More and more states across the country are rushing to forcefully pass anti-abortion bills with the intent of completely overturning Roe vs. Wade and ultimately making a woman’s right to bodily autonomy and safe reproductive medical care a thing of the past.
So far Georgia, Alabama, Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi, and Kentucky have all either introduced or passed bills that not only criminalize abortions but seek to charge practitioners and recipients with felony offenses — some of which are carrying life sentences.
These laws are harrowing and inhumane and are leaving women in desolate, impossible situations — even despite the fact that Roe vs. Wade is still intact for the time being:
- An Indiana woman received 20 years in prison for feticide, despite the fact that she miscarried with no abortifacient in her system.
- A 27-year-old woman with cancer was forced to undergo a c-section at 26 weeks pregnant in an attempt to save the baby, and they both lost their lives.
- A 16-year-old girl was charged with “depraved heart murder” after allegations of drug use when she delivered a stillborn baby
- A woman went to the hospital for unexplained bleeding and was charged with 2nd-degree murder — it was a year before records proved she miscarried.
- A woman was charged with attempted feticide after falling down the stairs in her home.
These are just a few examples of the thousands of women already being punished and stripped of their choices.
One of the biggest talking points swirling around social media is the fact that all of the rich, old white men that are continually and relentlessly pushing these bills only want to restrict abortion access for certain women — meaning they suddenly don’t have a problem with it when it’s their mistress or daughter.
A fantastic example of that very argument was Pennsylvania Rep. Tim Murphy. Murphy was a Republican who staunchly supported bills like those being proposed and passed today until he wound up resigning after leaked text messages revealed that he asked his mistress to get an abortion.
Shannon Edwards, Murphy’s mistress, messaged the congressman after his office’s Facebook account posted an anti-abortion statement.
“And you have zero issues posting your pro-life stance all over the place when you had no issue asking me to abort our unborn child just last week when we thought that was one of the options,” Edwards wrote to Murphy.
Murphy replied, “I get what you say about my March for life messages. I’ve never written them. Staff does them. I read them and winced. I told staff don’t write anymore. I will.”
In the end, the Congressman claimed the ordeal was over “an unfounded pregnancy scare.” But the legitimacy remains.
Rich, old, white Republicans want to regulate your uterus and completely rob you of your fundamental rights to the very body you’ve owned all your life — so long as it’s not carrying their child.
Featured image via DC Tribune GalleryÂ
