Belated outrage
http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/ohio-republican-re-introduces-bill-gi
So, a pro life Republican lawmaker wants to re-introduce a bill which would make abortion impossible unless written permission slips from both parents are signed.
There is so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to start. I think I'll start with the point of view of a pro-choice woman.
I am not a feminist, not really, not in the classic sense of the word. However, by this age, I can recognize when rights are being granted and then taken away. So, by telling a woman that yes, she has the right to choose - but only if a man agrees, and signs a paper - is patronizing, offensive and incongruent. Plus, I'd like to point out the blind assumption that every woman who is pregnant out there has a man whose permission she has the chance to obtain; this implies horrendous stigma, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not even talking about special cases, like rape or incest, although it's worth mentioning that there are provisions for those, so, I suppose thank goodness for small favors. And here they are, courtesy of a certain anal lawyer I know: Oh yes, here they are:
(a) A copy of a police report or a complaint, indictment, information, or other court document that gives the person who is to perform or induce the abortion reasonable cause to believe that the woman became pregnant as the result of rape or incest.
(b) A copy of a paternity test that gives the person who is to perform or induce the abortion reasonable cause to believe that the woman became pregnant as the result of incest.
OK? Let me put it in perspective. A woman who has been raped will have had the insight to file a report so that in the chance that she is pregnant, she has that back up and is able to petition for her right to have an abortion. And a woman who is a victim of incest, has to obtain a PATERNITY test. So, a victimized woman will have to PROVE that she's been victimized so she can have the abortion. Does that mean she has to get close to her abuser to get a sample?? I mean, seriously?
Anyway, I'm not even talking about those. I'm just talking about, oops, I'm pregnant, but I don't know who the father is. Or the father and I are not together. Not possible and not advised, because those ladies are, as C+L says SOL! This is a short distance away from needing a male escort to go to public places.
Next, I'd like to extrapolate this bill to the following scenario: the woman wants to have a baby, but the man doesn't, does that mean that he gets the right to sign a piece of paper and make her have it? Or is the bill directed only one way? And if it is directed only one way, is that in writing somewhere in an official clause?
Finally, I'd like to assume the point of view of a pro-life person. I've said this before: arguments between true pro-life people and pro-choice people are made absolutely obsolete by the simple fact that pro-life peopple believe that life begins at conception and ending it is murder. You can't argue with that. Now, I personally, don't necessarily agree that an embryo or a fetus, despite being undoubtedly a lifeform, deserves rights of its own, but let's say you DO believe that. Then, all social, economic and ethical arguments to support abortion fall haplessly to the wayside unless you are willing to condone murder. So, my point is, how does this man, who proclaims to be PRO LIFE, how does he reconcile the idea that abortion is murder with the idea that abortion is ok if both parents agree to it? That doesn't even make any sense! And it exposes this bill for what it is: a political ploy to make a woman's right to choose less attainable, and eventually, altogether absent.
Plus, let's please discuss how finding a fake baby daddy to sign papers would be a criminal offense! A felony!
Finally, just as C+L points out, where is the provision for required child support? Since the father has so many rights, should he have some responsibilities too? Or do those stop after conception?
Hypocrisy.
So, a pro life Republican lawmaker wants to re-introduce a bill which would make abortion impossible unless written permission slips from both parents are signed.
There is so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to start. I think I'll start with the point of view of a pro-choice woman.
I am not a feminist, not really, not in the classic sense of the word. However, by this age, I can recognize when rights are being granted and then taken away. So, by telling a woman that yes, she has the right to choose - but only if a man agrees, and signs a paper - is patronizing, offensive and incongruent. Plus, I'd like to point out the blind assumption that every woman who is pregnant out there has a man whose permission she has the chance to obtain; this implies horrendous stigma, as far as I'm concerned. I'm not even talking about special cases, like rape or incest, although it's worth mentioning that there are provisions for those, so, I suppose thank goodness for small favors. And here they are, courtesy of a certain anal lawyer I know: Oh yes, here they are:
(a) A copy of a police report or a complaint, indictment, information, or other court document that gives the person who is to perform or induce the abortion reasonable cause to believe that the woman became pregnant as the result of rape or incest.
(b) A copy of a paternity test that gives the person who is to perform or induce the abortion reasonable cause to believe that the woman became pregnant as the result of incest.
