Do-it-yourself abortions in Texas

Texas passed restrictions on abortion clinics supposedly to make the procedure safer to women. As a result of these restrictions, the number of abortion clinics dropped from 42 to 18. These restrictions are going to be reviewed by the Supreme Court of the United States. Funny, the rules don't apply to dentist's offices which have similar risks, in my opinion.

But the law of unintended consequences has reared its ugly head. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 240,000 women in Texas have tried abortions on themselves, using drugs, alcohol and, yes, punching the fetus in the womb. It is not known how many of these abortions have been successful and how many women and fetuses have been injured as a result.

Once again, the fanatics of the religious right are doing more harm than good. It's amazing that any woman today would want to have a baby with the increasing restrictions on her pregnancy and the very real chance that she will die in the process.

Here's the Bloomberg article this post is based on.

Same-sex marriage coming to New Jersey

Here's some unanimous common sense from the N.J. Supreme Court. Money quote: "Civil-union partners in New Jersey today do not receive the same benefits as married same-sex couples when it comes to family and medical leave, Medicare, tax and immigration matters, military and veterans’ affairs, and other areas," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote. "The state constitution’s guarantee of equal protection is therefore not being met." (My original source is the The [New Jersey] Star-Ledger)

Eventually, same-sex marriage will be the law in all states and then smoking marijuana will be legalized. I didn't ever think the Berlin Wall would be torn down in my lifetime, but it was. These are the latest walls that will fall.

The most opposition to same-sex marriage seems to come from the religious-right Christians. One reference says that the principle purpose of marriage is procreation; however, there are no laws requiring that a man and wife be capable of bearing children as a condition of marriage. There are laws prohibiting first cousins from marrying but not in all states; there has been some rethinking of that lately. I find it ironic that many religious-right Christians are opposed to same-sex marriages but that polygamy is allowed to flourish in the West. Since all people are made in God's image, that includes LGBT people as well. If homosexuality is a sin to God, why does God create lesbians and gays in the first place?