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House R's push bullschitte bill to ban abortion based on race / sex of fetus
...because, apparently, all our other problems have been solved.
This really, really p!sses me off. It's not just some pro-life BS that they know won't pass, but it's a mockery of civil rights laws (just the title is, FFS).
IMHO, discrimination and civil rights aren't things for Congress to be mocking. 
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House Republicans Push Bill To Ban Abortions Based On The Race Or Sex Of The Fetus
By Tanya Somanader on Dec 5, 2011 at 5:46 pm
For House Republicans, this year has been the year of outlandish answers to non-existent problems. And tomorrow, they will offer the magnum opus of their 2011 campaign against a woman?s right to choose: the Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act (PRENDA). The bill seeks to somehow protect the ?civil rights? of fetuses by banning physicians from performing abortions based on the fetus?s race or sex. While the woman would be exempt from prosecution, physicians who perform the procedure can be sued for damages.
Tomorrow, the measure will enter the spotlight in the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, as will the man behind the effort: GOP Rep. Trent Franks (AZ). His chief motivation, he told the Daily Caller, is to solely to end discrimination, or as his chief proponents argue, the genocide of minority fetuses:
According to Franks, a ban on these types of abortions is needed because minority babies are aborted at five times the rate of white babies and, based on a 2008 report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Census data shows that certain populations have ?son-biased? ratios due to ?sex selection, most likely at the prenatal stages.?[...]
?People will say I have a greater agenda ? and they are right ? I hope for a day when all children, regardless of race or color, all children because they are children will be protected,? he said.
?But right now regardless of what the long term impact of this might be the short term impact is very simple: Can we not agree that aborting a child based on a child?s race or sex is wrong??
The act of such selective abortion would be a problem worth addressing if it was actually a problem. In his own state of Arizona (which recently passed a statewide version of this bill), not one state official or independent search offered any support for the claim that women abort babies based on race. What?s more, not only have the number of baby girls born increased since abortion became legal but only 5 percent of abortions take place beyond the point when a fetus?s sex can be determined. In reality, rather than addressing any verifiable prejudice, the bill actually exacerbates the discrimination Franks claims to be targeting.
The real reasons behind high abortion rates among African Americans and minorities are complex. Higher rates of unintended pregnancies, inadequate health insurance, substandard health care, ineffective use of birth control, and poor sex education often leave abortion as the only choice for women. The chief reason behind abortions is unintended pregnancy, not unwanted race or sex.
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And how do we show "because of" in these instances?
Does mom have to come in and say "I don't want a XXX baby?" or is the statistical evidence sufficient to deny all African American mothers the right to abortions because the statistics are skewed in a particular way?
I am the 99%.
Re: House R's push bullschitte bill to ban abortion based on race / sex of fetus
uh, what?
Do you have to give a reason to begin with when you seek an abortion?
I must have read that wrong.........Tell me this isn't a proposal in order to prevent minorities from having abortions.
Indeed it is. I want to say something else flameworthy, but I just can't today.
*throws up hands and walks out*
Excuse my while I barf up my lunch.
Uhhh, I am still so confused about this. The African American women cited are probably not aborting fetuses for being black. They're most likely aborting them because they don't want a) to be pregnant and / or b) because they don't want to parent / afford (an additional?) child.
wtf?
Please do, because I have a feeling I will go down in flames with you
It depends on how the law is written. If it says that nobody can get abortions because of race, that might mean that White woman can't come in saying, "omigod, I don't want a Black baby, I want me an abortion now!"
...it could also mean that the statistics could be used to say that, because one race or another is disproportionally likely to get an abortion, that any abortion by a member of that race is probably "because of race" on one level or another, therefore, deny.
I am the 99%.
This makes me want to cry. Cry tears of frustration and disappointment for the joke our government has become.
