So Republican Senator J.D. Vance says he doesn’t know any Republicans who want to outlaw birth control. Really J.D.? I’ll bet you don’t know any fellow GOPers who cheat on their spouses, or harass staffers. Or even watch porn! Let us know when Trump finally starts stocking your fridge with Trump Steaks, your bar with Trump Vodka and you get your lifetime free ticket all all flights card for use on Trump Airlines. Just so you know, you’re wasting your time trying to sell ME any of your supposed Trump stuff, or your bullshiite about not knowing Republicans that want to outlaw birth control.
Why am I talking about this? Well, it seems Vance decided to go on a well known tee-vee news show for a chat and it turned out that when you go on someplace besides Fox there’s a chance that you catch a journalist in a mood to press you to discuss current issues, and worse hit you with follow up questions when you employ stock evasion tactics. So what happened this morning? Allow me to set the scene for you.
Good ole boys in Tex-a$$(holes) have put the issue of abortion front and center. Their draconian laws virtually outlawing the procedure supposedly contain a “life and health of the mother” provision but in reality it’s a fig-leaf to cover the fact forced birthers don’t care one bit about women. Still, a woman jumped through all the legal hoops and obtained a court order from a judge who listened to you know, actual medical experts on the matter and issued an order allowing her to terminate her pregnancy. I should note she’s past twenty weeks, her fetus has a condition that will cause it to die soon even if she manages to carry the pregnancy to term, and that she’s had FOUR trips to the ER in the past month because he own life is at risk as well as her ability to try again (which she wants to do) with her husband to have a third child.
Criminally indicted Texas AG Ken Paxton (who was impeached but who the TX Senate didn’t have the guts and/or moral courage to convict. “MAGA!”) wasn’t having any of THAT. So he sent a letter to the three hospitals involved in the woman’s care where the medically necessary abortion might, or rather by now should have been performed threatening with criminal charges. Murder. For “good” measure he filed an appeal to the TX Supreme Court to block the original judge’s authorization order and they’ve issued a stay. So the woman’s life and health remains at risk and you just KNOW Paxton has LE monitoring her to keep her from travelling to another state. What’s more appalling (as I always say no matter how bad things get they can always get worse) is Paxton says some judge isn’t medically qualified to make such decisions? Did I miss something? Did HE ever go to medical school? Did any of the judges on the TX Supreme Court? They are freaking lawyers for chrissakes! The local judge took testimony and ruled the medical experts the pregnant woman’s attorney called to the stand should be listened to. The state had its chance and lost.
I went into all that because the forced birthers have made it clear, and in fact been quite open about it since Roe was overturned that they aren’t about to stop with outlawing ALL abortions no matter what. Nope, they have EVERY intention of going after birth control and in particular prescription birth control. Making it harder to obtain hasn’t been good enough for them. No sir. Which brings me to an article in Rolling Stone describing an interview OH Senator J.D. Vance had with Jake Tapper on CNN’s State of the Union news show:
Senator J.D. Vance denied that Republicans are trying to restrict access to birth control, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. The senator claimed he doesn’t know “any Republican, at least not a Republican with a brain, that’s trying to take those rights away from people.”
That “at least not a Republican with a brain” qualifier jumped out at me. Oh the insults to the GOP that came to mind, but in mocking the intellect of the modern GOP in my mind the language war far too “colorful” to say it all here. What matters is that although a newcomer to elective office Vance has gotten a grasp of how to provide enough “wiggle room” to sell his b.s. to voters back home when re-election time rolls around. Look, Vance is a lying sack of nasty smelling brown organic excrement. He must have fished this and other turds he offered up to Tapper out of Trump’s fake gold toilet at Mar A Lago.
Of course Vance knows fellow Republicans opposed to prescription birth control. There are simply too many of them, and too many are well know with platforms of their own to preach their views, and more importantly intentions to FORCE their version of morality on everyone else. I provided a more detailed description of the situation in Texas than was in the linked article. But it’s what led to why I wrote this and the title. Tapper raised the subject and Vance offered mealy-mouth excuses and blather. Vance admitted that Republicans/the GOP is going to have to “accept that people do not want blanket abortion bans. They just don’t.”
