February 26, 2016 6:21 AM

When they tell you it's about protecting women, know it has NOTHING to do with protecting women

Across the country, the right for women to have an abortion is being challenged. Conservative legislators have laid out a disingenuous labyrinth of hoops and hurdles that essentially make it nearly impossible for women in some states to access the healthcare they are legally afforded by federal law.

The fight to overturn Roe v. Wade has been framed by Conservatives as a fight to protect women’s helth- a laughable argument, coming as it does from Conservative White males who consider women to be the rightful property of men. Even Adolf Hitler said in Mein Kampf that one of the first things he’d do once in power was to do away with the silly notion that women should be able to exercise control over their bodies. From the dawn of time, men have regarded women- and their reproductive functions- to be their property to do with as they see fit.

What’s truly astonishing are the rhetorical/theological/moral/legal lengths some Conservatives will go to in order to justify the continued subjugation and oppression of women. The absurd Right-wing campaign against Planned Parenthood (THEY SELL BABY PARTS!!) is merely another front in the ongoing war against the belief that women should control their own bodies. That the war against Planned Parenthood is based on lies, disinformation, and a very selectively edited video seems to matter not at all to Conservatives.

Why let the truth get in the way of perfectly good propaganda?

Strictly speaking, Roe v. Wade is the law of the land, but the Supreme Court in a subsequent case (Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey), determined that states could regulate abortion with stipulations. Said regulation could not create an “undue burden” or create “substantial obstacles” for women seeking abortions. Several states have taken that ball and run with it by creating what have become knows as Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws, designed in such a manner as to make it virtually impossible for an abortion clinic to remain on the good side of the law.

TRAP laws are about as cynical and dishonest as it gets when it comes to legislating morality. Roe v. Wade remains the law; abortion remains technically legal while in practical terms becoming virtually impossible to obtain. It’s like not being allowed to demolish a house…so you turn your attention to dismantling the foundation. The house remains intact, but with a significantly compromised foundation, that won’t be true for long. You will have achieved your goal while remaining within the letter- if not the spirit- of the law. I don’t know how it gets any more thoroughly cynical than that.

Almost to a person, Conservative culture warriors in state legislatures and state house parrot the talking point that they’re “protecting the health of women.” In fact, TRAP laws and other ingenious efforts to undercut Roe v. Wade have nothing to do with the health of women…much less protecting it. It’s the byproduct of a cynical effort to create so many obstacles and picayune regulations that women will find it virtually impossible to follow through with a decision to have an abortion…and are effectively forced to carry their child to term.

The problem is, as John Oliver states, “Abortion cannot be theoretically legal. It has to be literally accessible.” You cannot claim to be champions of women’s health while simultaneously erecting barriers that effect prevent women from exercising their legal right to an abortion.

If the primary concern is for protecting the health of women, culture warriors should be expected to be intellectually honest enough to recognize abortion to be a procedure with an infinitesimal mortality rate:

The pregnancy-associated mortality rate among women who delivered live neonates was 8.8 deaths per 100,000 live births. The mortality rate related to induced abortion was 0.6 deaths per 100,000 abortions.

(Compare that with a .003% mortality rate for colonoscopy- 30 fatalities out of every 100,000 procedures.) Few other medical procedures are as safe and carry such a low risk of complications. This means TRAP laws are medically unnecessary and in fact have one purpose and one purpose only- to prevent women from obtaining abortion services. It has nothing to do with the health of women- except in the imaginations of anti-choice zealots- and everything to do with controlling a woman’s reproductive functions.

Conservative culture warriors may have convinced themselves that they’re in the vanguard of “protecting women’s health,” but few outside their narrow, self-righteous circle are convinced. In fact, a Gallup Poll conducted in May, 2015 shows that 81% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in at least some circumstances. The vast majority of Americans, in fact, aren’t comfortable with the idea of forcing their morality onto others.

Would that the Conservative culture warriors already heavily invested in denying women control of their bodies could get a clue…but they’re so caught up in their own moral rectitude that they’re quite comfortable with the idea of forcing their morality onto all Americans.

It’s what Jesus would do, don’tchaknow?

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 26, 2016 6:21 AM.

The Donald: 'Cuz he tells it like it is...for angry racist xenophobes and misogynists was the previous entry in this blog.

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