Girl, 13, gives birth after she was raped and denied abortion in Mississippi
The nearest abortion clinic – in Chicago – was too far away and too expensive for her mother to provide her with the procedure
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/14/mississippi-abortion-ban-girl-raped-gives-birthOpen linkView original on lemmy.world804
Comments128
This is what Republicans want for all of us.
If Republicans win the next election, they will institute a national abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest.
If you want to stop this, the only way to do so is to vote for Biden. I really hope people understand this.
What it's going to take is to vote in Biden, then whoever the Democrats run in 2028, 2032, 2036. Until enough of the Republican justices die in office that actual jurists can replace them.
That's not the only way of stopping them.
This is the way.
It's not even a way to stop them.
Biden has literally been president during this whole Roe v Wade overturning.
It's so exhausting to see libs walk this line so close to being actual progressives, but not, all for their precious capitalism.
You're never going to beat the system by playing within the rules it's set you, the house always wins.
Okay. Outline a reasonable action Biden could have taken to prevent the ruling.
He could have pushed to have it codified.
He could have also pushed student loan forgiveness for all borrowers instead of the bullshit means testing that got it shut down.
Without 60 votes in the Senate, shit, without 50, it codification of abortion rights wasn't happening. And he did push loan forgiveness, the Supreme Court shut that down.
It got shut down because of the means testing he included. If he hadn't excluded some borrowers it would have gone through.
Nope, it got shut down because the court ruled that it amounted to the executive appropriating money. Means testing is constitutional.
It wasn't the means testing that shut it down, if anything it wouldn't have made it as far as it did without the means testing. As it is, people were already complaining that it was a giveaway to wealthy folks who don't need it. Take away the income limit and it would have less than zero chance of succeeding.
The president has very little power over legislative decisions. Yes, he could have used the bully pulpit to advocate for abortion legislation, but it would have accomplished nothing.
Why can't Biden do something to safeguard abortion in his current term?
If he can't do something on his current term, why will he be able to do something on his next one?
Biden doesn't have the authority to safeguard abortion. He had the authority to veto Congress. Biden would veto a nationwide abortion ban. Trump or any other Republican would not.
Additionally, presidents appoint supreme Court justices in the event of a vacancy, or if Congress ever gets on board for expanding the court.. do we'd need a Democrat in office if we're ever going to reverse Dobbs.
Can't he do it temporarily via executive order?
No. It isn't in the scope of executive powers.
If there was a national law protecting the right to abortion, he could use executive orders to enforce that. But that isn't the world we live in anymore.
It would take an act of congress, and the D's don't have the votes. Shitty but true.
Don't bother, he's from Lemmygrad and just wants to blame the Democrats for everything
Dude, I'm not even from the US. My question is, in my opinion, an obvious one, at least to an outsider to the US political system. Why do you have to vote him again, when he's in power now?
His presidential subscription needs to be re-upped every Summer Olympics
Because presidents serve for a limited number of years.
Of which he had 4 in total to do something about abortions, so I fail to see how that's an adequate answer
Well that's different than what you asked before but ok. The president doesn't create new laws. That's the job of the legislature. Currently the republicans hold more seats in the house and in the senate there's 48 Dem, 49 Rep, and 3 Ind. So not likely to produce anything about abortion other than trying to ban it. It doesn't look like anyone else is going to be a real contender to run in Biden's place and anyone from the republican side would clearly be worse and would greenlight any anti-abortion bills that legislature would try to pass. So the obvious and adequate answer is that when Biden's term is up we are going to have to vote for him again because there are no better options and the legislature is not in a state that will work to protect pro-choice rights but is in a state where it could try to limit those rights. Also, Biden was sworn in on Jan 20th 2021 so he hasn't had 4 years yet.
