This week is all about consequences. OK, every second is always all about consequences, but this week felt more so! Maybe it was the spectacle of political implosions crashing in faster than you had time to celebrate them. There’s a whiff of karma in the air! Consequences.
Sidewalk screamers have their own version of consequences. It goes “God hates [insert “abortion” or “gays” or whatever you want here],” so anything bad that happens is God punishing us for your gay abortion lifestyle. It’s versatile and doesn’t require a lot of complicated climate modeling.
But this week we saw the consequences of failed policies on abortion and reproductive healthcare. Brainless abstinence-only sex ed (oops, we mean ‘sexual risk avoidance”) results in higher teen pregnancy rates, which result in higher abortion rates. Doh!
And fighting tooth and nail to prevent a much-needed medical abortion clinic from opening in South Bend, Indiana can only result in more later-in-the-term surgical abortions.
Failed abortion policy has negative consequences for the economy, as women are unable to participate as they would like (despite convoluted computations by anti-choice nutjobs of the number of pizzas aborted fetuses would have eaten over the years.)
Then there’s smarmy Trump HHS official Scott Lloyd, who tries to impose his own morality and his own set of consequences onto helpless young immigrants because he’s unhappy about the consequences of choices he made in college.
Funding cuts for Planned Parenthood (thankfully REJECTED!) deny people everything from abortion care to cancer screening. And as we saw, ancient laws from decades past may still have consequences today if Roe v Wade falls.
Which brings us to the 10-ton elephant of consequences—Brett Kavanaugh. If he gets a seat on the Supreme Court, the consequences will be reverberating far into the future when we all have jetpacks and robot companions… and no reproductive rights!
Here’s the takeaway on Kavanaugh and on all the consequences we face: there are good consequences too. They require dedication and timely action and a certain amount of sacrifice. Get involved and see what you can do to help… like maybe this weekend. It’s a matter of great consequence.
