It's Not Pro-Life; It's Anti-Choice _______________________________________________________________

 ​And once again, Republicans have ramped up a drive to drag us all back to the heyday of male supremacy. 
 
In the most draconian of recent measures, a couple of states have passed legislation which would outlaw abortion at all stages of pregnancy, even in cases of rape and incest. Other states, while not quite that extreme, have passed laws which would outlaw abortion after detection of a fetal heartbeat,  usually about six weeks into pregnancy, at a time when many women don’t yet know they’re pregnant.  
 
Make no mistake: For the politically powerful in the anti-choice camp (and it is anti-choice, not pro-life as touted), this is all about domination. It’s about giving the government sway over a woman’s body and a woman’s life. 
 
It’s infantilization, ironically at a time when clearly that woman may be making the most adult decision of her life, a decision that will affect her mental and physical health, her economic status, her ability to pursue dreams and ambitions, her relationships, her sense of control. It is arguably the most pivotal decision of her lifetime, and it is hers alone. If she wishes to consult others, that’s her choice, but she deserves privacy in the process.

I realize states are engaging in this lunacy in the hope that one of their cases will land in the Supreme Court where conservative justices will overturn Roe v. Wade. But to what avail? Do they really believe women are going to "go gentle into that good night"? I don't think so. 

How dare a state dictate what she’s to do? How dare it demand, as some states have done, that she must submit to a vaginal ultrasound or view a video of the child in utero or be subjected to demeaning pre-abortion counseling against her will?  What 's more disempowering than telling a woman she has no authority to make her own decisions in her own way in this most intimate arena of her life?
 
The huge irony in the Republicans’ embrace of anti-choice policy is, first of all, their penchant for calling it “pro-life.” As a party, they’re about as pro-life as a nuclear bomb. They want to repeal the Affordable Care Act, for instance, reduce benefits in Medicare and Medicaid, reduce vital support programs for those living in poverty, and keep the minimum wage at a level which would result in a far-below-poverty annual income of $15,600 per year for a full-time worker. All that is “pro-life?”

​And there’s more: They’ve come very lately to concern about the opioid epidemic. They’ve refused to acknowledge the hazards of climate change. They’ve ignored the fact that student debt rages out of control. They support a president who separated children from their parents, locked them up in cages, and now can’t reunite some of them because they’ve lost track of where they are. 
 
Pro-life? I don’t think so.

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
​                                                            --Confucius