The double standard Beltway media outlets apply to liberals and conservatives is so obvious and pervasive it’s not worth mentioning most of the time. This isn’t most of the time. DougJ’s parody gets to the heart of it.
Opinion | The threats against Christine Blasey Ford are protected free speech. The vigil in front of Brett Kavanaugh’s house is a grave crime against the Republic.
— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) May 9, 2022
Personally, I don’t give a rat’s ass if Weepy von Frostmug’s own neighbor organizing vigils near his home makes him uncomfortable. Maybe in the Before Times, that would have seemed like crossing a line. But after a then-sitting president’s face-saving lies inspired armed yahoos to loiter around election officials’ homes? After Crybaby McSlamshot signed onto an opinion that will overturn women’s reproductive rights and obliterate established notions of privacy for every citizen of this country? Nope.
If the disparate media treatment makes the current peaceful protests redound to Sobby McKegstand’s benefit in terms of public sympathy, that sucks. But liberals can’t be expected to cede their right to peaceably assemble just because the Beltway coverage blows goats.
That’s not the only application of the double-standard that popped up this weekend on this story. The (not) unprecedented leak of the Alito draft caused such turmoil that DC security erected high fences around the SCOTUS building, presumably so the Radical Cleric Five can issue their fatwas from a Green Zone-like safe space. Another leak that occurred on Sunday didn’t get nearly so much attention. WaPo:
The leaked draft opinion is dated in February and is almost surely obsolete now, as justices have had time to offer dissents and revisions. But as of last week, the majority of five justices to strike Roe remains intact, according to three conservatives close to the court who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
I get that the leak of a draft opinion is sexier, but the three anonymous conservatives quoted above also revealed sensitive information about ongoing deliberations. Not only did no one rush to publicly condemn that, the story in which the latest leak appears doesn’t get around to mentioning it for more than a dozen paragraphs, and the bombshell is not alluded to in the headline or lede. Fellow citizens, WTF?
Open thread.
germy
Kent
What is Kavanaugh complaining about?
Either we have a right to privacy in this country or we don’t. When he is willing to respect our privacy, we will be willing to respect his.
schrodingers_cat
These concern trolls of the MSM were not concerned when “pro-lifers” were bombing family planning clinics.
debbie
Along the same lines, back in the early days of the pandemic, RWNJs gathered outside the home of the Ohio Health Director with their AR-15s to protest the earliest restrictions. They trampled on neighbors’ lawns and plantings, were noisy, and stayed until well after the neighborhood kids’ bedtimes. People expressed concern, but the local police chief in interviews said his main concern was protecting the RWNJs’ Second Amendment rights, and he did nothing for the week or so they showed up.
Either everyone puts the law before their personal beliefs, or no one does. I hope Brett picks up on just how much he is hated by his neighbors.
Cacti
But remember, it’s totally okay for Republicans to stand on sidewalks outside women’s clinics, threatening and harassing anyone who goes inside.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
from the NYT pitchbot piece;
“But Justice Kavanaugh bring up a valid point; were is a man’s property rights if the public is free ignore that man’s long and distinguished legal carer to gather and mock him as a useless lush while a he lies in the privacy of his own driveway in a puddle of his own vomit? A life time struggle with alcohol abuse is not the same as some teenage girl neglecting contraception in the folly of youth.”
Old Man Shadow
I mean, for fuck’s sake, I cannot be the only human being who has watched forty plus years of conservatives and Christians standing outside abortion clinics threatening staff and patients and screaming profanity at them, physically harassing them, bombing clinics, and FUCKING MURDERING PEOPLE, GOD DAMN IT! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, KEGSTAND SHOULD COUNT HIMSELF LUCKY WE’RE NOT EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS OR HE WOULD NEED BODYGUARDS AND FUCKING BULLETPROOF VEST!!!
