General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: If we do not pull together on DU, we will fly apart. [View all]Hekate
(100,133 posts)Please get this straight:
THERE ARE ALREADY RESTRICTIONS ON LATE TERM ABORTIONS. THERE ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.
ROE VS. WADE WAS WRITTEN WITH RESTRICTIONS IN PLACE FROM THE 4TH MONTH ONWARD.
LATE TERM ABORTIONS ARE PRACTICALLY NON-EXISTENT, AND ARE ONLY USED IN EXTREME MEDICALLY NECESSARY CASES.
What the anti-choice zealots want to do is ban all abortions for any reason at all, and in places where they have won they are now working on banning most popular forms of contraception by lying about contraception being an abortifacient. Contraceptive means are not abortions, because they prevent pregnancy, but try telling that to one of those fanatics.
The anti-choice movement has managed to eliminate a legal medical procedure, one necessary to many women in their lifetimes, from safe access throughout most of the country. This hits hardest on rural women, who must often travel overnight to a large city.
What you describe as "the absolute most that may happen" has actually been on the books since Day One, and for good reason. Late-term abortion, as I said, is extremely rare. It is a dangerous procedure for women, and difficult for doctors.
Anti-choice zealots are not concerned with that fact; what they want -- and what they are getting -- is an outright ban on all abortions, and for Plan B (which is not an abortion, but a contraceptive), and IUDs, and birth control pills. Anytime you see a "personhood amendment" on the ballot, understand that it will grant full personhood not only to a one-day blastocyst, but will ban the means of preventing that blastocyst from forming in the first place.
At least 4 of our current Supreme Court Justices are in favor of eliminating Roe vs. Wade. Whoever thought they would help overturn the Voting Rights Act; whoever thought they would assert that unlimited money from even foreign corporations is equivalent to free speech when donated to political campaigns? Yet they have done so.