Now, here is an example of the extremism and stupidity that has overtaken the Republican Party. A group of 21 Republican legislators in South Carolina want to impose the death penalty on any woman who gets an abortion. They assert that life begins at the instant of conception so any act that ends the life should require the murder of the woman who ended the pregnancy, even if the pregnancy was the result of rape or incest.
Let’s say that a 12-year-old girl is raped by a member of her family. She must carry the child of rape to term or be killed by the state. Meanwhile, her rapist walks free. Her life is worth nothing compared to that of the fetus.
It seems clear that the pro-life Freedom Caucus cares only about the lives of the unborn, not the lives of women who are pregnant. Why is one life more valuable than the other?
South Carolina Republican lawmakers are considering a bill that would make a person who has an abortion eligible for the death penalty.
The bill, titled the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023, would change the state’s criminal code and redefine “person” to include a fertilized egg at the point of conception.
According to the bill, the change would “ensure that an unborn child who is a victim of homicide is afforded equal protection under the homicide laws of the state.” Under South Carolina law, that includes the death penalty.
The bill provides exceptions for pregnant people who had an abortion if they were “compelled to do so by the threat of imminent death or great bodily injury” and also provides an exception if the abortion was done to save the life of the mother. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.
Rolling Stone wrote about this story as well.
Rep. Rob Harris, a sponsor of the bill, is a member of the Freedom Caucus. Asked if he saw any irony between being a member of the so-called “Freedom Caucus” while proposing such harsh restrictions on reproductive freedoms, Harris responded simply: “Murder of the pre-born is harsh.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How about the death penalty for men who rape women???
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Florida legislators just approved death penalty for men who rape children. No one yet has proposed the same for men who rape women.
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In short…protect children but never mind women.
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That would put the Russian army out of business. Not a bad suggestion!
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yup
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The Supreme Court ruled out that the death penalty for rape was unconstitutional about a decade ago.
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Coker v. Georgia as updated by Kennedy v. Louisiana have something to say about this.
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I sent this to SC Rep Harris, not that I expect he will read it.
There are times abortion is the lesser evil.
· some religions REQUIRE an abortion whenthe mother’s life is in danger
o Judaism1 PNJ 6/27 The challenge filed by the synagogue, Congregation L’Dor Va-Dor in Boynton Beach, alleges the 15-week restriction violates religious freedom. “For Jews, all life is precious and thus the decision to bring new life into the world is not taken lightly or determined by state fiat,” the lawsuit said. “In Jewish law, abortion is required if necessary to protect the health, mental or physical well-being of the woman, or for many other reasons not permitted under the act (the new law). As such, the act prohibits Jewish women from practicing their faith free of government intrusion and thus violates their privacy rights and religious freedom.”
· Have you considered the abject terrorand hellish ongoing life this will make for girls who are being molested athome; some girls as young as 8 begin their periods?2,3,4
· Women in slavery were raped andforced to bear children. Do not the 13th and 14th amendments to ourconstitution have clauses about involuntary servitude? 5
· Have you considered that this willforce women who do not want/will not love their babies to give birth?
o Just as babies need nutrients from food forphysical development, they need affection and connection from others foremotional survival and their developing selves.
o Are we going to have more Ted Bundy’s? 6,7
· Being adopted by loving people often cannot counter severe early bonding deficits 8
· rape can be used not just toterrorize, but also to eradicate communities by impregnating the women withchildren of the enemy, with the intent of “diluting” the composition of thegroup. The right of girls and women raped inarmed conflict to abortions arise under common Article 3 of the GenevaConventions, Articles 10 and 16 of Additional Protocol I, Articles 7 and 10 ofAdditional Protocol II, and customary international law.
· laws limiting abortion are pro-birth, notpro-life, and deny women their autonomyand freedom for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.9
Don’t forget it is men ejaculating irresponsibly who are responsible for100% of unwanted pregnancies; once he reaches puberty a man is alwaysfertile for the rest of his life.