(Screams)
different-church-lady
You know who feels really “uncomfortable?” A woman who needs to run a gauntlet of screaming, hostile, unhinged religious fanatics just to get into a clinic that will help her with pregnancy counseling.
different-church-lady
@Kent: Really, it’s a states-rights issue. //
Ken
One obvious difference is that they leaked to the right people. Consider last week’s whining – which might also have been from the WaPo — because the White House had not leaked the date when the new press secretary would take over.
The other obvious difference, perhaps so obvious that it doesn’t merit mention, is the word “conservatives”.
Cacti
The SCOTUS 6 have been living in the rarified airs of the Federal bench for too long, and don’t get it.
If the people don’t have a right to privacy, you assholes don’t either.
People getting all up in your business when you want to be left alone? Yeah, sucks doesn’t it?
Ken
Funny as it might be to bring in the Second Amendment, I hope no one does.
I do wonder if the police would say they couldn’t do anything because of possible infringement, though.
different-church-lady
@Old Man Shadow:
TragedyOppression is when a affluent white man feels uncomfortable.ComedyFree speech is when a poor pregnant woman is terrified.different-church-lady
Press: “IF YOU DON’T LAUNDER THE MONEY THROUGH ME, HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO TAKE MY CUT?”
Gravenstone
I wonder how much is actual disgust with the man, and how much is simply trying to preempt other “inconveniences” by trying to drive the object of public ire from their proximity?
Jinchi
@debbie: Likewise, here’s how the justice system treats men literally threatening to kidnap and murder a woman Democratic governor.
lowtechcyclist
And can’t forget all the harassment and threats that local health officials and school board members faced for doing their jobs over the past 2+ years, and all the shit that teachers are facing these days on account of the CRT panic and ‘grooming’ panic that the wingnuts have been weaving out of whole cloth recently.
And of course, as has been going on for nearly half a century:
@different-church-lady:
They’ve had no compunction about bringing down harassment and threats on people of modest means, just trying to do their jobs or go about their lives. They’re fucking bullies, the lot of them.
But they get their panties in a wad over a peaceful vigil outside the home of someone who sought out and now occupies one of the highest offices in our land.
Fuck ’em.
Bugboy
They’re not even bothering to hide where the leaks are coming from any more. Performative outrage is going to be the death of us all…
Enhanced Voting Techniques
If Kavanaugh doesn’t want to protested then he should stop dressing in that “protest me!” kind of way. I mean, look at his face, he’s begging for it. The man needs to take some personal responsibility.
sstarr
Didn’t Operation Rescue INVENT the tactic of showing up at abortion providers homes to harass them and make them and their families feel unsafe? This is a known tactic of the anti-abortion right – and nobody made a big deal out of it until it started to get used on conservatives.
different-church-lady
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: He’s admitted he likes beer, so he’s probably drunk and leading us on.
Kathleen
@debbie: I was thinking about that while reading about the outrage about people protesting in front of their houses.
Kathleen
@Jinchi: So true.
Anonymous At Work
Kavanaugh’s protestors need lots of guns plus badly-worn camo and tactical gear, and signs saying, “White Michigan People Protesting Health Decisions.”
Ksmiami
They’re freaking out- good- keep turning up the heat. Not a moment of peace
MazeDancer
Panoply of Greatness on the Kavalcade of Kavanugh nyms, Betty.
debbie
@Jinchi:
Great. That’ll stop repeat incidents.
gvg
I wonder if it would be possible to project video and sound onto the radical justices homes of what women experience going through to get an abortion with periodic cut to black and white silence with words like you hypocrite, how dare you complain about peaceful protesters and Women die because of you. Do it to governors and legislators too.
I wonder if we could do paid ads saying this stuff in the magazines and newspapers they and their friends read like law review and WSJ…graphic pictures of women dying in childbirth, women bloody from rape with statements you think I have to bear this child?
I can’t tell you how furious I am and I am past childbirth myself. I am not a second class citizen and I do not consent.
louc
Interesting Tweet about the gossip in DC speculating that Ginni Thomas is the leaker.
