Almost law: Pregnant women can now be owned by men

This Christmas, when you're gathered around your dinner table thanking God for your meal, presents, and being in the company of loved ones, be sure to thank God that you aren't a woman living in Missouri right now.

State representative Rick Brattin filed a bill proposing that women seeking abortions must have the consent of the father of the fetus in order to have the procedure done. He was so kind to do this right after Thanksgiving and just before Christmas, so he can give a big FUCK YOU to victims of domestic violence for the holiday season - because somehow, nothing says "pro-life" like exposing abuse victims to the possibility of murder because they happen to be pregnant:

"I haven't really thought about that aspect of it. What does that have to do with the child's life? Just because it was an abusive relationship, does that mean the child should die?"

A quick show of hands - how many of you actually believe that people will stage a die-in for all the victims of domestic violence who may die as a result of being denied an abortion or being murdered by abusers they are trying to get away from? Yeah, I doubt it too.

Don't fool yourself for one second - legislators KNOW that women die from domestic violence. They KNOW that homicide is one of the leading causes of death of pregnant women in America today. They KNOW that more women have died as a result of domestic violence than the victims of 9-11 and the casualties of Afghanistan and Iraq combined. They KNOW that forcing pregnant women to bear the children of rapists and abusers will tie them to their perpetrators for the rest of their lives.

Trying to explain this to them is pointless because they already KNOW this, okay? They KNOW. So there are two possibilities of WHY they are doing this, which one can only speculate - they either just DON'T CARE, or IT IS INTENDED. I'll leave it up to you to make your own mind up about which you think is more likely to be true. Neither possibility is good, though.

There's something heinously psychopathic about these politicians who smile while putting female people directly in the line of fire of their rapists and abusers by asking them to get permission from them to have an abortion performed. Right, because nothing says "Pro-life" like putting reproductive decisions in the hands of rapists and abusers.

And what if they aren't rapists and abusers? Shouldn't fathers have a choice in this? That's what people don't get about the right to a safe abortion. Abortion isn't about fathers, fetuses, or what someone's religion has to say about it. The right to an abortion is a fundamental and basic human right for a female person to decide for herself if she will consent to contact with another person - even a fetus. Nobody has a "right" to be inside a woman's body. If you argue that, then you have more in common with rapists than you do with your god. There, someone had to say it.

To put this another way, how would YOU feel if someone introduced legislation making it mandatory to donate a kidney because someone else needed it? How would you feel if you were reduced down to your body and bodily functions without any thought to your basic human rights or dignity?

Rick Brattin justifies this callous disregard for the basic humanity of female people by comparing it to his vasectomy:

"When a man goes in for that procedure—at least in the state of Missouri—you have to have a consent form from your spouse in order to have that procedure done," he says. "Here I was getting a normal procedure that has nothing to do with another human being's life, and I needed to get a signed form…But on ending a life, you don't. I think that's pretty twisted."

Do you know what I think is twisted? I think it's pretty twisted that instead of championing individual choice in the spirit of rugged American individualism that Republicans like to self-righteously pretend to care about; he'd rather sink to a new low and allow rapists and abusers decide a woman's trajectory of life.

More to the point, he lied because Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri says that there is actually no law in Missouri requiring a man to get another person's permission for a vasectomy. Individual providers sometimes require a patient to have his partner's consent but it is not a legal requirement. Brattin intends to share the document his wife signed to promote his bill and justify the reproductive enslavement of female people in Missouri. How thoughtful of him.

To add insult to injury, he takes aim at rape victims by stating that he refuses to acknowledge crimes against women unless there is a report filed and that it is deemed a "legitimate rape." Of course he doesn't state exactly WHO decides what is or is not legitimate rape, but it's a safe guess it'll be some clueless dude who doesn't think unwanted penile penetration is actually rape; it's just something women should suck up and get over already.

"I'm just saying if there was a legitimate rape, you're going to make a police report, just as if you were robbed," Brattin says. "That's just common sense." Under his bill, he adds, "you have to take steps to show that you were raped…And I'd think you'd be able to prove that."

...which is next to impossible considering the kind of society we live in; and that even when women do come forward about being raped, they are never believed and are accused of being lying whores.

A victim would probably need video of the crime happening to be believed, because like all good rape apologists, it's very important to Rick Brattin that women go through the trauma all over again and prove that they have been raped because he refuses to take their word for it.

Rick Brattin also doesn't explain how his bill can even be enforced since paternity is unknown until after the fetus is born. If the fetus is aborted, then there is no way to know if the signature on the paper really is the father's, which makes this bill pointless. Since he believes all women are lying whores to never be believed about being raped, he sure is taking a leap of faith to assume that women bringing in signed affidavits are telling the truth about who the unborn sprog's sperm donor is.

He must be less concerned about how his bill works, than he is that female people get the permission of at least one male person for the abortion, regardless if he's the father or not. So, if this bill passes, female people are going to be legal property of male people in Missouri. Like pretty much everything else that goes on in America, female people will have no say in anything that happens, even to her own body.

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