It’s a classic case of maintaining the status quo. He may not be able to codify abortion protection but he can at least stop the R’s from doing it.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/14/liberalism-and-fascism-partners-in-crime/
https://blacklikemao.medium.com/how-liberalism-helps-fascism-d4dbdcb199d9
https://truthout.org/articles/fascism-is-possible-not-in-spite-of-liberal-capitalism-but-because-of-it/
https://nyanarchist.wordpress.com/2019/01/23/scratch-a-liberal-a-fascist-bleeds-how-the-so-called-middle-class-has-enabled-oppression-for-centuries/
Don't bother, he's from lemmy.world and just wants to blame the leftists for everything.
Acktually… I think it’s lemm.ee
Whatever you say, fash
I probably agree with your stance on abortion over all. I also generally dislike ML Communists/Leninists for their cultish indoctrination and authoritarian tendencies. But you've been way off base with this reply and the previous one in this chain. And are only serving to make yourself look bad. Something that can and has happened to all of us sometimes. Step back, take a look around, and chill.
As others have stated. In the current environment there is not much Biden can do Beyond veto bad Republican legislation. Or if he's lucky enough replace an outgoing Supreme Court Justice or other Federal Justice.
The actual question to be asking is why in the last 50+ years. When there was much more support for, and ability to enshrine the right to an abortion in law. Did Senator Biden and all the other Democrats and even Republicans of the time not do anything and just kick the can down the road as they have. A criticism that could be commonly launched against them for many different things we are now facing. I wouldn't say it's malice or anything like that. But it's definitely incompetence and a massive lack of foresight and honesty.
Which session of Congress should they have introduced that legislation in order to actually get it passed? Pick a year. It's not a rhetorical question.
It's easy to cast blame when you don't have to actually think about the realities of passing landmark legislation. The reality is that Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, and it was reasonable for Congress not to pull that thread both practically (don't have the votes) and politically (why aren't the Democrats doing x instead?).
The next two sessions following January 22nd 1973. That accurate enough for you? Support for Roe vs Wade was near it's highest. And those involved understood why.
It's easy to pretend that people don't know the difficulty of passing landmark legislation. When you don't have actual facts to dispute what they say. But that does not excuse legislators from never even trying. Which is the point. I can understand it being hard to pass legislation especially in today's climate. Where Republicans are pretty much just against passing anything unless it's xenophobic bigoted Etc. But no one of any party ever tried once to pass legislation in shrining and protecting it. And we can criticize them for not even trying.
Yeah! How dare Senator Biden not get sweeping legislation passed during his freshman term 50 years ago!
There's plenty to lay at Joe Biden's feet if you want to criticize him--or his party--but grievances against the party barely holding back the tide of fascism because they didn't stick their necks out on questionable legislation half a century ago strikes me as a little ridiculous. Has it not occurred to anyone throwing these tantrums that this SCOTUS would have swept away legislation just as easily as it swept away Roe?
Who the fuck cares about Joe Biden specifically? There were a lot more Democrats who weren't him than those who were him and none of them ever even tried. Ever.
Say what you want about elected republicans. They are some of the worst human beings on earth. Truly horrible people. Hearts filled with selfishness and hate. But all that said. You still have to respect them. They fight to hurt the average person with a focus and a tenacity that cannot be extinguished. And it works. Democrats spent 50 years not even trying to enshrine or protect Roe. Republicans built an Empire on killing it. Democrats spent 50 years poo pooing and telling us that these crazy people would make rational decisions and never overturn roe. Only in the end to surprise Pikachu face when the crazies did the crazy thing that they've been screeching about for 50 years. Democrats caught with their pants down having done not a damned thing to protect it.
It's a valid criticism of democrats. And part of why people don't vote for them. I'm not speaking for myself personally I vote against Republicans whenever I'm given the chance. And generally that means voting for Democrats in a red State like I am. I voted for Biden in 2020 and I will be voting for him again in 2024. people just want to feel like they are important, like they matter. People just want their representatives to fight with a fraction of the tenacity of the people trying to hurt them. It's not too much to ask.