Respectfully,
An eighty-four-year-old Grandma
1 https://religionnews.com/2022/05/12/why-post-roe-abortion-bans-must-exempt-religious-jews/
2 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/03/ohio-indiana-abortion-rape-victim
3 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/02/brazil-child-rape-abortion/
4 https://news.yahoo.com/pregnancy-childbirth-bodies-young-girls-175017137.html
5 https://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/story/opinion/columns/2022/05/11/outlawing-abortion-violates-13th-amendment/65354511007/
6 https://www.biography.com/news/ted-bundy-childhood
7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy
8 https://apnews.com/article/2921e91a579c4d209af1ac9fa9612b7c
9 https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states
Elizabeth Major1900 Reserve Blvd.Gulf Breeze, FL 32563Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
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Thank you for writing to Rep. Harris.
The proposed law is about punishing women for having sex.
The right wing religious believe that birth control and abortion make women promiscuous. The type of law proposed is a control method practiced by backwards religious societies. The preceding explains why the pleas like yours for compassion from Republicans rarely succeed.
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men not ejaculating responsibly are responsible for 100% of unwanted pregnancies; after reaching puberty males are fertile until their death
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I found an internet list identifying 15 of the 21. Photos show 13 appear to be White men and the remaining 2, White women. The two women fit the profile of a type of Republican woman politician,d
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Great stuff, native!!!
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Slightly off topic-
One of the Republicans running for President in 2024 is Vivek Ramaswamy.
His company got financial backing from Thiel and JD Vance. He’s described as the nation’s leading anti- ESG crusader.The ESG framework is one in which corporations become answerable (without the courts involved) for their decisions that have impact on environmental and social issues.
Ramaswamy is Hindu. He graduated from the Jesuit, St. Xavier High School in Cincinnati, then he attended Harvard.
Vivek says states should decide about women’s reproductive rights (convenient). And, it appears he supports unfettered profit taking.
Elitist cultures often spawn people detrimental to democracy and who champion trickle down economics.
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“Child mortality rate is rising at the fastest rate in 50 years”. Shout out to the religious right, Catholic and Christian, for voting Republican-the party of no gun control.
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OMG! SICK.
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C’mon little ladies. We all know that Make America Great Again means—negroes know their place; women make our dinner, raise our babies & keep their mouths shut; gays go back in the closet; children only speak to adults when spoken to. Oh yeah-those were the good old days when America was truly great & we white men ran everything without all them uppity women & negroes rilin’ up folks to get their supposed equal rights. I’m ordering a bunch of Handmaid outfits for the womenfolk in my family.
(Sarcasm—just in case anyone doesn’t pick up on it).
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Republicans wouldn’t win without the votes of the right wing religious. Talk about religious politicking should be encouraged, specifically in the social circles with which we engage.
Liberals in the Catholic Church are obligated by citizenship in a developed, democratic country to confront the political spending of their church against gays, against women, against voting rights, against birth control, etc. and, the church’s politicized network that facilitates the election of the GOP, especially in red states.
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These extremist state laws against women are brutal and disgraceful. Women are no more than vessels for babies to them. The Handmaid’s Tale revisited.
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“In The Handmaid’s Tale, religion is one of the two main means of control used by the regime. In fact, the entire society is built upon a warped form of Christianity where scriptures of the Bible are used to find precedent for laws and regulations that the regime has created.”
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We should focus on creating a secular society in which the right to practice a particular religion is ensured. That’s what I thought we had created. Instead, Christian Nationalists, not all Christians, are imposing their particular view of justice and order on everyone. In their world order women are second class citizens whose rights are impeded by the fact they can procreate. Women should be protected class under civil rights laws.
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RT,
I thought that our goal, consistent with the Founders’ vision, was to become a secular society where all religions were free to practice their religion without hindrance.
But the Courts have been interpreting free exercise of religion as more valuable that no-establishment of religion.
If my religion doesn’t permit me to interact with customers who are gay, then I am free to discriminate against gay customers.
It will get worse.
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Catholic and Christian nationalism threaten the freedom of Americans.
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We’re turning into a country ruled by the Christian Taliban, even though it’s largely a minority group believes that way.
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“We should focus on creating a secular society in which the right to practice a particular religion is ensured.”
