More on HR3

We all know that the Right hates abortion.  We get it.  In fact, it’s been shoved down our collective throat.  Abortion is amoral.  Abortion is murder.  Abortion will send you and your unborn baby to hell. Abortion is Bad (with a capital B).

HR3 has been weighing on my mind lately (and I know I’m not alone).  In the bill itself it is referred to as the “No Taxpayer Funds for Abortion Act”.  I think that makes their goals pretty clear.  But there is a fun little ad-on as well:  this bill will restrict the medical definition of rape for which women receive health care and access to abortion to “forcible rape”.  This distinction has been covered in numerous other blogs and news media, but lets go over it again for the sake of being thorough.  (Correction, this aspect of the bill has been removed, but I still think it’s important to think about).

Adding the distinction ‘forcible’ gives a judging body even more control over whether a woman can attest that she was raped.  It says that not only must a woman have been raped; she must have been forced into it.  So, statutory rape, date rape, coerced rape or drugged rape may not be enough rape for a woman to qualify for an abortion.  Depending on whom you’re asking, of course.  However, this should be no surprise to pro-choice activists or those who have been following health care reform.  Women’s medical rights have been being slowly whittled away all this time through similar types of paternalistic additions.

My main beef with this bill – and it’s a big beef – is that is exists at all.  I do not understand how all those representatives (and there certainly are a lot) can support a bill of this nature citing that abortion is wrong and taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it. They just don’t see that there are so many issues that could go in its place?  Specifically, I am thinking of war.  Not just this one, but any one.  Taxpayers should not have to fund a war that they find ethically and morally wrong.  War is amoral.  War is murder.  War will send you and your fully grown solider to hell.  War is Bad (with a capital B).  War does not attack a government.  War attacks people.  War destroys communities, steals resources and, in many cases, forcibly rapes in every sense of the phrase.

Our representatives are just are horses at the track with blinders and some unknown jockey cracking the whip.  Their eyes are wide enough to see the whites but they’re furious if someone tries to slow them down.  All reaction, no thought process.

But!  I have a solution!  Two, actually.  First, if our representatives are so concerned with their tax money not going to certain causes we can include a checklist with our taxes.  It can be personalized for city, state, and federal taxes and everyone can be assured that their money isn’t going to something they might find reprehensible (like Social Security or education or public transit…).  I’ve included a sample just to give you an idea of what that might look like.

Tax Preferences:

Put a check next to any issue you would like to support with your taxes.

Or! Our representatives could just get over it because when you live in a community that serves millions of people (as we do in the US) you have to suck it up without having a damn tantrum every time someone disagrees with your ‘morals’.

For the full text of the bill and a list of its sponsors visit:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3/text