making myself angry

I've just finished reading the full-text of Gonzales v. Carhart, aka, the partial-birth abortion ban case, for a law class. I knew a lot about the whole case from what they tell you in the news, but reading the actual rhetoric that went into the Supreme Court decision is magnificently depressing. It's amazing to see how so much of the bullshit sexist protectionist legislation that restricted women's rights in the past is still truck-truck-trucking along through the legal system today. One of my favorites, (and this is seriously from the opinion of the court, handed down with the decision, no joke...our government wrote this... seriously) :

"Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child. The Act recognizes this reality as well. Whether to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision... While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice..." (my italics)

Yes, I'm sure some women do. But does that mean the government should protect us from our own choices? And who are these men (and yes, I can say men, because this opinion was penned entirely by men) to tell us that the most ultimate bond of love is the one between a mother and a child? Soo..... women who don't have children.... no ultimate bond of love for them?

I love this part too:

"It is self-evident," (self-evident.... really?) "that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast-developing brain of her unborn child, a child assuming the human form." (my italics)

Sooooo..... wait, wait, wait.... An aborted fetus looks like a human?! OMG! Why doesn't anyone tell these women this?? Oh, and bonus points on the gross-out factor guys. Do they really think women aren't smart enough to A) Know what procedure they're getting, and B) understand that the fetus looks like a human?

Really, Supreme Court? Really?

Ugh.

If you want to make yourself angry, you can search it on http://www.findlaw.com/, or just watch this somewhat unrelated video and get nice and angry about our shitty dwindling repro-rights along with the lovely Sonya "The Drama" Boom Renee. Love her. Can't watch this video without getting heated.





Much much more on abortion to come. How could there not be?