They Want to Ban Abortions Federally!

 

News: @LindseyGrahamSC will introduce a national abortion ban in the Senate tomorrow.

Unless something really unexpected has happened, this will be a 15-week ban. Very interesting that it’s being cast as a “late term abortions act” 👀 pic.twitter.com/WMUVO3ys8l

— Caroline Kitchener (@CAKitchener) September 13, 2022

Fifteen weeks is definitely not a late-term abortion ban; I don't care what language they want to use about it. That's not "very interesting"--that's Republicans lying. Republicans do lie about abortion: would you like to see a big old lie made just today?

The Family Research Council decided to lie and say that "Abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of the mother." This is a big steaming lie. Ectopic pregnancies. fetal hydrocephaly, and the continuations of cancer therapies where the treatment is contraindicated for pregnancy spring to mind. They are vicious liars, but of course, they would be. This is child abuse promoter James Dobson's little corner of the culture war, which can boast George Rekers and Josh Duggar among its more notorious membership. and is fronted by Tony Perkins who somehow counts as a daywalker among these values vampires. 

Lies about things like maternal mortality show that these people don't care about the lives of people who become pregnant. Lies about fetal heartbeats (for a version of "heart" that doesn't yet even have chambers) and "pain-capable" fetuses are gratuitously imposing the qualities of born persons on pregnancies to try to create a separate life for that which depends solely on the body of a whole other, sentient person. 

I want to be hopeful about the turnout we saw in Kansas against a deadly stupid abortion ban, and to read into the voter registration numbers that show record female participation as a wholly good thing.  But if this is a real thing Senate Republicans are thinking of doing to turn out their base--

I hope they get good and screwed to the ever-loving wall over it. Because they are telling us that they don't want the Dobbs' ruling's concept of states' rights (itself a dodgy, shitty construction saying some people can just be freer to self-determination based on geography) but want to just deny female-bodied people the right to end a pregnancy based on some arbitrary deadline that politically sounded good to them and had nothing to do with our bodies, needs, economic status, or any of the other things that affect us as people. Because who are mere child-bearers anyways?

This is hostility to people who want to determine their reproductive future. I give them hostility in return. A thousandfold. 

UPDATE: The bill is worse than others Graham has put up before, with a 20-week gestation. The GOP can claim there are exceptions for rape and the life of the mother, but these are worse than useless.  See this part:

The rape exemption requires that patients prove they’ve either sought counseling or medical treatment or reported the assault to law enforcement or a government agency. The life exemption excludes patients who have a life-threatening mental illness. 

The bill, which could force national Republicans in tight races to take a stand on an issue they hoped to avoid, also requires that when abortions happen post-viability under these exemptions, “a second physician trained in neonatal resuscitation” has to be present and the fetus has to be “immediately transported and admitted to a hospital.” 

During a Tuesday press conference, Graham said the bill is an effort to identify what Republicans stand for and called it a “counterproposal” to Democrats’ efforts to restore protections for abortion nationwide. 

“After they introduced a bill to define who they are, I thought it’d be nice to introduce one to define who we are,” he said.

My word. Graham just put out there that he would make rape victims jump hoops (I mean, how could an underage pregnant rape victim get their shit together to report the way this exception requires, right?) and disregards the dangers of a mental health crisis, and puts a strain on the medical profession regarding viability in situations where the reason for the abortion (or in this case, induced labor) is likely because the fetus isn't viable. 

And this is how Graham wants to define who the Republicans are. Oh. Okay. I get that. I really, really do. I am fine with defining Republicans like that. Always have been. Thanks.