I’d change to “practice a particular religion privately is ensured”. We now see what happens when religion is practiced publicly, spread by the media and churches to billions. People will become fanatics. That’s the nature of religion and ideology, in general.
Believe what you want, but you do not (should not) have the right to push your beliefs onto others.
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It seems bizarre that body autonomy for women can be defined by where in the US they live. It depends on how the courts in a state interpret an 18th century document. We can’t be The United States if some people have fewer rights over than others because states can step in and take rights away. Medical decisions should be between a patient and doctor, not the states. Dr. Oz couldn’t sell that idea in Pennsylvania, fortunately.
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Maybe a refresher course on federalism is in order.
States have always been free to establish “rights” that other states don’t. They cannot weaken or eliminate federal Constitutional rights, but they can broaden them, as well as recognize rights the Constitution doesn’t.
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Agreed. Then, the 14th Amendment should protect women’s rights, or even “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” However, in the hands of regressive state judges, they will spin quite a different interpretation. It is not so much about federalism as regressive states rights judges in the South and Midwest.
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Trump appointed 28% of all federal judges. Aided by Mitch McConnell, vetted by the Federalist Society.
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Diane,
On the recent Carol Burris seminar you never got an answer to your question how these different cultural groupings interconnect?
L luck Wilmerding. A local San Francisco private high school has such grouping and my friends white gurl has no where to go
I was surprised you did not require an answer. Such groups are tearing SF apart.
Marcy Dunne Ballard retired AFT leader
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The principal answered that students are fully integrated in their major academic classes.
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Clarence Thomas disputes the right to counsel for those accused of crimes; he’s also called for revisiting fundamental press freedoms established more than 50 years ago.
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/justice-clarence-thomas-two-attacks-on-basic-freedoms/
I think it should be illegal (leading to the death penalty) to tell voters lies when running for a state or federal elected position, when there is proof/evidence that they knew they are lying when they did it.
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Next up: Why male masturbation should be a capital crime.
(This is the kind of thinking that killed Anita Bryant’s career.)
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Vote them out.
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In SC? You are kidding.
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Not kidding. It’s the only way.
A little over 50% of South Carolinians believe abortion should be “illegal in most cases,” which means that a little under 50% do not agree with that statement.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/state/south-carolina/views-about-abortion/
(Note that women are more opposed to abortion in SC than men.)
It doesn’t seem at all implausible to me that enough voters disagree with making abortion punishable by death that pro-life candidates who campaign on the policy that abortion should be illegal but not subject to the death penalty should be able to primary the legislators who voted to make abortion punishable by death.
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South Carolina is one of the few states where a majority oppose abortion. A poll in the main newspaper in Iowa yesterday showed that Iowans support abortion by 2-1.
But that has no impact on their legislators. They will ban abortion.
Similarly in Oklahoma, a Republican-sponsored poll found that 74% of people support abortion.
I think that all states should have a referendum.
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N.C.’s Lt. Governor who is anti-trans and anti-abortion, claims his right wing pronouncements are “straight off of God’s plate.”
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When did he have a chance to eat from God’s plate? I’d like to see pictures of the event or at last the written invitation.
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Linda,
Does God call the NC Lt.-Gov or just whisper to him in the middle of the night?
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This is in response to the “vote them out” comment, as well as FLERP’S comment below. Yes, we should vote them out…..and yes, approximately 50% of S Carolinians, as well as many other states such as mine (Florida) may be on one side or another. But the key thing people miss about those kinds of numbers is how they are distributed. Of that 50%, there may be pockets of liberals in a given state or congressional district, but with Gerrymandering and just the distribution of political parties in certain states, there are just more conservative districts which get disproportional representation & allow crazy laws like the one mentioned in this article, to pass legislation & become laws. Having said that, dems/liberals are still more numerous than the hardcore righties nationally, so we must still continue to fight them with the facts & call them out strongly every time they spit out their lies or misinformation.
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You can’t say it often enough: the gerrymandering of state legislatures has given Republicans far more voting power than the numbers of voters suggest.
The gerrymandering was shameless.
