Making Sex Bad Again Is Where We’re Headed

Another Christian Nationalist Win With Alabama Ruling

If you thought overturning Roe v Wade was bad, wait until you see what’s in store for Americans if MAGA takes control

An Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos were the same as live babies in wrongful death lawsuits sent shock waves through the nation.  Now, in the Heart of Dixie,  women can be forced to have babies they don't want and can’t have babies that they do.

Chief Justice Tom Parker declared that the people of Alabama have adopted the “theologically based view” that “life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”

In Vitro Fertilization has been established as a method for making babies as increasing infertility has prevented people from having families. Right now, it’s a way for people with access to money to increase the probabilities of having children. About 2% of U.S. births are a product of IVF. 

During IVF, couples often produce several embryos in hopes that at least one will mature into cooing, chubby babies. Some embryos, however, are not found to be viable, and are never transferred.

Requiring all IVF embryos to be used would mean forcing women to endure multiple pregnancies likely to result in miscarriages.

The largest healthcare system in Alabama and others have announced they're halting IVF programs out of fear of prosecution. 

And if you think this court ruling won’t go beyond state lines, think again. Other lawsuits will cite the Alabama decision as good law that should be adopted in their states. Alabama has often been a proving ground for the conservative legal agenda, breaking new ground with measures that made it more difficult for people to vote or for immigrants to obtain medical care, schooling, and access to services in the state.

The forced birth movement is ready to jump into action.

From Popular Information:

• Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit that works to “advanc[e] religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family through strategic litigation,” is attempting to leverage the Alabama ruling to attempt to stop a ballot initiative in Florida that, if passed, would enshrine reproductive rights into the Florida constitution. “Liberty Counsel is using this precedent to argue that Florida’s proposed deceptive and misleading abortion amendment violates Florida’s own laws that routinely recognize that an ‘unborn child’ has the legally protected rights of a person. Unborn life must be protected at every stage,” Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said in a statement…

• …Another anti-abortion group celebrating the Alabama ruling is the Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Senior Counsel with the ADF Denise Burke stated the Alabama decision was “a tremendous victory for life.” Burke told Bloomberg Law that “ADF hopes that this ruling encourages voters, lawmakers, and courts to recognize that life is a human right, no matter the circumstances.” The Southern Poverty Law Center writes that ADF was highly influential during the Trump administration. ADF was “consulted” by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions “ahead of issuing controversial guidance… about how to interpret federal religious liberty protections,” according to ABC News. 

• The anti-abortion group Americans United for Life also celebrated the Alabama ruling, with Policy Counsel Danielle Pimentel calling it “a step in the right direction toward ensuring that all preborn children are equally protected under the law.” In 2019, the group said that Trump “may be the most pro-life president in American history.” In 2017, Trump appointed Charmaine Yoest, the former president of Americans United for Life, to be assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services.

***

The war on birth control has already begun. Republican organizations, judges, and legislatures are showing interest in restricting access to birth control. Missouri and Louisiana both introduced legislation that would outlaw birth control, like IUDs. An Iowa-based anti-abortion group that is advocating against the over-the-counter contraception bill states on its website that “contraception kills babies.” 

Over at the Heritage Foundation they’re saying the quiet part out loud:

Mark Sumner at Daily Kos:

• The goal of the Heritage Foundation, the Republican politicians it empowers, and the judges it selects is to end the option of sex for any purpose other than reproduction. They’re not hiding this. They are proud of it. And if that means women surrender every ounce of agency in their lives … well, that’s the goal, after all.

• The Supreme Court is about to rule on a drug that has been helping women since 2000.

• Republicans are taking away an option used by would-be parents since 1981.

• They’ve taken away rights that existed since 1973.

• Now they want to roll things back to before 1960.

• Even that’s not the true end. Because the end is somewhere back in the Bronze Age and in fantasies of what it means for women to “submit” to the control of men.

GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson is also out in the open:

The man behind the demonization of inclusive history being taught is all in:

***

Jessica Valenti has the latest on a GOP scheme to try and distract voters away from the horror show that women’s reproductive healthcare is becoming.

• The anti-abortion movement has known for years what the fallout would be after overturning Roe. They knew it would kill women, they knew it would drive up maternal and infant death rates, and they knew it would mean dangerous pregnancies would going untreated. They have polled and messaged every possible nightmare scenario—these bills are a product of all that work.

• That’s why we can expect to see more ‘Med Ed’ bills in the coming months; and they won’t just be directives to doctors. I suspect anti-choice groups will start pushing for more ‘informed consent’ policies under this umbrella, as well. These are the laws that claim to give women with nonviable pregnancies medical information, when in fact they’re just lying and pressuring them to carry doomed pregnancies to term.

• I’ll be keeping a close eye out for more bills like this one, but remember that all of these policies are connected—whether it’s informed consent, ‘Med Ed’, or bad data about mifepristone. Conservatives are well aware that when it comes to abortion, the science and medicine is not on their side. So they’re making up their own.

***

Other signposts along the road to repression:

• The Conservative Political Action Conference is in progress and various leaders are trying one up each other before audiences seeking blood. On Thursday, Trump spokesman Michael Knowles told attendees that when the MAGA administration takes power, eliminating marriage inequality will be a priority.

• Notorious Congresscritter Marjory Taylor Green is apparently distressed by all the tight dresses worn at Mar-a-Lago soirees 

• In a social media post Thursday, Greene criticized conservative Christian women she believes are "selling themselves short and not being good role models by conforming to the world's sexualization of women," noting that her statement may be an unpopular opinion.

• "If you are conservative and a Christian you know you don't have to express yourself in sexual ways and you know you are attractive by dressing nice and feminine, and you can be beautiful and modest at the same time," Greene wrote to X, formerly Twitter.

***

Friday’s Other Stories of Note

***

Tennessee governor signs bill allowing public officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages Via The Hill

• The bill does not allow officials to deny marriage licenses to couples based on their beliefs but prevents officials from being required to solemnize a marriage. The State House first passed the bill in March 2023, but the State’s General Assembly booted it to 2024 for consideration.

• Lee was thrown into the spotlight last year after signing a bill that became the first-in-the-nation restriction on drag performances, and banned gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. A federal judge later ruled that the restrictions on drag shows were unconstitutional.

****

Texas county declares state of emergency ahead of total solar eclipse Via KSN News

• Local governments and first responders in other states in the path are also bracing for the event.

• Officials in Ohio’s Summit and Lorain Counties are asking residents to stay home and are warning that traffic could come to a standstill, making it difficult for first responders to get to emergencies.

• Emergency Management officials told Nexstar’s WJW that residents should stock up on several days worth of food, fuel and water as the influx of visitors could also affect grocery stores, gas stations, and cell phone services.

***

Republicans proceed with impeachment effort to spread Russian disinformation

• But now that Smirnov has been indicted and revealed as a Russian agent, Republicans are trying to triage their impeachment inquiry instead of backing away from their disgraced probe of an American president whom they are smearing for political gain.

• Comer told Newsmax Wednesday that Smirnov "wasn't an important part" of their investigation "because I didn't even know who he was."

• Republicans are also scrubbing references of Smirnov from their investigatory materials, according to reporting from The New Republic's Tori Otten. 

• Totally absent from this Republican debacle is any sense of contrition for their roles serving as stooges of the Kremlin in spreading a mountain of lies about a sitting U.S. president.