Hi Everyone,
Check out this article on BBC.com about a Republican attorney general, Phil Kline, in Kansas who is conducting secret investigations of all abortions performed in his state. He CLAIMS he's investigating unreported instances of statutory rape.
Here are some of the issues that bother me about this type of investigation:
1) There is no way for legislators to monitor the potential abuse of power by the attorney general in a secret investigation.
2) The supposed justification for the investigation is a rather thin veil for ideologically motivated witch hunting.
3) Christian conservatives probably ASSUME Kline is not telling the truth about the purpose of the investigation but since only "bad people" would be hurt by the lie and since the lie is in the service of "God," it's justified.
I'm more and more interested in hearing from Law Talking Guy (and/or Seventh Sister) about the legal strategies that the Christian conservative movement is adopting to do end run attacks at abortion.
Friday, February 25, 2005
"Culture of Life" or "Culture of Lies"
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 12:53 PM
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3 comments:
One thing that's become popular is getting pharmacists to breach various ethical and legal obligations and refuse to fill prescriptions for "morning after" pills and even run-of-the-mill birth control pills.
The reason these "pharmacists for life" refuse to fill the latter is that regular birth control pills can be used off-label as morning after pills in an emergency.
One of the most unfortunate things about this Kansas nonsense is that the vast majority of women seeking late-term abortions have complications that threaten their own lives, or the fetus has truly horrible, certainly fatal birth defects.
I'm at a loss as to why the discovery request couldn't be more specific (e.g., all records regarding abortions for women under 16). Also, I think that doctors in most states *have* to report instances of child abuse to the authorities. Rape/Incest would qualify, no?
On a related note, I saw the movie "Vera Drake" a few weeks ago. Good show, but I kept thinking, "this is what it's going to be like in about five years." The upper class will get abortions quickly and easily, and the poor will get the chance (again) to endanger their own lives rather than have another baby.
-Seventh Sister
Thanks for the update. I'm not sure about the specificity of the discovery in Kansas. I suspect it is intentionally broad. The lawyers for the targeted clinics say they report all cases of suspected child abuse/statutory rape regardless of the state's investigation.
RE: poor people's access to family planning. Another aspect of the conservative ideology is forced sterilization for welfare recipients.
I'm reminded of the scene in Judgement at Nuremberg in which Maxamillian Schel badgers Montgomery Cliff on the stand ordering him to form a sentence with "Hare! Hunter! Field!" (a test the NAZIs used to justify forced sterilization).
Lies in the plural, indeed! Feel free to record them, and leave your own personal observations and comments at:
http://the-culture-of-lies.blogspot.com
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