Today’s GOP insanity

[SilverFang01]

From the state of Texas we have this half-baked tin-horn loudmouth who has engaged in a Twitter fight with a couple of doctors because he believes that vaccines are sorcery: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/jonat...-texas-gop

Meanwhile in Georgia, governor* Jack Kemp and the state of Ohio have enacted anti-abortion laws so restrictive that it calls for the imprisonment for life of any woman seeking an abortion, prison sentences for anti-conceptives, and mandates surgery for any suspected ectopic pregnancy to re-implant the zygote or fetus back into the uterus.

Ohio bill: https://wosu2.drupal.publicbroadcasting....e-abortion

Georgia bill: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019...rison.html

We have to stop letting stupid people into our legislatures.

[robkelk]

...

Meanwhile in Georgia, governor* Jack Kemp and the state of Ohio have enacted anti-abortion laws so restrictive that it calls for the imprisonment for life of any woman seeking an abortion, prison sentences for anti-conceptives, and mandates surgery for any suspected ectopic pregnancy to re-implant the zygote or fetus back into the uterus.

Ohio bill: https://wosu2.drupal.publicbroadcasting....e-abortion

Georgia bill: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019...rison.html

The Georgia law made it onto As It Happens today. Since it's already been signed into law, anybody in Georgia who miscarries can now be charged with manslaughter - that's how poorly the law is worded.

We have to stop letting stupid people into our legislatures.

The thing is, smart people are too smart to run for office.

[SilverFang01]

The Georgia law made it onto As It Happens today. Since it's already been signed into law, anybody in Georgia who miscarries can now be charged with manslaughter - that's how poorly the law is worded.

It also prescribes prison sentences for women who go out of state seeking an abortion.

[DHBirr]

The Georgia law made it onto As It Happens today. Since it's already been signed into law, anybody in Georgia who miscarries can now be charged with manslaughter - that's how poorly the law is worded.

It also prescribes prison sentences for women who go out of state seeking an abortion.

How long, d'you think, before they try to make it a crime for any women to move out of the state ... because they might choose to have an abortion sometime in the future?  "Uppity wimmenfolk gotta be controlled so they cain't never have no abortions!"

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"Oh, my people had many gods. There was Conformity, and Authority, and Expense Account, and Opinion. And there was Status, whose symbols were many, and who rode in the great chariot Cadillac, which was almost a god itself. And there was Atombomb, the dread destroyer, who would some day come to end the world." — Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, H. Beam Piper

[classicdrogn]

Uh... wow. And they seem to be honestly presenting this, not pushing it specifically to get it shot down. Thea sickening part is that with the changes on the Supreme Court it might not be...

[Matrix Dragon]

Oh for fucks sake. LEX LUTHOR HAD A LESS EVIL GOVERNMENT IN FICTION.

[Epsilon]

And now the Supreme is packed with right-wing fuckwads who might just make this all legal.

Because some Americans thought Hillary was icky.

Fuck all of them.

[Dartz]

How does the Republican party manage to portray itself as any sort of Freedom or personal choice party when it's sole aim seems to be to legislate for morality.

I mean, it's perfectly moral to watch someone die because they can't afford a drug that's just been hit by a 600% markup - solely because the seller can mark it up that high - but somehow a person is required to give birth. I mean, you can force someone to give birth, but not sell a drug?

I suppose not being able to afford a maternity ward and giving birth at home will be a crime too.

It's beyond inhuman.

[classicdrogn]

Let's see if they increase funding for Health & Human Services to increase support for low income families and single parents and to facilitate adoptions and fostering shall we?

I'm not going to hold my breath, though. The same bunch that are heavily against abortions tend to also be resistant to social welfare programs as well.

[Labster]

Nice try Dartz, but they got arguments against that, because we Americans have a capitalist God. It's not about forcing the host to give birth, it's about the baby's right to live.  The baby is an innocent, and thus deserves every shot at life.  However, if a person can't afford a life-saving drug later in life, it's all because the person didn't try hard enough to get money, and they weren't good enough for God to bless them with material wealth.  Therefore, the person can't afford the drug because of their personal moral failings, and deserve much less compassion than the fetus.  So Republicans protect the innocent, but let the invisible hand from above judge people's free economic choices.

Let me also remind you that the first English settlers over here came in two flavors -- slave-driving capitalists were the first.  But the other were a people persecuted for religious reasons, who came to have a free chance to persecute others for their own religious reasons.  But as an Irishman, I'm sure you know what the English are like already.

[classicdrogn]

Well of course the almighty Dollah loves babies! You need a source of new workers to earn and consumers to spend, after all.

[SilverFang01]

Been discussing these developments with my niece and sister-in-law, since my niece wants to do a road trip from Miami to NYC in the summer. I strenuously recommended they skip doing any tourism in Georgia.

