Free Speech, Fetus Fetishist Style

A lot is at stake today in the US as its Supreme Court considers buffer zones around abortion clinics.

Today, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear a challenge to a law that protects women seeking reproductive-health care in Massachusetts - including checkups, birth control, and abortion care - from enduring violence, and harassment by anti-choice protesters outside of reproductive-health clinics.

Massachusetts has a 35-foot buffer zone (the distance of two parking spaces) that blocks anti-choice protesters from approaching women accessing health care. But anti-choice forces are fighting the buffer zone so that they can get even closer when shaming and harassing women entering these clinics.

See, it's a free speechy thing.

Here are some glimpses into what is considered "free speech" by USian fetus fetishists.

MA Buffer Zone Law from NARAL Pro-Choice America

And of course, there's this sublime expression of "sidewalk counselling".



Here's Robin Marty:

Ultimately, if the Supreme Court strikes down the buffer zone in McCullen v. Coakley, every clinic sidewalk could potentially turn into the sidewalk in Louisville [described in the piece], where anti-abortion protesters can openly chase clinic patients, “exorcise” escorts, and block doors — not with the metal or even human chains they used in the nineties, but with the emotional force of 100 bodies lining the street, shouting that you are a murderer.

That type of “freedom of speech” won’t just be condoned; it will be actively encouraged at every clinic in every state in the country. The freedom to determine if you choose to carry a pregnancy to term, however? That could become a thing of the past.

We here at DJ! keep an eye on what's happening down south. Because we have these dangerous nutters here too.

I believe that our USian cousins dropped the ball on abortion with the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. They thought they'd won.

We in Canada had to keep fighting until 1988, all the while watching the violence and backlash in the States. Pro-choice USians have been on defence ever since 1973.

But now some good news. They plan to play offense in 2014.

States may have become the laboratory for advancing an anti-choice agenda, but [NARAL president Ilyse] Hogue said they also present the best opportunity for turning the tide. Although NARAL has yet to identify specific races to target Hogue expects to mount a full political program including media and field campaigns in as many as half a dozen states, and to be involved in dozens of others. Exposing anti-choice incumbents who try to repackage themselves in light of the GOP’s efforts to rebrand itself more women-friendly will likely be a key strategy. Nineteen anti-choice governors are up for re-election, including Sam Brownback.

In Canada, we've never stopped playing offense.

Cue the Gloating

Fetus fetishists will have a bounce in their step today, even though the Canadian branch of them didn't quite get the 'tens of thousands' they were confidently predicting for yesterday's Forced Pregnancy March. The always reliable *snerk* LifeShite pegs the number at a suspiciously round 10,000.

That affair might have been a damp squib, but a new Gallup Poll will rev them up again.

A new Gallup Poll, conducted May 7-10, finds 51% of Americans calling themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42% "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as pro-life since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.

The move is apparently the work of the Party of No.

The source of the shift in abortion views is clear in the Gallup Values and Beliefs survey. The percentage of Republicans (including independents who lean Republican) calling themselves "pro-life" rose by 10 points over the past year, from 60% to 70%, while there has been essentially no change in the views of Democrats and Democratic leaners.

There's some interesting speculation on why this happened.

With the first pro-choice president in eight years already making changes to the nation's policies on funding abortion overseas, expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in abortion procedures, Americans -- and, in particular, Republicans -- seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates as well as conservatives.

So, the Rethugnicans may be getting some traction with their 'most baybee-killingest president evah' bullshit.

Or not.

It is possible that, through his abortion policies, Obama has pushed the public's understanding of what it means to be "pro-choice" slightly to the left, politically. While Democrats may support that, as they generally support everything Obama is doing as president, it may be driving others in the opposite direction.

Meh. Merkins. Who can figger them?

MORE: Hmmm. Here's some evidence that these numbers may be outliers.

BONUS! Dr Dawg posted a video from the Forced Pregnancy March that shows your average zygote zealot and misogynist vulture at his best.

MORE BONUS! Yes! Yes! Teh base!

For some strong opponents of abortion rights, the poll is seen as a mandate for the Republican Party to recommit to social conservatism.

Blog for Choice

Thirty-five years ago, I was a 20-year-old hippie travelling through the US with my hippie boyfriend in a VW van. Life was pretty groovy. Like most 20-year-olds, I didn't have much historical sense. Events seemed to be unfolding as they should. Civil rights were on the march. The Merkin people seemed to be succeeding in protesting an unpopular war.

Then, women's rights took a leap forward with the USian Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision.

Groovy.

Thirty-five years later, women's rights in the US are going backwards.

Harvard puts out an annual review of the laws on abortion around the world. Scroll down to the United States there to view the state of play in the 50 states.

Parental notification laws. Extended wait times. Mandatory counselling. Mandatory ultrasounds.

And in an election year the word 'abortion' is on the lips of every slimey huckster seeking office. The less slimey merely want to 'reduce' the number of abortions. The truly scary theocrats want to outlaw abortion entirely and jail women who succeed in obtaining one.

(I won't even get into the creeping attack on contraception in general.)

While we at Birth Pangs stand in solidarity with our USian sisters, we sometimes despair. You've got a fuck of a long way to go yet, baby.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)