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Forget Noem’s States’ Rights Talk: Graham Plans National Abortion Ban

On July 3, Governor Kristi Noem said abortion is “a decision that should be made at the state level, absolutely.”

Today, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham plans to propose a national ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Graham calls his bill an effort to ban “late-term abortions.” “Late-term abortion” is a misleading and imprecise term with no medical meaning. It is an intentionally vague political construct… much like Noem’s and Graham’s professed commitment to “states’ rights.”

You’d think a true defender of state’s rights like Governor Noem would speak up against Senator Graham’s aggression against this vital Constitutional principle, but sssshhhh!—Kristi is recovering from back surgery. We can’t ask her to stand for more than 10–15 minutes, let alone stand for any consistent political principle like states’ rights for more than a couple months.

17 Comments

  1. All Mammal 2022-09-13 09:40

    I wonder if there were any augmentations while the govvy was under the knife…? I’ll have to compare before and after profiles when she reemerges. Boobs might be the only thing that could help the gal in her campaign.
    As far as banning abortion, the CINOs (conservatives in name only) need to stop being obsessed with their demonic fetus worship. Keep government out of the doctor’s office and put it to work regulating storm water runoff pollution instead. That is where government regulation is desperately needed. Women have managed their own private decisions without government regulation for tens of thousands of years. Nobody asked Lindsay and them for their permission anyways. Just ignore them while they pretend to be important. They’re so funny when they think they’re telling women no. Sir, yes, sirs.

  2. Jake 2022-09-13 09:45

    Ummm, it seems to me that many other GOP Republicans (of the MAGA type, also others sadly) have spine issues last few years! Mostly from drinking too much KoolAid of their “KING GOD” trump. John Thune comes to mind real quick, as he “can’t be bothered” to debate Bengs more than one time, (chicken-sh-t!”). Other ‘MAGA’ types nationally trying same anti-voter practices. The backbone ofthese politicians is made of rubber (elastic) so it can bend any direction needed to suit the politician that carries it around.

  3. Bob Newland 2022-09-13 10:10

    I generally admire All Mam’s rants and denigrations of the fetus-worshippers, but I think she overstates when she claims that women have managed their private decisions for centuries.

    It appears to me that men have managed women–under threat of imprisonment, torture and death, at least in the most theocratic “civilized” societies, for centuries. I can’t think of a single function of womanhood which has not been codified until fairly recently.

  4. All Mammal 2022-09-13 10:41

    Bossman- In one of the oldest warrior burials ever discovered was believed to be an important man lain to rest with his worldly possessions. With women scientists recently getting into the field and having a gander at the remains, it is revealed to be an old woman. She was buried with her apothecary of herbs and medicines. Amongst them were a pouch of an abortion inducing mixture, proving women had the knowledge and ability to regulate when they were at least NOT pregnant. Sometimes, not like its anyones business, but there are times of hunger and war and sickness and other damned inconvenient times for a woman or girl to be knocked up. Sometimes, it is a matter of life and death for the entire tribe. Regardless, it was thought the spirit was respected and would come back at another time. It was and should be a woman’s decision.
    The evidence further indicates grandmas ran the show and were the alpha. They raised the toddlers while the young mothers ran off to shack up with their beau. Young men lived off by themselves bumping chests and having bachelor good times. Knowledge was passed on through the grandmas. They also were the providers of more sustenance than the men. The men hunted for themselves mainly. The older women and the children foraged and grew their food.
    I’m basing this off of memory from a Secrets of the Dead episode on PBS about a year or so ago. It was interesting and we should go back to women being looked to for leadership of the tribe. Once man made weapon and started hearing god to justify playing war, its gone downhill from there.

  5. bearcreekbat 2022-09-13 10:45

    Now that marijuana laws seems to be changing enough to reduce the number of people filling federal, state and local prisons, it appears that another source is needed to maximize profits for prison industries and the politicians that are recipients of “donations” from these industries, Perhaps Graham thinks he has found a way to supplement the supply of prisoners necessary to maximize jail and prison profits.

    It is a fact that despite outlawing marijuana people continued to use it and that helped fill prisons and jails, Likewise, in the days before Roe when abortion and providing medical care to women and girls was illegal in many states, women and girls still often did whatever it took to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. So Grahm probably figures they women and girls will continue to try to protect their own bodies from an unwanted pregnany after a federal ban is enacted, which in turn will increase the supply of prisoners with self-help girls and women that happen to survive.

    As with outlawing drugs such as marijuana, experience teaches that women and girls will still get abortions despite laws making them illegal. Thus it appears clear that federal, state and local police will be able to start arresting and jailing many more women and girls, along with anyone that tries to help them. Indeed, think of the number of miscarriages that occur and imagine being able to accuse and convict many of these girls and women of unlawfully self-terminating their pregnancies.. The March of Dimes reports that “For women who know they’re pregnant, about 10 to 15 in 100 pregnancies (10 to 15 percent) end in miscarriage.)” Imagine the difficulty these girls and women will have proving their innocence once accused of a self-induced abortion – obviously miscarriages alone will be a new supply source for prisoners.

    It is interesting how money can be made by locking people up. Just Google “Economics of Incarceration” to see the $$ motive for legislation like Grahm’s proposal, whether for the state, local or federal government. It sure seems to fit with the old advice to never miss an opportunity to “milk a cash cow.”

