West Virginia legislators debate a dangerous ban on near-total abortions. advanced on FridayAn anti-abortion Republican lawmaker in state House brazenly argued child support requirements are harmful, falsely claiming they fuel abortion rates.
Republican Del. Chris Pritt said on the floor of the legislature thatA man who gets a woman pregnant may encourage or force her to get an abortion. This is because he could have to pay child support if the baby was carried to term. Pritt argued that child maintenance is inconsistent with an antiabortionist ideology.
“Let’s say you’ve got a father who doesn’t want to really be involved in the life at all, really. He knows that if she carries through the pregnancy he’s going to have possibly some sort of child support obligation,” Pritt said. “What he wants to do is he wants to in a sense encourage her to go and find a way to get an abortion…. it’s going to be better for me to go and just terminate this life.”
Pritt concluded that this chain of events is a “clear possibility” and that it could potentially undermine Republicans’ supposed goal of stopping abortions. (Notably, even if abortion bans were in place. These were about stopping abortions rather than restricting the public’s bodily autonomy, such bans don’t succeed at lowering abortion rates.)
“I don’t want to be doing anything whatsoever that is encouraging folks to go and get an abortion,” Pritt said. The West Virginia Senate approved a near total abortion ban. There were several amendments, one of which added an exception for rape victims and incest survivors. However, the House of Delegates hasn’t been able to agree on the amendments to the bill.
Pritt’s sweeping argument is a show of the deep misogyny and regressive ideals that are driving politicians’ crusade for anti-abortion legislation. These ideologies have been on full display since far right lawmakers and Supreme Court justices — including two men who have been accused of sexually assaulting women — unleashed a wave of gruesome abortion bans across the country.
Advocates for abortion have long pointed out that anti-abortion sentiments are rooted in misogyny and a desire to punish and control women; since the far right rarely acknowledges that trans men and nonbinary people can also get pregnant, their arguments for banning abortion are often about controlling cis women’s bodies. (Abortion bans and the GOP’s attacks on trans people are closely related, however, as the right puts more and more groups’ bodily autonomy into the hands of a far right police state.)
Similar to the arguments against mandating child support, arguments in favor of abortion are also made. also rooted in misogynyand a desire for women to be subjugated. Single mothers make it difficult for the law to protect them. vast majority of single parentsTo obtain child support. Although child support payments may sometimes be required by courts, only 44 percent ofParents with primary custody of a child claim that they receive all child support payments. Single mothers are several times more likelyMore married couples with children are in poverty than those who are in poverty.
Such arguments are also rooted in classism; anti-abortionist lawmakers like Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) have said that, if people can’t afford to have a child, they should simply not have sex.
Even aside from Republican lawmakers’ knowledge that abortion bans have vastly disproportionate negative effects on people who can get pregnant, the fact that the majority of bans explicitly don’t allow exceptions for rape and incest is also a product of an extremist sexist religious worldview — in this case, one that says sexual assault survivors, largely women, cannot be trusted with control over their own bodies.
And, even in states where there is a supposed exception, it’s extremely likely that rape and incest victims wouldn’t be able to receive an abortion anyway, since authority figures — including the police responsible for recording the incident — often accuse sexual assault victims of lyingConcerning being assaulted. One Republican in Ohio even recently said that pregnancy from rape should be viewed as an “opportunity.”
