The Third Shift

A House GOP memo obtained by Mother Jones argues for a controversial “prenatal discrimination bill” by referring to “black abortions” as distinct from abortions in general and claiming that “abortion is the leading cause of death in the black community.” The memo (PDF) was circulated by Republicans on the House judiciary committee on Monday in advance of Tuesday’s markup of Rep. Trent Franks’ (R-Ariz.) Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act.

Franks’ bill, which is also known as H.R. 3514, didn’t make it out of committee when it was introduced in the last Congress. But the fact that it’s now receiving a markup—a key step on the way to a floor vote—and that 78 cosponsors have signed on suggest that it could proceed to a vote of the full House before November’s elections. In addition to banning abortions based on the race or gender of the fetus, H.R. 3514 would give a woman’s family members the ability to sue abortion providers if they believed an abortion was obtained based on race or sex. Critics warn that it would be next to impossible to prove that an abortion was obtained on the basis of race or gender and fear the provision could lead to nuisance suits against abortion providers by family members who are opposed to abortion on principle.

So either we’re welfare kings and queens with all our kids out of wedlock or we’re killing our own children because we hate ourselves? YOU CAN’T FUCKING HAVE IT BOTH WAYS. Pick a stereotype and fucking stick with it.

Again, this is not about black babies — if the ostensibly pro-life cared about black babies that much, there would be better social safety net programs for their parents who can’t find decent jobs that cover the costs of raising a child, never mind the lack of available birth control or realistic, informative sex education.

This is about controlling women’s bodies and denying women equality. That’s the real basic point here and it can’t be compromised: you must pick whose rights are more valuable — an already living woman or the embryo inside of her. If you believe the latter’s supersede the former’s, then you are explicitly against equality for women. The Jill Lepore article at the link spells that premise out very well.

(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)