In Florida, DeSantis himself claimed credit for gerrymander that produced four more GOP Congressional seats, and reduced the number of Black Congressmen from 4 to 1.
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N.C.’s Lt. Gov. is a typical opportunist. It’s a desperate society that elevates to positions of power, those who talk about hearing voices unconnected to human bodies.
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The Republican’s success in gerrymandering, court packing, voter repression and Citizens United has made those who say “Vote them out” sound about as simple minded as telling those with $50,000+ in college debt that they should get money from their family to start a business.
In a Senate election in a southern state, a few Dems tried an experiment in using the Peter Thiel/Cambridge Analytica method except instead of using it to elect a Republican, they’d use it to benefit a Democrat. Who won. And those Dems got excoriated (even by the so-called liberal media who doesn’t think the Cambridge Analytica/Thiel/Facebook little project in 2016 was newsworthy or a problem.)
The problem is that Dems play by the rules and the far right has convinced the media that holding Republicans to the same standards is just “political”.
It’s harder and harder for Dems to win elections in states where the Republicans have complete control.
The same is not true in supposed “liberal” states where the Dems don’t use their power primarily to gain more power. New York, Massachusetts, California are states where Republicans have a chance to “vote them out”. Not so in Florida anymore. Or in many other right wing controlled states.
Stacey Abrams did a completely remarkable thing. She played by the incredibly difficult rules set by the Republicans in 2020 to elect two Democratic Senators. Which meant that the Republicans changed the rules to make it even HARDER (in predominantly Democratic areas) to vote in 2022. If the Republicans had run even a moderately offensive and completely unsuitable candidate, they probably would have won. Hershel Walker as their candidate prevented that.
No doubt there will be more rule changes to make it even more difficult for anyone likely not to vote Republican to vote, in Georgia and elsewhere.
Remember, DeSantis and the Republicans support very low “adult civic education” classes for all 4 of the residents of the Republican retirement community “The Villages” who voted twice for Trump. And they were only caught because of anonymous tips.
The rules don’t apply to one party, and now that those who were good with a right wing Republican turning the Supreme Court to the far right for a very long time, this kind of action is no longer a problem. Voting rights, schmoting rights — the Republicans know there will almost never be any repercussions when they suppress the vote by citing their desire to combat “voter fraud”.
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You convinced my simple mind, I guess there’s nothing SC voters can do. Oh well.
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Voters in SC could do it, of course, but instead they vote these thugs in. In other words, these thugs represent the interest of the majority in SC. I do not think TN would be different.
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“You convinced my simple mind, I guess there’s nothing SC voters can do. Oh well.”
So you are defending telling voters in South Carolina to “just vote” because you see that as the thoughtful, intelligent, solution that addresses the complex reality of voter disenfranchisement efforts in southern states?
Some history:
“After the Civil War, the 15th Amendment, ratified in 1870, prohibited states from denying a male citizen the right to vote based on “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” Nevertheless, in the ensuing decades, various discriminatory practices were used to prevent African Americans, particularly those in the South, from exercising their right to vote.”
I am trying to imagine some white man taking offense in 1950, because someone challenged their perfectly wonderful solution in which they told people who lived in states with segregation laws and voting barriers that they should “just vote” if they wanted to change them. Imagine that white person playing victim because someone said that their solution to “just vote” was simple-minded. That intelligent white man was so offended that their “thoughtful” solution to “just vote” was not met with the praise it deserved that they feel justified in “giving up”.
Thankfully, flerp! is not representative of all the people in the 1960s, especially LBJ, who understood that “just vote” isn’t the brilliant solution some white men have told themselves it is.
“The Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Voting Rights Act is considered one of the most far-reaching pieces of civil rights legislation in U.S. history.
In a speech to a joint session of Congress on March 15, 1965, the president outlined the devious ways in which election officials denied African American citizens the vote.”
“the Voting Rights Act gave African American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among Black people increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969.”
Maybe if you had learned the parts of history that the anti-CRT folks want to ban, you would have understood the long complicated history of voting rights and how their repression – by one party only – has entrenched that party’s power.
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What in god’s name are you babbling about.
