I might not like Michelle Bachmann- as a Republican, I’m aghast that someone like her could get elected… repeatedly. Aghast, but not surprised. I’m waiting for the day when there’s a moderate (or at least sane) member of the Republican party I can stand behind without seeing them debase themselves by constantly groveling and prostrating themselves to the lowest-effing-common denominator in my party. Lord only knows when that will be.
But as much as I dislike her, her antics, the constant attention she gets, and generally what she stands for, I have to give her credit on one hot button issue- abortion.
From ye old Wikipedia:
“Bachmann and her husband also provided foster care for 23 other children, all teenage girls. The Bachmanns were licensed from 1992 to 2000 to handle up to three foster children at a time; the last child arrived in 1998. The Bachmanns began by providing short-term care for girls with eating disorders who were patients in a program at the University of Minnesota. The Bachmann home was legally defined as a treatment home, with a daily reimbursement rate per child from the state. Some girls stayed a few months, others more than a year.”
This is important- do you know why?
I am personally opposed to abortion. However, unlike most of my ideological compatriots, I think outright making abortion illegal is moronic. I work as an Emergency Department nurse, and so I have seen firsthand the aftereffects of a “home-made” abortion done with women- minors and adults, black and white, from all socioeconomic backgrounds- feel compelled through shame, or legal restrictions, or other reasons, to take matters into their own hands, no pun intended. I’ve also worked in Pediatric Intensive Care, and I’ve seen the sorts of social situations most of my kiddos came from- having parents visit their kids on my floor was the exception, not the rule. And I think that making abortion illegal will be just as effective as making drugs illegal- I mean, when’s the last time you ever heard about a drug problem in this country, amirite?
I’ve got a plan to eliminate abortion in this country. Fund Foster care, Adoption, and Social Services at 200%; free prenatal and postnatal care for all women and children under 300% of the poverty level; public service announcements and a nationwide push and lionizing of foster care and adoption; revamped and effective sexual education programs, and subsidized birth control. Heck, if you really want to compromise, we can leave the last two items off, as they’re wont to be hot button items unlikely to garner a lot of support amongst my compatriots.
Problem is, of course, I’ve yet to meet more than a handful of Republicans that can get to this level. Most of them do a double take and go, “WHAT?!? YOU WANT ME TO SPEND MONEY ON THESE BABIES AFTER THEY’RE BORN?!? BOOTSTRAPS!”
Case in point, I was arguing with a gentleman who made the lovingly trollish point in response to my plan:
Family planning? How many abortions do you think occur because birth control was unavailable? 5% maybe? There is nothing stopping people from giving kids up for adoption and the more that are given up the more funding will come. Foster care would not be burdened and abortion clinics would not have full dumpsters out back if people just accepted some responsibility and stopped treating pregnancy as a minor inconvienence.
I do not judge someone who makes a mistake and makes a very painful decision, but it does not end there. I know you cannot trust statistics but suffice to say there are too many abortions performed AGAIN because the shame was non existant the first time around.
This is really a matter of personal responsibility.
Got that, folks? The current social supports we have are more than sufficient, people are getting abortions because they’re convenient and shame-free, and really, it’s all about “personal responsibility”. What a joke. This guy’s so far in the closet on this issue, he’s in Narnia.
Michelle Bachmann, more likely than not, resides closer to this chucklehead on the issue of abortion than to me; no doubt about that. However, as I noted above, take a look- she’s actually farking doing something about it. She and her husband fostered twenty-three kids! How many of the people that protest outside Planned Parenthood have adopted as many kids as they can possibly support? How many legislators railing against the evils of abortion are foster parents, or volunteer with social services? How many of them donate their time and money to making sure at-risk women get the prenatal healthcare and physical and emotional support they need to make it through a pregnancy?
Oh, wait- that’s right. Pregnancy’s just an “inconvenience”.
But hey, whatever else Michelle Bachmann might get wrong, she at least has that one thing right- unlike most of her ideological colleagues, she’s at least actually farking doing something other than legislative grandstanding or wailing incoherently.
And that’s something we need to give her kudos for.
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