This is an actual Washington Post headline for an article by Jeff Stein (WaPo’s White House economics reporter):
With Roe at risk, GOP faces pressure to support families after birth
Republican supporters of policies to help children say new restrictions on abortion should change political calculus
Dude, c’mon, you ought to know better. The GOP opposition to abortion isn’t about babies. It’s not about children or families.
If it was about babies or children or families, the GOP wouldn’t need to start cobbling together policies “to help children.” If it was about babies, those policies would already be in place.
If it was about babies and families, the US would make pre-natal care, childbirth, and post-natal care free (or at least affordable). If it was about babies and families, the US mandate paid parental leave with employment safeguards. If it was about babies and families, we’d support new parents by guaranteeing they’ll be able to return to their jobs and insuring they didn’t lose income during the important first few months of a baby’s life. But the GOP opposes all of this.
If it was about babies and families, we’d have free (or heavily subsidized) day care for working families. If it was really about babies and families, we’d provide a basic income for a parent who opts to be a full-time parent. If it was about children and families, we’d fund public education better; we’d pay teachers more; we’d give much more financial support to after-school programs. But the GOP opposes that.
If it was truly about babies and children and families, we’d enact sensible firearm legislation. In 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death among kids aged one to nineteen. More kids died from gunshot wounds than from car crashes, cancer, or drugs. But there’s no way the GOP would support gun restrictions.
No, it’s perfectly clear the GOP opposition to reproductive freedom isn’t–and never has been–about protecting babies, children, or families. It’s certainly not about protecting women. It’s about controlling women. It’s about reinforcing patriarchy. And deep down, it’s about being afraid of women.
The GOP is right to be afraid.
EDITORIAL NOTE: Burn the patriarchy. Set it ablaze and let it burn until its reduced to ash. Stomp the ashes into dust. Let the wind blow it away.
gregfallis.com 
Has anyone considered this might be a ploy to make doctors more money?
From an article in AJMC about the cost of childbirth –
“The procedure can cost roughly $8300 in Arkansas, while that total rises to nearly $20,000 in New York.”
That’s a pretty good chunk of change that could probably cover a couple of student loan payments.
“Follow the money” is a standard step in tracing culpability. I do wonder how it has something to do with this, as well.
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Anytime money is involved, things get complicated. But I don’t think abortion bans are driven by physician greed. I think it’s about weird religion and the desire to control women (which are deeply intertwined).
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Reblogged this on The Truth Seeking Atheist and commented:
The whole abortion debate has never been about protecting babies, or families. It’s about controlling women and most importantly about controlling sex.
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I don’t know. Controlling women, sex is part of it for sure, but I think it’s power, at bottom line and staying in office for all the money perks. They know to accomplish that, all they have to do is appeal to the evangelical religious fanatics, the trumpers who still worship him, the single issue voter and the old folks who long for their false perceptions of the past.
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You do bring up an interesting question for me. It’s now mission accomplished on overturning Roe. but I have to wonder if they’ll keep milking this cow with rhetoric about needing to get federal laws in place banning abortion, and then needing Republicans in office in order to ensure the law isn’t overturned should Republicans lose power.
Sounds to me like something they can bank on for a very long time.
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I am too cynical, I guess. I just don’t believe that many people are this way on religious grounds.
I could believe that almost this many people are acting this way because they are afraid of the power structures they live in.
Enmeshed in the cultural structures, more likely.
I am too cynical, I guess, or not realistic enough about the levels of realistic assessment that people should be capable of. Maybe it’s the mobs. I remember running with a mob once. I couldn’t help laughing the entire time although I still haven’t worked out *why* I was laughing. I mean, I was in the fourth grade at recess, and there was an earthquake, and I was pretty sure that we would not be able to run away from it, but so many other kids were screaming that standing there and laughing out loud might have gotten me trampled. And with all the screaming I don’t know if anyone realized I was laughing.
Ah, memories.
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This is just a side comment, but I am sick of hearing that it is the old folks who want things to be the way they used to be. If it wasn’t for the young people of the past to get these freedoms for you, you would not have had them in the first place! We do not want to go backwards any more than you do. There are always stupid people in every generation. It is people from the “Me” and the “X” generations who are leading this fight to return to the past, not the Boomers. And it is the younger generations voting these neandertals into power. Start putting the blame where it belongs. We had to live with the horrors of back-alley abortions. Take our word for it, YOU DO NOT WANT TO GO BACK TO THOSE DAYS!
FIGHT WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE. WE FOUGHT TO GET YOU HERE. NOW IT IS YOUR FIGHT TO KEEP IT!
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I think it’s power, at bottom line and staying in office for all the money perks.
I suspect the money does play a big role in anti-abortion politics. But here’s the problem for those politicians: if Roe is overturned, then the fund-raising stops. It effectively turns off the donation spigot. It’s the old ‘dog chasing the car’ question: what happens when the dog catches the car? Just as bad for them, or worse, there are a lot of single-issue abortion voters who won’t feel as driven to vote once that issue is resolved.
I’m guessing there are a LOT of Republicans who are beginning to panic at the idea of 1) losing this predictable source of donations, and 2) losing an election issue that has brought a LOT of single-issue conservatives to the polls.
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Good point although could be they are so happy this issue got solved (to them only) that they’ll continue to support them to get the other issues ( gay and interracial marriage) undone as well.
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Posted that last comment where I didn’t mean to. Oops. Hope it still holds water.
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I was wondering. Ha!
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Well I am a boomer and I live in Fla. and believe me that’s all many of them talk about…going back to the good old days when women stayed at home, blacks knew their place, they said prayer in school and girls didn’t sleep around and gays kept it a secret. I hear of it everyday here. Boomers who are now trumpers. It’s real.
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Their fear is understandable, really. When you’ve spent most of your life at the top of the food chain, it’s terrifying to know you’re losing that spot to others. And when some guy comes along and says “I can fix it so you get to stay at the top of the food chain forever” a lot of folks will forgive that guy almost anything in the hope that maybe he’s right.
It’s understandable, but that doesn’t make it any less despicable.
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