If the issue of abortion was ever taken away from Republicans, they would lose a major wedge issue that drives voters to the polls to elect more "pro-life" candidates. They use the term pro-life, even though they are pro-death penalty, pro-unregulated guns, and pro-war, so it's more appropriate to label these hypocrites "anti-choice." They are obsessed with the idea of regulating women's bodies, and are always looking for creative ways to regulate the procedure without eradicating this wedge issue that helps Republicans increase voter turnout.
The number of abortions in Montana has dropped to a 39-year low, but that is not stopping conservatives in the state Legislature from proposing new laws to restrict the practice.
A talking points memo from NARAL Pro-Choice America said that only 1.5 percent of abortions are performed after 20 weeks and they are needed most when doctors discover that a child will have no chance at life after birth.
Wonkette writes:
Rather than just proposing all those old-fashioned kinds of 20-week bans, a Montana House Committee is taking up H.B. 479, the Montana Unborn Child Pain and Suffering Prevention Act, which would require mandatory fetal anesthesia prior to an abortion at 20 weeks or later.
H.B. 479 was proposed by a legislator who compares abortion providers to veterinarians.
“Whether you call this an unborn fetus or an unborn anything else, it still rises to the level of needing humane consideration,” said State Rep. Bill Harris, a Tea Party conservative.
Critics of this bill say it would impose vaginal probe ultrasounds on women against their will, based on dubious science.
“I’m sorry if women’s bodies get in the way of the development of a fetus, but that’s the reality, and until there is a day when babies can be grown in an incubator without women’s bodies, you’re going to have this problem where, yes, we are the vessels that carry fetuses, and you can’t get around that fact,” said House Minority Whip Rep. Jenny Eck (D-Helena).
“We have a will of our own, we have opinions of our own, and we have lives of our own, so as soon as we become treated as just an incubator it becomes very problematic,” Eck continued. “I would say (this is) very different from a situation where someone puts their dog down at the veterinarian’s office.”
But truly, is it any different to Republicans? They seem to give equal consideration to women's health issues and veterinary medicine.
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