May 5, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Pam Belluck & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the legal and culture wars over abortion ... would increasingly shift to a new front: the use of abortion pills. Medication abortion -- a two-drug combination that can be taken at home or in any location and is authorized for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy -- has become more and more prevalent and now accounts for more than half of recent abortions in the United States. If the federal guarantee of abortion rights disappears, medication abortion would likely become an even more sought-after method for terminating a pregnancy -- and the focus of battles between states that ban abortion and those that continue to allow it.... Medication abortion is less expensive and less invasive than surgical abortions.... Many conservative states have already begun passing laws to restrict medication abortion, including banning it earlier than 10 weeks'gestation and requiring patients to visit providers in person despite F.D.A. rules." An AP story is here.

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Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a half percentage point and announced a plan to shrink its massive bond holdings, decisive measures aimed at tamping down the fastest inflation in four decades. Wednesday's move marked the Fed's largest interest rate increase since 2000, and Chair Jerome H. Powell signaled at a news conference following the meeting additional half percentage point increases will be 'on the table' at the Fed's upcoming meetings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A CNBC report is here.

Libby Cathey of ABC News: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that the federal government will pay down the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years. His remarks on economic growth came ahead of the Federal Reserve announcing a hike in interest rates Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to manage soaring inflation.... 'For all the talk the Republicans make about deficits, it didn't happen a single quarter under my predecessor, not once,' Biden said. 'The bottom line is the deficit went up every year under my predecessor, before the pandemic and during the pandemic, [and] it's gone down both years since I have been here. Period. There are the facts.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Alito Goes into Hiding. TuAnh Dam of Axios: "Justice Samuel Alito canceled an appearance at a judicial conference due to begin on Thursday..., Reuters reports.... Alito was scheduled to appear at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' judicial conference, Reuters reports. He is the justice assigned to hear emergency appeals from the 5th Circuit, which includes the New Orleans-based federal appeals court and district courts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas...." The Reuters report is firewalled. OR, as Ken W. surmised, Suddenly Silent Sam is just exercising his Constitutional right to privacy.

Lies & the Lying Liars on the Supreme Court. Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "'It is important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times,' [Brett] Kavanaugh said [of Roe v. Wade] in response to one of a slew of questions on abortion during his confirmation hearings. Furthermore, Kavanaugh underscored that the core tenets of the landmark 1973 decision were upheld nearly two decades later.... Kavanaugh called Roe ... 'settled as a precedent.'... Less than four years later, Kavanaugh is among the list of justices who, according to a draft majority opinion and an accompanying report published by Politico this week, is poised to overturn Roe.... A growing number of senators -- particularly Democrats, for the moment at least -- are questioning the utility of the confirmation process and whether justices who enjoy lifetime appointments can somehow be held accountable for their sworn testimony if it proves misleading.... [Some] Democratic senators, however, say it was clear how nominees, particularly those picked by Trump, would rule on abortion, no matter what they pledged publicly. Their beef is largely with the senators who professed to believe otherwise and now say they are shocked."

The New York Times live-updated reactions Wednesday to Sam Alito's leaked draft opinion. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alito, shocked -- shocked -- to discover so little in the law books of the eighteen-sixties guaranteeing a right to abortion, has missed the point; anything in the law books of [that period] guaranteed women anything -- because -- usually they still weren't persons. Nor for that matter were fetuses. -- Historian Jill Lepore in the New Yorker (via P.D. Pepe)

Suddenly, They Want to Focus on the Real Issues. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: Despite standing on the cusp of realizing a victory they sought for nearly 50 years, "few Republicans have openly celebrated.... There are signs that Republicans, despite their years of activism, are not fully prepared for the thorny political ramifications of a post-Roe political atmosphere.... Several Republican senators dodged questions about possible implications of Roe being overturned...."

