Soapbox? *check* Righteous Indignation? *check*

If that cup of Cafe Bustelo hasn't soured your stomach yet, reading over the morning news will, which is why I usually recommend avoiding both whenever possible (avoidance and/or denial being a time-honored tradition and mental health staple for the ol'Antigiest and like-minded sanity seekers everywhere). But not today kids. Today we have to pay attention.

The new abortion bill was passed in the senate yesterday and has been promised to be signed into law, with lightening speed, by our totalitarian-in-chief. I'll spare you the diatribe on how beyond disgusting and heinous it is for Republicans to use this particular issue to polarize their party for the upcoming election, what a bold-faced manipulation of a topic (everyone can agree) is bound to raise passions and produce knee-jerk reactions. I'll spare you that. But putting lives of thousands of women a year on the line for your fucking political gain?... you sicken me. You bastards.

How can we allow "a piece of legislation that for the first time in history bans a medical procedure without making any exception for the health of a woman"? --which, if you are unfamiliar, is the primary reason for the procedure to be performed in the first place. Yes, partial birth abortion is a horrifying thing. I cannot image being the mother, the father, the partner, or the doctor who is faced with the decision to (yes, I will say it) murder an unborn child. However thanks to modern medical advancements it is a decision that has to be made very rarely, a fact that seems to have been lost in this debate. Less than 0.2 of the abortions performed each year are partial birth, a tiny, tiny percentage of the whole; almost all of which are performed to keep the mother from dying due to complications during pregnancy or child birth. When you take that into account, and consider that we have existing viability laws on the books to prevent late-term abortions (and protect the living), this new legislation provides a shocking revelation: the Senate's opinion that a woman has no worth other than her ability to be an effective baby-making factory.

If this bill makes it past the Supreme Court I may have to shoot myself (one more useless female down, half the population to go!). My sincere wish is that all the motherless daughters who will be brought into the world because of this bill will be able to grow up proud knowing their country has legislated that her uterus, and it's contents, are infinitely more important than she is.

In lighter news, President Bush backs another bill which will give weathly special interests a well-deserved leg up. (Surprise, surprise!) There's no chance we unemployed and underemployed will get to see a doctor any time soon. And, who would have guessed, oil companies produce pollution and blame the infamous "Not Me" made popular by Family Circus.

Posted by Antigeist at October 22, 2003 12:25 PM