Voting is good, yes.
So is protesting. We must use all the tools at our disposal, provided they are used to protect and support the most marginalized of our communities.
Of course, now that the baby is out the pro-lifers say that they can both go die in a ditch
The unborn are a convenient group to advocate for
Literally have to do nothing other than talk
And the nurse's comment on finding a 13 yr old pregnant? "What have you been doing?" For fucks sake, I hate the world.
Ah yes let's slut shame the 13 year olds instead of doing our due diligence as mandated reporters. Smh.
and it's her rapist's child. a stranger nonetheless. These folks just lack humanity.
Is this what they want? Ruined lives? Fucking idiots.
Yes, actually. Conservatism flourishes most when people are suffering, unhealthy and impoverished.
It is a plague in desperate need of a cure.
Yes. The cruelty is the point.
The poor are supposed to be punished via all sorts or laws that keep them poor, for the "crime" of being poor.
Kinda reminds me how in my country - Portugal - during the Fascist Dictatorship abortion was illegal but the daughters of the wealthy (and you could only be wealthy if part of the regime, so these were the very same people who made the laws) could just go next door to Spain to get an abortion whilst the rest (almost all of them, as there was crushing poverty in the country back then) couldn't afford to.
Whilst the outright Evil of the people passing this kind of law is bad, it's the hypocrisy that really makes it trully disgusting.
It’s literally what they want. You think that girl’s going to stand up for herself at work when she’s got a kid at home?
well shit. you nailed it, i was that kid at home and my mother beat the shit out of me to vent her frustrations from the apathy work gave her. what's worse than being abused. seeing those around you foster that abuse because, lol single mother = prey.
god has a plan or whatever
In theory, they want the girl to give up the baby for adoption.
In practice, they instead often end up being shamed to keep it, and so on, and so on...
They want low wage workers. Now they have two, forever.
Ironically/sadly, many of these fundies are women.
And they are as well educated as women in remote villages in Afghanistan.
What's the difference again? I forget, which ones are the ones that want women to cover up, will claim your clothes are the reason you got raped, and want to kill all trans people?
Por que no los dos?
An abortion is not something you should need to be able to afford. It's not a luxury, it's a (often necessary) medical procedure. So fucked up, all of this. I hope the family can achieve some semblance of happiness some day
Sounds like a Republican's dream
Wouldn't they like to marry the girl to her rapist, because sex outside of marriage is a sin or something?
And it gives them an excuse to marry kids legally
Not in a monogamous society. Rapists don't want to get tied down to only a single child wife. Also, there's no dowry in our society for the rapist to take the burden of raising the girl off the parents' hands.
If Republicans didn't have children with an abused woman, would they have any at all?
The baby's father is so proud he gave expensive cigars to all his fellow GOP congressmen.
I am embarrassed to be American
This is just completely disgusting. When everyone failed her the law wasn't even on her side. Say what you want about abortions in general, but the audacity that people have to make getting abortions under rape or complications political is just disgusting. My heart truly goes out to this little girl, and her family, but especially the little girl. I can't imagine the amount of life altering trauma she has gone through, and how this is going to affect her for the rest of her life. This shouldn't happen to anyone. What the fuck is wrong with people.
Like when noted Christian Leader Jeff Sessions, who is a grandfather, defended putting kids in cages by quoting the Bible.
Exactly
Wow that is some serious bullshit right there. For the rest of this girls life she is going to have to share custody with the man that raped her.
They don’t know who it was. It was a complete stranger who raped her when she was playing in her yard. The police haven’t even investigated. He’d have to come forward first.
Sounds like a middle eastern thing. Wonder what the link is.
It's not a middle eastern thing, It stems from people in power who don't see women as having any value, except as house slaves/property. Those people try to justify their ideas by pointing to old texts, where other similar minded people have snuck in the notions of women as property or of less value than men.
