Anti-Abortion Groups Once Portrayed Women as Victims. new bills will make them serious criminals

[Demovictory9]

Anti-Abortion Groups Once Portrayed Women as Victims. That’s Changing.

That’s another way things have changed in recent months: Some of this new crop of bills reflect a change in how the anti-abortion movement portrays such women, depicting them as serious criminals rather than innocent victims of the “abortion industry,” as had been common in the past. That rhetorical and legal shift sends a powerful message about who is likely to face criminal punishment when Roe is decimated, as it is expected to be this summer.

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Yet in December, when the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the biggest abortion case in decades, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, rationalizations about protecting women from abortion were sidelined. Anti-abortion groups and lawyers for the State of Mississippi stressed that abortion was simply unnecessary: Women had achieved more equal citizenship, but not thanks to widespread abortion access. Just look at the newest Supreme Court justice, Amy Coney Barrett: She’s enjoyed tremendous professional success and had a large family. Why can’t everyone else do the same?

There were always going to be practical reasons for abortion foes to stop portraying individual women as victims. For one thing, states have already prosecuted women for conduct during pregnancy. But unless states do more to punish those who can become pregnant, anti-abortion laws will become difficult to enforce: If you ban the procedure, women will travel out of state or order pills online. So you have to stop them from doing those things, too. And individual women will be easier for conservative states to target than abortion providers or pill distributors in other states or countries.



Anti-abortion states have a decision to make: If they want to strongly enforce criminal abortion bans, they will probably have to go after women. Missouri’s recent bills suggest which way that decision will go.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/19/opinion/abortion-laws-bans-missouri.html

[bucolic_frolic]

1. LGBTQ/Abortion Bounties/CRT Censorship/Voter Suppression are a GOP WAR ON NEIGHBORS

And yes someone should sue the pants off these purveyors of hate. How do you go from being a victim to being a criminal with the exact same behavior?

[Solly Mack]

2. They never saw women as victims. By saying they were, they were hoping to come off as caring

and concerned, reasoning that would lure more people to their cause. If they pretend to care about women, then they could fall back on that as "proof" they mean no harm to women. (But, but, we only want to help women)

If they are seen as wanting to help, then they thought they wouldn't look like misogynistic and authoritarian asswipes.

Poor misguided women. We only want to help them. Those poor, preyed upon women and we only want to let them know how much we love them.

By saving them from abortion.

Now they are showing their true colors. They always wanted to punish women. They always have punished women.

For wanting an education. For wanting to work. For not wanting to get married. For having sex. For not wanting to have children. For seeking a divorce. For having kids but not being married.

For demanding and then claiming their autonomy.

They speak in terms of pregnancy being proof of sin - the sin being a woman having sex when they think she shouldn't (not married, an affair).

They speak in terms of poverty is what single moms get for having sex.

Loose women. Fallen woman. Slut. Shame. Embarrassment. (and the list goes on)

Their language is all about punishing.

That's also why they go after birth control.

Birth control freed women in ways the misogynistic and authoritarian asswipes can't stand.

Can't have that.

It was never about saving a fetus.

It has always been about controlling women.

And if you can't control them - punish them - with jail if nothing else works.

[paleotn]

6. +10,000

I've known the anti-abortion crowd my whole life. Your description is spot on.

[Solly Mack]

17. I've listened quietly while groups of them talked and without exception they always

get around to behaviors they think women should be punished for, that society should shame and ostracize women for, the "wages of sin", how they shouldn't pay for the "bad behavior" of others, and the "good old days".

They always, without exception, get around to blaming the victims of rape for the rape. Oh, they dress it up a little, but they are still victim blaming.

"Good girls" don't get raped, they all agree.

That's victim blaming - among other things.

Get them talking and let them talk long enough, and they all reveal themselves.

Never an exception. Never.

[LittleGirl]

9. Exactly. I can't believe we have to continue to protest this!

Keep abortion legal and safe.
Roe v Wade only helped more women survive.
Women have less rights than a corpse.

