Edited by Gillian Palmer
Republicans: The Secret War Against Women
Published in Le Figaro
(France) on 25 August 2012
by Jean-Sébastien Stehli (link to original)
The Todd Akin affair is a revealing one. The Republican representative, currently a candidate for Missouri’s senate seat, created a national storm by declaring that women who are victims of rape don’t become pregnant if they really will it; their bodies will shut down.
This argument goes back to the age of Neanderthals; coming from someone who is opposed to abortion, even in the case of rape or possible death for the mother, this argument is not surprising. What is surprising is the reaction from the Republican Party.
Mitt Romney asked Akin to abandon his campaign for Senate, which drove the Republican into a state of perplexity. In fact, doesn’t he say exactly what the Republican Party thinks, especially Romney and Paul Ryan? At the same time, in Florida, during the GOP convention in Tampa, (“strip capital” of the United States, that says it all ), they will propose a constitutional amendment prohibiting all types of abortion, even in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life. Why, then, are they criticizing Akin about who is exactly in line with this thinking? Should he have said it in a less policed or hypocritical way? In reality, Akin’s blunder is a work of public salvation. It managed to reveal his party’s unconscious thinking. And as always, even though the GOP is at war against the state that it thinks of as despotic and wants to limit the size and scope of, the GOP is even more intrusive in the private lives of people, especially the lives of women.
As Maureen Dowd of the New York Times stated, “But he’s just a fresh face on a Taliban creed — the evermore antediluvian, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-gay conservative core. Amiable in khakis and polo shirts, Ryan is the perfect modern leader to rally medieval Republicans who believe that Adam and Eve cavorted with dinosaurs.”
Mitt Romney, who was for abortion when he was governor of Massachusetts, has now called upon John Willke, president of the National Right to Life Committee, an anti-abortion organization and the creator of the idea that if women really will it, their bodies won’t become pregnant.
This is the same science that allowed conservatives to state that global warming is a socialist invention — even though the country is suffering from the worst drought in the past half-century. One shudders to think of these Neanderthal men coming to power.
This argument goes back to the age of Neanderthals; coming from someone who is opposed to abortion, even in the case of rape or possible death for the mother, this argument is not surprising. What is surprising is the reaction from the Republican Party.
Mitt Romney asked Akin to abandon his campaign for Senate, which drove the Republican into a state of perplexity. In fact, doesn’t he say exactly what the Republican Party thinks, especially Romney and Paul Ryan? At the same time, in Florida, during the GOP convention in Tampa, (“strip capital” of the United States, that says it all ), they will propose a constitutional amendment prohibiting all types of abortion, even in cases of rape, incest or danger to the mother’s life. Why, then, are they criticizing Akin about who is exactly in line with this thinking? Should he have said it in a less policed or hypocritical way? In reality, Akin’s blunder is a work of public salvation. It managed to reveal his party’s unconscious thinking. And as always, even though the GOP is at war against the state that it thinks of as despotic and wants to limit the size and scope of, the GOP is even more intrusive in the private lives of people, especially the lives of women.
As Maureen Dowd of the New York Times stated, “But he’s just a fresh face on a Taliban creed — the evermore antediluvian, anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-gay conservative core. Amiable in khakis and polo shirts, Ryan is the perfect modern leader to rally medieval Republicans who believe that Adam and Eve cavorted with dinosaurs.”
Mitt Romney, who was for abortion when he was governor of Massachusetts, has now called upon John Willke, president of the National Right to Life Committee, an anti-abortion organization and the creator of the idea that if women really will it, their bodies won’t become pregnant.
This is the same science that allowed conservatives to state that global warming is a socialist invention — even though the country is suffering from the worst drought in the past half-century. One shudders to think of these Neanderthal men coming to power.