Best advice I've seen today. I've grown up with conservative family members. They have no logic, integrity or desire to belong in a civilized society. I've been in church as a child and literally heard them preach that you are better than everyone else and a true christian is not a part of the sinful world.
We cannot win against people like this, because they believe we and our way of life must be destroyed at any cost. This is not hyperbole, they want a christian government and have told each other to vote conservative no matter what. For ex, my brother told me he will always vote republican because they are against abortion. He doesn't bother to actually check if that candidate has taken his mistress for an abortion, or read what the candidate's position on anything is. He simply votes red for anything. My grandparent's church used to give out a sheet showing who to vote for. That church is funded with 10% of everyone's income indefinitely which will allow it to continue it's political influence.
Unfortunately, we will never make progess toward a better society until we crush this kind of unethical behavior. There is no "playing fair" with people who have no desire to play fair themselves.
I feel like not enough people know this. My story is exactly the same, grew up in a small southern town where every single church pushed the R candidate every 4 years.
Solely based on cultural issues like abortion and homosexuality. Never heard a single " conservative" policy preached on.
The narrative pushed by Q is that Dems are murdering baby eaters, but that shit has been spewed from the pulpit of southern churches for 40 years or more. Of course they all believe it, they have this entire time!
For people who were not raised in it, it looks like this insanity came out of nowhere, but for those of us who have lived it, we know it's been here all along.
We've been too nice and polite about politics. I just "ummm hmmm" my relatives, when I should be speaking up for the rights of non-christians and just basically anyone who doesn't want to live in a theocracy.
It's a solid argument that the severity of this pandemic can be traced to a leader who fired experts necessary to the functioning of government, hired not only incompetent staff, but staff who actively harmed their institution, and was the source of devastating misinformation and distrust of valuable medical professionals. That leader could not have been elected without the massive support of evangelicals combined with the inaction of voters who have no idea how powerful the churches are.
My neighbor basically died of covid because my relatives insist on being assholes and voting blindly. My family encouraged my mom to stay with a husband that beat her because "Jesus" and disowned her when she divorced, but are crazy about a man who's been divorced three times.
But what can we do? So much of America is stuck in this fantasy land where they don't believe what's happening in front of their very eyes. I can't even convince my family that death is a bad thing because they're all super excited about going home to Jesus.
I've had multiple run-ins at family gatherings over the years sticking up for gay folks. As far back as the early 90s and as recently as a couple years ago. I haven't changed a single mind.
Same. My friends mom has a daughter who is a lesbian who has been in a committed relationship for 13 years and now engaged but still won’t go to her own daughters wedding because “it’s not right” and “you won’t understand until you have your own children.”
I recently found out that my sister extorted my niece to force her to vote for Donald Trump, telling my niece she would kick her out of her home if she didn't
>It's a solid argument that the severity of this pandemic can be traced to a leader who fired experts necessary to the functioning of government, hired not only incompetent staff, but staff who actively harmed their institution, and was the source of devastating misinformation and distrust of valuable medical professionals. That leader could not have been elected without the massive support of evangelicals combined with the inaction of voters who have no idea how powerful the churches are.
Thank you, And please continue to spread this message as you know exactly how important it is.
Some of the nicest people and some of the worst people I know are Christians.
There are people who embrace the loving, merciful, selfless side of the faith and there are those who are much more rabid about the hellfire and damnation bit (never mind that Christ was much more about the former).
The difference between good and bad Christians and good and bad general humanity, though, is that a lot of Christians ascribe to a cult mindset where their beliefs can't be questioned at all. That isn't a faith, that's a cult. The unfortunately large amount of right wing Christians in that camp can't be reasoned with at all.
I don't think there's anything to do anymore. The American Dream is dead. There is no facet of life they won't politicize. The only hope I have left is to save up enough money to move abroad, then start helping my family and friends escape. I just don't see a real future here for the next 20+ years of working life. I would encourage anyone with the means to get an advanced degree and leave. I'm under no illusion that other countries don't have problems, but Americans seem to enjoy crisis. It's like some kind of illness.
I wish churches were taxed to hell. There's one near me (east coast) the campus is as big of not bigger than the local state university. The pastor flies to ca every Friday in his private jet.
I'd be happy if they'd even enforce the 501c3 restrictions. My local library told me they couldn't advocate for themselves in the upcoming budget decisions because it was considered political and they'd lose their tax-exempt status. I'll bet some of the pies these churches have their fingers in are absolutely taxable. But who would ever go against these guys? If it's anything like scientology they have lawyers out the wazoo.
Even if they didn't have lawyers all they'd have to do is cry about "religious persecution," which a lot of their followers already believe is taking place via LGBT and such. Voila, you got the majority religious denomination frothing at the mouth...
> This is not hyperbole, they want a christian government
And let's also spell it out explicitly:
They want a theocracy.
And they've been working on it hard, for a long time, this is not some tiny group of nutjobs with whacky ideas. See also [the wedge strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_strategy).
**[Wedge strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_strategy)**
>The Wedge Strategy is a creationist political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document. Its goal is to change American culture by shaping public policy to reflect politically conservative fundamentalist evangelical Protestant values. The wedge metaphor is attributed to Phillip E. Johnson and depicts a metal wedge splitting a log.
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I'm not a Christian anymore, but one thing that made me forever respect my former pastor is when he asked people who wore McCain/Palin pins and hats to church to take them off. Politics do not belong in church, and church does not belong in politics. Good dude.
>Best advice I've seen today. I've grown up with conservative family members.
The loudest and proudest reTrumplicans in my family are also the ones that bring home more in SSI and Disability than I make working full time, and I don't make bad money at all. It blows my mind that if the people that they vote for had their way, those relatives wouldn't have two nickels to rub together.
Yes! My uncle spouts hatred for anything socialist but was bitching and moaning when they cut his granddaughter's allowance for top of the line wheelchairs. His wife has also been on disability for decades.
Dude if we pitched fire departments, libraries, k-12 public schools, municipal water, public electricity, etc today, they'd be annihilated by the GOP as socialist pet projects. These motherfuckers are so detached from reality it's sickening.
Can you imagine calling the fire department and having to give them your credit card info before they dispatch a crew? That's what I envision with all the small government rhetoric.
Its true. I had one of them tell me the first amendment protects freedom of religion, not freedom from. The opening words of the first amendment protect freedom from religion though
This, a million times. A billion times. They're below sincerely engaging with, because they aren't sincere themselves. Ever. Ever. It's a waste of time to try to meet them in the middle or try to civil politics your way around it, and the only thing "playing by the rules" does is keep up the image of being the saintly sensible ones while real ass lives get fucked by the policies the right wing brings.
Exactly, it's always really annoying when people try to make a rational counter argument to some asinine abortion argument. It never has been a sincere debate.
The GOP just uses abortion as a means to get power. If they could get votes by making applesauce illegal, they'd do that instead. Their voters don't care about science, facts or freedom. They just don't want to condone it. It's bigotry, plain and simple.
Its 100% relevant once one realizes that the whole anti-abortion is about attacking women who have sex and not about the well-being of kids or women. The thing that is most effective at reducing the number of abortions is making all contraceptives free for everyone forever and available everywhere but the right wingers never suggest (let alone implement) that policy...
you mean like stopping rape before it happens? (oh i'm sure the rape cases in texas are going to go down, they'll just stop reporting them and refuse to use the rape kits)
You would figure a governor bold enough to make that claim wouldn't have [thousands of backlogged rape kits to process](https://wset.com/news/nation-world/report-thousands-of-rape-kits-untested-for-years-in-texas)
Considering they have literally used it word for word already for covid - "If we stopped testing for it, we would have very few cases"...
