The current state of our politics means that, at the moment, I’d much rather decisions of this type were taken by ‘unelected judges’. While the US judicial system has long been a political arena, I trust our High Court and Supreme Court judges a great deal more than I trust the shower of shit in our elected government.

The real failure for the US here is decades of not addressing the fragile basis on which some of the most important rights of its citizens are supported. A sketchy precedent is no way to ensure safe reproductive health for women, just as it’s no way to protect the right to inter-racial marriage, same-sex marriage, and other freedoms which could be fatally undercut by its reversal.

You can bet that some states are already drawing up plans to outlaw these.

Or will this culture war boil over and start here as well?

Piers Morgan is on it right away. He loves a bit of ‘culture war’ it pays his bills.

On the plus side the Internet mainlines American culture and so transplantation (rather than cross-pollination) will occur sooner rather than later. Let’s just get this whole thing over and done with quickly otherwise it will drag on for yet more decades like death from a 1000,0000 cut$.

The Far Right, money hoovering billionaires and US hyper-capitalism is sowing the seeds of revolution at some point in the future. I’m amazed that more of the privileged can’t see that they’re condemning their descendants to the guillotine by not sharing and playing nice with the rest of society today.

Times editorial doesn’t make comforting reading…I hope we don’t let the anti-abortionists get a fothold here.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/e829f76e-cb0f-11ec-a118-514c2c06bc05?shareToken=a85f933c1b9ee16324b75bfcf3747920

Fortunately the evangelical mob have so far only really got a foothold in the LibDems, and they are fairly quiet about it. That lobby doesn’t exist to the same extent here as in the states. That’s not to say it it couldn’t happen, but the lack of elected judges also works in our favour. Having said that, stuff like cutting the funding to the IPPF shows that our government doesn’t exactly put reproductive rights high on its list of priorities.

Fortunately the evangelical mob have so far only really got a foothold in the LibDems,

I’m sorry what?

Please explain where the Anti-choice segment was in the last Lib Dem manifesto as I can’t find it.

https://www.libdems.org.uk/plan

If you’re referring to Tim Farron’s Christian faith as evidence that the Lib Dem’s are run by Evangelicals whilst ignoring the antediluvian likes of Rees Mogg, who’d send women back to to ‘barefoot and pregnant’ status in a heartbeat if they could then I’d suggest you need to do a bit more research.

Here’s two places to start:

Religion and Party Preference in 2019

https://hsld.org.uk/en/article/2019/1314901/ed-s-response-to-our-questions

The LD’s were in favour of the 2020 bill aimed at preventing anti-choice campaigners for picketing Abortion clinics, which was the last time Parliament did anything related to abortion, Sarah Olney was one of the bill’s sponsors.

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2755

As with all parties I’m sure there are a range of views represented and there are plenty o things they can justifiably be skewered for but if you think the Lib Dems of all people are a threat to the right to choose then I’m really struggling to see your logic.

This tweet and the responses make for pretty harrowing reading about the US before Roe v Wade.

I’ve NEVER written about this in public but I think now’s the time. In 1963 my 16 yo sister and her boyfriend committed suicide because she got pregnant. There was no access to abortion for a lower middle class young woman, and certainly no birth control yet.

— joyjoyblue (@Joyjoysilva) May 3, 2022

They planned it all out and pretended everything was fine, and then one night they didn’t come home. My life and family were shattered, nothing was ever the same again. 20 years later my mother followed suit.
Abortion protection matters, loss of that has consequences.

— joyjoyblue (@Joyjoysilva) May 3, 2022

With stats out there that no state has more than 30% support for repealing RvW, this looks likely to be the start of a huge struggle for the US. One that you’d hope the GOP will not win

Please explain where the Anti-choice segment was in the last Lib Dem manifesto as I can’t find it.

Yeah, it has no influence on policy, nor is likely to. Just an observation that quite a few of the top jobs in the party (at one point) were held by evangelical Christians. An illustration that the political landscape in the UK is markedly different to the US, and that even a party helmed by evangelicals poses no threat to reproductive rights.

The separation between the secular and religious is far more pronounced here.

Worth watching the film Vice about Dick Cheney if you want to understand the descent of the US from reasonably sensible democracy to the polarized car crash of politics and MSM that it now is. RvW potentially just the start – tho the GOP will be ultimately fighting the tide of demographic change.

The separation between the secular and religious is far more pronounced here.

To quote Alastair Campbell: ‘we don’t do God’ with politics in this country. Thankfully.

Though I imagine Johnson would embrace religion in a millisecond if he thought it would get him some votes, same as Trump did.

I’m always amazed by the gullibility of the evangelists of the bible belt when a man like Trump, with his track record, could convince them he was on their side. Marina Hyde refers to it in her column this week, pointing out that at one point he was probably keeping the abortion clinics of Manhattan in business

As much as women dream of having a child to a romanticised, idealised ‘mills & boon’ type father, it pales in comparison to the abject terror of having a child to the ‘wrong’ father. There is simply no comparison.

So, with regard to roe vs wade, a decision of that magnitude can only be taken by a referendum of all the eligible female voters in the USA. The ones at the ‘coal face’.

Not the judiciary, not the legislature.

American workers have seen their wages increase as a result of labour shortages.
Demand and supply.
No shortage of Mexicans flying in, though…

Christians really have to put their money where their mouths are.
Outlawing abortions would be more palatable if each child was guaranteed a place at an ivy-league university, inter-ing at blue chip companies, etc.

An illustration that the political landscape in the UK is markedly different to the US, and that even a party helmed by evangelicals poses no threat to reproductive rights.

Ah, O.K. thought you were making a pretty wild assertion there, I can’t see any LD leader so much as hinting that they’d like to move against a woman’s right to choose, the membership would have them out on their ear in record time.

