Meet The Men Out To Charge Women With Murder For Aborting Precious Ectopic Pregnancies

They're on a mission from what they say is God.

Now that the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has set off a huge backlash among voters who say protecting abortion rights is their top issue, a lot of Republicans candidates are pretending not to have any particular views on the matter, but wow, isn't inflation bad?

But not all Republicans, especially in state legislatures, especially in the reddest of red states. As CNN details, there are plenty of legislators who don't merely want to outlaw most abortions; they won't be satisfied until they criminalize all abortions, with no exceptions, and ideally with prison time not only for doctors and nurses who perform the procedure, but also for anyone who seeks an abortion, too. After all, they reason, if the bumper sticker says abortion is murder, then you have to punish anyone who has one.

Also, big surprise: While there's no shortage of rightwing women who want to restrict or ban most abortions, the most hardline abortion bans, especially the bills seeking to treat it as a homicide without even an exception for when the pregnant patient is going to die, are being pushed by men, who are unburdened by any sentimental empathy for people who are all irrational because they have wombs.

We will expect them to repeal all Stand Your Ground laws, but only for women, because self-defense is not an option, but only for women.

Greetings From The Republic Of Gilead

Take Rev. Brian Gunter, a Baptist pastor, and Louisiana state Rep. Danny McCormick — please! — who earlier this year teamed up to introduce a bill in the Louisiana legislature that would grant full constitutional rights to "all unborn children from the moment of fertilization," and would treat abortion exactly the same as homicide in the criminal code.

Read More:    

 Louisiana Fixin' To Redefine Abortion As Murder, Because That's What The Bumper Sticker Says 

 Overturning Roe Already Threatens Women's Health, To Surprise Of Nobody 

Spoiler: The bill was passed in committee, but ultimately died in the Louisiana House, and not a single state legislator was charged in its killing. But it did mark the first time any bill actually imposing criminal penalties for having an abortion has even made it out of committee, which is plenty terrifying enough. And what a bill, as CNN explains. Under the bill,

pregnant people could face murder charges even if they were raped or doctors determined the procedure was needed to save their own life. Doctors who attempted to help patients conceive through in-vitro fertilization, a fertility treatment used by millions of Americans, could also be locked up for destroying embryos, and certain contraception such as Plan B would be banned.

“The taking of a life is murder, and it is illegal,” state Rep. Danny McCormick told a committee of state lawmakers who considered the bill in May, right after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked.

Gunter told the committee that the bill had to be passed to save all the precious babbies. "No compromises, no more waiting."

The only four witnesses who spoke against the bill in committee were women, which just goes to show they don't have the manly virtue needed to throw women in prison for taking the fully human life of a fertilized egg. CNN notes that only two members of the committee voted against it, a man who's an independent, and a Democratic woman. "Seven men on the committee, all Republicans, voted in favor of the bill, moving it one step closer to becoming law."

The article notes that even among Republicans, absolute bans on abortion aren't generally pursued — most include at least a token exception to protect the life of a pregnant patient, although as we've noted, such exceptions are often extremely narrow, too , and are likely to delay care until a patient's life is "endangered enough" to qualify for the exception. CNN also points out that the major national anti-abortion groups oppose criminalizing women, at least for now. Despite that, there's a whole lot of men pushing legislation that would bar all exceptions, and would send harlots to prison or the execution chamber for having an abortion:

This year, three male lawmakers from Indiana attempted to wipe out existing abortion regulations and change the state’s criminal statutes to apply at the time of fertilization. In Texas, five male lawmakers authored a bill last year that would have made getting an abortion punishable by the death penalty if it had gone into law. A state representative in Arizona introduced legislation that included homicide charges — saying in a Facebook video that anyone who undergoes an abortion deserves to “spend some time” in the Arizona “penal system.” And a male Kansas lawmaker proposed a bill that would amend the state’s constitution to allow abortion laws to pass without an exception for the life of the mother.

