Even for Mike Johnson this is unhinged

| 7:00 pm EST February 27, 2024
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Republicans are legislating, but the legislation is for them and not the rest of us. First, we saw Ted Cruz’s legislation for lawmakers to receive special treatment at the airport. Now, we have Mike Johnson and 124 other Republicans crafting a new bill: “Life at Conception Act.” Why do these men think they have the right to control a woman’s body? They stopped short of Alabama’s ridiculous ruling that frozen, fertilized eggs are “unborn children,” but not by much. We don’t even need to do anything in the next election cycle; Republicans are offering up their own heads on silver platters.

This bill determines when we become human beings, “including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.” They might as well add the “twinkle in dad’s eye.” They have no idea when “we come into being.” As a so-called Christian, Mike Johnson should know that is left up to the creator. Like everything else Republicans do, this bill is not about protecting anyone or anything. It is about control.

Mike Johnson’s world view is clouded by his evangelical Christian views. According to Johnson: “When a woman is pregnant, science tells us the new life she carries is a completely separate and fully new human being from the moment of fertilization.” Wrong. A fertilized egg cannot survive on its own. Indeed, the fetus cannot survive on its own until a certain point. Unless and until it can survive on its own, it is not a “separate and fully new human being.” It needs the mother to grow to the point of survival. Until that happens, it is a part of its mother. After the ruling in Alabama, Johnson said: “I believe the life of every single child has inestimable dignity and value. That is why I support IVF treatment, which has been a blessing for many moms and dads who have struggled with fertility.” The Alabama IVF clinics disagree. Because they must sometimes destroy eggs in the implantation process, they are afraid of Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. Now, Alabama lawmakers are scrambling to file a bill to protect IVF to keep it separate. This has gone way too far and even Republicans have no idea where it will end.

If Johnson were a real Christian, he would allow God to act, but Evangelicals think they are God’s right arm. They cannot possibly know what God sees as “good” and “bad,” but they think they do. Those beliefs are ripping this country apart for no reason. Women should have the right to make decisions about their own bodies without the interference of so-called Christians. Besides, Republicans are busily taking away food stamps and assistance to mothers with minor children. They are pro-birth, not pro-life, and they need to leave these decisions up to the people who control that life until it can live on its own. Judgment belongs to God. Republicans are going to find more and more women voting against them so that they can control their own destinies, and that’s a good thing.