Ok, so five time state Representative Chris Rabb only won the primary for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District. However it’s very solidly blue so he’d really have to screw up to not wind up being elected come November. Rabb’s winning 44.3% of the vote is considered an upset but who cares? His advocacy for reproductive rights is going to drive the GOP nuts. Especially the fact that he taunted GOP zealots with a proposal to force certain men to undergo forced vasectomies. Kind of payback for all the crap they force women to go through.
I recall the furor over anti-abortion zealots some years back putting a bill forward in at least one state mandating a procedure called Trans-Vaginal Ultrasounds – a way to provide serious discomfort if not outright physical pain, and inflict an attempt to bully and/or humiliate women seeking an abortion to change her mind. I recall writing comments on social media that Democratic lawmakers, specifically MALE ones should start introducing bills to require various men (I had a list of candidates) to undergo Cystoscopy of their prostate. I’d already had my first one (due to bleeding) and while it’s not all that painful it’s uncomfortable and there are moments here and there that get your attention. It’s also pretty humiliating.
Well, as Free Republic tells us although for different reasons Rabb decided he’d had enough of conservatives trying to impose their beliefs on those who wanted to engage in family planning or obtain an abortion. Or coerce women to have more babies. He didn’t just talk, he decided to turn the tables on him with a proposal he knew wouldn’t go anywhere but he made quite a point. In Oct. 2021 he introduced ‘parody legislation’ that would “require all inseminators to undergo vasectomies within six weeks from having their third child or 40th birthday, whichever comes first.””
“As long as state legislatures continue to restrict the reproductive rights of cis women, trans men and non-binary people, there should be laws to address the responsibility of men who impregnate them,” Rabb said in a statement at the time. “My sincere hope in introducing this legislation is that my colleagues in the General Assembly consider the egregiously gendered double standard when it comes to curtailing reproductive health care as it applies to women.”
Chris Rabb told NBC10 in October 2021 that the memo was intended solely to provoke discussion in response to abortion-restriction bills being introduced across the nation, but he said the satirical legislation triggered backlash and violent threats.
FYI Rabb identifies as a Democratic Socialist and AOC was among those who supported his candidacy. It will be interesting to see if his GOP opponent tries to make hay of this in the general election campaign. As I said it’s a solidly blue district to begin with and all any “wimmin should stay in the kitchen and make babies for their hubbies’ GOPer would lose even worse if they make this a thing. Nor would it help the GOP overall.
SCOTUS may have declined to hear an appeal from Louisiana last week regarding that state’s attempt to block telehealth appointments and subsequent shipments of Mifepristone but that case isn’t over. It’s also worth noting that Clarence Thomas wrote a dissent advocating a new and out-there theory of reviving the old Comstock Law. Conservative lawyers are we are told already at work figuring out how to use language from that dissent. The point is that the GOP is on the wrong side of everything having to do with abortion and reproductive rights. This is a fight most of them don’t want turning into a national thing. They’ve got plenty of headwinds to deal with already.
The real fun will begin when the new Congress convenes next January. I have a feeling this guy, and probably some others like him are going to shake things up. I rather look forward to us turning the tables on the GOP and being the ones to flood the zone with OUR proposals.
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