    Key Statistics:

    Total U.S. government expenses on public prisons and jails: $80.7 billion +
    On private prisons and jails: $3.9 billion +
    Growth in justice system expenditures, 1982-2012 (adjusted for inflation): 310% +
    Number of companies that profit from mass incarceration: ~4,000 +
    Annual cost to families of prison phone calls and commissary purchases: $2.9 billion +
    Percent of formerly incarcerated people who are unemployed: 27% +
    Average daily wage of incarcerated workers: $0.86 +
    Average earnings someone loses over their lifetime by being incarcerated: $500,000 +

    https://www.prisonpolicy.org/research/economics_of_incarceration/

  6. All Mammal 2022-09-13 10:45

    Aside from that last rant, I consider your comment to be correct and I agree 100%, Bossman. I cling to knowing not all the men are brutes and that is good. Thanks, guys.

  7. bearcreekbat 2022-09-13 11:29

    larry, those are great stories. Thanks for posting the links. The last article indicates there are more to follow. It would be greatr if you can post links to additional stories about these young women.

  8. Ma Stn 2022-09-13 11:38

    Ugh, it’s scary to step out after lurking so long. But I gotta, all credit to All Mammal’s line above: ” … it was thought the spirit was respected and would come back at another time .” Gosh all get-out, that’s the most helpful enlightening input, revelation, uh what’s the word I’m looking for? Epiphany. Thanks and praise be. I didn’t know this was the way I felt/believed/intuited, until just now I read it expressed by someone else.

    I guess I’m tossing this out in support of All Mammal’s position, or extrapolating her stance into my own educated experience growing up older-bro to four sisters plus with a whole half-a-world full of other women. IMNSHO, females always have been (had to be) and perhaps ever will (have to) be the “stronger sex.” Simple matter of survival of the fittest. No man among us would be here without a woman.

    All Mammal and all others, please allow me to recommend a reading along such lines, for those who may have missed it:
    “When God Was A Woman,” 1976, Merlin Stone
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_God_Was_a_Woman
    (Published a bit earlier in the UK entitled “The Paradise Papers: The Suppression of Women’s Rites.”)

    Wander farther back with me to “The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth,” 1948, Robert Graves
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Goddess

    I wrote myself a note a few years ago when this thought crossed my mind:
    Freedom is not a given – it is a taken.

    I think probably I learned that from women.

  9. larry kurtz 2022-09-13 12:54

    Hi bat. Recall the mother of former legislator, now Republican Fall River County State’s Attorney Lance Russell sold property to the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) where minor girls have been trafficked and raped.

    But in 2021 at the courthouse in a South Dakota county named for a war criminal members of the splinter group bought the 140 acre compound for $750,000 despite its $9 million valuation. The cult was not delinquent on property taxes but the acreage was sold at a sheriff’s auction to settle a $2.1 million judgment against the FLDS, the towns of Hildale, Utah and Arizona City, Colorado. Buyer, Patrick Pipkin is manager of Blue Mountain Ranch of Colorado — a summer camp for at risk adolescents, no less.

    Now, Pipkin, Andrew Chatwin and Claude Seth Cooke are cashing out and listing the stigmatized property in occupied South Dakota for $6.9 million.

    For all intents and purposes the Republican Party patriarchy fantasy looks just like the FLDS.

  10. Francis Schaffer 2022-09-13 13:02

    All Mammal
    You mention maybe so possibly of our govornator having augmentation surgery while having back surgery. I was hoping they could address her advanced case of dain bramage. No such luck.

  11. Jake 2022-09-13 13:24

    Likewise, like BCB, Larry, greatest stories I’ve read in a long time!..And I hope we can see more, thanks again, definitely….

  12. Eve Fisher 2022-09-13 17:23

    15 weeks is by no means “late term” – a pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, so that barely makes it out of the first trimester. Also, most serious (i.e., potentially fatal) fetal abnormalities aren’t able to be diagnosed before mid-pregnancy (i.e., 20 weeks). So Graham’s bill is by no means reasonable, wise, or even helpful insofar as actually saving women’s lives.
    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15901463/#:~:text=Major%20abnormalities%20of%20the%20fetal,before%2013%20weeks%20of%20gestation.

    Meanwhile, let’s consider what a short hop it was from Republicans saying, “now abortion is up to the states, where it belongs,” to pushing for a national abortion ban. They were, as were most SCOTUS justices, lying.

  13. John 2022-09-13 22:04

    Hey, hey, hey, I’m a believer in dealing with what god gave one. No back surgery after 15 weeks. No exceptions.

  14. All Mammal 2022-09-14 11:58

    Ma Stn- I lurked for a long time too. Thank you and praise be. I would never have guessed I would find myself at a rally defending abortion. Nobody is pro abortion. But when I heard Roe was overturned, I had to be there for the little girls and the life bearers who had been debased by the supreme court. We still have to cry- No means No! Mofos.
    I have a feeling Merlin Stone is going to change my life and am almost timid to take the jump into the sort of wisdom I am sure pour from the books you suggest. Sometimes, I just know crossing paths with someone is supposed to happen and it is pretty heavy. I’m a weenie sometimes when I know change is going to take place (the hard kind, the inner kind) and things will never be the same again. I’m assuming it takes courage to delve into this sht. You will be to thank for the rants to follow hahaha. Freedom is a taken. Gimme gimme gimme(:

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