RICHMOND — State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God's punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy.
He made that statement Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood.
"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children," said Marshall, a Republican.
"In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There's a special punishment Christians would suggest."
One of the recurring themes I blog about is the idea that God is supposed to be good, all-powerful, all-knowing, and yet is presented as wreaking vengeance in various heartless and indiscriminate ways, when, for whatever reason, he just can't wait until someone is dead and sent to Hell for all eternity before getting His claws at them. This version is pretty vile. And insane. But mostly vile.
It's right off the bat insulting to families with disabled children, as if to say their children are somehow a curse. It's insulting to women who have had abortions, because it implies they are so hateful to God, he'd even hurt their children, which is an astonishingly cruel concept. And it's insulting to thinking people, because really--how would that work? And also--uh, no that doesn't happen. Women who terminate their first pregnancy don't always have disabled kids. And not all women with disabled kids have had abortions. That just doesn't even make sense.
The only possible reason to say it is to be vicious, and throwing his version of a vengeful God in the mix is both vicious and kind of creepy.
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