Analysis by Kyle A. Lohmeier
To say there are things in this world I very simply do not understand is quite an understatement. I’m 40 years old. The transition from “reasonably hip” to “utterly clueless” happens in the blink of an eye. I’ve spent time trying to figure out what a lovato is, and then tried to determine why anyone would need a smaller version of one. I’m convinced dub-step only caught on because people could, at that time, still get actual MDMA and those same people were all too young to remember what a dial-up modem sounded like.
Not knowing what people younger than 25 are even talking about half the time would be bad enough if there still weren’t a bunch of other things that have been going on for decades that I still cannot comprehend. Close to the top of that list is our country’s political obsession with abortion.
As I’ve said before, am about to say now and will most certainly say again: most, if not all, of this world’s problems come as a direct result of humankind forgetting how to mind its own business. The decades-old abortion debate is a prime example of this. And, although it goes without saying, I will say it anyway: the United States of America is not and never was a “Christian nation,” its constitution doesn’t have anything to do with the bible and we are in no way, shape or form a theocracy.
Regardless of what any legislator, clergyman or religious busybody may think, what a woman does with her own body at any time, even while pregnant, is entirely her own business and no one else’s. Period. Full stop.
Of course, those obsessed with women’s wombs tend to rationalize their obsession in interesting ways.
“The decision erodes States’ lawmaking authority to safeguard the health and safety of women and subjects more innocent life to being lost,” CNN quoted Republican governor of Texas Greg Abbot, from a statement. “Texas’ goal is to protect innocent life, while ensuring the highest health and safety standards for women.”
Not to bury the lead, but on Monday the Supreme Court threw out Texas’ law that put undue and idiotic restrictions on abortion clinics, resulting in many of them in the state being shut down because they were unable to comply. This was, of course, the main intent of the law, to make compliance expensive or impossible for as many clinics as possible and hope they go bust instead.
“I’m disappointed in the Court’s decision. But our fight to protect women’s health & promote life will not stop here,” House Speaker Paul Ryan tweeted, again, according to CNN.
Why the hell do these idiots keep referencing “women’s health” as a concern of theirs? And do they think listing it ahead of “innocent life” or “life” makes their actual intent less transparent?
Make no mistake, the purpose of Texas’ laws, and others like them in other states, are to shut down abortion providers. This incremental approach has been the hallmark of the Religious Reich ever since Roe v. Wade dealt them what should have been a death blow. Instead of going away, they’ve made it their mission to chip away at abortion access in any way possible. Recent years have seen an increase in these state-level laws restricting access to abortion providers; a result of newly-elected Republican state governors and legislatures wasting valuable opportunities to do actual good and instead going back to the same, ridiculous fights that make the GOP seem more out of touch with society today than I am with millennial hipsters.
All this begs the question: why? To what possible end are all these people wasting so much time and effort? It’s obviously not about women’s health, that much has always been a lie. When you pin a pro-lifer down and get a confession out of them it always comes back to the bible. To the narrow, idiotic and misguided interpretation of religion someone else gave to them.
And, more importantly, it comes down to not minding one’s own business.
The problem with using government as the arena in which dumb ideas are fought over is that it tends to be expensive to do so and causes real damage in the process.
Yes, on Monday, women in Texas won back a right they’ve always had, but that their government was holding hostage. During that nearly three-year hostage crisis, half of the 41 clinics in Texas that provided abortion services were shut down. As time passed the staffs of those clinics have gone on to other jobs and the leases for those properties have been sold to other renters.
“We really have a daunting task to determine whether and how we can reopen our health centers,” the Associated Press quoted Whole Woman’s Health founder Amy Hagstrom Miller, whose runs a chain of clinics in Texas.
Jobs were lost, economic activity halted and lives were disrupted because some people do not know how to mind their own business. Worse yet, they think their busy-bodied-ness is in service to a deity, thereby giving them a cover of pseudo righteousness to hide behind. They’re not oppressing women, they’re serving god. I’m sure a lot of Boko Haram members feel the same way.
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