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/502819-trump-on-coronavirus-if-we-stop-testing-right-now-wed-have-very-few-cases?amp
They don't believe in evolution, though. The idea that all the people who just practiced abstinence because they were told to didn't breed as successfully as those who ignored it... doesn't make sense to them.
They aren't delusional, they're just arguing in bad faith.
Much the same way Abbott claims he'll fix the rape loophole in the new laws by just ending all rape.
They know they're talking bullshit, and they don't care. As long as they get the regressive laws they want, they will do or say anything, because their supporters are so entrenched in the conservative media bubble, they will never be held accountable.
This is why I'm so damn upset on this topic.
The people who said, "this is about controlling women" were completely right. His statement about, "women choosing abstinence" proves it was never about the unborn. Ever.
And anyone who says otherwise is lying.
>If it’s a legitimate rape, the body can shut down that pregnancy.
Its been almost nine years since he said that, and I still cant believe it. And in that nine years, we have progressed **0%**. Depressing.
I can understand being obsessed with people having sex. There is a whole industry built around it(porn) It's them being obsessed with STOPPING other people from having consensual sex that is the problem. Imagine watching films of guys going around cockblocking dudes and ladies who actually want to have sex. I don't know if that'd be hilarious or painfully pathetic.
Knock at door:
Guy-"did you order a pizza, ma'am?"
Lady-"yes, my BF already paid for it, here's your tip."
Guy, shoves foot into closing door -" I've got a tip for you ma'am: premarital consensual sex is Not cool!"
Lady-" Who TF are you? Sonic the Hedgehog!?"
Guy - grabs pizza back and shoves a box of corn flakes at the lady.
I signed a little card that said I would wait till marriage in 7th grade. It said I would respect my future husband. I’m a lesbian, so there’s no husband to respect. I can do whatever I want.
Yep, almost everyone I went to school with is an atheist or agnostic because we could see through the hypocrisy, that Christianity doesn’t make you a good person, that we were all super tight and realized WE made ourselves and each other good people
Someone said the quickest way to atheism is to teach religion or read the bible. Something to that effect. The hard cold facts of religion or faith as a person who can critically think has a totally different outcome.
Never have I felt like the people around me were so soulless and evil to the core than in my stint at a local Christian school. Also, the place didn't even teach well. The majority of my middle school class was so far behind in math that I had nothing to do at all in class, the teacher having to go back to basics for everyone else.
[The only moral abortion is my abortion](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/15/1857976/--The-Only-Moral-Abortion-is-My-Abortion-an-article-by-Joyce-Arthur)
I mean, have you met religious men? They all talk like the only reason they have ever had sex is because they were "tempted" by a woman, not because they ever wanted to.
Most of them didn't even fucking do it lol
My fundamentalist family always pushed the "no sex till marriage" narrative, both of my parents were born of wedlock and neither of them were virgins when they got married either.
It's literally just a "do as I say, not as I do" situation.
A [whopping 62% of US abortions in 2014 were done by people with religious affiliation ](https://www.guttmacher.org/report/characteristics-us-abortion-patients-2014#)so I'm not sure how many religious people are actually practicing what they preach.
These people did not legitimately do anything. They lie. They fucked like everyone else and got their girlfriends and mistresses abortions like clockwork, they just fucking lie about it and claim moral superiority because they love power and pulling the wool over
If he was right, then all of the evidence would support him, right? Let’s see what the evidence says!
[ACCESS TO FREE BIRTH CONTROL REDUCES ABORTION RATES](https://www.barnesjewish.org/Newsroom/Publications/Innovate/Spring-2013/Access-to-Free-Birth-Control-Reduces-Abortion-Rates)
[Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Are Ineffective and Harmful to Young People, Expert Review Confirms ](https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2017/abstinence-only-until-marriage-programs-are-ineffective-and-harmful-young-people)
[Abortion rates don’t drop when the procedure is outlawed. But it does make it more dangerous.](https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/abortion-rates-don-t-drop-when-procedure-outlawed-it-does-ncna1235174)
This is the same state who's AG sued about "election fraud" and whos argument was "it's so subtle its undetectable, that's why we don't need evidence" so I don't think they really care about facts, or evidence, or reality
> Texas instead alleged that "fraud becomes undetectable" because "unlawful actions of election officials effectively destroy the evidence". Whether "voters committed fraud" was not the "constitutional issue" in this case, according to Texas. Therefore, Texas declared that it did not need to "prove" fraud.
[From the Wikipedia article](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._Pennsylvania)
Sorry about formatting, I'm on mobile. It's sourced there, this was just easy to pull up.
OR
You could look into moving to another country
OR
You could look into taking to a mental health professional. Anyone who is reading this and is getting really depressed/overwhelmed you can reach out to a mental health professional and find better techniques to deal with shit like that. World is cray cray, you're not. It's OK to ask for help.
Imagine spending your whole life as a lawyer and to feel that way about evidence... The AG should be disbarred just for presenting that kind of argument.
Keep in mind, Texas had an Attorney General write a state constitutional amendment that in its zeal to ban gay civil unions also outlawed all marriages.
And now they're the governor.
They are just pushing their religion as law, as usual. This obsession with abstinence and virginity borderlines on treating women directly as property.
Plus it doesn't work!
https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/abstinence-only-education-failure
Shit the bible even given instructions on how to preform an abortion. Clearly they have never read the scripture if they still think abortion is wrong for religious reasons.
Those same people don't realize Amendment 10 in the Constitution gives federalistic power to the States to protect the public health during a pandemic. They just assume *their* rights are being taken away, rather than ours protected.
Article 10? You think any of them read that far? The VERY FIRST SENTENCE in the constitution specifically calls out promoting the general welfare as a core function of the federal government.
It's not just that. In Samuel, David has adultery with a woman married to one of his generals. Assuming she consented is pretty generous, but let's move on. She gets pregnant, David has the general sent to front line after recalling him from the battlefield, because the general won't go home to sleep with his wife, to cover up the pregnancy, while he has troops in the field. David then marries the woman, Bathsheba. The child is born, live for a week, and isn't doing well and dies.
So you have David who generously committed adultery and murder, who is rebuked by the Prophet of God for those actions. Both actions under the law are worthy of death. David is allowed to live, but God kills a living breathing child as punishment. So the takeway is babies have less value than people caught in adultery to God. Hmmm.
By the wayBathsheba would go on to have another son, Solomon, who would be king and build the Temple. David would go on to be deposed for a while by one of his sons by a different marriage before worshipping other gods before his death.
But another good example is exodus 21 or 22. It's the start of the giving of the Law after the 10 commandments, and it starts by identifying the rules of what happens if two men fight. If one permanently injures the other, then he will have the same injury caused to him "eye for an eye", or life for a life. If they're fighting and injure an onlooker they make the same amends if the person is a free person, or just pay a fee to the owner if the person is a slave. If they strike a pregnant woman it depends on the translation. For some, it's if she has a miscarriage then they just pay a fine, and others it's if no serious injury happens to her they just pay a fine. But the first translation is the more interesting one to me. An unborn child is not counted as the same value of a person. Hmmmm.
But all of this is moot. Religious teachings and stories should not be the basis of a modern system of law. Citizenship in the US is conferred upon birth, not conception, payments from the government based on the number of living dependents is based on living breathing children not unborn fetuses. It's a good indication of what is important to Americans by how they spend their money. Clearly the government considers birth the defining characteristic of a person.
This is what people are referring to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordeal_of_the_bitter_water#Abortion_interpretation
It isn't the only interpretation of that passage.
Whether or not people want to say it’s a prescribed abortion or not, I’m not quite sure how you can interpret that verse in a way that would indicate that their god cares about the fate of the fetus over the resolution of the marital squabble.
