Texas lawmakers want Death Penalty for women who get abortions

Well there’s your problem right there. Try not to do that next time. They don’t

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Say perhaps even a prominent person in the White House who paid for said abortion? Hmmmm

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No, they usually admit they think it is. But what they don’t say, outside Monty Python musical numbers, is that they think sperm are equivalent to human lives, which is the only way that becomes an equivalent sin. (But that would make men responsible, so that wouldn’t be a position they would ever take.)

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He’d tweet “fake news” and move right along.

Quite a few people lost their political virginity upon learning this.

Is there something worse than hypocrisy, in the same family? Like, I dunno…vicious hypocrisy…criminal hypocrisy? Because plain old “hypocrisy” doesn’t even rise to the occasion for this one.

Well, if I’m counted as a person in Texas from the moment of conception, then should I assume my first “birthday” occurs 3 months after birth (9+3 = 12)? Do my parents get to immediately claim me on taxes and request a social security card for me once that pregnancy test comes back positive? Can I drink at age 17+3 months? AM so glad they considered all the ramifications…LOL

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This maybe seems hypocritical, but it is actually damningly consistent with their values.

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The situation my wife and I had was nowhere near as traumatic as your’s, but I feel like these things need to be talked about more.

We had what started off as a normal pregnancy and after 8-10 weeks at a normal checkup we were informed the heart had stopped beating days earlier. We were given 3 options; do nothing and after a week of cramps and bleeding it should just pass, take a pill and the same thing would occur over 1-3 days, or schedule a procedure in the office and the physical pains would be over an 1 hour to 1 day. It wasn’t spelled out, but I’m pretty confident the last two options were abortions. I’m so glad everything was so straightforward and everyone was supportive so we could focus on accepting the situation and recovery. When going to the pharmacy afterwards we were honked and yelled at at for walking in the parking lot as they were trying to get by. It took everything in me not to punch that person. I’m so glad that was the most pushback we received during this time.

Thankfully, just a few months later we were able to get pregnant with our son.

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it has gotten out of the house, governor abbott is so ready to sign it i think he’ll climax if the senate passes it. i’m a native texan who happens to be a far-left liberal democrat and i’ve been watching the politics of this state curdling for 45 years. we passed a “heartbeat” bill about 25 years ago but it got brushed back by the 5th circuit court and refused cert by the supremes. i don’t know if either court would turn it down now.

i admire your optimism but i don’t think you appreciate the seriousness of the current moment.

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Now, now, don’t get melodramatic and over-sensationalize this. I’m sure they’ll only execute the bad women. The daughters and mistresses of wealthy white businessmen will just randomly take an unplanned vacation trip some times…

/s

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Here’s an idea, also criminalize jerking off as attempted murder.

Also, we really need to restrict the sale and distribution of Viagra as a controlled substance.

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I’m so sorry for your loss, but it sounds like things ultimately worked out well.

In medical parlance, the abortion began when the embryo died. At the time you and your wife were given the news, it was considered an “incomplete abortion.” The options you listed are essentially 1: let nature take its course; 2: give nature a little help; and 3: intervene if 1 & 2 aren’t sufficient. None of the options is an abortion unto itself, just a process to complete what had already begun. In fact, if the abortion does not “complete,” there are plenty of potential complications, including infertility and life-threatening infection.

If this ridiculous law were in place, I have to wonder if your wife would have been arrested - seems like the logical conclusion to this incredibly cruel course. And then, rather than getting the happy ending you deserved and got, your sadness would have been multiplied immeasurably. For the GOP, is that Mission Accomplished?

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There was a profile in the Guardian the other day abouy a woman who had turned away from the conservative politics after her family rejected her for marrying a black man.

Anyhow, she was giving her perspective on conservative politics and claimed, from her perspective that anti-abortiom politics were a vital issue to keep women voting Republican. That otherwise women would be much more politically liberal and the men don’t really care otherwise.

Now in reality, there are plenty of men wanting to control female bodies, but the anecdote did make me think about anti-choice women. I do wonder if some conservative women, being relatively politically powerless (conservatism being more patriarchal) feel like they need to keep abortion illegal to keep their “tempted” husbands in line as a potential consequence and also punish the women who would lead their husbands astray. And their husbands support it publicly to virtue signal their conviction that adultery is sin.

It reminds me, in a sense, of the way temperance was religiuos/purity movement on a superficial level, but in large part desperate womens’ way to regain some control over their lives given the power imbalance that let their drunk husbands abuse them without consequence.

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If a pregnant woman tries to leave Texas, it’d probably be kidnapping, child-endangerment or something else stupid.

Just a reminder that this is an important position that The Atlantic thinks is not only worthy of discussion, but worth hiring people for.

(Also, Conor Friedersdorf is apparently a feckless fascist apologist.)

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You can’t fix stupid.

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Horrible thought just occurred to me. Woman has a tubal pregnancy. Diagnosed by ultrasound at a hospital. Is she to be prevented from leaving the state for treatment? Can a hospital transfer a woman in such circumstance to a sane state or will she be restrained to make sure she dies from this eminently treatable condition? Or, to put it another way, just how fucked up is Texas?

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They’ve always been there. These ones are pale and wear cowboy boots with their suits, in an effort to appear manly.

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Like with most political issues, there’s more than one constituency involved, and it’s worth remembering that because if something is only supported by about half the electorate, it can potentially be made into a non-issue by knocking out any one of its bases of support, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be all about the most attention-gettingly evil base.

Some of the opposition to abortion comes from vile misogynist sub-scum, and it’s natural to react most strongly to those people because they’re fucking enraging. But without the support of earnest-but-misguided religious types, they wouldn’t matter politically. So perhaps the approach should be to just focus on the latter, and hope that the former will get what’s coming to them another day.

I don’t know how that would work, or even if it could. But I do know that it is a waste of time trying to change wicked people’s minds. Even one-on-one it is impossible more often than not. If @Gutierrez wrote to each of the medical professionals in their story, pointing out how they’d bullied grieving patients in medical need, for no reason at all, I would bet that every single one would find some way to excuse their behavior rather than confront the crippling, sleepless guilt they deserve.

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Quick reminder to all women here (and any men who have women in their lives who might find themselves in the situation): do not go to a Catholic hospital if you have any medical problem while pregnant, because this is exactly their stance. They will not do anything to try to save the life of a gestating woman until there is incontrovertible evidence that the embryo or fetus has been expelled.

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