The idea is ridiculous in the first place, but how do you look at all the factors "Higher rates of unintended pregnancies, inadequate health insurance, substandard health care, ineffective use of birth control, and poor sex education..." but come to the conclusion they want an abortion because they don't want an ethnic baby?
DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!
Someone please explain to me how this bill is going to help with jobs and the economy. I thought that's what the midterm elections were about.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DThis is a post begging for a Hitler reference. I am...I don't know what to say.
Fuckitall.
I'm just tired. This shiit gets on my last fvcking nerves. Oh dear God, don't have an abortion, but don't fvck, because we ain't trying to give your po' brown and black azzes any gov't aid. And is this just one more plot to destroy minorities? Shiiton of children po' folk can't afford to have who - by Newt's own mouth - have no work ethic and will fall into a life of crime because that's all there is for poor minorities.
These mf's ain't doing nobody any favors. Abortions. Really. How about ya'll stop trying to deliberately ruin the fvcking economy and figure out how to get these phantom job creators to create some GDFVCKING jobs.
This bill did it. It made my head explode.
WTF!?! Seriously - and then they named it after Susan B. Anthony AND Frederick Douglass? I HATE when they try to make their BS bills seem legit based on the name alone.
And seriously - so with you on the making a mockery of discrimination and civil rights. Why aren't they working on something real? Like the economy? Other than their stupid anti-choice agenda and the fact that we're within 11 months of the elections, what purpose does this serve?
I get being anti-choice, I do but FFS, do something productive about it. Healthcare, education - do something positive for a change. Contribute something to making the world a better place instead of just being the douchebag "Anti" party.
Except of course tax breaks. You know what we should do? We should do away with the next elections and just install Grover Norquist as King of America.
Prevents the abortion of potential job creators?
Sorry, I've got nothing.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DMarry me.
I'll have your babies. Promise.
I am the 99%.
Haven't you heard? Sex selection abortions are anti-women, so we should totally be in support of this "progressive" legislation.
http://cwpe.org/initiatives/sexselection
Considering that The One Drop Rule says these babies will be black, we shall have no choice but to have all the babies our hearts desire.
You are going to have to fight me for her!!
I'm with Heather on this. This bill makes zero sense to me. It's a racist bill disguised as a "protect unborn children" bill.
And seriously - wth don't they come up with a bill that might solve actual problems? I am sooooo sick of politicians - I have never seen it this bad.
And I'll just say it. The people who have proposed this bill are the reason that that people say the Republican party has jumped on the crazy train. This is completely fuckings nuts. And totally pointless since it has ZERO chance of ever going anywhere.
This country has lots its collective fuckings mind.
my read shelf:
As if Newt couldn't convince us on his own he enlisted some extras just in case.
SMFH
I know this is going to get me in trouble, but I'm OK with it... here we go.
THIS is exactly the kind of stuff that makes me unable to consider the Republican party seriously. If a fringe-splinter-third party did something like this, we'd consider them whackazoids and laughable... but it's the fuckings Republicans... the party representing, arguably, nearly half of the people in this country (while the D's represent another nearly-half). The party that could be the party of the next POTUS.
A major US party is for this kind of crap? For reals?
FFS, I remember Reagan trying to make the Republicans into a "big tent"... this doesn't seem very big-tenty to me... it seems like the politics of division and mockery... which, it appears, plays to more people in these here and now United States than ever before.
And that just makes me sad.
I am the 99%.
If he doesn't stop abortions, how else will he get his child janitor army?
You are violating board rules by making generalizations. You are violating TOS. Biitches.
Momi - I'm with you on that. We've got bigger issues than people having abortions. I simply can't understand. Meanwhile, they are arguing over payroll tax issues in Congress. They are deliberately taking the focus away from how we get our economy on track. We've got overseas discussions on stabilizing the Euro. C'mon folks, that's a huge implication for our financial markets. But, abortions and Planned Parenthood. Oh and illegal immigrants. That's their platform?!
Ha! I'm just waiting for someone to criticize her own party.