I’ll pass on any advice from you on how to read political tea leaves. I recall that in the fall of 2017, you were anxious that Bill de Blasio might lose his reelection bid against Republican Nicole Malliotakas, which cemented your position as the densest political pundit I ever encountered.
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Why is it impossible for you to actually engage in a conversation instead of tossing insults?
Joel also insults me, but that doesn’t stop him from also engaging in the subject instead of professing to find it too difficult to understand my point.
I don’t mind insults IF the person also engages in the conversation. It speaks poorly of you that insults (and your supposedly brilliantly helpful comment “vote them out”) is all you have to contribute to the conversation.
Ok, I get it, my quotes about the history of voting rights and why simplifying the solution as “vote them out” was not possible was too difficult for you to understand.
I doubt anyone believes that.
Let’s agree to disagree.
for the record, flerp! says the solution is “vote them out” and he is very, very angry and upset that I would point out how difficult that is in a Republican-controlled state. flerp! strongly objects to my making it complicated, when the answer is so simple for superior minds like flerp!’s.
Just vote them out. Just say no. flerp! has all the answers.
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So now these 24 nuts are backpedaling.
Of the bill’s 24 original co-sponsors, nine have yanked their support in the past few weeks, following a massive outcry on social media. Several explained they did not want to criminalize people who get abortions. One, Representative Brandon Guffey, claimed he had not read the bill thoroughly before signing on.
https://newrepublic.com/post/171273/south-carolina-abortion-bill-death-penalty
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Good to see that there are limits even in SC.
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Mr. Guffey should find another line of work.
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Yeah, he signed a bill about death penalty without reading it. And then he thinks, not reading is a good excuse for anything.
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Sometimes social shaming in the national media is as potent as voting.
We have to wait for the next election to vote.
Social shaming can be immediate.
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At the Medieval Crime Museum in Rothenberg Germany you can see the shaming masks people had to wear. Cool stuff!
https://www.european-traveler.com/germany/visit-the-medieval-crime-or-torture-museum-in-rothenburg-ob-der-tauber/
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Example- the Sacklers. although, the courts should play a role as well.
David Koch’s reputation was so tarnished when he died that giving voice to anything good he did, seemed like a Herculean effort. The same will be true of Leonard Leo.
Men like Leo should count on getting their rewards in this life.
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Where is the public humiliation of what an embarrassment and what soulless people these are?
Seriously. How many Americans, not South Carolinians are aware of this. If it doesn’t pop up in the news pictures when someone opens their browser, it’s out of sight and out of mind. If the network news (the old school ones) don’t cover it, the majority (subjective speculation) of people have no idea.
Charter school tactics got more exposure from three Abbott Elementary School episodes than any news story, blog, or research report release.
There’s not a Democrat in the country who is speaking up on a national stage (literally or figuratively) like the repulsive governors or an entire state legislature that maybe (just maybe) gets coverage.
Who is standing up with common sense or outrage saying “no – this is wrong.”
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Apparently, nobody. For example, there is total silence about this in this blog.
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Total silence? Not here.
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JSRTHETA WRITES:
States have always been free to establish “rights” that other states don’t. They cannot weaken or eliminate federal Constitutional rights, but they can broaden them, as well as recognize rights the Constitution doesn’t.
It’s worth repeating. And repeating. And repeating.
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When it comes to abortion, a huge number of White Republican men are reporting that they hear voices in their head that come from an ether beyond.
A less common definition for ether is- solvent. Conservative religious sects that overtly discriminate against women encourage the brains of followers to dissolve.
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This is the final absurdity of the so-called pro-life movement. They are not for life, and never have been. Most of them support wars and capital punishment. We can help in this discussion, though, but sharing what we know, for instance that delivery is statistically for dangerous than abortion.
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Yes, you are right. The pro-life movement cares more about the not-yet-life of the fertilized egg than the actual life of the woman in whose womb it is implanted.
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What we can do
Call out the women and men who go to churches that spend the church’s money to take away the rights of women.
Membership in the Ku Klux Klan became toxic. Why isn’t it toxic for Americans to be part of a church that campaigns against voting rights, women’s rights, gay rights,….
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