@mghrn55 said
And just an additional thought on the whole abortion issue.
If abortion keeps these people up at night, then why is contraception one of the next targets for the far right ?
It would seem that contraception would shrink the need for abortions.
The positions are highly contradictory in concept.
Except that the only thing they have in common is that both are viewed amongst ...[text shortened]... call it.
Of course now we wait for poor joe to drop by and ask who is going to pay for it all. ๐
PS
Actually, it does have to do with children, contrary to the thread title. You just have to look backwards 2,000 years, to the Pauline conception of marriage and sexuality. There is a clear and simple ideology underlying opposition to a multitude of issues, including abortion, contraception, sex education in the state schools, non-heterosexuality, non-binarity (incl. transgender), gay marriage, all forms of non-monogamy (polyandry, polygamy, polyamory, etc.). The ideology is this: marriage as a sacrament. This is one of the elementary tenets of Christianity going back to the very inception of the religion. In short, the only legitimate reason men and women have to unite is for the purpose of getting children; the only legitimate form of sexuality is between one man and one woman who are married to each other, for the purpose of getting children. All other relations between men and women are not sacred but profane; all other forms of sexuality are not sacred but profane. Historically speaking, the other sacraments (the Eucharist, reconciliation, anointing the sick) have pretty much gone by the wayside among American Evangelicals, who therefore cling ever more tenaciously to their one remaining sacrament. It's really that simple, and that is, historically speaking, the underlying ideology underpinning the political situation in America vis a vis opposition to abortion, contraception, sex education in the state schools, non-heterosexuality, non-binarity (incl. transgender), gay marriage, etc.
The fact that these issues keep cropping up, for example in the form of trying to get state schools to teach creationism as science, or to forbid state schools from teaching that homosexuality is not a mental disorder, shows that America is still, even after 250+ years, struggling to separate religion from government. Most modern European states have long since put these issues behind them (Poland is an exception).