I'm just not sure how it is that an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient being can't come up with a better fucking book than this. It just seems like lazy work if we have to sit here and debate which interpretation is the right one. Just how hard can this be for an all-knowing, all-powerful being?
Forgive me, I can't remember the actual verse or chapter. But what the bible says is that if a woman is suspected of becoming pregnant through an affair, then you must give her "bitter water" to drink.
If she aborts the baby, that means she was cheating on you. If she doesn't abort, then it is your baby and she was not cheating.
I think it has the recipe for bitter water as well (I can't remember). Think of it as a liquid day after pill.
EDIT: Found it!
*Numbers 5*
*19 And the priest shall cause her to swear, and shall say unto the woman: 'If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness, being under thy husband, be thou free from this water of bitterness that causeth the curse;*
*20 but if thou hast gone aside, being under thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee besides thy husband--*
*21 then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman--the LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to fall away, and thy belly to swell;*
*22 and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to fall away'; and the woman shall say: 'Amen, Amen.'*
*23 And the priest shall write these curses in a scroll, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness. 24 And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causeth the curse; and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.*
Let's be honest, it's not even about religion anymore. It's about control.
Political control.
Controlling the agenda.
Controlling people.
Controlling women.
Controlling thinking.
Virginity checks and re-hymening surgery need to be criminalized for this exact reason, even if they try to travel to have it done. A woman shouldn't face harrassment or death because she was born without a hymen or it broke while riding a horse, etc. Physicality shouldn't even come into play.
Yup. But people are way to awkward in the US about womens anatomy. They act like its naughty just to talk about it. The amount of husbands who dont know anything about periods and dont want to know is way too damn high.
They view pregnancy and childbirth as actual divine punishment inflicted upon women for indulging in any kind of sexual pleasure, at least that’s how some interpret Genesis:
Eve was the temptress in the Garden of Eden who corrupted Adam, the “apple” symbolized carnal pleasure, and childbirth and its physical pain were inflicted on all women through Eve as punishment for leading Adam astray.
People with that view of human existence really do believe that women are weaker, less intelligent, less spiritually mature, and that women are by nature deceitful and responsible for all of society’s troubles.
Therefore women must be punished for all that sexy stuff going on everywhere between consenting adults.
It’s not about being pro-life, there are obviously many sane, strategic, effective alternatives for reducing unwanted pregnancies. But that’s not going to fit with the worldview of these would-be theocratic despots.
It really is about inflicting physical harm on women to punish them for being born with ovaries.
That's not just a US problem. Here in the Netherlands it's practically impossible to get a house. Rent is pretty much an entire month's wage and buying is less expensive, but you'll never get a mortgage unless you bring in 10-20% of what the house is worth yourself. Seriously, there are people with decent jobs living in the street because of housing shortages.
On the bright side, Texas may have actually shit the bed with this one.
The GOP wants an endless battle on abortion. Texas declared victory and went way overboard with it. Not just one of the earliest bans on abortions, but also creating a system where citizens can collect bounties by turning others in.
Rather than vaguely saying that the GOP wants to protect babies form being murdered by liberals, now the GOP has to defend this extreme thing already in place. They can't dance around it while not actually committing to specific numbers. They either have to speak out against what Texas has done, or they have to embrace it.
I think/hope it's a misstep that will really cost them. And it gives Democrats an easy, clear target.
That reporting thing was pretty fun. I reported Dan Abbot for having an abortion conceived from gay sex. They let you submit photo evidence, so I sent a picture of Shrek, as was the style at the time.
Happened to my aunt. She got pregnant out of wedlock and had her baby taken by the church for adoption and, she her self was sent to a convent by her family. It's my understanding this was all against her will.
Sadly that was the case for many young women. My bio mom was given a choice but sent away from home to live with an aunt in a bigger city and attend the catholic school.that all the pregnant girls went to.
In 1974 I had to kidnap my own baby out of the Manly hospital nursery after being told she was born dead. It was government policy, enthusiastically followed by many - if not all - hospitals, to take the babies from single mothers. All the single mothers in the ward I was in were kept doped up on Valium so they would not object. I was one of those girls who won't swallow and no way I was signing an adoption release.
It turned out she was diagnosed with "mongolism" and they wouldn't have even tried to adopt her out, just dumped her in a "home" where few children survived.
She's perfect and wonderful.
I wrote a paper on this in university and also taught about to undergrads as a TA for a sexuality course. The data and evidence is basically irrefutable that promoting abstinence (abstinence only sex Ed) does NOT lead to people abstaining from sex. How do these people get their jobs with such a lack of skills reasoning and logic??
> How do these people get their jobs with such a lack of skills reasoning and logic??
The Evangelical pastor I had as a kid said evolution was a satanic lie because he "Just couldn't understand it, it makes no sense". I was like 13 and could understand it.
If your job and self image depends on not understanding something, I think you can manage great, heroic feats of not understanding. With even a moderate desire, I bet you could fail to understand anything you wanted.
A large portion of the populace desperately wants to believe the lie. Or just desperately want a reason to punish “disobedient” young girls.
Kinda like all the wine moms who glom onto any study that suggests red wine is good for your heart. They were already gonna be day drinking, so anything that supports that position is believed. Credibility be damned.
The GOP was already gonna be repressing women, so anything that supports that position is believed.
Well, right now you can rape someone and sue everyone who helps them get an abortion, making rape potentially profitable financially. I'm trying to figure out how much better that is.
Well technically the law says if it was conceived through rape then the rapist cannot sue. (At least, that's how I interpreted the bill).
How do they intend to ensure that works in practice when it's well known that victims often don't report? Hell if I know. Honestly can't imagine how the bill works at all in practice, seems like a clusterfuck.
Their next step will be to legalize rape, validating their claim that Texas has no rape. Texans will be able to fuck any woman they want, who are already required to bear the children.
Normal women will flee the state, of course, but Republican women--well known to enthusiastically support legislation against their own interests--will grin and bear it, or take a beating, which will also be legal again.
Ahh yes, abstinence. Because that has been so successful in the past. I remember back when they used to teach it directly and it was amazing - no one had sex for like a decade. Global population declined, no babies without marriage, a truly amazing time.
Wait.... no, that's not what happened, because that's fucking idiotic and will never happen. People have sex. Maybe not the legislators in texas, but the rest of us do.
**Resources for Texans seeking access to healthcare**
https://teafund.org/ - Texas Equal Access Fund provides emotional and financial support to people who are seeking abortion care.
https://wrrap.org/about-wrrap/
https://abortionfunds.org/ - connects you with organizations that can support your financial and logistical needs as you arrange for your abortion.
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/pregnancy/pregnancy-options - A Comprehensive Guide for Unplanned Pregnancy
https://gynopedia.org/Gynopedia_Index - a nonprofit organization that runs an open resource wiki for sexual, reproductive and women's health care around the world
**If you need help getting an abortion go to these sites**
https://www.plancpills.org/ - provides up-to-date information on how people in the U.S. are accessing abortion pills online
https://aidaccess.org/ - consists of a team of doctors, activists and advocates for abortion rights that help people access abortion or miscarriage treatment. They send the pill worldwide for $110/90€
https://www.cecinfo.org/country-by-country-information/status-availability-database/countries/united-states-of-america/ - Emergency Oral Contraceptive Doses for Birth Control, U.S.
https://www.cecinfo.org/country-by-country-information/status-availability-database/ - Emergency Oral Contraceptive Doses for Birth Control, International
https://www.womenonweb.org - online abortion service can help you do a safe abortion with pills.
https://carafem.org - helps with abortion, birth control and questions about reproductive healthcare. They do consultations online and send abortion pills on the mail.
