United States of...GILEAD

1. 93

   IslandBitesposted 17 months ago

   Under his eye...!
   
   First was Roe v Wade with the many abortion restrictions and abortion ban laws that followed.
   
   Meanwhile, voter suppression was in the making.
   
   Anti-Vaccine rethoric exponential growth and invasion of mainstream media.
   
   And books bans,  and history rewriting.
   
   Then anti-gay and anti-trans laws/movement.
   
   And so on.
   
   Now...
   
   Conservative influencers are pushing an anti-birth control message
   Alarmist statements about hormonal birth control go viral on social media
   
   Tim Pool, Ben Shapiro and Steve Bannon have all made anti-birth control content in the past six months. Sometimes, they feature female conservative personalities who make content about women’s issues.
   
   Alex Clark, who hosts a pop culture show for the youth conservative messaging organization Turning Point USA, is one conservative woman who has railed against hormonal birth control in recent months. The progressive watchdog publication Media Matters for America first reported that Clark said her “mission” is “to get young women off this pill.”
   
   While some strains of conservative politics have spent years attacking birth control, the more recent resurgence of anti-birth control talking points comes alongside a broader push from online conservative creators against the medical establishment and treatments from vaccines to gender-affirming care, all of which have been recommended in certain circumstances by the American Medical Association. In her response, Clark called birth control “synthetic,” as opposed to pregnancy, which she called “natural.”
   
   The social media trend of attacking birth control has also coincided with legal and legislative efforts targeting birth control access, most notably emergency contraceptives.
   
   https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/b … -rcna90492
   
   Gilead doesn't seem so fictional anymore...
   
   
   
   Is this where the USA is going?

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   1. 87

      Sharlee01posted 17 months agoin reply to this

      Freedom of speech is wonderful, as is the right to make up one's mind about what one chooses to believe, and practice.

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      1. 91

         MizBejabbersposted 17 months agoin reply to this

         That is true, but it appears that right is being slowly taken away from us. One can decide a matter for oneself, but if the availability to exercise that decision is taken away, the decision has been made for that individual. Book banning, for instance, we have the right to educate ourselves on a subject, but if there is onesided or no information available, the desire may be there, but the individual remains ignorant and cannot make an intelligent decision.
         
         Our First Amendment rights include freedom of the press. Book banning takes away that right from two parties: the press and the citizen reader. That didn't work in communist countries, and I don't believe it will work in this one.
         
         Birth control is another. It took this country just under 200 years to make birth control legally available for everyone. Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972) Now here we are just 50 years later apparently having to fight for this right all over again.
         
         Availability is the key. When the government takes away availability, it takes away choices. Like Henry Ford said: "You can have a Ford in any color you want as long as it is black."

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            Sharlee01posted 17 months agoin reply to this

            Thanks for sharing.

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   2. 93

      IslandBitesposted 17 months agoin reply to this

      And now condoms are gay. SMH

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2. 81

   Credence2posted 17 months ago

   Conservatives remain the driving force behind the negative trends that the OP mentions in her introduction.

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3. 57

   AlexWittposted 17 months ago

   It looks like citizens in Ohio have collected more than the necessary amount of votes to put abortion access on the November ballot.
   Republicans have acted swiftly to set up a special election in a last-minute bid to raise the voter threshold needed to adopt a constitutional amendment enshrining abortion  from a simple majority to 60%.
   Why not just let the will of the voters take it's course? Why so many obstacles to control people?
   https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ohio-ab … =100711358

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      Credence2posted 17 months agoin reply to this

      This isn't the first time that I have brought this up. Tyranny and authoritarianism is the only explanation for how these state legislators forget who it is that they,  in fact, are suppose to serve, rather than becoming a power unto themselves. Very dangerous and is a driving force in Republican/conservative/rightwing political circles.
      
      The Right consistently dodges any cogent explanation regarding this issue, why?
      
      From where does such arrogance derive?
      
      Oh, BTW, welcome to the fray, Alex....

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4. 81

   Credence2posted 17 months ago

   IB, I have yet to hear an explanation from conservatives for this since they all seem to cheer over running Alex out of here as if he or she were some sort of threat. The question he or she poses is still valid.
   -----------------
   "It looks like citizens in Ohio have collected more than the necessary amount of votes to put abortion access on the November ballot.
   
   Republicans have acted swiftly to set up a special election in a last-minute bid to raise the voter threshold needed to adopt a constitutional amendment enshrining abortion  from a simple majority to 60%.
   
   Why not just let the will of the voters take it's course? Why so many obstacles to control people?
   
   https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ohio-ab … =100711358

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   1. 93

      IslandBitesposted 17 months agoin reply to this

      Yup. They dont have the numbers. They know that their support keep shrinking.

