When Alabama’s Supreme Court defined frozen embryos as children, the shock and confusion was immediate. Major hospitals pulled fertility services and would-be parents scrambled for clarity on what would happen next.
The debate over reproductive rights in America has long been driven, in part, by opposition to abortion from Christian groups - but this ruling has divided that movement and ignited debate about the role of theology in US lawmaking.
Skip to 0:30 for the relevant bit.
https://youtu.be/piBsmYVqCAg?si=PI29MYtoF66MOX_q
I’ve seen the interview. You can tell the guy is just completely lost in the conversation.
But my question is this: I understand the assertion that embryos are somehow human, whatever, and I have a sort of begrudging respect for anyone who commits to that and opposes abortion because it is murder. Fine. Like politically and morally I’m completely opposed to that and I will fight them every step of the way, but at least I can understand and respect their commitment. I think it’s valid to oppose abortion on those grounds, I suppose.
But if the argument is that abortion is wrong because we need more babies to be born, that is a completely different argument. That one says abortion needs to be illegal not because it’s killing babies, but because we have to force women to have babies against their will because babies are good.
And don’t come at me with, “they’ve always just been about control and forced birth” because I know that but I also know there are individual people who are just really committed to the idea of embryos as human life. And the right was sort of constrained by the need to keep that particular wool pulled over those particular eyes.
Is this the moment the mask comes off? I’m just… gobsmacked, really. Killing Roe was the absolute worst thing the GOP could do and everyone knows it. They fucking know it. You would think they would try to settle on making some ground to move the arrow, but walk it back a little bit to cool some of the outrage. But no!
I’m just… this is insane.