MisterDancer

When I was a Baby Pro-Choice Activist, one of the things that got me over my Maleness and listening (at least a bit!) was the stories people would tell about their experiences with Abortions. Espcially when those Abortions were, shall we say, proscribed and constrained via Dr. King’s “unjust laws.” So-called “back alley abortions” were far from the only experience; coat-hangers, a useful symbol of a far more complex, and historically deep, process.

This cemented in my mind that Abortion is Moral, is Ethical. To debate its rightness in the face of all that we inflict upon those society identifies as Female, is horrifically unjust and a perversion Especiallyall right to self-identity and freedom. It locks them away in invisible chains, forcing them to do more, just to make it by — and silences them from communicating this unjustness, in many ways.

In that light: I do not know Mz. Herrera’s story. I do know that being arrested for murder, via self-inducing an abortion, is on this society’s face an unjust law. I do not discount, for a moment, that they targeted a Woman of Color, and slapped a half-million dollar bail on her.

I also note this arrest happens, even though the already-horrific Texas Legislature has been too cowardly to make taking the pills she took, a direct crime:

Texas does not have a law that makes self-inducing an abortion a crime (three states do—Oklahoma, South Carolina and Nevada).

So it would not shock me to find at this was a purely political move, designed to promote fear in people who’s biology allows them to reproduce, and their allies. A move to present this kind of Reproductive Rights as a “clear and present danger,” spurring on media attention and allowing this shameful Texas GOP to fig-leaf it, to use it as a “story” to install future restrictions on those Rights.

And, of course, to make all the political hay they can around that activity, as they have for months now.

It is beyond shameful to use this person as a “test case” in this way.

This is yet another in a long series of signs that the anti-choice, anti-reproductive rights forces have decided that any moral failing, in pursuit of “saving babies’ lives,” is allowed. And that they echo the ethical black hole of Mitch McConnell and Ron DeSantis in this, as recently documented on this very site, is not a coincidence.

I don’t have a fancy end for this, mostly because I’m red with rage. But this must be marked, and most be acknowledged for the brutality it inflicts, and threatens more of.

#1: Stand Together

Founded by Charles Koch to fund other groups. Dan Caldwell from the org started with arguing for American neutrality when Russia “merely” threatened Ukraine, and now claims that these current sanctions make Russia stronger.

There is a useful debate on these topics. Yet not when you’re shifting around, rooting for a reason to go easy on Russian aggression.

#2: American Institute for Economic Research

Has both funding and employees tied to Stand Together and the Charles Koch Institute. Ruger argued against American involvement in defending Ukraine on the Reason Magazine podcast in 3/2/2022, saying that “Ukraine simply doesn’t matter to America’s security or our prosperity.”

Then an 3/8/2022 article from a Cato Institute member, Doug Bandow, had the Caucacity to call the kinds of sanctions we’re imposing “grotesquely immoral.”

#3: Defense Priorities

Funded by the predecessor to Stand Together in the past. To sum up their opinions, per the reporting, they hate them some “useless” sanctions. One wag, Daniel DePetris, said in a 2/24/2022 article that sanctions are “merely an exercise in virtue signaling.”

“Virtue signaling” is the kind of dogwhisle Atwater would have loved, and underlines the truth of where he’s coming from.

#4: Koch Industries

After the above stink started to leak into mainstream media, Koch finally released a statement. In it, they simply…well, I’ll let the reporter’s opinions stand for itself:

Koch Industries is attempting to argue that continuing to operate in Russia is in the best interest of Ukraine and the Russian people. The company suggests that shuttering its massive glass manufacturing plants would benefit the Russian government. The implication is that the hundreds of companies that have left Russia are, in fact, empowering the Putin regime.

And there you have it, everyone. Koch has chosen where they will stand, in this moment drenched in innocent blood.

Wrapping the stink up

Now, again, there’s an argument to be made, by people who know more than I, about the utility of sanctions. Yet you can’t make it while hiding your funding sources — people who want those sanctions gone. (Although we know this is SOP for these folx).

So we should thank and support journalists like Popular Information for bringing these networks to light. It’ll make our Government’s work in rooting out the people and companies President Zelensky asked our lawmakers to look into, that much easier. I’m sure the same GOPers who were so eager to defame a brilliant legal mind this week, will get right on that.

As for the rest of us: if these groups are, as evidence shows, closely tied to any political movements and politicians? Well, we as citizens know some good questions to ask them, as well. To do our part to help our government, help Ukraine.

Win-win.