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5. 93

   IslandBitesposted 10 months ago

   The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos are to be considered children under state law
   
   Embryos created and stored in a medical facility must be considered children under the state's law governing harmful death, the court ruled.
   
   “Unborn children are ‘children’ ... without exception based on developmental stage, physical location, or any other ancillary characteristics,” Justice Jay Mitchell wrote in Friday’s majority ruling by the all-Republican court.
   
   Chief Justice Tom Parker’s concurring opinion employs quotations and teachings from Scripture as if they had the legal force of the Bill of Rights. Passages from Genesis and Exodus, various theological tracts, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards take their place alongside the writings of U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Neil M. Gorsuch. All are marshaled in support of the view that “God made every person in his image… and human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God, who views the destruction of His image as an affront to Himself.”
   
   As a result,
   
   Three Alabama clinics pause IVF services after court rules that embryos are children
   
   A decision by the Alabama Supreme Court has left providers and patients unsure of whether parts of the in vitro fertilization process put them at legal risk.

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6. 93

   IslandBitesposted 10 months ago

   Btw, this Chief Justice Tom Parker says American law should be rooted in the Bible.
   
   On the same day that Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Parker handed down an opinion declaring that fertilized frozen embryos are people, imperiling women’s access to in vitro fertilization treatments, he espoused support for a once-fringe philosophy that calls on evangelical Christians to reshape society based on their interpretation of the Bible.
   
   During an online broadcast hosted by Tennessee evangelist Johnny Enlow on Friday, Parker suggested America was founded explicitly as a Christian nation and discussed his embrace of the Seven Mountains Mandate — the belief that conservative Christians are meant to rule over seven key areas of American life, including media, business, education and government.
   
   “God created government, and the fact that we have let it go into the possession of others, it’s heartbreaking,” Parker said in the interview, first reported this week by Media Matters for America, a liberal nonprofit media watchdog. “That’s why he is calling and equipping people to step back into these mountains right now.”
   
   Adherents of the ideology have grown in prominence and power in the years since the 2016 election, when Trump became an unlikely hero of the Christian right and cultivated relationships with celebrity pastors who preach the Seven Mountains Mandate. Parker is the latest in a line of prominent Republicans to openly embrace the concept, Taylor said.
   
   Charlie Kirk, the MAGA influencer and founder of Turning Point USA, celebrated the GOP’s shift under Trump when he told attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2020, “Finally we have a president that understands the seven mountains of cultural influence.”
   
   In 2022, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado called on attendees at a political conference hosted by a group with a mission to “reform the nation via the Seven Mountains” to “rise up” and place “God back at the center of our country.”
   
   House Speaker Mike Johnson, the nation’s highest-ranking Republican, also has ties to pastors and activists who preach the Seven Mountains. Johnson, like Parker, has aligned himself with the evangelical activist and self-styled historian David Barton, a leading promoter of the idea that America was founded as a Christian nation whose laws should reflect biblical principles.
   
   More: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/al … rcna139969

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      tsmogposted 10 months agoin reply to this

      Reminds me of wolves in sheep's clothing. The pursuit of personal power using the cloak of Christianity for selfish gain.

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7. 93

   IslandBitesposted 8 months ago

   Arizona Supreme Court upholds 1864 law banning nearly all abortions
   
   Abortion will be almost entirely illegal in Arizona after the state Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld an 1864 law that made performing an abortion a felony.
   
   The court ruled that the Civil War-era law passed before Arizona was even a state should be enforced. The court ruled to lift the stay on the law, meaning it goes into effect in 14 days.
   
   The law makes abortion a felony punishable by two to five years in prison for anyone who performs or helps a woman obtain one. It includes an extremely narrow exception for “when it is necessary” to save a pregnant person’s life.

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8. 93

   IslandBitesposted 7 months ago

   Louisiana Lawmakers Vote to Make Abortion Pills Controlled Substances
   
   Louisiana lawmakers passed legislation on Thursday to make the state the first in the nation to designate abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances. Possession of the drugs without a prescription would be a crime punishable with jail time and thousands of dollars in fines.
   
   The legislation, which passed the State Senate by a vote of 29 to 7, now goes to Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican who previously defended the state’s stringent abortion ban in court as attorney general. He is widely expected to sign it.
   
   Because Louisiana already bans most abortions, and because the two drugs are also prescribed for other uses — both can be used during miscarriages, and misoprostol is often used to prevent ulcers and help during childbirth — hundreds of doctors in the state strenuously opposed the legislation.

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