The recent leak of a draft opinion, written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, indicates that the highest court in the land is on the verge of giving the GOP their biggest victory yet in the war on women. What it also does is open the door for GOP controlled states to legalize child abuse.
It isn’t enough that some states want to go all out to hold women accountable for getting pregnant, especially when it is no fault of their own. Between January 1 and May 5, 2022, there were 546 restrictions in 42 states. GOP states continue to enact restrictions that narrow the window when an abortion can legally be performed. Once Roe v Wade is abolished, they could potentially ban all abortions no matter how far into the pregnancy. Some are even taking their lead from Texas by putting bounties on the heads of anyone who helps a woman obtain an abortion.
And there are no exceptions for incest.
The fact is less than one percent of abortions are due to incest. So why not exclude incest if it is just a minuscule number of abortions?
The party of “too much government” has no problem increasing GOP state government’s power to interfere in the private lives of its citizens. The inclusion of incestuous pregnancy is not about abortion. It’s about letting people know once they have the power, they can do what they want. Unfortunately, women are the ones taking the brunt of this abuse of power where state government can and will intrude in people’s everyday lives when there is no federal oversight to stop them.
And the child abuse aspect of all this? Imagine a pre-teen or teenage girl who is sexually abused by her father, uncle or other male family member. She is told “don’t tell anyone or something bad will happen to you”, “this is how daddies show their little girls how much they love them” or other outrageous lies to satisfy the man’s perverted sexual desires.
Deep down the girl knows this is not right, but has no one to turn to. Then she gets pregnant and now the secret is out. If the underage child is not allowed access to abortion, every minute of that pregnancy is a constant reminder of her trauma at the hands of her abuser, who, unlike a rapist who may be unknown to his victim, is also a constant presence in her life.
To deny a young girl the option to abort a baby that is the result of incest is itself child abuse. Psychological child abuse. Every minute of that pregnancy is a reminder of what she suffered at the hands of her abuser. If she is forced by her abuser or her family to keep the baby, then the child continues to be a reminder. She may also turn to physically abusing the child to take out her frustrations.
Where does the cycle of abuse stop if the option to end such an unwanted pregnancy is taken away?
And where will the GOP be? Where they always are—not caring a fig about a child after it is born and crying crocodile tears over child abuse and pedophilia.
The recent confirmation hearings for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson showed all of us the GOP only pretends to care about child abuse when it suits their political agenda. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) of “I’m pumped for an insurrection” fame, claimed Jackson was soft on child sex offenders. The fact that she was following legal guidelines in determining those cases didn’t matter to Hawley. All that mattered was his view that she didn’t take things to the extreme regardless of what the law recommended for punishment.
Kind of like how the GOP is taking abortion bans to the extreme and trampling on women’s rights to control their own futures. And throwing legal child abuse in as well just because they can.
