[Cross-posted elsewhere. Read my other writings and join the discussion at ProgressiveHistorians.]
Your Republican Congressperson wants to torture poor women.
You see, poor women [having an abortion] don’t get the “luxury” of general anesthesia. The dignity and comfort- not to mention humanity- of sleep cost extra. A Poor woman has to stay awake. She feels the cold of the famous (or should I say infamous) stirrups in a room full of doctors and technicians. She endures seven needles plunged into her cervix. Men don’t even have a body that comes close to causing that kind of pain. … Once the shots have been administered, and the “numbing” begins hard metal is used to pry open the cervix to allow access to the uterus. … Again, this is pain only women ever get to know. And I put quotation marks around “numbing” because it’s not as if the woman doesn’t feel all of this. She does. She feels the center of her being being spread wide and she feels the scraping of her uterus. The scraping of her uterus. Or the “vacuuming”. Either way, it’s not a way a human should be awake for on a Saturday morning.
Your Republican Congressperson wants to force little girls to bear children.
The FDA got it half-right this morning. Plan B contraception has been cleared for over the counter dispensation, but only if you are over the age of 18. Younger than 18? You’re shit outta luck, unless you’re willing to go to the doctor’s office and get a prescription yourself. How you’re supposed to do that without your parent’s knowledge, since I’m assuming they’ll get the insurance bills, is beyond me. If you’re lucky, there will be a Planned Parenthood office in your town. But again, that will require luck.
Your Republican Congressperson wants to be able to sexually abuse little boys.
…Tonight we learned on ABC News that GOP House staff warned the page class of 2001-2002 to stay away from ex-Rep. Mark Foley. Then why is it that on June 6, 2002, well after the kids were warned to stay away from Foley, Shimkus notes approvingly that Foley has spent a lot of time with the Page Class of 2001-2002? … The GOP staff knew Foley was a problem the year before, they warned the pages in 2001. Yet Shimkus, the next year is acknowledging that Foley was still permitted to spend “a lot of time” with the pages. … The GOP staff already knew that Foley was trouble. They had already warned the kids. Yet Shimkus let Foley spend lots of time with the kids, by Shimkus’ own admission. And then they let Foley cruise the kid to dinner in his beamer.
Your Republican Congressperson wants women to give birth in bondage.
Prisons throughout the United States restrain and shackle women throughout pregnancy and during labor, even though international human rights law bans restraints under these circumstances. … Last week, a woman gave birth in a jail cell. Despite repeated requests to see a doctor, guards ignored her. She went through labor delivery alone without any medical help. No, this didn’t happen in Afghanistan where the woman was jailed for adultery. It happened in Harris County, TX. It came to the attention of the media because a fellow inmate used her phone call to contact a local TV station. In recent months, a number of states have jailed pregnant women for pre-natal abuse–because they are using drugs and alcohol. Medical experts think this is the wrong way to handle the problem of substance abusing mothers-to-be because it discourages them from seeking pre-natal care for fear of failing a drug test and going to jail. In several cases, these women have given birth in jail cells, despite repeated requests for medical attention. In one case, the infant developed an infection as a result of coming intot his world in unsanitary conditions.
Your Republican Congressperson wants to drown Arabs until they almost die.
Anybody who considers this practice to be “torture lite” or merely a “tough technique” might want to take a trip to Phnom Penh. The Khymer Rouge were adept at torture, and there was nothing “lite” about their methods. … The similarity between practices used by the Khymer Rouge and those currently being debated by Congress isn’t a coincidence. … Not only do waterboarding and the other types of torture currently being debated put us in company with the most vile regimes of the past half-century; they’re also designed specifically to generate a (usually false) confession, not to obtain genuinely actionable intel. This isn’t a matter of sacrificing moral values to keep us safe; it’s sacrificing moral values for no purpose whatsoever.
Even if your Republican Congressman or Congresswoman didn’t vote for these specific practices, he or she still wants them to happen. Your Congressperson voted for the House and Senate leadership that supported these things. Your Congressperson voted for George W. Bush, who has promoted or allowed all these things.
So the next time someone tell you that the Republican Party is “the party of moral values,” just tell them exactly what their Republican Congressperson wants.
