Two weeks ago, the governor of Nebraska signed a law that banned most abortions after 20 weeks on the theory that that’s when the fetus can feel pain. But as Caitlin Borgmann, a City University of New York law professor, wrote in The Los Angeles Times, “There is nothing approaching a scientific consensus on fetal pain at 20 weeks’ gestation.”
On Wednesday, Mississippi’s Legislature sent a bill to the governor that forbids public financing of abortions. The prohibition stands even in cases of severe birth defects.
Tuesday, the Oklahoma Legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto to pass two abortion laws. One requires women, even those seeking to end a pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, to have an ultrasound and have the fetus described to them. The other prevents mothers from suing doctors who withhold information about fetal birth defects.
And on Friday, the Florida Legislature passed a bill also requiring all women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound. Even if the women don’t want to see the image, the doctor must still describe it to them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/01/opinion/01blow.html?partner=rss&emc=rssAnyone who thinks there is no way in hell Roe could be overturned are not looking at the big picture, imho. The op ed goes on to explain how women under thirty and men over sixty five with college educations are responsible for the drop for those who favor choice.
The fundies have done a magnificent job of re-defining choice as pro life. It is a purposeful twisting of what choice is. Their twisted argument goes something like this. Pro life (anti-abortion under any circumstance) is a choice. Well it is their choice to be that, but they leave no other choice for anyone else, so NO, it is not choice. I hear people buy into this argument all the time. The fundies have gotten a lot of people to believe that if one would not have an abortion themselves as a personal belief but would not force that on another person, that they are pro life. That is not the case. A person who believes that no women should have an abortion under any circumstance is anti abortion.
In the climate the fundies have created, it makes people feel good about themselves, to define themselves, personally as pro-life, even if they are pro choice. Like abortion is some dirty evil deed that they would never consider for themselves. They get people to beleive that because they would not have an abortion themselves, that they are pro life, even if they wouldn't force that belief on others. But that is not was pro life is. Pro life = anti abortion for anyone. It has weakened the choice platform and strengthened the pro-life/anti abortion platform.
I have a real hard time explaining this, maybe some others can give their insight.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
