What Are the Republicans Doing?
Posted on July 3rd, 2013 in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »
In Texas, they’re pushing a bill that would make it virtually impossible to get an abortion within that state. In Ohio, Governor John Kasich signed similar legislation into law.
The provisions in Ohio will make it more difficult for family planning groups to receive funding for preventive care; require ultrasounds for anyone seeking an abortion; and limit abortion providers’ ability to get transfer agreements with public hospitals.
The GOP-controlled North Carolina senate just passed similar legislation, tacked onto another odious bill that discriminates against Muslims.
Under the bill, which was tacked onto another measure dealing with Islamic law, abortion clinics would have to meet license standards similar to those of ambulatory surgical centers. According to legislative staff, only one clinic in the state currently meets that standard. The state’s four Planned Parenthood clinics don’t meet it. The bill would also require doctors to be present when women take drugs that induce abortions.
Doctors have to be present when women are taking RU486? Are you kidding me?
In the U.S. Senate, Florida phony senator Marco Rubio just announced plans to introduce a bill banning abortions in every state after 20 weeks.
I am always confounded when I see a political party doing things that limit its own electoral success, and these moves will clearly do that; the GOP will lose both male and female voters, who generally feel that the abortion issue should be left alone. (The Clintons were brilliant on abortion—remember the rhetoric about making them “safe, legal and rare“?)
There’s no grass roots effort behind this anti-abortion movement that I can tell—at least, none beyond the usual. So what’s behind it? It can’t be the idea that this plays well nationally; it doesn’t. I suppose there’s always the possibility that Republican men actually believe this stuff—they’re the ones pushing it—but even that doesn’t feel right. It seems more insidious to me: an attempt to regain control of women’s bodies at a time when women are making unprecedented economic strides. You can feel that tension in the Rick Perry rhetoric about Wendy Davis; there’s a ugly paternalism rearing its head.
Politics aside, this trend of GOP actions against abortion is a terrible thing. I happen to disagree on the issue of abortion rights, but there’s far more getting caught up in this: preventive medicine, women’s health care, individual rights (a doctor has to be present when you take a legal, over-the-counter pill?), access to health care, sex education, family planning….
I think that what we’re seeing is a desperate frenzy from white men who feel threatened by the changes in this country. Women are getting more powerful? Take away their ability to control their own bodies. Latinos are settling in just fine? Kill the immigration bill. Gays making progress? Not in Chris Christie’s state—or anywhere else there’s a GOP governor.
In the long run, you can’t stop the march of expanding rights. But in the short run, people are getting hurt by these Republican maneuvers. It makes me worry about the health of the country.
6 Responses
7/3/2024 3:48 pm
“I suppose there’s always the possibility that Republican men actually believe this stuff”
I think your above speculation is right on. Opponents of abortion, like me and many others (including women), are driven by passion, not politics. We are just as passionate about the rights of unborn children as many liberals are about the rights of gays to marry. Passions such as these are nearly incomprehensible to the “other side”. Thus conservatives often cannot fathom the ideology behind gay rights, and liberals cannot understand the ideology behind the pro-life movement.
Small passionate groups, such as gay rights advocates throughout the 1990s and 2000s, if they are persistent enough, can see their positions effectuate policy in time. I believe we are now witnessing policy/legal frameworks respond to the unceasing advocacy of pro-life groups.
7/4/2024 1:04 am
I am so ill over what has been happening this past week, the unrelenting disrespectful duplicitous attacks on the rights of women, on democracy in Texas, Ohio and North Carolina.
I couldn’t believe my ears listening to the live Texas State House testimony last night. The way the GOP stooges would shut down conversation, not allow oral commentary to be transcribed, not allow amendments to be considered.
And the deceit and sneakiness, middle of the night tricks. How about sneaking banning abortions into a bill on Sharia law in NC? Are they kidding? Do they not see the irony?
Ricardo, I almost spit when I read your comment. Oh you think “we are now witnessing policy/legal frameworks respond to the unceasing advocacy of pro-life groups”. NO NO NO NO NO. What we are witnessing is the impact of conservative money buying corrupt politicians; corrupt state level GOP tools gerrymandering districts so as to be reelected against the will of the people; GOP pols campaigning on jobs to get elected and then trying to force women back into the 1950’s.
The only good thing about this misogynistic orgy of suppressing women’s rights is that it is going to backfire big time on the GOP. I can’t wait. But on the way it is going to damage sooooo many people unnecessarily.
I have long passed the point where I have any patience whatsoever with ANYONE who says they are pro-life but are trying to ban legal abortion. They are NOT pro-life. They are pro controlling women. If they REALLY wanted there to be fewer abortions they would support sex education in schools, easily available contraception and health services for women. That they DO NOT support these things shows them to be the deluded brainwashed religious fanatics they are.
Richard, I see your blog as an oasis of sanity that I dip into on occasion. So sorry for the long rant but I don’t know when I’ve ever been more concerned about this country, had less faith that anyone in “authority” (politicians, police, the FBI, govt agencies, the pathetic mainstream media) is to be trusted or believed.
For the first time in my life I can’t imagine celebrating the 4th of July. What on earth for? We are not free. We are not the country imagined 200+ years ago. We are an abomination in free fall.
7/4/2024 11:30 am
Well said, shellgirl!
7/4/2024 3:30 pm
@shellgirl, RT
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/04/home-on-the-4th-of-july-two-marines-two-purple-hearts.html
7/7/2024 1:43 pm
One of the few things that the GOP is doing right now that wont backfire, is fight against abortion. I say that because the abortion issue has been in the public discourse for decades now. If it was going to backfire, it would have already.
I don’t’ think abortion will ever be fully criminalized in the US, but I do stand behind my assertion that it will find increasing restriction because advancing medical technologies reveal the how alive, and human-like an unborn child is. What once was a growing embryo not seen until birth, is more and more visualized and understood by the public as a small person who, when facilitated by sophisticated medical technology, can be kept alive even if born early in pregnancy.
7/7/2024 4:49 pm
“Well said”? I particularly liked the tolerant eloquence of:
“That they DO NOT support these things shows them to be the deluded brainwashed religious fanatics they are.”