Predictably, probably reflexively he went on to spout the GOP crap about exceptions “for the life of the mother, for rape, and so forth.” What he would NOT do was offer a clear indication on whether the woman/situation in Texas qualifies for that exception he and GOPers claim is there if needed! Instead he offered the same b.s. platitudes about protecting as many unborn babies as possible, that the GOP needs to get back to being the “truly” pro-family Party. I thought his comment about needing to win back the trust of the American people was rich. Yo J.D., how about you look at where MOST Americans stand on abortion and birth control (NOT with you and your pals) and trust THEM to make their own CHOICES? Call me crazy but instead of a small minority of asshats like you and your pals to impose your moral code on everyone, to if necessary interfere with private medical decisions that properly belong with doctors and the women they treat you be, you know conservative and let people make their own decisions free of govt. interference? I’m an old fart, a senior citizen but for most of my life I’ve heard conservatives PREACH about keeping govt. off people’s backs/out of their daily lives. Or maybe that only counts when you a-holes are pushing for “supply side” (which are really crafted by and for rich folks) tax cuts. You know what? If as you say people know better than the government what to do with their freaking money, they also know better than the govt. what to do with their health care including family planning – including contraception and sometimes abortion. If they need expert guidance they have medical professionals they’d rather rely on that politicians!
Anyway, Tapper tried again, asking if the policies to reduce abortion Vance was advocating included birth control, to allow women to make decisions before they got pregnant. which led to this exchange:
“Look, obviously, people need to be able to make those decisions,” Vance said. “I don’t think that I know any Republican, at least not a Republican with a brain, that’s trying to take those rights away from people.”
In response, Jake Tapper said, “I mean, I could provide a list for you if you want it.”
“Well, OK. Not anybody I talk to, Jake,” Vance said.
Since Tapper went into the interview prepared (news in and of itself) to press Vance on this matter I’m willing to bet he actually did have a list handy. And also that he was ready to name names of GOPers Vance knew all too well. I’m also willing to bet Vance knew better than to let it get to that point, hence his last comment shutting it down. I don’t know who was on Tapper’s list but if you click on the Rolling Stone link you can get a list of people who were probably on it.
I’ve said it before and will say it again. If you know males who don’t engage on this issue (us guys after all can’t get pregnant) or don’t think it matters ask them how they like having to use condoms even when in an “exclusive” (only one sexual partner) relationship. Then remind them of how much they benefit from not having to fool with condoms, and what the RWNJ “Christian” crazies are up to. That they aren’t stopping with outlawing abortion but going after prescription contraceptives too. And have been all along.
How the hell is this even a contentious issue in the 21st century?
Even in Catholic Ireland and most of Catholic South America this is not an issue even subject to debate.
Part of the republican plan to take us back to the 1700s, (when, in actuality abortion was legal and more than half of first births were conceived out of wedlock. Just check the Parish records.)
America isn’t doing well, mentally.
Speaking of the 1700s (and beyond) I’ll bet you’d be hard pressed to find a conservative, even a “Christian” one who speaks ill of Ben Franklin. I bring him up because he was obviously well-known and widely admired during his lifetime. He took a common English math text and adapted it for America to include a lot a practical knowledge people of the time needed and more importantly put to use. It included a medical section filled with home remedies so people could treat common ailments without having to call in a doctor. Doing so at the time was impractical for due to time & distance and cost or some combination of all three. The medical section included a quite specific description adopted from a medical pamphlet written by a doctor in Virginia. (which proves such knowledge wasn’t limited but rather widely known in the colonies/states) that provided the means to herbally using the best available information at the time. For most people/families means were limited and books were few in households. But if they could afford more than their Bible Americans next book was Franklin’s The American Instructor. Often they were the only two books people owned.
So yes, abortion was widely known and practiced here since before we were a country and Franklin’s book and the info. on abortions was widely read and utlized through the 1800s. If you read this link you’ll find there is little record of anyone objecting back then. No, the whole anti-abortion, life begins at conception and is precious bullshit is a contrivance created much more recently in our history. In fact, Roe itself generated some controversy but it quickly died down. The modern anti-abortion as we know it came from a conservative commentator/influencer in the late 1970s who searched for an issue that could be a rallying cry for conservatives. And hard core “Chrisians” still up in arms over the sexual revolution were ripe for targeting by the GOP if properly courted. They were courted and Reagan struck his unholy alliance with them and you know the history since.
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/16/1099244635/for-ben-franklin-abortion-was-basic-arithmetic
Abortion was widely practiced back when midwives were the ones dealing with maternity matters, before “doctors” started their meddling (i.e. f*cking up).
Still can’t fathom how Ohio elected this MAGA humper. Tim Ryan has every right to be ticked. I sure am. God.
It is,really very simple to understand once you realize that when Republicans talk about keeping the government off people’s back,the word “people” means straight white CIA Christian MEN.”
They don’t seem to grasp that if a pregnant woman has a health crisis and dies before 24 week, the fetus dies too. And if it survives, it will likely have massive health problems (assuming we are talking about fetal defects that render it non-viable outside the womb) for its short, painful.life that American taxpayers will.havevto.pick up.the tab for. I thought the Rs were the party of fiscal responsibility. It is much cheaper to.terminate a pregnancy where the fetus can only survive for a few days in a very expensive NICU while bit is agony for the entire time. I guess the whole fiscal responsibility thing flies out the window.