The speculation is Kavanaugh is wavering because he’s concerned about privacy rights implications of the ruling and Ginni is working to keep him on board.
debbie
@Kathleen:
I was so ticked off to learn the police chief is appointed by the mayor. I was really looking forward to voting him out. ?
debbie
Schmitt’s back on MM again. I’m exhausted just reading these tweets.
Ben Cisco
DAMN! I wish I could write like this!
VeniceRiley
@Anonymous At Work: I was thinking signs with a vaccine needle and a quote from Gorsuch in the mandate case: “it’s about controllll!” which justice bishop glue paste said from the bench
geg6
@louc:
I have said this from the start. Never thought it was a justice or even a clerk. It’s that nutcase idiot married to the super duper nutcase sexual harrassing idiot on the Court.
germy
Kathleen
@debbie: His position was disgusting.
WereBear
@geg6: That’s right. You have all that academic experience :) Well told!
Kay
@louc:
Great! Can we all just now admit that the supposed secrecy of these deliberations is nonsense?
Right wingers have been lobbying these justices since the Obamacare decision. My only question is it is fair and ethical if the opposing side doesn’t also get a chance to lobby them.
If Federalist Society lawyers can lobby the justices after arguments, the other side should also get a chance to persuade them too. It’s an advantage for the Right. If “decisional” doesn’t really mean “decisional” and the Right gets a final crack on persuading them that Roes defenders don’t get, that’s not fair.
This is like the top secret, wink wink closing argument that only one side gets to make? What a crock.
It violates basic rules of fairness.
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Damn it! How am I supposed to get any work done? Does anyone know if Schmidt will be on Nicolle Wallace’s show?
Yutsano
@Ben Cisco: I’m greedy. I wanted Betty to keep going just to see how many different names she could come up with for Kavanope.
Kay
@louc:
Can Roe’s defenders go in and try to sway Roberts? Or is this extra time for the Right afforded to only one side? Ridiculous. The issue really isn’t that Right wing lawyers and activists are enjoying special post trial access- they are- the issue is if that’s fair to both sides. It’s not.
I think they have to rehear it. One side was told it was decisional and the other was allowed additional time.
Old School
Same Washington Post article. May or may not be a same leaker:
JPL
@Betty Cracker: I just saw his tweets and his therapist must be so proud.
Rusty
The conservative court is all about the freedom of the wealthy and powerful. One item they want to protect is that the wealthy and powerful should not be held accountable for their behavior and decisions. Most of the press is on board with this, especially the NYT. I’m in favor of old fashioned shaming. Since the powerful can cut themselves off from the rest of us, the only avenue to public shaming are actions like this.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Will he have time for that?!?
Old Man Shadow
@Rusty: Needs more tar and feathers.
debbie
@JPL:
He’s really mad now. He’s changed his avatar to a serious person’s portrait.
Kay
@louc:
If they’re going to announce it’s decisional, that means both sides stop advocating on the case.
Now we have a situation where the anti-Roe side are continuing to argue after the opposition went home. Blatantly unfair and unjust. Right wingers had their shot at the hearing. They don’t get a special extra inning where the other side has been banned from the field.
Ben Cisco
@Yutsano: I bet she could kill it all day!
Kay
Is this rule gone too? Just poof! Disappeared? The parties or their lawyers. Both sides.
Soprano2
So I talked to the vet about my cat; her appointment is tomorrow at noon. I know I’m doing the right thing, but it feels bad anyway. I almost started crying when I was on the phone with him. I guess this is my last duty to her, to ease her way over the rainbow bridge so she can join her son there. At least she won’t be suffering anymore.
Cacti
@sstarr: Dr. George Tiller was stalked and threatened for years by anti-abortionists until one finally murdered him when coming out of church.
Ben Cisco
@Kay: Who here believes Thomas adhered to this with his nutcase seditionist wife over all these years? I don’t.
