Line up the wildest abortion policies in the Republican-run US states, and convince me we’re not bordering on fascism.
Very generally led by Caucasian males, the governments of several States compete creatively to prohibit and criminalize abortion in all its forms.
Like the Sons of Jacob in the republic of Gilead, the work of Margaret Atwood The Scarlet Maid, they literally appropriate control of women’s bodies, and want to regulate their fertility.
This frenetic activity obviously stems from the decision of the American Supreme Court to invalidate the judgment Roe v. wadewhich has protected the right to abort across the country since 1973.
50 years back! Really have to do it.
The three newly appointed baluster eaters as judges of this Court during Trump’s tenure are delivering the arrears goods as expected.
Since then, it’s been the party for elected officials and religious judges, conservatives and retrogrades.
The latest bullshit on the subject comes from a federal judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, who surely never misses his daily low mass, and who, last week, banned the sale of abortion pills in the United States.
To better illustrate my point, I’ll give you a short list of some of the craziest decisions or proposals in some states.
– In South Carolina, Republicans have proposed that a woman who has an abortion be considered a murderer, and that her gesture should be punishable by death.
– In Idaho, where almost all cases of abortion are already illegal, a law has just been passed (abortion trafficking) which punishes up to five years in prison anyone who helps a minor to leave the state to have an abortion, or to obtain medication for this purpose, without the consent of the parents.
– In Texas, where abortion is already illegal in all circumstances, proposed new rules would make anyone performing an abortion a felony punishable by life in prison.
And the fact of making available on the Internet any information concerning access to abortion, or to the abortion pill, would also be criminalized.
– In Iowa, in rape cases, the state took care of the victim and paid for medical care, examinations to prove it, and care to prevent the transmission of infections. But the news Attorney General, a recently elected Republican woman, axed all these costs.
– In Wisconsin, elected Republicans have proposed a law to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest or serious danger to the health of the pregnant woman. They remained stuck with their text, too few of their own colleagues having voted in favor of it.
– In Florida, Ron DeSantis, who will want to play tough with shiny biceps to court the conservatives in the Republican primary, is lining up to pass a law banning abortion after six weeks.
So far, 11 states have effectively abolished abortion, while several others are trying to restrict access.
I dare to give myself a margin of error, because the existing documentation and its interpretation hardly give a complete portrait for each State.
The next target of these crazy right-wingers may be contraception, like the morning after pill, and what else for that matter…
Maybe I’m not telling you anything with this enumeration.
True, when we read this information in a dispersed way over time, we say to ourselves that they are crazy, these Americans, and we could unfortunately get used to it.
This idea of aligning them came to me while reading burning questionsthe latest book by Margaret Atwood.
She explains that in this dystopian story that is The Scarlet Maidalthough the story seems implausible, she refrained from inventing anything that would not have been experienced on this earth.
Hence my click on the anti-abortion measures in the United States, which seem to us, seen from here, just as implausible.
Put together, these obscurantist legislations give a good idea of the mentality of fossilized of part of the inhabitants and the leaders of this country.
More importantly, they could give a taste of the potential ability of some US states to socially backpedal, if they had the ability, and bring their populations back to a 2.0 era of the Salem witches.
I know, I’m exaggerating, but there are degrees to fascism. Think of Turkey, in principle democratic. When we see this retrograde momentum among our neighbors, we say to ourselves that they have reached somewhere on the facho scale.
Between us
Speaking of reading, for the last 15-20 years, including the mayor of Quebec, while reading constantly, I stuck to about one novel per year. Because I’m a “boring” reader, not capable of embarking on an imaginary story. And justly, The Scarlet Maid was not easy for me…
But retirement helping, I’m on my fourth in the last year. My meds are visibly working.
I even went throughAnnihilate by Michel Houellebecq. Must be dangerously on painkillers!
I submitted my torment to my bookseller, who suggested The man who loved dogs by the Cuban Leonardo Padura, which appeared a while ago.
I loved. The story, in parallel, of Trostky in his post-USSR wanderings, and of Ramón Mercader, his assassin.