The Misbegotten Dobbs Decision

There was a lot of fist bumping and congratulating going on when Justice Sam Alito’s (no, it wasn’t Thomas’s) majority opinion on Dobbs was released to the public. The ultra-conservatives really think they’ve won a ‘landmark’ decision over the hated liberals who are ‘baby killers’ and, for all they know, pedophiles. (We are neither one. In fact, every time the news pops up about a new ring being rounded up, doggone, if every single one of the perverts isn’t a Republican! It is the most incredible thing. So far, they haven’t explained that happening.)

When I made that image, I just tried to think of some of the ways that these VERY short-sighted people have willingly put blinders on themselves and the American public and they will cost us $MILLIONS in terms of healthcare and in terms of heartache, foster care, and, frankly, funerals. Families across this country will suffer enormously because of this decision.

First of all, a fertilized egg is not “alive”. If it was, no chicken farmer or family could eat a chicken egg with a speck of red on the yolk. Why? That was a fertilized egg. Any country or suburban family with hens and a rooster can tell you that. So do not tell me that a fertilized egg is a human being because it is not. It is a blastosphere or a zygote at best. It possesses the potential to become one, yes, but it most certainly is not there yet. Neither is an embryo “alive” yet. No one can look at an embryo of any species and tell one species from another. They all look the same. Twitching cardiac fibers does not a beating heart make. (I can take cardiac fibers and put them in saline in a petri dish then zap them with electrodes and make them twitch in a sort of beat for a while. Is that a heart? Nope.) Okay, then, what about when it gets to be a fetus? Well, you are already into the second trimester then. Usually, but not always, she knows she is pregnant. She is past the 12-week mark. But this thing still cannot breathe on its own. It kind of looks a little more human, but it isn’t quite there yet. How big is it? About the size of a plum. It wouldn’t even cover the palm of your hand.

The standard that medical science uses is called “viability” and that is based on whether or not the lungs are capable of fully expanding and exchanging oxygen. The little sacs (alveoli) in there have to do that or it simply does not matter how hard anybody tries, that fetus cannot live outside the mother. That act of BREATHING independently is the most critical issue about being alive. (Remember in Genesis where it says that “God breathed into Adam the Breath of Life”. Yeah. That critical.) And THAT, folks, simply does not happen until about the 28th to 30th week of pregnancy. The fetus is not truly viable outside of the uterus until then. That’s just a medical fact.

Now we can all wish it was different, but it isn’t.

If that zygote, embryo, or fetus, isn’t technically “alive”, then who has the job of saying whether it grows or not? To some extent, nobody does. Spontaneous “deaths” happen and the female never even knows it happened. A little later along, and it would be called a spontaneous abortion. Just Nature saying that this isn’t going to work out no matter what. Still further along and it will be called a “miscarriage” and this is where things can really get tricky. Why? Because all sorts of things happen and doctors have to intervene. If they don’t, the woman could wind up permanently scarred for the rest of her life or even dead. But it is also where some people have been putting their religious beliefs in the way of women getting the medical care they MUST HAVE.

Ectopic pregnancies are another one. Contrary to myth, these pregnancies must be terminated. They cannot be implanted in the uterus to be carried to term. The time for that is long past. If the termination is not performed swiftly, the woman will endure tremendous pain, rupture, bleed internally, may become septic, and, without intervention, die. The hospitals are playing an extremely dangerous game of Russian roulette with these women’s lives. It is arguably medical malpractice.

I could go on and on with these scenarios. All of them are dangerous and every single one of them is tantamount to medical malpractice. Unfortunately, it is NOT the doctors’ choice, but the HOSPITAL ATTORNEYS and INSURANCES who are driving this insanity because of Dobbs.

On the other side of this are the mothers and babies who will suffer.

• Mothers who will be in Domestic Violence situations and cannot leave because that state will not grant divorces to pregnant women.
• Children who will be neglected and/or abused because of being unwanted. Foster systems will be overloaded.
• Adoption agencies will not be able to place the black and brown babies that will predominate the systems.
• More children will be born addicted.
• School systems cannot handle the children we have now, so how are they going to handle the influx of children in six years?
• Men will skip out on child support so more women and children will need more help from our social services systems.
• Can you say where in the HELL is the money coming from for all this?

Justices Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett may be truly devout when they worship, but they have done what the men who wrote our founding documents feared the most, i.e. they have force-fed their religious beliefs upon all of us and that is unforgivable. We must take steps to remedy this situation as quickly as possible.

WOMEN MUST HAVE THE RIGHT TO DECIDE THEIR OWN MEDICAL DECISIONS FOR THEMSELVES INCLUDING REPRODUCTIVE CHOICES. It is the same exact right accorded to the male of the species. If you do not want the procedure, do not have one done. But by the same token, do not stand in the way of someone else either. It is her choice.

I want to help Stacey Abrams as Governor and Charlie Bailey as Lt. Governor of the State of Georgia pass legislation to protect the rights of women to make their own decisions. Will you help elect me to the Georgia State Senate in District 29?