Religious fanaticism.
That's what it has become, but I don't think any of the old religions was founded on the oppression of women, but people in power have conveniently added that sort of thing, when religion became a tool of power
Religion was invented as a tool of power, whether used for good or bad. Don't eat "unclean" animals because they make people sick or kill you. That message apparently didn't work as well as "God says no".
So you see a story about sexual violence in Mississippi and your first thought is "I bet a Muslim did this."
Makes total sense; the good ol' Christian boys in Missisip are beyond suspicion.
I guess sarcasm doesn't translate well over text, even in a case that I thought was clear.
The anti-abortion laws in much of the US are a pretty extreme measure to control women. The area of the world that practices the most extreme control of women is the middle east. The link between the two besides that is religious extremism, regardless of religion.
The people most afraid of "sharia law" are the ones passing sharia laws.
At no point did I intend to blame Muslims for Christians doing the exact same shit. My point was the hypocrisy of those American Christians and the direction they seem intent on pursuing.
In Saudi Arabia she would been allowed an abortion. Saudi Arabia is literally more progressive in this area than Mississippi.
Look at that. Using Islamophobia as an excuse to be racist against several large people groups/ cultures. Such enlightenment.
No, my thought is that it sounds like religious extremism. And the principles of y'all Qaeda aren't much different from the terrorists they claim to hate.
is it worth it Republicans?
As if she was their problem.
They only want control over her. The rest ain't their problem.
To understand why this is happening, you have to go back in history to the end of the slave trade. When the ability to kidnap people from Africa and bring them back to enslave them was legally ended, the white enslavers realized that the only way they could keep slavery going was to force people to breed more slaves. Google that history. It is utterly abhorrent but necessary to understand where the Republican Party is coming from today.
Since the end of slavery, a certain contingent in the U.S. has never gotten over the fact that they couldn't legally have a sub-class of citizens that they could use for free or nearly-free labor. So they kept trying to find other ways to keep people oppressed, and they expanded that oppression beyond just black people and to any of the "less desirable" groups. Think not just Black people, but also Irish, immigrants, Appalachia. They pit these groups against one another because divided people are easier to control. But the goal is the same - have large groups of people poor for generations who have no other option but to work for slave wages and keep the people at the top very, very rich.
Slavery in the U.S. was a huge economic force, one that a certain contingent (the very wealthy) never got over losing. The next best thing was to create whole groups of people who are desperate enough to work for almost nothing. That's what we have in this country now. And it works best if those people are constantly putting out more children. That keeps them even more stuck and more desperate, and it keeps a steady supply of cheap labor coming.
It's no coincidence that they want abortion ended but also want to ensure those same people are continually subjected to sub-standard education, that those same people are "allowed" to send their kids to work (defeating years of progress through child labor laws), that those people are also unable to access higher education, government benefits, or virtually anything that could potentially make their lives better.
In my experience the only difference between a certain kind of right-wing "libertarian" person and a slavery apologist is just the amount of time you've spent arguing with them. Their arguments (pro-child marriage, anti-abortion, anti-minimum wage) end up converging at "well, in some cases it's /more/ expensive to provide people room and board than it would be to pay them in cash".
Makes me sick, fuck that hellhole of a country.
This news is from Mississippi, but same difference really.
Religion: wrecking lives since....well, since it was invented.
Specifically, Christianity wrecks lives, I don't think the non-white religions need to get swept under this particular bus.
I will fight my ass off to place my children into a conservatorship or even frame them for a crime if they ever consider moving to a place like Mississippi
I assume the girl asked help from the republicans around here, but they couldn't hear her ask over the sound of themselves screaming about how much they want to "protect children".
I was reading a description of this popular novel the other day. It was set in America and was supposedly fiction...
I just woke up and this almost made me puke. This is sick.
I see clinics in Carbondale, about 5 hours South of Chicago. I wonder why that wasn't an option?
