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really? I mean, fuckings REALLY?
Legalizing the killing of abortion doctors as justifiable homicide.
https://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/nebraska-justifiable-homicide-abortion-bill
Just when abortion rights supporters thought they had beaten a controversial bill they believe would legalize the killing of abortion providers, it has cropped up again?this time in a more expansive form that has drawn the concern of law enforcement officials.
Last week, South Dakota's legislature shelved a bill, introduced by Republican state Rep. Phil Jensen, which would have allowed the use of the "justifiable homicide" defense for killings intended to prevent harm to a fetus. Now a nearly identical bill is being considered in neighboring Nebraska, where on Wednesday the state legislature held a hearing on the measure.
The legislation, LB 232, was introduced by state Sen. Mark Christensen, a devout Christian and die-hard abortion foe who is opposed to the prodedure even in the case of rape. Unlike its South Dakota counterpart, which would have allowed only a pregnant woman, her husband, her parents, or her children to commit "justifiable homicide" in defense of her fetus, the Nebraska bill would apply to any third party.
"In short, this bill authorizes and protects vigilantes, and that's something that's unprecedented in our society," Melissa Grant of Planned Parenthood of the Heartland told the Nebraska legislature's judiciary committee on Wednesday. Specifically, she warned, it could be used to target Planned Parenthood's patients and personnel. Also testifying in oppostion to the bill was David Baker, the deputy chief executive officer of the Omaha police department, who said, "We share the same fears...that this could be used to incite violence against abortion providers."
Baker's concern is well-grounded: Abortion providers are frequent targets of violent attacks. Eight doctors have been murdered by anti-abortion extremists since 1993, and another 17 have been victims of murder attempts. Some of the perpetrators of those crimes, including Scott Roeder, the murderer of Wichita, Kansas, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, have attempted to use the justifiable homicide defense at their trials. Several of the witnesses at Wednesday's hearing cited Tiller's murder as a case where a law like the one Christensen introduced could have come into play.
For his part, Christensen insisted that his measure is not intended to target abortion providers. Like Jensen, Christensen claimed that his bill is merely meant to allow pregnant women to defend their unborn children without fear of prosecution. "LB 232," he said, "is really nothing more than an attempt to make sure a pregnant woman is not unnecessarily charged with a crime for using force to protect her unborn child from someone who means to bring harm to her unborn children."
But, as other lawmakers pointed out during the hearing, Christensen's bill, as currently written, would not only apply to pregnant women but to anyone who attempted to prevent harm to a fetus. "I think it opens the door to something unintended," said state Sen. Steve Lathrop. "I don't think you came in here intending to make those who provide abortions a target of the use of force," he told Christensen, "but I think it may unintentionally do that or at least provide somebody with an argument that they were justified in that."
Not everyone is sure that the law's potential use in a case of abortion-related murder was unintentional. "If they wanted it narrow, they should have drafted it that way, and they did not," Alan Peterson, a lobbyist with the ACLU of Nebraska who testified at the hearing, told Mother Jones. "So I have reasonable suspicion that the intent was at least to create a possible broad defense for attacks on abortion providers."
"I don't know how anyone knows my intent," Christensen fired back in an interview with Mother Jones.
Christensen and proponents of his bill, including the anti-abortion groups Americans United for Life and Family First, argue that concerns that the measure would legalize violence against abortion providers are overblown. They say that since abortions are legal in Nebraska, the killing of an abortion doctor would not be permissible under Christensen's law. (Proponents of South Dakota's bill made a similar case.) But Peterson disputed this interpretation. He said the existing self-defense statute that Christensen's bill would amend is "not limited to situations where something is going on that's unlawful. It says the person who claims the defense believes that there's something unlawful. That's a subjective standard." A standard, he added, that might allow the killer of an abortion provider to use Christensen's law, if passed, to get away with murder.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: really? I mean, fuckings REALLY?
Unable to even.
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You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
hm, my head exploding gif is not exploding.
Double U. Tee. Eff.
Messed up. This is messed up.
So, where are we going? Jamaica is nice.
Dude. Santorum's still a contender.
Country = broken.
Unable to even.
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You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
Canada's closer.
Unable to even.
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You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
Although beautiful and closer - it's also cold. Can we go somewhere temperate, maybe Costa Rica?
I have stopped listening to the news when I drive because I get so angry and it is affecting my ability to drive safely. I wish I was kidding.
What I've never understood is how if these people consider abortion murder and think it's so wrong, why is it okay to turn around and murder anyone else?
I'll go back to lurking now. I was just too dumbfounded to not reply at all.
walp, that about summarizes a lot of "pro-life" ideology.
Jamaica's warmer.
I thought we had decided on the Netherlands? I already bought everybody wooden shoes.
WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WILL ALL OF THESE WOODEN SHOES!?!?!?!
I would prefer the mediterranean, I think. Maybe we can just take over Greece.
Unable to even.
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You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
Netherlands works, too. We can have our summer homes in the Netherlands and our winter homes in Greece.
Unable to even.
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You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
Canada's looking real nice right about now.
AND I'm watching HGTV so it's looking very stylish, too.
I second this motion.
I actually have this option. DH is still a British citizen.
Ahh yeah. It makes me want to move far away from you guys. FAR.
Canada it is.
In all seriousness, if abortion becomes illegal in this country, I'm leaving. If I get pregnant, there is a high likelihood that I would not survive the pregnancy without some very serious, life-altering complications. I'm not doing that. I will risk freezing to death in an igloo in Canada first.
We'll only bring the cool people. We'll leave the idiots here.
Unable to even.
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You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
now you understand why I have always said "anti-choice."
Just illustrating how it would be viewed as different:
Taking an innocent life (unborn baby) vs. taking the life of a serial baby murderer's life (abortion doctor).
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living my baby you'll be.
- Robert Munsch
Yes, but the problem with Greece is not the land, but the people.
Move the people here. Move us there.
Problems solved.
Unable to even.
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You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
Wait, what? Did this just happen?
If they repeal separation of church and state I am applying to some country that takes refugees. I would be afraid of my government, more than I already am.
NO, this bill was not just proposed. This did not just happen. This bill was introduced LAST January, as in 2011, and only made it as far as the Judiciary Committee, then it died. It never even made it to the full Legislature.
Again, not that it makes it OK that something like this was even being discussed at all, but please realize this is not a current topic of discussion in the Nebraska Legislature.
Motion passed - Netherlands it is. I might be biased though since I was born there
Then you're the designated tour guide.
Unable to even.
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You don't understand the appeal of Benedict Cumberbatch / think he's fug / don't know who he is? WATCH SHERLOCK. Until you do, your negative opinion of him will not be taken seriously.
Are they effing kidding? Way to open the door for vigilante justice, idiots.
Murder is murder if they are pro-life they should be so for everything. FFS. These people are so misguided.
Yeah, not fair.
The extremist coocoos who could justify this kind of crap don't represent the pro-life movement, or even most of pro-lifers.