ROOT: Republican leaders show anti-women sentiment with ridiculous abortion bills

Dear Republican leaders at all levels of government,

Hello. Today I'm writing to you not because I wish to bash you or because I want to viciously make fun of you, but because I have a simple request. Please, please stop creating these nonsense bills that put even more restrictions on abortion.

Before I go any further, let me reassure you of this: I'm an independent voter and an avid one at that. Since I've been legal to vote, I've participated in every election that I could. I've voted for conservative candidates, and I could be persuaded to do so again if the right person wants to fill that job. In many respects, I'm considered moderate, and thus I'm the exact type of person to whom you should be pandering.

I know you and I will probably always disagree on the subject of abortion, but I want you to hear me out. Many of you have written up these new laws across the country this year. In Indiana, State Rep. Eric Turner wrote up a bill that would make abortion illegal after 20 weeks, rather than 24. To make matters worse, when an amendment was proposed to exempt women who'd become pregnant after being victims or rape or incest, Turner opposed it. He said "someone could simply say that they've been raped or there's incest."

Yeah… I wish I could tell you this news story came from The Onion.

In Kansas, State Rep. Pete DeGraaf said something even dumber. He insisted that women need to plan ahead for getting abortions … if they'd been victims of rape or incest. Why? Because he doesn't want insurance companies paying for the service. "I have a spare tire on my car," DeGraaf said. He added, "I have a lot of things I plan for."

Oh, of course, the traumatic experience of rape should be equated with a flat tire. Thanks for clearing that up for me, DeGraaf.

And in my state of Nebraska, the Unicameral just passed a bill, LB 690, which requires parental consent if a minor chooses to get an abortion. There aren't any published dumb quotes of the senators that I can find, however this one from Julie Schmit-Albin of Nebraska Right to Life takes the cake: "Nebraska has always been a leader on this issue. We're just doing our job."

I'm sure it's your job to make sure that kids who need abortions don't get them because they live with awful parents. Yeah, real solid logic there, Schmit-Albin.

Alright, let's back up a moment and break this down. See, on the surface, LB 690 seems like an alright idea. Abortion is a medical procedure, and like any medical procedure, things can go wrong and people can get hurt. Parents probably should at least know about it, right?

Wrong. Much as we'd all like to believe that everyone in our state comes from a healthy, nice and understanding family, this isn't always the case. Kids sometimes live in homes where the parents are responsible for the sexual assault. So obviously, that parent isn't going to be the most responsible in letting the child get an abortion.

But wait, it gets even worse! On Tuesday, a bill to outright ban abortion was approved in Louisiana. And in Idaho, State Rep. Brent Crane insisted that rape was part of a god's plan, saying its "ways are higher than our ways." LZ Granderson pointed this out in his June 3 column: "He (Crane) cited the example of Ethel Waters, a singer whose mother was raped at 13."

Crane's statement is absolutely despicable. And such a statement is exactly why I'm afraid of our elected officials. I ask you to actually speak with a rape survivor or an abuse victim. I doubt that after you speak with them you'll say their experience was part of a deity's plan.

These are scary times to be a woman. Republican officials, we have to stop this. These bills aren't protecting anybody. Not only are the people behind these bills clueless, they are in obvious contradiction to Republican values.

Many of you preach the morality of taking responsibility for your actions, the power of the individual and, my favorite, the power of making one's own choices.

So why is it that so many of you are trying to take that away from women? Why do you want to take away our ability to make a choice, right or wrong?

To make matters worse, many Republican officials (see above examples) trivialize the horrors of rape, abuse and incest and blame the victim.

The world is an ugly place. Children are raped. People are victims of abuse. Ugliness is all around us, and sometimes we have to make decisions that are unpleasant, but absolutely necessary. We shouldn't have to make "a lemon situation in lemonade," as Sharron Angle insisted last year during the midterms that victims of rape and incest do.

No sane woman has ever said and truly meant, "Yipee! I get to have an abortion!" The choice is rarely an easy one. However, it should be a choice we get to make, regardless of whether or not it bothers you. When such legislation is written, it makes women feel as though you believe we're all helpless, moronic and completely incapable of making our own decisions.

Now, I might change my tune if Republicans had a serious shift in their rhetoric regarding women, abortion, rape and incest. If you were serious about going after rapists, providing funding for mothers living in poverty or providing free birth control, I might be willing to support more of your causes.