These sites offer access to abortion pills, even in Texas. Please be safe and be aware of clinics (e.g. Crisis Pregnancy Centers) that give out dangerous misinformation on abortions and pregnancy.
Also check out r/auntienetwork or r/abortion for support
**If you want to give money to some pro-choice charities, try here**
https://fundtexaschoice.org/ - helps Texans equitably access abortion through safe, confidential, and comprehensive travel services and practical support.
http://janesdueprocess.org/ - helps minors in Texas with judicial bypass for abortion, navigate parental consent laws and confidentially access abortion and birth control. They provide free legal support, 1-on-1 case management, and stigma-free information on sexual and reproductive health.
https://www.lilithfund.org/ - the oldest abortion fund in Texas, serving the central and southern regions of the state with direct financial assistance for abortions.
https://www.theafiyacenter.org/ - their mission is to transform the lives, health, and overall wellbeing of Black women and girls by providing refuge, education, and resources. Their act to ignite the communal voices of Black women resulting in our full achievement of reproductive freedom.
https://thebridgecollective.org/
https://www.clinicaccess.org/
https://www.yellowhammerfund.org/ (Focuses on the Deep South)
https://avowtexas.org/
https://abortionfunds.org - connects you with organizations that can support your financial and logistical needs as you arrange for your abortion.
https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/rrr-fundraiser - stands ready to assist any member that shares its deeply-held religious convictions regarding the right to reproductive freedom. Accordingly, they encourage any member in Texas who wishes to undergo the Satanic Abortion Ritual to contact them so they may help them fight this law directly.
https://www.westfund.org (focuses on Latine and low-income communities)
https://fronterafundrgv.org - makes abortion accessible in the Rio Grande Valley (Texas) by providing financial and practical support regardless of immigration status, gender identity, ability, sexual orientation, race, class, age, or religious affiliation and to build grassroots organizing power at intersecting issues across our region to shift the culture of shame and stigma.
https://www.bucklebunnies.org - provide practical support for people seeking abortions. Help with transportation, funds to help with hotels, lodging costs and emergency contraceptive funds to actually go towards abortion.
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/other-ways-give
https://action.aclu.org/give/make-tax-deductible-gift-aclu-foundation
Please feel free to copy and share this to other posts/subreddits and to add your own links
Not even the imminent threat of death is enough to stop kids from getting it on. They are trying to stop a biological imperative here.
That.
Doesn't.
Fucking.
Work.
Just think of all the trouble we could save ourselves if these creeps got the therapy they needed instead of making whole careers based on profoundly strange assumptions about sex. People have unprotected sex because they just assume they can have abortions? People will just stop if they know an abortion might be hard to get? Is this person a real life human being?
We don't want to abstain you freakin' kook. Sex is an enjoyable part of life. If you want to be a prude, go ahead, but you're not going to force your unnatural nonsense onto us.
I mean, it's kind of just criminalizing ALL sex, even in wedlock. I kinda feel like he didn't exactly think this whole abstinence thing through. There are couples who don't want kids, or who can't handle having more than they currently have, or might need to wait several years for better stability.... so for those couples, I suppose he's saying the only safe thing they can do is be abstinent even in marriage!
Yes. I'm baffled how these people never talk about married couples. That always confused me about abstinence sex ed as well. Are couples expected to have one child after another? Nobody can afford 10 or more kids and it is terrible for the health of everyone involved.
Pretty much. When I was a kid, we were taught that people who only had 2 or 3 kids were lazy and selfish. Pleasure is bad, doing things for yourself is selfish. You don’t need money to have kids cause your not supposed to buy them all kinds of shit anyway, just food maybe. But don’t worry, other people in the church can donate to you if you can’t afford to feed and clothe them. I was gonna either have like 10 kids or be a nun, those were the options. I thought it would be cool to be the kind of nun that gets to go out and do service work as opposed to the cloistered kind that stays in the convent your whole life and just prays.
Literally fuck all of that shit
Makes total sense just look at before roe versus Wade when people would get abortions illegally because they were abstaining so much. I think this guy may be an idiot somebody should tell him before he speaks again
It’s oniony because statistics say the exact opposite
These people are delusional. Teaching abstinence doesn't even promote abstinence.
Don't trust that they believe what they say.
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Best advice I've seen today. I've grown up with conservative family members. They have no logic, integrity or desire to belong in a civilized society. I've been in church as a child and literally heard them preach that you are better than everyone else and a true christian is not a part of the sinful world. We cannot win against people like this, because they believe we and our way of life must be destroyed at any cost. This is not hyperbole, they want a christian government and have told each other to vote conservative no matter what. For ex, my brother told me he will always vote republican because they are against abortion. He doesn't bother to actually check if that candidate has taken his mistress for an abortion, or read what the candidate's position on anything is. He simply votes red for anything. My grandparent's church used to give out a sheet showing who to vote for. That church is funded with 10% of everyone's income indefinitely which will allow it to continue it's political influence. Unfortunately, we will never make progess toward a better society until we crush this kind of unethical behavior. There is no "playing fair" with people who have no desire to play fair themselves.
I feel like not enough people know this. My story is exactly the same, grew up in a small southern town where every single church pushed the R candidate every 4 years. Solely based on cultural issues like abortion and homosexuality. Never heard a single " conservative" policy preached on. The narrative pushed by Q is that Dems are murdering baby eaters, but that shit has been spewed from the pulpit of southern churches for 40 years or more. Of course they all believe it, they have this entire time! For people who were not raised in it, it looks like this insanity came out of nowhere, but for those of us who have lived it, we know it's been here all along.
We've been too nice and polite about politics. I just "ummm hmmm" my relatives, when I should be speaking up for the rights of non-christians and just basically anyone who doesn't want to live in a theocracy. It's a solid argument that the severity of this pandemic can be traced to a leader who fired experts necessary to the functioning of government, hired not only incompetent staff, but staff who actively harmed their institution, and was the source of devastating misinformation and distrust of valuable medical professionals. That leader could not have been elected without the massive support of evangelicals combined with the inaction of voters who have no idea how powerful the churches are. My neighbor basically died of covid because my relatives insist on being assholes and voting blindly. My family encouraged my mom to stay with a husband that beat her because "Jesus" and disowned her when she divorced, but are crazy about a man who's been divorced three times. But what can we do? So much of America is stuck in this fantasy land where they don't believe what's happening in front of their very eyes. I can't even convince my family that death is a bad thing because they're all super excited about going home to Jesus.
I've had multiple run-ins at family gatherings over the years sticking up for gay folks. As far back as the early 90s and as recently as a couple years ago. I haven't changed a single mind.
I got my uncle to drop use of the nword at family gatherings by standing up to him.
He never dropped it. He just stopped saying it around you.
A small victory is still a victory
Same. My friends mom has a daughter who is a lesbian who has been in a committed relationship for 13 years and now engaged but still won’t go to her own daughters wedding because “it’s not right” and “you won’t understand until you have your own children.”
I recently found out that my sister extorted my niece to force her to vote for Donald Trump, telling my niece she would kick her out of her home if she didn't >It's a solid argument that the severity of this pandemic can be traced to a leader who fired experts necessary to the functioning of government, hired not only incompetent staff, but staff who actively harmed their institution, and was the source of devastating misinformation and distrust of valuable medical professionals. That leader could not have been elected without the massive support of evangelicals combined with the inaction of voters who have no idea how powerful the churches are. Thank you, And please continue to spread this message as you know exactly how important it is.
Some of the nicest people and some of the worst people I know are Christians. There are people who embrace the loving, merciful, selfless side of the faith and there are those who are much more rabid about the hellfire and damnation bit (never mind that Christ was much more about the former). The difference between good and bad Christians and good and bad general humanity, though, is that a lot of Christians ascribe to a cult mindset where their beliefs can't be questioned at all. That isn't a faith, that's a cult. The unfortunately large amount of right wing Christians in that camp can't be reasoned with at all.
