Abortion???...Answer the Question!!!...

 

By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McALLEN, Texas | Once upon a time, a woman at an abortion clinic was as common and casual as a woman at a fashion boutique. No one was blocking her way into the building, no one was on the sidewalk telling her to think twice about the medical procedure.

That really was not all that long ago.

Times, however, have changed and abortion is tied for the country's number one political issue, there alongside the fake existential threat that is immigration said to be coming across our southern border. You think people in this country care about the war in Ukraine? Think again. Well, maybe in a few quarters, like the Pentagon. Vladimir Putin? The Russian president may as well be Mick Jagger, a Big Name to read about but not one to actually fear in Middle America.

Nuclear War, you say. Not happening, not anytime soon. Invaded Ukraine is not worth that much.

Domestically, the issues are piling up. Think U.S. Supreme Court justices taking free trips, getting free massages and believing they are not accountable to anybody. Think the Republican Party and its hellbent effort to bite into your freedoms, one at a freakin' time. It's happening.

Yes, Maria, there is plenty to put your teeth into in today's United States.

We choose to place the Klieg lights on a woman's right to abortion, something men want and most women do not. That's a fact, Jack.

This nugget about that at axios.com: [ Nationwide, legal abortions have fallen about 3% in the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and the ruling’s aftershocks are still reverberating through American health care, politics and culture. Abortion access has effectively disappeared in some parts of the country as Republican lawmakers act on decades of promises to impose near-total bans if they could.

Clinics in some blue states have seen enormous influxes of new patients, many of them crossing state lines. Some Republican lawmakers may want to try to wait out the intense political backlash to the Dobbs decision before going further. They may be waiting a very long time.

"The last election was surprising to a lot of people in the way that [abortion] really became a lightning rod, and had such a significant impact on the outcome," Brendan Buck, a longtime aide to former House Speaker Paul Ryan, said. "I don't know that the party has really figured out what to do about that."

Buck added that Republican candidates are "probably hoping that they can avoid the issue to a certain degree. But I imagine we're going to learn once again, this is not going away - and that, once again, this is a liability politically." ]

This must be said: We're for women deciding on whether to have an abortion or not, deciding within the family unit (with husband) or in conjunction with their doctor. It is not an issue for sell-out, slimy politicians. Better yet would be a national referendum on the matter, a vote by the entire citizenry, yes.

The thing is, we're also as a planet under serious threat of over-population. How many other so-called advanced countries are doing what Republicans are doing here? Does supporting a no-abortion edict here really help anything? We're not alone on Earth. That population our fragile planet has to support is now more than 8 billion people. Eight billion.

I know, I know. There's always the handy religious angle to this. God, say the Bible-thumping evangelicals, is against abortion. But, boys, God is not here. Here is here and here must deal with problems it faces in the here & now. As we know, our selfish politicians solve few problems, like homelessness and errant Supreme Court judges. They cavalierly look the other way on those.

Is God against homelessness and judicial bribery? Is he against wanton bigotry and racism? Is God against free-wheeling divorce, said to be in the 60-percent range these days? Is God against spousal abuse, against DUI, against adultery - a sport around here?

They won't answer; it's all about outlawing abortion for them...

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