U.S. State: Rape/Incest No Big Deal
Growing up in Canada, my friends and I had certain stereotypical views of what we thought were dangerous areas of the world. If you smoked a joint in Turkey you'd be excecuted; Russia was going to nuke us at any moment; and Japan was secretly buying real estate in the US to take over the world. While we always thought of the U.S. as our cooler neighbours, even though we knew they were militaristic bullies, we were never scared of them. Nowadays though, the U.S. is becoming scary. The regressive Christian fundamentalist swing in some states would get the Taliban wet. My latest piece of travel advice for women: Don't go to South Dakota! If you are raped or a victim of incest, you will not be able to have an abortion. In fact, under no circumstances, save possibility of death, will you be able to have an abortion. The state is essentially saying 'we control women's bodies. If their minds are irreparably damaged as a consequence, fuck 'em'. And soon, if you happen to get an abortion out of state, you will be charged for practicing witchcraft and summarily burned at the stake.
posted by K-Dough at 7:40 AM
7 Comments:
you know - we've been much cooler than our southern neighbours for years now...
as michelina said in her comment - this is not surprising... and that is very sad...
for all we've learned in the past - it's terrifying and disheartening to think that we've not evolved at all in our thinking... the very fact that such a law could be passed just highlights how dangerous the US's swing towards ultra-conservatism is... and makes me that much more thankful to live up here...
Michelina- believe me- I can handle as much content as you can throw at me.
It is so difficult not to sound partisan on issues as disturbing as this. Bu I don't think this is about Democrats/Liberals vs. Republicans/Conservatives. The issue goes deeper than political affiliation. It is about the social direction of North America.
Despite the recent Tory win in Canada, I don't think anyone who is relatively objective is running around saying the sky is falling and the bottom has dropped out of our socially progressive national course - although some may say thank god for minority governments.
But this American regression is especially troubling. Despite the polls saying the nation is generally unsupportive of the Bush regime, we see these kinds of backward movements in social policy. What can it mean? The gap between our countries seems to be widening at an alarming pace.
This is all very disturbing. This law is tailor made for a constitutional challenge, giving the now very conservative Supreme Court a chance to revisit abortion, and perhaps overturn Roe v Wade.
This then brings up an even more disturbing point. Are we now witnessing state legislatures deliberately introducing unconstitutional laws so they can make their way to a conservative supreme court, hoping things go their way, and pulling America in the direction of fascist theocracy a small yet powerful minority appear to want it to become? I hope this is an aberration.
Chris you said: "pulling America in the direction of fascist theocracy".
It's pretty fantastic to imagine that courts and state legislatures are involved in some broad religio-fascist conspiracy. At some point you have to step back and realize that these policies are being legislated because either there is actually some support at the grassroots level for them OR the public is just too complacent, stupid and/or distracted to care what their elected officials are doing to the future fabric of their country.
Methinks it is a combination of both. The democratic crises in both the US and Canada are fuelled by morally-divisive ideas spurred by contrasting ideologies.That split is propagated by politicos, pundits and propagandists. I believe the balance would shift dramatically if both countries could get their voter turnout numbers up and re-invigorate the populous.
Unfortunately, historically, in countries as complacent as we are, it usually takes disaster, tragedy and crisis to motivate the mouth-breathing plebes into action. They are the most balanced of us all, yet their voices are missing from national debate.
I agree a conspiracy is fanciful, but you have to distinguish between means and ends here.
A small, well-organized group of Christian fundamentalists can exploit the apathy you describe to achieve aims far larger than their numbers would presume. It's rather like a legislative insurgency.
I encourage you to check out what's going on in South Carolina with the Christian Exodus group, and how their goals presuppose that their numbers needn't be that large to turn SC into a theocracy.
I doubt America as a whole will collapse into something out of the Handmaid's Tale, but it does seem that the fight is still on for many things most Americans take for granted, like a woman's right to choose her own reproductive destiny.
Chris- I hear ya. But aren't delusions of grandeur common to all cultish movements? Their goals don't necessarily correlate with achievable ends. Neither does their mistaken pre-supposition that their ideas are prevalent throughout society. The society just needs to be awoken to stop them from "exploiting...apathy".
Problem remains- how do you awaken a society so deeply blanketed by a trans-fatted, consumer-cultured narcosis?
Please Sir may I have some more soma.
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