OK? Let me put it in perspective. A woman who has been raped will have had the insight to file a report so that in the chance that she is pregnant, she has that back up and is able to petition for her right to have an abortion. And a woman who is a victim of incest, has to obtain a PATERNITY test. So, a victimized woman will have to PROVE that she's been victimized so she can have the abortion. Does that mean she has to get close to her abuser to get a sample?? I mean, seriously?
Anyway, I'm not even talking about those. I'm just talking about, oops, I'm pregnant, but I don't know who the father is. Or the father and I are not together. Not possible and not advised, because those ladies are, as C+L says SOL! This is a short distance away from needing a male escort to go to public places.
Next, I'd like to extrapolate this bill to the following scenario: the woman wants to have a baby, but the man doesn't, does that mean that he gets the right to sign a piece of paper and make her have it? Or is the bill directed only one way? And if it is directed only one way, is that in writing somewhere in an official clause?
Finally, I'd like to assume the point of view of a pro-life person. I've said this before: arguments between true pro-life people and pro-choice people are made absolutely obsolete by the simple fact that pro-life peopple believe that life begins at conception and ending it is murder. You can't argue with that. Now, I personally, don't necessarily agree that an embryo or a fetus, despite being undoubtedly a lifeform, deserves rights of its own, but let's say you DO believe that. Then, all social, economic and ethical arguments to support abortion fall haplessly to the wayside unless you are willing to condone murder. So, my point is, how does this man, who proclaims to be PRO LIFE, how does he reconcile the idea that abortion is murder with the idea that abortion is ok if both parents agree to it? That doesn't even make any sense! And it exposes this bill for what it is: a political ploy to make a woman's right to choose less attainable, and eventually, altogether absent.
Plus, let's please discuss how finding a fake baby daddy to sign papers would be a criminal offense! A felony!
Finally, just as C+L points out, where is the provision for required child support? Since the father has so many rights, should he have some responsibilities too? Or do those stop after conception?
Hypocrisy.
Comments
What I would like to point out in regards to this is that this HAS BEEN DONE BEFORE. AND WAS REPEALED. AS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Mind you, it was in place for some time, but did eventually go away where it belongs - THE PAST.
The only people who are deemed incapable of consenting to a contract or make decisions are minors (which is where most states get you requiring numerous parental consents, etc., thereby making it necessary to have expensive time-consuming hearings on emancipation or emancipation-just-for-this-purpose petitions), and people who are, to use an old term, 'of feeble mind.' So, by proposing such a bill, this nice man is taking us many many years back in implying that us women folk, we're too feeble minded to make responsible decisions.
Furthermore, since you have quite eloquently addressed the other stuff, then what about those women who get pregnant as a result of Rape? Incest? Meaning, those women who did not give their consent for the pregnancy in the first place?
Or, those women who were in an abusive relationship as a result of which they became pregnant, and are now hiding in a shelter from their abusers? What are they to do? Would they then have to deal with some kind of red tape where they'd have to lay out their situation before yet another man who thinks they know what's better for then than these women themselves do?
I call bullshit on this guy. Like you said, this is simply an slap in the collective women's face- not any kind of 'PRO-LIFE' legislation. It's moronic and disrespectful. Now, let us discuss the voters in Ohio who voted this gem of a guy into Congress.
lets go picketing... point me to a building.. i wanna picket damn it.
(a) A copy of a police report or a complaint, indictment, information, or other court document that gives the person who is to perform or induce the abortion reasonable cause to believe that the woman became pregnant as the result of rape or incest.
(b) A copy of a paternity test that gives the person who is to perform or induce the abortion reasonable cause to believe that the woman became pregnant as the result of incest.
SOOOOOOOOOOO, let's review:
1. This requires the woman to have FILED A POLICE report (at a minimum) of the rape that occurred. A large (if not majority) of the rapes are not reported to the police. 2. This report requires a PATERNITY TEST to PROVE incest.
This is not an adequate provision by any means. This douche does/should know that, too.
But more than anything else this kind of cowardly cheap shots at our right to choose, our right to decide what to do with our bodies. Boo hoo - Roe v. Wade made abortion legal! So, now these people, instead of fighting for additional funding for their communities to educate people about safe sex, making birth control and education about such available to the communities of their voters, in order to PREVENT the need for abortion as much as possible (now these people I call PRO-LIFE), they try to pass some back-door idiotic disrespectful laws that are written by a dumbass and reads as such (oh yea, I just looked it up, asswipe!).
I do hope that Dr. Tiller (most recently) and many others who have died for our right to choose did not die in vain, and that the Ohio voters will not allow this to happen. This shit should go on the ballot and get squashed by the people of that state!