Tag Archives: abortion

April 4, 2012, 1:37 pm

I’m Pregnant… In Arizona

This has been a year when a lot of seriously bad laws concerning reproductive rights have been passed. In Wisconsin legislators voted that private health insurance is not allowed to cover abortions. In Tennessee, a bill calling for the publication of the names of doctors who perform abortions as well as detailed demographic information about the women who have them is moving through the legislature. Then there were the proposed “trans-vaginal rape” laws in Virginia, Texas, and Iowa. These laws would force women seeking abortion to have a trans-vaginal ultrasound, a procedure carried out by inserting a rather large and phallic instrument into a woman’s vagina. This would be mandatory even in cases of rape and incest.

But when it comes to just downright crazy laws, Arizona wins with reproductive rights (not to mention crazy racist and anti-immigration laws too. Go AZ!).

According …

April 3, 2012, 11:43 pm

Romney Takes Wisconsin: The Faith-and-Values Plot Pivots

By Jacques Berlinerblau

In the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, Christian Conservatives somehow neglected to get behind one candidate. Confronted with a slate that featured pro-choice Rudy Giuliani , flipfloppin’ Mitt Romney (a Mormon), and John McCain (who they simply hated), they finally coalesced around Mike Huckabee.

The former governor of Arkansas actually entered the race early, in January of 2007. He was scarcely noticed until December where he picked up: 1) steam, 2) the fealty of Chuck Norris, and, 3) the admiration of Iowans who then gifted him with a caucus victory in January 2008.

In 2012 the Christian Right witnessed the exact opposite scenario. The field was now flooded with candidates whose worldview was congenial to its own. These ranged from Catholics like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich (a convert), to Evangelicals such as Tim Pawlenty (a convert from Roman Catholicism) to…

October 26, 2011, 8:31 am

Life Starts at Conception: Zygote Fetishism

By Jacques Berlinerblau

After reading this morning’s New York Times article about a constitutional amendment in Mississippi which would “declare a fertilized human egg to be a legal person,” I have all sorts of questions for Personhood USA, the group that advocates for this issue nationally.

By all accounts, the proposed “Yes on 26″ amendment will pass in Mississippi and elsewhere on November 8. I won’t bore you with all of my concerns about what I have elsewhere referred to as “zygote fetishism.” But please indulge me in considering the following scenario.

Let’s say a God-fearing Evangelical Christian woman, an upstanding citizen of Jackson~~ville~~, has sex within the bounds of monogamous union with her husband.

Let’s say the fortuitous union of egg and sperm subsequently occurs. And let’s say–this is nowhere out of the ordinary–that neither the woman nor her husband have any idea that fertilization …