Rep. Bill Dunn (AP/Getty/Photo Montage by Salon).
Tennessee rethugs have come up with a new way to shame and oppress women, forcibly reminding all women that their only function in life is to be a silent vessel for babies.
Last week, the Republican-controlled Tennessee state Senate passed a bill to erect the “Tennessee Monument to Unborn Children, In Memory of the Victims of Abortion: Babies, Women, and Men” on the capitol grounds, near memorials to victims of slavery and the Holocaust. A similar bill has passed the state house, and it’s likely that the state’s Republican governor, Bill Haslam, will sign this legislation into law.
[…]
“Both of these monuments that are already here recognize that atrocities occurred because human beings were treated as less than human,” state Rep. Bill Dunn (R) said in March. “In both cases, the vulnerable and defenseless were subjected to the will of the powerful.”
“The taking of the life of a baby in the womb is related to this brand of inhumanity,” Dunn added.
[…]
It’s critical to understand that the intended “memorial” does not memorialize any actual people. Babies are not harmed by abortion, because babies only exist after a pregnancy is completed. Men are not victimized by abortion, because men do not have any rights over women’s bodies that can be violated. And women are not victims of abortion either, since it’s a process they choose for themselves and one that research suggests is generally the right decision for those who make it.
Tennessee Republicans are doing more than insulting women. They’re minimizing the seriousness of slavery and the Holocaust by suggesting that the millions of real victims of these atrocities are no more important than the imaginary victims of abortion.
The timing of this memorial to fake victims is noteworthy. This is all happening during an ongoing war over memorials to the Confederacy and the Ku Klux Klan, which Tennessee progressives have been trying to take down and Tennessee Republicans are trying to preserve.
There isn’t the least bit of subtlety in this latest move to stomp women back into their “proper place”. It’s disgusting and beyond wrong, and this is what conservatives, especially christian conservatives have come to, a complete caricature of lunatics running the asylum. In the year 2018, women are still viewed and treated as property, public and private, as well as mental simpletons who couldn’t possibly make decisions for themselves. This is the viewpoint of the regressive lunkheads in Tennessee, who will use any means to make sure women know they are property, and that it’s best left to men to decide what’s best for any given woman.
Amanda Marcotte at Salon has the full story.
Wow. Some years ago an acquaintance of mine made a similar museum in Second Life. It was a joke. These people are beyond parody.
Does one need an IQ score in the single digits to be elected as a GOP rep in Tennessee?
One gets the impression that we are seeing a desperate band of OLD WHITE MALES trying to turn back the tides of change. This is one more effort to deny that in no time at all, WHITE MALES, old or young, are going to be a small minority in the USA, probably even Tennessee. They will still have undue power because of wealth but the fear of the ravening, non-WASP, hordes grows. Dear, dear, most distressing.
If I had a time machine I’d use it to try to talk Lincoln into letting the secessionists stay seceeded.
I want to make an amendment: They’re only allowed to deppict the embryos and fetuses life sized. Let them end up with a mountain of small pebbles.
Giliell I want to make an amendment to your amendment --
Otherwise the fuckers will just pile up near term fetuses. Gotta pin ’em down when they’re such slimey slithery slugs.
busterggi @3: It is not just in the south. It is fucking republicans. Iowa legislators just passed a “fetal heartbeat bill” that would ban abortions at six weeks. It did not receive a single vote from the democrats. The governor is sure to sign it, and it is practically guaranteed to be legally challenged right out of the gate. I fucking hate republicans.
The idea of the monument itself is cringe-worthy, but the place they chose for it is just beyond infuriating. It is pretty clear that they don’t give a fuck about “unborn babies”, so all this tells is that they don’t give a fuck about slavery and Holocaust victims either. What a complete lack of respect, this is inconceivable.