When the Only Human Part of a Woman is a Fetus

Like I keep saying, as long as it's inside her body, it's as "human" as a malignant tumor.

Demand free, frequent, no-questions abortions on every street corner., and nothing less.

Digby:

Only the fetus is the image of God. Women who carry them? Meh.

I've written about this heinous bill before but I didn't think it would make it to the House floor. But I expect they'll get a vote. And I expect they will pass it. [The bill did indeed pass, to the everlasting shame of everyone who voted for it.]

H.R. 3803, a bill to ban abortions in the District of Columbia after 20 weeks gestation, is heading to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives after members of the GOP-dominated House Judiciary Committee yesterday voted in favor of it by 18 to 14. The bill would ban abortions in D.C. after 20 weeks, allowing an exception only to save a pregnant woman’s life.

The bill, sponsored by Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ), denies a woman access to a medically necessary abortion. It includes no exceptions for situations where continuing a pregnancy will place at risk a woman’s health or ability to have children in the future, for women who may have serious but non-life threatening medical conditions, are suffering from a severe mental illness, or who learn of a fatal or severe fetal anomaly. It would also subject a doctor to criminal penalties for performing a safe and legal medical procedure.

The majority of committee members rejected all proposed amendments that would have added minimal exceptions to protect women's health. The GOP majority, for example, voted against an amendment by Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) to protect cancer patients in cases where chemotherapy or other treatments to save a woman's life might interfere with her pregnancy.

Truly, we're coming closer to the moment at which they declare that abortion is wrong even to save the life of the mother, which is what they really do believe. Women who refuse to give their lives for their fetus are obviously selfish and unloving.

SNIP

This is a cruel law that won't be signed into law as long as the Senate isn't in GOP hands and Obama is the president. But they will keep trying until the moon and stars align for them.

 In some places, it's already happening.

Digby:

Dispatch from Gilead

Via RH Reality check:

A Tampa woman whom we only know as R.W., was raped. She was treated by the rape crisis center, who gave her two emergency contraception pills, one to be taken immediately and one to be taken 12 hours later. When she reported the rape to the police, they uncovered an arrest warrant on R.W. for failure to pay restitution and failure to appear. After she was arrested, a Hillsborough County guard confiscated her second pill, claiming it was against her religious beliefs.

I can hardly get past the arrest. A rape victim reports her rape and is arrested on an old warrant for failure to pay restitution? Really? That's the priority?

As for the allegedly "religious" guard, let's just call her what she really is: a fascist.

If this is true, it's an obscenity. But it's a natural extension of what's been happening with this hideous "conscience" exception to the law of the land. Taken to its natural extension anyone in authority can cite their religion to do whatever he or she wants , regardless of the law. When you look back in history you can see where that leads. In fact, America was formed by people who were desperate to get away from that horror.

Demand free, frequent, no-questions abortions on every street corner., and nothing less.