Social Conservatives declare war on women: Film at 11

In September, Mississippi’s Supreme Court ruled that a ballot initiative to amend the state’s constitution to define embryos as persons could go forward in November. Since then, Dr. Randall Hines, one of four physicians in the state who perform in vitro fertilization, has been fielding panicked calls from women with fertility problems. “We have patients calling us who are extremely anxious,” he says. “If they are contemplating IVF, they’re asking, ‘Do I need to go ahead and do it right now, before this becomes law?’”….[H]e allows that for some women, getting started on IVF treatments before Mississippi voters decide on Amendment 26 “wouldn’t be a bad idea.” The so-called Personhood Amendment won’t outlaw all IVF, but it could drastically change how it’s practiced, making it less effective and more dangerous. “It’s certainly possible that certain IVF practices would become illegal,” says Hines. “It could alter the way an individual patient and physician would interact. Quite honestly nobody knows what would happen, because this is uncharted territory.”

One of the truly disturbing trends to develop as America has tried to adapt to our current recessional reality is that Social Conservatives have seized on the moment to declare war on women. Despite pledging to the four winds that they’re all about “small government”, their actions belie their voluminous propaganda. What they want to do is to shrink government to a size where it can be drowned in a bathtub…unless the subject is female reproduction. Then, Social Conservatives become virtually indistinguishable from the “Big Government Liberals” they profess to despise. These folks are all about getting government off the backs of Conservative White Christian Males, but if you’re a woman, they have every intent to make your uterus the dominion and property of the State.

No state has displayed a greater desire to return to the ’50s and the reality of back alley reproductive care than Mississippi. I’d say something about a desire to keep ‘em barefoot and pregnant, but that would be just too easy, wouldn’t it?? Mississippi’s proposed “Personhood Amendment” (Amendment 26) is from where I sit an explicit declaration on the women unfortunate enough to live there. Another attempt by the “Personhood Movement” at an end-around to circumvent Roe v. Wade, personhood can in no way be seen as anything but a desire to insert government into a woman’s uterus.

This strategy, of course, should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. The anti-choice movement long ago discovered that the sledgehammer approach- a direct, frontal assault on Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion- would be futile. They’ve spent years chipping away at a woman’s right to reproductive health care with the legal equivalent of a rubber mallet. A little bit here, a little there…and before you know it, we wake up one morning and women are defined as sperm receptacles and the property of men.

Interesting, isn’t it, that those who profess to believe so fervently in shrinking the size and role of government desire to do so only when it fits their narrow agenda? Those who wish to proscribe government from telling us how to live our lives are more than willing to use government to control a woman’s reproductive functions. I’d say something cogent and sarcastic about the rank hypocrisy the anti-choice movement seems to have no trouble with, but those people don’t get sarcasm. Or humor. Or any truth that doesn’t fit into their narrow, intolerant, and hyper-religious ideology.

There is in fact a culture war raging in America today…and the Dark Side is winning. They’re winning because they’re patient, committed, and more than willing to shove their belief system down our collective throats. While this might sound alarmist to some, I believe that there is a committed cadre of Right-wing uber-Jesus-y zealots who will not rest until America has been transformed into a Dominionist Theocracy, with the Holy Bible as the ultimate authority. If you think I’m kidding, I’d submit that you may just be in for one helluva surprise…and it’s not a good one.

WE DESERVE BETTER.