Missouri Judge Blocks Abortion Rights Amendment From Nov. Ballot

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. The GOP, and for that matter Trump’s bogus claim has been that courts shouldn’t decide whether women should have access to abortion. No they’ve said, it should be a matter for the individual states the citizens of those states to decide. Their problem has turned out to be that not just women, but a fair number of men too have been telling their legislators, mostly white supposedly “Christian” zealots who refuse to allow abortion access to go screw themselves. In state after state including ruby red one, where the law allows it reproductive/abortion rights advocates have gotten state Constitutional amendments enshrining abortion RIGHTS on ballots. In a string of elections. Every single one has passed. So what are Republicans doing when faced with the will of the people? Running to the COURTS to keep their voters from having their say!

Think about that. It’s not just hypocritical and disgusting. It as we’ve seen over and over in testimonial after testimonial putting women’s lives at risk in numerous states every single day. “Christian” legislators in GOP controlled states turn into brick walls if they aren’t able to run away when confronted over how they endanger the health and very lives of women.  They refuse acknowledge their ‘except for the life or health of the mother’ exceptions in their draconian laws aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. Doctors are rightly terrified of losing their medical licenses. Or even being prosecuted for murder. As a result every day countless doctors in ERs find themselves confronting the ‘how close to  her being dead does she have to be for me to take what used to be no-brainer, standard medical intervention during a miscarriage?’ That’s just one of the issues abortion bans create.

Not all states allow ballot initiatives by voters but in those that do we’ve seen state after state where people have mobilized to tell their RWNJ zealots in legislatures and Governor’s mansions to stick it where the sun don’t shine. As I said, that has included RED states. And in Missouri, the self-professed “Show Me State” the “Wimmin are for cooking and making babies’ crowd is terrified the voters, even in their very conservative states are going to show them something they DON’T want to see. Which is that, to quote Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz when it comes to abortion it’s none of anyone’s damn business except for the woman/couple involved and of course their doctor.

If people don’t approve of abortion then no one is telling them they have to get one. And THEY shouldn’t be telling anyone who chooses for whatever reason, or medically requires an abortion to save their life and/or preserve the chance to have a child later on they can’t get one.  I don’t know what the polling has said about the Missouri amendment’s chances for passage but I strongly suspect it’s got a good shot at keep the streak of wins when it gets put to actual voters going.

So, as this article by The Guardian notes the anti-abortion zealots have gone running to court to keep it off the ballot. Sadly, they’ve found themselves a judge willing to go along. Cole County circuit court judge Christopher Limbaugh has decided to play ball for the zealots:

According to Limbaugh, his decision came as a result of the campaign’s “failure to include any statute or provision that will be repealed, especially when many of these statues are apparent”. He went on to add: “The court must conclude that the defendant-intervenors’ initiative petition was insufficient.”

Limbaugh, however, also said he “recognizes the gravity of the unique issues involved in this case and the lack of direct precedent on point”. He ruled that he would wait until Tuesday for the amendment to be removed from the ballot, giving an appellate court time to decide whether or not to uphold his ruling.

Let’s unpack that. The part that stands out to me is Limbaugh admits there’s no law ‘on point’ which in layman’s terms means there’s no direct case law either way on whether a proposed Constitutional amendment has to cite specific statutes that would be invalidated. He tries to couch his ruling as being ‘reasonable’ by saying that it’s a matter for the appellate courts to take up.  I smell a big, steaming pile of you know what. The election is two months away and ballots need to be printed. Early and mail in voting will be starting before long.  If the appellate court drags its feet than that’s that.

As for Limbaugh if that name is ringing bells consider this. Guess where he’s from?  Cape Girardeau, Missouri is his hometown. Same as world class piece of sh*t and deceased (albeit not nearly soon enough – certainly not during Vietnam when anal cysts got him classified 4-F) RUSH Limbaugh.  From the very first time we drove across the bridge from southern Illinois into “Cape” the place seemed like a dump to me. My impression of it never changed although I’ve been told over and over I’m unfair. I might have gotten a scholarship to play basketball at SEMO but since it was in Cape it wasn’t something I even considered.

But I digress. Trump and the GOP have made a huge freaking deal about letting the people decide. That it’s not the business of courts to make decisions about abortion policy. Well, people HAVE when given the chance to do so directly been deciding. Just not, even if deep red states the way the GOP zealots thought they would. So now THEY are the ones running to the court to have some COURT decide. Instead of the people.

They are clearly irritated about being called weird. Ok. Let’s for a while throw THIS in their fat ugly faces and call them HYPOCRITES instead. Even if they don’t say it they’ll be thinking ‘can we go back to weird?’