Don’t say gay, ban those books, no DEI, Oh My! Florida is a mess!
The latest is a new six- week abortion ban. Of course, the citizens have put a constitutional amendment guaranteeing reproductive autonomy on the ballot as well. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in Trump’s home.
When I heard the news today, I had to wonder what was magic about six weeks. 20-24 weeks is magic because a fetus is unable to survive outside of the womb prior to that gestational age. Fifteen- and sixteen-week abortion bans are pushed by ignorant people who claim that late-stage abortions are infanticide when the reality is that late-stage abortions are performed most often because a fetus has abnormalities incompatible with life that could not be identified prior to the last trimester. Rarely, they are performed solely to save the life of the mother. In either case, it is a tragedy for the prospective parents rather than for the state.
So, there is nothing magic about six weeks. I don’t understand why Florida Repukes and their revulsive Governor didn’t just pass a 24-hr abortion ban. If a fertilized egg is a person (we see you Alabama), then a 24-hr abortion ban is only logical.
Now, I have to say that I have always thought that sexual reproduction was an ungainly and fraught endeavor. I don’t just mean that intercourse is an ungainly endeavor; it is. I mean that sexual reproduction ends badly between a sixth and a third of the time. Even when an egg is successfully fertilized, one in three of such zygotes have genetic abnormalities incompatible with life. Some are resorbed in the uterus. Most of them are rejected by the body and end as spontaneous abortions in the first trimester. Almost everyone who has been pregnant more than a couple of times has experienced a spontaneous abortion. Some spontaneous abortions require a D&C procedure; others are treated medically to ensure that the products of an unsuccessful conception are evacuated so that the patient can try another day (as opposed to dying of sepsis).
My point is simply that honesty matters. If one is going to criminalize the loss of a pregnancy, then let’s call it from the moment of conception. Four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks … it’s all bullshit. The use of weeks is political subterfuge. It’s a lie meant to deceive those that the law subjugates into believing that they were given a proper amount of time to undertake a legal termination of their pregnancy.
Women deserve better. If you are going to turn women into livestock, have the cods to tell them that is what you are doing, Pendejo!