There they go again, talking about later term abortions in the same terms as a 1st trimester abortion. It is true an anti-abortion purist views all abortions as wrong. Post Dobbs we are learning just how wrong these purists are. Enter GOP Minnesota Rep Tom Emmer’s remarks on FOX News on Sunday comparing abortion to Chinese genocide. Hog Wash! Roe vs. Wade in no way resembles the rescinded one child Chinese reproductive policy. Pro-Choice people were totally against the Chinese One Child policy because it took away the parents’ choice. To compare abortion rights to forced abortion reproductive policy is a straw man argument taken to absurdity. Pro-Choice is exactly what it says. Choose to give birth. Choose to end the pregnancy. That is Pro-Choice. Emmer fails to comprehend his anti-abortion stance is just as repugnant as the China one child policy to a Pro-Choice activist.
If you need to hear it, you can see it below.
Like many Anti-Abortion activists, Emmer speaks disinformation fluently when he says the polls say the midterm elections are primarily about the economy. Apparently, Emmer hasn’t read these polls. Abortion truly is on the ballot. How important abortion will be is all from the viewpoint of the voter. Where we were in mid July 2022 and then in August 2022 shows a shift toward abortion playing a bigger role in voter decision making than the GOP would like. It looks like a composite of issues are coming together where it’s not just abortion, but it’s voter rights, human rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, marriage equality, climate change, energy policy, racism, misogyny, and so on goes the list. The end of the vector analysis is the choice on the ballot is personal autonomy vs. authoritarianism. Do we want a candidate that supports real freedom or a candidate that feels entitled to tell you what to do, say and think?
As a woman, my insights and the conversations I have had; has shown me that my conservative family and friends are now seeing the nuances of abortion rights. They are, in fact, seeing the nuances of all our freedoms. Mask shaming (in either direction) is so juvenile. The real freedom of being able to get health care according to our personal values for our families is real. Being able to enjoy Drag Queen Story Hour without harassment has an appeal to anyone who would just like to live and let live. Since when did exercising good manners go out of style? The GOP cannot count on people who are weary of their chaos to vote to continue the chaos. The GOP cannot count on conservatives who exercised their “Me Exception” (and got an abortion or obtained one for a loved one) to vote for a extreme anti-abortion candidate. They saw the need for exceptions, first hand. This is the jelly spot of the hard abortion bans without well-defined exceptions. It’s about real freedoms. It’s about watching our loved ones suffer when their pregnancy takes a deadly turn, because the doctors and hospital are afraid of the risks to render effective care according to the best standards of care.
Abortion Rights don’t fit into neat compartments, which was the jelly spot in the near 50 year old Roe vs. Wade decision. It was the hard edges of 12 weeks and 24 weeks that really don’t fit. The so called heart beat bills are just as bad as the pulse heard at 6 weeks is not a heart beat, but it will grow into one some weeks later. Florida’s 15 week limitation is also absurd as it can force the pregnant person to experience sustained symptoms of sepsis before they can end the pregnancy. Why can’t the termination be done to prevent sepsis? Because Ron DeSantis said so! Roe vs. Wade allows abortion for any reason in the 1st trimester. After that, abortion is regulated for patient safety and in accordance with acceptable standards of care. As the pregnancy continues, later abortions require a reason to be both compelling and well documented. The GOP would like people to believe there is never a good reason to end a pregnancy at any time after conception. Emmer is betting on the pre-Dobbs anti-abortion voters staying with him.
So is Senator Marco Rubio, who this weekend created a dust up over abortion rights with Val Demings. Our local South Florida CBS4 reporter got Val Demings to say she supports abortion rights up to viability. The follow up question was does that mean 24 weeks? Demings says that’s up to the woman and her doctor. To the GOP dominated National Review, this is an “incoherent” response. To me, it tells me Demings knows pregnancies can go sideways at any point in the pregnancy. It tells me Demings knows viability isn’t defined by a week of gestation, it’s a group of factors taken together to give a prognosis that the baby will successfully leave the womb and successfully breathe air and ability to thrive outside the womb. There’s a lot of factors to consider. Demings is coherent. The correct answer on viability is a case by case situation analysis. Viability is multi-factorial with the answer being anywhere between 22 and 36 weeks dependent upon the parents’ resources and abilities to care for a disabled baby. The anti-abortion fanatic cannot accept this reality, but their voters have been forced to contemplate just what a ban on almost all abortions truly means for their personal freedom.
Let me spell it out to the National Review, Val Demings is spot on in not specifying the normally accepted 24 weeks for viability. She knows a baby without a skull is never viable. She knows if the the water breaks at 18 weeks, there is not a good indicator of viability and it’s doubtful the shot to force surfactant development might not be enough to make this baby viable. She knows that a problem identified at 27 weeks gestation that gives the prognosis of the baby dying within hours of birth is not viable. These facts are too much for the anti-abortion activist to comprehend. It’s all too comprehensible for the parents faced with a troubled pregnancy. To them, they are hearing God telling them, not this baby, not this time. The anti-abortionist can’t see this for what it is, a valid choice. Val Demings understands it’s really none of her business to butt into a decision like this. Rubio and Emmer are betting on women wanting their interference, when Demings (and me) are sure they do not. Emmer and Rubio think everyone looks at abortion as simply as they do.
Pro-Choice people know abortion is simpler in the 1st trimester (up to 14-15 weeks, usually), but after that, it’s anything, but simple. The decision to have an abortion is usually the easy part. It’s the logistics of getting the pills or arranging the visit to the abortion clinic that’s difficult. Child care arrangements must be made. What to say to family and friends is difficult. I know most obstetricians tell parents who have later abortions to just say they lost the baby and that talking about it is too difficult right now. That is a true statement. That works for all but the most obtuse of friends and family. As more states lay on more obstacles to care, the more difficult this vital care is to obtain.
I am sure anyone who has been pregnant knows how vulnerable they are during the pregnancy. I am sure anyone who loves anyone who has been or is pregnant has had fears for their loved one while they were pregnant. What we don’t need are politicians like Tom Emmer or Marco Rubio making pregnant people more vulnerable than they already are.