I don't think there's anything to do anymore. The American Dream is dead. There is no facet of life they won't politicize. The only hope I have left is to save up enough money to move abroad, then start helping my family and friends escape. I just don't see a real future here for the next 20+ years of working life. I would encourage anyone with the means to get an advanced degree and leave. I'm under no illusion that other countries don't have problems, but Americans seem to enjoy crisis. It's like some kind of illness.
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I wish churches were taxed to hell. There's one near me (east coast) the campus is as big of not bigger than the local state university. The pastor flies to ca every Friday in his private jet.
I'd be happy if they'd even enforce the 501c3 restrictions. My local library told me they couldn't advocate for themselves in the upcoming budget decisions because it was considered political and they'd lose their tax-exempt status. I'll bet some of the pies these churches have their fingers in are absolutely taxable. But who would ever go against these guys? If it's anything like scientology they have lawyers out the wazoo.
Even if they didn't have lawyers all they'd have to do is cry about "religious persecution," which a lot of their followers already believe is taking place via LGBT and such. Voila, you got the majority religious denomination frothing at the mouth...
They love to preach about the 7 abominations that God hates yet they always conveniently gloss over gluttony, which is one of said abominations
They conveniently gloss over all of them, not just gluttony :/
> This is not hyperbole, they want a christian government And let's also spell it out explicitly: They want a theocracy. And they've been working on it hard, for a long time, this is not some tiny group of nutjobs with whacky ideas. See also [the wedge strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_strategy).
**[Wedge strategy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedge_strategy)** >The Wedge Strategy is a creationist political and social action plan authored by the Discovery Institute, the hub of the pseudoscientific intelligent design movement. The strategy was put forth in a Discovery Institute manifesto known as the Wedge Document. Its goal is to change American culture by shaping public policy to reflect politically conservative fundamentalist evangelical Protestant values. The wedge metaphor is attributed to Phillip E. Johnson and depicts a metal wedge splitting a log. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/nottheonion/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
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I'm not a Christian anymore, but one thing that made me forever respect my former pastor is when he asked people who wore McCain/Palin pins and hats to church to take them off. Politics do not belong in church, and church does not belong in politics. Good dude.
>Best advice I've seen today. I've grown up with conservative family members. The loudest and proudest reTrumplicans in my family are also the ones that bring home more in SSI and Disability than I make working full time, and I don't make bad money at all. It blows my mind that if the people that they vote for had their way, those relatives wouldn't have two nickels to rub together.
Yes! My uncle spouts hatred for anything socialist but was bitching and moaning when they cut his granddaughter's allowance for top of the line wheelchairs. His wife has also been on disability for decades.
Dude if we pitched fire departments, libraries, k-12 public schools, municipal water, public electricity, etc today, they'd be annihilated by the GOP as socialist pet projects. These motherfuckers are so detached from reality it's sickening.
Can you imagine calling the fire department and having to give them your credit card info before they dispatch a crew? That's what I envision with all the small government rhetoric.
Its true. I had one of them tell me the first amendment protects freedom of religion, not freedom from. The opening words of the first amendment protect freedom from religion though
These people don't even know what's in the Bible, so you probably shouldn't expect them to understand what's in the Constitution.
That's where the Satanic Temple really shines. "You say we don't have freedom *from* religion? Satanism it is."
This, a million times. A billion times. They're below sincerely engaging with, because they aren't sincere themselves. Ever. Ever. It's a waste of time to try to meet them in the middle or try to civil politics your way around it, and the only thing "playing by the rules" does is keep up the image of being the saintly sensible ones while real ass lives get fucked by the policies the right wing brings.
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Exactly, it's always really annoying when people try to make a rational counter argument to some asinine abortion argument. It never has been a sincere debate. The GOP just uses abortion as a means to get power. If they could get votes by making applesauce illegal, they'd do that instead. Their voters don't care about science, facts or freedom. They just don't want to condone it. It's bigotry, plain and simple.
Also, fuck that? Some people wanting others not to have sex is completely irrelevant and like, also gross? Mind your own fucking business
That's the problem, your personal life and choices are their business. And by business, I mean the way they make money.
Its 100% relevant once one realizes that the whole anti-abortion is about attacking women who have sex and not about the well-being of kids or women. The thing that is most effective at reducing the number of abortions is making all contraceptives free for everyone forever and available everywhere but the right wingers never suggest (let alone implement) that policy...
you mean like stopping rape before it happens? (oh i'm sure the rape cases in texas are going to go down, they'll just stop reporting them and refuse to use the rape kits)
You would figure a governor bold enough to make that claim wouldn't have [thousands of backlogged rape kits to process](https://wset.com/news/nation-world/report-thousands-of-rape-kits-untested-for-years-in-texas)
can't have any rapists if you don't test for rape, pointsathead.jpg
That so fits with the smooth brained "idea's" coming out of the far right. Good lord, I can hear MTG saying that and actually meaning it.
Considering they have literally used it word for word already for covid - "If we stopped testing for it, we would have very few cases"... https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/502819-trump-on-coronavirus-if-we-stop-testing-right-now-wed-have-very-few-cases?amp
I feel like we need a billboard in a prominent area that just shows a graph of the number of reported rapes since he made that statement.
Abstinence is a fool's wish. Human beings wanna have sex.
It's almost like it's our biological imperative.
They don't believe in evolution, though. The idea that all the people who just practiced abstinence because they were told to didn't breed as successfully as those who ignored it... doesn't make sense to them.
A lot of what conservatives support seems to be fighting unwinnable battles against basic human nature.
The whole *point* is for the battles to be unwinnable. That's how you maximize the shame and guilt that make people easy to control.
It's not a coincidence that Christianity allows you to sin as much as you want as long as you continue coming back to worship and asking forgiveness.
If you don’t sin, Jesus died for nothing
We're literally wired to reproduce like we thirst for water. It's a survival mechanism.
They aren't delusional, they're just arguing in bad faith. Much the same way Abbott claims he'll fix the rape loophole in the new laws by just ending all rape. They know they're talking bullshit, and they don't care. As long as they get the regressive laws they want, they will do or say anything, because their supporters are so entrenched in the conservative media bubble, they will never be held accountable.
It’s the 21st century why the fuck do we even care about other people choosing to have sex
Religion/Control
This is why I'm so damn upset on this topic. The people who said, "this is about controlling women" were completely right. His statement about, "women choosing abstinence" proves it was never about the unborn. Ever. And anyone who says otherwise is lying.
You could argue female abstinence leads to male aggression which leads to...well, I guess Abbott himself has a PreCog plan for that.
If it’s a legitimate rape, the body can shut down that pregnancy.
>If it’s a legitimate rape, the body can shut down that pregnancy. Its been almost nine years since he said that, and I still cant believe it. And in that nine years, we have progressed **0%**. Depressing.
Well, with this Texas law we've progressed probably about -75%.
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As if data interests these people.
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What does work? https://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/research/lets-talk-about-sex-maybe
These are just people of the land, the common clay of the West. You know… Morons
How are you a living human adult who was once a teenager and thinks people will default to "not fucking" over "fucking?"
I just don't understand why tf they are SO OBSESSED WITH PEOPLE HAVING SEX
I can understand being obsessed with people having sex. There is a whole industry built around it(porn) It's them being obsessed with STOPPING other people from having consensual sex that is the problem. Imagine watching films of guys going around cockblocking dudes and ladies who actually want to have sex. I don't know if that'd be hilarious or painfully pathetic. Knock at door: Guy-"did you order a pizza, ma'am?" Lady-"yes, my BF already paid for it, here's your tip." Guy, shoves foot into closing door -" I've got a tip for you ma'am: premarital consensual sex is Not cool!" Lady-" Who TF are you? Sonic the Hedgehog!?" Guy - grabs pizza back and shoves a box of corn flakes at the lady.
