It isn’t that the Men With Bad Haircuts in the Arkansas legislature are angry at women, or are even attempting to assert dominance over them by insisting that the infamous and medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound be part of the latest bill that they have spent their hard time working on.
Oh, wait a minute. Yes it is.
Somehow believing that what has been happening in the rest of the United States the past several decades, with more and more Americans supporting a woman’s right to control her own body is somehow taking place in some alternate universe, lawmakers in Arkansas have joined their counterparts from other states in letting women know just who is charge around here.
Republican Senator Jason Rapert is the godfather of the so-called “Heartbeat Bill,” which would ban abortions if doctors could detect a heartbeat in the fetus as early as six weeks into the pregnancy.
Kindly enough - or perhaps because Rapert is just terrified of a political backlash if he left off the exemptions - women who have been raped, or are the victims of incest (which is also rape, thank you very much) can be excused here, as well as women whose life might be endangered by the pregnancy.
Perform the abortion after the heartbeat is detected? Up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
Six years in prison? Well, easier for the the MWBH to remember, I suppose.
Six weeks = six years.
This sort of bill is well-known across the country; Wyoming recently abandoned their attempt. Ohio also considered a similar bill, but it was cast aside because it was argued that it might be unconstitutional.
Still, that won’t bother The Men With Bad Haircuts here in Arkansas; why should they care what people in other countries do?
And yes, those in the Arkansas legislature who paid attention in biology class (there must be few - cut them some slack here) know that women don’t instantly know that they are pregnant, so maybe with three or four weeks having gone by already, and since women may not have access to proper health care in their small town, some women in Arkansas will - as ever - be held in thrall to small-minded men with their own agendas.
And as for the exemption for rape?
Give me a break.
How many doctors would endanger their freedom without the rapist being convicted of rape in a court of law, something that never happens within the six-week period demanded, outside of the TV Land mentality of the Arkansas legislature.
But then, I think they are probably pretty much fully aware of that. What do you think?
******
Fun fact about the Apollo Theater in Springdale: they used to show dirty movies
It was an interesting article on the front page of the Northwest Arkansas Tines today by Steve Caraway (“Official: Apollo Theater Unsafe”) about the old movie theater in the heart of Springdale’s downtown.
One thing missing from the article - maybe Springdale wishes folks would just sort of forget this - is that for a time in the 1970s it showed X-rated movies.
Yes, for a period we had two porn theaters (at least when I moved here there may have ben more) in our midst.
Tri-City Drive-In Theater, which I have written about before, and the old Apollo theater.
Ah, such is our rich heritage . . .
****
Quote of the Day
Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television. - Woody Allen
rsdrake@cox.net