Since my post last Thursday a number of seemingly positive steps towards changing some of the bills restricting women's rights throughout this country. Virginia's transvaginal ultrasound bill has been scuppered and a near-identicle one in Alabama is becoming derailed as well. This reads as a clear example of over-reach. The Right clearly believed that the time was ripe for this regressive legislation and they pushed and pushed and pushed until they pushed just a little bit too far. The forced vaginal probing, which commentators in the media have been trying to get around saying for the better part of two weeks now, was just a step too far for the American populous and media to take. And we may have defeated them. It is highly likely that the next drafts of all of these bills will mandate the much less physically intrusive abdominal ultrasound rather than its vaginal cousin. And all across America, people are hailing this as a great victory.
It is not. The true problem with the original bills is not the type of probe, it is the idea of a government mandate for any kind of medically unnecessary procedure. Lets be very clear about this. All of these laws require, as part of any pre-op for an abortion, that the doctor is forced to perform an entirely separate procedure. This procedure is not medical but political. It is a government mandated shaming device. It is the probing and not the probe that is the problem. Whether the Right likes it or not, access to abortions is fully legal in our country. It is nothing short of revolting that these 'small government conservatives' are so willing to put aside their problems with government whenever it comes to cutting back the rights of women (or minorities, or the elderly, or the poor...really everybody apart from the rich).
And let's also not forget about the rights of the doctor here. After all, these bills all require the complete obedience not only of the pregnant women but of their doctors. After all, carrying out a procedure that is only designed to shame a patient seems to go against the oath to do no harm. Furthermore, the people who choose to become abortion providers, often risking their lives to do so, are being forced to act on the behalf not of their patients but on the behalf of the crazed protestors who throw things at their windows and threaten their lives. On the behalf regressive religious leaders who would condemn a twelve year old girl to bear her father's child. And on behalf of the handful of old white men writing these laws who view the people they are supposed to be representing as willful children, not Democratic citizens. They are the enemy. And we must not shy away from that declaration.
Exactly. It's not the type of invasive behavior, it's the behavior itself. The problem is the ideology that allows these people to feel justified in pushing invasive, abusive, anti-woman legislation.
ReplyDeleteIt is nothing short of revolting that these 'small government conservatives' are so willing to put aside their problems with government whenever it comes to cutting back the rights of women (or minorities, or the elderly, or the poor...really everybody apart from the rich).
This is always whats gets me. Because apart from my issues comprehending how someone could feel good about doing these kinds of things to any group of people, I don't get how it fits with their preaching about "small government." You want the government to be hands-off, until it comes to legislating religion, at which point it becomes incredibly, aggressively hands-ON.
Also, thank you for addressing the role of the doctors, because people tend to forget about them. And we need to never forget about them, especially those who become abortion providers, especially these last few years.