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "For nearly half a century, Republicans have railed against 'unelected judges' making rulings that they claim disenfranchise voters from deciding for themselves what laws should govern hot-button issues. But since the release this week of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the long-standing constitutional right to abortion, Democrats have been the ones embracing that complaint, flipping the script as the party vents its frustration with elements of the U.S. system that have empowered a minority of the country's voters to elect lawmakers who have successfully reshaped the high court.... The Democratic anger is anchored in structural advantages Republicans have recently enjoyed that grant them power disproportionate to their public support." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The real difference between Republican and Democratic "unelected judges," which Scherer doesn't bother to mention, is that in the last half of the 20th century, "unelected judges" tended to expand civil rights, while the Republicans' favored "unelected judges" tend to constrict or eliminate them. And every indication is those GOP-appointed judges are going to keep on keeping on.

** Melissa Murray & Leah Litman in a Washington Post op-ed: "The truly shocking thing about the draft Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade is ... that the opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. adopted such an aggressively maximalist position, not only giving states extraordinary leeway to prohibit abortion but also implicitly inviting a flurry of challenges to other precedents, including cases protecting contraception and LGBTQ civil rights. Perhaps the most stunning feature of the opinion is that its indignant tone and aggressive reasoning make clear how empowered this conservative majority believes itself to be.... The draft goes out of its way to ensure that there are no limits whatsoever on states' ability to restrict abortions.... Alito also chose to rely on the most outlandish arguments to justify overruling Roe.... The caustic tone and aggressive reasoning suggest this conservative majority ... has no sense of institutional propriety that might lead it to act with more humility and caution." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, well, the notion that Sam Alito, for one, ever has suffered even a mild pang of humility is preposterous. ~~~

~~~ Marie: Always nice to see someone get the better of Ross Douthat. Douthat was on CNN Wednesday discussing the potentials of the Supremes' overturning Roe v. Wade. Douthat posited that it was ridiculous to think that overturning Roe would or could lead to overturning other rulings based on the right to privacy. Jeff Toobin started to push back on Douthat's supposition, but Douthat scoffed with what he imagined was a "gotcha" proof: "C'mon," said he, "can we at least agree that Clarence Thomas is not going to vote to overturn the right of interracial couples to marry?" (slight paraphrase) Toobin had a ready response: "It isn't that Thomas opposes interracial marriage; it's that he thinks there is no Constitutional right to interracial marriage. He believes that, like abortion, marriage law is a matter for the states to decide." (slight paraphrase)

** Jay Willis of Balls & Strikes: "The digital ink had not yet dried on Monday's bombshell story that the Supreme Court has the votes to overrule Roe v. Wade when America's most online lawyers began weighing in on The Real Crisis: the shocking, shameful leak from within the hallowed chambers of the nation's highest and fanciest court.... This elevation of process over substance is as wrong as it is self-serving. The Court is not losing public trust or facing an existential crisis because of a leak. The Court is leaking because it is losing public trust and facing an existential crisis.... A nakedly partisan Supreme Court deserves to be treated like any other nakedly partisan branch of government.... The Court's legitimacy should ... hinge on whether the justices are acting legitimately. If a half-dozen extremists are just going to take a blowtorch to anything and everything they don't like, no one in their orbit should be obligated to abide by their sacred norms any longer." Via Scott Lemieux in LG&$. MB: Even if you think you might totally disagree with Willis, his snarky irreverence is a joy to read. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There is a piece in Slate, the author(s) of which I don't know, about how the Supreme Court's supposed leak investigation is a farce. The Slate post is firewalled, by Scott Lemieux has reprinted a good part of it in in LG&$.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian soldiers on Thursday for the first time breached Ukrainian defenses around the Azovstal steel plant, as Moscow's forces mounted a final push to seize full control of the port city of Mariupol.... Only the fighters in the plant stand in the way of Moscow declaring control over Mariupol, which has become a symbol of both Ukrainian resistance and Russian destruction. A Ukrainian commander, Lt. Col. Denys Prokopenko, said 'heavy, bloody battles' were being fought in the plant's subterranean labyrinth of bunkers and fallout shelters, where officials estimated that about 200 civilians were still hiding with the last soldiers defending the city.... Ukrainian forces reclaimed several strategically important villages around the eastern city of Kharkiv and pushed Russian forces back some two dozen miles from the city...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "European diplomats are set to meet again Thursday as they negotiate a proposal to phase out Russian oil imports, a stern punishment for the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.... The oil proposal could be finalized by the end of the week but must be approved by all E.U. member states, and two countries -- Hungary and Slovakia -- have reservations. Overnight, Russian forces struck the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, injuring at least 25 civilians and destroying nine homes, a school and other civilian buildings, according to the regional military chief. A railroad facility and a bridge in the riverside city of Dnipro were hit on Wednesday, continuing the Kremlin's targeting of infrastructure that is critical to Ukraine's efforts to resupply its forces."

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States has provided intelligence about Russian units that has allowed Ukrainians to target and kill many of the Russian generals who have died in action in the Ukraine war, according to senior American officials. Ukrainian officials said they have killed approximately 12 generals on the front lines, a number that has astonished military analysts. The targeting help is part of a classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine.... The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian military's mobile headquarters, which relocate frequently.... U.S. intelligence support to the Ukrainians has had a decisive effect on the battlefield, confirming targets identified by the Ukrainian military and pointing it to new targets. The flow of actionable intelligence on the movement of Russian troops that America has given Ukraine has few precedents."

The patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy. -- Pope Francis to Patriarch Kirill ~~~