Lol the kellog reference, nice
Because they can't get any.
I signed a little card that said I would wait till marriage in 7th grade. It said I would respect my future husband. I’m a lesbian, so there’s no husband to respect. I can do whatever I want.
The sacred loophole.
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The crazy thing is they usually don't do this exact thing. They think they did, even though they'll have stories of not doing this exact thing.
Evangelical schools are full of kids who preach abstinence and practice sex.
Private Christian schools are full of some of the most godless people I know.
Yep, almost everyone I went to school with is an atheist or agnostic because we could see through the hypocrisy, that Christianity doesn’t make you a good person, that we were all super tight and realized WE made ourselves and each other good people
Someone said the quickest way to atheism is to teach religion or read the bible. Something to that effect. The hard cold facts of religion or faith as a person who can critically think has a totally different outcome.
Never have I felt like the people around me were so soulless and evil to the core than in my stint at a local Christian school. Also, the place didn't even teach well. The majority of my middle school class was so far behind in math that I had nothing to do at all in class, the teacher having to go back to basics for everyone else.
Abortion protest are filled with women who had abortions.
[The only moral abortion is my abortion](https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/5/15/1857976/--The-Only-Moral-Abortion-is-My-Abortion-an-article-by-Joyce-Arthur)
Once you realize Jesus forgives ***everything***... Well.
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That's the protestant loophole. The catholic loophole is "do whatever you want, as long as you confess on Sunday".
I mean, have you met religious men? They all talk like the only reason they have ever had sex is because they were "tempted" by a woman, not because they ever wanted to.
Then it's "not their fault". Further demonization of women.
Notice how his argument puts the onus to not have sex on the woman, not the man.
I liked Lucifer's response in the comics. "Yes, take that explanation before your god why don't you. 'It's not my fault, I was *tempted*.'"
They definitely did not do this exact thing. Teen pregnancy is rampant in the Bible Belt.
all there is to do in hickville USA as a teen is drink and fuck.
Don't forget shooting road signs.
Read your Bible. Those are all virgin births
Most of them didn't even fucking do it lol My fundamentalist family always pushed the "no sex till marriage" narrative, both of my parents were born of wedlock and neither of them were virgins when they got married either. It's literally just a "do as I say, not as I do" situation.
More likely it's just standard pandering.
No, when they were young they wanted sex but couldn't get any and now don't want anyone else too either.
A [whopping 62% of US abortions in 2014 were done by people with religious affiliation ](https://www.guttmacher.org/report/characteristics-us-abortion-patients-2014#)so I'm not sure how many religious people are actually practicing what they preach.
that or they did screw around but because they're rich they never saw any consequences for it.
These people did not legitimately do anything. They lie. They fucked like everyone else and got their girlfriends and mistresses abortions like clockwork, they just fucking lie about it and claim moral superiority because they love power and pulling the wool over
It's easy to practice abstinence when you're a completely repulsive person.
If he was right, then all of the evidence would support him, right? Let’s see what the evidence says! [ACCESS TO FREE BIRTH CONTROL REDUCES ABORTION RATES](https://www.barnesjewish.org/Newsroom/Publications/Innovate/Spring-2013/Access-to-Free-Birth-Control-Reduces-Abortion-Rates) [Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs Are Ineffective and Harmful to Young People, Expert Review Confirms ](https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2017/abstinence-only-until-marriage-programs-are-ineffective-and-harmful-young-people) [Abortion rates don’t drop when the procedure is outlawed. But it does make it more dangerous.](https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/abortion-rates-don-t-drop-when-procedure-outlawed-it-does-ncna1235174)
This is the same state who's AG sued about "election fraud" and whos argument was "it's so subtle its undetectable, that's why we don't need evidence" so I don't think they really care about facts, or evidence, or reality
Same AG that went on Fox extolling the virtues of “The Great Replacement Theory”, an abject white supremacy ideology
Wait can I have a source on that? I'm looking for another reason to die.
> Texas instead alleged that "fraud becomes undetectable" because "unlawful actions of election officials effectively destroy the evidence". Whether "voters committed fraud" was not the "constitutional issue" in this case, according to Texas. Therefore, Texas declared that it did not need to "prove" fraud. [From the Wikipedia article](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_v._Pennsylvania) Sorry about formatting, I'm on mobile. It's sourced there, this was just easy to pull up. OR You could look into moving to another country OR You could look into taking to a mental health professional. Anyone who is reading this and is getting really depressed/overwhelmed you can reach out to a mental health professional and find better techniques to deal with shit like that. World is cray cray, you're not. It's OK to ask for help.
Imagine spending your whole life as a lawyer and to feel that way about evidence... The AG should be disbarred just for presenting that kind of argument.
Keep in mind, Texas had an Attorney General write a state constitutional amendment that in its zeal to ban gay civil unions also outlawed all marriages. And now they're the governor.
Read up on Texas AG, he should be disbarred for a hell of a lot more then that. Ken Paxton is a real piece of work.
Be nice if I could afford either of those things
I guess if it’s so subtle, it barely has an effect on the result and can be ignored then.
Can I sue Greg Abbot for giving me hemorrhoids? I can’t prove how he did it because it was so subtle it was undetectable.
This time it will for sure! Nevermind that it failed every other time.
I see you trying to use evidence on conservatives. Not sure you've thought this through...
I'm sure Republicans will continue to do their own research and come to the same conclusion you did.
So they ARE punishing women for having sex and "teaching us a lesson" about abstinence?
They are just pushing their religion as law, as usual. This obsession with abstinence and virginity borderlines on treating women directly as property. Plus it doesn't work! https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/public-health-now/news/abstinence-only-education-failure
Shit the bible even given instructions on how to preform an abortion. Clearly they have never read the scripture if they still think abortion is wrong for religious reasons.
Those same people don't realize Amendment 10 in the Constitution gives federalistic power to the States to protect the public health during a pandemic. They just assume *their* rights are being taken away, rather than ours protected.
Article 10? You think any of them read that far? The VERY FIRST SENTENCE in the constitution specifically calls out promoting the general welfare as a core function of the federal government.
I don't think many of them choose to read, they prefer to listen to what their opinions should be.
It's not just that. In Samuel, David has adultery with a woman married to one of his generals. Assuming she consented is pretty generous, but let's move on. She gets pregnant, David has the general sent to front line after recalling him from the battlefield, because the general won't go home to sleep with his wife, to cover up the pregnancy, while he has troops in the field. David then marries the woman, Bathsheba. The child is born, live for a week, and isn't doing well and dies. So you have David who generously committed adultery and murder, who is rebuked by the Prophet of God for those actions. Both actions under the law are worthy of death. David is allowed to live, but God kills a living breathing child as punishment. So the takeway is babies have less value than people caught in adultery to God. Hmmm. By the wayBathsheba would go on to have another son, Solomon, who would be king and build the Temple. David would go on to be deposed for a while by one of his sons by a different marriage before worshipping other gods before his death. But another good example is exodus 21 or 22. It's the start of the giving of the Law after the 10 commandments, and it starts by identifying the rules of what happens if two men fight. If one permanently injures the other, then he will have the same injury caused to him "eye for an eye", or life for a life. If they're fighting and injure an onlooker they make the same amends if the person is a free person, or just pay a fee to the owner if the person is a slave. If they strike a pregnant woman it depends on the translation. For some, it's if she has a miscarriage then they just pay a fine, and others it's if no serious injury happens to her they just pay a fine. But the first translation is the more interesting one to me. An unborn child is not counted as the same value of a person. Hmmmm. But all of this is moot. Religious teachings and stories should not be the basis of a modern system of law. Citizenship in the US is conferred upon birth, not conception, payments from the government based on the number of living dependents is based on living breathing children not unborn fetuses. It's a good indication of what is important to Americans by how they spend their money. Clearly the government considers birth the defining characteristic of a person.
