The Worst Guy You Know (and he decides what happens to your body)

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Jessica Valenti
@JessicaValenti
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Think about the worst guy you knew in high school. The biggest jerk in class, the most ignorant asshole—the guy who made people miserable.

Now imagine he’s the district attorney in your town who decides what happens to women who have abortions.

jessica.substack.com
The Worst Guy You Know
He decides what happens to your body
10:23 AM · Sep 21, 2022

https://jessica.substack.com/p/the-worst-guy-you-know

Think about the worst guy you knew in high school. The biggest jerk in class, the most ignorant asshole—the guy who bullied other students or made people miserable.

Now imagine he’s the district attorney in your county who decides what happens to women who have abortions. Or that he’s your police chief. Or your state representative.

The enforcement arm of abortion bans is just as important as the laws themselves. Because these are the men who will decide what cases to bring forward, what arrests to make, or how much funds are used for criminalization efforts.

While plenty of people get into local politics or law enforcement because they want to help people—twice as many do so because they like the idea of being able to tell someone what to do. (Sorry, but this is no time to be delicate: we all know people who ended up becoming cops—they weren’t exactly the nicest or smartest guys you knew.) For these men, being able to punish people is a pleasure. And when you factor in how many of them are misogynists, you realize that the chance to enforce abortion bans—to have the opportunity to humiliate and hurt women—is basically their dream come true.

It doesn’t matter that men like this know nothing about pregnancy or the bodies that carry them: They have the same amount of power whether they understand the IVF process or not, the same ability to ruin lives whether they’ve ever heard of an ectopic pregnancy, and regardless if they believe pregnancy can’t result from rape.

*snip*

[Walleye]

1. This is what I've always said about abortion laws. How in the hell do they enforce them

[cynical_idealist]

2. BADLY

[Walleye]

3. There really isn't any other way

[Hermit-The-Prog]

4. They're doing it now. Women and girls are suffering now.

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against theocracy!
Republicans revoke your rights
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[Walleye]

5. Oh yes, they can make women suffer. But they'll never be able to enforce these laws.

The laws are written so poorly, with so little understanding of the biology they are going to be constantly running into legal problems

[Hermit-The-Prog]

6. They ARE enforcing them NOW. That's why women and girls are suffering NOW.

Louisiana woman who was denied an abortion for a fetus without a skull gets procedure in New York

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/14/extremely-traumatizing-louisiana-woman-forced-travel-2500-miles-abortion-speaks-out

https://thecrimereport.org/2022/09/12/alabama-locking-up-pregnant-women-arrested-for-marijuana-to-protect-their-fetuses/

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/indianas-ban-now-effect-patients-seeking-abortion-travel/story?id=90013202

https://www.salon.com/2022/09/21/how-texas-abortion-laws-turned-a-heartbreaking-fetal-diagnosis-into-a-cross-country-journey_partner/

Woman in agony from nonviable pregnancy forced to wait five days for abortion in Texas

A Texas law in effect since last September provided a preview of life without Roe v Wade. Three women describe the struggle to secure abortion care in the state