Reply #31: First and foremost they want to outlaw ALL abortions... [View All]

...from the moment of conception. This is the stated goal of the anti-choice people, and if the wingnut Congressional leaders are saying differently, they are lying in service to their ultimate goal. I don't think these laws will affect the wives, girlfriends and daughters of the rich and powerful -- they never have. But it will be disastrous for everyone else.

They claim that their attitude toward abortion is Biblically based, but the Bible is silent on the subject. There is a passage in Exodus that states that if a man injures a woman and causes her to miscarry that he is subject to a fine for having injured her. The implication is clear: she is the injured party, and the fetus is not a separate person.

They've been working on this for years and have been very successful. In one bill working its way through, pregnant women may access government supported health care not for themselves through adult programs, but for their fetus through children's programs. There's a woman in Utah who recently delayed a C-section her doctors insisted she needed to save both her twins, and one died. Despite the fact that the woman has a right to physical autonomy and the right to refuse surgery, and despite the fact that apparently she also had a history of mental problems that may have had an impact on her ability to make decisions -- despite any considerations of what the woman might have been going through, she was placed under arrest for murder one day after she had abdominal surgery (i.e. the C-section). I have not heard anything further.

So, this latest bill passed by the Senate in its godlike wisdom is far from innocuous, and is not going to help women at all. "Unborn victims of violence" would be far better served if all cops were trained how to handle domestic violence, all men were taught non-violence, and if all women had access to shelter services, legal services, and medical services when they are in crisis.

Hekate