“NO WIRE HANGERS!” (Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford)

Ok, you might think  I’ve gone round the bend.  Lost my mind in fact.  However, just for a moment consider how far backwards we’ve travelled and how quickly, and the complete and utter fanaticism of the forced birth zealots and tell me I’m the crazy one.  Even if you never saw Mommy Dearest at some point you’ve probably heard the expression “No wire hangers!” and know it suggests someone going nuts over something trivial.  However, the loss of reproductive rights that’s already happened and the fact the forced birthers are nowhere near done imposing their will on everyone else is anything but trivial.

Is it crazy not to wonder how long it will be before some “Christian” leader or legislator gets “inspired” by all the people who believe in freedom and choice and especially when that choice is about abortion and reproductive rights makes the connection in their minds between those Coat Hanger memes, or stuff about back alley abortions and thinks “My GAWD.  Women will start using coat hangers to abort babies.  We gotta stop that!”

Mark my words, at least some of these folks who wouldn’t ban an assault weapon if their own kids were mowed down in school with one will, in the name of stamping out abortion including women trying to give themselves one will seriously (despite the risks – they don’t care about a woman dying by injuring herself but the fetus, or to them baby?  Well that’s another matter!) consider, if not vote for a law that bans manufacture of and even possession of wire coat hangers!   Yeah, it sounds crazy as hell but these people are object lessons in not just crazy, but bat-sh*t INSANE.

Instead of “No Wire Hangers” their message will be “BAN Coat Hangers.” (with pictures of the wire ones.  These people know marketing and can flood the zone (so to speak) to ensure everyone knows they only mean wire coat hangers.  It’s stupid.  It’s crazy.  But it’s exactly the kind of thing millions will lap right up.  And donate money for too!  Hell, if as I read a while back Faye Dunaway (who played Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest) went conservativemight get coaxed out of her quiet retirement to front the campaign – complete with her (or a look-alike) beating a pro-choice woman (wearing a t-shirt, or carrying a sign) with a wire hanger screaming NO/BAN WIRE HANGERS!

I’ve waited to try and write about this until I could write drafts that wouldn’t require tons of deleting profanity.  And line-crossing stuff about how karma might, just might enact a measure of… well I won’t say what karma might do to RWNJ fanatics racing to not just outlaw abortion but criminalize it.  Criminalization directed at not only those who access the service but those who provide it, or assist someone in obtaining one.  Or even given them advice on how to access abortion services.

I’ve said the main part already, but this is me and I’m sorry but this is just too fooking important to leave it at that.  This is a topic that requires a serious, meaningful look in to.  So here goes:

The race has been on for GOP controlled states to not only enact virtual, if not actual abortion bans but to see who can wind up with the most draconian measures.  I happen to live in NC where the state legislature is viciously gerrymandered to give the GOP control as in supermajority or near supermajority control for a long time now.  (And they are about to make sure Congressional Districts go back to being that way but that’s another story for another time)  Now, keep in mind North Carolina is a purple state.  Voter registrations and polling of independents bears that out.  It’s been that way for some time.  However the black red magic of gerrymandering renders that fact meaningless.

Until last month, in the current legislative session the GOP was ONE seat short of again having supermajority status in both chambers and therefore the ability to override a veto from Democratic Governor Roy Cooper who by the was is in his second term.  Enter Tricia Cotham from Mecklenburg County.  (Charlotte, NC)   Ms. Cotham is in her mid forties.  She used to be a pro-choice Democrat.  Endorsed by Emily’s List, and other women’s organizations and she made a notable pro-choice speech in the legislature back in 2015 about her own abortion and the need to preserve the same choice she had exercised.  That a bunch of legislators shouldn’t be deciding for each woman what the best thing for her to do was.

Cotham ran, and was re-elected.  As a DEMOCRAT pushing regular Democratic platform stuff including access to abortion.  However, somewhere along the line she now tells us she felt underappreciated, even disrespected by her Party.  I’m not sure if this started before or after her latest re-election but by this spring her precious ego and fee-fees were butt-hurt enough that last month she switched over and joined the GOP!  And she went whole hog including adopting a “pro-life” stance!   So since she’s apparently done with having children (mid-forties – probably had her tubes tied of hubby got a vasectomy) and no longer needs access to abortion services she’s told women in this state she doesn’t care how badly they are hurt.  How many will be forced to bear children that they can’t afford.  Or will have debilitating medical conditions that mean no hope of survival for the fetus.  Or carry stillborns still in the womb to term with all the medical risks involved.  Or as a result of this or other complications will wind up unable to bear children in the future if they want to.  Or DIE!  Oh, any of HER loved ones that are women will be able to afford some “medical tourism” to access abortion services, as is the case with all these smug a$$holes in elected office.

But Cotham has turned her back on women.  She had access when she needed an abortion but since she doesn’t need it anymore she’s decided to pull up the ladder behind her!

