Things I Don't Want To Talk About

[oselle]

I imposed a moratorium on talking about this kind of stuff on my journal but this is too extraordinary to pass up.

A group of conservative activists is pressuring the governor of Virginia to cut off all funding for Planned Parenthood (for my foreign readers, Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides gynecological services, including birth control and abortion, usually to lower-income or poor women Corrected: See july_july_july's comment below). Among those activists is an elected Republican official, Delegate Bob Marshall, who had this to say about his rationale:

“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican.

“In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

I suggest you take a moment and let that sink in. If you're a human being and not a conservative borg, your first reaction is probably to say that's despicable. And it is, but it's so much more than that.

Let's ponder the sheer insanity of this statement.

First: "The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically." Okay, I'd like Bob Marshall to produce some hard data on this. I want to see CDC/NIH statistics that women who have abortions, especially of a first conception, go on to have handicapped children.

Second: Note the blurring between pseudo-science ("nature takes its vengeance") and the Biblical malarkey that follows. Which one is it? Is this fictitious increase in handicapped children a biological side-effect of abortion or is it the wrath of God? Or does Marshall believe those are one in the same?

Third: How would Marshall explain the handicapped and seriously ill children born to women who have never had abortions? How would he explain the perfectly healthy children born to women who have had them? I'm sure if pressed on this, Marshall would stammer something about how he just meant that women who have abortions are playing Russian roulette with their future children. Okay, that argument might work if there were any scientific proof that abortion causes future birth defects, because biology is sometimes a guessing game. After all, some people can smoke for fifty years and still not get cancer. But since Marshall goes on to yammer about "special punishments," is he implying that the very terrible wrath of God is itself selective about these things? And if so, why?

Fourth: Based on Marshall's reasoning, as long as you bring that first conception to term, you're in the clear, because only the first-born is special in the eyes of God. So then can you go on to have as many abortions as you want? That's quite liberal of Bob Marshall.

Five: It goes without saying but I'll say it anyway: What kind of sick fucking bastard goes around saying that handicapped children are a punishment from God?

There are so many reasons to get outraged about this kind of shit but not the least is because, outside of blogs and more liberal news outlets like MSNBC, this sort of thing doesn't get coverage. The anti-choice religious maniacs in this country operate under the very positive-sounding label of "pro-life" and are usually depicted as people who just happen to have opinions and values guided by their Christian faith. This is baloney. They are not pro any life except the kind that they can exploit, namely fetuses and occasionally, people in irreversible comas. And as for their values? Their values are perfectly illustrated by Bob Marshall's statement: sick, backward, medieval perversions of both Christianity and any sort of natural human decency. THIS is how these people should be depicted. As the sick, twisted fucks that they are.

It should also be noted that according to Rachel Maddow, Planned Parenthood currently receives the whopping sum of about $36,000 in funding from the state of Virginia, primarily in Medicaid payments that are no doubt covering services other than abortion.

I really need to leave. The country.

Comments

[fates3.livejournal.com]

People like this opening their mouths just makes me crazy. Because that means there are people in the world who actually and truly believe this, and it's not just some fake fictional ridiculous character on TV being made up like I can pretend it is.

And what's worse is PEOPLE VOTED FOR THIS JACKASS!!!!

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

[emeraldus.livejournal.com]

These are the same kind of people who try to spin the abortion angle as being a genocide committed against African-Americans. Not to mention saying Haiti deserved what it got because they did some deal with the devil.

[july-july-july.livejournal.com]

FYI, this statement is misleading: usually to lower-income or poor women)

PP serves a wide range of tax brackets. Many middle to upper class women use PP because of their commitment to privacy and their top flight staff. In many places in America, regardless of what your bank account looks like, Planned Parenthood is the only way to get safe, accurate reproductive care. PP also serves a lot of men, caring for their sexual health too.

I'm an escort and this misconception is kind of a pet peeve of mine.

More than a pet peeve, the misconception that Bob Marshall believes he can interpret both the Old Testament AND God's will. Sticking feathers up your butt does NOT make you a chicken, sir.

[elvisglasses5.livejournal.com]

Word.

Sometimes I want to march all these Bible-quoting, right-wing arseholes to the edge of a very large volcanic crater -- quick! which ones are most active? -- and shove them in. And thrown rocks on top of them. Sarah Palin would be the first to go, followed by Dubya, Lindsay Graham and the rest of the vile ultra conservative Republicans from my state (SC).

But then Dick Cheney has "chest pains" and I SMILE. Like a crocodile. Does this make me a bad person? *blinkblink*

And, is the Virginia gov the one who gave the rebuttal to the SotU address? And hasn't he only be gov for like a month?

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

*jaw drop*

This shouldn't ever surprise me. And yet it does. Over and over again.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

There's so much wrong with this it almost seems like a joke to focus on one thing, but I can't get over that it's 2010 and we've got an elected official actually giving this as reasoning for where his funding goes. And this thinking is just getting worse. There's more and more encouragement to toss anything like rational thought out the window in favor of "common sense" about how you can't fund abortions because if a woman has an abortion all the rest of her children will bear the mark of Cain and have three legs.

[dnalia.livejournal.com]

What kind of sick fucking bastard goes around saying that handicapped children are a punishment from God?

They same type of people who say natural disasters are God's punishment for sinfulness. In other words, idiots.

[corbyinoz.livejournal.com]

In Australia, the far right religious nutters aren't anywhere near as prevalent or powerful (so emigrate here!). But there's enough of a whiff in the air to make me afraid (our deeply conservative Catholic leader of the Opposition, Tony Abbott, has been dubbed the 'Mad Monk' and recently, in a chat with a women's mag, talked about the 'special gift of a girl's virginity' and other things that sounded fresh and coherent in, oh, about 1840).

I think the thing that always staggers me - as a non-Christian, but one raised as a Christian and who knows the teachings pretty well - is how these deep-fried fruitcakes seem to miss the central tenet of Christ's teachings. Not the Old Testament, no, they're all across that Bronze Age nomadic law - it's Christ's thoughts about love, and compassion, and finding god in each other that seems to have flown right past this lot. These are ostensible followers of a man who argued for gentleness and peace, and there they are, outside Heath Ledger's funeral, screaming at his family about how he's going to Hell. And they're shoving photos in the faces of young, desperate women as they walk into abortion clinics, not for a second thinking of offering love and compassion. Do they honestly imagine that JC would be beside them, yelling, "Murderer!" and throwing bloody rags at these frightened children?

I hate the way a message of peace has been co-opted into a fanatical straitjacket in a bid to keep women in check.

[kjfri.livejournal.com]

My thoughts exactly - if I could be articulate in the face of his kind of idiocy.

[oxer12.livejournal.com]

First of all, having lived for 11 years in Richmond, this doesn't surprise me one iota. Morons like him are a dime a dozen in the VA government.

Second, thank God for Planned Parenthood. When I was temping and flat broke with no insurance I was able to go to them for birth control and checkups. It's a disgrace how little funding they get from VA, but again, does not surprise me. And you should see the PP building in Richmond. It's tucked away into the smallest corner possible, and you practically need a GPS to find it when you're standing 10 ft. away. Every single person working there was awesome. :)

[cpsings4him.livejournal.com]

Oh, FFS. I live in the south...therefore, I am not surprised. :-/