Comes the dawn…

IT’S ALRIGHT MR. KENNEDY, MY UTERUS IS ONLY BLEEDING . Marty Lederman points us to an interesting WaPo article, in which a few members of America’s tiny minority of serious, principled "pro-lifers" have come to see that "Partial Birth" bans are silly, irrational laws whose primary purpose is to separate money from their wallets and funnel it to the Republican Party. Focus on the Family, however, maintains that the bans do have an upside: the law does increase the "danger of internal bleeding from a perforated uterus." If you don’t believe me that most of the American forced pregnancy lobby cares a great deal more about punishing women for sexual choices they don’t approve of than protecting fetal life, well, I say we take their word for it.

And, again, this explains the sexism in Kennedy‘s opinion; you take it away, and the legislation has no connection with a legitimate state interest at all. As you can see, most anti-choicers (despite the bad-faith congressional findings that 2+2=171) don’t really think that these bans on a safer procedure protect women’s physical health. They simply believe that women can’t be trusted to make judgments about their own lives, and if this causes some women to be seriously injured that’s a feature, not a bug. It’s almost impossible to overstate how disgusting this legislation is, and how deeply entwined outright misogyny is with the American "pro-life" movement.

From the Washington Post article in question…

Supreme Court Ruling Brings Split in Antiabortion Movement

In a highly visible rift in the anti-abortion movement, a coalition of evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic groups is attacking a longtime ally, Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson.

Using rhetoric that they have reserved in the past for abortion clinics, some of the coalition’s leaders accuse Dobson and other national antiabortion leaders of building an "industry" around relentless fundraising and misleading information.

Misleading?  Dobson and company?  Oh good heavens no…

In an open letter to Dobson that was published as a full-page ad May 23 in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Focus on the Family’s hometown newspaper, and May 30 in the Washington Times, the heads of five small but vocal groups called the Carhart decision "wicked," and accused Dobson of misleading Christians by applauding it.

Carhart is even "more wicked than Roe" because it is "not a ban, but a partial-birth abortion manual" that affirms the legality of late-term abortions "as long as you follow its guidelines," the ads said. "Yet, for many years you have misled the Body of Christ about the ban, and now about the ruling itself."

…

Another signer, the Rev. Bob Enyart, a Christian talk radio host and pastor of the Denver Bible Church, said the real issue is fundraising.

"Over the past seven years, the partial-birth abortion ban as a fundraising technique has brought in over a quarter of a billion dollars" for major antiabortion groups, "but the ban has no authority to prevent a single abortion, and pro-life donors were never told that," he said. "That’s why we call it the pro-life industry."

In Rohrbough’s view, partisan politics is also involved.

"What happened in the abortion world is that groups like National Right to Life, they’re really a wing of the Republican Party, and they’re not geared to push for personhood for an unborn child — they’re geared to getting Republicans elected," he said. "So we’re seeing these ridiculous laws like the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban put forward, and then we’re deceived about what they really do."

No shit Sherlock.  That gang has been manipulating your hatred of women and homosexual people to rise money for fucking decades.  Welcome to the real world asshole.  Your cheapshit knee jerk prejudices are like keys on a piano to them.  And as long as you allow your hatreds to lead you around by the nose, they’ll keep playing you for all the money you’re worth.

When you signed on to a movement to grind hopes and dreams of women, of gay and lesbian people for love and happiness and and that intimate peaceful contentment in the arms of someone they loved into the dirt, I guess it didn’t occur to you that perhaps the people running it might be a bunch of soulless conniving thugs.  But think for a moment, if you have a single functioning synapse left in that thing you call a brain…what else could they have been?  What kind of person does that to innocent people, jackass?  You thought the sort of person who incites fear and loathing and hate toward lovers was trustworthy?  Trustworthy?  I’m laughing in your face.  If you had a shred of conscience you’d have seen him for the predator he is the moment he approached you with his little sales pitch.  Give me your money, and I will wage holy war on the sex lives of the heathen…   But you couldn’t.  You couldn’t do anything but fall for it, because your hate, your contempt, and your cheapshit conceits made you weak.  So you got taken advantage of.  And if I’m sorry for you about anything, it’s that all you lost was your money.  Look into the face of someone who lost the possibility of love sometime asshole.  You’re both predators.  The only difference between Dobson and you is that he wants to enrich himself.  You just want to see hope die, so you can feel righteous.

They say you can’t cheat an honest man.  But I’ll tell you something: it’s real easy to cheat a bigot.  All you gotta do, is wave that scarecrow in his face, and he’ll dance for you.  Like you danced for Dobson.

Quick!  Send Money!  Now!  Before the homos take over!!!