Right now I’m kind of disgusted with the state government of Arkansas (and a host of other states too). The Arkansas senate just passed a bill banning abortions for pretty much any reason. I read the text of it. The least sanctimonious and least dishonest thing about it is that it’s an open invitation to change Federal Law on abortion rights.
This is a “pro-life” bill.
According to its own text, the Arkansas legislature lumped U.S. Supreme Court rulings on abortion with other so-called crimes against humanity. The two cases Arkansas picked? Plessy v. Ferguson and Dred Scott. Plessy was the case that allowed state to segregate black people from white people. Dred Scott is probably (there are some other contenders) the worst case in U.S. Supreme Court history – it stood for the proposition that black people weren’t free like white people in my country.
Yeah, those were some garbage decisions.
And the Arkansas legislature wants to treat Federal abortion law the same way. The whole findings section is a bald attempt to explain its tortured logic on the subject. Abortions need to be overturned because of new “scientific evidence” that fetuses are human beings. Oh, and the American public likes adoption more. And, here’s the kicker, that abortion laws are still controversial.
I don’t think anyone will be surprised to note that the Arkansas legislature failed to mention who’s creating the controversy. It also failed to provide any actual support for its scientific claims. And it has failed to mention its own hypocrisy. All of this, in the hopes that everyone will just trust this bill is worthy of support because it’s a pro-life bill.
I guess Arkansas hopes everyone has a short memory.
Right after Plessy got overturned, Arkansas threw a fucking hissy fit over integration. The state tried to use the National Guard to stop black kids from attending the precious all-white school in Little Rock. That’s right. Arkansas supported a “crime against humanity.” But hey, they’ve seen the light, and they’re hoping that saying abortion is as wrong as segregation, they’ll sway the U.S. Supreme Court.
Except it’s hard to find anyone that naïve. This and other legislation like it is only happening because Conservatives screwed up handling the ‘Rona, and nothing distracts their base faster than claiming they’re going to protect the children. It doesn’t matter that some of those children are royally fucked because they might be born with uteruses, and the state has taken a particular liking to regulating them.
The worst of it is, the AP article mentioned that Gov. Hutchinson is aware this bill has almost no chance of overturning abortion law.
It’s because of a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body.
And that rule is based in the general rule of any person’s right to make decisions about their own bodies. In short, states generally aren’t allowed into a person’s reproductive bits. This isn’t controversial. It’s not hard to understand. Nobody’s complaining that there isn’t enough regulation of male gonads. Yet women are forced to endure legislation telling them they can’t make decisions about their uterus.
Negating that right to autonomy isn’t as easy as alleged “pro-life” legislators want people to think. Any erosion of a woman’s right to make decisions regarding her body gives rise to some very nasty questions. They all have to deal with the government’s ability to actually do things to a person without their consent.
Although the Supreme Court is conservative, they’re not overtly stupid. Those Justices have at least an appreciation for the Pandora’s Box that will open if they start mucking around with bodily autonomy. Does the state have a limit at uterus regulation, or can it go further in an attempt to preserve life?
Arkansas talked about crimes against humanity, but it has no clue what one looks like. I guess that’s what happens when you forget to bring your brain to work.
*I have to use an asterisk here, because the Arkansas government might not entirely pro-life. I discovered that the state is being sued because it has used creative means to obtain murder drugs for executions. Also, the law will protect rapist’s babies while leaving some question as to whether women can obtain abortions to save their own lives. So yeah, this bill could kill people.
Amusing Nonsense 