A GOP bill is moving through the Louisiana legislature that defines abortion as “murder” and will send women to prison for life, with no exceptions for rape or even saving the life of the mother. It also would imprison doctors for destroying in-vitro fertilization embryos, and ban Plan B contraception.
It passed a committee vote by 9-2. The “no” votes came from a woman, and a Democrat. Every legislator who voted for it is a Republican male. (Read story here.)
What’s behind this medieval legislation? CNN (here) attributes it to a “faction of self-proclaimed ‘abolitionists’ … [who] will not be satisfied until fetuses are given the same protections as all US citizens — meaning that if abortion is illegal, then criminal statutes should be applied accordingly.” They’re demanding women who have abortions for any reason should “face the same criminal consequences as one who drowns her baby.”
Laws like this often are religion-driven. One of the most strident advocates of the Louisiana bill is a pastor, and his advocacy smacks of forcing his religious beliefs on everyone else. After the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade came down, he trumpeted, “No compromises, no more waiting.”
CNN says, “While major national anti-abortion groups say they do not support criminalizing women, the idea is gaining traction with certain conservative lawmakers. And the activists and politicians leading the charge are nearly always men.”
In case you haven’t noticed, no man will ever be prosecuted imprisoned under these laws, except for doctors who treat women.
There’s two things to say about this. One, it’s about much more than preventing abortions; these men want to control women’s lives. Two, women voters can’t trust any Republican on the abortion issue, no matter how “moderate” they sound in their campaign pitches, because they’ll vote for these laws if they get into office.
In that respect, women voters should pay heed to what happened in Virginia, where businessman Glenn Youngkin got elected governor by campaigning as a “moderate Republican,” but in office has rushed to implement the radical Republican agenda on issues ranging from gay rights (GOP: gays don’t have any rights) to “critical race theory” (banning diversity programs and America’s race history from schools).
This is an election year, and where Republican candidates are struggling, they’re trying to soften their message on abortion. Some even scrubbed their websites of their primary-election rhetoric. Don’t trust them. If they’re elected to Congress, they’ll vote with their party, meaning for a national abortion ban. If they’re elected to legislatures, they’re very likely to vote for laws like the one above.
What’s surprising is they’re showing their hand before the voting has started in most places:
“This year, three male lawmakers from Indiana attempted to wipe out existing abortion regulations and change the state’s criminal statutes to apply at the time of fertilization. In Texas, five male lawmakers authored a bill last year that would have made getting an abortion punishable by the death penalty if it had gone into law. A state representative in Arizona introduced legislation that included homicide charges — saying in a Facebook video that anyone who undergoes an abortion deserves to “spend some time” in the Arizona ‘penal system.’ And a male Kansas lawmaker proposed a bill that would amend the state’s constitution to allow abortion laws to pass without an exception for the life of the mother,”
CNN reported. These are extreme positions, but most Republicans are extremists, and there’s a real possibility of proposals like these becoming law wherever Republicans win elections and gain legislative majorities.
There are many other reasons not to vote for Republicans, but two main ones stand out: Anti-democracy ideology, and contempt for rule of law.
Many Trump-endorsed election deniers won GOP primaries in 2022, and some of these say outright if they’re elected they won’t honor election results. That could throw the 2024 presidential election into turmoil, and put a Trump or DeSantis roundly rejected by the voters into the White House. On a more granular level, Republicans everywhere are exhibiting disrespect for the right to vote, and opposition to the “majority rule” principle.
That’s because they’re an unpopular minority with extreme views who can’t get their way if we remain a democratic system, so they have nothing to gain from supporting our democracy or election systems. Many people won’t notice this detail, but Republicans routinely violate campaign finance laws; but it’s impossible not to notice their massive voter suppression efforts.
Emblematic of the direction conservatives are trending is this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where attendees openly admired Hungary’s strongman, Viktor Orbán, who was a featured and enthusiastically applauded speaker. The European Union is weighing sanctions against Orbán (see story here), who’s widely regarded as a fascist.
What is there to say about American lawmakers who would lock up for life, or execute, a rape victim or woman struggling with a life-threatening pregnancy for getting an abortion? There’s only one thing that can be said: Don’t vote for them. And that’s essentially all Republicans, because you can’t trust any of them.
Worries about inflation, food and gas prices, and disputes over border security, student loans, guns and crime, etc., have to wait for another day. This election is about whether we’re going to be a free people, as we have been, and continue to choose our own destiny. Republicans are out to destroy that, and nowhere more so than by inserting themselves into the intimate lives of women.
That’s why some people call them “the American Taliban,” a label they deserve.
Photo: “Lock them up!” These MEN are pushing life prison terms for … women.
