Race to the Bottom

Our Republican friends are engaged in a “race to the bottom”.

Now that each state can establish its own abortion rules, legislators seek to “one up” their neighbors in restrictions. “Texas may have its six week window for abortion, but we in Oklahoma will forbid it after conception!” I’m waiting for Texas to come back with, “Oh yeah, Oklahoma? We will now make abortion illegal if Texans do “dirty dancing” like in the old movie. The Texas Two Step is still OK though.”

The “race to the bottom” is real. Two Republican governors, Kristi L. Noem of South Dakota and Tate Reeves of Mississippi, were asked on Sunday news talk shows about the case of a 10 year old girl impregnated by her rapist. Are they really insisting that, regardless of the physical and emotional harm that giving birth could cause someone so young, the child should be forced to have the baby?

Of course, they said “yes”. Kristi is, after all, the governor who allowed thousands of motorcyclists to gather in South Dakota during the first summer of the pandemic. Sturgis, SD hospitals overflowed with COVID cases as opposed to drug overdoses and gunshot wounds like normal. Kristi also invited Donnie to a July 4 spectacular at Mount Rushmore that summer and presented him with a statue of his visage joining the original four.

Kristi defended forced birth in the case of the 10 year old. “I don’t believe a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy.” That 10 year old is a 4th grader. Were you ready to be a mother in the 4th grade, Kristi?

Tate Reeves (Shouldn’t he be a movie star with a name like that?) is the governor of the state whose abortion restrictions were the basis of the “Dobbs” case to the Supreme Court. Tate is the guy who appointed Dobbs. Regarding the pregnant 10 year old, Tate said, “These are such a small, minor number of cases that there should not be an exception to Mississippi’s abortion ban.”

Every day, hundreds of people in Mississippi die. Let’s say that ten of them are the result of a murder. That is such a “small, minor” number of deaths that murder need not be illegal according to Tate’s logic. Let’s have no exceptions for “small, minor” occurrences.

Ohio state Rep. Jean Schmidt trumped the governors. Jean called forcing that 10-year-old rape victim to give birth an “opportunity.” That’s the bottom of the barrel. Jean wins the race.

By Ed Dufton