"was looking to get an abortion for her daughter but was told the closest abortion provider was in Chicago – a drive of more than nine hours from their home in Clarksdale, Mississippi."
They could have been lied to, these people are disgusting. When taken to be seen for her strange behavior before they knew she was pregnant, in response to getting back the positive pregnancy test the nurse asked the girl "What have you been doing?". There are plenty of people in healthcare that don't care about these victims either or see them as victims at all.
Those clinics you see might not give abortions anymore too.
Given the geography of the situation, it would be useful to ensure that (1) the southern IL clinics remain open and (2) this information is widely known in the the southern states.
The Guardian seems to be spreading misinformation by claiming that Chicago is the closest location without further research.
Edit: here's a map to clarify:
You say it's widely known with no evidence. Widely known to some does not mean it is known to everyone.
The guardian is reporting what they the family were told by the nurse. If you read the original Time article they say that precisely, the nurse told them that's where the nearest place was. Whether the nurse was correct or not is not what they claimed.
I said it would be useful to make the information widely known. Journalists should call up the clinics in southern Illinois, ask if they're open, and share this information in future articles. I assume they'll get plenty of opportunities.
Probably no driver's license or car, no money, no help, etc.
> you deserve to die because of bad things (a) parent(s) do(es)
First and foremost It's none of your fucking business why a woman seeks an abortion.
But if you're also suggesting that this girl did a quote unquote bad thing by being raped, you can absolutely get fucked.
Really now? Getting r-ped in the front yard of your house, in broad daylight, while there's people inside? The girl must come up with something more convincing. I think the mom just came up with the story to be able to get an abortion legally, because in most states incest and r-pe are the only exceptions to the abortion ban. That's why some conservatives are against these exceptions, because women will lie about getting r-ped to get an abortion. Police should collect the child's DNA. The father will show up in a database sooner or later.
Edit: yea, just keep down voting like cowards without giving a counter argument, cuz you don't have one!
@Zapdrive @MicroWave
Are you assuming the front yard had no shrubs or bushes that someone could hide in?
Pfft.
Seems like you watch too many movies.
@Zapdrive
Seems like you ass-u-me too much and too often.
Fucking missleading as shit
How so?
Trying to get abortion at what state if the pregnancy?
Bro, you're talking about a 13 year old being forced to give birth. Why tf would you ask "What trimester is she in?!" Versus "Holy shit how have we failed her this badly?!"
Besides, where is the rapist? If she was rapped that mean the rapist is in jail right? Cut his balls, castrate him.
Lmao you think rapists are ever caught?
If they are rapist, yes. Need to prove it to call him rapist
I understand the "holy shit how have we failed her this badly". My question is, at that point are you saying its okay to kill a baby other than have a 13 have a child? What did the baby do to get killed?
Well thankfully, no babies are killed during abortion procedures, so you can stop worrying about that.
Oh wow..... Really?
Yes...? Words have meaning, and often times (especially when we're talking about the law) seemingly minor differences in word choice can make all the difference in the world. That's why any legal document you see has a section at the top defining terms so there can be no question what is meant.
Abortion doesn't directly concern "babies." It usually just involves a blastocyst or maybe a zygote or embryo. Literal clumps of cells that the human body often eliminates on it's own, spontaneously and for no clear reason.
At the very most, it involves a fetus, which is still not a baby.
Yea, I guess that is the main argument right? When is the baby "alive". Some say as soon as conception happens, some say as soon as he/she can breath. I think most would agree that is somewhere in between.
The "baby" exists. That's the crime. Flush it.
Oh wow..... Its the baby fault?
Literally isn't relevant
Fuck that pregnancy, fuck that fetus. I'll fuckin rip it out myself and flush it down the toilet no matter what state of pregnancy it is.
That is what I thought. Does not matter how well the baby is form, what matters ia that I get my life back. Fuck the baby, I want to have time for myself.
Now you're getting it.