Hallowe’en Humbug
“All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the floors…”
— From “Haunted Houses” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Our small family has been watching our collection of Hallowe’en DVDS. I recommend Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride.” A shy son, Victor, of a Nouveau Riche fish monger and his social climbing mother, have engaged him to a lovely young lady, Victoria, who lives in a mansion, but whose parents are secretly out of money. To clear his head Victor wanders into the woods where he inadvertently marries a corpse. All heaven and humbug break loose. This has also happened in the here and now.
I am neither a gynecologist nor a female, so I can’t claim direct harm from the Texas anti-choice law. I have researched the topic and can now comment.
On May 19, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed Law SB8, the strictest anti-abortion law to date. It limits abortion to the first six weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape, incest, or miscarriage. Worse, it makes citizens vigilantes who can report anyone associated with the process for $10,000. TV news interviewed one man who claimed he would be $100,000 richer by the end of the year. Way to get back at those you don’t like!
On October 6, an Austin, Texas, federal judge blocked the law as unconstitutional. In it the United States is allowed to sue Texas. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit in New Orleans later reversed the block, reinstated the law. When a doctor was sued under the law, even anti-abortion groups in Texas were distraught.
The law assumes that a heartbeat shows the beginning of life. Experts showed that at six weeks, a fetus does not yet have a heart.
The State resorted to moved to electrical activity. Consider that electrons flow from mother to fetus continuously as cells aggregate into organs. One of these early organs is designed to move the flow to the organism.
The U.S. Congress is capable of acting on abortion. “A fetus becomes ‘viable when it is ‘potentially able to live outside the mother’s womb, albeit with artificial aid. Viability is usually placed at about seven months (28 weeks) but may occur earlier, even at 24 weeks.’” (See: https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitutionconan/410 U.S. at 163—64.) Congress should halt SB8 and similar laws because they violate women’s rights.
Consider the following: Metal can be processed to form a hood for a new Tesla Model X. It can also be shaped into door panels, or a roof. These parts are not yet a Tesla. Parts go into subassemblies which are joined, tested, and moved along. It is not a complete product until someone drives it from the assembly area.
The same is true of the fetus. Undifferentiated living cells flow to a part of the growing entity. If the location is here they become part of a heart. There they become attached to an elbow. In another spot they help form a toenail. There is a pattern of formation during which the fetus is a protohuman, not yet a person.
On October 17, 2021, Daily Kos printed an article arguing that the fetus does not yet have a self of awareness which requires brain activity, not the central nervous system. While the brain cells begin to cluster by week seven, it is not fully developed until age 21.
Women have struggled for centuries to attain their rights, one of which is if and when to bear offspring. Domestic violence, a woman with preconditions, a single parent with children and low income must have the right to decide without threat.
My solution to unwanted pregnancy? I had a vasectomy.
Hallowe’en Humbug to you all.