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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What on earth is going on in America??

878 replies

Nanny0gg · 15/05/2019 10:27

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48275795

How can a supposedly 'civilised' society pass such a retrograde law?

And other states following suit?

OP posts:
cdtaylornats · 15/05/2019 11:02

against the wishes of the majority of the people who live there

How do you know this. People there keep electing primitives so that would suggest they are ok with the politics.

Wheresthebeach · 15/05/2019 11:03

Its truly scary. Such a trend of hating women.

badlydrawnperson · 15/05/2019 11:04

People there keep electing primitives so that would suggest they are ok with the politics.

Er no - FPTP electoral system means we often get some primitives that the majority of people voted against in power - see current Tories.

wellballstoyou · 15/05/2019 11:04

OMG. And what about Georgia wanting it banned after 6 weeks?

WTF america!

Nesssie · 15/05/2019 11:04

Hopeygoflightly No one is saying the UK is perfect. And no one is saying the whole of America is crazy.
But the UK is working towards making abortion legal (the massive RoI vote last year) and we certainly aren't going backwards!

BarbarianMum · 15/05/2019 11:05

The sad thing is both the US and NI are democracies. So if the majority of the adult population (51% of which is female) really thought this was wrong and were prepared to back that up with their vote, they could change things. Guess they're too busy.

AlaskanOilBaron · 15/05/2019 11:06

Crazy, but in no way representative of the US as a whole.

DGRossetti · 15/05/2019 11:06

But why did Alabama vote for this?

Why did people vote Tory ? Or DUP come to that ?

Nancydrawn · 15/05/2019 11:08

Karmin, those statistics are for America as a whole and not Alabama. In the most recent election, 60% voted for a state amendment to "'recognize and support the sanctity of unborn life and the rights of unborn children, including the right to life' and to state that no provisions of the constitution provide a right to an abortion or require funding of abortions."

Very honestly, most of them genuinely think that abortion is murder. They think that life begins at conception and terminating that life is absolutely no different than infanticide. That's why there's no exception for rape and incest. In their eyes, murder trumps rape as a crime, abortion is murder, and thus there should be no exception except if life is otherwise at risk (e.g. life of mother).

Now, I think the whole thing is deeply fucked up. There are weird carveouts for IVF that argue that conception is only conception within a woman's body. There is about zero separation of church and state. There is no knowledge of biology.

But still, that's how they would articulate their case. And they passed this explicitly so it would get challenged in the court and go all the way to SCOTUS to try and overturn Roe. Which is entirely possible with the two new very conservative justices.

So, finally, for all those Americans out there who voted for Trump/didn't vote for HRC: thanks, ever so fucking much.

leckford · 15/05/2019 11:08

We have been to the US quite a few times, outside the big cities Americans are very religious in a way few U.K. people understand. We have long ago escaped from the control of the various churches.

AgileLass · 15/05/2019 11:08

But the UK is working towards making abortion legal (the massive RoI vote last year) and we certainly aren't going backwards!

The Republic of Ireland and the UK are separate countries, you know. Hmm

badlydrawnperson · 15/05/2019 11:08

The sad thing is both the US and NI are democracies. So if the majority of the adult population (51% of which is female) really thought this was wrong and were prepared to back that up with their vote, they could change things. Guess they're too busy.
Dunno about US but you'd need way more than 51% in NI due to our shitty electoral system - unless they had a referendum of course - and we all know how well that seems to work :)

00100001 · 15/05/2019 11:09

Surely doctors could just basically...lie, and say the mother's life is at serious risk... ?

badlydrawnperson · 15/05/2019 11:11

There is about zero separation of church and state.

It's ironic isn't it? In theory there is 100% separation between Church and State in the USA - waaaaaay more than, say, in the UK. But in practice....

PickAChew · 15/05/2019 11:14

The abortion situation in Northern Ireland does not make the removal of the right to an abortion in certain US states any less horrific. Some of the detractors in this thread may not have the same skills but I am quite capable of having thoughts on the issues both in the UK and elsewhere.

viques · 15/05/2019 11:15

And of course it won't stop abortions, rich women will pay to get safe ones , poor women will risk their lives to get unsafe ones.

But hey, they are only women and if it means smug, self satisfied mysoginists will sleep safe in their comfortable beds happy to know they are doing gods will and saving baby souls for Jesus then so be it.

Hallefuckingluyah..

BarbarianMum · 15/05/2019 11:17

Id hope you'd get at least some of the male vote badly but Yes, point taken.

DoomOnTheBroom · 15/05/2019 11:18

Surely doctors could just basically...lie, and say the mother's life is at serious risk... ?

But why should women have to seek out a doctor willing to lie and then place their trust in that doctor to not turn them in to the authorities? It would be stressful enough carrying an unwanted pregnancy that you cannot legally end without then having to find a sympathetic doctor and trust that they're genuinely sympathetic and not just an abortionist hunter who is going to pass your details over to the police.

Nesssie · 15/05/2019 11:19

AgileLass Don't be pedantic. 'British Isles' then. The UK had a big influence in the RoI vote, as many of the women seeking abortions travelled to the mainland for legal abortions.

Quellium · 15/05/2019 11:21

I'm really worried about what the future holds for women in general. I see Brexit as part of the trend / tendency that seeks to remove women's rights. They'll be the first to go.

Hopeygoflightly · 15/05/2019 11:22

The NI voting system is so messed up that you don't get the govn you want ACTUALLY. Sinn Fein are very socially liberal - but do YOU want to vote for the political wing of the IRA? I know I don't ( I'm catholic ) and most protestants sure as hell can't bring themselves to. DUP? Absolutely crazy right wing evangelical bigots - but not the political wing of the IRA at least. Can't vote for them either. Aliiance - better but like voting for the Greens.
Westminister has given the DUP too much power and influence.
Oh, and abortion rights in NI are NOT moving forward - and ROI is a separate country for those holding it up as an example of progress.

badlydrawnperson · 15/05/2019 11:24

@PickAChew I think the point being made was in the context of the headline and thrust of the OP - I don't think anyone is saying we're incapable of being horrified by both.

DarlingNikita · 15/05/2019 11:25

It's ironic isn't it? In theory there is 100% separation between Church and State in the USA - waaaaaay more than, say, in the UK. But in practice....

I've always thought this. It really fucks me off when Americans scoff at our system. Hypocrites.

SallyWD · 15/05/2019 11:26

Many (probably most) Americans are very Conservative, much more so than most Brits. I have a lot of American online friends due to being a member of a Cancer forum and I'd say about 90% of the are anti-abortion, right wing Christians. There's nothing wrong with being Christian but the Americans I know are very socially Conservative with it too. I'm sure this new bill has a hell if a lot of support.

NotDavidTennant · 15/05/2019 11:27

TBH I don't find it that surprising. Many state legislatures (especially from states in the south and mid-west) have never supported abortion, and were unwillingly forced to accept it due to the 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court ruling.

Now that the Supreme Court has a conservative majority they are hoping that they can overturn Roe v Wade and go back to banning abortion as they always wanted to do and as, in many cases, their local electorate want them to do.