Rep. Steve King just said the pill is abortion

[sufrommich]

according to him and the Catholic church. And that, folks, is where they're going with this.

He was being interviewed by Martin Bashir ( who asked great questions and should be in primetime.)

[redqueen]

1. Good for him for saying it plainly.

We all know that's what they've thought all along, and I appreciate that they're making it clear now so that it can be highlighted in the fall.

[malaise]

2. He was awful

Has he lost weight?

[liberal N proud]

3. Next they will claim life begins with the egg, long before conception.

[JoePhilly]

5. Every sperm is sacred!!!

[Warpy]

40. Nah, the egg comes from a woman, it doesn't do anything.

Life comes from sperm and every sperm is sacred.

Remember, they've never let scientific fact get in their way.

[HockeyMom]

43. Sperm aren't immortal either

That is the concept behind the time limit of the Morning After Pill. Sperm can't just sit around waiting endlessly all month for an egg to appear. They CROAK after a couple of days.

[DevonRex]

46. But then they go to heaven.

And eggs go to hell, of course.

[HockeyMom]

48. LOVE IT

[liberal N proud]

55. Masturbation is killing sperm

[justiceischeap]

4. If they want to take the conversation in this direction

then why doesn't a Martin Bashir or a Rachel Maddow ask about when we'll start regulating men masturbating.

[titaniumsalute]

6. Then so is jerking off

If the pill...which stops one of the two sides of the fermentation process...is considered "abortion" then so would be the "abuse of a sperm." If you crank one out, pull out, have sex with a same sex male partner...that would all be abortion also if you follow Steve King's (faltered) logic.

[w8liftinglady]

13. Good point!

[Skwid]

25. I love fermented eggs in the morning. LOL....oh, you meant fertilized I guess

sorry couldn't help it

[titaniumsalute]

47. LOL Now that IS Funny

I'm a big craft beer geek so I'm only a few working hours away from discussing fermentation at my local watering hole. Of course I meant fertilization. But thanks for calling me out. duh...

[spanone]

33. when i was a kid, masturbation was a sin.....in the catholic church

[HeiressofBickworth]

64. Do it somewhere else

then it's no sin?

While I appreciate the arguments for legislating masturbation along the same lines as the GOP wants to legislate ovulation is a clever argument, it doesn't get to the bottom of the issue: they are opposed to women being in control of their own bodies.

They (or their forbearers) were opposed to Margaret Sanger at the beginning of the last century, then they opposed the sale of birth control pills and now they are back with the same old tune. When can we educate men that it's none of their business. Women don't want to legislate circumcision.

I remember when I was a new bride on my way to Germany via Massachusetts in 1965, my new husband's GRANDFATHER sent a message that I should get a good supply of birth control pills before I got to Massachusetts because they were illegal there. And now Santorum would like to give the power to the states to ban birth control.

I thought time progressed -- it seems we are moving backwards.

[Skwid]

65. I wonder why...isn't every sperm sacred?

[Brettongarcia]

68. If masturbation is a sin - then most priests are HORRIBLE sinners!

Shouldn't we re-direct the reproductive controversy/issue, against priests themselves? Aren't they letting (/getting) themselves off too easily?

[nykym]

7. I wonder if Mr King

would feel the same way if men were capable of getting pregnant!
In fact I would go so far to say there would be abortion clinics on every corner and this would not be an issue.
It is time for men to get out of women's uterus's! (need a better slogan)

[Skittles]

17. aw you know it

and they would get paid leave from work too

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. He can say it, but it's not true.

The pill stops ovulation.

That's it.

It does NOT stop a fertilized egg from implanting. That is what an IUD does.

[sufrommich]

16. Bashir made that point , it did little good. These

people want women punished for having sex for any reason other than procreation. Sex without procreation = slut.

[Skittles]

19. they want to penalize only women, too

apparently they are pro-boner because they certainly have no objection to viagra being handed out like candy

[sufrommich]

24. I imagine they think women should be seperated into

madonna/slut catagories like the fictional characters in A Handmaids Tale. Sex for pleasure is only verbotten for females.

[Sanity Claws]

9. he obviously doesn't understand how it works

The pill prevents ovulation. Because no egg was dropped, there is nothing to fertilize and nothing to abort.
This is not a pro-life versus pro-choice issue. They are just trying to regulate a woman's uterus.

[barbtries]

20. some pills

if i'm not mistaken, work by making the womb inhospitable to the fertilized egg. it cannot implant and passes on through. anyone can correct me if i'm wrong, but even IF this is how the pill works, it does not constitute an abortion. jeez. just, jeez (not talking at you but at the far gone republican fundie jerks)

[stufl]

27. Soon just the thought of having sex will be considered abortion.

Don't think of sex with anybody. If he/she does not respond, the Republicans will call you an abortionist.

[barbtries]

30. lol

it's crazy. crazy.

[Sanity Claws]

42. You must be thinking of the morning-after pill

[barbtries]

56. could be

which is also NOT an abortion.

[jeff47]

54. There is a slight chance ovulation will happen anyway

If it does, and an egg is fertilized, that egg will be expelled when the pill induces the next period.

That's the basis for their claim that "the pill causes abortion". An very, very, very small chance of this happening.