~~~ When the Pope Scolded the Patriarch. On Zoom. Timothy Bella & Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis warned the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church not to be 'Putin's altar boy' and justify the Russian president's invasion of Ukraine. In a Tuesday interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Francis said he spoke with Patriarch Kirill, a key supporter of Vladimir Putin and his war, for 40 minutes over Zoom. During the March 16 conversation, Francis said, Kirill was listing off all the justifications for the war from a sheet of paper he was holding. 'I listened and then told him: I don't understand anything about this,' Francis said. 'Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God. Because of this, we must seek avenues of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons.'" A CNN report is here.

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "Donald Trump Jr., interviewed with the Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the matter.... Trump Jr. is also the latest select panel witness believed to have been in the Oval Office the morning of Jan. 6 with [Donald] Trump, his top aides and family members. Shortly after they arrived, per a private White House schedule obtained by the committee, Trump called [Mike] Pence to make a final effort to pressure him to overturn the election. Trump Jr.'s interview, confirmed on condition of anonymity and conducted without a subpoena lasted several hours...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Former lead impeachment counsel Daniel Goldman pointed out on MSNBC that likely the reason members of the Trump Crime Family -- Junior, Ivanka, Jared & Kimberly Guilfoyle -- agreed to be interviewed is that voluntary witnesses -- as opposed to those who appear under subpoena -- cannot be compelled to answer questions, and they don't have to plead the Fifth to refuse to answer.

Clare Foran & Melanie Zanona of CNN: "House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy discussed the 25th Amendment on a call with GOP leadership days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and said the process 'takes too long,' according to an audio recording obtained by two New York Times reporters and shared with CNN. McCarthy also said during the call that he wanted to reach out to then-President-elect Joe Biden as he expressed hope for a 'smooth transition,' and said he thought impeachment would further divide the nation. The call took place on January 8, 2021, and the audio was obtained for the new book "This Will Not Pass..." by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.... The fact McCarthy was pressing one of his aides for details about how the 25th Amendment process would work shows there was a serious conversation at the highest levels of GOP leadership about the idea -- not just idle chatter -- even if it was ultimately deemed not a viable option." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Not with a Bang, but a Whimper. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Even as the beleaguered police were still trying to disperse a violent mob at the Capitol last January, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, undertook a desperate, last-ditch effort to keep ... Donald J. Trump in the White House, according to court papers released on Wednesday. In a suite at the Phoenix Park Hotel..., Mr. Rhodes called an unnamed intermediary and, the papers said, repeatedly implored the person to ask Mr. Trump to mobilize his group to forcibly stop the transition of presidential power. But the person refused to speak with Mr. Trump, the papers said. And once the call was over, Mr. Rhodes, turning to a group of his associates, declared, 'I just want to fight.' Witnessing this scene, which unfolded in the twilight hours of Jan. 6, 2021, was William Todd Wilson, a midlevel Oath Keepers leader from North Carolina. On Wednesday, Mr. Wilson, 44, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to charges of seditious conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their investigation of the Oath Keepers' role in the Capitol attack."

