The Generals in the War on Agency

[Content Note: War on agency; anti-choice extremism.]

This isn't so much chipping away at Roe as taking a bulldozer to it:

Donald Trump has been the center of attention since the first Republican presidential debate last week. But perhaps the most significant policy moment in the debates came when two other GOP frontrunners, Florida senator Marco Rubio and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, announced their opposition to abortion without any exceptions.

During the Cleveland debate, moderator Megyn Kelly asked Rubio to clarify whether he supports exceptions on abortion, including for rape or incest. "I have never said that. And I have never advocated that," the Florida senator responded. He reiterated his opposition to abortion exceptions over the weekend.

Not to be outdone, Walker declared in the debate that he, too, does not support any exceptions to abortion. "Would you really let a mother die, rather than have an abortion?" Kelly asked. Walked responded that he's "always been pro-life" and has "said many a time that that unborn child can be protected, and there are many other alternatives that can also protect the life of that mother." (When a Republican congressman made a similar claim in 2012, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists put out a statement that "abortions are necessary in a number of circumstances to save the life of a woman or to preserve her health.")

For decades, Republicans have been the pro-life party on abortion. But for the party's presidential nominee, that pro-life position has included exceptions.

What makes these statements from Rubio and Walker notable is that, if either man wins the primary, he could be the first Republican presidential nominee in history to openly oppose abortion in all cases.

Let's be clear: Even the anti-choice Republicans who support exceptions are intolerable shitlords with a reprehensible policy position. The fact that the GOP has moved so far rightward on abortion that "I guess a person who will die if forced to carry their pregnancy to term can get an abortion" is now considered the reasonable position is utterly appalling.

As I have observed many, many times before, anti-choice policy is rooted in a fantasy world where abortion is never really necessary, and here is a perfect example of that contemptible fantastical thinking as Walker says, incredibly, that "there are many other alternatives" to save the life of a pregnant person whose life hangs in the balance. No, there aren't. That is magical fucking thinking, not reality.

This is more Perfect World bullshit being peddled by the same relentless nightmares who sell their garbage policies on fairy tales about a golden era that never existed outside of privileged fantasies.

The world is messy, and a person who can't even acknowledge that basic fact of human life isn't fit to govern. The end.