This May Be The Greatest Letter Any Elected Republican Has Ever Written

[tblue37]

28. You make the mistake of thinking that they want to eliminate abortion

because they think abortion is awful or because they are concerned for the well-being of the unborn children.

They want to eliminate abortion because they do not want women to have such options. They feel that if a woman has sex, she needs to be punished somehow, and hanging an unwanted baby around her neck is an effective way to make her suffer for daring to be a sexual being. Besides, a woman trapped in poverty is so much easier to control.

If they cared about children, they would not stop being concerned about them the minute they leave the womb. Remember the old slogan about how Republicans are concerned for the well-being of a child from the moment it is conceived until the moment it is born?

Look at the way Republicans slash to the bone (and attempt to destroy completely) every program that offers help and hope to children--WIC, welfare, food stamps, free and reduced lunch programs, MEDICAID, Headstart, etc. Any program that might help a woman provide for her children and ensure that they receive adequate nutrition and healthcare is on the chopping bloc.

Conservatives also do everything in their power to destroy public education, which has been historically the best route out of poverty. They also have turned state university systems, which originally offered those without wealth an opportunity to earn college degrees and become professionals without being trapped for a lifetime in indentured servitude, into profit centers that raise tuition at a rate much greater than the rate of inflation. Since Republican state legislatures have also cut funding for these colleges and universities, and also cut funding for grants that would help low- and moderate-income kids afford college, those students either have to forego college altogether or take on outrageous debt to pay for school.

They abhor contraception because they do not want women to enjoy sex without the possibility of catastrophic consequences.

Remember how so many religious conservatives opposed the HPV vaccine because they feared it would encourage young women to have sex by removing the fear of contracting and incurable STD? I think there are good reasons for being concerned about the long-term safety of that vaccine, but that is not why the religious conservatives opposed it. They didn't want young women to be able to have sex without risking HPV. Similarly, they do not want women to be able have sex without risking an unwanted pregnancy, and they certainly do not want them to be able to get out from under the long-term consequences of that unwanted pregnancy, either.

They don't oppose abortion for its own sake, but only because it offers sexually active women options in the event of an unwanted pregnancy; and since contraception also offers women the option of avoiding pregnancy from sexual activity, they are perfectly consistent in their opposition to contraception.

All the arguments that warn about the resurgence of back-alley abortions and the suffering and death that will result from such illegal abortions will not influence them, because the idea of women suffering and dying from such illegal botched abortions doesn't really bother them at all. In their minds, such suffering--and even death--is not too great a punishment, since after all, the dirty creature went out and had sex.

Look at the repulsive argument that inevitably crops up when such people rail against abortion: "She had her fun, but now she doesn't want to deal with the consequences." They think that having sexual "fun" is in itself such a disgusting transgression that no punishment would be too great.