39 Comments

You rightly draw attention to the harms suffered by young women, some hardly out of girlhood, who experience pregnancy and childbirth. These are amplified if the pregnancy has been the result of rape or incest; typically the women remain trapped in abusive circumstances thereafter.

However, we must remember the fate of the children, who suffer lack of care or outright abuse at the hands of a parent who is not old enough to manage their own life well, never mind take on the demanding care of a young child. There are frequent shocking reports of children subjected to physical abuse by young male partners of an immature teen mother; a recent example being the fellow who murdered his girlfriend’s toddler in his “care” (she was at work, of course) because the child interrupted his gaming activities. Poor kid probably was hungry and crying for some food……

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You are so right - I have spent years with people whose parents never got a chance to “mature” themselves. One holiday all the males sitting at the table started talking about the # of times they had been arrested. I came from an entirely different background. My family is Republican. After that dinner, I started warning my Republican family that those “safety nets” were put in place for a reason. It was to protect the them from people like the ones I was with at that holiday dinner. All the men at that table were working or looking for jobs. But the jobs they could get were low wage. The “safety net” was enough to keep them from having to “supplement” their income. Those have nots WILL get what they need to live. They are survivors. It’s why I believe that the MAGA’s are trying to undermine the United States and cause CHAOS as an internal attack. Keep squeezing the most desperate and crime goes up. Then Republicans who caused the problem with “entitlement cuts” - blame Democrats for the increased crime. I don’t remember the term for that stunt but there is a name for it.

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Your perspicacity is only exceeded by your writing skills. There are studies that show the incidence in crime decreasing in NY 15-20 yrs after Roe in 1972. Unwanted, abused and food insecure kids are increased risk of criminal behavior, just like the people at that holiday dinner.

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"Projection," maybe: Note that Trump is now "projecting" that there will never be another election if Trump loses, when in fact Trump is the guy who plans on being forever president. The old saying "biting the hand that feeds you" also comes to mind in response to your post. Those guys in your family are probably getting paid more for even low-level jobs under Biden; have they noticed?

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The abused young children, many of them will grow up to be drug addicts and criminals and future thugs themselves. Living a life in a cage "(jail cell)", costing taxpayers money as well as torturing the abused child for the rest of their lives. When the right wingers realize they don't have enough money to incarcerate all of the abused children, they will the party of pro-life, exterminate them. The right wingers just want power and control to abuse everyone they don't like and they will lie to get elected, then they will end elections. They are just thugs, that wear a suit.

The way to end abortions is to raise all of the children, especially the males to become rational thinkers with empathy. Most family units are not capable of that, only agnostic Kibutzes might be able to raise virtuous children that are not angry and sadistic and racist.

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Ah, yes—but when those abused angry kids become drug addicts and criminals, the cops can either kill them during apprehension or execute them if their violence escalates to murder. Then you don’t spend as much money incarcerating them for long periods. “Right to life” is a concept used by the right solely in reference to antenatal beings.

Any person, however deprived their upbringing, can grow and learn in the right circumstances, and become better regulated and more compassionate. It is unlikely we will be able to institute agnostic kibbutzes, but we can be respectful and caring to our fellow beings. Healing happens one person at a time.

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Lol. The Democrats and Republicans both support raising children in the family unit after thousands of years of pavements filled in blood. I agree we cannot get the kombucha's because there's too much objection to it. Guess that's how the human race ends.

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Yes, some people should never be parents. They need to have the right not to. What is completely baffling is that Republicans don’t want to put any money into public education, or give to welfare to help these children live a productive and decent life. This is all about control . Rich white men want to keep it, and apparently women and other minorities scare them.

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Remember all the hand-wringing by the GOP over the ACA, screaming that “government was gonna make your healthcare decisions?”

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If we ever get through this fascist attack on our democracy, two remedies need to be put in place: 1. Legislators must consult expert, researched, verifiable sources before enacting legislation outside their expertise. In other words—THEY MAY NOT PRACTICE MEDICINE WITHOUT A LICENSE or enact legislation that research has shown to be deleterious; 2. We must enforce the separation of Church and State.

Citizens United is a fascist tool for placing a democracy in chains and for handing over exorbitant powers to the wealthy few. It must be revoked.

The RNC operates as an organized crime syndicate run by fascist billionaires, foreign and domestic. Those that aren’t foreign operatives are traitors—and they need to be dealt with as traitors. NOT ONE Republican in office is uncorrupted—they all answer to their Puppet Masters, the Koch Gang of Billionaire Fascists (he calls them his “cadre.”) I say, hang the entire cadre and burn their houses to the ground.

