On January 24, the online Huffington Post carried the following story:
Click here: New Mexico Bill Would Criminalize Abortions After Rape As ‘Tampering With Evidence’
Its opening paragraph outlined:
A Republican member of the New Mexico House of Representatives introduced a bill on January 23 to legally force rape victims to carry their pregnancies to term to use the fetus as evidence for a sexual assault trial.
If enacted, the bill–introduced by state Rep. Cathrynn Brown (R)–would charge a rape victim who obtained an abortion with a third-degree felony for “tampering with evidence.”
Third-degree felonies in New Mexico carry a sentence of up to three years in prison.
Apparently Republicans have learned nothing from their electoral defeats in the November 6 elections.
Their nominee for United States Senator from Missouri blew his electoral hopes sky-high with just two words: “Legitimate rape.”
On August 19, 2012, Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) justified his opposition to abortion by claiming that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant.
“From what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.
“But let’s assume maybe that didn’t work or something. I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist, and not attacking the child.”
Earlier, on August 8, he had said during a radio interview: “As far as I’m concerned, the morning-after pill is a form of abortion, and I think we just shouldn’t have abortion in this country.”
On November 6, “Mr. Legitimate Rape” lost to Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill.
Nine days later, on August 28, the official Republican platform demanded a total ban on abortions when the party assembled to nominate Mitt Romney as its Presidential candidate in Tampa.
Specifically, the platform:
- Stated that “the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed.”
- Called for the passage of a Human Life Amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade and thus ban all abortions.
- Supported “the appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life.”
- Opposed using public revenues to promote or perform abortion.
- Opposed funding organizations that perform or advocate abortions.
- Stated that the party will not fund or subsidize health care that includes abortion coverage.
On October 18, Rep. Joe Walsh, (R-IL) running for the U.S. House of Representatives from Illinoi against Democrat Tammy Duckworth, said that abortions should not be allowed even when the mother’s life is at risk because of advances in medicine.
“This is an issue that opponents of life throw out there to make us look unreasonable,” Walsh told reporters about the “saving-the-life-of-the-mother” exception.
“There’s no such exception as life of the mother. And as far as health of the mother, same thing. With advances in science and technology,” he said that it’s almost impossible for a woman to need an abortion to save her life.
“Health of the mother has become a tool for abortions anytime under any reason.”
Walsh had been sued by his ex-wife, Laura, who claimed he owed more than $100,000 in overdue child support and interest.
On November 6, Tammy Duckworth defeated Walsh 55%-45%.
Yet another Republican to embrace the fetus fanatics cause was Richard Mourdock, the Indiana state treasurer who pined to be that state’s U.S. Senator.
On October 23, he declared: “The only exception I have to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God.
“I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
Mr. “Rape Is God’s Plan for You” Mourdock was defeated at the polls on November 6.
So you would think Republicans might have learned that “smaller government is better” and thus stop trying to overturn or undercut the right of a woman to control her own reproductive organs.
But they haven’t.
On January 25, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) addressed the anti-abortion protest March for Life in Washington, D.C.
He promised to “help make abortion a relic of the past” a national priority. ”Let that be one of our most fundamental goals this year,” he said.
With abortion having become so deadly an election issue for Republicans, I decided to send a link to the above story about the New Mexico anti-abortion bill to my conservative friend, Dave.
I didn’t offer any commentary, other than in the subject-line of the email: “AND YOU WONDER WHY OBAMA GOT RE-ELECTED?”
It didn’t take him long to reply.
2012 PRESIDENTIAL RACE, ABC NEWS, ABORTION, BARACK OBAMA, BIRTH CONTROL, BLACKS, CBS NEWS, CLAIRE MCCASKILL, CLINT EASTWOOD, CNN, DONALD TRUMP, FACEBOOK, JOE WALSH, JOHN BOENER, LATINOS, MARK SHIELDS, MITT ROMNEY NBC NEWS, NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI, PBS NEWSHOUR, PLANNED PARENTHOOD, RAPE, RICHARD MOURDOCK, Ronald Reagan, RUSH LIMBAUGH, TAMMY DUCKWORTH, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE PRINCE, THE WASHINGTON POST, TODD AKIN, TWITTER, VOTER SUPPRESSION, WOMEN
WINNERS AND LOSERS: PART TWO (OF THREE)
In History, Politics, Social commentary on January 30, 2013 at 12:00 amAbortion has clearly become a deadly election issue for Republicans.
If you doubt it, look at the results of the November 6 elections.
So I was surprised to read, on January 24, a news story about Republicans’ continuing effort to deny women the right to control their reproductive organs.
This centered on a New Mexico anti-abortion bill that would force rape victims to carry to term the fetus of their rapist, on the “legal” grounds that this was “evidence” of a crime.
Click here: New Mexico Bill Would Criminalize Abortions After Rape As ‘Tampering With Evidence’
I decided to send my longtime friend Dave–who’s not exactly President Obama’s biggest supporter–a link to that news story.
I didn’t offer any commentary, other than in the subject-line of the email: “AND YOU WONDER WHY OBAMA GOT RE-ELECTED?”
It didn’t take Dave long to reply.
“No, we don’t wonder why Obama got re-elected. It’s because of the free-loading, lazy entitlement crazed society that worships their moronic scuz-bag messiah who brings and offers them FREE ‘shit’ if they vote for him ‘again.’
“Most of which are ALL the welfare reciprients, low income minorities in crime ridden ghettos and the great Mexican migration that he’s pardoned with the multiple offers of selling out the American people by awarding FREE visas, FREE education, FREE Social Security benefits (even though they’ve never worked a day in their lives) and FREEDOM from being asked, stopped or questioned by authorities.
“The democraps sold this country out long ago for nothing more than their greed to stay in office.”
As much as I love Dave as a friend, his reply leaves out–for Republicans–some highly unpalatable truths.
Consider the following from Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince:
.…One attains [the position of a prince] by help of popular favor or by the favor of the aristocracy [i.e., wealthy interests].
For in every city these two opposite parties…[arise] from the desire of the populace to avoid the oppression of the great, and the desire of the great to command and oppress the people….
Besides which, it is impossible to satisfy the nobility by fair dealing and without inflicting injury upon others, whereas it is very easy to satisfy the mass of the people in this way.
For the aim of the people is more honest than that of the nobility, the latter desiring to oppress, and the former merely to avoid oppression….
One, however, who becomes prince by favor of the populace must maintain its friendship, which he will find easy, the people asking nothing but not to be oppressed.
Of course, it’s natural for the losing party to look for scapegoats. As political columnist Mark Shields said on the PBS Newshour on January 25:
“As far as the Republicans are concerned, they are simply going through the terrible stages that every defeated party does.
“And one side says we lost because we didn’t stick enough to our principles. And the other side we lost because we were too dogmatic and didn’t reach out to the undecided.
“And so the first inclination is always to blame your own candidate. You blame Al Gore if you are a Democrat in 2000, or John Kerry in 2004. You blame John McCain.
“The Republicans want to blame Mitt Romney. That’s fine. But Mitt Romney is more popular than the Republican Party. I mean, he got 47 percent. The Republicans are dead in the water right now.”
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