No, Denny. Not being played. True, abortion has not been outlawed but over 87% of counties no have no providers, and it has been so restricted as to be unavailable for many women, especially low income and rural women. When the clinics are forced to close, when women have to come up with an additional $400-700 for an unnecessary vaginal probe ultrasound, longer and longer waiting periods requiring multiple visits to clinics hundreds of miles away, well, in Texas women are now regularly crossing into Mexico. And the Supreme Court reopened the late term abortion ban that they had previously overturned because it contained no exemption for a woman's health - and this time upheld it. Women are not being played. We have a VP candidate who cosponsored a bill to outlaw ALL abortion and most forms of birth control and a presidential candidate who said he would "absolutely" sign it and would appoint Supreme Court justices of like mind.
Look, Mourdock and Akins and Ryan may not like it, but the United States of America is NOT a theocracy. Anyone can believe a tragedy they themselves will never face is what their god intended, but they have no right to make that thought the law for the one facing the tragedy. And theologically Mourdock's comment makes no sense. Either god is all powerful or he is not. (I am sure Mourdock would not consider a god who wasn't a "he".) If he's all powerful and intended the pregnancy, he must have intended the rape. If he did not intend the rape to happen, but it happened anyway, he's not all powerful. Most believers, including most Christians, don't say that horrific agony is what god intended, first because of the theological knot it ties them in, but also because most people (Republican congressmen and some posters here excepted) are too compassionate to tell a horribly suffering person their agony is what their god intends.
Which brings me to the totally bs "rape, incest, life of the woman" exception. It's really a way to force every woman to carry to term while pretending to be nice. Rachel Maddow talked about the so called rape exception last night but I don't need Rachel for that, I thought of it myself. Does the rape or incest need to be reported? Rape is one of the most underreported crimes, incest even more so. Who decides if it was rape? The woman? The rapist? The cops? The DA? The judge? her Congressperson? Most rapes are committed by a person the victim knows; if he says it was consensual is that raped enough for an abortion or not? What if the DA says not enough evidence and doesn't indict? If a jury believes the woman but says the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt? If the jury believes the woman was forced but thinks she deserves it? If the jury convicts and the man appeals? These are all real life situations. Would the woman be raped enough to get an abortion if she wants one? And the bill cosponsored by Congressmen Ryan and Akin would redefine rape so most rapes become non rape, including statutory. Currently, if a girl is below a certain age it's rape by definition. Would the raped and pregnant 10 year old have to prove she fought back enough for it to be real rape? Mediocre man shows his contempt by describing forcing a rape victim to carry to term in terms of convenience. Like transit being behind schedule. You know, Max was 10 minutes late and I was raped and forced to carry to term. How very inconvenient.
There are a few conditions like ectopic pregnancy where it can be said 100% of the time the woman will die if pregnancy is not terminated but medicine is rarely so certain. What does the likelihood of a woman's death have to be before "life of the woman" kicks in? 90%? 75%? 51? What? What if the pregnancy won't kill her but another condition would? For example, a woman with breast cancer gets pregnant and has to end chemo during pregnancy. The pregnancy won't kill her, but the untreated cancer will. That is also a real life situation. How near death does a woman have to be? In Latin American countries with personhood laws, if a woman has an ectopic pregnancy, 100% fatal, she still can't get an abortion. Instead she is checked into a hospital to wait in excruciating pain for how ever many days it takes for her fallopian tube to rupture. When the tube ruptures, the embryo (then about 1" in diameter, with no distingushing features) explodes. After the embryo dies, the woman can then be treated for the resulting hemorrhage and infection. Maternal mortality is way up in those countries.
How very inconvenient.
