Ongoing Notes On the Death of Satire
By As the House of Representatives gears up for Tuesday’s debate on HR 1797, a bill that would outlaw virtually all abortions 20 weeks post fertilization, Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) argued in favor of banning abortions even earlier in pregnancy because, he said, male fetuses that age were already, shall we say, spanking the monkey.
“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” said Burgess, a former OB/GYN. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”
I think Burgess is projecting his actions when he thinks of poor women bleeding to death after a black market abortion onto sonograms.
However, in the interests of fairness and balance I note that staunch supporter of reproductive rights who thinks they should be protected by nice moderates like Sam Alito Ann Althouse says you should leave poor Burgess allooooonnnneeeeeeee. Making fun of people who come up with utterly idiotic reasons for supporting appalling policy positions is very, very, very, very, very, very ugly. Besides, an abortion ban passed by benevolent state overlords is just a way of forcing women to be free. Clearly, the principle extends to federal representatives as well, because that would be triple security!
…rea in comments: “You can rather understand why Prof. Althouse would be opposed on principle to making fun of people for saying foolish things.”