Today, the Governor of South Dakota (just east of ‘where was that, now?’) signed the bill that banned abortion in the state. It is hoped by many right-wing pro-lifers that this will trigger a much larger, country-wide campaign that will end in Washington DC at the steps of the Supreme Court. It is believed that other states will follow South Dakota’s lead (heaven help us), and ultimately force a reversal of Roe vs Wade, the landmark 1973 case that saw abortion made legal in the US. Many think the movement will run out of steam before it gets that far, but they underestimate the religious right, and the fact that a certain Sammy Alito now sits at the head of that very Supreme Court, and he certainly believes that this particular law is ‘not settled’.

Well, it’s only South Dakota, I hear you say. If a Dakotan girl gets herself up the duff, all she has to do is pop across the border into abortion-friendly North Dakota and bob’s yer uncle, or whatever phrase is appropriate. The thing is, it’s not that easy, is it. What if this girl cannot afford the bus fare? What if she can’t take a few days off working at WalMart to go to Nebraska? There are lots of scenarios, far worse than this, that point to one thing – once more, it’s the poor that suffer. Not to mention the woman’s right of choice being taken away by zealous righteous men. I’m not going to debate the finer points of abortion here; I’m pro-choice where abortion is concerned, and we all know that it is far better that abortions are performed legally by doctors rather than by back-street Vera Drakes on kitchen tables. It may be challenged in court, but rich and powerful right-wing groups have already pledged millions to fight the pro-life cause in the courtroom. I just want to ask this: why do the neo-Con religious right want so many unwanted babies born into poverty?

What do they gain from it, other than an endless factory line of WalMart employees busting their guts for a dime a day, more pimple-faced brats to pack their groceries for them? I’ll tell you what they get – they get people who are faced with no other choice than to join the Army, wave the flag, and end up dead on the side of a road in Baghdad or Kabul. We’ve all seen that bit in Fahreneit 9/11, where the Army recruiters press-gang directionless kids at the mall into joining up, and I’ve seen them out and about here, too, on the university campus, going after the kids with direction (but offering to pay for their fees). even today, universities were told that they can no longer prevent the recruiters from coming onto campus with their sign-up sheets. They can complain, but it will fall upon deaf ears, or at least the ears of those who determine your funding budgets.

Now I am aware that joining the Army can be a noble thing, but when you see how the military target poor people to become their statistics, and when you see how corrupt governments abuse patriotism to send these same youngsters into wars based on lies and hidden corporate agendas, without sufficient equipment, you start to get a sick feeling in your stomach. they don’t like gays because…they cannot produce potential soldiers. They don’t like abortion because…it prevents potential soldiers form being born. They don’t like contraception because…it prevents potential soldiers from being conceived (States such as Ohio and Utah have been making it difficult for people to obtain contraceptives). It’s all about keeping the little tin soldiers churning out, and into the body-bags so that some greedy politician and his filthy-rich backers can cling onto power long enough to ensure that generations more remain in the poverty trap, thinking themselves lucky they live in a land where their leaders allow this to happen to them.

And if you end up in jail, those same rabid zealots are the ones watching you suffer in paralysis during lethal injection, and gloat at your death. Which brings this anger-tinted blog entry to a long-awaited conclusion – how come the people who say they are pro-life are actually the ones who are the most pro-death?