TurboScam Settlement Announced. Christine Chung of the New York Times: "For years, the maker of the TurboTax software claimed that people could file their tax returns online for free. Millions of customers signed up, only to pay hidden fees later in the process. That was the finding of a multistate investigation led by Attorney General Letitia James of New York. Ms. James announced on Wednesday that Intuit, the company creating the software, would pay back $141 million to more than four million Americans who were unfairly charged for tax services that were falsely advertised as free. Refunds will be sent automatically to affected taxpayers. The company 'cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services they were entitled to,' Ms. James said, adding that the settlement, signed by the attorneys general of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, was a clear reminder to companies that 'deceptive marketing ploys' are illegal.

The Lost City of Atlantis Jamestown. Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: "The 400-year-old colonial site [Jamestown, Va.,] is losing its battle with climate change, experts say, and Wednesday the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed it on a list of the country's most endangered historical places.... Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer for the trust, said, 'You've got resources there underwater, that are staying underwater.'... Jamestown, in 1607, became the place of the first permanent English settlement in what would become the United States. The earth here holds the bones of hundreds of the early colonists and the artifacts that are clues to their lives. It is also the place where, in 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived, and where generations of Native Americans had already lived for centuries." (Also linked yesterday.)

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "By Wednesday, [Trevor] Noah's chiding remarks at [the White House Correspondents' Dinner, or] what he called 'the nation's most distinguished superspreader event, were beginning to appear prophetic as a growing number of attendees, including a string of journalists and Antony J. Blinken, the secretary of state, said they had tested positive for the virus."

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Clara Hendrickson & Arpan Lobo of the Detroit Free Press: "In an upset win Tuesday, Democrat Carol Glanville defeated Republican Robert 'RJ' Regan in a special election for a Michigan House seat that had only ever been held by a Republican. Results remain unofficial, but with all precincts in the district reporting, Glanville led Regan by more than 1,500 votes as of 10:30 p.m. She topped 51% of the total votes cast; Regan garnered 40% and 7.9% went to write-ins.... Regan made national headlines in March for suggesting rape victims 'lie back and enjoy it,' after he promoted conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and shared antisemitic rhetoric. He was favored to win in the heavily Republican district." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michigan. Crazy Guy Wins House Primary. Azi Paybarah & Kellen Browning of the New York Times: "When J.R. Majewski emerged as the surprise winner of a Republican House primary election on Tuesday in northern Ohio, Democrats supporting the longtime incumbent congresswoman in the district, Marcy Kaptur, celebrated. That was because Mr. Majewski had beaten out two lower-key Republicans for the nomination, both of whom Democrats worried could have posed serious problems for Ms. Kaptur in the conservative-leaning Ninth Congressional District.... During his campaign, [Majewski] ran one ad showing him carrying an assault-style rifle in which he says, 'I'm willing to do whatever it takes to return this country back to its former glory.' ... He also posted a 'Let's Go Brandon' music video on his website in which he raps a verse, warning, 'Just try to put a mask on me, you'll see red, white and blue.'... In addition to advancing the lie that the 2020 election was stolen ... and floating doubts that the Capitol riot was driven by Trump supporters, he has expressed sympathy for believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. He said last year that one of their false claims about a prominent Democrat being a pedophile was 'plausible.'"

Minnesota. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday accepted a plea deal that will sentence former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to between 20 and 25 years in prison for violating the rights of George Floyd.... Chauvin is already serving a 22½-year sentence for Floyd's murder and last month asked a state appeals court to overturn his conviction."

Comments

[P.D. Pepe]

BUDDY BUSTING: Once close allies Roberts and Alito have taken divergent paths:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/us/politics/roberts-alito-abortion-roe-v-wade.html

Thinking about Alto's conformation hearing, I remembered a teary Martha-Ann leaving the room but couldn't recall why. According to this NYT's piece, it was because Lindsey Graham defended Alito from the charge that his membership in an alumni group was evidence of bigotry. Which was?