[GoCubsGo]

10. Rep. Steve King is a liar.

The Catholic Church does not believe the Pill is abortion. I doubt he does, either.

[LeftinOH]

11. Awesome! Keep it up, GOPers! Great job, and thanks

for all your support!! We Democrats couldn't get elected without you.

[geardaddy]

12. Steve King is a POS

[sinkingfeeling]

14. Proving once again that conservatives know zero about science, including

biology.

[libinnyandia]

15. He thinks that birth control will lead to the end of civilization as we know it.

[barbtries]

18. really.

wow.
i just cannot believe these people. now they want to force women to get pregnant against their will, force women to have children against their will, THEN they'll leave them alone, to starve on the street.
so fucking hateful. they do not seem to think.

[Raven]

21. he also implied that unemployed people

are deadbeats. The statistics show that unemployed folks wait till the last check to get a job...that is what he said. Bashir ran out of time on that one.

[nobodyspecial]

41. In some cases, that could be true

If you had a high-paying job and are at the top tier in some states, unemployment could bring in more each week than a minimum wage job. But, how would it make any sense to cut the money coming into your house and tie up your ability to find a job that would better fit your skills and education.

[kestrel91316]

52. Well, they DO wait til the last unemployment check to get a job. But that's

because there are no jobs out there that come close to paying even as much as unemployment (which is based on what they used to make when they had a REAL job).

[barbtries]

57. he said that?

bastard. mother. fucking. bastard.

[dana_b]

22. sounds like someone missed out on his human biology class

what a dumb fuck.

[stufl]

23. Soon just the thought of having sex will be considered abortion.

[madrchsod]

28. remember people..only democratic women use birth control pills

republican women would never ever think they should use birth control pills.

[unblock]

29. a little learning is a dang'rous thing

thanks to modern science, the right-wing learned about this whole "conception" thing -- gametes uniting, dna, all that good stuff.

then they went and ascribed grand morality to this little sliver of biological knowledge they acquired.

as if the moment of conception had any great moral implications, and other points on the life continuum, including but not limitedto events such as implantation or birth, had zero moral implications.

learn a bit more about life and biology and you understand that it's all a continuum. gametes are alive, too. it makes little sense to say that an unfertilized egg is not a "person" yet a fertilized egg is. nor does it make sense to say that an unimplanted egg is morally the same as an implanted egg that, if unwanted, is a parasite sucking nutrients off and causing many other changes to its host. or the moment of viability, when a pregnancy could be safely terminated without ending the life of the fetus, or even the moment of birth itself, when the biologically parasitic relationship ends (typically replaced by a culturally parasitic relationship...)

the obsession with the moment of conception is an example of religion using a tiny amount of scientific discovery, shutting out the rest, and running wild with it.

[NOLALady]

31. Well alrighty then.

Steve King should not use the pill.

[sufrommich]

34. There you go, problem solved. nt

[LadyHawkAZ]

32. We got taught that in my school as a kid

"The Pill = abortion". Our "science" teacher even had a sad story for the class about how his wife was infertile because of taking the pill (they later had kids). Ya gotta love propaganda.

[HockeyMom]

44. I took the PIll for 15 years

I have 2 kids. No problem at all.

[Douglas Carpenter]

35. and masturbation is mass murder - if one follows this logic to its conclusion

[WilliamPitt]

36. Man, I hope they run with this forever.

Greg Sargent makes a good point: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/birth-control-may-now-be-wedge-issue-against-gop/2012/02/10/gIQAbzVO4Q_blog.html?hpid=z3

[sufrommich]

38. Especially if they can't

stop themselves from exhibiting their misogynistic fantasies in public.

[Douglas Carpenter]

39. good article..do the Republicans REALLY want to be known as the anti-birth control party?

[tyne]

37. Someone

needs to ask Newt if he and the devout Catholic Callista relied on the rhythym method during the 1st six years of their affair.

[hamsterjill]

45. (Clapping loudly)!!!!

Woo hoo!!! Good point!

[progressoid]

49. OFFS. He never fails to embarrass our state.

And our country.

[kestrel91316]

50. Mr. King simply doesn't know his medical physiology.

[Enrique]

51. sperms are people, my friends

[Matariki]

53. I hope that creep never gets to have sex with another human being again

not even for a million dollars.

[AngryOldDem]

58. Yep.

And they want to get in charge so they can force their version of morality on the rest of us.

[onethatcares]

59. what does the newtie have to say about all this?

since he's catholic and all that. Does he feel a bj from Callista is not a form of sperm killin?

[Bohunk68]

60. Now,now.

When King speaks about abortion, he knows whereof he speaks, being one. Insert sarcasm thingee here.

[Progression]

61. The Confused Religious Values

The pill prevents abortions and yet they are not happy with that. If they consider every sperm to be a potential life then good luck to them on trying to stop masturbation.

[IcyPeas]

62. I think these idiots say this stuff just to piss us off.... I really do

[sarcasmo]

63. Once they get ther way with Abortion it's onto the Pill then it's

Masturbation and on and on. The religious freaks are setting civilization back 100's of years.

[TwilightGardener]

66. Well, then, menstruation is abortion.

Women should learn to release their eggs, release them at the right time, and put them back into the ovaries if they don't get fertilized, lest they lose a human life into a tampon.