All it takes is one voice. Singing so they hear what’s on your mind and when you look around you find, there’s more than one voice, singing in the darkness Barry Manilow One Voice
You know, when the Trump MAGA sh*t fire hose is set to full for nine years, it’s impossible not to feel Trump/MAGA fatigue. You’ve seen and heard it all so many times before.
But what people tend to forget amidst this toxic deluge is the fact that, for at least the last 16 years, long predating Traitor Tot, the GOP writ large, unable to win the battle of ideas, has instead devolved into a gang of bullies. They attempt to minority rule through fear, threats, and intimidation. And as we all know, the only way to deal with a bully is to knock his block off.
But their success has only emboldened them. As we speak, there are 20 states with restrictive Trump abortion bans on the books. And of those 20 states, 14 of them have Machiavellian exceptions for things such as rape, incest, unviable fetuses, and health and protecting the mothers life. All noble sounding, and engineered to show that the soulless ghouls that create these laws have compassion and concern for women. And of course all total bullsh*t.
As with all things MAGA, the cruelty is the point. The exception clauses are so obliquely and confusingly written, even a law PhD couldn’t concretely determine what does and does not constitute an exception to the law. And since the possible penalties for violating the law range from loss of their medical license, and terms of imprisonment ranging from 10 years to life, nobody wants to take the chance. Which is too bad.
Because that’s how you knock the bully’s block off. Let’s just try a simple, but totally possible hypothetical. A woman comes into the emergency room in extreme distress, basically bleeding out. It appears she’s having a mid term miscarriage of other life threatening event. The ER physician or OB-GYN determines that the health and probably the life of the mother is at risk, and performs an abortion.
The details of the case are presented to a county or state prosecutor for possible criminal prosecution under the states restrictive abortion law. And for the prosecutor to accept and go through with that case, the prosecutor would have to be a legal dunce so stupid that Traitor Tot himself wouldn’t hire him for his defense team. Sweet Jesus, the defense attorney’s closing argument literally writes itself;
Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury. When you were chosen for this case, each of you took an oath to retain an open mind on the facts and verdict in this case until both sides had presented their case, and the judge has instructed you in the law you are to use in your deliberations. Well, that moment is upon you, and there is only one verdict that you can return to this court with. Not Guilty.
Despite the myriad of legal and medical jargon, and the highly emotional testimony, the the actual facts of the case are amazingly simple. A young pregnant woman was admitted to the emergency room in serious peril. My client, a fully qualified, highly trained licensed Gynecologist with more than 15 years of experience fully examined the patient. And in his best professional opinion, he determined that the health and life of the mother was at risk, so he performed an abortion to ensure her survival.
And on the other hand, we have the state prosecutor, who is also highly educated, thoroughly trained, and I’m sure that he’s only trying to execute his duties to the best of his abilities. But what he’s not is medically trained, likely not even in basic life support, and totally inexperienced and unqualified in the practice of medicine.
Which begs the natural question. Who the hell is a medically untrained lawyer to dare to tell a highly educated, highly experience clinical Gynecologist what the proper course of treatment is for a patient the lawyer never even examined, and wouldn’t know what to look for if he did?
I will close with this, Ladies and Gentlemen. I’m pretty sure that none of you would go to your local auto mechanic for your open heart surgery. I know I wouldn’t. So why would anyone trust a lawyer to tell a highly trained clinician what the best course of treatment for a patient is? I humbly request that you return to this courtroom after your deliberations with a verdict of Not Huilty. Thank you. Your Honor, the defense rests.
Now, two things to consider when looking at this scenario, and both of them bolster my point. First, while a prosecutor can bring a criminal case, it is a jury that makes the ultimate decision on guilty or not. And armed with that simple fact, a prosecutor would have to be an imbecile to bring the charges in the first place.
So for, by my count, reproductive protection initiatives have appeared on the ballot in 10 states, and that’s not counting the ones on deck for this year. And so far, those states are 10-0 in favor of abortion. And I mean by blowout margins, it’s not even a fair fight. Knowing the animosity of the state’s constituents to these anti abortion laws, why would a prosecutor even try to pick a jury from an already hostile pool?
Last of all. By far the worst offenders are the inbred yahoos of the Texas legislature. Not only did they criminalize abortion for the providers, but they even tried to put a bounty on the head of anyone who even provides support or assistance to the pregnant woman in going to the location for an abortion service. And they made it open season by allowing out-of-state cretins to swoop in and try to collect a $10,000 payday.
To the best of my recollection, there has been one civil case filed by a carpetbagger trying to collect a bounty, and it was thrown out for a lack of standing. But the same thing holds true here as well. Why would a lawyer even want to file such a legal piece of sh*t lawsuit facing the same hostile jury pool as the prosecutor. And any cab driver, Uber driver, or even neighbor has a built in excuse. Hey, the lady got in and asked me to drive her to an address. How do I know she’s going to a doctor? And even if I took her to a medical office, how do I know what kind of doctor she’s seeing? She sure didn’t look pregnant. case Dismissed.
This whole Rube Goldberg contraption is built on fear and intimidation. And when just one brave soul takes them down, then everybody has the playbook. And then the tiger becomes as toothless as a newborn infant.
I thank you for the privilege of your time.
But they do. And, win or lose, they destroy the lives of everyone involved. Woman, family, doctor – they all suffer emotional stress, financial ruin, and public humiliation for making a decision only they have a legitimate right to be involved in. Vote Democratic!
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, Sec. 1, clearly states that no state shall pass or enforce a law that denies a person “the equal protection of the laws.” How can it be constitutional to pass laws that deprive pregnant women, and ONLY pregnant women, of medically necessary treatment?
Also, I understand why individual medical providers don’t want to risk prosecution and financial ruin. But the American Medical Assn. and similar organizations need to step up and be stronger advocates for providers AND patients on this issue.
Look it’s quite simple, the courts found a way to legally murder women.
Any MD that stands by and let’s a woman suffer 20 hrs, and then DIE because they were afraid, when she could have been saved, and making her young child an orphan, doesn’t deserve to be an MD. I guess that oath they take is as meaningless as all the oaths in this country. Of course part of the blame lies with our system of suits being brought without merit that lawyers are willing to gamble on. Doctors have been afraid of lawyers for a long time.