Just remember, anyone else rioting and it’s all, “Look at THOSE people.” But my folks? “Well, it’s justified.” “Told you so.” “They’re right, you know.”
I thought trumpers would lose their shit when Biden was declared the winner, that never happened. I guess Trump kept them at bay until his Jan 6 party with his rhetoric and promises he will be be victorious.
Is this guy the most reprehensible candidate that is running for high office (governor or federal senate)?
I counter Michigan’s GOP contender for Governor:
"Michigan’s Republican nominee for governor said in an interview that she believes there’s a “bond” that can form between a rape victim and a child born from sexual assault if forced to go through with the pregnancy.
When asked by Fox 2 Detroit anchor Roop Raj whether she’d support a 14-year-old rape victim getting an abortion, nominee Tudor Dixon said had spent time talking with the children of rape victim and believes their birth provides a sense of “healing.”
“The bond that those two people made and the fact that out of that tragedy there was healing through that baby, it’s something that we don’t think about,” she said in the interview."
She’s trying to walk back some of her statements now that she’s secured the primary, but has clearly said no exceptions for rape, incest, or health of the mother. No exceptions, she’s reiterated knowing she was being recorded.
I do think that what she’s describing does in fact happen sometimes. Even when the baby is given up for adoption it can be healing for the rape victim / birth mother to see something good coming out of the tragedy / trauma that she endured.
But that in no way equates to me thinking that we should force every victim impregnated by her rapist to go through with their pregnancy. If the pregnancy was caused by an illegal act, holding the mother responsible for her rapist’s actions seems bonkers to me.
I mean, I get it if you think that abortion is no different from murder. But I don’t think that, so…
Y’know, I will give her this. Thought maybe it was a gotcha based on this interview, especially given the source (https://michigandems.com/the-record-is-clear-tudor-dixon-wants-to-ban-abortion-with-no-exceptions-for-rape-incest-or-health-of-the-mother-/)
However:
"Dixon also reiterated her position that the only exception for abortion is if the life of the mother were in danger.
“I’ve made it very clear [that] health of the mother and life of the mother are two different things,” Dixon said."
__
She has said that the health or life of the mother are different, so I guess… I’m not sure how it’s “clear” that the health of the mother is not the life of the mother, but she’s for rape/incest babies being forced to term, anyway. What happens if the mother’s life is in danger but she has a 10% chance of carrying a healthy baby to term without death? Is that life or health? What is “very clear”?
Therefore her “No exceptions” is slightly out of context, but it’s only for “life of the mother” and not “health of the mother”. Which is a fringe distinction, it’s still repugnant to me but at least it’s slightly humanizing?
Risks from an abortion < risks from continuing a pregnancy & childbirth, so those health of mother exceptions get sticky if you’re pro-birth.
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No clue where she’d draw the line. But to me a 90% chance of death is saving the life of the mother.
I think a 5% chance of death would be too. I’d draw the line probably around 1% or so.
In murder cases I think if a reasonable person thought there was a 5% that the other person was going to kill you and you killed them first that would be considered self-defense. We certainly shouldn’t hold pregnant woman to a tougher standard than that… even if you hold that killing a fetus is exactly the same as killing a born person.
“Feeling”? Fuck her feelings.
That’s a GOP mantra, right?
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Go to Florida. You can kill the fetus if you feel threatened by it.
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Personally (I’m clearly pro-choice), if there is a chance of the mother dying from the pregnancy, that’s risk to the life of the mother. So all of them.
I’d love to see Republicans try to legislate the difference like this though. 0.5%? 2%? 22.5%?
Then watch doctors prescribe that the pregnancy has a 22.4% chance of killing the mother, since that’s a completely unknowable metric in most cases that aren’t perfect health or completely deadly.
I think part of the desire for this distinction is “health” includes mental health (unless there is a qualifier). IIRC, back when abortions laws were first cracking, abortion opponents thought that doctors were running just about anything through “mental health of the mother”.
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And that they don’t give a shit about the mental health of the mother. They don’t say it out loud, but that’s what they mean. “Your mental health is not as important as this baby’s getting born. Oh, you’ll need to be in better mental health to raise the child? Not my problem. Should have thought of that when you wore that short skirt, you whore.”
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I guess I’m trying to say that if there’s some medical reason why the mother is disproportionately likely to die compared to a normal healthy pregnancy, then legally I would consider terminating the pregnancy to be self-defense.
I am also pro-choice and while I don’t like abortions of convenience (where there is no medical reason to assume any materially increased risk of death), I prefer to keep them legal rather than try to legislate my version of morality. But even if abortions of convenience are illegal, I would think that an elevated risk of death would / should constitute legal grounds for self-defense.
I don’t love this phrasing as it sounds like, “eh I don’t want a baby”
A lot more are “I financially or physically cannot support a baby” than “eh I don’t want it”.
There are very few people that go have unprotected sex and get abortions as birth control, especially multiple. It’s not a fun procedure. Admittedly there are those who are currently in school or military or similar situations and could feasibly drop out and kind of support a child, which admittedly can be seen as convenience.
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I didn’t come up with that terminology, but if you have an alternative suggestion I’d be happy to adopt it.
“Abortion”
Or maybe
“Abortion, and it’s none of my fucking business why they chose to have it”
If you really need to elaborate on motivation for the procedure.
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Or finances, education, healthcare/childcare access, etc.