Move along, nothing to see here.

i saw some statistics earlier. the amount of abortions carried out doesn’t change a great deal if you make abortion illegal. the amount of women dying from botched abortions increases dramatically.

Move along, nothing to see here.

I could have been clearer, to be fair!

Yes on reflection I’d like to revise my first comment as it does seem that this is one aspect of the (sic) culture war “that should find little to no traction in old Blighty. But still expect to see Morgan suckling and milking at it like a tit.

I sort of get the Christian Right being anti abortion but where does the maga anti vax brigade fit into the government having a say over half the country’s bodies? I can’t understand it. Have they put away the my body my choice placards suddenly?

. Have they put away the my body my choice placards suddenly?

There was a bloke on radio 4 yesterday basically stating that the foetus wasn’t part of the mother’s body as it had different dna therefore the mother had no right to terminate the foetus. He did seem a bit of an arse

I’m always amazed by the gullibility of the evangelists of the bible belt when a man like Trump, with his track record, could convince them he was on their side

Some were gullible but plenty knew what they were up to and used a comparison to Cyrus who whilst not being a nice guy did save the Jews from the Babylon captivity.
Unusually Trump did actually deliver on his side of the deal allowing the federalist and other organisations to fill up a whole load of judicial positions including the supreme court ones.
So could be considered a rather successful move by the evangelists.

There was a bloke on radio 4 yesterday basically stating that the foetus wasn’t part of the mother’s body as it had different dna

Best not take any Mebendazole if you get threadworms then, you have no right to kill those little things as they have different DNA.

The real failure for the US here is decades of not addressing the fragile basis on which some of the most important rights of its citizens are supported. A sketchy precedent is no way to ensure safe reproductive health for women, just as it’s no way to protect the right to inter-racial marriage, same-sex marriage, and other freedoms which could be fatally undercut by its reversal.

Yeah, this. The GOP is severing the delicate threads that keep everything hanging together. You only have to look at the ways that they are working to try to gerrymander local elections by shutting down poling booths in certain parts of town and reducing hours/cutting staff in those they can’t close. The teaching of creationism vs natural selection was the thin end of the wedge IMO…. this is the thick end.

My only real understanding of Roe vs Wade is from freakonomics, and I think (from that) it’s clear that the chunk of US society advocating it’s repeal is simply unable to understand the unintended consequences of doing so.

The GoP are just using it as a wedge issue in their culture wars, its not ideological for them – as are most of the people supporting this move I suspect – American politics is just now a game where you either support the red team or the blue team, no matter what. There is absolutely no room for any nuance or discussion, and so the dialogue around any issue is just so base.

What about the wellfare of these kids who are born to parents that don’t want them? Are the GoP advocating for increase child welfare services? Of course they **** ing aren’t – in fact they are busy actively reducing/removing that stuff. I suspect that most supporters of this move would argue that if you don’t want a child then you should take precautions to ensure you don’t get pregnant. How are you supposed to have a meaningful debate with somebody so naive?

The Far Right, money hoovering billionaires and US hyper-capitalism is sowing the seeds of revolution at some point in the future. I’m amazed that more of the privileged can’t see that they’re condemning their descendants to the guillotine by not sharing and playing nice with the rest of society today

It is worse than that, they are destroying the economies they profit from, like farming overworking the land for a couple of bumper crops knowing it will become infertile later and everyone including them will starve.

American politics is just now a game where you either support the red team or the blue team,

And it is only the culture war that really distances the parties, both teams are owned by the billionaires, the culture war is the façade of choice to hide the economic policies that are massively swayed in favour of the already rich and powerful no matter which team is in power.

America is a crazy place.

https://t.co/8xDjkaq8LP

— Thomas R. Gray (@trgray14) May 6, 2022

they are destroying the economies they profit from, like farming overworking the land for a couple of bumper crops knowing it will become infertile later and everyone including them will starve.

They will be insured/Departed Smiling With Their Creator by then.

Just because they make a fast buck – doesn’t mean they make a small buck. One thing I’ve learned is that very wealthy capitalists will normally have very good insurance and that includes investments and profiles with baked-in ‘diversification’. The ‘family farm’ is very rarely an actual farm these days

Worth noting that in the 50 years since they canceled I Dream of Jeannie on May 26, 1970, men have become less likely to find a spouse, less likely father kids or live with the kids they father, and less likely to participate in the workforce. Bring back Jeannie.

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) May 6, 2022

Religion and its impact on everyday life and politics is one of the (many) weird things about the US, compared to the UK.

In the UK, we are officially a Christian Nation: The sovereign is the head of state and of the church, 26 bishops of the Church of England (but no other faith) sit in the House of Lords, and we have (theoretically) mandated acts of worship in school (is that still a thing?).

The net result on everyday life and the laws of the land seems to be – virtually nothing.

In the US, there is (theoretically) strict separation of church and state, and yet the influence of christian religious beliefs (however thinly supported by the text) is huge.

Even in the comparatively godless area I live in, the level of church going, evangelical activities and general influence is much higher tan in the UK.

We moved to the US in 2012 – sure there were problems then, but there was generally a sprit of optimism and an expansion of everyday human rights (marry who you want, be who you want, just don’t hurt other people). It felt like the country was making progress to wards a more civilized society, heck maybe even the problems of unequal access to the basics of a western democracy were getting tackled.

Here we are 10 years later and I’m deeply disappointed in the way things are going. We’re starting to have difficult conversations about what ‘red lines’ being crossed might lead to us leaving.

On the upside the local riding scene is absolutely great, and I can still get a shotgun from Walmart.

Sorry this turned into a rant.