[Solly Mack]

18. We are always going to have to fight for our rights.

Misogyny ain't going anywhere.

Sadly.

It is frustrating though.

[area51]

10. +1 n/t

[Skittles]

21. excellent response

exactly right

[greymattermom]

3. So the men involved

can be charged with accessory to murder?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

4. This has been pushed by the "abortion abolition" movement, which is separate from the wider pro-life

movement. Adherents actually act like they believe abortion is murder, and that contraception is also murder, and because it all goes against God's plan, it must be punished. Both people getting abortions and those providing them would be treated as criminals if they had their way; some say the death penalty should be the punishment for abortion.

[MissMillie]

5. link w/ no paywall

https://archive.ph/sOVnM

[AverageOldGuy]

7. Amy Coney Bryant . . .

. . . adopted several of her children and was wealthy enough to employ full-time nannies and household help.

It's not like she gave birth to a flock of seven and worked two part-time jobs while going to college and law school.

[live love laugh]

8. A two-fer: disenfranchisement AND authoritarian control.

[Farmer-Rick]

11. Jesus must really hate women

Look at most Christian religions and it's all about making women the property of some man.... It really doesn't matter what man. The father, the husband, maybe eldest son. Conservative Jews and Muslims do the same thing.....as do many other religions.

(Once she's old and a widow, it doesn't really matter, she's already been trained to doubt her abilities and acquiescent to men; anyway she's old and no one wants to to have sex with her anymore so she doesn't really matter.)

But here's the thing. Jesus never addressed abortions or dead babies. Like slavery he turns a blind eye to the dead and abandoned babies on the trash heap or drowned in the rivers of ancient Rome. It's as if he doesn't know infanticide was a common practice both for Roman citizens and Jewish people. So common that laws were passed that if you took one of these dying infants to raise, they would be your slave for life. But Jesus turned a blind eye to that too. I guess your God just doesn't care about dead babies.

I guess these forced birthers want to see more infanticide like it in ancient Rome. Or just want to lock up all the child bearing women in the state as criminals. You got to love religion for creating such blatant hypocrisy.

[Lonestarblue]

12. Birth control and access to safe abortion have allowed women to succeed economically.

Without access to birth control, far too many women would be forced to be at home caring for a new baby every couple of years. During my grandparents’ time, it was not unusual for women to have 13 or more children, with poverty often a result.

Once they have gotten rid of safe abortions, these anti-woman extremists will turn their attention to birth control and try to outlaw it in any form. That may finally be a step too far, as I cannot see US women of reproductive age accepting such laws. There is not legal defense for them, but our ecclesiastical Supreme Court may well support them.

I have long believed that birth control pills—one of the safest medications with years of use—should be an over-the-counter medication. It is arguably safer than many others OTC products. Why the FDA does not do this can only be for religious reasons, not medical reasons—along with pressure form physicians who want to charge for an office visit every time a woman needs a new prescription.

[Hekate]

20. This

[dlk]

13. It's the dark side of the patriarchy

This has always been about about maintaining dominion over women’s bodies and keeping women a permanent underclass. In your wildest dreams, could you ever imagine American men tolerating such control over their bodies/reproductive freedom? (Who can forget the mass hysteria over mask rules to slow the spread of a deadly virus?) If these zealots truly cared about life, they would so something to address our deadly gun culture. Instead they attack vulnerable pregnant women.

[Joinfortmill]

15. Amen to that

[Joinfortmill]

14. This whole anti-abortion campaign is infuriating, draconian & reeks of subjugation

I don't believe for one moment that younger women and men are going to allow these cruel laws to stand.

[dalton99a]

16. Kick

[Hekate]

19. The hatred of women was always lurking in the anti-abortion movement. We are nothing but mindless...

… cows to them — creatures who can’t be trusted with human life. For our own good and the good of society, men should be in charge of us and our fertility. If the man in charge decides it doesn’t serve his needs to have a pregnant female around — then she gets an abortion. If he’s in the mood for a quiverfull — she must provide that.

It has not gotten better in my old age — I see them for what they are now.