#MarilynLands, a Dem who made #ReproductiveRights a centerpiece of her campaign in deeply #conservative#Alabama, won a special election to the Alabama Legislature.
Lands’ victory in the suburban district in the #DeepSouth state was celebrated by #Democrats who have attempted to portray the state #GOP as too extreme on #abortion & reproductive rights.
#MarilynLands defeated #Republican Teddy Powell to win the open legislative seat, acc/to unofficial returns Tues. Powell, a member of the Madison City Council, issued a statement conceding the race & congratulating Lands on her victory.
“Today, #Alabama women & families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery & across the nation. Our legislature must repeal AL’s no-exceptions #AbortionBan, fully restore #access to #IVF, & protect the #right to #contraception,” #MarilynLands said.
In his SOTU, President Joe Biden called out attacks on abortion and IVF. In the video linked below, Robert P. Jones notes that only 9% of Americans support a total ban on abortion. 64% say abortion should be legal in most or all cases. This is why Republicans want to hedge on what they have held up to now about IVF — which is a direct consequence of their insistence that a human person is present from the moment of conception.
"Few Republicans have opined on whether discarding leftover embryos is illegal or immoral — or whether there should be federal protections for IVF.
One explanation for the silence: 125 House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), co-sponsored a bill last year declaring that life begins at 'the moment of fertilization.'"
~ Zachary Basu
You can't have it both ways, once you say a "baby" is present at the moment of conception.
"Despite lip service claiming they support IVF, Senate Republicans refused to give unanimous consent to a bill proposed by Senator Tammy Duckworth to protect IVF. See WaPo, Senate Republican blocks bill to protect IVF after Alabama ruling (Accessible to all.) …
The extreme positions adopted by the far-right religious fundamentalists are reaching their absurd logical conclusions…."
"I never thought I’d be grateful to the Alabama Supreme Court for anything, but now I am. With its decision deeming frozen embryos to be children under state law, that all-Republican court has done the impossible. It has awakened the American public, finally, to the peril of the theocratic future toward which the country has been hurtling."
The AL #legislature voted Thurs to #protect#doctors doing IVF from #criminal or #civil#liability if #embryos they help to create are subsequently damaged or destroyed.
The fast action by both the House & Senate on bills to shield IVF came >2 wks after the state’s Supreme Court ruled that #FrozenEmbryos are people & that individuals could be liable for destroying them.
The unprecedented decision, which gave fertilized eggs the same protection as babies under the state’s #WrongfulDeath of a Minor Act, threw #IVF treatment in #Alabama into turmoil. W/in days, nearly every clinic in the state either suspended IVF or halted #embryo disposal. Some #women in the middle of treatment fled the state after securing care from out-of-state providers. Many others feared that their significant emotional, physical & financial investment in having a child would be for naught.
@Nonilex
Late-term abortions due to a fetal defect are a small, small percentage of total abortions, in case they want to apply the math equally, as are rapes and incest.
In addition to a 17th-century Dutch theologian (Petrus van Mastricht) and the King James bible, one of the authorities cited by Alabama chief justice Parker in his ruling on IVF is the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas. Parker's ruling cites Aquinas six times.
As someone with an M.A. and Ph.D. in historical theology — from a Catholic university — I know a little about Aquinas. Here are some salient points:
• Therefore anything — anything at all — that interferes with the "natural" purpose of human reproduction is deeply sinful. Whether that "anything" be masturbation, homosexual sex, contraception, coitus interruptus: anything.
• With this line of reasoning, Aquinas taught that for a man to rape a woman is less sinful than for a man to masturbate. Rape at least does not thwart the "natural" purpose of sexuality, while masturbation does.
So OF COURSE Alabama judge Parker would be a fanboy of Thomas Aquinas, since what he and his party want to do with their attacks on abortion and IVF and, in all likelihood soon, contraception, is to control women.
What Parker et al. are about is finding ancient authorities imbued with patriarchal, pre-scientific assumptions, to impose as "the" authorities on 21st-century thinking about human reproduction.
Justice #TomParker, who made the #Alabama ruling regarding #embryos, had this to say last week: "God created government, and the fact that 'we' have let it go into the possession of 'others' is heartbreaking...." He believes in the Seven Mountain Mandate, a doctrine which calls on #Christians to control the "seven mountains" of society.
My wife got up with just a coffee. I have to make us some breakfast. I'll peek back and see if you've gotten enough coffee to talk sensible to the crazy folks in Alabama.
MENU
Ham Sandwiches $5:50
Tiny baby chicken Sandwiches $4:50
Coffee (not until you finish your baby sandwich)
#Alabama Lawmakers Move to Protect #IVF Treatments
A court ruling declaring frozen #embryos to be legally considered children has set off a scramble among leaders in both parties to preserve access to a crucial reproductive treatment.
The court’s ruling, handed down by an 8-to-1 majority, applies only to 3 couples who were suing a #fertility clinic over the accidental destruction of their #embryos. But its wording — paired w/a fiery blatantly [#religious] opinion from the chief justice encouraging lawmakers to push its scope further — has left many wondering about the possible wider implications for people seeking #IVF treatment.
#JimWright / #StoneKettle
wrote:
"If you're a #Republican in #Alabama, frozen eggs are way better than actual children.
They don't need food, or clothing, or a decent place to live, or education, or medical care, or clean #water or breathable #air, they don't talk back & you don't have to worry they might not believe in your religion or won't conform to your preacher man's idea of gender, sex, & identity.
Frozen #embryos are the perfect Republican."