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Come on, pull it back from hanging and burning! It has been done, historically; the plutocrats don't seem to know when they tighten the thumbscrews on the serfs too tight. In Russia, they hanged the aristocrats' horses! In France, the guillotine. But what came next? In Russia, Stalin. In France, Robespierre. In Germany, Hitler. Having said that, it is sad that the Supreme Court in Roe did go into "expert, researched, verifiable sources" all tossed aside by Alito. But all the hanging and burning in the world won't fix that creep Alito and his woman-hating brothers.

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You are absolutely right. I really can't say much more. I can't add much more to what you said except to say hurray for you for saying it Dawana.

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Boys will be boys, but girls will be owned.

Everything that makes my life bearable as an independent older female was possible because Democrats (many of them women) found a workable program or solution to make it so. Examples are: Social Security, Medicare, public education, labor laws, family planning choices, and the list goes on. Plus, I've had the chance and time to participate in the politics involved, because I haven't had to marry and have 12 kids to work the farm.

What a difference some democratic principles, freedom from religion, and a century makes!

I have to get back to the little girls. What Republicans are doing is further proof of their lack of empathy, as if picking a psychopath for a candidate wasn't enough! I wonder what appeals to them about a tiny little girl giving birth. Is it the pain and suffering? Is it the misery of a child having a 12 year old mother? Or is it just one more way to reaffirm their religious view that pain and suffering are their sick way to get to their "heaven", which no doubt is run by a MAN and his SON.

God damn these misogynists and sadists. Bless you Thom and all the men fighting with women to cast off this burden. When every child is wanted, loved, and planned this will be a better country and a better world.

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I can't help going back to my mother yelling "sluts!" I don't think it is adequately recognized that the complex of what's called "pro-life" is grounded in raw woman-hate and fear. I predict that there is soon to be a flock of laws undoing the whole concept of paternity implying financial responsibility. "She made him do it!" "All she had to do was keep her legs together!" "Her skirt was too short!" Thom has discussed the Biblical curse of Eve. So-called "god" didn't just punish Eve: it cursed all females forever. I repeat my prediction that there will be a surge of "missing" women. The slut made him do it, and he can't just give her a lift and a couple of hundred bucks to "take care of it" anymore. What's a gun for?

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I think what you described was and still can be typical especially with religious women. You won't find me sharing a meal with any of them.

If you can stand a glimpse of the past, there is a movie out called Miranda's Victim. Legal eagles probably know the case inside and out, but Trish Weir just let them tell her personal side of the story. I appreciated learning it.

I hope you are wrong, but....

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I will look up that movie. Thanks. Mom's case was weird/ crazy-making. Not predominantly religious. Master-degreed. Teacher of young women she adored, even maintaining friendships with lesbian students, though there was weird spotty denial even there. She was more emblematic of pure authoritarian, from Bavarian patriarchal family. So, very reactive toward women who were part of 60's social unrest, or non-conforming: woman behind a bullhorn, or a "bra-burner," fallen and debauched even more than men. Like that. Go figure.

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It’s time we give the Grifting for Oligarchs Party a break. Since it’s clear that they never intend to fulfill their Constitutional Purpose (i.e., promote our general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for us and our posterity), they need a special strategy to put them over the top.

In addition to voter suppression and election fraud activities, perhaps the most important thing is that they need to build and maintain a critical mass of poorly educated authoritarian followers that will vote in a block for the oligarch’s candidates of choice. And that’s where their wedge tactics provide an elegant solution to serve the wealthy.

All it takes is a way to make the MAGA cultists feel in control, feel safe and feel superior. And that just takes the incessant repetition of wedge issues to separate the cult members from the rest of society.

First, we have the “Pro-life” (or anti-Womens’ reproductive rights) wedge, so the menfolk can be told by those who grift in the name of the Lord to feel in control of their womenfolk (as is so excellently described in Thom’s Daily Take today).

Second, make them feel safe about their sanctimonious attachment to guns with non-stop propaganda (and sales opportunities) regarding the subject of the 2nd Amendment.

Third, make them feel superior to everyone who is not part of the cult by flooding social media (and the MSM) with all the bigot-related wedge issues like racism, misogyny, xenophobia, etc.

Although the 1st Amendment tells us that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” Texas District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk opined that ‘the use of contraception (just like abortion) violates traditional tenets of many faiths, including the Christian faith plaintiff practices.’”

