Manufactured Outrage

Some female opponents of Obama, who oppose him for no other reason than he's not the female candidate, are looking for any excuse to hate on him. It's getting to the point of being half-hearted. I'm not even really feeling it anymore. Obama says something. OMG! Outrage, outrage, outrage. He hates women, even though he shares the exact same positions as the female candidate and talks about abortion pretty much exactly the same way. It doesn't matter. He's not a woman, only the woman is allowed to take nuanced views of abortion.

The most recent manufactured offense: Obama says he doesn't support an "emotional distress" exception for late-term abortion.

Let's see some of that fake outrage.

What he meant is that he doesn't think all those irresponsible, fickle, ninny-brained straw-women who decide willy-nilly they want abortions in their third trimester shouldn't be allowed to get one by claiming "mental distress" swoon swan get thee to a fainting couch. He's breathing life into the damnable lie that there are legions of women who seek out late-term abortions just because they've changed their silly little minds and make up lies about "mental distress" to get them.

Jesus, where do I begin?

1. The third trimester is a generally accepted cut-off point for abortion. It's at that point that a fetus becomes effectively viable and aborting a fetus that can survive outside its mother's womb kinda smacks of infanticide. (And this would be real infanticide, not the fake shit that anti-choicers have made up.) People who support abortion rights fully accept this cut-off point, with the exception of a few loonies (who you'll find in the comments of that blog post). Other countries where abortion rights are codified into law (as compared to being decided by the courts) often cut off elective abortions even earlier, such as after the first trimester. Those countries have the same prohibitions and exceptions for late-term abortions that we have had for the past 35 years.

2. "Emotional distress" has often been used by women in countries where abortion is illegal. Wealthy women in those countries shop around for a doctor willing to give them an exception and essentially buy access to a safe abortion. This has been the case in Spain for a long time and is a major reason why Portugal won't allow abortion under any circumstances. They've seen how the mental, and even general, health exception works in practice. Allowing women late-term abortion for something as nebulous as "emotional distress" is the same thing as having no prohibitions on late-term abortions at all. Anyone who knows something about abortion and the history of abortion would know this to be true. (You'd think these guys had at least seen Vera Drake.) It's amazing to see such die-hard proponents of abortion rights acting like such ignoramuses, but I suppose that's necessary when you're manufacturing outrage.

3. Obama's position is necessary to preserve abortion rights in this country. Americans barely support abortion rights. Most of those who generally support abortion rights are squeamish about it. They like to see limits on it. They like to see parental consent laws. They don't like to see government money spent on abortion. They want to make sure that late-term fetuses, which are pretty much babies, aren't being aborted at all or at least are being aborted for only the best of reasons, such as the health of the mother or the death or severe ill health of the fetus. Taking the position of "Fuck it. Women should be able to have abortions whenever, for whatever reason." hurts the cause. It alienates people who would otherwise support us. It makes the anti-choicers' lies about fetal organ farms and the profitability of Planned Parenthood that much easier to believe. And, yes, most Americans who support abortion rights will worry that some women will seek late-term abortions for superficial reasons. Even if only one woman does it, that could very well be enough to turn many Americans against abortion rights.

It's so frustrating to see this garbage, particularly when combined with the other criticisms of Obama's statements on abortion. He thinks women should only have "some" control over our bodies. He thinks women should have to consult with our religious leaders and fathers of our babies before we can get abortions. He thinks abortion is a tragic choice.

It's all bullshit and it's all manufactured.

We finally have a candidate who knows how to talk about abortion. John Kerry demonstrated how not to do it. When asked about abortion at a debate, he said that, as a former altar boy, he understood what the questioner was feeling, but there was just nothing he could do about it. Translation: I know that abortion is wrong, but I'm too much of a mendacious, power-hungry coward to take a stand against what I and my religion consider to be murder.

Obama comes along and talks about how he's not sure about the morality of abortion. Maybe it's ok, maybe it's not, but there's no way to be sure. Therefore, he's going to leave that decision in the hands of the people who are directly affected by it. He's also going to pursue generally good public policies that have the bonus side effect of lowering the abortion rate, and he's going to pursue sensible policies vis a vis late-term abortion since that's a less uncertain moral quandary. No one wants to see a 6- to 9-month-old fetus/baby die unless absolutely necessary.

He is an incredible candidate. His nuanced stand on abortion will cement pro-choice Americans' support of it (even among those who are squeamish about it), and he may even draw some anti-choice voters who are eager to no longer see abortion used as a wedge issue.

I predict Obama will win in a landslide, and I can't wait to see it happen.