I Didn't Vote For This...

It's always about sex isn't it? 

Our elected government assemblies can't figure out how to do much of anything productive so they always default to something reproductive. When in doubt...moralize, criminalize or at best endlessly debate some aspect of sex. What's acceptable...what's not. What fits the ethics-du-jour. Who's doing what with whom. Who should use which restroom. And on and on ad nauseam...

Vis-a-vis, abortion...

The world teeters on ruin and yet, a woman's reproductive decisions and by extension, sexual life is the top priority this week in our governing chambers. There is a vigorous and extremely obnoxious march of morality among the mostly immoral, mostly white, mostly old, mostly male legislators to deny any woman...anywhere...any chance to have her own choice whether to or not to have a safe and legal abortion. The hypocrisy of this is mind boggling.

"Murder!" they cry. "Execution!" as they thump the Bible and pretend at piousness. "We must protect the unborn!" is the chorus of the agents of the theocracy. Of course, any sponsored form of government death is acceptable. Lethal injection jumps to mind for a start...but that's another story.

In a stunning rape of the separation of church and state, they have decreed that a shiny new soul is awarded the moment a sperm finds an egg and no choice is possible after that event. No woman, no physician, not even the father is better qualified to make decisions about this than they who sit in senates and on judicial benches. The Evangelicals have assured them that this is so. 

No circumstance or exception will be considered because every life is precious...at least until it can breathe on it's own and presumably join the military. 

No choice will be brooked. Punishment for an abortion will be swift and ruthless. Prison time will be mandatory for the mother and the doctor will share in retribution. The zealous at the statehouse will sit in judgement. They talk like Jules Winnfield quoting Ezekial in a diner. But unsurprisingly, there is no mention of keeping their own pants zipped. Who would think of denying sex to a congressman? Huh?

Abstain! Abstain!" is their mantra...as if they ever could or did. In their world, sex for the masses is only allowed for government approved, correctly gendered married couples and only for reproductive purposes. Wealthy and powerful men can do whatever they like but by God given strength of will and moral fortitude, no one else (especially women) will enjoy or even have sex. Does anyone really believe that these publicly indignant men would even attempt that? Look how chastity has worked out for the Catholic priesthood for the last thousand years...

Does anyone also believe that the wife, daughter or mistress of a "thoughts and prayers" senator would be unable to get an abortion should they choose or if it was convenient? And knowing they could...would it be performed in unclean conditions or with protesters marching outside the door? Would hers become the test case for Roe vs. Wade? Would she wear the scarlet letter and be shamed in committee or threatened on social media? I think not.

She will be able to afford the birth control that her male guardians are making impossible for her less-than-influential sisters. She will be able to travel...even out of the country if necessary. She will receive the care that the peasantry does not deserve. She will not be mutilated and will not die from infection. No one will bomb her clinic or murder her physician.

And that is the evil in this. All the "right to life" hand wringing and sermonizing doesn't apply to those who are taking away every woman's right to her own body. Wealth, power and privilege as always, provides a shield that separates 'them' from 'us'.

So women are required to carry every conception to conclusion but once born, all bets are off.  Once these children arrive, they are expendable.

That is the worst evil of all. There can be no support for the child or mother. Society, they say cannot afford to feed, clothe or house the children it demands be carried to term. Many may soon burn in the waste heat of unsustainable profits as the climate changes or starve before the next quarter...sacrificed at the alter of Lord Operating Ratio.  Only the for-profit prison system is happy to see them arrive...and yet we must make sure they and multitudes more are born. 

Planned, wanted or not...catastrophically incapable of surviving...the product of rape...none of that is of consequence...they must be born. They will be free to struggle and perish as necessary after birth...but until then, there can be no choice.

The elected have already decided that children should die by the thousands in front of guns...because the right to bear arms cannot ever be infringed lest the hollow men seem weak. They may die by the thousands in wars started by cynical leaders if only to prove how powerful they are. After the moment of delivery (or even during delivery) children have leave to die by more thousands because healthcare is a bridge too far to be agreed upon and none may trample on medicine-for-profit.

Time and again...'We can't afford to care for them all when they're young...we can't afford to care for them when they're old...we can't afford to educate them...we can't afford to pay them a living wage. They can have a firearm but they can't have birth control. They can lead a squad in combat but can't be trusted with their own bodies. We can't control designer drugs but we damn sure can make certain nobody outside the beltway ever gets a morning-after pill...

Listen, I could go on and on but the bottom line is...I will never, ever believe that any legislative body has any business regulating someone else's body. Get the hell out of bedrooms, doctor's offices and bathrooms and do something...anything that serves everyone. Find something to do that doesn't involve your own insecurities about sex. Just once...keep your Fundamentalist nonsense to yourself. You don't believe it anyway...

Because I and so many others are weary of yet another edition of the 'Moral Majority' that as they say...is neither.