. because it is racist.
I guess they are just hoping that education is so bad they’ll fool someone
Dr. Wu
This is what conservatives call a moral dilemma. Which is stronger: their contempt for black children, or their desire to punish economically disadvantaged women for fucking? Decisions, decisions!
LT
I think I’ve got this figured out: Black is the new Israel.
Snarla
@scav:
Why on earth would you hold back? Say it!
bjacques
They were saying this shit 25 years ago. And like, say, early 2005, these people think they’ll win the Senate and the White House so handily aren’t even trying to act sane.
Xenocrates
Every day, I promise myself I will not get angry reading the latest outrage from the GOP. Every day I fail. I am so sick and tired of these people inserting themselves in between citizens and their physicians. Dammit, gtfo. You have no business or reason to be there, so just go away. It’s time for the old joke; How do you know when a Republican is lying? When his/her lips are moving.
Calouste
Of course there are false motives behind this law, but gender-based abortion is a real and existing problem, although probably not that much in the US. In India for example, according to the 2011 census, 914 girls were born for every 1,000 boys under the age of six, compared with 927 for every 1,000 boys in the 2001 census. (The normal ratio is about 980 IIRC). And this is even though gender-based abortion is illegal in India.
Hungry Joe
ABL is such a good writer that it kind of pisses me off. But not very much.
gex
@Calouste: I don’t think the people behind this bill have a particular problem with selective killing of girls. They just wait until they are older and pregnant.
jimbo123
Let me get this straight. The Wicked Witch of the West..the lady who says Arizona can’t afford to do organ transplants anymore…the exact same lady who openly runs on a platform of pushing around brown people coz they’re all job-stealing headcutting savages…wants to stop the evil abortionists from killing all the little black babies. Oh help me Jeebus
And the little girl babies too. Did April Fool’s come early this year? Tell me I’m being pranked