Ben Cisco
@Soprano2: I’m so sorry.
Old School
@Soprano2: My condolences.
JPL
@debbie: Someone posted this under his latest rant
https://twitter.com/ItWasACoup/status/1523738858902360064/photo/
If you can’t see it, the picture is of a Nancy Drew Book named The mysterious night we buried our last fk.
Subsole
@Soprano2: I am sorry to hear that. Condolences.
JPL
@Soprano2: Although you know it’s the right thing, it still sucks and I’m so sorry.
WereBear
@Soprano2: You can do one last kindness for your cat. If it helps, I have a post about it:
How to Handle the Final Appointment
Peace profound to both of you.
Yutsano
I’mma let y’all finish, but it looks like the nukes are gonna start dropping soon…
trollhattan
@JPL: Brilliant.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
Those rules are gone. It’s McConnell Rules now.
trollhattan
@Yutsano: The yacht seizure balance of the last 48 hours may be back to par,
Pauline
@Soprano2: I am so very sorry. I just went through this two weeks ago with my elderly kitty. That it was one last kind thing that I could do for her was the only way I could get through it.
Matt McIrvin
@sstarr:
Yes, and I remember Nat Hentoff going on about how it was an essential component of free speech.
Kent
Well then, Clarence Thomas is the ACTUAL leaker if he is letting his wife have access to draft opinions. No one confirmed her ass to the bench.
J R in WV
@Soprano2:
It is so hard, but we owe it to them, don’t we?
Sorry for your loss! It’s hard whether it’s suddenly, or slowly with an appointment!
EthylEster
Is it too late to work Chimpy McHitlerburton into your rant?
Kay
@Ben Cisco:
I don’t think we’re ever going to hear another word about it if the leak came from the Right.
Just put it in the giant pile of “unknowable”.
Bex
@EthylEster: Good one. I’ll add Bawley McCoatHanger to the mix.
Kay
Can’t remember. Guffaw.
Perhaps in the future outlets should not rely on this Shapiro fellow? Nah. They’re all rush to repeat everything he says next time, too.
Kay
The biggest liars in this whole thing might be Right wingers running in blue states and there is STIFF competition.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
You are doing the right thing, the kind thing, the compassionate thing. And it hurts like hell.
different-church-lady
@SiubhanDuinne: Co-sign.
Ben Cisco
@Kay: I agree, it’ll be memory-holed right quick.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Same guy who almost got — gasp! — canceled for tweeting garbage about KBJ being an inferior pick. When he’s not lying on Fox or shitposting on Twitter, Shapiro is a law professor on leave and currently the executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for the Constitution. No wonder the republic is falling apart — its elites are drooling idiots.
Steeplejack
@The_Law_Boy: “Sorry, but protesting outside of justices’ homes is not the right way to voice your disapproval of the court. The proper course is to pour billions of dollars of dark money into building institutions that steadily subsume the judiciary over the course of several decades.”
thalarctosMaritimus
@Soprano2: you’re doing the right thing, as hard as it is. You’re a good companion to her, and you’re giving her peace.
Sure Lurkalot
@Betty Cracker:
I’m not sure he’d be doing himself any favors. He seems ill disposed for an interview at the present time and may very well come across as unhinged in addition to vindictive, making his revelations less the story.
There is no doubt that he and the LP dudes know where many bodies are buried having been in the ratfucking business for so long. I find SS’s rants more gossipy than revelatory. The right wing is calling everybody they don’t like pedos, many here have mentioned it’s fast becoming a meaningless slur. It sure triggered SS to spill a shitload of beans and there seems there’s more going on here.
Soprano2
@Old Man Shadow: You’re not the only one for sure!!!!!
Gin & Tonic
@Sure Lurkalot: I have a question. His Twitter handle is “SteveSchmidtSES.” What does “SES” stand for?
eclare
@Soprano2: I’m so sorry. I’ll be thinking of you tomorrow.
