WASHINGTON — There really is no way to soften the blow on this story. It’s playing out across the country under the guidance of the Republican Right. I won’t write “religious Right,” because there is nothing remotely “Christian,” spiritual or righteous about the war they’re waging against women.
Think Progress has the harrowing video of a couple who were forced to do just what the title of this column states.
In Nebraska, one law already in existence heaped needless trauma on a mother’s tragedy. Thirty-four-year-old Danielle Deaver was 23 weeks pregnant when she faced a fate “worse than your own death” — her baby would not make it. Her water broke early and, without amniotic fluid, the fetus would not develop lungs to survive outside the womb. Deaver and her husband decided they wanted to let “nature take it’s course” and would not risk harming the child further, so they asked their doctor to help “put an end to this nightmare.”
But because of Nebraska’s law prohibiting any abortion after 20 weeks, the doctor could not assist or he would “face criminal charges, jail time, and lose his medical license.” Her doctors told her “she’d just have to wait.” So she did, in “torture,” and gave birth to Elizabeth at 3pm, watched her gasp for breath, and then watched her die at 3:15pm on December 8, 2010. “The outcome of my pregnancy, that choice was made by God,” said Deaver, but “how to handle the end of my pregnancy, that choice should’ve been mine.”
Oklahoma now bans all abortions after 20 weeks.
Oregon, Minnesota, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Florida, my home state of Missouri, and Ohio just might hop on the bandwagon to force women to deliver fetuses, even when they’re already dying. Thirty-one states and counting…
The Right thinks a fetus “can feel pain.” However, they don’t believe women do.
The Right’s war against women goes on.
Taylor Marsh is a political analyst, writer and commentator on national politics. A veteran national politics writer, Taylor’s been writing on the web since 1996. She has reported from the White House, been profiled in the Washington Post, The New Republic, and has been seen on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic, as well as on radio across the dial and on satellite, including the BBC. Marsh lives in the Washington, D.C. area. This column is cross posted from her blog.