America is Fucked Up

[sesquepadalia]

Ok, so a lot of people have been posting about the Mississippi Personhood amendment, which is pretty damn sickening in itself, but I've just come across another utterly horrific piece of legislature under consideration in the states.

That would be the H.R. 358 bill, which, among other things, overrides something called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Under EMTALA, hospitals must stabilize a pregnant patient who, for example, is facing an emergency obstetric condition or life-threatening pregnancy and either treat her--including an emergency abortion--or if the hospital or staff objects, to transfer her to another facility that will treat her.

Even the staunchest anti-abortion people that I know (or have argued with on the internet) will make exceptions for situations where the mother's life is at stake. And yet this bill is attempting to overturn current legislature which guarantees that. 

Quite seriously, if this bill were to become law, it would be completely legal to leave pregnant women in labour to die, rather than perform an abortion that would save their life. 

I'll let that sink in.

Now try this one: This bill has PASSED in the house of Representatives. 

It has not yet gone before the senate, and Obama has (quite rightly) said that if the bill lands on his desk he will be exercising presidential veto, but the fact that this bill has, not only been proposed, but has gone this far is an enormity beyond words. 

Comments

[sarahlascelles.livejournal.com]

You know, I really dont understand this one at all.

Its not even 'pro-life' (oh and how inappropriate is that term?) - in all the situations I can think of where the EMTALA applies, leaving the woman to die will also mean the foetus dies. The 'logic' is totally obscure to me.

And as for the rest of this piece of legislation, WTF??? The Handmaid's Tale seems to be a fucking manifesto for these nutters.

Do we need to start setting up the underground railroads so women can get out of Gilead? Oh wait, they arent calling themselves Gilead yet.

[sesquepadalia.livejournal.com]

It's not "pro-life" it's anti woman, pure and simple. And pandering to the Christian Wrong.

[sarahlascelles.livejournal.com]

Definitely.

And that applies to the 'pro-life' movement in general, they dont give a flying fuck about life, all they care about is control.

[fearmeforiampink]

I'll note there's already something a little like that, in that there's a charity that exists to help women in Ireland (I forget if they do both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, or just the latter, as it's illegal except if the mother's health is at risk in both) to get to the UK so they can have an abortion.

[nelsolidarida.livejournal.com]

That is a really fucked up interpretation of 'personhood' to say a foetus has more claim on it than a grown woman.

[morganwd.livejournal.com]

I did read the reports when you and vevaphonics linked to them on facebook. It is strange there is absolutely no mention of this in the British media as far as I can see as you would think it might be worth a brief article.

But yes, you do wonder what planet and/or controlled substances these people are on as I honestly cannot see how this makes the remotest sense.

[chess]

The planet in which action is much more important than allowing bad stuff to happen by inaction - they have answered the 'do you push the guy off the bridge to save five other people' question with 'no, you must never do that, because that would be you actively murdering someone, which is sin, rather than doing nothing, which can never be wrong'.

Add that to the planet on which you either don't know when a soul enters the body, or you are certain it enters the zygote at conception, and babies who haven't had an opportunity to hear the Word go to hell, and you can see where many of the scary conclusions come from.

(I don't know where America's national perversion of Christianity lost the plot and forgot that God is Love, acts justly and loves mercy, but if you take those core elements out of Christianity and believe in the rest, you can see where they get it from...)

[sarahlascelles.livejournal.com]

Someone posted this on an LJ list I am on
http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly050504.htm

[sesquepadalia.livejournal.com]

Made of win

[the-pale-queen.livejournal.com]

The ongoing insanity that is much of the US of A continues to shock me... nope, sadden me. I ran out of shock for that country a long time ago.