This article was originally published at ProPublica, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1440173
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1440173
I’m still not seeing where the side piece exemption is. Fine print?
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What utterly disgusting people these forced-birthers are. They insist, against all available evidence, that their view of the world is correct and should be imposed on everybody else. Forget science. Forget ethics. Forget religious differences. All that matters is their control.
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Forget dead women
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Clearly that “biomedical ethics” guy skipped some classes. And only heard what he wanted to hear when he interviewed people who became pregnant from sexual assault/incest.
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Tragic
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It seems as if the lobbyists to keep the extreme Tennessee legislation the way it is are principally concerned with setting an example for other states and preventing nuance from entering the discussion. What do they have to worry about? Tennessee has long been one of the most extreme states in terms of legislation on “moral” issues.
I would add that people who want women to have the right to their own body should repeatedly question the anti-abortion lobby about their obscene attachment to the word “life,” when the effect of their campaigns is quite the opposite.
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The more things change; the more they remain the same.
This whole thing is Scopes Trial Part 2 in which the political ignoramuses and evangelical fools of Tennessee show their reactionary verve to stop modernism and scientific progress.
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to prevent an organ system from failing.”
They obviously did their research and copied a relevant phrase from the John “Torture memo” Yoo playbook. If it’s good enough for a terrorist suspect it’s good enough for a pregnant woman.
“It’s a dangerous assumption that women who have rape pregnancies have to have an abortion,” Reardon said.
I have never heard anybody argue that a rape victim has to have an abortion, but the victim should definitely have the right to elect to have an abortion.
“The other side’s [the right to choose] position is an assumption that abortion is going to be the right decision at every point in time,” Billy said.
That is an equally false assertion. Nobody is arguing that an elective abortion is “the right decision at every point in time.” The argument is that the right to choose is right at every point in time.
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“John Yoo”
Enhanced insemination techniques
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Yup, IVF is next up in their battle to protect the unborn. Their argument is not well conceived.
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And let me guess, every person at this meeting was male.
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I have been face to face with many anti-abortion protesters and activists and it is almost always some weird combination for religious fervor, scientific ignorance and the need to feel you are doing something important with your life.
I have seen this quoted here before and it seems worth repeating
# “The unborn” are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don’t resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus, but actually dislike people who breathe. Prisoners? Immigrants? The sick? The poor? Widows? Orphans? All the groups that are specifically mentioned in the Bible? They all get thrown under the bus for the unborn.”
― Methodist Pastor David Barnhart
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What I noticed in this long piece is the lack of women’s voices.
The “medical ethicist” David C. Reardon, from a shut down university- male.
Stephen Billy, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s vice president for state affairs- male
All of these folks are talking about takin agency away from women, and girls. How is the state going to step up and support a 9, 10, 11 give birth and still go to elementary, middle, and high school?
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When Tennessee Right to Life, the state’s main anti-abortion lobbying group, proposed the trigger ban in 2019, Briggs admits he barely read the two-page bill forwarded to his office.
He followed the lead of his colleagues, who assured state lawmakers that the bill included medical exceptions. He even added his name as a co-sponsor. “I’m not trying to defend myself,” he says now.
No, you’re just saying you’re too fuckin dumb to be in office.
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Women’s voices? Not needed. Men know best. Someday they’ll grow up, put their dicks back in their pants and that’ll be the day when they realize they’re half the reason women need abortions. “Pro life”? More like pro fetus because their caring begins and ends with the little blob of inchoate matter. The entire subject is infuriating for me for very personal reasons which I probably don’t have to elaborate on.
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I know Richard Briggs quite well.
He’s a fine surgeon, and within his specialty he’s tops.
But he has ideological blinders on when it comes to abortion, and he never understands the consequences of supporting a ban on the procedure, because of those blinders.
It’s another case of a smart person with limited skills outside his area of expertise.
His MD doesn’t qualify him for elective office—in fact, it’s a major disqualification, and Briggs is hardly the only one this applies to.
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I sort of give him props for recognizing he didn’t do his due diligence, and it has to gall a medical man realizing that the state is meddling in medical issues without any idea of what can happen.
Second thing, I wonder if anyone in the TN state legislature or executive office looks at the maternal mortality rate? Is it a good look for a state to have that metric go up?
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this just pop up on my FB feed.
I’m going on the record that newly elected, but still MO AG Eric Schmitt was my state senator. And he wasn’t this batshit crazy then.
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No.
The TN state legislature is run by a passel of misogynistic nitwits and not one of them could find his own ass with both hands, a flashlight, a road map, a search warrant, GPS, and three people to help.
They also are firm believers in punishing women at every opportunity.
The Governor’s office is run by people so stupid and venal that they can’t even get elected to the legislature, and they do nothing that might upset Bill Lee (the guv) and his ongoing plans to make Tennessee worse than Mississippi in every measurable metric.
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