It is hard to believe we are living in the 21st Century, when I look at the bills passing through the Tennessee House. Every week I hear about another bill targeting the health and welfare of women. It seems as though the women of this state are not important to those who have been elected to represent us. HB3517 is an absurd and dangerous bill.
I don't want to be partisan. I really don't, but it is an inescapable fact that these bills are coming from Republicans, so I have to say I am bothered that Republican men, who don't seem to have a clue what it is like to be a woman, feel that they have a right to make medical decisions for women and families. Republican legislators don't want to support the children born of unwanted pregnancies, pay for their births, pay for their medical bills, or pay for their upbringing. They don't care if the woman has been raped or if the fetus (or embryo) has an unsurvivable genetic disorder that may kill the mother. They do not seem to care at all about the health or circumstances of living women, only about fetuses and now, embryos. They need to move past the religious rhetoric and romanticized images of happy, healthy babies in happy, loving families, as though that is the result of every pregnancy. The real world is not a place of black or white, right or wrong; it is gray and nobody gets through it without making tough choices.
Governor, you represent all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, and women and sensible men from both parties are both watching and hoping that you will show some leadership and good sense here. The legislature must not succeed in harming their living constituents in an iron-fisted attempt to legislate how they want people to behave.
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It is truly sad that some babies die, that some embryos are not carried to term, that there are health issues that lead some to make the difficult decision to end their pregnancies. It happened to friends of mine just a couple of months ago. They are a loving couple with three beautiful children, but the fourth pregnancy presented a danger to the wife, and the baby had no chance of survival (Trisomy 13). It was an agonizing decision to end the pregnancy, but they made that decision. And they are not bad people. They are good people. But, if this bill is signed in to law, good people like them would be declared criminals, and you could arrest them and put them in prison. What a ridiculous and horrible consequence that would be. It is the women and the families' right to make these life or death decisions, not legislatures or preachers or priests. It shows a lack of compassion to prejudge the real people who have to make decisions and prosecute them as criminals.
Both Republicans and Democrats are noticing that Republican led legislatures are wasting large amounts of time passing legislation based on moral (AKA religious) creeds, rather than on good sense and a desire to protect everyone's rights that reduce our freedom and right to make reasonable choices about our lives. Every now and then, a Republican steps away from the pack and says something sensible from his or her own conviction, but it doesn't happen often. The uniformity is Stepford Wives freaky, and it's discouraging to those of us old enough to remember when the Republican party stood for real values, and not for whatever ridiculous pseudo-cause their financiers tell them to stand for.
The secret to fewer abortions is easy access to contraception, not moralizing, pontificating and passing ridiculous laws. There have always been abortions. There always will be. Rational people understand that. The difference is whether or not abortions are safe. Abortions are not common, and should not be the concern of nosy neighbors, nor should the failure to carry a fetus to term be a crime. A woman's right to choose should be protected by the legislature and the governor, not attacked by them.
Women should be viewed as valuable and precious members of society, not as weak and untrustworthy. We are strong, and we vote, and women's issues are going to be an important part of the voting decisions we will be making in November.
I'm tired of ridiculous bills becoming laws. I'm tired of my tax dollars being wasted on persecuting innocent Tennesseans, as would happen if this becomes law. You can help stop this one in its tracks. I hope you will.
