Republicans are no longer pretending they ever cared about exceptions for rape or incest

[Nevilledog]

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Mother Jones
@MotherJones
When you’ve won the decades-long mission to destroy reproductive rights, what purpose does feigning compassion serve at this point?

motherjones.com
Republicans are no longer pretending they ever cared about exceptions for rape or incest
The compassion cosplay has gone out the door.
12:00 PM · May 17, 2022

https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2022/05/republicans-fake-empathy-exceptions-abortion-rape-incest-kevin-stitt/

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Sunday defended the lack of exceptions for cases of rape and incest in the state’s new law that outlaws abortions after six weeks, arguing that there is still a “human being” inside the womb in those cases.

“I have daughters, I can’t even imagine what it would be like in that hardship,” the Republican governor told Fox News. “That is a human being inside the womb. We’re gonna do everything we can to protect the life and love of both the mother and the child—and we don’t think killing one to protect another is the right thing to do either.”

“Our heart is super compassionate about that,” he added.

The lack of exceptions for rape and incest is an extreme view, one that proved too much for even Donald Trump. But after Alabama passed a law in 2019 that left out exceptions in cases of rape and incest, similarly harsh provisions are gaining steam in the crop of abortion restrictions around the country.

In fact, Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts was also on the Sunday morning news circuit today pushing the same line. “They’re still babies,” Ricketts told CNN when asked if his plans to ban abortion would similarly leave out cases of rape or incest.

*snip*

[onecaliberal]

1. They're making rape legal and they know it. It's what they want.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Sure looks like they're working on it...

and they want to make sure that the woman feels the full negative effects of it, too, by denying her right to end any resultant pregancy.

Not hyperbole.

[SoonerPride]

2. I hate the governor of my state.

He is just awful.

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. I was called "ridiculous" 5 yrs ago when I said they would legalize rape and outlaw ALL

reproductive healthcare including contraception.

I was called "ridiculous" when I said MAGA (and there are what, 50 million of them?) would GLADLY authorize or stand by and allow THOUSANDS of us to be killed. Or millions.

I was called "ridiculous" when I SUGGESTED that MAYBE we need a high profile Democrat to go on CNN or whatever and accidentally but on purpose and rehearsed let the F word fly while DESCRIBING the END OF THE WORLD situation we are in if the GOP takes back the House or Senate. That this MIGHT get the attention of the FIFTY MILLION or more people, MOST of them under 40, who STILL dont realize they need to vote!

[Meowmee]

9. this

[Eliot Rosewater]

10. Thanks...and now we are literally not safe wearing a Black Lives Matter t shirt or

a Gay Pride shirt, I wear them most of the time anyway, but we are targets now.

Speaking of, wearing a Rosebud Motel or Schitt's Creek shirt is like wearing a Gay Pride shirt.

I love those.

[Meowmee]

15. Yes it is better

To be safe than sorry. I still have a nevertheless she persisted sticker on my car, thinking about taking it off.

[Midnight Writer]

4. Recently read Annie Jacobsen's book, The Pentagon's Brain, a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

In a section about the Manhattan Project, she describes how the greatest minds in physics at the time were assembled and kept in isolation. Like most assemblages of "nerds", game playing during their downtime was a big activity among them.

It was noted that the players who were most conservative politically would go for the throat in their games. Not satisfied to merely win, they wanted to crush and humiliate their opponent, to totally dominate the game and run up the score. If they won, they would crow and brag. If they lost they would get angry.

By contrast, the liberal scientists would do just enough to get the win, and, if in the lead, would actually ease up on their opponent and cut them a break.

It seems like this proclivity plays out in real life. The conservatives are not satisfied with a mere win, restricting abortion rights. They want to crush the opponent, totally end all abortions, regardless of the circumstances, even when common sense and medical realities are against them. Even if in practice it damages the conservatives and their loved ones, their bloodlust compels them to take it all, regardless of the price.

It's no accident that conservative politicians campaign more on winning, "owning the libs", then on building consensus and making sound policy decisions.

[BlueTsunami2018]

5. Yeah, and that's why we are where we are.

They play to win, to dominate. Our guys play by the “rules”.

There’s a reason “nice guys finish last” is a saying.

