Bleh

For weeks now I have been writing and then euthanizing blog posts on a variety of topics, mostly political, that turn me on about as much as a sex scene on primetime network television. I get it half written but I just can't seem to muster the enthusiasm to care enough to edit the thing, let alone linking to the source and all the other stuff that I feel like I need to do to make a post publish-worthy. So, my blogger control panel is littered with half-written morsels that will never see the light of day, while the front page languishes with maybe one actual post per week. I am a bad blog mommy.

Today's partially digested post was about the Georgia Senate's decision to add a little poison pill to the so-called "Octomom" legislation intended to limit the number of embryos implanted during in vitro fertilization procedures. Today, the Senate amended the legislation to include a provision declaring an embryo to be a human being from the moment of fertilization (not even implantation into the uterus), and prohibiting the destruction of such embryos even upon the request of the would-be parents. Despite the obvious ramifications of forbidding the people who created the embryos to decide whether they will be destroyed, donated to stem cell research, or frozen in perpetuity, the real kicker here (as is usually the case when you see legislation that contains the word embryo) is as it pertains to abortion. While the bill purports to not affect existing laws in Georgia on abortion, were it to pass and become law the groundwork would be laid for certain legal challenges to anything that risks the harm or destruction of embryos, including procedures intended to expel or remove embryos from a host uterus. Goodbye, morning after pill. Goodbye, chemical or surgical abortion. Hello, test case to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Anyhow, I wrote this long angry screed about our dumb and duplicitous legislature that is still clearly controlled by the backwards ways of the Georgia Christian Coalition. But my heart wasn't in it, perhaps because I know that this bill will probably pass and there's not much I can do about it. The Democratic opposition is a toothless plaything to the Republican leadership right now, and the people of Georgia simply don't get fired up when it comes to preventing eradication of the right to choose. If we couldn't get constitutents to speak out against a Georgia Power bill that will significantly impact our wallets, how can we get them to speak out about this complicated and tricky issue? If people DID speak out about wanting Sunday sales pretty overwhelmingly, but the legislature still killed the bill with little if any repurcussions, why wouldn't they vote the Christian Coalition's way on this bill too? It is all very frustrating and demoralizing.

There are smart people with great ideas working to advance progressive and moderate principles in Georgia, but they are not the people in the legislature right now...or if they are, then they are being ignored. Unless and until the Georgia Democratic party can get its shit together, we will see more and more bad law come about while good people continue to do nothing. And that is depressing as hell.

So, if you really REALLY care about protecting the right of individuals to decide what happens with their embryos, and you don't mind pissing into the wind, give your legislator a call and ask them to defeat this bill. But if you can't muster the enthusiasm to follow through on the fight, I for one certainly am in no position to blame you.