For years, Roe v. Wade acted as a shield against the migraine-inducing glare of the technicolor weirdos in the pro-forced birth movement—a shield that protected both us and them, frankly. Well, that shield is about to come down and, hoo-boy, my retinas are fixin’ to fry like my Gollum-pale Wisconsin nipples at a Vegas swim-up bar in mid-July.
Did Americans really know what they were voting for when they handed the White House to the anti-abortion candidate who likely keeps at least two abortion providers on retainer at all times? They were voting for just this moment and this result—a creeping nightmare in which 12-year-old children who were raped by family members would be forced to give birth to their attackers’ babies.
If that sounds histrionic or hyperbolic, well, think again, all you glorified baby factories. That result is right around the corner if Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts gets his way.
On CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, host Dana Bash asked Ricketts what his state plans to do if and when Roe is officially overturned—and for once, we really need to take a Republican politician at his word. Watch:
BASH: “Before I let you go, one final question about Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court appears poised to reverse that. Nebraska, your state, does not have a so-called trigger law on the books, but there was an effort, as you know, to pass one. It failed by only two votes last month. The abortion ban that you tried to pass did not include any exceptions for rape or incest. So can you clarify? Do you think that the state of Nebraska should require a young girl who was raped to carry that pregnancy to term?”
RICKETTS: “So Nebraska is a pro-life state. I believe life begins at conception, and those are babies, too. So if Roe v. Wade, which was a horrible constitutional decision, gets overturned by the Supreme Court, which we’re hopeful of, here in Nebraska we’re going to take further steps to protect those pre-born babies.”
BASH: “Including in the case of rape or incest?”
RICKETTS: “They’re still babies, too, yeah. They’re still babies.”
BASH: “So if Roe is overruled and overturned, will you call a special session right away to ban abortion in Nebraska?”
RICKETTS: “Well, if we do get Roe v. Wade overturned, I will work with our speaker of the Legislature to work on a special session and do more to protect pre-born babies. We’ll have to wait and see what that decision is before we can take further steps, but that would certainly be my intention.”
Is it just me, or did Bash look horrified at Ricketts’ answer? Or maybe I’m just projecting, because Ricketts’ answer was beyond horrifying.
First of all, a fertilized egg that hasn’t even implanted in a uterine wall is by no means a “baby.” I know this because it’s never kicked the back of my seat on an airplane while I was trying to sleep or thrown a sippy cup on the floor in front of me at Olive Garden. But if we do want to call an infinitesimal cluster of cells a “baby” with a soul and inalienable rights, then God is the biggest abortionist on the planet since about one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage—which means God gives upwards of 1 million “babies” the hook before they have a chance to discover on their own that Ricketts is bonkers Magoo.
Ricketts’ stance—which sounds really extreme because it really, really is—would rule out any intervention that might prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg or keep a minuscule, 300-cell blastocyst from developing into a fetus. According to Ricketts—and many of his fellow travelers—the rights of a nonsentient, .2 mm clump of cells supersede those of a teenage rape victim.
In fact, Ricketts’ belief in the sanctity of fertilized eggs is a decidedly religious one. Which means those of us who aren’t religious should, in a secular liberal democracy, be allowed to ignore it.
But now we can’t, because Republicans have at long last worn our privacy rights down to a useless nub.
Forced birth for teenage rape and incest victims is coming, and they’re not even trying to hide it. This is the Republican Party, and this is what they believe. Maybe it’s time we advertise it on their behalf.
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