The inflamatorily-named partial-birth abortion debate
rages on. Take a good look at it, America. This is how it is, and how it's going to continue to be if we don't get our shit together and get these cocksuckers out of office next year.
This bill that's about to be passed is such fucking horseshit. There are plenty of insidious things about it, but three things in particular strike me. First, there's the fact that the Bush administration knows that it is unlikely to get Roe v. Wade overturned anytime soon. As such, they're going to do every thing they can to chip away at abortion rights. Piece by piece, they're going to whittle away at abortion rights, doing it slowly enough that people won't be able to see the long-term effects until it's too late.
The next thing that pisses me off about the bill is the fact that the bill itself contained a graphic description of the procedure. To paraphrase
someone else's thoughts on this from a comment several weeks back, you could get just about any medical procedure banned if you wrote a bill which included a description of the procedure in all its gory details. The inclusion of a description is nothing but marketing spin, and I think it's particularly scummy. There was no reason for the description to be included, because it's not like people don't have an idea as to what this is about.
Finally, there's the fact that there is no provision for performing the procedure when the mother's health is at stake. Now, I'm no medical expert here. Opponents say that there's
never a reason for this procedure to be performed. However, I can't see any other reason as to why the fuck it
would be performed.
On top of not caring about the mother's health, there will be harsh penalties for doctors who perform the procedure. Last I checked, a doctor's primary concern is the well-being of the patient, but now they can be punished for doing their fucking job. You know, unless if your OB/GYN is Josef Mengele, the procedure probably isn't being performed on a whim.
The good news is that there's a decent chance that this procedure will be shot down. As has been pointed out several times, a Nebraska law was struck down primarily because it did not have a woman's health provision. Here's to hoping that precedent is upheld, and that it's done soon.
I think that the ban in general, and the lack of a provision for the mother's health in particular, really drives home a point that George Carlin made: that these anti-abortion activists hate women. Apparently, they care more about some bullshit that the Bible supposedly told them than a human being who's already fucking living. If that isn't misogyny, then I don't know what is.
Some of you will be quick to point out that a lot of those "misogynists" are women themselves. Well, I just do not understand a lot of these women. Okay, I do understand them; they're ignorant. Still, all I can ask them is the question: Why the hell do you want some creepy old man telling you what to do with your body? If you're against abortion,
don't fucking have one.
The only group I can somewhat understand is the women who are against abortion due to the fact that they themselves have had an abortion, which they now regret. Look, lady, I have nothing but sympathy for what's obviously a tough situation. But just because you made a decision that you're now unhappy with doesn't mean that you should be allowed to take that decision away from other women.
This brings me to another point, that being the decision itself. This is coming from a no-uterus-whatsoever position, but my guess is that it's
never easy to make the decision to have an abortion. In the case of partial birth abortion/intact dilation and extraction, I sincerely doubt it's easy for a doctor to make the decision to just suggest or recommend the procedure, nonetheless actually perform it, or for the mother to give permission for the procedure. These fucking anti-abortion people, though, act as if these decisions are made lightly. Furthermore, unless if you're Marla from
Fight Club, it's not like anyone ever sets out to get pregnant and then have an abortion. It's a tough decision, but for some women, it's the right one. For other women, it seems like the right one at the time, but later turns out not to be. That's life. It sucks, but shit happens.
In the end, some people won't even bother with religion, and just say that "It's a child. You're killing a baby, for chrissakes!" Well, to be honest with you, I just don't care. Taking a look at the fact that scores of people die every day, I just can't give the unborn any sort of special treatment just because they're unborn and we for some reason have a huge obsession with that.
Here's a couple of definitions for 'ya, courtesy of
Merriam Webster Online:
parasite: 2: an organism living in, with, or on another organism in parasitism
parasitism: 2: an intimate association between organisms of two or more kinds; especially : one in which a parasite obtains benefits from a host which it usually injures
Technically, a baby is just a parasite living within its mother's body. If we can kill ticks and heartworm, we can kill unborn baby parasites. And, tough as the decision to do it may be, we can take that little fucker out even at a late stage if there's still danger to the mother.
