Despite the fact that the abortion ban bill is likely to be shelved in Ohio, a House committee hearing went on with continued wackiness:
About 250 people, mostly supporters of abortion rights, crowded the building's largest hearing room while another 100 listened in on loudspeakers in the atrium two floors below.The bill likely will receive just one hearing and then be shelved, but Health Committee Chairman John White, a Springfield Republican and staunch abortion foe, said he scheduled the hearing because he wanted to give the bill "a rich going-over."
The only exception to the outright abortion ban in the bill is if a doctor, in trying to prevent the death of a pregnant woman, also terminates the pregnancy without intending to do so.
Oops--sorry I saved your life!
So crazy. I love that they have absolutely no shame in admitting that they could give a shit about women’s lives.
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I wonder if dear Dr. Willke's language is a giveaway, when he talks about "killing a baby for the crime of his father." One more reason for the fundies to oppose abortion: precious males may be lost.
No black humor attempted in response to the fact that follows in the story, however, about the 32,000 women annually who are impregnated by rapists. We are, in fact, apparently little more than uteri with legs.
"I don't see killing a baby for the crime of his father," Willke said.
Nobody's doing that. They're removing it from support it's not entitled to, the owner of whom having declined to provide said support. That's hardly on a par with murder.
And, more patronizing bullshit from Right to Life. Women "on the wrong side of women" indeed.
Wanting to survive a pregnancy that's going to kill the fetus whether it kills you or not is, apparently, on the wrong side of women. And then there's the "our side has been having children while their side has been aborting them." We have children too, and ours are chosen, not foisted on us against our will like they want.
I wouldn't even mind their strong anti-abortion stance so much (well, actually, I probably would, but bear with me) IF they weren't so strongly angainst birth control. I mean, if the conservative right was out there making sure all women had an abundance of birth control pills, morning after pills, birth control patches, and everything else, then at least it would be less likely for a woman to get pregnant when/if raped.
If would still be a careless, heartless position, but at least they wouldn't look like they WANT women to have unwanted babies.
EJ, you are so right. I'm from Ohio (my sis was at the hearing yesterday) and I just found out that they recently closed the only family planning clinic in the small rural county where I'm from. The unplanned and teenage pregnancy rate there is SKY high (not sure of the exact numbers, but I'm sure it's something crazy), but even with this evidence, the family planning center went down without ANY public outcry at all... to the point where my mom (who still lives there) didn't even know about it until a couple of months later. What's more unbelievable is that (and this is from NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio's website) there are about 175 'pregnancy crisis centers' in Ohio -- those fake centers set up by crazy right-wingers to scare women out of having abortions.
this shit is out of control.
So now does a women have to hope that a doctor will "accidentally" save her life if her baby is, say, hydrocephalic, or conceived unwillingly?
I can't believe the arrogance and stupidity of the people who drafted this bill. I'm glad it's getting shelved. I wonder how many women would have voted for it.
I have to agree with Jessica, though, that it's refreshing to at least see that they're not even trying to act like they give a shit about women. I really hate the "Women deserve better than abortion" argument...yeah, we deserve better than freedom, autonomy and personhood.