01 | October | 2012 | Existential Ennui

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Oh Sigh.

There is a lot to be said for the argument that the Religiosity Righties don’t really care that much about life. One is forced to conclude that they really don’t. They say they do of course, because it is an issue they think they can stick it to liberals with.

So they crusade. They speak for the unborn, the “might be’s” of America and arguably the world, though I’m not sure how excited they get about Arab abortion (not that it is likely high of course). They, pushed to their logical noose, now mostly claim that there are no exceptions, except maybe, for a few, the “life the of mother”. The devil of course would be in the details as to what constituted an appropriate “life of the mother” episode. One doctor? Two? A panel? A court hearing? Who knows.

Those of us on the side of choice, do so for many reasons, not the least of which is that with better health care for women, and better contraceptive care, more effective and available alternatives, the need for the abortion alternative can be effectively reduced. Who wouldn’t want that?

One would assume no one, but that is not the case. These people who trip over themselves to out Jesus each other, place no truck in Jesus’ statement, “those who are not against us, are for us.”

The Right has demonized the left to a degree that it is anathema to work with them on anything, even on things that they would mutually agree with.

Ignore they will, the polls that for years tell them that the bible belt contains the largest portion of unwanted, single mother pregnancies. The same polls suggest that these bible belt southern regions produce the most unwed teen girls. States that insist upon “abstinence only” as their basic “sex education” have the highest levels of pre-marital sex and pregnancy. They also have the most divorces but that is a whole ‘nother issue.

The politicians who have tied their wagon to the hue and cry Christianist* movement are worse still. Many of them don’t give a tinker’s damn about the issue at all, it simply suits their election demographics. And when you marry fervent emotional morality issues with tickets to election bliss, you get insane legislation that on the surface attains the desired goal, but in reality just makes a mockery of the entire thing.

Case in point.

Texas.

Now, based on the law of gravity, stupid, undisturbed, sinks, so it stands to reason that more stupid people live in the south than in the north. I say that of course maintaining that my town is a grave exception to the rule, being inhabited both by myself and the Contrarian, but seemingly other bright, good folks. (I’d also exception out any number of blogging friends too of course, since they are often times brilliant!)

I digress.

Back to Texas.

Texas is un-blessed with one of the more stupid of governors. You need not take my word for it. Remember the Republican debates? Enough said.

Well, in the name of stopping that filthy abortion, Dumb Butt Perry stopped funding state clinics that he deemed too tied to those bad abortion practices. By doing so, he automatically made his state ineligible for federal funds, denoted as “Women’s Health Care” funding.

Following the SG (stupid governor), the state legislature then cut off all funds in public health clinics for “family planning” –you know, like contraceptive care.

As a result according to a New England Journal of Medicine study, poor women are unable to secure the better forms of contraception, having to rely on older less effective methods. Do they realize what that means?

Okay, let’s make it easy:

A desire to screw Planned Parenthood and get in good with the crazy right voter, leads to lower funding for all women’s health care clinics.
Less funding means clinics can’t provide free of charge the best forms of contraception.
Poorer forms of contraception lead to more pregnancies.
More pregnancies mean are unwanted.
More unwanted pregnancies lead to—–wait for it—-HIGHER FREAKIN’ DAMN ABORTIONS YOU MORONS!

Okay, this leads me to request that forthwith, the public demand of anyone running for office that they prove they can READ and WRITE, and can ADD and SUBTRACT, and can correctly identify simply SYLLOGISMS–you know if A and B, then C you freaking stupid dork NOT F.

This shit makes me see purple. It’s so idiotic. It’s beyond idiotic. It’s unworthy of a cadre of chimpanzees to come up with. I pod of whales could do better. Hell my dog could reach a better result just by sniffing a few butts.

Women are people! They are not your special plaything to experiment on while you test out what gets you elected the fastest. And to those who claim this is a religious moral issue? You can’t define moral issue. You define immorality. Now go play with some snakes and talk some tongues, while the rest of us get on with developing a community of care for the citizenry of this country.

Really, I mean it.

Go sit down.

Really.

** Christianist is a term that I define as those on the fringes of the religious right who have used the Gospels to perpetuate their own aspirations for power, control and oppression. (This is Andrew Sullivan’s definition)