In a classic example of how MAGA “prolife” antichrist religion deflects from anything that might threaten its grasp on money, EWTN (whom the Holy Father describes as doing “the work of the devil“) explains that making childbirth free is not something their MAGA audience has to care about, because the real problem is cheapskate poor people. Classic use of the Precious Feet pin as a magical talisman for absolving the Cult of any interest in the common good.
The bishops have called for universal health care for a century in the US. But EWTN, using the unborn as human shields in obedience to their real Magisterium–the GOP–argue that poor women be forced to bear the insane costs of childbearing in the US rather than chintzy conservative Christians have a nickel taken out of their paychecks.
The whole “Unless efforts to help the poor are 100% effective, what even is the point?” argument of the Freak Show Right is always double-teamed with the “If we alleviate all suffering for the poor, where will be their initiative to get off their lazy asses and work for a living?”
It’s the perfect one-two punch for MAGA antichrist religion to go on afflicting the poor while admiring itself for its “tough love” as it clings to its Mammon.
And, of course, it is the perfect illustration of the way in which this perverse subculture goes on forever, exacerbating the demand for abortion by its selfish cruelty to the poor and then blaming the poor for responding to the demand that the Cult is utterly committed to exacerbating.
Advertisement
4 Responses
Depressing, but I also have a very close Trump-hating friend who is pro-choice who said she “does not want to subsidize peoples’ poor choices.” She herself had a very difficult early life with great financial and emotional hardship so I thought she would be sympathetic to helping families in need, but her feeling is that she worked hard to get where she is and others should do the same without relying on taxpayer help, and if abortion helps them straighten their lives out, then that’s a good thing. I’ve discovered other church-going Catholics who are pro-choice and have similar feelings, which surprised me every time. The thought is that “these people” would not be good parents anyway, or their children would be destined for a life of misery and/or crime, so better to keep that from happening right from the beginning. Abortion allows people to get on the track to prosperity so they can have all the consumer goods my friends enjoy without cost to those friends, who are almost all committed Democrats, college-educated listeners to NPR. It is considered a kind of mercy killing – I don’t know how else to phrase it – with the thought that some lives might not be worth living and perpetuate a cycle of crime and poverty. To my mind there is also often paternalism and racism involved with my acquaintances from church who are pro-choice and “devout” Catholics, with the implication that too many children born to a poor mother is a consequence of people who don’t “live right” as it were. I live in an area with a large percentage of liberal Catholics and they are pretty much all pro-choice, often from the standpoint of feminism and understandable sympathy for women in a very difficult position. It is considered compassionate not to force a woman to have a baby she doesn’t want or can’t afford or is uncertain about, as if you could know for sure how a person’s life will play out!
One thing I like to ask the MAGA types who say they shouldn’t have to support the poor because they’d never rely on government cheese:
Did you return your Covid stimulus checks uncashed? It’s not money anybody earned, and if you hadn’t made poor choices, you shouldn’t have been in any hardship. I get lots of stammering and hemming and hawing, but so far, nobody has said they didn’t take the money and run.
“In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.” – Anatole France Le Lys Rouge
I have heard that argument from the Libertarian Freaks, but it wasn’t made in this clip.
There was no argument in the clip — people are going to hear what they want to hear in there.
The pull-quote is, I think, correct. You could make childbirth free at the point of care tomorrow, and it would have zero influence on intentional family formation.
If you want to get a shocking insight into the zeitgeist, check out Pearl on The Tube of Yous or pearlythings on that which chirped before the funky odorous one bought it.