Jo Ingles
Outside a legislative hearing this month in Ohio.
Ohio Republicans this week gave up on their so-called "heartbeat" bill, which would have banned abortions so early that many women might not realize they were pregnant by the time they needed to make a decision. You might think Ohio Republicans pulled their bill because voters sent a strong enough signal this month that restrictive social policies do not make for a winning agenda.
But that's not why. The point of a bill like Ohio's is to get sued over it. Backers want supporters of abortion rights to challenge the law in court, and the higher the court, the better. With President Obama now in charge of picking Supreme Court nominees for the next four years, Ohio Senate President Tom Niehaus (R) decided he didn't like his chances. From the AP:
Ohio anti-abortion activists were fiercely divided over the bill, with some fearing a court challenge could undo other abortion restrictions already in place.
"The risk became, do you send a bill to the U.S. Supreme Court that has the potential to undermine all of the good work that the right-to-life community has done over the previous decades?" Niehaus said. "Could it have undone Roe v. Wade? I don't know the answer to that question. That appeared to me to be an extreme risk to take, and I was not willing to take that risk."
If Mitt Romney had won, Niehaus says he might have let the measure go forward. Given that the bill's supporters are true believers and not especially pragramatic, it sounds like they'll try again next year.
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Further proof that The Monster doesn't get killed till a stake is driven through its heart and the corpse is left outside in the sunlight. This is elementary horror movie writing. Why is it progressives don't get it that it's also the way you deal with these people politically?
As Charles Pierce said, with the modern conservative movement, nothing is ever over, and no agreement with them can be depended upon.
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
The Magna Carta was forced on a king by a many who did not care to be ruled by the few.
Martin Luther and others protested (hence 'Protestant'), and many died in the belief that no privileged one or few should dictate how we worship.
The American colonials protested the 'Divine Right' of kings, the idea that a privileged few should rule the many.
Union organizers were jailed, beaten and killed for their efforts to unite the working middle class against a wealthy few who were unable to recognize the good business sense in providing adequate food, shelter, medical care, education and training for their livestock.
I'm ashamed to think of the time I have spent over the last few decades reading books and playing D&D while theocrats, plutocrats and the people they have bought have disenfranchised Americans and driven our economy to the brink of destruction.
No more.
Don't despair that we have always had the Taliban/Teaparty with us, that they will always be with us. Remember that they are few, if wealthy, and rely on ignorance and confusion.
Educate.
Just Who do these Gomers think that they are to make such judgements for and on others ~ do they really believe that they are some kind of gods , or is it that they are turning this into a political thing that they can cash in on ?? I Thought that they were concerned about CREATING JOBS ??
Where Is the separation of church and state ? And , Why are these goofballs combining them both ?
Thanks for finally putting into direct words what seemed clear all along -- that at least a major reason for the state legislatures' push against abortion was to set up the ideal case for SCOTUS review. That much was already clear in the relative lack of and nature of recent challenges to those pieces of legislation: i.e., that major challenges would merely end up in the SCOTUS, and many pro-choice supporters have been worried that would end in a ruling against Roe vs. Wade.
Steve, I must compliment you and your associates for moving MaddowBlog into serious contention as a major site for timely summaries of serious breaking and current news. Did I say "serious?" I mean it. And the community of bloggers and commenters here is growing more serious and competent by the hour. Many thanks! (You're now my first click, ahead of DKos. Had given up on HuffPo and WaPo years ago.)
Now we'll just see whether the new "content restrictions" will enhance or impede that positive development.
Regardless if this bill miraculously gets through the legislature, Ohio has this thing called the initiative and referendum. I'm willing to bet money that if this measure was on the ballot, the people of Ohio would strike it down. (Remember Mississippi in November 2011?)
I am a person of Ohio and I wish that I held the intelligence of my fellow Ohioans in as high regard as you. Unfortunately, we have WAY too many that are brainwashed and will do whatever their church leader tells them to. Gerrymandering has given this state over to the GOP for the next decade. I live in a historically conservative area, and I have little hope at this point (I am doing my best, and my high school aged son is doing his best in his high school to challenge the more conservative thinking in his classmates-he manages to win the argument, but we know how conservatives don't seem to care about being wrong...)
Anyway, the fetus only movement (they are not right to life, they only care about the fetus, not the woman carrying the fetus, not the child that the fetus would become, not the family that the fetus would be born into, not the community that the fetus would live in, not the schools that the fetus would go to once it became a child, not the future for that fetus at all, the only thing they care about is the fetus) is exceptionally strong here in Ohio and the districts that we are left with after the insane redistricting are so weak in thinking communities and so strong in fundamentalist conservative communities...<sigh> I wish I had more hope...
If Ohio refuses to pass the bill because they fear the SCOTUS might overturn restrictions on abortion, there is nothing to prevent a pro-choice group from taking action in another state to force the issue when the court composition balance changes. And that could bring sweeping changes on most of these silly state restrictions. That would be the Republicans nightmare if the court takes the abortion issue away from them as a campaign issue.
But, that's just it, Mike. In contrast to pro-choice Dems like us, for the Rape-Public-CONs, it's never really been anything but "a campaign issue". The last few years at the state level have been the first serious attempt on their part to effect the change they've long said they wanted (after multiple long stretches where they controlled both houses of the Federal Legislature and the White House and still did nothing about it).
So, it's no problem for them. If the Supreme Court were to reaffirm Roe, much less expand upon it, it would just mean another 40 years of fund-raising appeals for them. Rape-Public-CONs rejoice!
The trouble with ignorance is that it picks up confidence as it goes along.
- Arnold H. Glasow
;-)
The thing that gets me about this as a "campaign issue" is that no one ever talks about how this disproportionately affects the poor.