Soprano2
@WereBear: Thanks, that’s a nice piece. I’m lucky, I have a cat only vet who is sensitive to this. He scheduled it for noon, probably because there won’t be any other people in there at that time. I’ve had to do this with two other cats, both of whom had cancer of the sinuses and literally couldn’t eat anymore. That was easier, because I knew there were no options. He said I could give IV fluids and keep trying, but it’s a vicious circle. I couldn’t see doing that to her, prodding her with needles and poking pills down her throat at her advanced age. It’s cruel. My mother once had a hard time letting a cat go; both I and this vet were trying to talk her into it as we watched the cat circle around and around. My mother was adamant, though, that because her cat was still eating she just couldn’t let go yet. I won’t do that to my baby
It sure doesn’t help any that I had to make decisions like this for my mother last year. I’ve had too much loss in the past year.
Sure Lurkalot
@Gin & Tonic: per Wiki, his middle name is Edward, so his initials, I surmise.
The Lodger
@Gin & Tonic: Per Google: Stephen Edward Schmidt is an American communications and public affairs strategist …
ETA IOW what Sure Lurkalot said, only with less research.
Feathers
One thing that stands out to be about the Roe era is the absolute refusal of all but the leftmost outlets to even mention how all discussion of abortion is shaped by right wing violence. Sure the clinic protests make the protesters feel good and have theoretical value in discouraging patients from getting abortions, but I am convinced the real importance is making sure women are afraid to ever admit they have had an abortion.
The numbers I’ve seen on what percentage of American women have had abortions is between 25 and 33 percent. But it is an invisible cohort. And the media hides the reason why: violence.
A Good Woman
@Soprano2: So very sorry. They carve out a piece of our hearts and it hurts so much when it is time for them to go. Getting dusty now. I extend my heartfelt sympathy to you.
eclare
@Pauline: I’m so sorry for you too.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I love watching the difference between the elite far Right legals on abortion and the actual anti-abortion base.
Their lawyers are telling us this is about “mercy” for women (gross) in smooth, rehearsed tones and the anti-choice base are baying for blood. 79% of anti-choice voters want women arrested for an abortion. Half the people running for the GOP state level are absolutely drooling at the idea they may be able to round up women. It’s a problem for the fancy lawyers! The far Right in the cheap seats keep telling the truth!
Sure Lurkalot
@Soprano2: In this situation, where many here have been, the right thing is the hardest thing. You have a good vet who will help you through as he has done before.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Here’s a group that is mainstream in the anti-choice movement:
They want to ban birth control. One good thing about this leaked opinion is maybe people will find out how really far Right anti-abortion groups are- they are far Right religious nuts. No one has looked under the hood of this “movement” in a while. They’re opposed to modernity.
When I say women are going back 50 years, I mean it. Culturally, legally, in the workplace, in education. Every gain of the last 50 years is going to be scuttled. Any Right leaning women who thought she could keep her fabulous career and aspire for something for her daughter can forget about it. They’re getting the whole far Right package.
debbie
@JPL:
I can see it. Hilarious!
Sure Lurkalot
Schmidt’s last tweet seems weird to me in light of all he’s said in the past 2 days. Does anyone else?
@MeghanMcCain These are the last words I will ever say to you. Our relationship wasn’t working for me. It was toxic. You know, with all the abuse, smearing and lying. I tried to get you to listen but you are a screamer and not a listener. We have to break up and say bye now.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
Raven is on one of his fishing trips, otherwise I know he’d be posting this favourite quotation for you:
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Stephen Edward Schmidt. His initials.
Kay
The whole “smart” consensus is now “immediately offer concessions to the far Right on abortion, because of course they will come to a middle ground in complete good faith”
These people fucking INSIST you lose. They want you to lose. They cannot wait to surrender. We’ve had, what, 5 days of conflict that makes them uncomfortable? That was unbearable to them. They insist you offer Leonard Leo concessions, on the theory that he will respond in kind. “IT IS TOO DIVISIVE. Surrender!”