The question I have is, since we now have a democracy that has laws that support the beliefs and interpretations of the grifter Christians in power, how can we go back to the Post-Roe/Pre-Reagan Era when women’s reproductive rights were finally acknowledged and sanctioned?

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Old Dave, We have talked. Your turn of phrase of Constitutional Purpose didn't sink in until now.

Constitutional purpose vs originalism.

What was the purpose of the Constitution, you quoted it from the document itself, promote our general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for us and our posterity

The SCOTUS six make pretense, to further their religious ideological agenda, that they have the capability to read the minds of the men who wrote the Constitution, (seances anyone). But they are no different than the Pastors, Priests, Rabbi's, who use god as their sock puppet.

That is all the Supreme Six are, ventriloquists using the founders as sock puppets.

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Let us remember that the Catholic Supreme 6 are being run by the Catholic Bishops of America and Rich Millionaires and billionaires. Oh let's not forget the non- Christian vangelicals. They are no longer a Supreme Court they are the inferior Court and the fascist Court of America. They are in fact nothing more than the right arm of the American fascist party- formerly the Republican Party. For those of you who don't like the idea of my calling them the American fascist party let me just say I call a spade a spade and so should everyone else. How are we going to face the people that are coming for our country if we don't at least call them by their real name- fascists, the American fascist party, and the fascist Supreme Court.

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I had the same epiphany about Constitutional Purpose some time ago and after that I have wondered why it took me so long for it to sink in, (and why you are the first person I know that has actually acknowledged its fundamental importance). The human brain continues to amaze.

I love your sock puppet analogy, and whether it's a SCOTUS religious grifter's hand in the socks or the strings that the plutocrats pull to get their SCOTUS whores to do their bidding, they are definitely not promoting our general welfare or securing the blessings of liberty for us and future Americans.

But the puppet masters are doing great, whether from America, Moscow, or Saudi Arabia.

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I also wondered why it took so long for the phrase constitutional purpose to "set in".

And it is because it is a new phrase, or one that is not often used, but just words until placed in its context justaposed to the concept of originalism. Then again one has to understand the word originalism, and how it is used in the context of SCOTUS, using it as an excuse to make law.

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Donald Trump takes a daily bloodbath. He brags of bringing down Roe v Wade, and as Thom clearly described, the blood of all those women and girls, made to carry pregnancies to term, is on him. We cannot let him wash that " damn spot" off!

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The GOP is an intrusive control apparatus, targeting women and girls. The Heritage Foundation is biased , corrupt money machine with no care at all for women or girls rights. These girls who are rape victims are not the ones to punish . Spend the time and effort to apprehend rapists, not to remove the rights of the victims in these situations. Girls and teenagers are being ruined first by their perpetrators and then by the second string perpetrators, the MAGA Republicans, who lack basic decency and remain punitive to females of all ages. Send these stats to the Supreme Court alleged “Justices”.

They are corrupted by the Heritage Foundation and their willingness to play to them for a price.

It’s legalized bribery.

And now we take their cruelty to a whole other level. Refuse to allow contraception?

They’ve abused their own wives and daughters with these laws. And women who think things “will get better “can still vote for these freedom denying butchers.

But they might want to thing if their daughters who will be abused over and over and have freedom denied to them expressly because they’re women .

The mentality of this group is twisted so tightly in the wrong direction , and , often in the name of Christianity, which is a simple outrageous lie by Republicans to rationalize horrible controlling violence against women and girls.

Women and their male supports need

to organize and raise hell .

The ERA was not ratified expressly to facilitate this evil.

Texas is the current leader of lying doctrine against women and the truth.

But the Red states have all piled on this issue and are complicit w the evil . All trying to outdo each other. As far as Donald Trump supporting abortion and calling it family values, he wouldn’t recognize a family value ever. Consider his unfettered criminality.

He calls for a ‘bloodbath ‘ if he’s not re-elected.

If he is re elected, it will be years and years of a bloodbath largely directed at women, LGBTQ, African Americans,

Anyone that isn’t a White fake Christian male will be punished.

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Mar 20Liked by Thom Hartmann

Wow. I thought I was up on this horror show, but the statistic on premature morbidity of young mothers was a whole new level of the wrong being done.

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I read this and it still is beyond comprehension that this is current reality. It's as if everyting is turned upsiide down. Unbelievable. How the hell did we get here.