Buffy McGotrocks who gets knocked up on the back nine at the club is just going to go to France and check into a "Spa" for a long weekend. Most people don't have that sort of option and end up putting their lives and health at risk.
These people don't actually give a rats rearend about people let alone the "Children" they claim to get so worked up about all they want to is to wrap themselves up in moral sanctimony so they can feel superior to someone.
Public opinion on gay rights changed over time and the same will happen to the abortion issue. Once the Christian fundamentalists loses its hold over large numbers of voters, the issue will fade. The right wing religious faction is composed of older white Christian fundamentalists which is a diminishing demographic. Of course there will be some younger holdouts who still see it as an issue, but they will be a minority voting block. Even Republicans can see the Catholic bishops do not have a lot of influence on votes.
I can't talk about the other states, but Ohio is still a backwards, backwoods, wrongheaded idiot when it comes to LGBT Rights too. I have a friend and her partner has a niece that was removed from her home and is now a ward of the state. This child is about 6 months old now, has a relative and her partner that want to adopt this child and provide her with a stable, loving home for the rest of her life. BUT...we are talking about across two different states, a "single" woman adopting a child (their relationship is not recognized in this state) and then they have to deal with the absurdity that Ohio puts on same sex couples... It is insane. No, in Ohio, it is a republican's wet dream.
While Neihaus isn't worried about reelection in 2014, many of his associates should be and I would bet that Niehaus took the fall on this for his comrades. All Ohio needs is a good reason to vote em all out (especially after the SB5 nonsense), and this issue would probably be it. Let sleeping dogs (voters) lay and don't stir up a bunch of trouble.
Who in their right mind would vote for these republicans???
The same people that bought the lies that were spouted in those pre-election ads.
Namely, the 47.x% nationally who voted for Rmoney/Ryan. Not necessarily members of the reality-based community.
How about voters start voting out these GOTP thugs from public offices period! A couple of cycles in which the GOTP has time to mull over why they are being relegated to Siberia may make them rethink their "dictatorial social positions" that they want to legislate into being!
What's the difference between the GOTP and the Taliban = clothing; because on social issues and womens issues they are one and the same!
The "good work" the so-called "right-to-life" scolds have accomplished over the years amounts to nothing more than the intentional and systematic dehumanizing, demonizing, disrespecting and traumatizing of women and girls who face deeply personal and heart-wrenching medical decisions. The pushback in this election was palpable. I hope it continues.
Use abortion to obstruct progressive policies that might hurt the bottom line, especially anti-corruption acts.
They can try all they want, but the Constitution has already given us the answer...
The FIRST THREE WORDS of the Fourteenth Amendment should end all of the nonsense about creation of a 'person' or 'personhood' in the womb. It very clearly states:
"ALL PERSONS BORN" or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside...
All "persons born"... not all "embryos conceived"... not zygotes, not haploids... not sperm...
BEING BORN BEGINS WHEN BEING BORNE ENDS.
A fetus, or baby, until out of the womb, has not been born. Only after being born can it be considered a person, or citizen. Even dictionaries define 'personhood' as 'the quality or condition of being an individual person.'
Inside the womb it is not, and should not be subject to any laws pertaining to 'personhood' made by any legislature, including laws that are as intrusive as the ones being proposed. The rest of the Amendment refers to States, not persons, so anyone trying to twist it using the "nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws" is a feeble attempt.
It simply refers to a 'person', which again, a fetus in the womb is not.
When did sense stop being common?
Roight, the constitution doesn't say "All persons conceived"...
bdirms, i have read that passage dozens of times (at least) and begun the same thought but it never went through to completion. there's always been a little something happening in my brain to censor the thought.
now that you have completed the thought, i realize what my brain has been telling me. to whit "don't give them ideas, they'll just start serving naturalization papers for fetuses to pregnant women as soon as it is detectable."
ok, i'm paranoid. but not as nuts as they are.
With todays medicine, I'm pretty sure we can make a complete human from a sperm. Sooo,, killing sperm should be outlawed. Men, of course would then get the death penalty for masturbating.. Women, on the other hand (whichever hand doesn't matter) wouldn't be endangering ovum while getting some much needed jollies,,,.
The loss of endearing phrases such as "spanking the snake", shakeing the mongoose, polishing the sword, etc. will be lost after a few years once the Anti-male-whackoff law takes effect,, but that's just milk under the bridge...
What do women do, anyway?
Your logic is correct !
- but since when does logic govern our political system or those senile, impotent old men that keep getting elected ? They didn't learn anything from the dope slap they got in November. Maybe a whack across the eyes with a 2 x 4 at the next election will help.
When you ask "what do women do?" are you referring to buffing the muffin? Or beating around the bush?
Pragmatic is misspelled in the last sentence.
How do you come up with a word like pragramatic?
@!$%# happens.
All the abortion bills were just a game of smoke and mirrors, to divert our attention, to the fact that they are refusing to work on the real issues, no matter how hard they try, they will never get rid of the ghosts of the Bush administration like, Rove and Norquist, the party doesn't have a chance of surviving. They are trying to sweep everything under the rug, problem is we no longer suffer from amnesia. Their policies are non-working issues, they've taken the snakes's way out by just slithering by. The Republicans led this great Country of ours to the depths of hell, with little regard for the people they represent. Them and their buddies nearly destroyed the middle class and the poor. Instead of helping us to rebuild, they are more interested in helping other Countrys' by selling them weapons and uranium.Nordquist was right in the middle of all that him and Oliver North and co. We know exactly what they're trying to do, play russian roulette with our lives.
but it's russian roulette with an automatic. and we get the first turn.