[tanyev]

8. That also reminds me of something I learned in "jail school".

I didn’t work in the jail, I worked in the administrative area of the sheriff’s office, but we all had to take the training. It was mentioned several times that the inmates had every waking hour to think of ways to game the system. Staff, on the other hand, showed up for their work shift, did their jobs and then left to deal with all the other things in their lives—kids, school, elderly parents, second jobs, groceries, house repair, etc. Their waking hours outside of jail work are filled with all these other things, but when they show up for their next shift they may be faced with someone who’s spent a lot of time planning something to mess with them.

In this analogy, Republicans are the inmates. They care not one bit about good governing. They spend all their time focused on gaming the system for their own benefit and sabotaging Democrats for fun and profit. Democrats are so busy trying to keep things going, repair damage caused by years of Republican neglect, and maybe, maybe make a few improvements that it’s easy to get caught off guard by yet another Republican offensive maneuver and you are forced to play catch-up to fix something else.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Honestly, if a person truly thinks abortion is murder, this is a much more honest position than

carving out the exception.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

7. If your stance is that abortion is murder, then the circumstances of conception should logically

be irrelevant.

Hence, no exceptions other than health of the pregnant person.

It's a logically consistent position, if you think about it.

Which is not the same as being 'right', to be clear.

[Wounded Bear]

12. They don't want that exception, either...

[Demovictory9]

13. they don't want the health exception either... years ago, they balked at believing there werent

options to the abortion.. that the woman would really die or suffer if the pregnancy wasn't terminated. a pregnant woman to them was like Madonna... in some kind of mystical condition rather than a biological condition.

[Novara]

14. They're also going to be prosecuting women

In the past they went after doctors and clinics with the assumption that the doctors and clinics were doing the imaginary harm. Now they're set to prosecute women themselves.

If you think repealing Roe punishes women, hold my beer. There's a whole world of hurt these motherfuckers can't wait to foist on women who take charge of their own lives and bodies. The name of the game is punishment for asserting autonomy.

I think most of us are smart enough to see that this right now is not just about abortion, although it never really was. But now they're going after severe punishment for women who dare to take control of our own lives. It's about pushing women down as far as they can push us. If that means charging us with murder for personal healthcare decisions, so be it. They don't give a damn. They want us cowering in fear of them.

Well, I say FUCK THAT.

[Solly Mack]

16. Stitt is against self-defense and (the) in the defense of another defense? Who knew?

" we don’t think killing one to protect another is the right thing to do"

So much for the "good guy with a gun" they like to mythologize.

If you've never considered abortion as self-defense, then you've never considered the various negative impacts of pregnancy on a woman's life.

Sure, abortion itself is the umbrella term for medical procedures that eliminate a fetus. Nothing more.

The value judgement placed on it is put there by people.

But then so is the value judgement on self-defense.

If all killing is wrong, then it would stand to reason that you wouldn't condone killing in self-defense or in defense of another. ("Good guy with a gun"...you would also be against the death penalty, of course)

Making Stitt against self-defense.

But I bet if you asked him, he would say it was OK to kill someone who has assaulted you, or if your life is in danger, or even if you just felt threatened by someone for whatever reason. (various Castle Doctrines in states)


Abortion is, first and foremost, about the bodily autonomy and right to self-determination for a woman. That bodily autonomy and self-determination includes reproductive rights and well as a woman's right to determine what is best for her in her life.

There are a lot of areas and aspects of a woman's life that fall under bodily autonomy and self-determination.

Both physical and mental wellbeing, which does include the right to self-defense to protect either and both.

[Hugin]

17. Here's what I often think about when stupid shit like this comes up...

Why is it, that the captains of ships at sea and pilots of aircraft have always been granted unquestioned ultimate authority over the lives of their crew and passengers and women are denied exactly the same authority over their own bodies?

It is purely based on the paternalistic system that the transit “common law” emerged in, because it was assumed those in the position of authority were men. Deemed competent for deciding matters of such gravity.

You will never find a zealot who would deny these powers to a captain or pilot because they still live under this sexist assumption.

Maybe to safeguard the rights of the mother during pregnancy they should be legally declared a captain?