if we do not stop the alito confirmation, roe v. wade will be a dead -- whether killed outright or subject to death by a thousand cuts. the religious right is counting on it, and there isn't the slightest hint that alito will refuse to deliver on bush's promise to them.
if this happens, there will be thousands of womens tortured, maimed and killed by forced pregnancy and illegal abortion.
if this happens, in all seriousness: i WILL blame the victims.
WARNING: offensive rationality ahead.
i expect to be mauled by kossaks for saying this, but after reading a genrally excellent
post on the recent history of criminalized abortion in the US, i simply could not get past the quote, coming from a US abortion provider in the deep south, that:
These are voiceless and faceless women. They don't have representation in the legislature or really in Congress. No one's speaking on their behalf. And in that example, to some extent, it is like the pre-Roe days.
well, to inject a note of reality into this maudlin and condescending characterization: this is simply wrong. these women are not slaves in the antebellum south. they're not serfs in medieval england. they're not jews in nazi germany. they're an enfranchised, empowered majority in an imperfect but still functioning democracy.
if these women want the law changed to provide them with access to safe and legal abortion, it is theirs for the asking. full stop.
please don't deluge me with comments about how these women are so poor and uneducated that they couldn't possibly be expected to exercise their democratic rights (if not to say obligations ) and rationally protect their collective self interest.
to understand just how dumb the above quote is -- echoing the pieties of so many patronizing liberals -- consider this hypothetical:
just imagine the country were infested by a plague mutant larvae crawling up men's asses, which would then grow for nine months until they would reach the size of a bowling ball and exit in an hours-long, tremendously agonizing process leaving many of the male victims permanently fecally incontinent.
then suppose the larvae could be safely removed by a routine surgical procedure. then, what if some state legislature passed a law banning that surgical procedure in order to protect "the sanctity of life"? would the men greet the news with a yawn and go back to watching tv, as their female counterparts have greeted the news of roe v. wade's impending demise?
the question answers itself. the entire legislature would be recalled within 24 hours, and the state capitol would probably be burned to the ground for good measure.
so let me pose this question to the women of america: if you won't stand up for your own minimal human dignity, who do you expect to stand up for you?
i certainly won't.
i will continue to oppose the alito nomination as vigorously as possible, but let's face it ladies: you have the most at stake here. where are you? or more to the point, where are you , republican women?
you -- the lynne cheneys, the liddy doles, the laura bushes -- are probably giggling gaily at the free ride you're getting -- let the shrill, hairy-legged feminists do all the work of protecting your right to choose, while the anti-choice politicians you elect continue to shovel an endless stream of tax cuts and christian school vouchers into your never-satiated, ovine gobs.
well even the dimmest bulbs in your dusky constellation must see that the free ride is coming to an end.