How extremist the GOP became on abortion
In 1970, even "pro-life" politicians supported a woman's right to choose. One GOP legislator even decided his career wasn't worth voting against choice. Those days are no more.
If you’ve valued reading The Signorile Report, consider becoming a paid subscriber and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!
We’ve not seen in the past 50 years the ramifications on people’s lives when the Supreme Court didn’t protect the right, across the entire country, to choose an abortion.
But soon, we’ll see those ramifications, as many states ban abortion. The result will include the deaths of many women who won’t be able to have a safe abortion and the horrors of those forced to have a rapist’s child or a child born out of incest.
It’s unfathomable — and I think it’s one reason why the GOP has had success. Two generations haven’t seen that reality in their own lives — including two generations of GOP legislators — and the horrors on a mass scale are far removed.
That’s why I found this short, four-minute film from Abortionfilms.com so instructive and interesting. And so ominous. It’s like going back in a time — but also lays out what the future will be.
The clip focuses on the vote by the New York State Legislature in 1970 to legalize abortion. The reality then was that hundreds of women were dying from botched illegal abortions. Something had to be done. This was three years before Roe v. Wade, and legislators grappled with passing a bill to save women’s lives even if it challenged their religious beliefs.
You will see how even legislators who believed life began at conception still voted for the choice being left with women. And one GOP assemblyman, George Michaels, knew a vote in favor could end his career. But he felt he had to do the right thing. The New York vote helped lay the groundwork for the Roe v. Wade decision just a few years later.
Watch this clip and think about how different it is today. There are no Republicans like this, and part of it is because they know for much of the public the reality of not having the right to abortion hasn’t existed. They’ve been able to become more and more extreme, many of them probably thinking abortion would never actually be taken away as a right. But now it has, and tragically, the realities of this right being nonexistent will come into sharper view.
I'm listening to Thom Hartmann listing all the companies offering travel expenses for abortion and giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Attorney Generals Association that are planning on the next attack on our privacy rights. WTFU! What I'm not seeing is making a connection to how we got here and relating it to fickle selfish voting habits of the Democrats and Progressives. WE HELPED THIS HAPPEN by not taking voting seriously enough not just to elect a candidate but to stop the fucking fascists by voting for their opponents! Enough with the personality voting and time to understand voting as part of a strategy to stop the fascists. People are not morally exempt because they didn't participate. The 2 stupidest words in politics is "protest vote" Did the GOP invent this phrase because it has worked for them more than it has worked for us.
Texas Governor says the way to stop abortions is to stop rape! Eazzy peazzy. My congratulations to all the husbands of wives or fathers of the daughters that will be raped and impregnated by their rapist, congrats! You’re gonna be a Daddy again with all the joy and fuss that goes with that. Mom, know you think you are tired after a day at work and house cleaning but your husband and other kids will pick up the slack. Don’t worry. They are going to be so excited about the new baby sister or brother (maybe twins!) that they will pitch-in as usual. This rape brought new unexpected joy into your lives. How very special.