Bite my tongue. What a title for me, a long time supporter of Pro-Choice rights, to compose. But its come to that much to my amazement. I am inclined to blame Hilary Clinton for being such a lousy presidential candidate. A woman who is whip smart but tone deaf, who worked hard and proved that she was up to the Oval Office, but who because she dissed cookie baking years ago and turned a blind (or not so blind) eye to her husband’s philandering was propelled by her martyrdom into breaking that last glass ceiling. Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and her own smug campaigning killed her chance and elected a man, who has probably made more use of abortions than any other President in US history, the chance to appoint his second Supreme Court Justice. And he might get a third or fourth appointment before he’s out of the White House.
So, Rowe is on the ropes.
As a young man who was well equipped to make some poor woman’s abortion necessary in 1974 (The year of Roe v. Wade)
I’ve thought long and hard about the subject. Not that I was ever very likely to father a child out of wedlock. I’ve only had two sex partners in my life. One was my wife and before her a woman who was 14 years my senior. I had, and still have, a visceral disgust toward men who risk impregnating women with no intention of taking responsibility.
And yet, in those early years of the pro-choice movement I did not think a married man’s rights should be ignored when his wife became pregnant. Nor did I think, as some Women’s Libbers infamously did, that they should have complete freedom to decide the fate of the children inside their wombs right up until birth.
The playing field is vastly different today than it was in 1974.
Back alley abortions to save a women’s reputation are gone, although it’s possible that they might spring up again. Record numbers of single women give birth often with few regrets about the absence of an active father post-delivery. This may not be true in the third world but for most women in America it is only an inconvenience reputation-wise. Child rearing-wise its frequently entirely different.
Secondly, women, at least those with some resources, no longer have to fly to Sweden to get a legal abortion as was the case pre-Roe. Poor and young women may be in a bind but the termination of Roe will leave behind something that already exists – a state by state abortion checkerboard. Woman wishing an abortion will only need to drive to the closest state with the fewest hassles.
The only way to prevent abortions nationwide will be to pass a Pro Life Amendment. Considering the fact that Republicans want to curb immigration from nations whose people look askance at abortion it will be a long time before three fourths of the states will pass such an amendment.
In 1992 I argued that Republicans anti-abortion mania existed in a vacuum with no similar concern for children. In all the years since my critique they still show little compassion for children. They prefer promiscuous gun rights to curbing gun toting school shooters. They have dragged their feet about making sure that children have the full protection of health insurance. And boy howdy do they hate raising taxes for poor children’s schools. Screw the Republicans. And Screw the self-proclaimed Christians who champion Republican anti-children values.
One thing does give me hope. Trump’s future Supreme Court appointments will be made after the “Me Too” movement he inspired has finally raised women’s hackles about the ill treatment powerful males have inflicted and continue to inflict upon them. That will be a healthy counterbalance.
That is my prologue. I’ll wait to write the rest until I get elected to Congress.
Good luck getting Trump butt sniffer, Commissioner Pete Stauber, to deviate from the Trump camp. I don’t much like the company Pete keeps – like the young man Pete is pictured with in one photo who once told a Republican convention that I was a mass murderer worse than Mao, Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler put together.
No, Pete. It’s your Republican party that is riddled with self-righteous child neglecters.
I’d like to change that.