They’re deeply uncomfortable with conflict. Conflict averse. They insist you be too.
Cacti
@Kay: As I said yesterday, the “Federalist Society” is about forcing far right Roman Catholic views by judicial fiat onto the 76% of Americans who aren’t Roman Catholic.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: God, it’s so infuriating.
Kay
“After enduring 5 whole days of women yelling about how they are losing autonomy, I think we can all agree they should reach across the aisle and immediately offer concessions to the far Right activists who attacked them”.
I was minding my own business when these people decided they wanted to paw through my medical records and monitor my reproductive system according to their religious code. Why is it my job to appease them? Has appeasing them ever once worked?
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Went and looked at Lee Zeldin’s Twitter feed. It’s amazing with all of these guys how far down you have to go to find any clue that they’re Republican. I figured, but goddamn. He finally had to admit it in a tweet about the Republican primary, which he is in. Guffaw, as you would say.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
A lot of people are conflict averse. A lot of people aren’t. Why is our entire side made up of people who would trade their grandmother rather than exchange harsh words?
How did we get ALL of them? I am not afraid of conflict. It does not make me cry. I’m betting there are a lot of Democrats like me. Could at least one of us be a pundit?
eclare
@Kay: We need to operate by the wish factor, I wish a motherfucker would confront me! Not the I hope factor, I hope nothing goes wrong.
Cedric the Entertainer has a funny bit about this if you Google. I’m on my phone so can’t link.
germy
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
As others have said, those are his initials, added to differentiate his nym from all of the other Steve Schmidts on Twitter (at least 40, at a quick glance).
zhena gogolia
@Soprano2: You are doing the right thing. I’ve been there. I allowed some “heroic measures” with my last cat Sasha, and I really regretted it.
different-church-lady
@Steeplejack:
Strangely, that I also the proper course to voice your approval of the court.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I actually trust state Democratic candidates more than I trust any of these idiots. What if we just left it up to the people who are running? You know, people who want to win. People who voluntarily entered a “conflict” arena and are competitive?
Nan Whaley or Matthew Yglesias on how to compete in Ohio. Not a hard choice.
germy
@WereBear:
Thank you
Kay
I get the rubbernecking, I did it too, but it’s like reading someone elses text messages at this point.
germy
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Yutsano:
Apparently, it’s not Putin’s yacht. It’s Eduard Khudainatov’s, the former president of Rosneft, according to Italian media reports
Steeplejack
@eclare:
“Wish a motherfucker would.”
Dan B
@germy: It’s a reveal that the majority of our media, mainstream and social, are dominated by well off males. Most of them are white. Most are straight. Their lives and their economic security has never been seriously threatened. It is nearly impossible for them to comprehend the ever present fear that is close to the surface for women and minorities in this country, and many other countries.
These “journalists” have no interest because they have no emotional connection. Since few women feel supported or safe talking about their abortion or about birth control the issues receive only statistical narratives
Until a large majority of people, especially women who have had, or even considered abortion, realize that their experience is not just an individual and personal story, little will change.
Kay
Pennsylvania. Complete ban. Republicans are running on forcing 13,000 rape/incest survivors a year to carry the child of the rapist and co parent with him. Against their will. Not in Mississippi or Alabama. In Pennsylvania.
Also, no health of the mother so if you’re going in for a delivery and it falls off a cliff just know they’ve made the choice for you. You die, the child lives.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
And my favorite, especially in light of the Kentucky Derby this weekend.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
You say all of that as if it’s a fait accompli
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
That sounds like a recipe for angry family members wanting revenge for the unnecessary deaths of their loved ones to take it out on these elected officials
Steeplejack
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It’s a rhetorical device to drive home the point. But if the fanatics succeed it will be a fait accompli.
Dan B
@Jinchi: The media’s mostly male “journalists” have suffered so from being criticized!!!