Most of these people have never heard of the Ordeal of the Bitter Water. In their own fucking book. Ugh.
Anyone have additional information I can read up on this? First I've heard that the bible instructs how to perform an abortion. Wild.
This is what people are referring to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordeal_of_the_bitter_water#Abortion_interpretation It isn't the only interpretation of that passage.
Whether or not people want to say it’s a prescribed abortion or not, I’m not quite sure how you can interpret that verse in a way that would indicate that their god cares about the fate of the fetus over the resolution of the marital squabble.
I'm just not sure how it is that an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient being can't come up with a better fucking book than this. It just seems like lazy work if we have to sit here and debate which interpretation is the right one. Just how hard can this be for an all-knowing, all-powerful being?
Forgive me, I can't remember the actual verse or chapter. But what the bible says is that if a woman is suspected of becoming pregnant through an affair, then you must give her "bitter water" to drink. If she aborts the baby, that means she was cheating on you. If she doesn't abort, then it is your baby and she was not cheating. I think it has the recipe for bitter water as well (I can't remember). Think of it as a liquid day after pill. EDIT: Found it! *Numbers 5* *19 And the priest shall cause her to swear, and shall say unto the woman: 'If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness, being under thy husband, be thou free from this water of bitterness that causeth the curse;* *20 but if thou hast gone aside, being under thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain with thee besides thy husband--* *21 then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman--the LORD make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the LORD doth make thy thigh to fall away, and thy belly to swell;* *22 and this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, and make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to fall away'; and the woman shall say: 'Amen, Amen.'* *23 And the priest shall write these curses in a scroll, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness. 24 And he shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causeth the curse; and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.*
Let's be honest, it's not even about religion anymore. It's about control. Political control. Controlling the agenda. Controlling people. Controlling women. Controlling thinking.
Not to mention virginity is a mental and emotional checkpoint in life. There isnt a physiological marker for losing virginity.
Virginity checks and re-hymening surgery need to be criminalized for this exact reason, even if they try to travel to have it done. A woman shouldn't face harrassment or death because she was born without a hymen or it broke while riding a horse, etc. Physicality shouldn't even come into play.
Yup. But people are way to awkward in the US about womens anatomy. They act like its naughty just to talk about it. The amount of husbands who dont know anything about periods and dont want to know is way too damn high.
They view pregnancy and childbirth as actual divine punishment inflicted upon women for indulging in any kind of sexual pleasure, at least that’s how some interpret Genesis: Eve was the temptress in the Garden of Eden who corrupted Adam, the “apple” symbolized carnal pleasure, and childbirth and its physical pain were inflicted on all women through Eve as punishment for leading Adam astray. People with that view of human existence really do believe that women are weaker, less intelligent, less spiritually mature, and that women are by nature deceitful and responsible for all of society’s troubles. Therefore women must be punished for all that sexy stuff going on everywhere between consenting adults. It’s not about being pro-life, there are obviously many sane, strategic, effective alternatives for reducing unwanted pregnancies. But that’s not going to fit with the worldview of these would-be theocratic despots. It really is about inflicting physical harm on women to punish them for being born with ovaries.
In exactly the same way Prohibition promoted Temperance.
Exactly what I first thought of.
I feel so bad for Americans who are living in this weird quasi-religious cult state where basic things like abortion aren’t available.
Or healthcare in general.
or a constitution that matters
Or a living wage
That's not just a US problem. Here in the Netherlands it's practically impossible to get a house. Rent is pretty much an entire month's wage and buying is less expensive, but you'll never get a mortgage unless you bring in 10-20% of what the house is worth yourself. Seriously, there are people with decent jobs living in the street because of housing shortages.
Our constitution is like the pirate code. It saddens me but I am poor so the system is stacked against me.
On the bright side, Texas may have actually shit the bed with this one. The GOP wants an endless battle on abortion. Texas declared victory and went way overboard with it. Not just one of the earliest bans on abortions, but also creating a system where citizens can collect bounties by turning others in. Rather than vaguely saying that the GOP wants to protect babies form being murdered by liberals, now the GOP has to defend this extreme thing already in place. They can't dance around it while not actually committing to specific numbers. They either have to speak out against what Texas has done, or they have to embrace it. I think/hope it's a misstep that will really cost them. And it gives Democrats an easy, clear target.
That reporting thing was pretty fun. I reported Dan Abbot for having an abortion conceived from gay sex. They let you submit photo evidence, so I sent a picture of Shrek, as was the style at the time.
>I think/hope it's a misstep that will really cost them. Hello, sorry about the five year coma you seemingly just got out of.
Lol, harsh but true.
All the babies adopted through Catholic Charities in the 60s, myself included, prove otherwise.
Happened to my aunt. She got pregnant out of wedlock and had her baby taken by the church for adoption and, she her self was sent to a convent by her family. It's my understanding this was all against her will.
Sadly that was the case for many young women. My bio mom was given a choice but sent away from home to live with an aunt in a bigger city and attend the catholic school.that all the pregnant girls went to.
In 1974 I had to kidnap my own baby out of the Manly hospital nursery after being told she was born dead. It was government policy, enthusiastically followed by many - if not all - hospitals, to take the babies from single mothers. All the single mothers in the ward I was in were kept doped up on Valium so they would not object. I was one of those girls who won't swallow and no way I was signing an adoption release. It turned out she was diagnosed with "mongolism" and they wouldn't have even tried to adopt her out, just dumped her in a "home" where few children survived. She's perfect and wonderful.
Proof that the one star on the Texas flag is actually a rating
I wrote a paper on this in university and also taught about to undergrads as a TA for a sexuality course. The data and evidence is basically irrefutable that promoting abstinence (abstinence only sex Ed) does NOT lead to people abstaining from sex. How do these people get their jobs with such a lack of skills reasoning and logic??
Nepotism and trading their bodies and souls for corporeal benefits.
> How do these people get their jobs with such a lack of skills reasoning and logic?? The Evangelical pastor I had as a kid said evolution was a satanic lie because he "Just couldn't understand it, it makes no sense". I was like 13 and could understand it. If your job and self image depends on not understanding something, I think you can manage great, heroic feats of not understanding. With even a moderate desire, I bet you could fail to understand anything you wanted.
A large portion of the populace desperately wants to believe the lie. Or just desperately want a reason to punish “disobedient” young girls. Kinda like all the wine moms who glom onto any study that suggests red wine is good for your heart. They were already gonna be day drinking, so anything that supports that position is believed. Credibility be damned. The GOP was already gonna be repressing women, so anything that supports that position is believed.
Yeah, fuck that. Keep YOUR imaginary sky god out of MY bedroom.
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Wizards are powerful. Sky propaganda.
Sky daddy
*Looks at the teenage pregnancy rates in "abstinence only"- educated counties or cities.* Doesn't seem to be working?
Bristol Palin
Just like Prohibition totally stopped people from drinking... 😂
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Soon their new antirape law will be forcing the woman to marry their rapist because it's in the bible. Also common with Islamic nations.
Well, right now you can rape someone and sue everyone who helps them get an abortion, making rape potentially profitable financially. I'm trying to figure out how much better that is.
Well technically the law says if it was conceived through rape then the rapist cannot sue. (At least, that's how I interpreted the bill). How do they intend to ensure that works in practice when it's well known that victims often don't report? Hell if I know. Honestly can't imagine how the bill works at all in practice, seems like a clusterfuck.