[hazard]

Even better Labster, the capitalist god loves fetuses but the moment the baby's born it must start paying its share of the burden. Especially if the baby's poor and not white.

[Epsilon]

The trick to understanding the right wing is that their goal isn't equality. They want hierarchy. They need it. They believe that it is right and good that some people get all they want and then some and some people live in poverty and despair. They think that the only purpose of politics is to determine who is at the top and who gets to live in shit.

Relevant video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agzNANfNlTs

[Dartz]

Ah.

The authoritarian party, so.

[robkelk]

If you think Georgia's law is bad, look at Alabama's. The GOP voted down exceptions for rape or incest.

If this passes as-is, then if a walking-pile-of-protoplasm-with-a-Y-chromosome rapes his own daughter in Alabama, she'll have to carry the offspring to term.

[Matrix Dragon]

Let's also applaud the Alabama GOP for declaring birth control to be 'preemptive abortions'

[classicdrogn]

I can think of a few cases where retroactive abortions might not be so objectionable, myself.

[Epsilon]

If you think Georgia's law is bad, look at Alabama's. The GOP voted down exceptions for rape or incest.

If this passes as-is, then if a walking-pile-of-protoplasm-with-a-Y-chromosome rapes his own daughter in Alabama, she'll have to carry the offspring to term.

Worse yet, women who have miscarriages could be convicted for negligence.

[Matrix Dragon]

If you think Georgia's law is bad, look at Alabama's. The GOP voted down exceptions for rape or incest.

If this passes as-is, then if a walking-pile-of-protoplasm-with-a-Y-chromosome rapes his own daughter in Alabama, she'll have to carry the offspring to term.

Worse yet, women who have miscarriages could be convicted for negligence.

Could be? It's happened before. Purvi Patel of Indiana was sentenced to 20 years in prison for feticide. She said it was a miscarriage, and there was no evidence otherwise. Renee Gibbs, a 16 year old girl, delivered a stillborn child, and was indicted on charges of 'depraved heart murder'. Bei Bei Shaui attempted to commit suicide. Rather than get her help for her clearly serious issues, police in Indianapolis had a homicide detective interrogating her within half an hour, and later charged her with murder.

The examples I just mentioned are not one offs, they're not outliers. This is what happens, and not just in America either. This is an evil that horrible people, often men, inflict on women at possibly the worst time in their lives. Abortion is not some simple black and white concept, with a clear line dividing good and evil. The monsters making these laws know that, and to be honest? They enjoy it.

[Rajvik]

Alabama's law hasn't been passed yet, specifically because of those clauses

Surprisingly probably to many of you I agree with you that these two states have gone too far, however, so has New York who passed a bill into law allowing an abortion on demand up until and including the day of birth, and Virginia almost passed one allowing the baby to be born and then the decision on whether to continue its care be made.

I do not equate them, however I think that the subject of the OP are a result of the second. Maybe both sides need to go back to the mantra of the 90s of "safe, rare,and legal" instead of the extremes of "anytime on demand" versus "No"

[hazard]

Well, the Netherlands is usually considered a terrible, liberal and insane place of crazy ideas about other people, but the laws on abortion here are pretty clear: It's legal if performed before the 24th week, and there's some considerable discussion between the mother of the child and the doctor, including a legally mandated one week pause to ensure the woman in question has time to think on it.

This presumes however that there's no issues regarding the potential survival of the mother and child. If the child can't survive anyway, an abortion is legal even later in the pregnancy, and if the pregnancy is likely to kill the mother the same is true. There are just other constraints in that case, especially if the mother desires the child anyway.

There's a host of other rules and regulations involved as well though.

[Dartz]

We've had real problems here since the referendum and the change in law.

Usually with either American 'tourists' arriving to protest - or American evangelicals funding local protestors - who then stand outside GP's and maternitiy units that offer abortion services and try to head people off on the way in.

[SilverFang01]

Alabama's law hasn't been passed yet, specifically because of those clauses

Surprisingly probably to many of you I agree with you that these two states have gone too far, however, so has New York who passed a bill into law allowing an abortion on demand up until and including the day of birth, and Virginia almost passed one allowing the baby to be born and then the decision on whether to continue its care be made.

I do not equate them, however I think that the subject of the OP are a result of the second. Maybe both sides need to go back to the mantra of the 90s of "safe, rare,and legal" instead of the extremes of "anytime on demand" versus "No"

The updated NY state law gives women the right to an abortion after 24 weeks if a fetus is no longer viable, or if a woman’s life or health is at risk. In the unlikelihood of a live birth in such a case medical care would be provided as in the case of any live birth. As a matter of fact it’s the same law as California.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/new-Yo...ons-birth/

Your statement is wrong and most certainly a lie.

[Norgarth]

It's not a lie if he believes it to be true. Doesn't mean he's not wrong (due to basing his statement on bad data/propaganda/lies), but it in itself not a lie.