The so-called "abolitionists" like to invoke the Holocaust and slavery, and aren't at all bothered by the tiny distinction that those historical events involved actual people who were fully developed humans who had already been borned. A trivial distinction, these guys say, because after all, didn't supporters of those atrocities make up a lot of fake reasons to dehumanize Jews and Black people? No zygotes were available for comment, because a zygote is not a human being able to live outside the womb.

Also too, the story notes that virtually all the most restrictive abortion bills have been "overwhelmingly passed into law by male legislators," generally with the support of Republican women legislators, but the fact is, most female state legislators tend to be Democrats. Disturbingly, the piece also notes that "male Democratic lawmakers were far more likely than female Democrats to cross the aisle to vote in favor of the abortion bans, according to CNN’s analysis. "

Another Asshole From Idaho

The CNN story also looks extensively at Idaho Republican Scott Herndon, the state Senate candidate who, at the state GOP convention in July, successfully pushed to change the state party's platform to endorse criminalization of all abortions, with no exceptions. 

Read More:  Idaho Republican Party: It's Okay If The Baby Containers Die 

The delegates also overwhelmingly voted down an amendment calling for a narrow exception to protect the life of a pregnant patient, which Herndon opposed, because he knew that only the most extreme ban will really send the proper "pro-life" message, even if some women have to die.

“For the last 49 years we have essentially lost the argument in the culture because we have focused on abortion as the termination of a pregnancy and not the termination of a living human being,” Herndon told delegates.

CNN notes that Herndon likes to compare himself and other abortion "abolitionists" to the Civil Rights movement, because if fertilized eggs could march from Selma to Montgomery, they probably would.

“Success depends on changing hearts and minds,” he said. “I liken the effort to Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights movement for desegregation and equal treatment of African Americans.”

After all, we imprisoned the killers of the three Civil Rights workers murdered in Mississippi, didn't we? Oh, just one? 41 years later? See? Exactly the same.

But Herndon, you see, says it's fine not to include any exceptions to protect the life of a pregnant person, because women are naturally inclined to "sacrificial behavior" on behalf of their children, even the ones the woman herself may not consider a child.

“If a mother is in a life raft with a child and there’s only enough food and water to save one, I’m guessing most mothers would not throw their child overboard and drown them,” he said in an interview with CNN when asked about medical circumstances where a doctor may deem an abortion necessary to save a woman’s life, such as a cancer diagnosis that requires aggressive treatment.

The article notes the many cases that have already emerged in which women's lives were endangered because they were unable to end a pregnancy that had caused a medical crisis, but the important thing to know is that it's really easy to handwave them away when you're a man who will never face dying in pregnancy.

Herndon explained that pregnancies may be risky, but he objects to the medical establishment's idea that an adult woman's life should automatically take precedence over the fetus's, because both are entirely the same. In a sentence that you may want to read twice, CNN explains Herndon

said that while locking up women is not his objective, it only makes sense for homicide charges to apply to a woman who chooses to undergo an abortion if fetuses are given equal protections under the law.

See? He'll only imprison women who have to be imprisoned for fetus killing, not any other women, so you need to be fair about that.

God Wants Women Dead, That's Just How It Is

Also too, the article discusses yet another goon, T. Russell Hunter, founder of a group called "Free the States," who explains that it's just logical to punish women who have abortions, because God said so. And none of that nonsense about just punishing the medical practitioners, either:

“Abortionists do not wake up and go out into the culture looking for children to kill; mothers bring their babies to them to be murdered. They are guilty…they have murdered their children under the color of law and the Lord God hates it.”

But don't you call him a misogynist, because he thinks anyone involved in any way with an abortion should be treated as a criminal, including fetuses' fathers and any family members who might help pay for abortions.

But sure, don't worry, these guys are just a tiny fringe in the anti-abortion movement, and surely they'll be kept in check by reasonable Republicans like, say, Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz.

[ CNN / Photo:  Ted Eytan, Creative Commons License 2.0 ]

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