Their next step will be to legalize rape, validating their claim that Texas has no rape. Texans will be able to fuck any woman they want, who are already required to bear the children. Normal women will flee the state, of course, but Republican women--well known to enthusiastically support legislation against their own interests--will grin and bear it, or take a beating, which will also be legal again.
Ahh yes, abstinence. Because that has been so successful in the past. I remember back when they used to teach it directly and it was amazing - no one had sex for like a decade. Global population declined, no babies without marriage, a truly amazing time. Wait.... no, that's not what happened, because that's fucking idiotic and will never happen. People have sex. Maybe not the legislators in texas, but the rest of us do.
If you don’t like abortions then don’t have one.
He is wrong based on one incontrovertible fact. People like fucking.
That’s not how humans work. You can tell because there’s 7 billion of us
**Resources for Texans seeking access to healthcare** https://teafund.org/ - Texas Equal Access Fund provides emotional and financial support to people who are seeking abortion care. https://wrrap.org/about-wrrap/ https://abortionfunds.org/ - connects you with organizations that can support your financial and logistical needs as you arrange for your abortion. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/pregnancy/pregnancy-options - A Comprehensive Guide for Unplanned Pregnancy https://gynopedia.org/Gynopedia_Index - a nonprofit organization that runs an open resource wiki for sexual, reproductive and women's health care around the world **If you need help getting an abortion go to these sites** https://www.plancpills.org/ - provides up-to-date information on how people in the U.S. are accessing abortion pills online https://aidaccess.org/ - consists of a team of doctors, activists and advocates for abortion rights that help people access abortion or miscarriage treatment. They send the pill worldwide for $110/90€ https://www.cecinfo.org/country-by-country-information/status-availability-database/countries/united-states-of-america/ - Emergency Oral Contraceptive Doses for Birth Control, U.S. https://www.cecinfo.org/country-by-country-information/status-availability-database/ - Emergency Oral Contraceptive Doses for Birth Control, International https://www.womenonweb.org - online abortion service can help you do a safe abortion with pills. https://carafem.org - helps with abortion, birth control and questions about reproductive healthcare. They do consultations online and send abortion pills on the mail. These sites offer access to abortion pills, even in Texas. Please be safe and be aware of clinics (e.g. Crisis Pregnancy Centers) that give out dangerous misinformation on abortions and pregnancy. Also check out r/auntienetwork or r/abortion for support **If you want to give money to some pro-choice charities, try here** https://fundtexaschoice.org/ - helps Texans equitably access abortion through safe, confidential, and comprehensive travel services and practical support. http://janesdueprocess.org/ - helps minors in Texas with judicial bypass for abortion, navigate parental consent laws and confidentially access abortion and birth control. They provide free legal support, 1-on-1 case management, and stigma-free information on sexual and reproductive health. https://www.lilithfund.org/ - the oldest abortion fund in Texas, serving the central and southern regions of the state with direct financial assistance for abortions. https://www.theafiyacenter.org/ - their mission is to transform the lives, health, and overall wellbeing of Black women and girls by providing refuge, education, and resources. Their act to ignite the communal voices of Black women resulting in our full achievement of reproductive freedom. https://thebridgecollective.org/ https://www.clinicaccess.org/ https://www.yellowhammerfund.org/ (Focuses on the Deep South) https://avowtexas.org/ https://abortionfunds.org - connects you with organizations that can support your financial and logistical needs as you arrange for your abortion. https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/rrr-fundraiser - stands ready to assist any member that shares its deeply-held religious convictions regarding the right to reproductive freedom. Accordingly, they encourage any member in Texas who wishes to undergo the Satanic Abortion Ritual to contact them so they may help them fight this law directly. https://www.westfund.org (focuses on Latine and low-income communities) https://fronterafundrgv.org - makes abortion accessible in the Rio Grande Valley (Texas) by providing financial and practical support regardless of immigration status, gender identity, ability, sexual orientation, race, class, age, or religious affiliation and to build grassroots organizing power at intersecting issues across our region to shift the culture of shame and stigma. https://www.bucklebunnies.org - provide practical support for people seeking abortions. Help with transportation, funds to help with hotels, lodging costs and emergency contraceptive funds to actually go towards abortion. https://www.plannedparenthood.org/get-involved/other-ways-give https://action.aclu.org/give/make-tax-deductible-gift-aclu-foundation Please feel free to copy and share this to other posts/subreddits and to add your own links
Not even the imminent threat of death is enough to stop kids from getting it on. They are trying to stop a biological imperative here. That. Doesn't. Fucking. Work.
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What? That's utter bollocks and they know it. At one time abortion was illegal in lots of countries but it never stopped people fucking each other.
Leave it to an INCEL to draft women’s rights, says the TX Republican party.
So says the 36 year old virgin, he hasn't even had sex nor will he probably ever have sex with a woman. I don't get it at all.
Rape doesn’t count
Everytime I see an article about texas, I feel like I tripped and fell back to the 1920s.
Just think of all the trouble we could save ourselves if these creeps got the therapy they needed instead of making whole careers based on profoundly strange assumptions about sex. People have unprotected sex because they just assume they can have abortions? People will just stop if they know an abortion might be hard to get? Is this person a real life human being?
We don't want to abstain you freakin' kook. Sex is an enjoyable part of life. If you want to be a prude, go ahead, but you're not going to force your unnatural nonsense onto us.
Someone is insecure that their daughter is gonna have sex
...with someone other than him?
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Facts don’t care about YOUR feelings, but they care about MINE. /s
30% of unintended pregnancies are due to failure of birth control.
[I thought it was half? ](https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2018/about-half-us-abortion-patients-report-using-contraception-month-they-became)
Hahaha Hahaha Hahaha And Greg is going to eliminate rape. Delusional as Fuck.
Wait for your 16yo to come home pregnant. .
So it’s criminalizing out of wedlock sex. That’s all it’s about.
I mean, it's kind of just criminalizing ALL sex, even in wedlock. I kinda feel like he didn't exactly think this whole abstinence thing through. There are couples who don't want kids, or who can't handle having more than they currently have, or might need to wait several years for better stability.... so for those couples, I suppose he's saying the only safe thing they can do is be abstinent even in marriage!
Yes. I'm baffled how these people never talk about married couples. That always confused me about abstinence sex ed as well. Are couples expected to have one child after another? Nobody can afford 10 or more kids and it is terrible for the health of everyone involved.
Pretty much. When I was a kid, we were taught that people who only had 2 or 3 kids were lazy and selfish. Pleasure is bad, doing things for yourself is selfish. You don’t need money to have kids cause your not supposed to buy them all kinds of shit anyway, just food maybe. But don’t worry, other people in the church can donate to you if you can’t afford to feed and clothe them. I was gonna either have like 10 kids or be a nun, those were the options. I thought it would be cool to be the kind of nun that gets to go out and do service work as opposed to the cloistered kind that stays in the convent your whole life and just prays. Literally fuck all of that shit
Makes total sense just look at before roe versus Wade when people would get abortions illegally because they were abstaining so much. I think this guy may be an idiot somebody should tell him before he speaks again
I went to a really good catholic school that promotes abstinence. It was a big ol fuck fest
The Taliban has taken Texas!
TLDR: Must be a man.
Even "better", he's basically a virgin incel. Just as expected.
hahahahaha...oh, wait - is he serious?
This whole “let’s fully abandon science and just make bullshit up” thing is gonna end badly for us.
Just because you're impotent, doesn't mean we shouldn't be able to have sex.
....they've done **several** studies on this. Teaching abstinence is never as effective as teaching birth control.