Texas Governor Greg Abbott, as you probably know, recently signed a bill banning abortion in the Longhorn State after six weeks, no rape or incest exception. Which is not a problem, he claimed because the state will eliminate rape. Of course, one might ask why he hasn’t eliminated rape already, but the real point is, many Republicans love them some tough-on-crime bullshit. Or claims the way to end crime is to bring back God (funny, I hadn’t noticed his absence). He’s also signed a law banning abortion drugs after seven weeks. Small wonder women who can manage it are crossing state lines to get abortions.
I am, however, a little surprised that part of the Texas GOP doesn’t think Abbott is conservative enough. Which is part of why Republicans have become such monsters — the one thing they have to fear is someone crazier and more right-wing running against them.
One doctor stood up and invited lawsuits to become a test case. Two disbarred out-of-state lawyers filed the first suits, which the architects of the law is not what they had in mind (“These out-of-state suits are not what the bill is intended for”) — they’d just figured the abortion doctors would shut down their practices. I suspect they’re worried the optics of actual lawsuits do not look good.
The federal House has passed a bill protecting abortion rights but Texas forced-birthers are already pushing a bill that says the state can treat abortion as murder no matter what the Constitution, courts or Congress decide. Of course, it’s long odds against the House bill passing, particularly when Sen. Susan Collins, queen of handwringing concern, says she supports abortion rights but not changing the law to protect them.
In other links:
Pakistan-born feminist and writer Rafia Zakaria on white feminists “thinking ‘Oh it’s so bad over there – ‘ it must be ‘so great here.'”
“In high school, my boys were each taught in sex ed class that they should not have sex unless they were prepared to tell their parents they’d gotten a girl pregnant. This lesson, delivered just a few years ago at a good public school in New York state, ignored the entire concept of contraception, the possibility of non-heterosexual or non-penetrative sex, and the school’s responsibility to educate its students.”
If women are hard to figure out, someone suggests on Twitter, maybe it’s because it’s safer for them to lie than tell men the truth. I think there’s truth to that, but not the whole truth.
Scots comedian Janey Godley says society needs to stop appeasing violent men.
“Girls believe the myth that men can’t help it. The girls interviewed described men as unable to control their sexual desires, often framing men as the sexual aggressors and women as the gatekeepers of sexual activity. They perceived everyday harassment and abuse as normal male behavior, and as something to endure, ignore, or maneuver around.”
John Piper explains women can either submit to men and be protected or men will abuse them.
It’s been documented that pay and respect changes in many fields when it switches from predominantly male to female or vice versa. Male maitre’d’s had status; female hosts do not (though that’s not the point of the article).
Why did it take so long to nail R. Kelly for sex crimes?
Pingback: The ongoing war against reproductive rights and women | Fraser Sherman's Blog