Because of this leaked document–––which by the way the little Fox's are apoplectic about while ignoring the contents within––-the war in Ukraine has taken somewhat of a backseat but was glad to see it revived on MSNBC and PBS last night.

[Akhilleus]

More liars. Oh, and bigots too.

Yesterday I listened to a WNYC On the Media podcast about the abortion underground. “Eye opening” is an appropriate description.

The podcast recounts a brief history of abortion which was unremarkable (and entirely legal, everywhere) up through the mid 19th century.

Two things changed that, things that still largely define right wing politics: racism and money.

In 1847, the AMA was formed. A few years later an anti-abortion zealot named Horatio Storer, began a crusade to outlaw the ability of women to make decisions about their own lives. And he did it for money. And nativist bigotry.

Storer published articles decrying abortion because he feared that white women might end up having fewer children than undesirable races.

“So it was around the 1860s that there was this shift in how abortion patients were perceived. There was a lot of racism and nativism going on at the time, stoking fears about white women having fewer children than immigrants and people of color…

The anti-abortion leader, Horatio Storer, who was running the anti-abortion campaign … I mean, he literally asked whether the West would be, quote, ‘filled by our own children or by those of aliens’.”

Within a few years, every state had passed laws restricting abortions.

Another problem for the newly formed AMA was midwifery. For centuries, women’s reproductive care, including abortion procedures, were handled by other women, midwives. After the Civil War, many of the most experienced midwives were African-American. Big problem.

From an ACLU article on the history of racism in abortion and midwifery bans:

“However, in the wake of slavery’s end, skilled Black midwives represented both real competition for white men who sought to enter the practice of child delivery, and a threat to how obstetricians viewed themselves. Male gynecologists claimed midwifery was a degrading means of obstetrical care. They viewed themselves as elite members of a trained profession with tools such as forceps and other technologies, and the modern convenience of hospitals, which excluded Black and Indigenous women from practice within their institutions.”

Black midwives were described as “barbarous” and “unhygienic”.

AND, they were taking business (ie, money) away from white men. Big no-no.

The origins of anti-abortion zealotry are rooted in two of the seminal elements of the modern Republican Party: racism and money. And they’re still at it today (the promise of anti-abortion legislation has been a huge fund raising cry for confederate pols).

Things ain’t changed very much, have they?

[Akhilleus]

Oops…forgot the links:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/abortion-underground

https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/the-racist-history-of-abortion-and-midwifery-bans

[Akhilleus]

And another thing…

Yeah that leak was HORRIBLE (*cough-cough*). But…

You know what? These guys are public servants. They work for us. They’re taken care of by taxpayers (oh, and for the many wingers on the court, gigantic speaking fees from the Federalist Society and other far-right ideological propaganda outfits).

Who says there shouldn’t be at least some oversight of their processes, especially when they have such enormous power over the rest of us? And no, ideally, you don’t want judges to be unduly influenced in the same way politicians can be bribed, strong armed, and pushed one way or the other, but that’s in an ideal situation. What we have now are a bunch of ideologues who showed up on day one with political agendas. Should they be accorded the same courtesies as legitimate justices?

I dunno. It’s a shaky line there. But my point is that these guys are our employees. If they get more public scrutiny than they like, especially after such a astounding power grab, too fucking bad.

[Ken Winkes]

Funny how one can know so little about someone or his accomplishments but still remember something he is said to have said; but this morning that's all I know of George Santayana of "those who cannot remember the past ...." fame. Call it an education of dribs and drabs becoming more spotty as the years pass.

I don't know if that was his intent, but Santayana's aphorism (others, including Burke, have said similar things) ironically and neatly summarizes the problem of conservatism.

Political conservatives wish to preserve the past. It's a natural impulse. To some degree we all do. I wish I could have kept some of the old things I have lost, a more retentive memory and knees that worked painlessly among them.

But despite what Faulkner said about it (a morning of aphorisms here), the past is really past and there's little we can do about it.

