In military parlance the fog of war is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations, and the term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one’s own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign. Over the past year, Republicans have been uncertain about whom their real enemies are in their perpetual war to control America, but one thing is beyond question and that is Republicans are engaged in a war against nearly all Americans.
One of Republicans’ greatest crusades has been their war on women’s reproductive rights according to their so-called pro-life designation they claim is to protect the unborn that observers opine ends when a fetus breathes air and becomes a living human being. Between their disregard for new mothers, infants, and children borne of their perpetual attacks on social programs through spending cuts, it began to appear that the only thing Republicans cared about was zygotes, embryos, and fetuses; they have always hated the mother.
As it turns out, in their blood lust to withhold healthcare from any American, coupled with their sheer hatred for the Affordable Care Act, Republicans revealed that they hate the unborn at the same level they hate women, infants and children. The Republican crusade against the Affordable Care Act is expanding and now includes assailing the requirement that basic insurance policies cover maternity, pre-natal, and newborn care. The chairperson of the House Republican Women’s Policy Committee, Representative Renee Ellmers, is leading the charge against the GOP’s latest target in the ACA; the requirement that health insurance policies include maternity and prenatal care as part of basic healthcare coverage.
The glaring hypocrisy of the “pro-life” party is nothing new as Republicans have, without remorse or regard for the unborn, slashed government spending on programs to help expectant mothers, but they revealed their true contempt when they began using both their lust to protect healthcare insurance profits and their hatred of the Affordable Care Act to decry inclusion of maternity and prenatal care as a basic component of health insurance plans. The oft-stated remark that Republicans love a zygote but hate living breathing babies is, apparently, inaccurate and better stated that Republicans just hate pregnant women and the unborn in spite of their tireless effort to force America’s women to become birth machines or remain abstinent.
This new Republican war on fetuses, zygotes, and embryos is particularly draconian because the requirement to include maternity and prenatal care in health plans is no different than requiring healthcare insurance policies to include yearly physicals, doctor visits, or hospitalization. Representative Ellmers claims the maternity and prenatal coverage is unfair to males because “a man has never delivered a baby,” and Deroy Murdoch of the National Review said, “How about lesbians who do not want kids, and are highly unlikely to become pregnant accidentally.” It is not that conservatives have a newfound love for men or lesbians; they just hate expectant mothers and the unborn, and do not want them to receive medical care whether it is from a government-funded program or a private health insurance policy they pay for themselves.
Republicans claim it is a travesty for healthcare plans to include maternity and pre-natal coverage for policy-holders who will never give birth, and yet they are silent about healthcare policies covering prostrate exams, boner pills, or testicular cancer that are unique to men’s health but included as a basic service in healthcare plans purchased by men and women. The travesty is that the pro-life party purporting to protect the unborn is railing against the requirement that private healthcare policies include coverage to protect mothers and the unborn by providing maternity coverage; something right-to-life advocates and pro-life Republicans should celebrate and defend if they were really “pro-life” or serious about reducing abortions.
One would think the anti-abortion crowd and their Republican pro-lifers would be consistent in their right-to-life advocacy and support coverage, whether through government programs or private insurance policies, that may mean a woman is more likely to choose to carry the fetus to term if she knew that both she and her fetus will receive regular medical attention. However, these are the same Republicans that decry any program that helps expectant mothers and their fetuses, or their children by opposing expanded healthcare coverage, food stamps, the Women, Infants and Children feeding program (WIC), and other measures to help parents after their children are born. In the past, Democrats and liberals have sought to find common ground with anti-abortion groups on issues like maternal and child care, WIC, and other programs to help ensure that a woman is never forced to have an abortion for economic reasons, but that would mean pro-life Republicans cared about women, fetuses, and children; something they are incapable of.
This latest assault is more than just hypocrisy of pro-life Republicans who, on one hand, claim to be protectors of the unborn while they oppose domestic spending for pre-natal healthcare, and now inclusion of pre-natal care in private healthcare insurance. It is all about their blatant disregard for any American who is not part of the wealthy elite as well as using any means to restrict Americans from having access to healthcare whether it is Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance through an ACA exchange. It is also about forcing women, all women, to remain abstinent until they marry a man who will provide and pay for healthcare for themselves and their unborn children.
Over the course of the past four years, Americans have witnessed the depth of Republicans’ evil nature and their inhumane disregard for all Americans; particularly women and children. But now that they are attacking a requirement in private healthcare insurance with the same intensity as domestic programs to protect the health of expectant mothers and the unborn, their contempt for human life is clearly evident. If nothing else, Americans should comprehend that Republicans’ pro-life self-designation, like every aspect of their existence, is nothing more than a label to garner electoral support for their ever-expanding war against Americans that now includes zygotes, fetuses, and embryos.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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