Former Vice President Mike Pence has taken a hard stance on abortion, saying that abortions should be banned even in cases of nonviable pregnancies. Pence is the only GOP presidential candidate to publicly support a national abortion ban at six weeks. Medical experts have criticized Pence’s pledge, noting that forcing women to carry nonviable pregnancies to term carries unnecessary health risks and can be psychologically traumatic for the women involved. Despite this, Pence has made restricting abortion rights a key part of his campaign platform. Pence currently has around 7% support among GOP candidates in presidential polls.

  • PelicanPersuader@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    76
    ·
    1 year ago

    Not only traumatic for the pregnant person, it also is prolonging the suffering of the child. Birth itself is thought to be pretty awful for a baby - being born and then immediately going into organ failure or otherwise being in extreme pain from birth defects that make you incompatible with life has to be miserable. It’s literally being born to die. Stack on the fact that birth is expensive in the US and the parents will be required to provide some amount of medical care for a baby that’s fated to die soon, then a funeral? He’s absolutely ghoulish. If this is Christian love, give me hate any day.

    • Onihikage@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It’s literally being born to die.

      They say the same thing about Jesus, actually. Word for word, some fundies actually believe that’s part of the symbolism of his birth, that “swaddling clothes” were what they put on dead bodies for burial, symbolizing that baby Jesus, who was said to have been wrapped in swaddling clothes, was literally born to die. The reality of course is the Greek phrase is extremely common in ancient literature, the rest of the Bible included, and just means they wrapped the baby in strips of soft cloth as was customary for newborns, no death symbolism there at all.

    • revelrous
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 year ago

      I’d argue it’s worse. Courts are going all in on one specific (possibility minority? Anyone got the numbers on this?) supernatural belief.

      Plenty of religions cough and the bible cough believe life starts with the first breath.

    • MJBrune@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s entirely bullshit as well. They know it’s bullshit because the IRS doesn’t see a fetus as legally a person. 🤔hmm, so when it comes to collecting money, not a person but when it comes to restricting the rights of a fully alive human being, a fetus is totally a person. I see, I see. The inconsistency of our laws is outstanding. I bet if you asked any anti-abortion tool they’d try to justify the IRS rather than saying “Oh that should change too!” Some bullshit like “Well the fetus isn’t really costing you money yet!” (Bullshit, being pregnant is expensive and difficult and prevents people from working.) or “We can’t just give tax cuts to people who are only pregnant, what if they give the baby up for adoption.” (Still costs them money to be pregnant and our federal laws acknowledge that with maternity leave.) Then they’d probably attack maternity leave. Saying we should get rid of that too.

  • PostmodernPythia@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    1 year ago

    Funny how guys like this “believe life begins at conception” but never go after IVF, despite the number of fertilized eggs destroyed by fertility clinics each year, but they’ll happily force gestating parents to carry dead babies to term. It’s like it’s all about enslaving women (with other gestating parents as collateral damage because conservatives believe they’re women), or something…

  • jcarax@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’d say at least he only has 7% of the GOP vote, but the alternatives are so much worse. He’s pretty much their Biden, at this point. Hell, we don’t even know if he believes this garbage. The fact that so many people are beating the drums about things they don’t even believe, for the sake of winning over demographics, is truly terrifying.

    • Bowen@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      1 year ago

      To a lot of evangelicals and conservative nutjobs? Quite literally it is.

      This is why “alternative” medicine is so popular in their circles. Essentially anything spiritual or holistic instead of things based in science and reason. This is why essential oils and quackery is used in place of things like vaccines. People like him are the reason my s/o can’t get a D&C for her endo because it’s so fucking close to an abortion in their eyes.

      I fucking hate it in this country.

    • NattyNatty2x4@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      This kinda shit has been their goal ever since RvW happened. This is the result of literal decades of work, and us getting tired, or expecting massive change over one or two election cycles and then losing interest because it didn’t happen fast enough, is why these psychos have made as much progress as they have. Unwavering, dogged zeal towards their goals.

      We need to be the same.

    • drdiddlybadger@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      Agreed. They only say these things because there is no palpable consequence they understand to them. There should be at least something even if it’s just honest words.