For much of my life (Roe v Wade was handed down when I was in high school) whenever forced birth zealots were attacking abortion rights Coat Hangers have been the symbol for those trying to protect Choice.  And when Trump got to shove three “Justices” on to SCOTUS everyone’s fears were quickly realized.  They wasted no time in taking a case that had been heard already that had to do with rolling back the time frame in which an abortion could be obtained (along with other restrictions) and “amending” it to overturn Roe.  And GOP states were ready with pre-written legislation ready to introduce and the votes lined up to ram it through.  Hell, some already had laws enacted that would kick in as soon as Roe was overturned!  Others as I said raced to catch up.  Now it’s become a contest in cruelty to see who can be the harshest on abortion.

Well, I’m a guy so I can’t fully know how devastating all this is for women.  But can and DO care.  Always have.  Growing up, before Roe my mom had more than one talk with me about the time coming when I’d be having sex and that I’d by god better be responsible.  And NOT have sex unless the issue of birth control was taken care of.  And that no matter how strong desire was, make damned sure not to rush something like putting on a condom.  But hey, even when properly used condoms are at best 90% effective.  And while much more reliable birth control pills don’t always prevent pregnancy either.  Especially when a woman, say one I was with for years and didn’t want kids any more than I did would screw up her “anti-baby pill” (her term) regimen.

I first heard horror stories about the bad old days of back-alley abortions and coat hanger stuff from my mom but I’d hear an awful lot more of it over the years.  And that’s exactly where we are headed BACK to.  For states where abortion is still legal and safe even for women that can somehow get to them there’s still a problem of access to services.  There are only so many clinics that can treat so many patients needing an actual procedure.  And now we have ONE maniac federal judge that’s thrown medication abortion which is by far the more commonly used form now into question.  In the meantime GOP states are busy making even medication abortions difficult, if not virtually impossible to legally obtain.

For example the new NC law doesn’t just impose new restrictions on facilities that provide surgical abortions, it also rolls back being able to obtain a medication abortion to ten weeks.  But that’s not all folks.  A woman will be required to make at least two visits to the doctor prescribing the medication to obtain it.  And get an ultrasound and be required to actually watch it!  Instead of “no peeking” it’s you will goddamned well look and listen or you don’t get your med.  There’s more.  The doctor SHALL (that word gets used in various parts of the new law for a reason) certify the pregnancy is no more than 70 days gestation.  If say the ultrasound is the least bit ambiguous, and it might be more, say 72 or 73 days then no abortion medication!   Naturally, a dose of having to sit through a preachy-a$$ lecture about how awful a woman is for even considering abortion instead of adoption or raising the baby on their own is part of the new law.

Other GOP controlled states are probably envious of not-so-good ole NC for the way they’ve made medical abortions damned near impossible for most women.  Still, it could have been worse.  Of course, long before I got repeated lessons from Drill Instructors during the process of turning from a civilian into a Marine life had already taught me that no matter how bad things are, they can ALWAYS get worse.  NC may have copy catted stuff from other states to effectively shut down clinics, but the twists on medication abortions probably had other GOPer states feeling envious.  They might wait a few weeks though.

While I’m sure Alito and Thomas are chomping at the bit, I don’t think SCOTUS wants any part of hearing that case that got judge shopped to the maniac federal judge in TX.  IF the appellate court upholds his decision Alito and Thomas might prevail in getting enough fellow Federalist Society hacks to refuse to take it up.  They can shadow docket a ruling that will upend everything and by everything I mean a helluva lot more than abortion pills.  That’s a larger subject.  It could get interesting if the appellate court overturns the judge.  Personally I think it’s a best a toss-up.   The fanatics aren’t going to quit if they lose this round though.

And, as I said in the first part of this article some of them are so out there that even if only for symbolism or to just cynically exploit a new way to raise money someone, somewhere in this country will introduce a bill banning WIRE coat hangers!   There are too many fanatics for it not to happen, mark my words.

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Not so far fetched Dennis
    They have co-opted the flag, the word, patriot, and patriotism, and turn the AK into a graven image of freedom. I can absolutely see where you’re coming from. As a woman who was protected my entire reproductive life by Roe I am beyond horrified. My AP English teacher in high school got us all hard back editions of The Handmaid’s Tale (just published )and threw out all previous curriculum so we’d have time to read and discuss its ( now terrifyingly true)possibilities for our future. To quote Nina Hagen “future is now“. Coat hangers, crochet, hooks, knitting needles might be too much to supervise. So like the book why not just make sure all women of childbearing age always have a
    Chaperone?

  2. They want to put people in jail that just help a woman in need of medical care but would be enraged if every Congress scum that voted against certifying Biden and every one of the pukes at the Ellipse for assisting in a coup was arrested for treason.

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