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Any fool can see that we are massively overpopulated, 3,000 times more numerous than were our ancestral Hunter-Gatherer clans/bands just a few thousand years ago, the last members of our species to live in an ecologically sustainable manner worldwide. The ever greedy corporate/Wall St. overlords, like Elon Musk, keep driving the pro-growth/pro-natal narrative in order to force women to bear unneeded/unwanted clones (37% of US pregnancies are "unintentional"--CDC) in order to provide an oversupply of laborers competing for ever more limited job opportunities, and our disastrous "consumer culture" devouring unsustainable natural resources while producing worldwide pollution. We are in a full bore state of existential climate collapse, so my message to those prospective wannabe parents is this: do you really want to bring another innocent child into this dying world to live an increasingly miserable life?

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WOW that video is powerful.

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There are only two ways to keep populations from unknowingly mating with your own children. Life long mate (Paul's method) and controlling women to be exchanged between outside groups which necessitates male total control and female non choice and frequency of mating partners. Does this mean the GOP has given up on Christian life long mates and wants us all to go back to hunter societies solution? No sure as rape in red states is rising.

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Coincidence: I just watched a documentary about Warren Jeffs and the "FLDS" Mormons. The key situation was young girls being trafficked from Canada, fate as you describe. The GOP indeed seems indifferent to who the father is, or whether the child mother lives or dies.

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The wild part is that they hate liberals because we are against their traditional ways. Seems they are not into Paul's one wife thing and want to ignore the very reason they hate liberals and so the same thing they imagine liberals do. Projecting their own disunity on to others for the purpose of hating. They want to destroy traditional marriage of the 1950's for group control of women.

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Clayton; Who is this Paul you refer to? Saul of Taurus Which the cult of Rome changed to Paul, to hide the fact that he was a Jew?

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Paul who is Saul.

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Saul is the real name of Paul, which the church named to disguise the fact that he was a Jew..

Saul, unlike this Jesus, probably existed. However his story and traveloque is identical to that of Appolonius of Tyana.. except in reverse order. https://stellarhousepublishing.com/apollonius/

Not that Saul was Appolonius but the story is based on Saul, actually the teachings of this Jesus are those of Appolonius.

The figure of Jesus was modeled on a Jewish Rebel, and Dionysos. the name Dionysos means son of God. Dionysos was the son of Zeus (Dios in Latin) and a mortal women, he was the Greek god of wine, his day of celebration was the Dionysia on Dec 25th, Roman Bacchus and Bacchanalia on the same Day. He is noted for turning water into wine, the same trick as this Jesus.

Herod invented a trick cup, that had a hidden chamber, you fill it with water from one angle, and then pour it from another and out comes wine.

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What are the causes of death? Are they medical, mental illness related, addiction related, or trauma?

I heard on my car radio that an organization is asking for donations to pay for sonograms of pregnant women seeking abortions to save babies. They claim women change their minds due to sonograms.

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If Trump loses, expect to see Project 2029. Then Project 2033 if the GOP candidate loses ...

Rinse and repeat till the cows come home.

Vote BLUE.

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Trump and about 147 Republicans and 20 outside insurrectionists should all be in prison by now. Thank Garland. You're suppose Biden is just incompetent or in on it? Stealing our national Treasury.

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Let’s Not Make Roe an Issue This Election!

For 40 years, we heard Republicans say we have to vote for them to protect the unborn. This one issue has shifted countless Democrats to Republicans or to vote Republican. Now a lot of these people can finally look at the other issues and vote for the Democratic party. Please, let's not put Roe back on the table.

This election cycle, we should campaign for women’s rights such as making the pill and birth control legal and low cost nationwide along with IVF. Allow abortions for rape, incest, to protect the woman’s life and to protect her fertility health. But please let's not mention Roe except to say that it was overturned.

We should be respectful of people who are strongly against abortion and acknowledge this is an area where it’s very difficult to make a judgement call as to, at what stage of development and of what circumstances, if any, should the rights of a fetus to live, override the rights of the woman to not have the child.

Even though the Republicans dominated the Supreme Court with the passage of Roe and since, Democrats have been called baby killers for 40 years. This has been a very powerful voting tool for Republicans. With Roe being overturned, millions of people now feel they can consider all issues and vote for the Democratic party.

Most people who want Roe completely restored are already voting for the Democratic party. We need to get people who want to vote for Democratic values but feel they can’t if they feel they would be complicit in killing babies as depicted on billboards. We need all voters. Please, let’s take smaller steps and not make Roe an issue this election cycle.

Thank you,

Doug

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Fact! Unfortunately, republican women have become part of the cult voting against their own gender!

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