Last updated on 2012.12.22
Why do supporters of South Dakota's atrocious new abortion law, HB 1217, keep lying to us that the bill is just about informing women? Because lying is par for the course in the War on Women.
To understand, please, please, please read this outstanding article from AlterNet:
What will happen when a woman who wants an abortion is counseled at a Fake Clinic? The monstrous deception that occurs in the Fake Clinics has been exposed in films such as the HBO Special 12th and Delaware. Because the Fakes have a well-hidden agenda, everything they do is designed to frighten and shame a woman who knows it is not the right time for her to have a baby. This fraudulence is clearly set out in the instructions given by the diabolical Robert Pearson, who came up with this brilliant and evil plan way back in 1967 when abortion was first legal in Hawaii. Pearson himself acknowledged and defended the deception in a 1994 speech: "obviously, we're fighting Satan... A killer, who in this case is the girl who wants to kill her baby, has no right to information that will help her kill her baby. Therefore, when she calls and says, "Do you do abortions?" we do not tell her, "No, we don't do abortions." The volunteers in his centers and others like them don't mind tricking women because they think they are following some "higher law". They don't mind lying and misrepresenting things like the specious breast cancer-abortion link, the dangers of abortion, and most cruel of all, the help available to a woman who realizes that she honestly cannot support a child financially. The original Pearson manual includes: "[o]ur name of the game is to get the woman to come in as do the abortion chambers. Be put off by nothing... Let nothing stop you. The stakes are life or death" [emphasis mine; Charlotte Taft, "The Horrors Perpetrated by Fake Christian Clinics," AlterNet.org, 2011.03.27].
This dovetails with my concern about granting unchecked power over abortion to people who think they are on a holy life-or-death crusade. Little things like honesty, logical consistency, and personal autonomy don't matter when you're fighting Satan.
In South Dakota's law pushing these crusading lies, Amanda Marcotte recognizes not only theocracy (perhaps we should think of it as Anglo-Sharia?) but the semi-criminalization of abortion:
And most importantly, mandatory counseling is punitive. Most government-mandated counseling is in response to law-breaking, such as when drunk drivers or drug users have to go into treatment. And, unlike with CPCs, most government-mandated counseling is real counseling and not just ill-informed propaganda. But the point is that abortion is not illegal, and nor is it wrong or anti-social behavior. Punitive responses to abortion semi-criminalize it, and since the CPC punishment is coming before the abortion has even occurred, it's functionally punishing a woman for even considering abortion [Amanda Marcotte, "South Dakota's New Abortion Restrictions Reveal Theocratic Intentions," RH Reality Check, 2011.03.29].
Yes, South Dakota's forced fake counseling law really is that bad. Women, you're not being helped; you're being punished. Tea Party, we could use a little help here against this very real government oppression.
What abortion opponents do not consider is this blunt fact:
2003-2007: Republican President, Senate, House, and Judiciary. Roe v. Wade left untouched. Not even brought up.
Conclusion? No Republican administration will ever outlaw abortion, because it's too good a rallying cry with which to get votes. Instead, it will be used, as it's being used now, from state to national level, to distract people's attention from the real problems the country faces.