Governor Gretchen Whitmer needs to buck up*. She knew what she was getting into when she ran fir governor, right?
// S
* Zero awareness of the difference between being criticized and having your life, or your future, threatened.
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: The answer to this is that Democrats who fight back aren’t given the sweet sweet largesse and importance in punditing.
We HAVE some great pundits! They’re kept out of general relevance by the gatekeepers, who see them as “too radical”.
debbie
@germy:
Because of course.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I read the other day there were 75K abortions performed in Florida last year. I’m stupid in math, and I know it’s a populous state, but still: I wonder if it’s really a great Republican strategy to implement draconian new restrictions — with no exceptions — in a state where 75K women get an abortion each year. Not making any predictions, but maybe this isn’t really a genius move? I don’t know.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Anti-choicers use “1%” or “1.5%” because they don’t want to assign a number to what they’re doing. They want you to think “1%? Why that’s just a handful of women!”
The number is 13,000, or was last year. Women and girls. Every year. 13,000 girls and women got an abortion after a rape/incest last year. Next year they will be forced to carry a pregnancy after they have already been violated. In ten years you could populate a small city composed exclusively of girls and women who were raped and then forced to give birth to the rapists child and be legally handcuffed to him for at least 18 years. In the United States.
These people are monsters.
Feathers
@Kay: I’m really wondering what is going to happen with this with the hospital accreditation organizations and malpractice insurance. Even health insurers. What sort of policies can be written when legislators are demanding doctors let women who could be saved die on the table?
I know we aren’t supposed to abandon the red states, but what do they think doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers will do?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Funny you mention that, I saw a tweet from one of the linked threads posted here in the comments attempting just that.
“Oh who cares, it’s only 1%. It’s not like they matter.” is what they’re saying basically. But they don’t see that, blinded by their own moral sanctimony/gross “make the libs cry lol” sociopathic trolling
It’s disgusting
Kay
@Feathers:
In Texas they won’t even offer medical advice on the prescription abortions. So you can present with a problem and they won’t talk to you. There is nothing in medicine even remotely like this. If I show up with a gunshot wound and bag of cash marked “Main Street Bank” they treat me. Because of course they do. Women are just disposable. A drug addict with a rig hanging off his arm will get care. Not women. Forbidden. We can’t even be spoken to about our medical problem. Like a medical pariah.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Feathers:
It makes me wonder: what would happen if the entire medical industry simply refused to go along with these laws. What could the right-wing state governments even do at that point? Arrest them all?
Old Dan and Little Ann
Feathers
@Kay: Horrific as that is, it’s a world of difference between that and standing by while a woman dies from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy or eclampsia or from infection after an incomplete miscarriage. Sure, there will be some that go along, but the profession as a whole?
I can see American doctors being barred from international medical conferences if they go along with this.
Cacti
@Kay: Wisconsin never repealed its 1849 abortion law.
When Roe is overturned, it immediately goes back into effect. No exception for rape.
eclare
@Steeplejack: Hilarious!
Feathers
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I truly think there are many who realize this will split the country apart and want it to happen.
The other thing that we will see is blue cities wishing that they had never lost control of their police departments and prosecutor’s offices. We saw during the BLM protests that mayors are helpless to overrule their police departments. That will certainly play out here.
sab
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): These doctors all have about 500,000 in student loans to pay off. A heneration from now we won’t have any ob/gyn doctors.
Tazj
Conservative people, especially conservative Christian religious pastors and priests always dismiss the arguments for abortion when rape and incest are brought up. That’s only a small percentage of cases! Hand wave! The implication being that many of the women are lying and most abortion involves irresponsible(slutty) women.They’re more than willing to let the other violated women suffer along with them.
I can’t understand why more people aren’t bothered by the 6 week bans. They’re so creepy. Talk about a surveillance state.
Kay
@Cacti:
I think the stories won’t get told. It’s such a big country and so many people have such big microphones.
