No choice
by digby
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| You either own your body or you don’t |
As we know, the conservative evangelicals are Trump’s most fervent supporters. And they are already getting their agenda enacted through such extreme acts as holding the Supreme Court seat open for a hard right replacement for Scalia. And they are getting some very important restrictions on abortion and LGBT rights through executive order. Just a couple of weeks ago they gave a “religious exemption” for medical personnel who disapprove of gender reassignment surgery and abortion.
And the Republicans are introducing the fatuous and dishonest 20 week abortion ban:
In the midst of an unresolved dispute over funding the federal government and insuring protections for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants, Senate Republicans plan to vote on a 20 week abortion ban next week, re-opening a debate on the legal medical procedure at a politically charged moment.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) moved to vote on anti-choice legislation introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Wednesday, clearing the way for a procedural vote as soon as Monday.
“Now Congress has an opportunity to take a step forward… [and] I’m pleased to have filed cloture on this bill to protect unborn children who are capable of feeling pain,” McConnell said.
That a lie and yet another example of the GOP’s superstitious war on science.
This 20 week ban is obviously a bargaining chip and yet another bit of tribute for the slavering right wing in the middle of this whole ugly mess. Since Graham is involved I’d guess he thinks he can buy off the xenophobes by sacrificing women. He might even be right. Or he could be just as deluded as he was when he thought he could cajole Donald Trump by flattering his golf swing.
Anyway, Bill Moyers and Company, put together some testimony from Americans whose lives and futures depended on the right to choose an abortion. I thought I’d run some of these stories over the next week. I found them to be very moving and important.
This isn’t some abstract argument over a potential life. It’s an argument about the lives of fully sentient human beings who are the only people on this earth capable of making decisions about their own bodies and whether they are in a position to gestate and procreate. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham are the last people on earth who should make those decisions.
Here are a couple of them to start off:
No Choice: Gaylon Alcaraz from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
Gaylon Alcaraz grew up on the South Side of Chicago and attended a Catholic girls school where she didn’t receive comprehensive sex education. She was 17 years old when she first became pregnant. She knew she was not ready to become a mother, so she had an abortion. Today Gaylon, a mother of two, is a reproductive justice activist fighting for the women in her community. This is her story
No Choice: Waldo Fielding from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.
In the 1950s, Dr. Waldo Fielding was an obstetrician working at Harlem Hospital in Manhattan. He remembers women from the community coming to him — many terrified they would be reported — with complications from backroom abortions. After Roe, he remembers the protestors at his Boston clinic and the harassment women endured just to access medical care. This is his story.
There is more on this series at Bill Moyers and Friends.