A dreadful backward step

PippaZ

Someone had to do it didn't they.

So very true PippaZ

Someone had to do it didn't they.

The promise of a reward for informing on someone brings to mind a political party whose leader had a little black moustach and whose members wore brown shirts

This seems scary to me but I haven't heard anything about it in the British press. A Missouri law that took effect last week allows citizens to sue local law enforcement agencies whose officers knowingly enforce any federal gun laws. Police and sheriff’s departments can face fines of up to $50,000 per occurrence. The law was backed by Republicans who fear Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration could enact restrictive gun policies.

I can't quite get my head round a law enforcement officer being fined 50,000 for enforcing the law!

PippaZ

I wonder what they will call the new department running this. The one processing the payments to those who accuse and take women, and any man the "informer" believes has helped, to court. The Stasi and The Eyes have been taken. I wonder what they will come up with?

I read that the woman getting the abortion won't face any consequences, it is the people arranging/doing the abortions or supporting the woman who can sued.

Fridayschild

I don’t know if religion has something to do with this but it wouldn’t surprise me. Religion causes more strife in this world than anything else. I feel sorry for anyone forced into doing something they’re not happy with.

The being forced into doing something goes both ways. I was pregnant at 17, my doctor put lots of pressure on me to abort as did my mother. I'm glad I was able to stand up to them.

I have worked with women who have had abortions, they seemed desperate and I supported them (worked in HR). I worked with one woman who had an abortion because they were going to have a loan to have a sunlounge built but wouldn't be able to afford it if she had to take maternity leave. I'm sorry but I found that really sad.

I’ve heard of women aborting because the baby would ruin their holiday plans. I suspect this is n urban myth. Abortion is an emotive subject of course, and I am very uncomfortable with the 24 week limit as babies can survive at 22 weeks.. We witness smug, rich, white Republican women voting for this law, and loud, shouty women screaming about abortion on demand as seen on the news last night. Both sides of the argument have too much to say for themselves, will never listen to the other side, and meanwhile, what Texas has in fact done, is make SAFE abortion illegal.

I don’t know if religion has something to do with this but it wouldn’t surprise me. Religion causes more strife in this world than anything else. I feel sorry for anyone forced into doing something they’re not happy with.

Of course, I am sure everyone is aware that adoption is a very costly business in the US. Pushed into keeping the pregnancy, many of the women, who cannot afford the hospital costs or to keep the child, will use this route out.

Red cloaks and bonnets come to mind.

I think you find the church involvement varies across the country too GrannyGravy. In the Bible Belt it is very much the linchpin of community but not so much further north. It's so much younger than the UK too. So much less history to influence them (or warn them).

Many do, MayBee but the difference between the states is as great as the difference between countries in Europe - if not greater. They also govern as states which means you cannot see them as a whole on things like this. I have one family members living in Alabama and two others in North Virginia. They really couldn't be more different - including the climate.

When you venture away from Disney, Vegas, New York etc then you see a very different USA, small Town America is quite insular, then there are the trailer parks and poor Country folk who in the majority have a low level of literacy. The local Churches are very involved with these Communities and unfortunately not always for the better of the population.

It is as always the poorest and less educated girls/women who will suffer, and as the OP’s article says more states are considering bringing in the same law…

I suppose I tend to think of America as a country rather than a vast continent.

MayBee70

Someone told me years ago that many Americans are very dependent on the church due to lack of social care, and it’s the churches that provide it. On the American Facebook pages I’m on people are always going on about the power of prayer to solve just about everything.

I find a lot of praying is asked for in the sewing/embroidery community FB pages.

I often wonder why people in this country think our culture is anything like the American one.

westendgirl

This just strengthens my view that the U.S. is a very backward country indeed .I wonder if they realise what other countries think of the land of the free.

I've a feeling that many of them think the same about us - because they know so little about us. I really think suggesting that a whole nation is backward because one redneck state shows it's colours is overegging the pudding.

Someone told me years ago that many Americans are very dependent on the church due to lack of social care, and it’s the churches that provide it. On the American Facebook pages I’m on people are always going on about the power of prayer to solve just about everything.

MayBee70

This is a country that is more concerned about people’s right to carry a gun than mass shootings in schools so why should we be surprised by this. (apologies for my anger but I’m angry about so many things at the moment it’s all building up a bit!)

Too much shifting under us MayBee. It makes for both sadness and anger.

GrannyGravy13

I do know women who have had an abortion, I do not know any women who has had an abortion on a whim

I appreciate that this is an emotive subject but any retrograde step in women’s rights is wrong.

Exactly.

This just strengthens my view that the U.S. is a very backward country indeed .I wonder if they realise what other countries think of the land of the free.

GrannyGravy13

I do know women who have had an abortion, I do not know any women who has had an abortion on a whim

I appreciate that this is an emotive subject but any retrograde step in women’s rights is wrong.

Exactly. The idea that women want to use abortion as a form of contraception is not backed up by anything I have ever seen or heard, either in my personal or professional life.

I understand people passionately disapproving of others making the choice to terminate a pregnancy, but I don't think that anyone has the right to tell others what to do in the way that the so-called 'pro-Life' lobby wants to do.

This is a country that is more concerned about people’s right to carry a gun than mass shootings in schools so why should we be surprised by this. (apologies for my anger but I’m angry about so many things at the moment it’s all building up a bit!)

I do know women who have had an abortion, I do not know any women who has had an abortion on a whim

I appreciate that this is an emotive subject but any retrograde step in women’s rights is wrong.

How interesting Sue. It's here if anyone wants to read it.

Of course as in the past rich women will be able to travel and have their abortion somewhere else. It's the poor and those who just get by who will really suffer.
Kandinsky Is it worth risking the life of even one woman to prevent these women, who are allegedly having abortions on a whim, doing so? I think it isn't. And I have never met any woman who would do such a thing, nor anyone who knows such a woman. It's always a woman someone has heard of. I suspect it's an urban myth circulated by anti-abortionists.