Abortion rates in the U.S. are down for the eighth or ninth year in a row, and down a whopping 25 percent since 2008, according to a recently released study by the American Public Health Association. Good news for both right-to-lifers and right-to-choicers, yes?
Oh God, no! Not only will fewer unplanned pregnancies make it harder to slut shame the double X-chromies in the world when they get knocked up by the humans who have only one, but less abortions means fewer pissed of religious-right fundamentalists who are essential in enabling tax cuts and deregulation. So you know what that means to the usual suspects: kill birth control!
Fewer abortions is what Republicans and conservatives claim they want, which is why they are constantly passing arcane restrictions on abortion access. So why is the Trump administration ramping up the war on contraception? A leaked White House budget memo, published Thursday by Brian Beutler of Crooked Media, exposed the far-reaching anti-birth-control agenda of the Trump administration.
See, the more abortions there are, the better it is politically for the right. It makes it easier to rile up rank-and-file evangelicals and cast those of us who defend reproductive choice as murderous, sex-crazed monsters. So file this under “to hell with the embryos, we can’t let a good wedge issue die” in the Very Big Book of conservative duplicity. Hypocritical!
Instead of arguing with any clown possessing a Y-chromosome over what they consider silly ideas, like the fact that women might want to have a big say in whether they get pregnant in the first place or who fathers their child when they choose to do so, may we humbly suggest a potentially more productive route? Simply explain with great enthusiasm to your right-wing male colleague or nutty Thanksgiving uncle that the last time contraception was illegal in the U.S., there was no such thing as genetic testing for paternity, or court-mandated child support. So, great news: now we can all share equally in the joy, obligation, and responsibilities of raising lots and lots of kids for years and years. Capisce, daddio?