So, following hard on the heels of Judge Alito’s decision that Roe v. Wade was no good, our friends on the bench in the deep south just decided that fertilized embryos were also people.
None other than esteemed meathead Sen. Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, quickly piped up that he and his wife had used IVF to have children and that the fertilized embryos are people was not the position of the Republican party. Now Markwayne is not exactly who you want setting Republican policy or responses to Judge Al
ito but that is what we have come to. Markwayne has four biological children, so figure a whole bunch of IVF was used to get his wife pregnant and hence a whole lot of fertilized eggs were lost/killed/died in the process. Further, Markwayne believes that there should are no exceptions for abortion. Life is life and rape, incest, life of the mother be damned. Markwayne never graduated college, so the whole science thing is probably lost on him. Also, the whole notion of a slippery slope is plainly lost on him as well.
Ah, Judge Alito, things get complicated quickly when you fail to appreciate that most people don’t see things the way you do.
Alito handed the democratic party a winning issue and now they have a more complicated slippery slope argument to mess around with. If life begins at conception, as our republican pro lifers have been wont to argue, then surely the fertilized embryos used in ivf are life and hence people. Seems pretty simple. But, the ivf process is a tough one and often more embryos are implanted than are needed and some have to be destroyed, killed or whatever term you like. It is very possible that Markwayne Mullin’s family was involved in the murder of people if you want to look at things that way. It seems that is how Alabama looks at things bec
ause access to IVF disappeared immediately upon that ruling and the legislature in Alabama jumped in to say that there is no liability to providers for the death of an ivf embryo. This is going to get very complicated for our pro-lifers. When they used the cudgel of allegedly late term abortions to berate the pro-choice majority of americans, now they have Markwayne Mullin saying that life doesn’t begin at conception. Comically stupid. Thanks Judge Alito.
Why does this matter to me? In 1987, the Neuwirth Law was passed in France guaranteeing the right to contraception for women. Mr. Neuwirth was a French politician who shepherded the law through their legislature. I expect that Thomas and Alito and friends will eventually try to limit contraception because all of their other plans have worked out so well for America. We probably need a Neuwirth Law here soon or Markwayne Mullin may have to step in again to protect us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/04/world/europe/france-abortion-rights-constitution.html