But 13,000 girls and women who were raped last year got private and safe abortions and they didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission- they got their bodily autonomy back- and if these laws go in next year they can’t. They’ll be forced by the state to give birth and enter into an ongoing, complex, year’s long legal relationship with the rapist. Custody battles. Child support. Dropping the child off for the weekend at the rapists. All against their will. This is what these far Right religious women want for other women. They want women to have to “go through some things”, as their hero Donald Trump says. It tells you all you need to know about them. The sacrifice isn’t even theirs because obviously if they choose to carry the child of their rapist they can do that. This is how they get to Heaven- by sacrificing other girls and women.
Soprano2
My sister had an abortion in 2003. I only found out about it from her journals after her death. That she couldn’t tell even me, who she knew was pro-choice, tells you what a stigma most women feel about it. I wonder if she ever told anyone. Did she have a friend with her when she got the abortion? I feel sad that she didn’t let me support her.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
Many of these women have friends and family that will tell their stories too. It can’t be hidden
Gvg
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): medically, it usually isn’t a choice of one or the other. A lot of times it’s which one can actually be saved, or even, try to save both. What used to happen is the baby was dead and they wouldn’t remove the fetus to save the mom and waited for it to come out by itself while she almost died. This happened to my grandmother before my father was born. Another doctor took over and over ruled the idiot. I was actually told by a Catholic man years ago that this was not official Catholic policy (child before mom) but in practice that is what happened.
Medically a lot of different scenarios happen and the right wing simplistic ones aren’t very likely. It really needs to be left to good medical practice and fanatic ignorant bigots need to stay out of it.
Dan B
Duplicate….
Dan B
@Soprano2: I had a cousin who got a “Mexican”* abortion. She told me, the Gay Liberation radical. I doubt she knew that many of us were threatened with imprisonment and with death. Telling your stories as a group helps reveal the cruel and ugly treatment of a group. It exposes the pattern that is otherwise invisible even to most of the victims. Far right extremists hate this with unbridled fury.
*pre Roe. Returned home bleeding. Boyfriend shunned her.
Jinchi
Terrorism doesn’t work by threatening to kill everybody. It works by implying anyone can be killed. The Texas law allowing private citizens to sue anyone aiding an abortion worked the same way. The threat wasn’t that every doctor would get sued. It was that any one could be. That was enough to pretty much shut down abortion in the state.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jinchi:
And what if we all collectively called their bluff? Widespread, civil disobedience is what I’m talking about
Jinchi
@germy:
That reminds me of Sarah Huckabee Sanders complaining that she was denied service in a restaurant by gay waiters, weeks after celebrating the SC decision allowing Christian bakers to deny service to gay couples.
Jinchi
Civil disobedience might work, protests might work, refusal to work in obstetrics might work (although pity the poor mothers having no access to health care at all). But if doctors continue providing abortions after it’s been criminalized, many will be charged, potentially with murder, lose their careers and spend years in jail.
But it won’t be me, and it won’t be most other people, no matter how supportive we are. It will fall directly on the health care providers.
If there are enough people willing to upend the system to prevent prosecution under the law, there should be more than enough ready to vote the bastards out.
Villago Delenda Est
My nym. Again and again.
Wipe them out. All of them.
Betsy
@Ben Cisco: #comment-8509171: She really needs a twice-weekly column at a major Gotham newspaper. If there were any justice in the world.
Can you imagine what this woman would be able to do if she had a couple of research interns? ‘D be like Molly Ivins and Carl Hiassen cubed.
Gretchen
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Dr. Jen Gunter has written quite a bit about abortion from the point of view of an ob/gyn. She says if dr. Violates the law they will lose their licence and malpractice insurance won’t cover them. She worked in KS and was asked to do an abortion to save the mom, but how imminently does mom have to be in danger? Had to get hospital lawyers and state legislator who wrote the bill to decide if she could do it without destroying her life. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/20/opinion/abortion-laws.html