Conservatives, though, think we can and should. For them, that impulse takes multiple forms. That of the culture warrior standing bravely athwart the tide of history...or the sentimental nostalgic seeking a mythic return to Eden or maybe to the imagined comfort of the womb.

It's a childlike impulse, really. An unwillingness to face the world as it is, with all its difficulties, complexities and confusions.

The past does have things to teach us, and oddly enough it is conservatives, who style themselves foremost among history's faithful, who choose not to learn its primary lesson: that the present is not the past. That you cannot go back, no matter how much you might wish to.

Alito's turn back the clock history lesson justifying his anti-abortion conclusion offers a perfect and perfectly tragic example. Because there was no (fill in the blank) in the past, there should not be any (blank) in the present or future. Nothing, he says, has really changed over the years.

But it has. A lot.

If Alito's supposedly fine mind couldn't tell him so, my old knees could.

[Jeanne]

Daughter and I went downtown to a rally last evening. Lots of people there, men, women, youth, children, dogs, and I unearthed a tee shirt I have had for probably 35 years or more... It says:
I Decide
You Decide
She Decides
They Don't Decide
Over 2/3rds of Americans Are Pro-Choice

I cannot believe we are fighting this again.

And our nutbrain opponents keep on keeping on. We voted yesterday; Unlike the last two years, we had to plug a $2.50/hour meter, walk three blocks, go through security and trek up stairs to the elections office to drop off our ballots. (The confederate lege wants to get rid of no-excuse mail-ins/drop-offs now that it was so successful.) Our scumbag 2 out of 3 county commissioners removed the only dropbox in the county last week. It had been so simple: dropped off by daughter, in one door to the guarded box, out to idling car in one minute. In PA, everyone must not "commit fraud" by one person turning in two ballots, even if a married couple. We are desperate to have our governorship remain in Democratic hands-- that is the only thing keeping us from being ruled entirely by monsters. Primary is pretty close: do we want Dr. Oz the Great and Phoney as our new Toomey? We have good Dems running-- we are Fetterman fans. Do we want a 1/6er or a MAGAcreep as governor? Resoundingly, no. Go AG Josh.

[P.D. Pepe]

What a pleasure to read Ak's and Ken's comments this morning. I thank you both for thought provoking pieces.

And Ak: your podcast renderings are captured in a new book coming out in the fall by a close friend in Scotland. Her first book was about her experience as a midwife; this second book covers the history of abortion titled "Wombs" and she is using my poem "Hysterectomy" which is pretty nifty.

[P.D. Pepe]

And Jeanne: Just read your post–––LOVE the Tee––-and good for you to join the crew last evening. Don't mess with womens––-they be wild with fury when they be dumped upon.

[Marie Burns]

To add to Akhilleus' history of the anti-abortion movement, Ali Velshi of MSNBC said last night that evangelicals took up the cause just as Republicans realized overt calls for segregation and other racist laws became less popular. Initially, evangelicals were, for the most part -- and even officially -- in favor of Roe, but the anti-abortionists changed that rather quickly.

What Velshi didn't account for is the rise of feminism, which I think presented a monumental threat to patriarchal church structure and practices. As "the pill" & other forms of contraception became widely available, women from every socioeconomic class began to realize they weren't destined to get pregnant at 17 & marry at 18 -- that there were other choices and among those other choices could be ones that made them independent of men.

So while it may be true that in the early 1970s, Republicans were looking around for another cultural issue to rile their base, I think evangelicals' deep need to keep women barefoot and pregnant -- and more important, dependent and inferior -- was the real impetus for the shrieking anti-abortion movement that began after Roe. BTW, it isn't only male evangelicals who are invested in the patriarchy; there are plenty of women who find it to their liking.

[Victoria]

Still trying to understand this no abortion thing:
Is it correct to assume that if the law outlaws those abortion pills, then will men no longer get their ED meds?
Just asking.

[Ken Winkes]

Atlanta (CNN)Chief Justice John Roberts said Thursday that the leak of a draft opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade is "absolutely appalling....

Another man with all the best words. The other day, "egregious."

Today, "appalling."

Too bad he doesn't know where they fit.