One time in a college freshman class our beleaguered professor warned us “Don’t write ANY essays where you say ‘this is good that this happened because we wouldn’t be here now if it didn’t.” Because the terrible “Well if this [horrible thing] hadn’t happened, I personally wouldn’t be here today” argument is so lazy and obvious that every college freshman ATTEMPTS to make it and then gets an F and then learns their lesson.
Enter a man who has never learned: Steve King. He said, “What if we went back through all the family trees and just pulled out anyone who was a product of rape or incest? Would there be any population of the world left if we did that?” We can’t really editorialize about this any more than we’ve already have so we’re just gonna go scream into a pillow for 90 to 300 more minutes for a completely unrelated reason!
Speaking of people who never learn, let’s talk Missouri real fast. OK so here’s a thing that really makes us want to break a table in half. Every argument made by the state and lawyers and anti-abortion losers about “undue burden” basically boils down to, “This very obviously annoying and bad thing is NOT too much for a woman, nonbinary person, transgender man to have to go through.” Just like, case after case of “Well like, if you HAVE to drive 5 hours… that’s not 10 hours. If you have to wait 17 days… that’s not 18. If you HAVE to climb over 2 cliffs… that’s just good exercise.” I think we’ve already proved as a society that these shitty people do not care about anyone else’s burden. If they did, they wouldn’t be anti-abortion. So it’s all a farce!!
And the farcical nature of it becomes EVEN clearer in cases where we ARE FORCED TO FIGHT THE SAME ARGUMENT WE’VE ALREADY WON! Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt ESTABLISHED that requiring clinics to have admitting privileges at hospitals was an undue burden. NOW in Missouri a court is being like “Eh… we don’t have enough info to dismiss this case that is the same kind of undue burden (literally) because like.. There are a few different commas here.” So we AGAIN have to hear assholes talk about “well I mean, having to drive across state isn’t THAT big of a deal.” Imagine ANY OTHER STATE BRAGGING about their lack of healthcare. “You can just FLY to another state if you want a general practitioner!” IT MAKES NO SENSE.
It’s enough to lose some hope! But y’all, we wanted to be in a good mood REAL QUICK because the amazing badasses at Full Frontal did a SEGMENT on TELEVISION about REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE and they interviewed the amazing ladies at Choices Memphis! Watch now, donate to Choices! Feel a little better about the world for a second!