Everybody sing now!

I'm proud to be an American
Cuz my womb is property
I'll never forget the men who voted
To make it that way for me

Just saw a video about politics in South Dakota (you too can watch at PBS or via Susie Bright). Well. wow. Here are some choice excerpts for the transcript:

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Napoli says most abortions are performed for what he calls "convenience." He insists that exceptions can be made for rape or incest under the provision that protects the mother's life. I asked him for a scenario in which an exception may be invoked.

BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

Digby pretty much says already everything to be said about that: "Certainly, we know that if she wasn't a virgin, she was asking for it, so she should be punished with forced childbirth. . . .. I suspect many hours have been spent luridly contemplating the brutal, savage rape and sodomy (as bad as it can be) of a religious virgin and how terrible it would be for her. It seems quite clear in his mind. "

Back to the transcript:

STATE REP. ELAINE ROBERTS (D), SOUTH DAKOTA: We've chipped, and chipped, and chipped; now we're here with this full fledge. What will be next? What will be next?

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Democratic Representative Elaine Roberts is one of South Dakota's few pro-choice legislators. What's next, she fears, is a host of measures that regulate women's private lives.

ELAINE ROBERTS: We already have a law that says that pharmacists by conscience could refuse to fill my prescription for contraceptives. There is already a move from some groups who have worked on this to say that there should be no contraceptives, that sexual intercourse is for the purpose of reproduction.

A return to traditional values

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Much of what she fears as an assault on basic rights Senator Napoli sees as a return to traditional values.

BILL NAPOLI: When I was growing up here in the wild west, if a young man got a girl pregnant out of wedlock, they got married, and the whole darned neighborhood was involved in that wedding. I mean, you just didn't allow that sort of thing to happen, you know? I mean, they wanted that child to be brought up in a home with two parents, you know, that whole story. And so I happen to believe that can happen again.

So, right, if you have sex, no contraception for you. If you get pregnant and are unmarried, "the whole darned neighborhood" is going to force you to marry the father of your fetus. Is he abusive? Drunk? All wrong for you? Tough! Because, unless you were a virgin and this guy fulfilled Sen Napoli's darkest fantasies, you HAVE to have this kid and you HAVE to marry this guy. Or will the forced marriage bill make an exception for rape?

Marital rape is illegal in every state in the United States. Not because of a federal law. Not because of a court case. But because incredibly determined activists got the law passed separately in every single state. This is the next logical target of South Dakota, where women are clearly property. And as goes South Dakota, so goes the nation. (Time to cancel that trip to Mt Rushmore.)

Oh and this being a "states rights" issue is clearly bullshit because the first the US Congress is going to do if this gets past the Supreme Court is pass a bunch of laws. First Roe Vs Wade, then Griswold.

And this, my friends, is why I don't want to return to the US. I miss my friends and a lot of things, but I like freedom too. Freedom means human rights. It means a right to privacy. It means a right to health care.

Tags: Abortion, Celesteh